That said, the digital photo frame market is a crowded one, dominated by established big players Aura and Nixplay, so how does this newcomer make its mark? If the D14 Metal Digital Picture Frame is anything to go by, it's with frames made from premium materials at a very competitive price, as we shall see…

Arzopa D14 Metal Digital Picture Frame: Specifications

Arzopa D14 Metal Digital Picture Frame: Price

Arzopa's own website shows the 'list price' for the D14 as $219.99 / £196, but this feels like an artificially high price that is designed to be discounted. At the time of writing, Arzopa was selling it at $134.99 / £121, and it can be had for even less from the likes of Amazon, which was selling it for $109.99.

So, taking its full RRP with a pinch of salt, and considering its bigger-than-average 14-inch LCD panel and decent hi-res output, it's actually very attractively priced for a frame of this size and upmarket build.

In addition to this 14-inch frame, Arzopa makes the D10, a 10.1-inch model with a 1280 x 800 resolution that costs a little less, and the D15, a 15.6-inch frame with a 1920 x 1080 'Full HD' widescreen aspect ratio that costs a little more.

Arzopa D14 Metal Digital Picture Frame: Design & Handling

The most striking thing about the Arzopa D14 is its genuine metal frame, which is cold to the touch, catches the light, and adds a touch of class. It comes in 'Champagne Gold' and 'Rose Gold' finishes, which have an attractive sheen that simply can't be replicated with metallic-effect plastics. This surrounds a slim, textured inner mount, and the whole thing looks and feels way more upmarket than the multitude of cheap plasticky frames out there.

That said, the main material at the rear of the frame is plastic. And rather quirkily, the back is designed to look like a retro-styled phonograph, with a circular 'turntable' stamped into the plastic and a metal 'arm' playing the 'record'. This arm, in fact, pops out to become the stand and is poked into a hole in one corner of the frame to prop it up in either horizontal or vertical orientations, with images auto-rotating to suit.

The frame itself is pretty slim, but the stand is quite long, forcing the frame a good eight inches or so away from whatever is behind it, which might be a problem on shelves that aren't that deep or are cluttered with other knick-knacks. There are also hook recesses for wall hanging, if you don't mind its power cable trailing down to the nearest power outlet. This cable is of the plastic-coated variety, rather than the braided fabric of some rivals, so I think most people would prefer to have it tucked out of sight.

The only physical control is a power button on the back of the frame, with the main interaction via the touch-sensitive screen, which allows you to swipe between images, re-crop them, and access basic frame functionality. For anything more involved, you'll need to use the Arzopa app, more of which is in the 'Performance' section below.

Arzopa D14 Metal Digital Picture Frame: Performance

The frame is based on a 14-inch IPS touchscreen panel that has a 1920 x 1200 display, which is pretty high resolution and results in a pixel density of around 160ppi. The 67% sRGB color gamut isn't particularly earth-shattering on paper, but the images look sharp and detailed.

You can swipe left and right on the touchscreen to move through the images stored on the frame, and tapping the screen brings up a limited menu. This allows basic tasks, such as selecting between the frame's internal image libraries, resizing photographs, changing its brightness, and granting others access to the frame via an on-screen QR code.

By default, images are displayed in their entirety, necessitating a border around the 'empty' portion of the image. You can tap an icon to make images fill the screen instead, and pinch to zoom in further, while swiping with two fingers scrolls the image around to perfect your crop. It's a bit fiddly to get it right, and as the frame or app has no 'intelligent' cropping function, but merely zooms into the center of each image, you will have to manually recrop the vast majority of your pictures, as the frame's 16:10 aspect ratio isn't native to the 4:3 of most phones or 3:2 of 'proper' cameras. Otherwise, unless you've got your subject bang in the center when you took the original shot, zooming in to remove the unsightly border will likely result in the tops of heads being cut off and the like.

To access any in-depth settings, such as overlaying the time and weather on photos (I like to switch all of these kinds of distractions off), you'll have to delve into the companion Arzopa app. This is the main way to upload images from your phone, too. Once you grant the app access to your image library, you can scroll through your pics and check a tickbox to upload them. However, all images are displayed square in a grid, which makes it impossible to see whether the images are in portrait or landscape format.

Hats off to Arzopa for developing its own app, rather than using an off-the-shelf solution like the Frameo software that powers many rival photo frames, but it has to be said that there's plenty of room for improvement. It doesn't attempt to intelligently crop images to suit the subject, for example, or allow you to correct images that aren't well-cropped; you'll have to upload them to the frame first. However, software can always be updated, so I'm hopeful that Arzopa can improve this over time.

There's a generous 32GB of internal storage. Arzopa doesn't state how many images this will hold, but it does also claim to offer unlimited cloud storage, covering all the bases. There are also USB-A, USB-C, and SD card slots, which can be used to bump the storage up to 128GB or as a means of transferring images to the internal memory. You can also connect the frame directly to a PC to transfer images via USB, which is handy for photographers who like to edit their images on their computer first. But it is only compatible with PCs; Macs are not supported.

Arzopa D14 Metal Digital Picture Frame: Verdict

The Arzopa D14 is an attractive-looking and well-designed photo frame. The metal outer frame makes a really nice change from the usual plastic and is both unfussy and eye-catching. The high-resolution display shows off images crisply and clearly, even if the color gamut isn't as wide as some competitor frames. And just as importantly, it's available at a very good price considering its specs, undercutting the top-end competitors by quite a margin, while being a far more upmarket product than some of its cheap and cheerful rivals.

Its shortcomings are mainly on the software side. The companion Arzopa app is fiddly to use compared to the established apps from the likes of Aura, or off-the-shelf apps like Frameo, and having to crop each and every image manually on the frame is a bit of a faff. Hopefully, that's something that Arzopa can address over time.

