My Favourite Blogs. What's Yours?

The inter-web is a marvelous place.  In the olden days, I used to spent hundreds of dollars a year subscribing/buying magazines of whatever interest I had at the time, mostly personal computers and photography (The Transactor, Circuit Cellar, Modern/Popular Photography come to mind).  If you want to read a review of a new product, sorry, but you would have to wait about one to three months for the magazine to publish reviews.  Rumours?  Sure, your usual sales person was the best place to get them.  The internet changes all that.  I now subscribe to RSS feeds, not printed matters (though still a couple of magazines to support my kids' school). Rumours?  We now have dedicated rumour sites for your favourite brand, and they even have "Trusted Sources" for rumours that often provide very accurate information which would turn out to be true. So much for rumours, eh?

I will list below, the favourite blogs the I check/read everyday, in no particular order of importance.  Please let me know what your favourites are.

The Online Photographer - By far my favourite blog.  Michael Johnston is a great writer.  If you follow photography, you no doubt had enjoyed his "The Sunday Morning Photographer" articles that he wrote for the Luminous-Landscape, and perhaps, his "37th Frame" magazine.  His articles are well researched, intelligent, and always well written.  There are other regular contributors, specifically, Ctein, who writes a weekly article for the blog.  The blogs is not heavy on camera gear, but more on the essence of photography.  Some articles are not even photography related but always a good read. The comments section is especially interesting to read.

The Visual Science Lab - By Kirk Tuck.  I don't know how anyone can write so much and so often.  You might not like it if you don't like reading long articles.  As I said, Kirk can write.  If you are a working pro or you make a living from photography, Kirk has many insights as a working pro.

Lens Rental Blog - By Roger Sicala.  Roger loves camera gear and has a great sense of humour.  Most important of all, he is unbiased when it comes to testing gear.  He has access to hundreds (possibly thousands) of lenses and camera bodies of different brands with multiple copies of the same item, so test data is usually representative of real world usage.

Ming Thein | Photographer - Ming Thein, based in Singapore Malaysia, is another prolific writer.  I like his concise writing style and his post processing techniques.

Luminous Landscape -  I have been following this site since Michael Reichmann reviewed the 3 MP Canon D30 in 2000. Michael's tell it like it is attitude has built a reputation in the cyberspace as one of the best hands on review sites.  The site has been slowly increasing coverage for Medium Format Digital, which I find interesting but irrelevant (for me). 

Photo.net - One of the very first web sites dedicated to photography.  Started by Philip Greenspun, who wrote many Canon gear related articles in the early 90s.  His "Travel with Samantha" series was my favourite articles.  The site contains a wealth of information, especially on older equipment, largely because it has been around for so long.  It also has some of the best and the most inspirational photographs in its user galleries.

By Thom and Sans Mirror - Even though Bythom is mostly about Nikon gear, I love to read his insightful and easy to understand articles.  The site is pretty old and not very flexible in design and does not offer RSS feeds directly.  The Sans Mirror site is newer and covers all mirrorless cameras.  Thom's thoughts on the camera industry should not be missed.

Robin Wong - If you want to read the most comprehensive hands on lens/camera reviews (mostly Olympus),  or you love street shooting, look no further.  Robin is a great photographer and an excellent writer.

And then there are the rumour sites that provide so much entertainment and create expectations of new gears to come:

Canon Rumour
Sony Alpha Rumour
Four Third Rumours
Photo Rumours
Mirrorless Rumours
Nikon Rumours

Sheltered - NEX-5N & Leica-R 90mm f2.0 Summicron