Allan Weitz's blog

Dynalite, the long-time flash system of choice for a legion of location shooters, has introduced a new series of packs, heads and light-shaping tools that take a page from the "give a little, get a little" school of thought.

Winter is filled with contradictions. The air is cold, yet despite the bite in the air, visually, everything always has a warm tinge to it. Even at high noon—assuming you can call it "high" noon, when the sun is barely above the treetops, the air has an egg-shell quality to it. It's called... winter light.

Sooner or later the kids fly the coop, you find yourself an "empty-nester" and there you are with an attic filled with tchotchkes you know you'll never use again. Even if you haven't reached that stage in your life, there's another school of thought that says if you own more than 100 things, you've got too much. Ring any bells? If so, it's time to set up a  tchotchke-shooting table, photograph the stuff and sell it online because you know somebody out there is desperately looking for all those gewgaws you've been tripping over.

Not long ago, point-and-shoot cameras had zoom lenses that seldom went beyond the optical range of a 35-105mm lens on a conventional 35mm camera. Not so anymore. Thanks to numerous advancements in optical technologies, digicams now feature 8x to 14x zooms that despite their 20-something to 200-300mm-plus focal ranges, still slip easily into your pocket. In addition to HD video, some perform some pretty neat tricks.

Regardless of the focal length of your favorite lens, I'd venture to say you've been in situations where you've tried to focus in tight on your subject and inevitably hit the wall—the minimum focus point of your lens. Sure you can crop, but in a perfect world it would be swell if each of our lenses would focus as close to our subjects as our mind's eye focuses. Alas, the world isn't perfect... but we do have macro lenses.

At B&H, we currently stock about 100 point-and-shoot cameras; all of them are capable of shooting terrific photographs, and in most cases, video. The choices are far narrower, however, for those seeking digicams that can take an occasional dunk in the drink, an accidental fall, a tropical schvitz, or a high-altitude freeze. If this describes your lifestyle, the following 10 digicams are specifically designed to take a rougher ride than most of the larger, pricier cameras we sell at B&H (and at a fraction of the price!).

The first words usually uttered by somebody peering through an ultra wide-angle lens for the first time is usually something along the lines of “Whoa!”—and the wider the lens, the louder the “Whoa!” While peering through an extreme telephoto lens can also coax a “Whoa!” from the viewer, it’s because of its ability to bring distant subjects seemingly within arm’s length. Ultra-wides are different in their ability to interpret objects that actually are within arm’s-length distance in a different light. And that’s what makes them special.