In recent news, Sony has unveiled a faster higher resolution OLED panel for mirrorless cameras that also adds a 240fps mode for a more lifelike preview.  Bill Ingalls lost his Nikon camera photographing a Space-X launch when the rocket launch started a brush fire near the camera.  Canon has announced that it will stop selling the last of its film-based cameras.  DJI has announced the Ronin-S, a single-handed stabilizer for large DSLR cameras for $699.  Finally, Parrot has launched it's latest drone, the Anafi which will retail for $699 and features a 21-MP camera that can be pointed straight up while in flight!  More details and more news in the podcast!

Drones are being used by more and more photographers to record fascinating videos and gaining new perspectives.  However, Jim and Fred have discovered there are some essential devices that make drone flying and image capture with drones easier and some are absolutley essential (such as ND filters!).  Jim and Fred present their list of 10 items they have found should be on everyones list!  Links to the products mentioned are below.

Landing Pad - https://goo.gl/m4UUUg

Leg extensions - https://goo.gl/L24LBP

Strobe - https://goo.gl/wBrqQi

Smart phone shield - https://goo.gl/qFuwRU

Transmitter RF Focus - https://goo.gl/kPp18T

Lens Shade - https://goo.gl/88BV7h (Note: we don't necessarily recommend this - and hope to find a better solution!)

AC Adapter - https://goo.gl/fJoECx or https://goo.gl/vTgJva

Card reader - https://goo.gl/2razRS

BONUS - Lipo Safe bag - https://goo.gl/VRPzRN

Ron Wyatt is a photographer who worked professionally for Sport Illustrated, photographed two Olympic Games and has photographed the Russian Ballet.  He recently dropped his Nikon DSLRs for Sony mirrorless.  He sits down with The Fotobug to explain why!

In recent photo news, Nikon announced strong sales and restructuring are paying off and reported an 8x increase in profits despite a slight dip in revenue.  The DJI image of the Phantom Pro 5 turns out to be a custom built Phantom Pro 4.  Sony has announced a 3-year plan to invest $9 billion in image sensors and aims to be the top camera brand by 2021.  Skylum has teamed with Photolemur to create Skylum AI to work on AI-powered image solutions.  Finally Shutterbug is shutting down its print publication and will focus on a web-only publication. Check out the podcast for full details!

To be asked to photograph the Russian Ballet company performances is quite an honor - but Ron Wyatt discovered that the rapid fire noise from his Nikon DSLR cameras were not appreciated by the company or audience.  Searching for a solution, Sony offered to let him try their mirrorless cameras, which can be completely silent!  In this episode, Ron talks about switching from his Nikon cameras to the Sony mirrorless system. It isn't easy to change to a new camera system, and Ron discusses how he went about familiiarizing himself with the new system.

Please check out the new Fotobug YouTube channel and please consider subscribing as we have plans for lots of great photo-based videos!

Jim and Fred have spent the last couple months working with the new Mavic Air from DJI and are now ready to reveal their opinions!

In recent news, Rollei has revived its iconic Rolleiflex twin lens reflex lineup with the new Rolleiflex Instant Kamera. Rollei will shortly seek funding for the nwe camera on Kickstarter.  The winner of the Environment category of the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition has been disqualified after the competition’s organizers discovered the anteater starring in the dramatic nighttime image is actually stuffed. led for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, but says the move 'will not affect customers.' In fact, DxO teased updates to the Nik Software Collection and DxO PhotoLab in the same press release. The hotel chain Days Inn is looking for a photographer who wants to spend one month this summer shooting sunsets all over the United States. The gig pays $10,000, covers all travel expenses, and more. A man in India was mauled to death by an injured bear when he attempted to take a selfie with it.  Even worse - The Hindustan Times also reported the bystanders "were busy shooting the incident on their mobile phones instead of trying to rescue him." DJI has released a new(ish) drone: the Phantom 4 Pro V2.0. The updated P4P features almost all of the same internal specs of the original, but integrates a new high-res low-latency 'OcuSync' transmission system and decreases flight noise by 60%.

Jim has been building UAVs (drones) for many years and these drones have been featured on past episodes.  Recently, Jim picked up the new DJI Mavic Air and he and Fred have been checking it out and are now ready to give their opinion on this new offering from DJI.  Is this the perfect travel drone?  It folds into a nice compact size and has a number of new filming modes as well as 12MP still captures and even a 32MP panorama mode.  Jim and Fred demonstrate some of the capture cinematic modes and offer their opinioins on the pros and cons of this new drone.

