10 great gifts for photographers by Verybiglobo.com (2014)
I decided to made this little list of great gifts that I would like someone to buy me for X-mass 2014, or for any other reason…
You should however consider my mental state and the fact that with this post I am trying to make you click and buy gifts, using enclosed affiliate links, which in reward will make my X-mass a little bit richer.
Seriously, if you like any of my proposals, please buy it using enclosed links, because that will help us keeping verybiglobo.com in a good and healthy condition. But even if you want to buy anything else from our affiliate partners, please use the links bellow to enter the shop.
1) Lenses
2) Cameras
3) The year of Drones
4) Photography is all about light
5) Photoshop Creative Cloud
6) Lytro Illum – The Light Field Camera
7) Lens Flipper by Gowing
8) Horseman VCC Pro – A hand-held view camera
9) Meet me in Prague on my Photo workshop.
10) Hasselblad Stellar II
I am a lens guy. I am a sick lens guy. I have over 300 lenses in my collection. The main problem with so many lenses is to find the one that you are looking for. Sometimes I buy the lens that I already have, because I forgot that I have it. But, I tried most if not all of those lenses through the years and I made quite few lens reviews here on verybiglobo.com. That’s why I should start with lenses. Here is my lens gift pick list for 2014…
1.1) Zeiss Otus 85/1.4
This is in my humble opinion, by far the best lens released in 2014. In fact, it is best lens that I have ever mounted on my camera. Kudos to Zeiss for the Otus line, you’ll hardly find better corrected lens for all kind of aberrations. But be aware to whom you will give it, because if you are going to be a model, you might see more than you’d like… Well at least that applies to me.
Here is one of the portraits that I made with Otus 85/1.4 and Sony A7r
If your love deserves 4490 USD, you can hardly buy him/her better portrait lens!
You can buy it here (buying through these affiliate links you will support this page and upcoming reviews with no extra cost for you):
- Canon version:
- Nikon version:
1.2) Zeiss Loxia 50/2 Plannar and Loxia 35/2 Biogon
Those lenses are Sony E mount only. They are perfect gift for any Zeiss lover who owns Sony full frame E mount camera (A7, A7II, A7 r or A7s), but they will work also on APS-C models (A5100, A6000, NEX etc.) and who like the special feeling of manual focus. If your dear half is rather video than photo lover, but he still uses one of the Sony E mount cameras, Loxias will significantly increase his/her chances of winning Oscar.
While I wrote a review about Loxia 50, Loxia 35/2 is arriving tomorrow, but from my initial impression on Photokina 2014, it’s gonna be great lens too.
You can buy it here (buying through these affiliate links you will support this page and upcoming reviews with no extra cost for you):
- Zeiss Loxia 50/2:
- Zeiss Loxia 35/2:
1.3) Dark Knight, or if you like – deal of the year by Verybiglobo – Mitakon Speed Master 50/0.95 II.
This lens is only available in Sony E mount so far, just like Loxias above. But at the price well bellow 1000 USD, you can buy creative tool that is not so far away from famous Leica Noctilux 50/0.95. I mean, it will cover full frame, it will offer same ridiculous shallow depth of field and it is black just like Leica. Leica is Leica of course, but if you can forgive this Mitakon it’s incredible stupid nick name, you might save ten thousands dollars and still make your dear domestic photographer, jumping more than drunken flea. But remember, only if she/he have Sony E mount camera.
As a reward you should be able soon to replace your facebook profile photo with something like this…
There are more great lenses released this year, such as Zeiss Distagon 35/1.4 ZM or Sony FE 70-200 f/4 G OSS and FE 16-35 f/4 ZA OSS, or new Canon 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 L II IS USM, Olympus 40-150mm f/2.8 Pro, Samsung 50-150/2,8 Pro and few others, but those three (four) above would be my hottest picks.