Alternatives

The news was heralded with the announcement of two new stocks – Kodak Kodacolor 100 and Kodacolor 200. Here, we’re focusing on Kodak Kodacolor 100, a daylight-speed film, once considered medium speed but by modern standards fairly slow at ISO 100. It’s reasonably affordable, and produces naturalistic colors with a medium to fine grain.

Are we at the beginning of a new era? Can this really be the first truly new Kodak film in decades? Well… sort of. We’ll get into it. For now, let’s load up Kodak Kodacolor 100 and take it for a spin to see how it performs.

Kodak Kodacolor 100: Specifications

Price & Availability

Kodak Kodacolor 100 seems to vary quite a bit in price by region – in the US it’s priced at $8.99, while in the UK it’s around £15, and in Australia it’s about AU$18. Still, it seems to have arrived at UK shores first, as it’s available now at UK retailers, while in the US and Australia it’s listed as ‘Coming Soon’.

In the US, it’s a pretty cheap film. Elsewhere, it’s more mid-tier – Kodak Ultramax 400 and Colorplus 200 are routinely less expensive.

Performance

Kodak has been a little opaque on what exactly these new Kodacolor films are, describing them as ‘sub-brands’ (?) of ‘existing Kodak films’. Which films do they mean? They’ve declined to tell us, but given that Kodak only distributes a couple of ISO 100 color-negative films, the list of candidates is short. First, there’s Kodak Ektar 100, which this film is definitely not. And then there’s Kodak Pro Image 100. Pro Image is a cheap daylight film with saturated colors, which sounds a lot like Kodacolor 100. Accordingly, there’s been a lot of speculation in the film community as to whether Kodacolor 100 is a tweaked version of Pro Image 100 – or, indeed, is exactly the same as Pro Image 100.

Having reviewed my images alongside previous rolls I’ve shot of Pro Image 100, I don’t think the two are identical – and other online analysis seems to bear this out. Pro Image 100 appears a touch warmer, with stronger red tones, while Kodacolor 100 is a little cooler. With that said, they are certainly very similar, and if you’ve shot and not cared for Pro Image 100, I don’t think Kodacolor is necessarily going to rock your world.

Some have also speculated that Kodacolor 100 is a rebadged version of an older film called Kodak VR 100, and that it is therefore basically the same as Lomography 100, which is widely alleged to also be rebadged VR 100. I haven’t used either, so I can’t comment.

But enough time in the rumor mill – how was Kodacolor to shoot? Overall, I came away quite pleased with my results. I felt like I didn’t really get to shoot the film in its ideal environment; one gets the sense that Kodak Kodacolor 100 would prefer a warm, vibey evening to soak up the sunlight. The problem, dear reader, was that it was December in the United Kingdom, and a warm vibey evening was not an option. I had the single morning of the week when it was not forecast to rain. And besides, we can hardly judge a film solely on how it performs in ideal conditions.

The film is nice and soft. Colours are saturated without being over-bright, and it generally gives a fairly true-to-life representation without too much grain. I feel like I’m echoing past comments I’ve made on Pro Image 100 when I say that it’s basically just a solid film that does a decent job. It’s not the strongest vibe in the world, but it delivers clean, bright images, with grain that’s perceptible but not overbearing.

I will say I had quite a contrasty light situation to work with, as directional winter sunlight casted strong shadows, and Kodacolor did show a tendency to produce quite glaring highlights. If you’re in a similar situation, it might be worth getting in the habit of underexposing by maybe just a third or two-thirds of a stop to rein it in a bit.

Sample images

The following images were shot on the same day in December in London, with bright clear skies and morning sun, using a Canon EOS 300 and 35-80mm f/4.5-5.6 lens. They were shot and developed at box speed and are unedited.

Verdict

I think a lot of us analog shooters went through the same emotional process at the announcement of the Kodacolor films. Excitement that Kodak was producing something new, and then once we’d read the fine print, slight disappointment that it wasn’t quite as new as it seemed.

Kodak Kodacolor 100 is a pleasant film for shooting in daylight. Its colors pop quite well without being non-naturalistic, grain is present but not overbearing, and if you’ve got nice light, you’ll get nice images.

If I don’t sound too excited, it’s honestly because I’m not. I would have loved to have seen Kodak take a swing and produce something bold and new like Harman Phoenix. This is not that.

Alternatives

I loaded the Wandrd Prvke V4 21L up with gear (and non-photo gear) and boarded a plane to Los Angeles. The photo backpack is even more comfortable than the earlier version, while making a few small yet significant tweaks.

The Wandrd Prvke V4 is my new favorite camera backpack – this is why.

Wandrd Prvke V4: Sizes

The Wandrd Prvke comes in four sizes: 15L, 21L, 31L, and 41L. For this review, I tested the 21L variant, which is about enough for 1 mirrorless and around five lenses using the small camera cube. I only tested the 231L of the V4, though I’ve used multiple sizes of the previous version.

The other sizes will have similar pockets and comfort, but varying amounts of space for gear. The smallest 15L uses a built-in camera cube rather than a removable one. The 21L and 31L are for mid-sized kits with more lenses and flashes, while the 41L is deeper for cameras with built-in vertical grips, or big telephotos with built-in tripod collars.

Except for the 15L, photographers and videographers will need to choose the bundle that comes with a camera cube in order to carry gear. The Essential Camera Cube will take up the bottom section of the bag but leave the rolltop clear for non-photo items, while the Pro Camera Cube juts into the top compartment a bit to accommodate longer telephotos (or more lenses).

Wandrd Prvke V4 review: Price

In the US, the Wandrd V4 21L costs about $234 for the bag, but $318 once you add the Essential Camera Cube, or $354 with the larger Pro cube. In the UK, it’s about £234 for the bag only, £319 with the small camera cube. In Australia, the 21L with a camera cube retails for about AU$579.