Our friend, Maurice Ribble, is currently running a Kickstarter project to raise funds to update the Camera Axe which we have featured in the past for water drop photography and even capturing a pellet gun shooting water balloons and crackers.  Please go to Kickstarter and consider back this project!

Early registration is now open for the Black Hills Photo Shootout in Rapid City, SD - go to www.thephotoshootout.com to register!

Coming up on the podcast in 2 weeks - why a pro photographer dropped Nikon for Sony!

Before we tell you all there is to know about beanbags, there was more photographic news in the last couple of weeks!

Chinese company Xiaomi may purchase GoPro. Details on the potential buy-out are sparse at this point, but a report claims the deal could be worth as much as $1 billion.  One of the weirdest copyright cases in the history of photography is finally over. The courts have sided with photographer David Slater and rejected PETA's claim that the monkey who took the infamous selfie has any claim over the photograph's copyright. Skylum Software has released the latest update to its image processing software Luminar. The large-format digital LargeSense LS911 is the "world's first 8x10 digital single shot camera for sale and will set you back $106,000!! Gopro will now accept any old digital camera for trade-in. The program first launched last year, but only as a temporary promotion limited to previous-generation GoPro cameras. SmugMug has acquired struggling photography site Flickr.  DxO Labs has filed the initial proceedings to start the bankruptcy process in France. The latest update to Lightroom Classic CC brought with it a slew of major bugs, including some that would cause the program to crash.  For more details and more, check out the podcast.

Beanbags - what are they good for?  Well, be sure to check out this week's podcast as Fred and Jim will tell you everything there is to know about Beanbags, including field uses and even the best things to use as fill material - pros and cons!  Please also check out the new Fotobug YouTube channel for this video and lots more - please subscribe so that we can add a lot more new material including previous videos from The Fotobug vault.  If you would like to purchase your own beanbag, please check out Rob Daugherty's website, The Vest Guy, to buy the beanbags that Fred and Jim used in this podcast.  Thanks to Rob for providing us with these great bags! https://thevestguy.com/

Also, EMS Photo Adventures still has a couple spots open for the Colorado Dude Ranch workshop in Colorado led by Pulitzer Prize winning photographer, Essdras Suarez - just prior to the Black Hill Photo Shootout - this would be a great combination!  http://emsphotoadventures.com/

Robert Wicker joins The Fotobug to discuss how to make money in real estate photography!

In recent photoraphy news, a group  of children cleaning up a beach in Taiwan found a camera lost by a Japanese tourist in 2015.  Remarkably, the camera still functioned and the camera was returned to her!  A new partnership between drone maker DJI and Pond5 may make it easier for aerial photographers with 107 certification to sell their footage.  Adobe recently released new updates, but there have been some issues with the Lightroom update - slowdowns and pre-sets out of order.  Fuji announced it will stop producing all B&W film stock and paper beginning in October.  For more, be sure to watch the podcast!

Robert Wicker is a professional real estate photographer from Melbourne, Fl and has agreed to share his tips on earning income in real estate photogaphy.  He discusses equipment and allows us to follow up as captures images in some homes up for sale and discusses potential issues and how to overcome them to get the best angles to set yourself apart from amateurs.

The Fotobug YouTube channel is now live!  Please take a moment to subscribe - CLICK HERE!  We will soon be adding original material as well as classic how-tos, interviews, and reviews from our video vault!

Be sure to watch the podcast for full details on recent photography news!  Highlights include Adobe posts revenue over $2 billion dollars for the first quarter of 2018. Samsung is increasing production of its ISOCELL image sensors to compete with Sony.  We are sad to announce that Chuck Westfall from Canon has passed away.  A Russian drone pilot took his little consumer drone to 33,000 feet.  GoPro is licensing its sensors to Jabil Circuit for third party products.  A well-known insect photographer filed a $2.7 million law suit against a pest control company who used his images without permission.  GoPro has also announced a new Hero camera for a retail price of $200.  Watch the podcast for more information and even more news!

