Reviews

Laowa has made a name for itself by releasing wonderfully weird optics that the major lens manufacturers would never think to produce. Probe lenses, ultra-wides, incredibly bright manual focus lenses, these are the kind of oddities Laowa is best known for. I was, therefore, surprised when they started teasing a 200mm f/2 C-Dreamer professional autofocus lens.

Sony was one of the first major manufacturers to switch from DSLRs to mirrorless cameras and subsequently rushed to bring out a line of dedicated lenses for what was then the new E-mount. To be completely honest, some of these lenses were less than stellar, but nonetheless had to carry the line for many years.

Nikon debuted its Z-mount cameras in 2018 and shortly thereafter came out with its first professional 24-70mm f/2.8 S lens. Unlike some of the other companies that also began making mirrorless full-frame glass, Nikon came out with a legendary lens right out of the gates. The original 24-70mm f/2.8 lens may have been a little bulky, but it was incredibly sharp, immune to flare issues, and excellent for video work, too.

Earlier this summer, Chris Niccolls, Jordan Drake, and I browsed the fixed-lens section of KEH's website to see what was available for a reasonable price. With compact, point-and-shoot cameras suddenly exploding in popularity, we were wondering: have they aged well, or is it just nostalgia?

35mm has long been one of my favorite focal lengths, so it’s odd that I never had the chance to use the original Sigma 35mm f/1.2 DG Art as it would be right in my wheelhouse. Fortunately, when Sigma launched the second version of this optic in both E-Mount and L-Mount, I had a chance to make up for this omission.

Two things that I love are 85mm lenses and Tokyo, Japan. I was fortunate to experience both, and PetaPixel's Jeremy Gray joined me for a week in Japan to visit Canon headquarters and the Utsunomiya optical factory. We missed Jordan on this trip, but Jeremy had never before visited Japan, and we wanted him to experience all that it has to offer for the first time.

The Xiaomi 15T Pro and 15T are driven by their cameras and Leica co-engineering, and continue to outperform established competitors in North America. As these are global launches, obtaining either of these still requires importing them from online vendors. Or, if you happen to be in Europe, Asia, or one of the other available markets, buy it and bring it back.

I absolutely love the 135mm focal length, and feel like it’s quite underrepresented on modern mirrorless mounts. It’s a great choice for portraits, candids, indoor sports, and street photography. So when I heard Chris Niccolls would be unavailable to review the new Sigma 135mm f/1.4 DG Art lens, I jumped at the chance!

Arguably, a smartphone is the most important piece of tech most of us own, considering how integrated it is into our daily lives. However, they are also capable picture takers, and it is in this spirit that I look over the new iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max.

When it comes to the longer telephoto ranges, even Micro Four Thirds lenses can still be big, and not everyone needs -- or can afford -- the full reach of an OM System 150-400mm f/4.5. OM System has a couple of 40-150mm lenses in various sizes, and they have longer zooms up to 300mm with slow apertures. The time is ripe for something in the middle, and that's where the 50-200mm f/2.8 IS Pro comes in; but it will cost you $3,699.

In the year and a half since Nikon acquired RED, both have been extremely busy with video-focused products. RED released Z-Mount versions of its cinema cameras and Nikon dropped the Nikkor Z 28-135mm PZ video lens as well as a library of RED LUTs for the N-Log profile. However, I’ve been wondering when we’d see a camera that truly fused Nikon and RED technology, and that day has arrived with the release of the Nikon ZR.

Apple unveiled its iPhone 17 family today, including the much-improved iPhone 17, the ultra-thin iPhone Air, and the redesigned flagship iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max. The PetaPixel team flew to Apple Park in Cupertino to witness the unveiling and go hands-on with the new-look iPhone 17 Pro, and there is much to like for photographers and videographers alike.

Small, pocketable cameras with fixed lenses hold an enviable position in the camera world. If a manufacturer makes one, it sells out.

Smartphone season is here, and, as usual, Google is starting things off. The Pixel 10 series has arrived, and although a telephoto lens has now been added to the base model, we prefer to evaluate the highest-end Pro series for its creative photo and video usage. At first glance, the specs and hardware look almost unchanged from the previous models. So is new software enough, or is this the most iterative update Google has ever released?

The Hasselblad X2D II 100C builds upon its predecessors in key ways, preserving the aspects that made each prior camera special while smoothing nearly every rough edge. The legendary Swedish photo company has finally delivered a camera that lives up to the X1D's initial promise.

