So Who Am I?
About Me
My name is Steve Huff and I have been a photographer for about 15 years and photography has been a lifelong passion of mine since I first entered this world. It has been said I came out of my mothers tummy with one eye squinting like I was looking through a viewfinder 
My hard drive is filled with tens of thousands of images. They are images of all kinds including pictures of family, strangers, events, street life, weddings, studio portraits, concert images and friends. These are just my “keepers” and over the years I have used about 40 different cameras to take these shots!
See, I am a “photo enthusiast” as well as a passionate photographer. I love what I do so much that over the years I realized I was trying out a TON of camera gear searching for the holy grail. With all of my experience using this gear, in February of 2009 I decided to put up a site where I can write about it all, and this is the result! With this site I want to show YOU how this gear performs in the real world. I will also share with you my processing tips, photography tips, where I buy this gear, my photo projects and jobs that I get along the way. Oh yea, and a rant here and there when I get a little irritated with something in my daily life.
Basically this is a site for digital photo nuts made by a digital photo nut (and you must admit, we are pretty much all crazy)! I know that when I am thinking of buying a new camera I always search online to read as much as possible about it as I can before committing to the purchase. I know that there are many out there just like me, so I am hoping to provide a useful FREE service to all of you fellow digital camera nuts! Yea, there are a load of camera sites out there but most are too technical, boring, and their sample images (if they have any) kind of stink. I wanted to bring an enthusiastic, fun, and creative site to all of you who are like me and try to have a cool place for camera nuts to come hang out for a while and read up on some of the coolest new cameras.
This site is not meant to compete with the mega technical camera review sites, but rather be something totally different. I will show you REAL WORLD results from the gear, not overly geekish babble. After all, it is the image that matters most is it not? This site will ALWAYS be FREE. While I understand those who want to charge for their lens and camera reviews, I will not do that as I want to share this info with as many of you as possible and charging for the reviews is not the way to do that. Plus I want to create a site where we can all participate, have fun and learn along the way.
The bottom line is that I’m just a guy who will tell it like it is. I always have been. I’m not going to be overly technical, if at all. Just real world use and samples all written out in layman’s terms. I am hoping to make this an enjoyable, easy to read site that will hopefully help some people out in their decisions on camera gear. Also, I am not a writer and kind of slacked off in English class so you will see a few grammar mistakes here and there 
Also, I hope to improve the site over time (I am now on V2) so every now and then you will see some changes for the better like adding images to comments, and eventually, quite possibly, just maybe, a forum (Forum has now been added).
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The New Version 2 of STEVEHUFFPHOTO.COM – November 2009
The new version of this site went live on November 12th 2009 and it has MANY improvements from the first version. My website has even created a couple of new site copycats as well as a couple of old timers to change their ways. Too funny. I now am seeing so many “real world” review sites, but I am happy to see this approach take hold.
On January 5th 2010 the site had its first “crash” due to a traffic overload when posting my Leica X1 review. This told me that my site was finally achieving what I dreamed of. Success! But that comes at a price. I had to upgrade to a super fast dedicated server at a cost of almost $400 per month. With all of my photos online, and thousands of people downloading them every day it costs me quite a bit of cash! Luckily I get help when you guys visit my sponsors and buy gear, but it’s tough!
One new feature I have already started is my “Daily Inspiration” post where I post YOUR photos so we can all be inspired to get out and shoot day in and day out. The site is not all about me! I want it to be about everyone who visits and enjoys it. I want to be inspired every day and see what everyone else is up to so be sure and submit you pics using the “Daily Inspiration” tab above.
BTW, I AM indeed a photographer so if you need a photographer for an event, concert, wedding, or WHATEVER, send me an e-mail and we will talk! I am ALWAYS for hire and have some great references. IL, IN, AZ, CA, I do travel! You can see some of my photo galleries at my old site here.
Like I said, this site does cost me quite a bit of money, time, and energy to keep up so if you enjoy it and would like to help me continue with this adventure click here to read how you can do it! Just to host this site costs me $400 every month as I had to move servers three times (in 10 months) to keep up with the traffic and bandwidth usage. This means I have to at least bring in this amount every month just to keep this site live. I also spend 60-70 hours each week on this site right now so it costs much more than that with my time, so I need all the help I can get! But hey, I am having a blast and hope that you enjoy these real world reviews! As long as it pays for itself, it will keep going so I appreciate the help!
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Rules and Disclaimers
The Rules…
Since this site has been growing there have been quite a few comments on many of the articles. When you leave a comment anywhere on this site you must follow three simple rules:
- Keep it clean. Not only in language but with SPAM. No foul language, no SPAM, no links to commercial sites. If you want to advertise, e-mail me.
- Keep it relevant to the post. If a post is about a Leica lens, do not write a comment about a Canon camera or my various grammar mistakes
- Be civil. No fighting, no name calling. I hate it when people start posting garbage and calling others names or putting someone down or arguing about equipment. Let’s keep it civil and professional. Personal attacks will NOT be tolerated.
