2016 has ended and we just wanted the share with you our favorite photo and video products, accessories and events from the LensVid video channel. In 2016 we posted well over 60 videos on our YouTube channel and this will be a quick attempt to look at what we see as the top ones.
Although this list is not necessarily a summary of everything which is the best in the world in 2016 in each category or even things that were specifically announced this year, we still think that it’s fun to look back at some of these videos – so let’s start:
- Our favorite camera of 2016 – We tested quite a few cameras in 2016 including the Sony A6300 and the Nikon D5500 but our favorite all around camera was the Nikon D500. Although it still lacks any form of usable tracking AF in video mode and the Snapbridge function is far from the hype that Nikon made about it – it is a fantastic stills camera for shooting any type of action, wildlife, sports, journalism and more with great AF system (for stills), very high image quality, good battery life and nice touch screen with good ergonomics and this is why we give it our 2016 favorite camera pick.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wh6ll7TBhHU&t=7s[/youtube]
- Our favorite lens of 2016 – We tested a lot of lenses in 2016. We looked at the Nikon 200-500mm zoom telephoto lens, we played with the Sigma 50-100mm, the Chinese DZoptics KERLEE 35mm f/1.2 and more recently two other Sigma E mount lenses – the 30mm f/1.4 and our pick for our favorite lens of 2016 – the 19mm f/2.8 – which might not be the most useful focal length on APS-C (it is comparable to about 28mm on FF), but the lens itself is really fantastic optically and just unbelievably affordable.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nHrjA0fLQ0[/youtube]
- Our favorite tripod of 2016 – In 2016 we started our tripod and head review series which we shall continue in the next few weeks (we still have many tripods and heads to review). As for the tripods we looked in the passing year at the Genesis kit the FLM advanced ballhead and two different heads by Sirui (Sirui K-30X Ballhead and VH-10 Fluid head) but our favorite was actually the company’s travel Tripod – T-2204X
which is very well made and gives very good bang for the buck.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8hSooi0Oes[/youtube]
- Our favorite video accessory of 2016 – It was very hard for us to decide on our favorite video accessory this year so we nominated two – both the Syrp Genie mini and the Pro Media Gear 24″ motorized slider that we recently reviewed. Both have proven to be extremely useful for us over the past few months and we can highly recommend them to anybody doing lots of video work and especially product videography like us.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zY-Y0fdTZFA[/youtube]
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6E730Ao_VA[/youtube]
- Our favorite light of 2016 – lighting was a big part of our 2016 coverage. Both with small lights like the tiny but powerful Lume Cube, the somewhat larger Genaray LED 7500T and the pro level Rosco Litepad. But our favorite this year has to be the Pipeline Reporter remote phosphor light by BBS which has a fantastic quality although it is not super powerful (we are however testing these days a much more powerful light by BBS with the same technology so stay tuned for that one).
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrJ2_wc8xcg[/youtube]
- Our favorite DIY project of 2016 – We love doing DIY photography projects and this year we had a chance to do several of them including a fixed overhead camera rig, a DIY cage, but the one which is our favorite – at least so far – is our DIY tripod wall holder.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn3gLjVA6XE[/youtube]
- Our favorite interview of 2016 – With Photokina 2016 we had a chance to do a lot of interviews this year. Hands down our favorite was the one we did with the CEO of Sigma who gave us the following answer to our question of why the company is still making cameras (from around 6:00 in the video below):
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REOn9I_36LI[/youtube]
We already have almost 20 products sitting on our desk and waiting to be reviewed in early 2017 so it is going to be a very interesting year indeed and don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel!
You can check out more LensVid exclusive articles and reviews on the following link.
Iddo Genuth 
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