Summer boondocking gear: Car camping done right

Earlier this year I was infected with the #vanlife bug. Well, more like the #overlanding bug in my case, but I've been camping and working from the road for over a month now. I get to soak up this country's natural splendor and scurry after Slack notifications. But be warned, would-be digital nomads, this is no walk in the (national) park. I need a lot of gear, like solar panels, batteries, a refrigerator, cell boosters and tons more to make it happen. Here's what I took on the road for my first month (and why).

YouTuber Sara Dietschy talks filmmaking gear

Sara Dietschy, a bona fide social media influencer, sits down to talk about video gadgets. We take apart the vlogger duopoly of Canon and Sony and each camera's pros and cons. Then we talk about some new options in the mirrorless space, like the Panasonic S1R and the Nikon Z6 and Z7. But what about video editing? Sara breaks down her production process and, in a stunning twist, advocates for editing on desktops rather than laptops.

Moment's 58mm lens is a portrait machine

When it comes to smartphone lenses, all I ever hear about are wide-angle lenses. More friends in the shot, more of the environment in the scene, yada yada yada. You're popular and you travel, I get it. But sometimes you want a picture of one thing. In that case, what you need is a telephoto lens. They're the go-to tool for portraits and landscapes. Back in 2014, Moment released its first 60mm telephoto lens for the iPhone 5 and 5S. Things have changed since then: Smartphone image sensors are bigger and their lenses are sharper, so using Moment's older 60mm lens on a modern device doesn't yield very good results. There's a lot of distortion around the edges, and it looks pretty soft.

RED Hydrogen One review: Mediocre cameraphone, extraordinary price tag

The RED Hydrogen One is not really a smartphone, it's a camera that also happens to be a smartphone. This makes sense to me intuitively, because when I use smartphones for video projects, or to take photos on vacation, I use a separate phone as the camera. That's exactly what I did with a Galaxy S9 when I was testing the Moment Lens Anamorphic on a trip to Yosemite. If you conceptualize the Hydrogen as a phone that competes with Samsung, Apple, or Huawei, it just flatly doesn't make sense. But ask yourself this: if you were designing a pocket camera today, would you use the slow embedded chips that Sony, Canon, and Nikon use in their compact cameras? Or would you use a speedy Snapdragon chip, like the one Google is using in the Pixel 2 to deliver its category-leading computational photography?

RED Hydrogen comparison

Moment's Anamorphic lens provides epic looks

When Moment announced an anamorphic lens, it really caught my attention. After all, the film Tangerine was shot on an iPhone 5S using an anamorphic lens from Moondog Labs, so I was excited to try my hand at a more cinematic look. But what is an anamorphic lens? And why does it look so weird? The first thing you'll notice about the Moment Lens Anamorphic is that it's rectangular instead of round, like most lenses. That's because the elements inside are rectangular, and if you look closely, you can see the glass inside bend around horizontally. This curve effectively squeezes 33 percent more of the scene onto the sensor. In fact, the technique was popularly used to squeeze widescreen video onto 35mm film, which has an aspect ratio of 3:2 instead of the now-ubiquitous 16:9.

A closer look at Nikon's Z7 flagship mirrorless camera

After what seemed like an endless amount of rumors and teases, Nikon has finally debuted its Z6 and Z7 mirrorless cameras. While both models have the potential to rival some of Sony's best mirrorless shooters, like the A7 III, let's talk about the flagship Z7 since that's actually scheduled to launch soon. It's also the only one Nikon is showing off at its event here in New York City. For starters, the Z7 sports a ridiculous 45.7-megapixel full-frame sensor, with a new body-lens system dubbed Z-mount. The new camera is powered by Nikon's Expeed 6 image processor and boasts a 493-point autofocus system that, according to the company, offers about a 90 percent wide coverage area.

The new Ronin S gimbal is essential YouTube gear

If you're reading this you're probably a filmmaker or someone who might like to become a filmmaker. If so, you already know that the Ronin S is a gimbal: a robotic stick that stabilizes your camera. The reason your YouTube faves are geeking out over the Ronin S is that it can carry larger cameras than the previous generation -- nearly eight pounds -- compared to the 1.4 pounds of the original go-to gimbal, the Zhiyun Tech Crane-M. The Ronin S is what you need if you want your footage to look both crispy and smooth at the same time.

Tested: the best smartphone cameras compared

I've been lugging around a DSLR ever since I conned my parents into buying me a Minolta Maxxum 5D in 2006, and let me tell you, that didn't win me any popularity points back in high school -- even if all my friends ended up with amazing MySpace profile pics. Things are different now. In the strange days between film and digital, nobody was expected to produce quality photography. Now a staggering number of kids want to become YouTubers, and the line between professional and amateur photographers has blurred beyond the point of recognition. But what I know is that for many, a high-end smartphone is a much more sensible purchase than a dedicated camera, no matter what kind of art you're trying to create.

The LG V30 is the perfect smartphone for vlogging

When LG took the wraps off of the LG V30 at IFA last week, it spent nearly 20 minutes of its 50-minute presentation talking about the phone's dual-camera system. Juno Cho, president of mobile communications, rattled off statistics like "almost 80 percent of smartphone users use their smartphone at least once a week to shoot videos." He also said that "we are literally on the verge of transitioning from storytelling to story-showing," which is almost as crazy as Samsung's new catchphrase: "Your New Normal." I digress.