Easy enough. Anyone breaking those rules will have their post deleted. A second time and you will be banned from the site. To date I have had to ban three people. Not bad for over two years online. When you make a comment your IP gets logged and I can ban any IP from the site. I do not want to do that but here is a comment that got one idiot banned as this was his 2nd comment like this in two days:
“seriously huff, stop putting up these really stupid boring photographs and go out meet people not just your lonely mammy. Feel sorry for you old man. Me and my dudes are like 18 years old and take much better photographs with our canon than yours, you stupid old man. Bald and ugly..can’t understand what your wife see in you? Loser with no jobb and acting like child with serious toys…get a life.”
After he posted this 2nd comment I grabbed his IP and blacklisted it. He can no longer see the site from where he was accessing it before. Stuff like this is pure nonsense and has no place on this site. If you have nothing relevant to say, then do not say it. Sadly though, the internet is full of idiots like this guy and that is what the “ban” button is for Besides, these kind of posts do not bother me personally. I am confident in what I do and with my life and know the type of people who write garbage like that are not.
Disclaimer…
I have to say that while I get lenses and cameras sent to me for review by a couple of camera companies, none of them pay me or give me free cameras/lenses. I get nothing. I write exactly what I feel about any lens of camera and if a manufacturer doesn’t like it, then oh well. Again, I get absolutely NOTHING from these camera companies. Just the opportunities to review their gear.
You can help me…
The only way I can fund this site is through my sponsor ads. B&H Photo and Amazon
I get to keep waking up every day at 6am and start writing and then I get to hit the road to shoot with whatever camera I have with me that day. But I can only keep this site going with your support, and with that support this site will not only keep going, it will keep growing with new features and more updates.
Help Wanted
In January of 2010 I started publishing guest writers on the site. A couple of guys I knew of for a while in some photo forums approached me about writing an article so I tried it, and decided to keep going with it. If you are someone who would like to write an article for this website e-mail me using the contact link at the top of any page. The article would need to be photo related and can be anything from a product/accessory review to a how-to article or even a photo essay. If you have an idea let me know. But at this time I do not offer any pay for these articles as I simply do not make enough to do that yet. In exchange for your article I will publish a link to your website or portfolio and you will get quite a bit of exposure. As of April 2011 this site receives up to 20,000 visitors a day. It fluctuates but it has been growing daily since V2 of the site and seems to go up every month!
Writing a guest article can provide you with great exposure and the cool thing is that your linked article will remain in the archives forever! So be sure to contact me if you are interested!
Want your Products Reviewed here?
If you are a camera company, lens company or a small company that makes accessories like straps, cases or gadgets and would like me to review your product here then feel free to contact me using the contact tab at the top of any page With close to 1 million page view monthly your product will be showcased to readers who are very passionate about their photography wether they are newbies, hobbyists or seasoned pros.
Advertising
I am now accepting advertisers who have a photo related web site, product or seminar. Basically ANYTHING photo related. I can offer 200X200 ad sizes in the right sidebar and currently have NO available space (sorry!). The prices range from $200 to $600 per month depending on placement and if you would like text link mentions as well. This site currently brings in approx. 1.8 million views every single month and that number is still going up every month! Daily, there are approx. 45-65,000 page views and all ads are shown on EVERY page. This means that your ad will be shown up to 65,000 times each and every day. This is a great value for this amount of targeted traffic and my readers are passionate about photography and LOVE to buy gear! Email me HERE if interested in advertising. I currently have ZERO spots available but can put you on a wait list for when one opens up.
Steve great work you have, very well said on your bio. I appreciate talented individuals like yourself because in the end we as photographers can never stop learning new things. I am also passionate of my work and really enjoy it alot. Please let me know if I can add a link to your page on my site I think its a great site for friends to view. Should there be any question please do feel free to reach out to me thank you very much and may you continue to have much success.
Jose Angel
I like the opportunity to write a review for your site. I sent you a message via your contact page. Do let me know what you think.
Derek
Steve, thanks for all your work, inspiration and guidance.
One thing you need to seriously sort though, not least because you have an international audience… As a Brit your ad links are US co’s and whilst your top banner provides local content, you don’t give me a way to say thank you directly… Ken Rockwell has a donation button linked to Paypal. I have thanked him! Your recent article on whether the m8 is still a good choice helped sell mine ( to help fund an m9p ), so I would like to thank you too…
David
Sorry for my English.
Excellent articles. Great experience … I am deeply impressed
Przepraszam za mój angielski.
Wspaniała artykuły. Wielki doświadczenie … jestem pod głębokim wrażeniem
Hi Steve, been following your site for +-3months looking for a replacement for my old mavica. Interested in MILC as it is easy to carry around and not intrusive to people. All things being equal, would really appreciate your thought on which one/s that can most likely give ooc stills in movie-look (color, sharpness, contrast, grain etc) with great bokeh/subject isolation? Please give me one or two options along with which lens.