One of my biggest complaints is that accessories are all add-ons. This makes the bag customizable, yes, but it can really add to the cost. You can pick up a waist belt for the bag, along with a rainfly, accessory straps, or even an extra cube. The photography bundle includes the bag, a camera cube, and accessory straps, but does not include the waist belt or rain fly.

Wandrd Prvke V4 21L Specs

Wandrd Prvke V4 review: Design

The Wandrd Prvke is a backpack with a main compartment that can be divided into two with a gear compartment and a separate roll-top, which is expandable depending on how tight you roll the closure. The rolltop closes with both velcro and a metal clasp.

The divider, however, tucks away for photographers who need the entire space for gear, or conversely, users who want to use the bag more as a standard backpack with a large main compartment.

The main access is through a fully unzipping back panel. Resting the zipper against your back can ease some of the concern over pick-pocketing, but it also opens completely for full access to gear. I also like this design, because if I need to sit the bag down in the dirt, I’m not mucking up the part of the bag that’s about to sit against my back.

For photographers and videographers, the Prvke’s main compartment needs to be paired with a camera cube. The small cube takes up the lower portion of the pack, while the large cube fills nearly the entire main compartment. The camera cube has a zippered cover that tucks away inside the bag, but keeps gear protected if you pull the cube out to use as a regular pack.

Above where the small camera cube sits, there’s a divider that slices the main compartment into two – this divider folds away when using the larger cube. That top section can be accessed from the rear zipper, the roll-top, or a zipper at the top. There’s also a zipper here for a roomy pocket large enough for my portable photo printer. This pocket doubles as a cover over the top compartment when using the rear access point, and it can be velcroed right to that divider.

The bag also has a side access point (with a matching zipper on the camera cube) where a camera body would sit in the main compartment. A small zippered pouch is tucked into this access door as well.

A padded laptop sleeve rests on the inside of the back panel; there are two slots here if you want to carry both a laptop and a tablet. In front of that, there are three additional pockets, which I use to store memory cards, quick-release plates, and spare batteries. One of the smaller pockets here also has a spot for an AirTag.

Outside of the main gear compartment and rolltop, there are a few more pockets to stash smaller items. A large zipper sits at the front, big enough to stash a notebook. There’s a small pocket on the side that’s the ideal size for business cards or a set of keys. And there’s also a hidden pocket so discrete I forgot it was even there – move aside the luggage trolley strap and there’s a hidden pocket meant for valuables like a passport.

Another zip that’s easy to forget exists? A small compartment on the bottom made for a rain fly (which is not included).

The side water bottle pocket has a zipper to expand, plus a strap at the top to use the same pocket for a tripod instead. Alternatively, you can also get accessory straps to latch gear to the front of the bag.

There are a few different ways to carry the bag. There are the shoulder straps that make it a backpack, which are also paired with a chest strap. Then there are the magnetic grab handles at the top, or the loop to rest the bag on the handle of a rolling suitcase.

Wandrd Prvke V4 review: Performance

I packed the Wandrd Prvke V4 on a trip to Los Angeles – and the camera backpack proved quite comfortable to wear on my trek to the city.

The straps are one of the key changes from the V3. On the V4, the straps are a little narrower, but the edge is every bit as padded as the center. The straps didn’t dig into my skin, though as with any bag, I find it a bit chaffe-y if I wear a tank top and have the straps against skin instead of clothing. The straps are well-padded, and I found the bag quite comfortable for the amount of gear that I packed inside.

The straps are nicely padded and curve to hug the torso. My only complaint on the straps is that the removable chest strap is quite difficult to get back on the bag. I overtightened mine, and one side popped off, and I couldn’t get the strap to slide back on easily. (I gave up, it’s still off.)

I tend to prefer backpacks that place the laptop in the front rather than against my back, as that makes the back panel a little too rigid. But, I didn’t find carrying a MacBook Air in the back panel to be uncomfortable. The back panel is well-padded and goes a long way in keeping the bag comfortable.

One of the reasons that the Prvke series has remained a favorite of mine are the materials that are durable and easy to wipe, yet feel a bit more upscale than a bag that’s 100 percent nylon. The Prvke is made with a mix of materials, including tarpaulin on the front and slides and ballistic nylon on the back and straps. This creates a weather-resistant but not waterproof exterior on the exposed portions of the backpack.

I was initially concerned because the V4 doesn’t have the shiny zippers that are on the V3, but Wandrd said they moved to coated DWR YKK zippers that are still weather-resistant, but easier to zip.

I emptied the bag, tucked some tissue inside, and poured a cup of water over the back. The water rolled off the back material (even though it doesn’t look like it would be water resistant), but a small amount of moisture did seep in at the zipper. When I repeated the test with the older V3, if anything, more water seeped in at the zip. I’d feel comfortable wearing the Prvke V4 in light to moderate rain, but would use an additional rain cover in heavy rain.

Wandrd Prvke V4 review: Verdict

I haven’t found a backpack to unseat the Wandrd Prvke V3 from being my go-to backpack – until the V4, that is. The straps are a bit more comfortable, the rolltop access easier, and there are simply a few design details that feel even more refined. The Wandrd Prvke V4 is my new favorite for carrying my photo gear.

My list of complaints is small. I had a hard time getting the chest strap to clip back on when I overtightened, and it popped off. The bag is weather-resistant, but needs a rain fly in heavy rain. There’s also no waist strap or rain fly included, and while the number of accessories helps the bag to feel highly customizable, it also drives up the price.

While the V4 feels more refined, there’s nothing wrong with my existing V3. One of the reasons I like the Prvke series is that it’s durable, and my V3 still looks new. Considering the expense, creatives currently using the V3 don’t really need to upgrade. Likewise, the V3 is now easier to find on sale, and if the refined straps, zippers, and subtle tweaks throughout don’t speak to you, the V3 is a bit more affordable.