Last May we had Jim Burnham on the podcast and he announced a timelapse project he was starting to do a nine month timelapse of a wildflower garden.  Jim has finished his timelapse and we invited him back to The Fotobug to talk about the issues he faced to produce this video. He also discusses the equipment he used and problems he had to overcome.  We encourge you to check out the full YouTube timelapse video HERE  Jim used over 148,000 individual photos to complete this video.  We also recommend checking out Jim's blog at http://lelandreport.com/portfolio 

Finally - our friend Rob Daugherty has some openings for his June Alaska Brown Bear workshop  - go to http://www.robswildlife.com/alaska for more information!

Be sure to watch the podcast for full details on current news in photography!

The President of Canon Marketing confirmed that Canon is willing to cannabilize DSLR sales to invest in the "growth market" of mirrorless cameras.  A photographer ordered a $6000 camera on Amazon and first received a box of rocks, then a box of bricks!  According to Japan Camera Hunter, Agfa Vista color film is no longer being produced.  A new Kickstarter project called "I'm Back" is attempting to create a digital back for older 35mm film cameras.  Finally, Adobe is raising the price of some Creative Cloud subscription packages.

In the current podcast, Jim and Fred compare the pluses and minuses of the Litra LED light versus the Lume Cube LED  light.  The lights look very similiar, but there are some important differences and hopefully this podcast will help you to decide which is best for you.  In addition, Hunts Photo is offering a whopping $20 discount on the new Litra LED light!  To take advantage of this discount (which won't last forever!) - CLICK HERE FOR $20 DISCOUNT

Be sure to let Hunts know that you are a fan of The Fotobug! 

Also, be one of the first to subscribe to the new Fotobug YouTube channel where we will be posting extended versions of our reviews, interviews and how-tos.

Plan to attend the Black Hills Photo Shootout coiming up this September in South Dakota where you can meeti The Fotobug guys in person!

More news in the world of photography!  Tune into the podcast for complete details. You may be violating copyright laws if you are posting images other than your own on Twitter. Sony has created a 1.45MP back-illuminated CMOS sensor with a global shutter. Really Right Stuff is relocating from California to Utah.  Kodak Alaris is bringing back T-Max B&w film.  Prograde digital is a new memory card founded by former executive and engineers from Lexar which was closed my Micron.   500PX has been acquired by Visual China Group.  Finally - if you like Eneloop batteries, consider the Ladda batteries by Ikea which may be the same batteries, but are a lot cheaper!

Fred recently purchased the Canon 80D and discusses the pros and cons of his new camera with Jim including some issues using the camera with third party lenses such as Sigma and Tamron.  

Keep the end of September on your calendars for the 9th annual Black Hills Photo Shootout coming up in South Dakota!  The Fotobug guys will be there once again - but don't let that keep you away!  Check the website at www.thephotoshootout.com for complete information!

Tune in to the podcast for full information on recent photography news!  GoPro has enhanced its GoPro Plus subscription service to allow for the replacement of 2 broken cameras.  As of Feb. 12, 500PX is removing all photo classes from its website. A photography workshop leader in Hawaii died after being overcome from fumes from the local volcano. RGG EDU is giving away a $300 8 hour photography course for beer photography. Sign up at rggedu.com.  Skydio is releasing a new drone referred to as a flying camera.  A science photographer has photographed a single atom!

Time lapse photography is a great way to visual events that may take considerable time in reality.  Jim discusses taking time lapse sequences of the life cycle of a monarch butterfly.  Monarchs are amazing insects that migrate between Canada and Mexico over several generations.  They begin life from an egg about the size of a pin head laid on a milkweed plant.  The emerging caterpillers increase in size around 1600xs then crawl away and pupate.  Ten to fourteen days later, they emerge as a beautiful monarch butterfly and the cycle repeats.  

An expanded version of this time lapse instructional video will soon be placed on the new Fotobug YouTube Channel - subscribe today!

  In recent news, Zion National Park clarifies it's tripod ban.  Tripods are only banned on certain trails only. Velbon will distribute the Chairpod HY 127 in the United States for $180.  The US Copyright office will soon allow images to be uploaded for copyright protection - 750 images for $55. Reuters has been banned from the Olympic Opening Ceremonies due to a photographer who leaked photos.  That photographer has been banned from the games. Director Steve Soderbergh is shooting his movie Unsane entirely on the iPhone.  For more news and details, watch the podcast!

Jim and Fred interviewed the creator of the Indiegogo project Instamic a few episodes back and now that they have had a chance to use them for several interviews, they are present their opinions.  The Instamics will soon be available commercially, but the Pro model can still be purchased on Indiegogo!  If you use the video feature on your camera, we can recommend the new Instamic!