Gear

MindShift rotation180 Panorama Camera Backpack Field tested: Great solution for an all-in-one field pack

It's one thing to have a great, dedicated, camera backpack. There are many of those on the market. Some of my personal favorites are the and my Think Tank for when I need a roller. I'm also looking forward to trying out the new MindShift MP-3, based on Moose Peterson's design. However, sometimes you need to bring along a variety of other goodies, like jackets and gloves for the changing weather, or food for a long day out, and you don’t need a huge supply of photo gear. That means you need a flexible pack that can store a wide variety of contents. If you add to that the requirement to get at your photo gear without taking your pack off -- a must when working in mud, deep sand, or powdery snow – you need a different kind of backpack.

Magellan eXplorist TRX7: The ultimate off-road GPS and navigation system

Every serious nature photographer spends at least some time "off the beaten path." In particular, back roads, dirt roads and trails are often the only way to get where you need to go. Unfortunately, the otherwise-amazing navigation tools like Google Maps that we rely on for street driving are nearly useless once we venture beyond the main road grid. Magellan aims to take up the slack with a purpose-built off-road navigation system, the . I’ve been fortunate enough to give one of the first units a full field test…

Safari photo tips & FREE Alaskan safari giveaway!

ThinkTank Retrospective 7: Finally a field-worthy modern camera bag that doesn't look like a camera bag

Think Tank Photo Retrospective 7 Shoulder Bag (Pinestone)Happy 2014, everyone. I wanted to start the year off right, so for our first review I’m covering a really slick camera bag I had the pleasure of using for nearly a month on my Southeast Asia photo tour. (If you’re in Las Vegas, you’ll see me with it at CES next week too). It is the new , although many of the points in the review apply equally well to its siblings like the , or the

Want to cram more gear into your carry-on? Jaktogo pushes beyond the photo vest

Jaktogo foto 1Without question, traveling with photo gear only gets harder. Airlines continue to winnow down the amount of carry-on they allow, and checked bags are subject to loss and breakage. As many of my readers (and safari participants) know, I’m a big fan of my Scottevest, that allows me to stash a tablet, phone, headphones, hat, glasses, lunch, and maybe a rainshell conveniently. But it doesn’t really help with the bulk storage of laptop, camera, lenses, flashes, and chargers. Photo vests are an alternative used by many of us, but now a new set of products pushes the limit even further…

GearGuide: Digital Cameras for Bird Photographers

More and more birders are becoming interested in photography. To go beyond the limitations of digiscoping (limited low light capability, tricky auto-focus, limited panning or ability to capture action, etc.) requires a fairly serious investment in a camera body and lenses. In this section of our exclusive GearGuide we'll cover tips for what to look for in a camera body...

GearGuide: Camera Lenses for Bird Photography

Even more important to excellent bird photography than having the right camera is having the right lens. There is no point in purchasing that dream camera body and crippling yourself with a cheap lens. In the 8 years I've been leading digital photo safaris I've had the chance to use or at least see used just about every likely lens made for Nikon and Canon camera bodies and have plenty of hopefully useful thoughts to share with you:

Nikon Updates Excellent 300mm f/2.8 lens and TC-20E

Nikon has updated the already excellent 300mm f/2.8 AF-S lens with VR II (enhanced VR) and a Nano Crystal coat for reduced glare, and the least favored sibling of the Nikon TC family the TC-20E III...