Alternatives

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While having the option to use dedicated video transmission systems and field monitors is great, sometimes that just means more tech to ferry to and from a shoot, store, insure, and so on, when in actual fact you could take advantage of devices you already own and carry with you. Hollyland, developer of the fantastic Pyro systems, has taken this idea and run with it, with their new Vcore transmitter, which can send your videos to smartphones and tablets. It can also be paired with the Pyro, promising a versatile piece of gear.

Having used the Pyro, I had my expectations set pretty high, but read on to find out how I got on.

Specifications

Price

$219 / £177 might not be a trifling amount, but it does bring wireless video down to a level that is attainable for many more users than other systems that require dedicated monitors and receivers.

Design & Handling

Although the box is small, you get a lot in it. First up is the main unit, which is built from very high-quality plastics. This unit has a metal cold shoe on one side and a cold shoe mount on the other, for attaching to the camera. There areUSB-C in and out ports, a full-size HDMI 1.4 input port, and a rubber door covering a full-sized SD card slot. The bottom edge has a ¼ 20 threaded mounting point. Finally, there’s a small but very crisp and easy-to-read OLED display, a power button, and a multi-function button. Everything is easily accessible, feels nice to the touch, and the buttons, while having a very short throw, give a nice positive click.

I’m also a fan of the antennas here. Unlike some devices, which sport larger screw-in antennas, the Vcores are part of the main unit. They poke out less than an inch, keeping the footprint small and meaning there are fewer things to lose.

Alongside the main Vcore, you get a cold shoe to thread adapter, a phone holder, and a magnetic hold for those using their magnetic smartphones mounted on the main unit.

The magnet is very strong and helps my iPhone Pro Max stay in place with ease. No amount of vigorous shaking would dislodge it. Similarly, the sprung phone mount, for those without the magnetic option, is far superior to others I’ve used. Its slight soft-touch finish aids here, and it feels nice and sturdy. It also folds pretty flat, so storing it is less of a hassle.

Performance

The setup procedure for the Vcore is smooth and hassle free. Download the HollyView app first, switch on the Vcore and hit the multifunction button once to enter pairing mode, then connect to its wifi network on your phone and you’re done. Alternatively you can connect to the app using the USB-C cable, which is fine for on-camera use but obviously doesn’t work for remote viewing. For my first test, using a Sony A7r4, I was doing a piece to camera, so having the ability to check framing, focus and exposure from my mark made things far more efficient. The signal is strong and stable which is key but there’s a lot more to like.

First up you can use the app for simply viewing the footage as you shoot and, being on a portable device means you can put it pretty much anywhere, or hand it off to an AC or another team member. That alone is worth the asking price.

Things get even more interesting when you look at camera control. You can record and stop, all from your phone or tablet. For solo shooters this is a massive boon but do check compatibility before you purchase, as not all makes are supported. My Sony camera worked just fine but my Blackmagic Design Pyxis didn’t play ball. If you are covered then the ability to wirelessly start recording could be a big deal for you. It certainly makes my life easier.

On top of this you can use an iPhone to record Prores footage from your camera,a neat trick which I think will be appreciated by many. 422, 422HQ, 422LT and 422 Proxy options are all available, making your phone a mean video recorder too.

Hollyland could have made this a simple consumer/prosumer device so it’s really good to see they have designed the Vcore to grow with you, or enable it to fit into a larger existing setup. The Vcore can be integrated into a Pryo setup just as easily, connecting to multiple devices at one, so if you need a monitor for a director, another for a client and one for an AC, you are good to go.

You might be worried about the video quality but there’s more to love there, with 4k 30 transmission with negligible lag. All while being able to record proxies to the internal SD card (you’ll need to buy one separately) or on your phone.

I was very impressed by the range of the Pyro transmitters but worried that the Vcore, at this price, might be less reliable and, while the range isn’t as great at 100m, it is a robust signal that can penetrate solid walls and I haven’t once experienced an issue with stability.

While this review isn’t about the app, it is worth pointing out that HollyView is pretty fully featured. It has all the things you might expect, like a gallery section, with folders for organising not just your proxies but images too, so all you photographers can keep things in order. There’s a plugin for Capture One too.

For use as a field monitor you get all you could need for everything covering focus and exposure assistance. There’s false colour, zebras, peaking, guide lines for various aspects and, seeing as it’s based on an interface you use every day, interacting with it is a doddle.

Verdict

I can't praise the Vcore enough. My only gripe is that it is HDMI only and even that is being slightly unfair, as you wouldn't expect that at the price this comes in at. It's an impressively versatile piece of equipment, solidly built and that performs admirably. Combine it with your favourite handheld device and you're on to a winner.

Alternatives

I was very impressed with the 14-24mm ultra-wide-angle zoom lens, not least because it’s conveniently compact and lightweight, yet punches well above its weight in terms of image quality and all-round performance. But I was left wanting more. That ‘more’ has now been served up by a second helping of Korean / German fusion, in the similarly diminutive shape of this 24-60mm f/2.8 zoom. It neatly picks up the baton in the handover from 14-24mm and 24-60mm zoom ranges, making it the ideal companion to the previously launched lens. All things considered, the new LK Samyang / Rokinon lens aims to be one of the best standard zooms on the market, as well as one of the best lenses for Sony full-frame E-mount cameras.

LK Samyang / Rokinon AF 24-60mm f/2.8 FE: Specifications

LK Samyang / Rokinon AF 24-60mm f/2.8 FE: Price

Think constant-aperture f/2.8 ‘trinity’ zoom lenses, and you’re probably thinking big bucks. That’s not always the case, though, and there have been cut-price options from a variety of camera manufacturers and third-party lens developers, with slightly alternative zoom ranges to the usual ’24-70mm’.

A very good example is the Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 Di III VXD G2 for Nikon Z and Sony E (FE) cameras, which retails for around $849 / £649 / AU$1,249 . This LK Samyang / Rokinon lens has a similar launch price of around $899 / £635 / AU$1,209 . That’s potentially very good value as far as I’m concerned, following on from the LK Samyang AF 14-24mm f/2.8 FE which launched at a rather pricier $1,199 / £1,050 / AU$1,999.

