We're kicking off our annual recap series with a look back at the best and most interesting Chinese lenses of 2025. From 7Artisans to Viltrox, let's remember some great Chinese glass that hit the scene in 2025.
It’s the holiday season, and Reto has come up with the perfect Christmas present for photographers. The new Kodak Charmera is a tiny keychain-sized camera that uses licensed Kodak designs and logos to incredibly popular effect. The Charmera is true to its name and is a marketing masterpiece that is almost impossible to get now. I wanted to find out if this toy camera is worth all the hype, and whether it is worth purchasing after the holiday season.
To mark the release of Steph Curry's new book Shot Ready, the publisher Random House teamed up with a creative agency to create a unique billboard that harnesses an astronomical event.
Award-winning South African photographer Shem Compion's latest photography book, "The Rift: Scar of Africa," features nearly 300 photos from Compion's more than 20 years of exploring and photographing the Great Rift Valley in Africa.
Fujifilm Corporation announced this week that it will invest approximately 5 billion yen (nearly $31.8 million at current exchange rates) into expanding its production capabilities for Instax film. Fujifilm says this move is in response to growing global demand for Instax film products amid a broader increase in demand for analog photography overall.
A camera bag isn’t just about carrying gear; it shapes how photographers move, work, and protect their equipment. Whether you’re commuting with a mirrorless kit, flying with a full production setup, or safeguarding gear between shoots, the right bag matters. Right now, B&H Photo is offering significant holiday discounts across nearly every camera bag category, making this an ideal moment to upgrade or expand your kit.
Canon's promised slate of massive firmware updates for its EOS Cinema cameras arrived this week, bringing things like open-gate recording to the Canon EOS C400 and improved operability to the C80. The Canon EOS R5 C, C400, C80, and C70 all received firmware updates this week.
Chinese company and TikTok owner ByteDance has signed a deal to transfer the majority of its U.S. operations to a group of investors, including Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX. This deal arrives after months of stops and starts, deadline extensions, and even failed deals.
Apple recently deployed more than 40 new iPhone 17 Pro Max devices to capture Red Bull motocross athlete Tyler Bereman hopping from island to island on his motorcycle.
After spending all day skateboarding in the desert Sun, photographer Travis Burke was surprisingly stressed. Why? He had the shot of his dreams to capture.
Benro has unveiled the NE1, an adjustable electronic neutral density (ND) filter system designed for photographers and videographers. Without rotating the filter, users can adjust the ND filter strength from about ND3 to ND64.
Despite Apple's impressive and successful efforts to give the iPhone 17 series of smartphones a much better front-facing camera, some iPhone 17 Pro users would still prefer to use their device's rear cameras. However, this has the drawback of not allowing you to see how a photo looks. Selfix, "the ultimate selfie case for iPhone," aims to overcome this limitation.
The winners of the annual W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography -- one of the largest grants in support of the photographic arts that opened for entries in July -- have been announced and the winner is Palestinian-American Maen Hammond, for his project Amira’s Castle, an ongoing exploration of his grandparents’ lives and his own documentation of the Palestinian present.
A trail camera captured rare footage of a "fisher" in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, marking the first confirmed sighting of the elusive species in the area since the 1800s.
Blackmagic Camera 10.0 has arrived, bringing new features and improved performance to numerous Blackmagic Design camera models, including the Pyxis 12K, Pyxis 6K, and Ursa Broadcast G2.
After acquiring CreativeLive in 2022, Fiverr announced in September that it would be shutting the platform down by the end of 2025. That plan has changed, however, as it instead has found a new owner for the platform: CourseHorse.
Around 4,100 photographers from 123 different countries entered over 23,000 photos into the World Sports Photography Awards 2026 competition. While the winners won't be revealed until next month, the finalists across the contest's 24 categories have been selected, and every single photo is incredible.
7Artisans has introduced the 6mm f/2, an ultra-wide, manual focus fisheye lens for APS-C cameras. Available for Sony E, Fujifilm X, Canon EOS R, Nikon Z, and Micro Four Thirds mounts, the new ultra-wide lens delivers a dramatic 220° diagonal field of view.
Leica has announced substantial updates to both the SL3 and the Q3 family of cameras with what it bills as "comprehensive enhancements," specifically enabling a more precise, faster, and more intuitive shooting experience for photos and video recording.
The cinematographer behind the hit Netflix movie Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery has revealed how he used lighting to give the film a rich, gothic look that changes with every scene.
A follow-up to the infamous AI-generated McDonald's Christmas ad poignantly shows how corporations have no control over their creation when using the technology.
The HiRISE camera inside NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured its 100,000th image, marking a momentous occasion for the nearly 20-year mission.
For video photographers, maintaining high-quality footage can be a constant challenge. Clips can arrive noisy, soft, or constrained by camera hardware and shooting conditions. Unlike RAW stills, video offers little room for correction, making it hard to produce clean, professional results straight out of the camera.
Lensrentals has shared its top photography and videography rentals of 2025, continuing the company's annual tradition of recapping the cameras, lenses, and accessories customers want the most. Yet again, the list is dominated by Canon and Sony equipment across the board.
A new bill that is being proposed by Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) wants to make it less expensive for visual artists, which includes photographers, to protect their work. Called the Visual Artists Copyright Reform Act of 2025 (VACRA), it wants to reduce fees associated with copyright protection, “ensuring that professional creators can afford to register all their works."