The industry desperately needs more lens support for APS-C cameras and it often feels like a neglected market. Full frame is clearly the favored child when it comes to the camera game, but I happen to love smaller sensor cameras, which give a great mixture of compactness and quality. Sigma is on a roll, making sure to give users excellent and affordable optics for Sony E mount, Canon RF mount, and Fujifilm X mount. The latest $629 Sigma 12mm f/1.4 DC Contemporary lens seeks to cover the ultra-wide arena with plenty of light-gathering potential to boot.

Batteries are boring. The most recent and exciting battery innovation I can recall is when manufacturers started incorporating USB-C ports into camera batteries. Needless to say, it's a low bar. That's why my expectations for the Linogy AA/AAA Battery Charging system were at most lukewarm, but after using it, I have to admit: this thing is great.

The 10th version of any flagship smartphone line should probably mean something, yet Google is launching its Pixel 10 series with no more fanfare than before. However, that doesn't mean there aren't changes worth being excited about.

The fixed 200mm f/2 is a very rare and specialized lens. In the DSLR days, there were very few available, and they were all ridiculously expensive. Canon and Nikon both made some very prestigious versions that delivered razor-sharp optics and incredibly shallow depth-of-field. They were also useful for low-light sports and action photography.

With the popularity of film photography reaching a fever pitch recently, seeing Leica announce its first-ever black and white 35mm film shouldn't shock you. Leica is even making a film camera brand-new, so it makes a ton of sense. But is Leica Monopan 50 any good and -- more importantly -- is it unique?

Being small is what makes the Vivo X200 FE stand out from a crowd of bigger phones, thanks to its impressive knack for capturing images that others can’t or won’t.

Foldable phones aren’t camera trend-setters because they get their camera components from other models. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 is no different in carrying on that pattern, only this time it’s actually rocking a flagship-level main wide-angle camera.

The Sony RX1R II was such a unique product for its time, offering high resolution mated to a stunning Zeiss lens, all in a compact size. However, it was always a premium product that demanded an exorbitant price. The RX1R II debuted at around $3,300, and let’s keep in mind that was nine years ago.

In Calgary, we have an annual Japanese festival aptly named Omatsuri. This is a fun event with lots of vendors, great food, and displays of Japanese culture. It's also an excellent testing ground for the new Samyang 85mm f/1.8 P FE.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. As a brand hailing from Britain, Nothing has been around since 2020, and the Phone 3 is its first true flagship aimed at taking on the best in the industry.

In May, vintage-inspired analog camera company Reto announced the Reto Pano, a reusable point-and-shoot camera with both an ultra-wide lens and the promise of being able to switch freely between standard 35mm film aspect ratio and panoramic mid-roll. It got my attention.

Wandrd's Prvke series has earned a devoted following among photographers, and with the launch of the new Prvke V4 21L and the Essential Camera Cube V2, Wandrd promises photographers an even better carrying experience. I find out if Wandrd's new bag lives up to its billing.

If you have a Sony E-mount camera body, the world is your oyster when it comes to lens selection. If you have a camera in Nikon Z-mount, you'd better like Tamron and Nikon glass. With all the excellent third-party lenses being manufactured, Nikon users can feel a little left out. But what if you could mount E-mount lenses onto your Nikon body? Megadap decided to allow just that, and we got our hands on the $249 ETZ21 Pro to see if E-mount lenses play nice with Nikon bodies.

Harman is on a roll, expanding its support for analog photographers with multiple new film emulsions this year. Right on the heels of Kentmere Pan 200, its new Phoenix II film stock replaces the more experimental original Phoenix and improves on it in multiple areas. That said, it might not be for everyone.

LK Samyang revealed a very exciting lens at the CP+ show in 2024 and it turned my head when I walked past the booth. Not only are ultra-compact ultra-wide zoom lenses few and far between, but this particular lens was a co-venture with the storied lens manufacturer, Schneider-Kreuznach.

I don't really like fisheye lenses. I've never found much use for them and find the surreal look of the images to be of limited utility. But that doesn't mean that I won't jump at the chance to give a new one a try.

"Then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three". The Quest for the Holy Grail by the comedy troupe, Monty Python, had it right. There is a Holy Trinity, and many professional photographers abide by it.

Gura Gear announced a brand-new, $180 sling bag at the Bild Expo last month called the Kiboko City Sling 6L, and from what the company tells me, the idea was so popular that it sold 1,500 of them in just those two days. There is something about this bag that caught people's eyes, so I decided I needed to see what that was.