LK Samyang / Rokinon AF 24-60mm f/2.8 FE: Design & Handling

Some say the best things come in small packages. I’m inclined to agree, especially if it means I don’t have to lug around a big, heavy and clunky lens hanging off the front of my slimline mirrorless camera. And let’s face it, standard zoom lenses excel for everyday photography, where you’re likely to rack up a fair few miles pounding city streets, trekking into the wilds or even flying to the ends of the earth.

My simple equation for walkabout and travel photography is that smaller + lighter = better. And for an f/2.8 standard zoom, this one is definitely small and light, measuring a mere 78x102mm / 3.1x5in and weighing just 494g / 17.4oz. A telltale sign of the compact build (for a constant f/2.8 zoom) is that the lens has a 72mm thread. The companion 14-24mm f/2.8 ultra-wide-angle zoom has a 77mm thread. Sure, the lens physically extends by just under an inch at the long end of the zoom range but that doesn’t bother me at all. Check out the product shots above and below to see how the extension looks in practice.

To put its diminutive size into context, the Nikon Z 24-70mm f/4 S is an f/stop slower but the same width, pretty much the same weight and only half an inch longer – and that’s with the Nikon in its retracted rather than operational state. Although small, the LK Samyang packs no less than 14 elements, arranged in 11 groups. Specialist glass includes three aspherical elements, two ED (Extra-low Dispersion) elements and three HR (High Refractive index) elements. The aspherical elements help to cut down the overall size and weight as well as enhancing image quality, while the ED and HR elements aim to boost sharpness and clarity while reducing color fringing.

I have to say, the lens looks pretty splendid before you even get it out of the box. The retail carton really looks the business and is impeccably turned out, creating the impression that you’ve landed a high-quality item right from the get-go. Unpacking the lens is certainly no disappointment, as it has the same richly textured zoom and focus control rings that I enjoyed on the 12-24mm sibling lens. The manual focus ring is electronically coupled and works with smooth precision, with a nice tactile feel.

The zoom ring is situated towards the rear of the lens and falls neatly under the fingers and thumb. Again, it has a very tactile feel and pleasantly smooth action. As I’d expect, it’s calibrated with markings at various focal lengths, correlating to 24mm, 35mm, 50mm and 60mm focal lengths. I’m not put off by the reduction in maximum telephoto reach, compared with most alternative trinity standard zooms, which are typically around 28-70mm or 28-75mm. With these lenses, I really miss the extra wide-angle potential of a 24mm focal length, so I’m very pleased that the LK Samyang’s zoom range ‘comes up short’ in a good way.

I’ve seen plenty of lenses for mirrorless cameras recently that cut handling extras to the bone, in the pursuit of downsizing. Indeed, many prime lens examples have no switches or other moving parts at all, apart from the focus ring. I feel that the LK Samyang strikes a good balance. Yes, it’s small and light, but it does feature and AF/MF switch and a customizable function button. The switch saves the time and effort of resorting to in-camera menus when you need to make the change in a hurry, and the function button can come in really useful for the likes of AF-hold.

The designers have also managed to squeeze in a USB-C port on the side of the barrel. You can use this for applying firmware updates, as and when they become available. It’s a neat and tidy way of making sure that the lens keeps abreast of the latest features and any bug-fixes. One thing that’s lacking however, is an aperture control ring. Many photographers and most videographers find this useful, the latter also preferring a click/de-click that enables silent and stepless aperture control when shooting video. As with many lenses though, there’s no aperture control ring featured.

As I’ve mentioned, the lens stretches in physical length by just under an inch, as you zoom to its most telephoto setting. That’s certainly not uncommon, although it does raise a question mark over weather-proofing. A plus point is that the lens features a comprehensive set of weather-seals around all of its joints, focus mode switch, function button and mounting plate, and sports an IP5-level dust protection rating. Build quality is further enhanced by the lens being based on a strong aluminum frame and featuring an oil/moisture-repellant coating on its front element.

One thing to be award of when zooming is that the minimum focus distances stretches from 0.18m / 0.59ft (wide-angle) to 0.32m / 1.05ft (telephoto), so you need to be attentive when shooting extreme close-ups. The maximum magnification ratio remains pretty similar throughout the zoom range, from 0.27x (W) to 0.25x (T). The upshot is that close-up photography is certainly within the remit of this lens, along with a tight depth of field enabled by the f/2.8 aperture.

Little extras include a proper, printed instruction manual with text that’s actually big enough to read (and not to be taken for granted nowadays). The lens also comes with nicely engineered front and rear caps, and a petal-shaped hood. The hood has the usual bayonet-fitment and can be reversed for compact stowage. Similarly, the front cap has the typical pinch-action release mechanism, so you can fit or remove it with the hood in its front-facing orientation.

LK Samyang / Rokinon AF 24-60mm f/2.8 FE: Performance

The image quality of modern lenses for mirrorless cameras has become a game of two halves. In the pursuit of downsizing and weight-saving, the native optical prowess is certainly still a crucial factor, but it’s certainly not the whole story. Increasingly, lenses rely on automatic in-camera corrections for the likes of distortion and vignetting, or ‘Shading compensation’. It’s a trick that’s certainly not lost on this LK Samyang lens, and the automatic correction for distortion can’t be switched off in the camera menu.

Indeed, not only does the lens rely on in-camera corrections, but LK Samyang was quick to launch a free-to-download profile. The profile applies automatic corrections to RAW files when using Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, taking care of distortion and vignetting.

The pair of shots above demonstrate the relative angles of view at the short and long end of the zoom range. As you’ll see, wide-angle coverage is generous. There’s not a massive difference in maximum reach, compared with a regular trinity 24-70mm f/2.8 lens.