Regards,
Steve, you are my role model. I’ve wanted to be a photographer all my life and seeing your photos has really inspired me to go out and follow my dreams.. I own a small $200 Canon but it’s no match to your Black M9, but I don’t have $7,000 to get it. Thank you so much for posting all your cool and interesting pictures, I hope one day I could meet you, I went to school with your son, Ha, he was a good friend. But anyways, thank you so much..
Well thank you Morgan! You do not need an M9 to take good pictures so keep on shooting your Canon!
Hello Steve,
I’ve been viewing your site for a couple of months now. I actually came on it when I was looking for some reviews of the Sony NEX-5N and saw you in your monster mask!
I’m an enthusiastic amateur and that’s one of the reasons I really appreciate your site. You obviously have some great gear and are a professional, but you write really interesting articles which don’t talk down to people like me, but have enough real-world information to help in making an informed choice.
I have a mid-level DSLR (Nikon D90 with a reasonable election of lenses) and was looking for something more portable with interchangeable lenses to complement my ‘travel’ camera (a Nikon P7100). I was considering the Fujifilm X10, Olympus EP3, Pentax Q, Nikon V1 and Sony NEX-5N but have eventually gone for the NEX5N after reading your reviews, because I like the low light performance and great IQ and am prepared to compromise on ice and portability a bit to get these.
Keep up the good work and thanks for an enjoyable and informative site.
Bob
its cool its fresh its true as u put it ‘s not about u witch tells us u on the true
`hi Steve!
my name is Remy and I am from Holland, Amsterdam. I like your website, you are doing a great job. After reading your review of the nex 7, i have decided to buy this camera. Unfortunainly it is not yet to buy in Amsterdam, so i have to wait (but i can’t…;) )
if i have one of my own, i let you know!
greatz,
Remy, Amsterdam
Hey Steve,
Since discovering your website I have been delighted to find reviews about many camera’s of interest. I’m also quite impressed with the tone of your reviews. When looking at reviews on CNET or even DP Review, it seems as if the reviewer is spending so much time over examining the A’s and B’s of the camera that they not really enjoying the photography aspect of the whole thing. So reading your reviews is quite refreshing and never dull.
Now, I myself am a budding enthusiast. I am currently looking to purchase a camera that will allow me to grow as an enthusiast of photography. Your review on the EP-3 really changed my opinion of the camera. I was a bit skeptical about it being that it has a smaller 12.3 MP sensor. But you helped change my view of it altogether. However, I’m a little tempted to see what kind of grade the new Panasonic Lumix GX1 gets. Are you planning on doing a review for that camera?
-Donald
Steve , your reviews are great very simple but real life related and more practical than anything else I ‘ve seen else where.
Thanks for sharing all your great experience and photographic world.
One question : what is the best fast lens for NEX5n or 7? I cannnot afford a real Leica so I am shooting NEX and Alpha 900 and if you can recommend me some good fast MF or AF mid to wide primes , it ‘d be great.
Does the VM35f1.2 ,which you just reviewed here work well on a NEX7?
By the way, I am also waiting the Zeiss 24f1.8.
Thanks! The Zeiss 24 1.8 is great, and the 35 Nokton also works well on the NEX-7 and 5n.
Hi Steve !
today I got my nex 7, and it is really A, A, AWESOME ! (triple A-status)
I love it already and just spent a couple of minutes with it.
When do you visit Amsterdam for some street shooting?!?
greetz,
Remy
Hi Steve, I’ve been following you for about six months, just have to say great reviews & insights.
Love what you are doing, more Leica reviews though please!
Cheers,
John
Hi Steve, been stuck in Germany over the Xmas/New Year for work, German tv sucks, so the net has been my friend.
I couldn’t even buy a camera or lens from the factory shop as there is a 3 months backlog. Never mind , you win some and lose some.
Congrats for providing an excellent forum for photography, I even tried to get a factory tour in the Leica factory in Solms but the dude was still on holidays
Keep up the good work.
Can’t wait to to get some warmer weather back down under.
A Big Gidday from Dazza
Great web site Steve and fantastic pics, you are very talented. I just picked up a Pentax k-5. I can’t recall if I read your review before buying, but I really enjoyed your review since buying my K-5.
I have to admit, when I got the camera, I was actually afraid of it, and considered taking it back. It just seemed too much, too intimidating for an amateur like me. My wife said to just jump in and take some pics, which I did. Now I am looking forward to becoming a better photographer, not because of the camera, but in partnership with it. Although I’ve only had the K-5 for a few weeks it already feels like an old and trusted friend. Again, great web site. I’ll be looking in often
I’m sure all 20,000+ visitors per day can agree that this is hands down the best photography website this side of east jesus!! Your passion is an inspiration to us all, and your hard work is very appreciated! There is no better place to visit for photography than stevehuffphoto.com.