I’ll be honest: I’ve never used a NAS before. As a photographer and content creator, I’ve spent years juggling stacks of external SSDs and hard drives in a messy, chaotic system that has somehow worked. But what I don’t have are enough backups, and the constant worry of a drive failing or getting lost has always nagged at me.

Light Lens Lab is all about recreating classic -- and hard-to-acquire -- lenses from the past. Its latest revelation is a faithful homage to the P. Angenieux S21 50mm f/1.5 lens. Originally designed in the 1950s with an M42 thread mount for the Exacta SLR, the S21 delivered that Silver Screen look, with soft corners and a gentle glow to the frame when shooting wide open.

Over the last couple of years, the number of computers, headphones, cameras, and portable batteries that charge with USB-C that I've acquired has ballooned substantially. I've resorted to using batches of individual USB-C plugs cobbled together in my aging infrastructure, but it's an inelegant solution. That's where the UGreen Nexode came in.

The Honor 400 is a mid-range phone that is as much a showcase of the company’s AI features as it is about mobile photography.

Thypoch has been pumping out new lenses for Leica M-mount regularly for the past year, and while there are certainly digital cameras that they work great on, I think the company knows its biggest market is probably going to be analog fans.

Did Christmas come early? It’s the middle of the summer, and I am testing my favorite lens focal length. Not only that, the lens also happens to have a fast f/1.4 aperture and this comes just days after having tested the very impressive Viltrox 85mm f/1.4 Pro. I must be really lucky because the Sirui Aurora 85mm f/1.4 is lightweight, well-built, and a very affordable $600.

Recently, at the Bild Expo in New York City, I asked some prestigious photographers and creative professionals an important question: What is the greatest digital camera of all time? Some said the Fujifilm X100 series, some said the Nikon D780, and I even heard the DJI Pocket 3. Of course, they were all wrong. The correct answer is, of course, the Panasonic Lumix GM-5.

In the world of wildlife photography, capturing fast-moving subjects from a distance requires the perfect blend of reach, speed, and image quality. Sigma, renowned for its high-performance lenses, has recently announced the launch of the Sigma 300-600mm f/4 DG DN OS Sports, a powerful zoom lens specifically designed for wildlife photographers.

The Viltrox FE 85mm f/1.4 Pro is a professional-quality lens, but it is not the highest-end offering from Viltrox. The Lab series is the premier line of optics from Viltrox, and with this Pro series lens being a $599 bargain, I started to wonder if it was too good to be true.

The Sigma 17-40mm f/1.8 DC Art is the successor to Sigma's legendary 18-35mm zoom lens for crop-sensor cameras. It has been a long time coming and stands out as a truly professional APS-C zoom lens in a mirrorless era where APS-C zooms often target beginners and enthusiasts more than seasoned professionals. But does Sigma's latest live up to its legacy?

I'm not a huge fan of ultra-light travel tripods. As compact as they are, they often lack the stability required for anything beyond casual use. There is a balancing act involved in finding the right amount of stability while still keeping the tripod convenient enough to enjoy. I did not like the Peak Design Travel Tripod due to its fiddly head design and slightly wobbly legs, but they may have reached the Goldilocks zone with the latest Peak Design Pro Lite. This one feels just right. At $800, though, you have a fairly high price of admission.

Flagship cameras always get the biggest fanfare but it’s often the model that sits right below that gets the most play. These are the cameras made for the enthusiast photographer who does not need the biggest and fastest camera but does want some high-end features at a decent price. Where the OM System OM-1 Mark II is the pinnacle of OM technology, the new $1,200 OM-5 Mark II will probably be the workhorse of the lineup.

The Fujifilm X100 series of cameras is the most popular design out of the entire brand and possibly out of anyone else's brand, too. These cameras hit an ideal balance between styling and compactness, but they never really appealed to me as much as they seem to for everyone else. I know that I am in the vast minority with this very unpopular opinion but I think that a better Fujifilm camera exists and we all get to appreciate it together now because the X-E5 has finally arrived.

To usher in the next generation of its 360-degree action camera, Insta360 didn’t go back to the drawing board. Instead, it turned to the community, taking stock in what its customers liked, but also didn’t like about the brand’s X4 action camera.

As smartphones have made photography more accessible than ever, a small Japanese company is taking a radically different approach to capturing memories. The Kyu camera, launched in Japan in late 2024 and now available for pre-order in the U.S., wants to challenge our relationship with digital memories through an intriguingly restrictive design philosophy.