Naturally, you can also flatter the performance of lenses in terms of sharpness and color fringing, with in-camera or software-based enhancements, the latter at the editing stage. Straight ‘out of the box’ performance in these areas is more of a crucial concern in my books, and I’m happy that the lens is crisp and sharp with minimal chromatic aberrations throughout its complete zoom and aperture ranges.

Another plus point is that the widest f/2.8 enables a tighter depth of field than when shooting with slower, variable-aperture lenses. As such, there’s more scope for throwing the background out of focus and isolating the main subject within scenes. The lens does well in this respect, and the quality of bokeh is pretty nice and smooth.

LK Samyang / Rokinon AF 24-60mm f/2.8 FE: Sample Images

The following gallery of example shots were taken in and around the ‘Underfall Yard’, a historic boat yard in the English city of Bristol. The weather was sunny and rainy at the same time – look out for rainbows!

LK Samyang / Rokinon AF 24-60mm f/2.8 FE: Lab Results

We run a range of lab tests under controlled conditions, using the Imatest Master testing suite. Photos of test charts are taken across the range of apertures and zooms (where available), then analyzed for sharpness, distortion and chromatic aberrations.

We use Imatest SFR (spatial frequency response) charts and analysis software to plot lens resolution at the center of the image frame, corners and mid-point distances, across the range of aperture settings and, with zoom lenses, at four different focal lengths. The tests also measure distortion and color fringing (chromatic aberration).

Sharpness:

Center sharpness is very good, even wide open at f/2.8, and stays consistently so through to f/11, throughout the focal range. Corner sharpness is a little disappointing, especially when you zoom in at f/2.8 - you'll need to stop down to f/5.6 to get the best corner-to-corner sharpness.

Fringing:

Chromatic aberration is fairly well controlled, just straying into visible territory at 35mm.

Distortion:

With automatic correction for distortion disabled when processing RAW files (it can't be disabled in-camera) extensive barrel distortion is revealed at 24mm, and it remains distracting at 35mm. Only at 50mm and longer zoom settings does distortion become mostly unnoticeable.

LK Samyang / Rokinon AF 24-60mm f/2.8 FE: Verdict

For everyday shooting and travel photography, I like lenses to be compact and lightweight. But I also like the relatively fast and constant f/2.8 aperture ratings of ‘trinity’ zoom lenses, which tend to be bigger, heavier and more expensive. This LK Samyang standard zoom puts ticks in a whole bunch of boxes, winning me over along the way. It has very good build quality and handling, delivers impressive image quality (albeit with automatic in-camera corrections) and is very good value at the price. I’m really happy using it on my Sony Alpha camera but I just wish it was also available in other mount options.

Alternatives

Budget options tend to have a variable aperture rating that’s often disappointingly narrow at the long end of the zoom range. Pro-grade versions tend to have a constant f/2.8 aperture rating, or even faster in some cases. Then there’s a notable disparity in actual zoom ranges, with sizeable differences in everything from the amount of wide-angle coverage to the maximum telephoto reach.

Panasonic itself has launched four different S-system standard zooms for its full-frame cameras over the years, including the Lumix S Pro 24-70mm f/2.8, Lumix S 24-105mm f/4 Macro OIS, Lumix S 20-60mm f/3.5-5.6 (one of my little pleasures) and now this Lumix S 24-60mm f/2.8. Long story short, it shaves 10mm off the telephoto reach of the 24-70mm zoom but maintains the same wide-angle coverage and constant f/2.8 aperture rating, aiming to be one of the best standard zooms and best lenses for L-mount cameras. Let’s dive in.

Panasonic Lumix S 24-60mm f/2.8: Specifications

Panasonic Lumix S 24-60mm f/2.8: Price

Panasonic isn’t the only party in town. Sigma is also part of the L-Mount Alliance, making its own cameras and lenses that go into competition with Panasonic as well as Leica. That gives you even more choice when choosing an L-mount standard zoom, so let’s see how the main contenders stack up in terms of price. With its variable aperture rating, it’s no surprise that the Panasonic Lumix S 20-60mm f/3.5-5.6 is the least expensive, at $648 / £619 / AU$1,079. The ‘alternative trinity’ Sigma 28-70mm f/2.8 DG DN Contemporary isn’t much pricier at $989 / £779 / AU$1,389. This Panasonic Lumix S 24-60mm f/2.8 takes the next ring up the price ladder at $1,048 / £899 / AU$1,899.

Costlier options include the Panasonic Lumix S 24-105mm f/4 Macro OIS at $1,398 / £1,099 / AU$1,699 and Panasonic Lumix S Pro 24-70mm f/2.8 at $2,148 / £1,499 / AU$2,899. Then there’s the fabulous Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 DG DN II Art at $1,319 / £1,179 / AU$2,450, the super-fast Sigma 28-45mm f/1.8 DG DN Art at $1,489 / £1,299 / AU$2,900 and the extended Sigma 28-105mm f/2.8 DG DN Art at $1,649 / £1,399 / AU$3,200. Overall, the Panasonic 24-60mm looks reasonably priced, although for further comparison, there’s also a similar LK Samyang / Rokinon AF 24-60mm f/2.8 FE for Sony cameras, at a more budget-conscious $899 / £635 / AU$1,209.

Panasonic Lumix S 24-60mm f/2.8: Design & Handling

Panasonic S-system camera bodies started out with a reputation of being bulky and heavy for mirrorless models, but various versions have slimmed down over the years. The same goes for constant f/2.8 alternative trinity zooms, which are generally more compact and shed quite a bit of weight. For a standard zoom that I’m going to be using for everyday, walkabout and travel photography, less is more as far as I’m concerned.

