Leica M Edition “LEICA 60”

"A picture is worth a thousand words." I swear, despite the obvious allusion in the title, this is the first time  the saying has been used in this blog. It's a appropriate saying for the Leica M Edition "Leica 60"; you will no doubt have formed an opinion about the very existence of this camera by now...

There's absolutely no chance that out of camera sample shots will be possible for this post. So rather than offer thousands of words about a camera that few will ever afford... let alone see in the flesh... here are a few pictures to satisfy your curiosity:

Sigma 24mm 1.4 DG HSM Art Review

Sigma 24mm 1.4 DG HSM Art

This is the Sigma 24mm 1.4 DG HSM ART lens. It costs less than the equivalent Nikon or Canon, and is just as or is nearly as good. For many people, that is enough to know....

Nikon Coolpix P900 Review

Nikon COOLPIX P900

Here's an idea: the Nikon Coolpix P900 is the digital camera equivalent of the Simpsons' character, Sideshow Bob.

...No, Really. Watch as I try to explain....

Standard-Zoom Lens Guide for Nikon D7000, D7100 and D7200

The old saying goes that pros don't use normal zooms. Yes, the lenses that  pros supposedly don't use because they are too busy trying to make their pictures not look like they were taken by normal people with normal zooms. Concession to rationality... real people using stand zoom lenses is a thing.Also: pros are real people.

There is some truth to the saying, though... but it's a subtle truth. Professionals most certainly do use stand-zooms; it's almost unthinkable to work a wedding with a D810 without a 24-70mm f/2.8 in the kit. What the saying should mean is that professionals don't use normal-zooms in the way that amateurs do. The actual truth is that if you are using a standard zoom and are contentiously thinking about quality photography, you will be gravitating towards either the towards the longer or wider ends of the lens, and using the middle portion of the zoom less. Conversely, if used thoughtlessly, normal zooms can encourage a certain amount of sloppiness in controlling subject perspective

Note that this is primarily concerned with DX-specific lenses. It goes without saying, pairing the Nikon D7100 or D7200 with an AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8 ED will be awesome, but not having a real wide angle option with that combination will get tiresome eventually. With Nikon's tepid love for DX  many people might be thinking off accumulating full frame lenses for an eventual jump to FX, possibly a DD750, maybe a D810 if they are really ambitious. This is not an inherently bad idea, but you tend to get more joy out of the equipment by matching DX specific focal lengths to DX equipment rather than trying to make FX focal lengths work. You may, in fact, never make the switch to FX, but you will always be using whatever equipment that you have in the here and now.

 (Updated April 2015.)

Sigma AF 17-50mm f/2.8 EX DC HSM OS Review (Canon/Nikon Mounts)

Nikon D7200 and Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8 HSM OS

The Tamron SP AF 17-50mm f/2.8 XR Di II LD IF was one of most venerable lenses in the crop sensor DSLR world. For a fraction of the cost of the Nikon and Canon alternatives, a photographer can have a f/2.8 normal lens with almost all of the sharpness of the first-tier lenses... albeit sacrificing a bit in terms of vignetting and lateral chromatic aberration, but not enough to matter in most situations. The Sigma AF 17-50mm f/2.8 EX DC HSM OS in many ways is the spiritual successor to that particular Tamron... even more so than Tamron's own VC update of that lens, which traded away some image quality at wider apertures in exchange for image stabilization.

Constant f/2.8 zooms are always popular, especially when they are as small as these third-party alternatives. So, is the Sigma 17-50mm OS the proverbial walk-around, go-anywhere normal-zoom that so many photographers are looking for?

April 2015 Update: Additional information about compatibility with different Nikon bodies added. 

tl;dr: This lens does not display the infamous "scroll bug" and accelerated battery drain when mounted on a D7200 or D5500.