In 2024, the Sigma 500mm f/5.6 DG DN OS Sports was highly regarded in the PetaPixel’s ranking of Sigma's 2024 optics. As one of Sigma’s high-end Sports lenses, it offers many pros and few cons. One of the most common requests we've seen has asked us to test its performance on one of the most challenging subjects: birds in flight.
In today’s world of photography, camera models come at us thick and fast. Some brands seem to update cameras yearly; for others, it’s two or three years between new models. However, there are always the odd ones out, and this is definitely the category in which Ricoh and its formidable GR III series fall. Despite being a runaway success for the brand, even the most loyal users now wonder when a successor will appear.
While Adobe's Firefly text-to-video generator leaves a lot to be desired, a secondary application of the technology is currently in the beta version of Premiere Pro. Called Generative Extend, it allows video editors to extend a clip by up to two seconds and does a surprisingly good job at it.
Adobe today launched its competitor to OpenAI's Sora, a text-to-video AI generator that Adobe is positioning as a possible alternative to licensing stock footage. It costs at least $10 per month with the "best value" option at $30 per month, but it's nowhere near good enough to warrant either price.
Late last night, OM System announced the OM-3. It costs $2,000... for now. I expect that will change very soon because I've been conditioned by the company to believe so.
2025 has so far proved to be the year of comebacks. Point-and-shoot compacts are flying off shelves faster than camera stores can restock them. But there could be another resurgence set to occur, and this one has flown well under the radar: camcorders.
The photographic world tends to flow into a state of normality, order, and conformity. Certain lenses just work for most situations, and the popular choices of the professionals quickly become the traditional tools of the masses. It seems everyone starts with a general-purpose lens that covers a rough full-frame range of 28mm to 70mm or so, and then eventually, you end up with something wider and something longer.
Computational photography features raise the hackles of many photographers, but many examples of these tools help photographers bring their creative visions to life and make their lives easier. That sounds good to me, not scary.
You could be forgiven for looking at Samsung’s latest crop of flagship devices in the S25 series and wonder what the silver lining is. It’s all about AI -- Galaxy AI, that is -- and in doubling down on these features, the company is betting that it has a leg up on what could be the next big thing for mobile devices.
As someone who spent over a decade in the stock photography and creative tools industry, I’ve seen firsthand how it has evolved. The news of a potential Getty and Shutterstock merger made me think about how the stock photography industry actors found themselves at a crossroads and what future lies ahead.
Last year, Adobe updated its Firefly generative AI platform multiple times, the most recent coming in September. Over that time, the Lightroom and Photoshop tools that rely on the technology have gotten steadily worse and the system's choice to add a Bitcoin logo to a photo of a seagull is a perfect distillation of the problem.
This week, Getty Images and Shutterstock announced an intent to merge, bringing two of the top three largest stock photography companies together. It's just one more step down the road to rock bottom.
As we close the book on 2024 and peer ahead to what should be an exciting year for new cameras and lenses, it is worth looking closer at one company's performance in 2024: Fujifilm.
With firmware version 5.10 launching earlier this month, Nikon has made its flagship Z9 mirrorless camera, released in late 2021, even better. The new firmware is the latest in a long series of free post-launch updates that have made the Z9 even better and much more versatile. Many camera companies believe strongly in post-launch support, but arguably, no camera has benefited more from free firmware updates than the Z9.
After a series of lousy hardware faults, SanDisk's name turned to mud. More than a year later, the company hopes to make people forget with a fresh new logo.
Buying a camera is like entering into an agreement with the brand. You’re handing over your hard-earned cash, and they are giving you the best product they can, or at least that’s how it used to be.
In the last year, I have written dozens of stories for PetaPixel about various incidents where people have died (or almost died) while taking a selfie, photo, or video. It may sound like a lot, but it is only a handful of the fatalities that I could have reported on.
This week, Adobe said that it would be making changes to its Photography plan pricing and eliminating the most affordable option entirely. Beyond that, as more camera and lens companies are pushing to support the "hybrid" creator (for good reason), Adobe continues to ignore them.
Think "action camera," and visions of snowboarders recording their high-adrenaline run down a slope spring to mind, and with good reason. Action cameras have unlocked new creative options for those wanting to capture their active pursuits on film. The results can be jaw-dropping, thanks to 4K or even 5.7K resolution options, enhanced slow motion, and mind-blowing stability. In short, an action camera can capture footage that looks like it was shot by a film crew rather than a tiny camera mounted to your ski helmet.
During internal voting and discussions concerning the Camera of the Year, the Canon EOS R1 quickly established itself as a non-contender. This highly anticipated flagship camera has been coming for a long time, but once it finally landed, it felt undercooked, and worse, boring.
A decade ago, in the hallowed halls of the now defunct Photokina show in Cologne, Germany, photographers, journalists, editors, and all sorts of other industry movers and shakers were elbowing each other out of the way to get closer to a trade booth where a brand’s newly launched flagship models were being admired. But the most popular booth of 2014 didn’t belong to Sony, Nikon, or even Canon... it belonged to Samsung.
On Friday, Microsoft confirmed it had discontinued the Surface Studio 2+, the company's all-in-one desktop computer. This computer failed not because it wasn't a good idea -- it was a brilliant idea on paper -- but because it was so poorly executed on all fronts.
Despite being ahead of its time, the Pentax K-1 (and its Mark II upgrade) was a camera system that promised so much yet appears to have run out of road. Born seemingly from an R&D department whose chains had been freed, the engineers went wild, strayed off-script, and produced a camera full of innovation. Fast forward to 2024, and a lack of lens support paired with no upgraded models in over six years leaves Pentax owners in an unwanted state of limbo where even the most loyal customers are now compelled to look elsewhere.
Like many photographers, I'm entrenched in a specific editing workflow. I use Adobe Lightroom Classic for the basics -- and even some of the more advanced edits -- and Photoshop for the rest. It works for me, and I'm not keen to jump through any hoops to change my process. However, Pixelmator Pro features a tool that made me pivot last week when I tried to make a print at home over the Thanksgiving holiday: Smart Deband.
For its fourth year in a row, PetaPixel has gathered its team together to guess the things they just know are going to take place over the next calendar year. All of us are, as usual, ready to be very, very wrong.
Foldable smartphones aren’t a total novelty anymore now that various brands make them, but they’re still far from being ubiquitous in people’s hands. There are various reasons to consider one, but how they can affect mobile photography helps make them more interesting.
A lot of the conversation surrounding Sony's new flagship camera, the a1 II, concerns the camera's image sensor. The 50-megapixel backside-illuminated stacked sensor is the same as the one featured in the original a1 which released in 2021. While some describe the reused sensor as disappointing, it is normal for Sony to use the same sensor across multiple iterations of the same camera series.
With the debut of the Sony 28-70mm f/2 GM lens this week, Sony now has 56 full-frame lenses and 77 total E-mount lenses. That is a lot of lenses -- by far the most among all full-frame camera systems and as the 28-70mm f/2 shows, Sony is finally free to experiment more.
"My goal with this book is simple: I want you to understand how to communicate an idea that resonates with the person who views the image," Ted Forbes, author of "Visually Speaking" and the face behind The Art of Photography YouTube channel writes.
The Sony a1 II has arrived, and it is a fantastic flagship camera. However, while its predecessor was leaps and bounds ahead of the competition, the mirrorless flagship camera race is much closer in 2024 than it was in 2021, and it has left the a1 II in a somewhat awkward position -- it feels like the middle child in a camera series that only actually has two models.