I don’t want to be lugging around heavyweight camera kit if I don’t really need to. Sure enough, this 24-60mm f/2.8 lens is refreshingly compact and lightweight, at 84x100mm / 3.3x3.9" and just 544g / 1.2lb, compared with the Panasonic 24-70mm f/2.8 which comes in at 91x140mm / 3.6x5.5" and 935g / 2.1lb. That makes the 20-60mm lens little more than two-thirds the length and half the weight.

To design and build an f/2.8 standard zoom this small, something has to give. Sure enough, the lens does physically extend as you stretch through the zoom range from 24mm to 60mm but then again, most ‘full-sized’ standard zooms do this as well. The total amount of extension works out to a single inch, as demonstrated by comparing the images above and below.

Good lenses aren’t purely about the quality of the glass, but optical design always plays a pivotal role. Despite its compact nature, the Panasonic packs no less than 14 elements arranged in 12 groups. Of these, there are three aspherical elements, two ED (Extra-low Dispersion) elements and one UED (Ultra ED) element. Aspherical elements help with downsizing and weight loss, as well as potentially enhancing image quality, while ED elements aim to improve clarity and color rendition as well as reducing color fringing.

As for the mechanics of the lens, the manual focus ring is positioned at the front and is a multi-function attraction. When in autofocus mode, you can assign this control ring to other options like aperture adjustment, exposure compensation, shutter speed or ‘Crop Zoom’, where supported by the host camera body. Stepless aperture control is top of my list, at least when shooting video rather than stills.

Just behind the focus ring is the zoom ring, with the usual markings at various focal lengths throughout the zoom range. As I’ve mentioned, some of Panasonic’s cameras feature a Crop Zoom option, which enables you to stretch the maximum effective focal range with a resultant crop of the image size. In most cases, you can extend the effective telephoto reach to as much as 187mm, and the Lumix S1R II takes things even further to 252mm. It just depends how many megapixels you’re willing to bin off along the way.

Moving further back, there’s a customizable function button. Again, you can set this to various options, one of which is ‘Hybrid Zoom’, where you can extend the maximum telephoto reach using just the zoom ring, while still leaving the shortest focal length available. It’s a neat trick and I’m also pleased to see an AF/MF focus mode switch on the barrel, making it quick and easy to swap between focus modes.

Autofocus itself is super-quick and virtually silent, which is usually the case with modern lenses for mirrorless cameras. However, Panasonic has gone the extra mile by incorporating a newly designed Dual Phase Linear Motor, which aims for really rapid, high-precision performance. Both autofocus and manual focus modes can get you really close, with a minimum focus distance of just 0.19m at the wide-angle end and 0.33m at the telephoto end of the zoom range. The resulting maximum magnification doesn’t quite stretch into macro territory, but is a generous 0.3x nevertheless.

Typical of Panasonic lenses large and small, build quality is very good indeed. This one features the usual dust, splash and freeze-resistant construction, as well as a fluorine coating on the front element. The control rings, switch and function button all have a high-quality feel to them, as does the lens in its entirety. As I’d expect, it’s supplied complete with a petal-shaped hood, which helps to reduce ghosting and flare, as well as giving physical protection to the front element.

Panasonic Lumix S 24-60mm f/2.8: Performance

A key performance factor of this lens is its constant f/2.8 aperture. After all, the Panasonic Lumix S 20-60mm f/3.5-5.6 gives even more wide-angle potential and the same (limited) amount of telephoto reach, but is two whole f/stops slower at the long end of its zoom range. Performance bonuses of the f/2.8 lens include the availability of a tighter depth of field for isolating subjects within scenes by blurring the background, and quicker shutter speeds to freeze action under low lighting, without the need to bump up your camera’s ISO setting too far.

Ticking a couple of boxes on my performance wish list, the lens maintains high levels of center-sharpness throughout the zoom range, even when shooting wide-open at f/2.8, although edge/corner-sharpness is more of a mixed bag. Just as important from my perspective, there's pleasantly smooth bokeh in defocused areas.

When it comes to unwanted aberrations, distortion and lateral chromatic aberration are effectively removed with the help of automatic in-camera corrections. Again, that’s very typical of modern lenses designed for mirrorless cameras, especially among lenses that are designed with an eye on compactness and a lightweight build. I also found that resistance to ghosting and flare was good.

As advertised, autofocus is really rapid and proved consistently accurate in my tests. It’s also virtually silent in operation, and the same goes for manual focusing which also relies on the ‘Dual Phase Linear Motor’ to shift optical elements around. All in all, performance is highly impressive.

The outright zoom range isn’t overly generous but the shot above demonstrates the wide-angle perspective on offer at 24mm, the shortest available focal length. The shot below was taken at 60mm, the maximum focal length of the lens, so the pair together give a good feel for the overall zoom range.

Panasonic Lumix S 24-60mm f/2.8: Sample Images

The following gallery of example shots were taken in and around the ‘Underfall Yard’, a historic boat yard in the English city of Bristol. The weather was sunny and rainy at the same time – look out for rainbows!

Panasonic Lumix S 24-60mm f/2.8: Lab Results

We run a range of lab tests under controlled conditions, using the Imatest Master testing suite. Photos of test charts are taken across the range of apertures and zooms (where available), then analyzed for sharpness, distortion and chromatic aberrations.

We use Imatest SFR (spatial frequency response) charts and analysis software to plot lens resolution at the center of the image frame, corners and mid-point distances, across the range of aperture settings and, with zoom lenses, at four different focal lengths. The tests also measure distortion and color fringing (chromatic aberration).

Sharpness:

Center sharpness is remarkably good at f/4 through to f/11. Wide open at f/2.8 it's slightly less impressive between 35mm and 60mm, but not distractingly so. Corner sharpness is very much a mixed bag though. It's decent enough at 35mm, but mediocre at 24mm and 50mm, especially at larger apertures. Zoom in to 60mm and corners sharpness is downright poor unless you stop down to f/11.

Fringing:

Aberrations are well controlled at larger apertures, just becoming borderline-visible at f/11.