You can buy it here (buying through these affiliate links you will support this page and upcoming reviews with no extra cost for you):
- Mitakon Speed Master 50/0.95 II:
- Zeiss Distagon 35/1.4:
- Sony FE 70-200 f/4 G OSS:
- Sony FE 16-35 f/4 ZA OSS:
- Canon 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 L II IS USM:
- Olympus 40-150mm f/2.8 Pro:
- Samsung 50-150/2.8 Pro:
- BH photo: 50-150mm f/2.8 S ED OIS Lens
- Adorama: 50-150mm f/2.8 S ED OIS Lens
They were some exciting new camera releases in 2014. Nikon with D810 and D750, Canon with 7D MII, Panasonic with Lumix DMC-LX100, Sony with A7s and first full frame mirror less camera with in body image stabilization – A7II, Fuji with X100T and Samsung with NX1.
Each and every one of those cameras is amazing tool and window of modern technologies. That means that going with any of them, you can’t go wrong. My personnel pick of the year surprised even myself. It’s Fuji X100T, that would make me most happy to receive as a gift.
My pick is based on my impressive first experience with Fuji XT-1 that I wrote about recently, and fact that I already have big DSLR’s, smaller Sony mirror-less and even Olympus MFT, but I miss a little compact with great lens and build quality that I can take everywhere with me. Having fixed lens is not always limiting. In fact, it can be often revealing and it might evoke more creativity in photographers mind. Ergonomics on Fuji cameras and user interface suits me perfectly and there was something special in holding XT-1. Take it or leave it, while Samsung NX is the camera that comes with indisputably most new technologies, great lenses and some very unique features, I would rather find Fuji X100T bellow the X-mass tree. On the other hand, I won’t be much angry if I find any of above listed gems instead.
You can buy it here (buying through these affiliate links you will support this page and upcoming reviews with no extra cost for you):
- Fuji with X100T:
- BH photo: X100T Digital Camera (Silver)
- Adorama: X100T Digital Camera (Silver)
- Amazon: Fujifilm X100T 16 MP Digital Camera (Silver)
- Nikon with D810:
- BH photo: D810 DSLR Camera (Body Only)
- Adorama: D810 DSLR Camera (Body Only)
- Amazon: Nikon D810 FX-format Digital SLR Camera Body
- Canon with 7D MII:
- Panasonic with Lumix DMC-LX100:
- Sony with A7s:
- Sony A7II
- Samsung with NX1:
I believe, (while I don’t have any proof) that word drone was used more in 2014 that in all years before. It is indeed great gadget for all gear heads, children and their childish fathers and of course paparazzi squad. I am playing with the idea to acquire one drone myself, but I know that to master its operation might take me more time than I have left. Thus I am still only thinking, but if you want to make your domestic photo love exciting present, look around for one of those – photo drones.
3.1) I can suggest the cheapest one that I could find – Hubsan X4, because it looks like a great thing to start with.
You can buy it here (buying through these affiliate links you will support this page and upcoming reviews with no extra cost for you):
3.2) If you are already master pilot, consider this beauty – DJI Spreading Wings S1000 Premium
You can buy it here (buying through these affiliate links you will support this page and upcoming reviews with no extra cost for you):
4) Photography is all about light.
In recent years, one area of a photo experienced a strong development without talking much about it – lighting. It is such a revolutionary development, especially in the movie industry, that we can hardly believe. While it was hard to imagine to carry enough light for some serious outdoor set-ups without big battery generators and huge lamp heads, thanks to the new technologies in lighting industries, we can take much bigger control of light than ever.
Here is a great article about new LED light options, but for 2014 my pick will be Prophoto B1 500 Air TTL battery powered flash.
The freedom that this cordless unit with TTL control brings to photographers and almost 10x larger power in comparison to small system flashes together with new possibilities of light placement and ease of use and settings, are pushing boundaries and allow for new creative approaches. It was introduced in 2013, but it starts to spread around in 2014 and thus it is in my selection here. Being very expensive (that’s ProPhoto you know), it might keep many behind, but if you look a bit around, you’ll find much cheaper alternatives with similar features. However, with lower price, be ready to accept lack of professional support, and most probably much shorter life span.
