Videos

Pye Jirsa of SLR Lounge found ninety per cent of 10,000 2018 images came from 24-70mm and 70-200mm lenses, so recommends them first for wedding and portrait photographers. He shows the 24-70 stretching from wide Laguna Beach lines to compressed 70mm portraits, and the 70-200 reaching distant ring exchanges.

Mitch Lally compares 24mm, 35mm, 50mm and 85mm primes, shooting his friend Kat wide open in identical conditions. The 24mm distorts perspective most, the 35mm offers versatility, the 50mm looks most natural with blurrier backgrounds, and the 85mm compresses and flatters, reducing the background to colour and brightness.

Mitch Lally and Carlo O'Brien photograph Amanda at the beach on Canon EOS RPs, Lally swapping between RF 35mm f/1.8 and EF 100mm f/2 while O'Brien uses a Tamron 35-150mm f/2.8-4. They weigh the zoom's range and speed against primes' sharpness, brighter low-light apertures and lens-change hassle.

James Popsys shares how he chooses lenses: apply the good, fast, cheap, pick two rule, judge versatility against actual shooting needs, not reviews, and respect diminishing returns, choosing the pricier Leica 25mm f/1.4 for a focal length he uses constantly but the cheaper 42.5mm f/1.7 over the f/1.2.

Fashion photographer Lara Jade is handed a 0.3-megapixel talking Red Superman toy camera by DigitalRev TV during a six-hour Hong Kong layover and must produce six image styles from three outfits. With no exposure control, a tiny screen and three-second shutter lag, she matches locations to each dress.

Linus Sebastian, a novice armed with a 51-megapixel Fujifilm GFX 50R medium format, takes on professional photographer Brandon shooting only a Google Pixel 3 across five challenges, from a racetrack action shot judged on speed, contrast and clarity to intimate pregnancy photos, testing whether skill or gear matters more.

Peter Coulson explains his portrait camera preferences: with flash he favours the Hasselblad H6 for its huge manual-focus viewfinder; with continuous light and manual lenses like a 0.95 Noctilux he wants mirrorless with monochrome viewfinder, focus peaking and zebras above 100 per cent to set exposure on the model's face.

Paul from Photo Genius empties his ten-year-old Think Tank Airport Essentials backpack, praising its comfort, carry-on size and side handle. Inside are a new Nikon Z6 with 24-70mm, a 70-200mm f/2.8 for his children's sport, a D3500 with 35mm f/1.8, spare SD cards, batteries, remotes and mini tripod.

Phil Steele explains a lens hood shades the front element from stray light, removing flare and restoring blacks and saturation, as before-and-after Arizona shack shots show, and doubles as a bumper against knocks. He keeps it on indoors and at night, shooting events with caps off and hoods on.

Vanessa Joy and Manny Ortiz photograph a model with budget kit: Ortiz with a Sony a6400, Tamron 17-70mm f/2.8, Flashpoint R2 and Xplor 100 and MagMod gobos for hard, patterned light; Joy on a Canon M50 Mark II and EF-M 50-200mm f/4.5-6.3, near f/8 with EL-100 and 470EX-AI speedlites.