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NEW: Canon Rebates Return! Just when it all started to make sense, Canon now does two kinds of rebates: the good kind, which are instant rebates, and the bad kind, which require us to mail in box tops. The Instant Rebate lenses include a free lens filter kit, cleaning kit, and some even have a free tripod or memory card, whoo hoo! The mail-in rebates are bigger, but Canon is gambling that many of us will forget to mail them in.   NEW: Canon 18-55mm IS STM Review. Canon 18-55mm IS STM. An optically great lens in a plastic barrel.   NEW: Musical Fidelity M1PWR Review. Musical Fidelity M1PWR. A very efficient Hi-Fi stereo amplifier.   show less

DEAL: Refurbished Nikon D600 for $1,589! For not much more than a new D7100 (which is also a great camera), you can get Nikon D600s.   NEWS: Rockwell interviewed in the local paper about LEICA lenses.   NEWS: Rockwell interviewed in The Guardian (UK) about vacation photography.   show less

NEW: Nikon 18-140mm VR DX Review Nikon 18-140mm VR DX. Another great lens; it makes up for the SB-300 yesterday.   show less

NEW: Nikon SB-300 Flash Review Nikon SB-300.   Moab Photo Workshop: If you don't want to go on my Autumn Light in Yosemite tour, Dan Ballard is running one in MOab on the same days, 17-20 October 2013. If you are coming to Yosemite with me, don't forget our Eastern Sierra Tour 20-23 October 2013. Whatever you choose, you owe it to yourself to get out and shoot this fall. Is it really worth anything to stay home and go to work more?   show less

Fall Workshops! Autumn Light in Yosemite: 17-20 October 2013, Thursday - Sunday. There's a new page up with more information about our first trip. The official page where you register doesn't say much. We have a second trip that starts when the first ends: California's Eastern Sierra: 20-23 October 2013, Sunday - Wednesday. You have to register for this second trip at its page. These are my favorite trips of the year. I plan to be teaching at each. They sell out quickly each year, so register as soon as you can. One starts right after the other. Dave Wyman and I teach each workshop, but each is registered by and paid to a different organization, and each organization usually forgets to mention the other trip. Be sure to register for both and double your fun, but adding only a few days to your total time away from home. These aren't old-fashioned workshops where we waste all day staring at computers in a motel. They more accurately are photo tours, where we run from dawn to nightfall every day shooting out in the field. Dave and I will be at your side the whole time for as much one-on-one as you like; far more helpful than boring classroom sessions.   show less

NEW: Dirac Live Audio Optimization Software Review Blue is the measured response of my unequalized desktop audio system, orange is the target flat response (you can set it anywhere you like), and green shows what the software calculates my system's response will be after using the correction filter it generates. Finally, simple and powerful software that's allowed me in just minutes to optimize the sound of my computer audio system better than I have after many years of traditional work. Bravo!   show less

Fuji X-A1 and included 16-50mm lens. review.   Fuji X-A1 and included 16-50mm lens. review.   Fuji X-A1: the screen swivels. review. NEW: Fuji X-A1 Review. NEW: Fuji 16-50mm VR/IS X-Mount. The X-A1 comes in black or blue, complete with the new 16-50mm lens, for $599 total. The new lens alone comes in black or in silver for $400. Personally, the X100S still rules. This X-A1 is more of a fluff piece with no finder and limited external controls like most digital cameras. The X100S will be hard to out-do, but hey, since all digital cameras are disposable anyway, the X-A1 looks like a real winner.   show less