You can buy it here (buying through these affiliate links you will support this page and upcoming reviews with no extra cost for you):
5) Photoshop Creative Cloud 1-Year Subscription
When my friends ask me what should they buy to improve their photography, I always say – learn and start to use Photoshop. We can be and I certainly am mad on Adobe for moving completely on the cloud service and we can expect all kind of efforts to lift the subscription price in the future, but Photoshop is so powerful tool that can vastly improve your results if you learn how to use it. Adobe invested lot of time and energy recently to include well made tutorials, that will certainly help to shorten the learning curve, and you have full 30 days to try it before purchase.
You can of course start also with Photoshop Elements and get off the cloud trap, but you’ll get shortened for some amazing new features from its big brother. Check this camera shake sharpening tool just as an example.
If you go with Photoshop or at least Lightroom, consider also Google Nik Collection plug-ins, powerful editing tools especially in combination with Photoshop layer masks.
Giving this 200 USD 1 year subscription gift to your beloved half, can result in significant improvement of your photo appearance, just like applying the most expensive plastic surgery, at least in the virtual life of social networks. Check this fascinating video –
6) Lytro Illum – The Light Field Camera
For the real geeks (clinically confirmed), but also for anyone who adheres to a non-conformist art or simply to those who are selling lot of stuff on web, this gadget will make them sing in paradise. What it does? That’s hard to explain, click to the following link – https://pictures.lytro.com/ and than pick one of the images. Now click anywhere on the image, and then click elsewhere. When you got enogh fun of re-focusing where you like. Hold mouse button and move with cursor over the image. Cool no?
Let’s face it, we Muggles are learning fast…
You can buy it here (buying through these affiliate links you will support this page and upcoming reviews with no extra cost for you):
- Lytro Illum :
7) Don’t want to spend much but want to be original? Check this Lens Flipper by Gowing thing.
It serves the purpose to make lens changing easier, but I warned you about my mental state didn’t I?
8) Horseman VCC Pro – A hand-held view camera
If you noticed that your beloved partner like to put different lenses on the camera and experiment with all those old, legacy sometimes quite scary tubes, this gift might keep him busy for a while. First of all, he would be able to use some great Large Format lenses that could be found rather cheap and are rather very good, than he would be able to make exciting tilt/shift and pan movement from the tripod to create amazing photo effects or stitch huge panorama shots of your garden with swimming pool and last but not least, he would become a legendary freak in his local photo club. Be sure to check the adapter version. You can have it for Canon, Nikon and sony E mount.
There are some cheaper options such as Cambo Actus e.g., but I like this particular Horseman. If you want to make it even better and you can afford some fancy Medium Format digital back, you can check also Horseman Axella or some very expensive Sinar p3 solution.
You can buy it here (buying through these affiliate links you will support this page and upcoming reviews with no extra cost for you):
- Horseman VCC PRO View Camera Converter for Canon :
- BH photo: VCC PRO View Camera Converter for Canon
- Adorama: VCC PRO View Camera Converter for Canon
9) Meet me in Prague on my Photo workshop.
This is great gift for your better half. If you are photographer and want to visit some nice places and learn few new tips and tricks, but you don’t know how to get permission from your husband or wife, just buy the Prague week-end and tell that he/she deserves it. When the rewarded hug comes, whisper to the ear, that greatest thing about it is that it is special photo week-end, but if he/she doesn’t like it, there are still many great things to do in Prague. That is typical chess mat in marriage, and there isn’t effective defense.
If she/he is still suspicious, just show the link with the Prague photos of the places that you’ll visit and most probably captured on your camera. We have some special offer for couples with just one photographer, so be sure to consider that option to. In our small groups (up to 7 people) we’ll have lot of time to try city scape, street and environmental portrait photography.
