When it comes to Tecno’s Modular Magnetic Interconnection Technology, the company describes it as a “phone that grows on demand”. A magnetic-based system that allows users to stack components -- including various cameras -- onto the back of the phone makes it highly adaptable. At least in theory.
Legendary cinema company Arri has teamed up with smartphone maker Honor to bring Arri's imaging science and video technology to Honor smartphones, including the upcoming Honor Robot Phone.
Earlier this month, Polar Pro announced a new lens filter that it says makes photos look like they were shot on Portra film. Photographers on Threads have taken umbrage with that opinion and have spent the last few days dunking on the product.
Once-a-decade superblooms are just starting to turn deserts of the American West into a photographer’s dream. For photographers, the challenge of capturing beautiful wildflower blooms is as thrilling as it is fleeting. Finding the right blooms, capturing their scale and variety, and conveying both their delicate details and the sweeping grandeur of the desert is an exciting opportunity. In this guide, I’ll share my approach to making the most of this extraordinary event, from planning and …
Drawing on decades of photographing nightscapes, this guide offers practical tips on Milky Way timing, scouting, blue-hour blends, and crafting strong foregrounds. Learn how to capture distinctive night sky landscapes through thoughtful planning, smart gear choices, and creative field techniques.
SAG-AFTRA, the Motion Picture Association, Disney, Warner Bros., NBCUniversal, these are just some of the powerful companies and organizations fighting back against AI video generators, which can now imitate scenes from movies.
Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down President Trump's global tariffs he instituted last year based on the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). Hours later, the president announced new 10% global tariffs against most imports under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974. Today, the president said he is actually going to raise the tariffs to 15%, the maximum allowed under the trade law he is using for his latest tariffs.
Photography is an art form of trade-offs. When the shutter speed goes up, the aperture must come down. Higher ISO raises the exposure but hurts the image quality. A brighter maximum aperture means more cost and more weight. Everything is based on a give-and-take relationship, and balancing these factors is key to success.
Never has photography come under such scrutiny, especially in photojournalism and sports photography. In its history, photography has been manipulated as early as 1846. Still, the launch of Adobe Photoshop in 1987 marked a major shift in the ease of photo manipulation, and by the 90’s, the term “photoshopped” generally came to mean a photo was altered to mask the truth. Here at the Olympics, there are no exceptions to heavily photoshopped or AI-generated images, which mostly end up on …
AI will come to a mainstream camera; it's only a matter of time. Somewhere, in some boardroom, the case is being made right now to inject some level of AI -- most likely generative -- into the tool of photography, and the first brand to do it will be the last. And they will regret it.
Chinese newcomer Mandler announced its first lens last May, the Mandler 35mm f/2 "7 Elements." The lens faithfully recreates the classic Leica Summicron 35mm f/2 at an extremely aggressive price of about $350. It went on sale this week and sold out almost immediately.
In an era when artificial intelligence thrives on data, a new initiative is turning everyday photographers into paid collaborators, one original image at a time.
Although nobody needed even more Kodak Charmera knockoffs, companies cannot help themselves. The latest iteration is the Magecam Thumb Keychain Camera, and this time the cheap retro-styled, Charmera-inspired toy camera has a flip-up screen.
What if creating a truly unique landscape photograph isn’t about finding somewhere no one has ever stood, nor simply revisiting the places everyone knows, but about noticing the extraordinary in both?
Abstract photography is one of those things that you either love or hate. Either way, it’s a genre worth dabbling in, as you can learn a lot about your camera from it.
Photography has never been more accessible, yet truly distinctive images feel harder to come by than ever. With social media reinforcing familiar compositions and popular locations, many photographers find themselves asking how to create work that feels original and fulfilling. This three-part series is designed to explore that question across three genres: wildlife, landscape, and night sky photography. In this first article, the focus is on wildlife and how slowing down, understanding animals …
Social media was once the backbone of marketing for photography businesses. However, we now have strong reasons to leave it behind and adopt a different approach to photography. Why did my recent behavior change prove this to be true?