Now for the fifth year in a row, PetaPixel has gathered its team together to gaze into the future and see the facts, the truths, that will come to pass in the camera industry in 2026. As always, we are prepared to be very wrong.
The American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) marks its eightieth anniversary with free global student memberships, alongside new advisory, legal, and education initiatives for 2026.
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (Roman) has been fully assembled, a momentous occasion for the scientists, engineers, and technicians who have spent years working on the telescope. It is also a significant achievement for humanity at large. Once the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope takes flight, it will peer into the cosmos and capture images and data of 80,000 supernovae, 100 billion stars, billions of galaxies, and hundreds of black holes, helping unravel the mysteries of dark energy and dark matter.
A group of rare “galaxy frogs” have disappeared from an Indian rainforest and are feared dead after photographers reportedly destroyed their fragile habitats to take pictures of them.
ChatGPT has announced a new AI image generator, which can not only create pictures from scratch but can also make precise edits to photos.
Viltrox announced the 35mm f/1.2 LAB lens for Sony E-mount earlier this year, and it's excellent. It is now available for full-frame and APS-C Nikon Z-mount mirrorless cameras, costing less than half the price of Nikon's own Nikkor Z 35mm f/1.2 S prime.
Instagram is testing a new app that allows users to watch Reels on their television, beginning with Amazon Fire TV in the U.S.
Vanity Fair photographer Christopher Anderson has defended his close-up photographs of President Donald Trump's Cabinet, particularly the portrait of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
A photographer discovered thousands of dinosaur footprints dating back around 210 million years while taking pictures of deer in an Italian national park.
Photographer Vitor Schietti’s images feel less like frozen instants and more like memories caught mid-drift. Hovering between observation and imagination, his images stretch time, bend light, and invite viewers into moments that feel both familiar and otherworldly.
As promised, the Ricoh GR IV HDF is coming very soon. Ricoh Imaging Americas Corporation announced today that the GR IV HDF will be showcased at the company's GR Space retail locations starting tomorrow, December 17, and will begin shipping to customers next month.
Last year, astronomers discovered the brightest Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transient (LFBOT) ever observed. A complete understanding of this type of event, an exceptionally bright blue flash that quickly fades, has long eluded scientists. However, a new analysis of the brightest burst last year has unlocked key insights into the event, and scientists now believe the blue cosmic outburst is caused by black holes shredding massive cosmic companions, like stars.
Hasselblad has committed to replacing photographer Dan Martland's water damaged X2D II 100C camera after the photographer's Instagram post calling out the company as well as retailer Pictureline went viral.
YouTube creator and do-it-yourself enthusiast Penguin DIY recently built a secret camera hidden inside a walnut shell, and it's an excellent, albeit nutty, example of what creative people with engineering skills can do with miniaturized camera technology.
Adobe launched Firefly Video back in February to criticism. In the months since, the company has continued to update its platform and today unveiled new AI video editing features and partner AI models inside Firefly.
An astrophotographer is urging X owner Elon Musk to introduce controls that would allow photographers to limit how their work is embedded on the platform, after footage he captured of the Geminids meteor shower was widely reused without his approval.
7Artisans has expanded its lineup of budget-friendly manual focus primes with the launch of the MF 50mm f/1.2 for Sony E, Fujifilm X, Nikon Z, and Micro Four Thirds. The ultra-affordable $99 APS-C lens is aimed at photographers and filmmakers looking for fast glass without a premium price tag.
Some iPhone users running iOS 26 are reporting a bug that causes photos taken on Android devices to turn red when zoomed in within Apple’s Photos app.
Wedding photographers must be ready for anything, including spur-of-the-moment photo requests. But one such picture inquiry proved too much for a prudish wedding photographer who turned down a groom's request that he and his groomsmen be photographed in their boxer shorts.
A concert photographer has filed a lawsuit accusing rapper Rod Wave of using his image without permission on the cover of the artist’s latest album and related promotional materials.
The prestigious Hasselblad Masters photography competition is back again, and the 2026 edition is now open for entries. Photographers compete across seven categories, with each category winner earning a valuable Hasselblad camera kit and €5,000 in cash. An overall winner will also be named a "Hasselblad Master," joining an elite group of photographers.
Nikon has announced firmware version 5.30 for its full-frame flagship mirrorless camera, the Z9. The free firmware promises across-the-board improvements, including enhanced autofocus, better Auto Capture functionality, and workflow improvements.
The Blue Sky Gallery in Portland, Oregon, is celebrating 50 years of being a champion of photography as art. It has made a lasting impact on photographers and photography itself far beyond Oregon.
The Camera & Imaging Products Association (CIPA) released its latest data detailing global digital camera and lens shipments from Japanese manufacturers. After a terrible August, shipments bounced back in September. This bounce back continued in October, the most recent dataset available, which was the most prolific month for digital camera and lens shipments in the past three years.
BTS -- or "behind the scenes" -- footage has become an essential part of how I tell stories; not just for social media, but for documenting the reality of underwater work. When it comes to shooting underwater, there are a ton of factors to think about — from managing your buoyancy and checking the settings on your camera housing, to being aware of your surroundings and controlling your breathing. The last thing I want to spend time worrying about, then, is how I’m going to capture behind-the-scenes content at the same time.