If you have any more questions, feel free to ask, here or on the photoworkshop.eu. Special arrangements for groups of three and more people are possible. I am also preparing late August 2015 – 14 days Iceland tour at the price of approx. 3500,- USD (car rental, gas, driver and photo guiding included), sleeping in your own tents or apartments by the road. There are only 6 places, so if you have any interest, give me a note asap. You can take a look at some of my Iceland images here and here.
Ok… if you like the idea, but don’t like the lecturer, there are thousands of exciting photo workshops all around. Seriously, instead of spending thousands for new equipment, spent the same or less for a trip of your life. Do it again and again, until you realize how rich life you had. That will hardly ever happen with buying new cameras all the time…
Remember Nokia Vertu? Well, this Stellar thing is even bigger curiosity. Under the coat of this crazy looking exterior, you’ll find Sony RX 100 II camera, which is great little compact with rather large sensor. The thing is that Hasselblad added that wooden grip, special golden color and big H in order to charge 1650 EUR. If you don’t want that wooden grip or big H you might save few bucks by buying regular Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 II Digital Camera for 648 USD.
But don’t worry, for your money that you want to give to Hasselblad, you can actually choose from four grip designs:
Don’t let this offer get away! This is most probably going to be last Hasselblad nonsense camera ever made in their design facility in Italy. Why? Because they decided to close it. I can see the point…
If this is still not unique (or expensive) enough, you might take a look at their HV model. That should make it. (It’s a re-branded Sony A99 BTW).
You can buy it here (buying through these affiliate links you will support this page and upcoming reviews with no extra cost for you):
- Hasselblad :
Those are verybiglobo photo gift picks for 2014. But I am very curious to see here your proposals, so don’t be lazy, use the free comment space bellow for your gearhead top picks! Use also those affiliate links in the article to buy some gifts. We need VerybigXmasstree here!
I laughed out loud quite a few times here, Viktor. Brilliant stuff. I’ll have a think about my gift proposals, but in the mean time, I am going to watch the Fotoshop advert again 🙂
Thanks Martin 🙂
Regarding your trip to Boulder CO, here is what I think…
When I was in the mountains I very rarely used lenses wider than 35mm. So your RX1 will fit perfectly there. In addition I would pick FE 55/1.8, Tamron 90/2.8 Macro (for some close-ups but also for distant shots) and if you have space, even FD 200/4.
Super wide lenses such as CV 15 or 20 would make sense if you have some dominant front plane subjects, but otherwise they will just make those mountains looking smaller. If you would ever look for wider shot than35mm, you can always stich it from few shots. Mountains won’t move.
My prefered FL in mountains is usually 60-70mm, so that’s why I suggested Sony FE 55/1.8 too.
Consider also some ND grade filters and some plain ND filters to use for long exposure in orther to make clouds motion effect (looks very nice and dynamic in landscape). You can take CV 15 just in case, but I guess you won’t use it much.
However, the nost important part of my back pack would be tripod and remote controller with bulb function. You can also try time lapse with clouds, it looks great.
Enjoy your trip,
Viktor
Thanks for your thoughts, as always 🙂
I’ll take the RX1, 55/1,8, Tamron 90/2.8, and I definitely will have space for the 200/4 (it’s very small and light).
I might well stitch RX1 shots rather than try the CV 20/3.5—I am not sure if there will be anything by the way of front-plane subjects, but I have nice ideas with lakes and trees and so-on. The only way to know, is to go!
I have a 10-stop ND filter, and a CP filter. I’ll take both along with me. They both fit the RX1, and 55/1,8 (another reason I am glad Sony like 49mm threads).
I have a tripod, but will consider looking for another. This one is a cheap tripod, with no ball head. I hardly ever take tripod-based photographs though…
I have a cable release for RX1, and remote for the A7R. Never tried time lapse—depends how much time I end up having out there 🙂