In an opinion piece I authored last weekend, I wrote: "Attracting and supporting professional shooters should be the priority." A commenter asked what I meant, since pros are not nearly as numerous as average photographers, so why do they matter more?
On Tuesday morning, a day before the R1 was announced, I was finalizing our coverage and looking over the materials Canon prepared. "The Canon EOS R1 is Ahead of the Game," a header in the press release promised. I scratched my head in confusion.
In this industry, perception matters -- a lot. Side by side, spec for spec, the Canon R1 is obviously improved versus the R3 but not to the degree that feels like an entirely different camera line.
It's easy to think that the Canon EOS R1 is the main attraction of Canon's announcements this week. The company made a development announcement for it and it's been heavily teased. However, while relegated a bit to the shadows, the Canon EOS R5 Mark II is the more interesting and exciting of the two new Canon cameras.
In some of PetaPixel's images of the Canon EOS R1, you may have noticed that the logo wasn't visible. In some cases, that was due to electrical tape blocking it, which is common practice for pre-release hardware that may be seen in public. In other cases, it's because the "R1" logo actually fell off.
My history with the Canon mirrorless series started in late 2018 with the launch of the EOS R. Since then, I have switched from the EF to the RF mount, and for the past four years, I have worked intensively with two EOS R5 cameras. They have been loyal companions during my projects, and I have completed hundreds of photo and video shoots with them. When I became aware that Canon was launching a successor, I couldn't wait to get my hands on a sample.
Regardless of the complex cultural, social, and political impacts of the attempt on former president and 2024 election front-runner Donald Trump's life, the event has left an indelible mark on the photography world and offers a chance to consider how society consumes, shares, and thinks about images.
Since Nikon announced the Nikkor Z 35mm f/1.4 lens last week, I have been asking myself -- and Nikon -- a lot of questions about it. What about the 35mm S-Line lens on the roadmap? Is this new lens a sign of affordable f/1.4 lenses to come? What's Nikon's overall strategy?
The Nikon Z6 III's peak dynamic range can't keep pace with its predecessor, the Z6 II. The gap isn't minor, either. But how much does it matter, and does it mean photographers should opt for the older model?
For the past several weeks, photographers have been expressing a recurring sentiment online: the lack of supply for highly sought-after cameras like the Fujifilm X100VI, Ricoh GR III, or Pentax 17 is actually a strategy to "build hype." That's absurd.
Earlier this week, Nikon announced the Z6 III to considerable fanfare, and for good reason. It packs so many features into a $2,500 system that it manages to be a camera that is more than a compromise, even at that price. But the Z6 series has always been accompanied by the Z7 series yet this time, that wasn't the case.
Arguably, the Sony a7 IV has been the top dog in the mid-range camera space since it released in late 2021. And it's an excellent camera, as is 2023's Canon EOS R6 II. However, the Nikon Z6 III does something those cameras haven't: be more than a compromise.
Last week, Canon clarified that while the aperture control rings on its 24-105mm f/2.8L Z and 35mm f/1.4L VCM don't work in photo mode with its existing cameras, that will change with any camera announced after June 2024. That's really weird.
Humane's AI Pin didn't review well, but the company is still pushing forward. Today, it sent out an email with a link to a YouTube Short that glorifies the experience of letting life happen instead of actively trying to capture it on camera. It instead wants users to rely on the AI Pin and its lackluster hardware.
Another week, another public relations nightmare for Adobe. While not every controversy is Adobe's fault, each is understandable in the larger context: Adobe lost people's trust a while ago, and everything it does is under a microscope.
As someone who earns a living from digital media and keeping plugged into the photographic and videographic industries, it’s only natural that I spend a lot of time cruising around on the information superhighway and frequently interacting with people all over the world on the subject of cameras and the field writ large.
While preparing PetaPixel's coverage of Canon's impending Cinema EOS launch this week -- which included a corner of an unknown RF-mount cinema camera -- I realized just how little support the line has gotten since the launch of RF mount.
Electronic shutters no longer harm peak dynamic range performance in the way they once did, at least not with modern image sensor architecture. It's time to change course on an earlier story and see where I went wrong.
This week on The PetaPixel Podcast, Chris Niccolls and Jordan Drake give their insight into camera press trips and whether or not they believe they allow for ethical evaluation of equipment.
In the days and weeks after the launch of the new iPad Pro from Apple, I noticed quite a bit of discourse responding to critical reception of the tablet that boils down to this: If iPadOS is so bad, why are so many creators using nothing else?
Following in the wake of Fujifilm's massive week of announcements, I've noticed a trend in the commentary online that basically boils down to this: "Why would I pay that much for an X-T5 lite?" These same people seem almost angry that the X-T50 appears to be selling well.
Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen has been in charge of Adobe for nearly two decades and in that time has rarely done interviews. However, he has been making the rounds lately to pump up AI's tires, including an interview published this week with The Verge's Nilay Patel for the publication's Decoder podcast. There, Narayen said some interesting, if not disconcerting, things.
Fujifilm has announced the GFX 100S II, its lightest and most affordable 100-megapixel camera (102 megapixels, to be precise). For photographers who only care about stills and prioritize image quality over all else, good luck finding a better camera than the new GFX 100S II.
Yesterday, Adorama published a long list of supposed Canon EOS R1 specifications that provided a lot more detail on the newly-announced camera than Canon published in its development announcement. I don't believe them.
When was the last time you saw a great news picture? Or a piece of reportage that truly made an impact? Regardless of your opinion of the winners, did you see any of the World Press images winners when they were actually published for the first time?
I use my iPad Pro every day. I have used it every day since I picked up the first generation of the device years ago. There is certainly value in the iPad, but now you can now easily spend more on one than a full-fledged MacBook Pro.
There have been murmurs of an "EOS R1" camera for more than three years now -- since before Canon announced the EOS R3. The camera has been in development for at least five years and a lot has changed in that time.
I've always been fascinated by the latest and greatest technology, and that obsession has carried over to photography ever since I picked up my first camera. However, as cameras have improved, I've begun prioritizing how a camera makes me feel rather than what the camera offers regarding specs and features. Given the most popular cameras these days, I'm not alone in seeking joy over performance.
There has been a decades-long relationship between photographers and Adobe. However, the company's recent public discourse and marketing have made some photographers feel uneasy and, in some cases, furious.
Generative AI is changing how people create and business is done, which has far-reaching impacts. Photography is no stranger to technological revolutions and has thus far always survived. However, the coming storm of AI feels different to many, including Adobe, a company that has been involved with digital imaging since its earliest days.