Ninth Anniversary: Nikon F6 Nikon's best full-frame camera, and the world's best 35mm SLR, is still the Nikon F6, announced on 16 September, 2004. In 2004 the F6 sold for $2,400, and today still sells for $2,450 new or $1,250 used: only $100 a year to own the unbeaten F6. As the latest example of digital rot, the Nikon D2X was announced the same day. You people tripped over yourselves to pay $5,500 a pop, and today, no one even can remember it anymore. Today on eBay, they sell for $600: a loss of $4,900. Great investment, eh? Digital sure saves money over film.   Canon or Nikon? They're both good — way better than Sony or Panasonic or others that don't even make real DSLRs. My epistle yesterday is that I just don't get how some people will sit around and whine about Nikon doing something wrong, as if there is no other way around the problem. Some deer just see those headlights coming and freeze; but if what's coming down the road isn't good for you, you need to jog to the right and get what is good for you. If you think the D600 isn't any good, don't whine about it; vote with your dollars and upgrade to the 6D instead. The D600 is the best digital full-frame ever made by Nikon. The 6D, 5D III and 5D II are better, but if you're stuck on Nikon get the D600. If you're moving up to full frame from Nikon DX, don't think that the D600 or D800 are your choices; you'll want to replace any DX lenses you thought you were going to use, so you may as well move to Canon. My point is we always have choices. If Nikon makes oily sensors, don't waste your breath circulating petitions, do the American thing and buy something better instead.   show less

So get the 6D Worry-warts who don't even have a D600 keep asking me about dust in my D600. Nope, not seen it, and if I did, I'd send it back under warranty — so who cares? Nikon fixed the charger and checked my D800 all under warranty, so if there's a problem, no problem. If you want a D600, just get one. The real question is why bother with Nikon when Canon is so far ahead? Dust is the least of our issues. Offshore manufacture, a bizarre catalog of lenses from different eras of technology only partly compatible with each other and indifferent customer service are bigger reasons to walk away from Nikon in favor of Canon — and the 6D is such a better camera, too. Canon makes almost everything domestically in Japan, all their EF lenses made since 1987 are 100% compatible with all their cameras, 35mm and digital, and Canon's customer service is always tops. The only reason I own my D600 and D800 are to test Nikon lenses of every era, and to shoot my ancient AI-s lenses on digital for fun. When I actually want to take pictures as opposed to just play with cameras, I always grab my 5D Mark III. If you're moving to full-frame, Nikon lost it years ago. Just get the Canon 6D (or 5D Mark III in place of the clumsy D800) and you'll be so much better off. You have to buy all-new lenses for full-frame anyway, so why go backwards into Nikon? DX lenses work poorly on full frame. All you get is less than half the resolution, and your finder is cropped down to something tiny — eliminating the reasons you wanted to move to full-frame in the first place. If you have to start over, you may as well start over right. I have to laugh: I own all these cameras and paid full price like everyone else. I use them all every day in my work, and yes, my 5D Mk III is clearly the best, with the 6D almost as good, and far ahead of Nikon. It's not just the cameras, but the organizations and support behind them, too. So while some of the more squeamish think there's some kind of conspiracy behind me not whining about sensor oil I don't have, the real answer is forget the D600 and step up to the 6D. It may change in 2 years when the next round of full frame cameras come out, bit right now, it's Canon for full-frame. They invented the full-frame DSLR for crying out loud, and today, the original 5D still cranks out amazing images for about $600 used. Honestly, the original 5D makes fantastic images, and if yo don't mind a smaller LCD and balkier ergonomics, try one and you'll be hooked if you haven't tried Canon before. Try the Canon 50/1.8 , one of their sharpest lenses, brand-new for $125 on your used 5D, and you'll be hooked for a total of only about $700. Even though Canon and Nikon's USA headquarters are less than a half mile away from each other in Melville, NY and their newest breakthrough cameras in years come out within a few days of each other, most people think they are two very different companies.   show less

Canon SL1 and Canon EF-s 18-55mm IS STM. NEW: Canon SL1 Review. Ounce per ounce, the world's highest-performance DSLR — and even open-class, pretty much as good as the 1D X. This tiny thing (14 oz. or 400g) belts out great shots just like the big DSLRs. I've completely re-written the review yesterday.   show less