In her seminal collection of essays, On Photography, Susan Sontag famously argued that "there is something predatory in the act of taking a picture." She described the camera as a "sublimation of the gun," a tool used to "violate" subjects, turning them into objects to be symbolically possessed.
Lighting company Profoto is the latest to throw photographers under the proverbial bus in an attempt to milk AI for all its worth. The company has drawn ire on social media for what many consider a series of tone-deaf posts and comments.
Earlier this week on The PetaPixel Podcast, we discussed Nikon's lawsuit against Viltrox and both the best and worst-case scenarios for that outcome. As part of it, we found ourselves talking about L-mount and how it was the only option outside of Sony E-mount that has shown itself willing to be "open." Unfortunately, it doesn't offer a compelling solution for the average photographer.
As generative AI technology proliferates, making it easier for people to manipulate real photos or create convincing fake ones from scratch, photography's ability to depict reality has come under increasing attack. A recent Washington Post opinion is among the most notable assaults on the institution of photography yet, garnering strong rebuttals from veteran photographers.
Flickr is one of those platforms that refuses to die, like a beloved old truck that leaks oil but still starts every morning. Flickr is one of the original photo-sharing communities, and if you’ve been around long enough, you probably remember when it was the internet for photographers. I've been on Flickr since the early days, and at one point, it genuinely felt essential. In fact, I had a pro account for over a decade.
A Chinese design account, PerceBound, shared a clever 3D-printed Fujifilm camera-themed battery and memory card case. It's a silly, but great idea.
Once upon a time, in the last century, before hipsters and when only restaurants had menus, photography was film and film was photography. Both consumers and pros used film, and every camera jockey had a favorite kind: large format, medium format, 35mm, APS, 126, Disc, etc.
Ricoh Imaging recently revealed to PetaPixel that it was having a difficult time figuring out how to make the DSLR popular among a wider group of people, admitting that the current fan base of the brand wouldn't be enough to keep it afloat. I argue the best route forward is to pull a Sega.
For professional photographers, there’s more to it than just composing a photo and exposing it correctly. It's great fun, but any photographer can set up a business and benefit from it.
The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is in full swing in Las Vegas, and tech companies are clamoring to stand out. Usually, that means highlighting one eye-catching product, but RadioShack went with the opposite strategy: throwing everything at the wall in the hopes that something will stick.
The Kodak Charmera digital keychain camera, despite its significant technical shortcomings, has been a holiday hit. Companies could not wait to rip it off.
We got not one, not two, but three fantastic mid-range full-frame cameras in 2025: the Panasonic Lumix S1 II, the Canon EOS R6 Mark III, and the Sony a7 V. These join the Nikon Z6 III, which launched just 18 months ago. The mid-range mirrorless camera segment has never been this competitive, fresh, and fantastic, which is outstanding news for photographers.
There are so many fantastic, capable digital cameras available these days. Nearly every new camera from all the major manufacturers can take great photos, has reliable autofocus, and offers a competitive feature set. Ultimately, the biggest differentiator between most cameras is the experience of using them. 2025 delivered many new cameras that not only provide a great experience, but a different one that celebrates the act of photography itself and what it means to capture photos.
A series of investigative reports sent shockwaves through the tech and privacy communities when it was revealed that dozens of Flock Safety’s AI‑powered surveillance cameras were left streaming live footage to the open internet, unprotected and accessible to anyone who knew where to look.
As photographers, we often concentrate on technical perfection and the compositional layout. However, arguably more important than either of those is adding meaning to your photos. It can be challenging, but adding meaning can genuinely elevate your photos to the next tier.
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.
When Kodak re-released Kodacolor in 100 and 200 ISO variations a few months ago (which is probably just Kodak Color Plus in a new box), the film community got very excited. Now that dust has settled and I am not hearing a lot about the film much these days, but that should change. This film rocks.
