About ShotRigs

ShotRigs started in a cramped one-bedroom apartment in 2019, surrounded by camera boxes, packing peanuts, and three overdue return labels. Our founder, a wedding and documentary shooter named Mara Delgado, had just spent six weeks testing mirrorless bodies for a client upgrade and realized the review landscape was broken: glowing affiliate write-ups that never mentioned autofocus hunting in low light, spec-sheet regurgitation with no field footage, and "best of" lists that hadn't been updated since a camera's discontinuation. She started publishing teardown-style notes on a personal blog. Within a year, working photographers and video editors were emailing her asking which gimbal actually survived a full wedding day. ShotRigs was born from that inbox.

Who's behind the site

ShotRigs is run by a small team of working image-makers, not generalist tech bloggers. Our contributors include a corporate video producer, a landscape photographer who shoots in sub-zero conditions every winter, a former camera store technician, and a sound-and-video hybrid shooter who covers live events. Each reviewer writes primarily in the category they actually work in — the person testing tripods owns a rental business and has watched cheap ball heads fail on set; the person testing microphones mixes audio for a living. We think expertise earned on actual jobs matters more than a title.

How we choose what to review

• We prioritize gear that readers ask about directly, tracked through comments, emails, and a running request board on the site.
• We cover new releases from major manufacturers, but we also revisit older or budget models that remain relevant to working creators on tight budgets.
• We avoid reviewing products solely because a brand sent a pitch — inclusion is decided by our editorial team, independent of any outreach.
• We look for gaps: categories where existing reviews are outdated, incomplete, or clearly written by someone who never used the product outside a studio.

How we test

Every product that appears in a ShotRigs review has been physically used by a team member, either purchased at retail, borrowed through a rental house, or sent temporarily by a manufacturer with no conditions attached to the outcome of the review. We do not accept payment for positive coverage, and manufacturers never see a review before publication.

Our process typically includes:

• At least one real shoot — a wedding, event, hike, studio session, or run-and-gun video shoot — not just a desk test.
• Side-by-side comparisons against two or three direct competitors in the same price bracket.
• Notes on failure points: battery drain in cold weather, autofocus behavior in low contrast, build quality after repeated pack-downs, and how a product performs once the novelty wears off.
• A second team member reviewing the draft to challenge conclusions before anything goes live.

How we handle affiliate links and disclosures

ShotRigs earns commission through affiliate links on some products we recommend. This never determines our star ratings or whether a product is recommended at all — we've published negative reviews of items that carry affiliate programs, and positive reviews of items that don't. Any sponsored content is clearly labeled as such, is kept separate from our independent reviews, and is disclosed at the top of the page, not buried in fine print.

Corrections and updates

Gear ages, firmware changes, and prices shift. We revisit our most-read reviews at least twice a year to update pricing, note firmware-driven improvements or regressions, and flag when a product has been discontinued or superseded. If we get something wrong, we correct it publicly and note the change at the bottom of the article rather than quietly editing the page.

What we're trying to build

ShotRigs exists for photographers and video creators who need a straight answer before spending real money — the wedding shooter deciding between two flash systems the night before a booking, the new videographer choosing a first gimbal, the hobbyist trying to figure out if a lens upgrade will actually change their photos. We write the review we'd want to read ourselves: specific, honest about weaknesses, and grounded in actual use rather than assumption.