SanDisk has announced their new Pro-G40 SSD. It’s a super fast and super rugged SSD that offers both USB 3.2 Gen 2 and Thunderbolt 3 connectivity through its single Type-C USB port. SanDisk, a Western Digital company (because apparently people still don’t know Western Digital acquired SanDisk a few years ago) says that the new SSDs are their most rugged portable SSDs to date. As well as their high speed, the new Pro-G40 SSDs, available in 1TB and 2TB capacities, feature a durable build quality with an enclosure that’s raged for up to 4,000 pounds crush resistance and up to 3 metres drop resistance....

It’s always interesting to see what products people are renting for their productions. Probably more so than the gear people are actually buying. Many filmmakers and photographers buy stuff because they want it, not necessarily because they need it. But to justify the cost of a rental, the gear typically has to offer features you do actually need and can justify spending the cash on (because you typically have to justify it to a client, too)....

Macro and microscopic photography open up a whole new world of possibilities, making even ordinary objects extraordinary. But what about shooting those objects that already are extraordinary? Well, Christian Stangl decided to give it a shot and he has created something truly wonderful. Teaming up with musician Max Cooper, Christian created a video to his song by playing with opal. He used a macro lens, some lights, and water, and created one of the trippiest and most beautiful macro videos I’ve seen....

I remember when LED lights first started to become a real thing for video a little over a decade ago. They weren’t even close to full spectrum, would introduce all sorts of colour casts, were huge, dim and had price tags starting in the thousands. Since then, though, LED technology has come a long way and the prices have dropped dramatically. How dramatically? Well, in this video from Caleb Pike, we see a 2-light LED lighting kit for video, including a softbox, that costs less than $100....

Planning is fundamental in many types of photography, and it plays a key role when you want to photograph the Milky Way. To the contrary of what many people think, our galaxy is visible throughout the year, but the most interesting area to shoot, the galactic center, is only visible for a few months depending on your location. To help you plan your Milky Way images, every year I create some calendars where you can quickly see the best days to photograph the Milky Way in your location....