Martin Parr made a huge impression on me early on in life, in no small part because his most famous photos were shot very close to my home city of Liverpool.
Your favorite holiday tradition is back! Yes, it is time for our annual Best and Worst camera gear roundup. Jordan and I get together to battle it out with some not-so-friendly challenges, drink more than we probably should, and reminisce about the last year’s gear releases.
This year we saw some really outstanding cameras come to market. In fact, somehow, 2025 was even more packed than last year. Yet now as the dust settles and we are winding down, I am regularly seeing complaints that the Sony a7 V and the Canon R6 Mark III -- two of the year's most impressive cameras -- have "gotten boring." Excuse me, what?
After popular YouTuber Kai Wong reviewed the a7 V last week and mentioned potential issues with third-party lenses, concerns about whether the a7 V is taking a different approach to E-mount's famous openness spread like wildfire. However, while there is always the chance that certain lenses, particularly third-party ones, may have compatibility issues with new cameras, there is no reason to believe that the Sony a7 V represents any departure from Sony's longstanding view toward third-party …
Earlier this year, 7Artisans announced the Floral Bloom Art Cine Lens series, with the first being a 37mm T2.9 for PL mount only. It sounded interesting, so we agreed to check it out. We appreciate the effort and applaud the company for trying something new, but unfortunately, this lens is terrible.
When someone says Slovenia, what comes to mind? Dragons, mountains, craft beer? Maybe so, but Slovenia is a country that no one really talks about. Originally part of Yugoslavia, Slovenia became independent in 1992, and few travelers have mentioned whether they’ve been to Slovenia.
I've been thinking a lot about the Canon EOS R lately. From why I think the underlying concept of the maligned M-Fn Touch Bar should be revisited to just how weird the EOS R camera itself actually was, Canon's entry into the full-frame mirrorless camera market has been on my mind of late.
Sometimes it is the least obvious choice that produces the most striking results. That is why I ended up photographing a hockey game in the Swiss National League, with a Sigma 135 f/1.4 Art and a Lumix S1 II and not your standard f/2.8 zoom -- and boy was I up for an exciting shoot!
This time last week, I had never appeared on a podcast before; now I've been on two. And it's all thanks to The Stringer: The Man Who Took the Photo, a documentary questioning Nick Ut's authorship of Napalm Girl that recently landed on Netflix.
I recently installed iOS 26 on my iPhone. I'm slow, I know, but as I was swiping past my Photos widget, I noticed that one of my photos was in 3D. The image wiggled around as I moved my phone in my hand. "What the hell," I thought.
The Stringer: The Man Who Took the Photo, which lands on Netflix this week, opens with a line implying Nick Ut is a liar: "What you do know is what you didn’t take." But is that really true? I've always thought the inverse makes more sense.
Between writing the polarizing opinion that Canon should revisit the EOS R's much-maligned Touch Bar and reviewing the excellent Canon EOS R6 III in recent weeks, it has become even clearer just how bizarre the original Canon EOS R actually was when it arrived in 2018.
Earlier this week, Arri announced that it would be closing two facilities, both of which were focused on lighting production. Seeing Arri significantly reduce or outright exit the lighting industry makes a lot of sense if it wants to get acquired.
The "MP" in Leica MP stands for "Mechanical Perfection." That’s a big claim that I decided to put to the test with a roll of Leica’s brand new Monopan 50 and a trip to the English Cotswolds.
Last year, when Nikon announced the Z6 III, it did not accompany it with a Z7 camera like it had the two previous times the series had been announced. At the time, I argued there wasn't really a need for it, but now a year later, I'm changing my tune.
When my colleague Jordan Drake swiped the Epson R-D1 series of digital rangefinders out from underneath me in our recent Fantasy Camera Draft, I was disappointed. But my frustration also got me thinking about why the Epson RD should return and become more than just a quirky bit of digital camera history. The Epson RD series deserves better.