Distortion:

As we've come to expect from modern lenses designed for mirrorless cameras, firmware-based optical distortion correction is heavily relied upon. Without it, the true degree of distortion is revealed. In the case of the Panasonic 24-60mm, there's significant barrel distortion at 24mm, transitioning quickly to moderate pincushion distortion by 50mm.

Panasonic Lumix S 24-60mm f/2.8: Verdict

Just exactly how many ways are there to skin a cat? No, let’s not go there. Let’s just say that standard zooms for L-mount camera are many and varied, so it pays to choose wisely. This Panasonic Lumix S 24-60mm f/2.8 ranks very highly on my list. Sure, its telephoto reach is almost non-existent but Crop Zoom and Hybrid Zoom functions in compatible Panasonic cameras go some way to righting that wrong. Either way, I’m personally more intent on retaining good wide-angle coverage in an alternative f/2.8 ‘trinity’ standard zoom, which is often lost along the way. The lens obliges in this respect, and it’s also refreshingly compact, lightweight and affordable. It’s also strongly built with good weather-resistance, has high-end handling and impressive all-round performance. All in all, I think Panasonic has come up trumps with this one.

Alternatives

What sets this new frame apart from the competition is that it's billed as the world's first photo frame with a rear backlight; a gentle light projects from the rear of the frame, which helps lift it from its surroundings and draw attention to the photos displayed on it. This novelty aside, let's see what else this frame has to offer.

Lexar Pexar Starlight 15.6in digital photo frame: Specifications

Lexar Pexar Starlight 15.6in digital photo frame: Price

The list price for the Starlight is $349.99 / £349.99 (it was unavailable at the time of writing in Australia, but websites including Amazon have a holding page for it, so it's coming). That's a premium price, and a little more than other large frames from respected brands, such as the Aura Walden.

However, digital photo frames are often discounted, and even shortly after its initial release the Starlight was available at around $50 / £50 less than the RRP, which certainly makes it a more tempting buy, so it pays to shop around to see whether you might be able to pick it up for a more attractive price.

Lexar Pexar Starlight 15.6in digital photo frame: Design & Handling

The Starlight is based on a 15.6-inch, 16x9 ratio, 1920 x 1080-pixel panel – the same dimensions as your widescreen television (and the same resolution, if it's a 'Full-HD' model). This is inset within a textured off-white beveled inset that's about an inch and a half deep, and it's all set within a wood-effect frame. It's certainly a nice change from the usual minimalist black bezel that many digital frames have as standard.

Its USP, which gives it the Starlight name, is a subtle light at the rear that envelops the entire frame with a golden glow that lifts it from its surroundings. There's a sturdy metal stand that props it up in both portrait and landscape orientations, with the display auto-rotating to display images.

The only physical button is a power on/off switch, with all the functionality being controlled via the touch-sensitive screen. Tapping anywhere on the screen brings up a menu that enables you to easily grant access to 'friends' via an on-screen QR code that links directly to the frame, access the frame's library to decide which photos are displayed, hide photos you'd prefer weren't on display, recrop images, or jump into a more involved settings menu that controls every aspect of the frame.

Lexar Pexar Starlight 15.6in digital photo frame: Performance

This may be physically larger than the same company's 11in 2K frame, but it's lower resolution, with a 1920 x 1080 display as opposed to the other frame's 2000 x 1200 pixels. It therefore has a much lower pixel density of 141ppi compared to 212 ppi. It doesn't boast its sibling's 100% sRGB color gamut either. On the surface, then, this bigger screen isn't as highly specced as the 2K frame, but does this really matter? When viewed side by side, perhaps you'll see a difference. In reality, when viewed from a sensible distance, there isn't a whole lot in it, and it's a clear and bright display that will do your photos justice.

The parent company behind Pexar is Lexar, the memory storage specialists better known for memory cards, SSD drives, and USB sticks. It's perhaps no surprise, then, that the Starlight boasts a huge 64GB of internal storage, which is enough for 80,000 images. There are also USB-A, USB-C, and SD card slots, which can be used to store additional images, should 80,000 not be enough, or to copy images to the internal memory.

It's powered by the popular Frameo app, which allows you to browse through your phone's library, select, and upload images in batches of up to 10 at a time. If you want to upload more simultaneously or back up photographs to Frameo's servers, you'll need to take out a subscription at an additional cost, but for most of us, the app's basic free functionality will be absolutely fine.

Lexar Pexar Starlight 15.6in digital photo frame: Verdict

You may regard the gallery backlighting feature as a novelty to set this apart from the many other frames out there, but it really does help make this something of a statement frame. The warm and gentle light it emits behind the frame gives it a rather lovely golden glow.

It's a big frame too, although the 16x9 aspect ratio isn't perfect for either smartphone or camera photos, but if the automatic cropping doesn't get things quite right, it's easy enough to tap an image and reframe it to your liking. On the whole, this is an upmarket frame that shows off photographs admirably, but it's on the expensive side.

Alternatives

Vivian Maier spent most of her life working as a nanny, photographing the streets of Chicago and New York with no intention of showing her work, publishing a book, or pursuing a photography career. She photographed out of pure instinct, driven by a private, almost compulsive need to observe and document the world around her.

Her archive, tens of thousands of negatives, prints, and undeveloped rolls, which was only discovered after her death, reveals a body of street photography that immediately entered conversation with the greats of the twentieth century. This monograph remains one of the most compelling entry points into that archive.

What it offers, above all, is a sense of intimacy: street scenes, portraits, and self-portraits that feel deeply attentive, grounded in observation, and full of human presence. The book’s design reflects this sensibility beautifully. Each square Rolleiflex frame sits within a generous white border that lets the image breathe, as if giving Maier’s deceptively quiet photographs the space they need to speak. Then, in the book’s closing section, the border turns black, a tonal shift that frames her self-portraits with greater emotional weight, grounding the work in the melancholy of Maier’s story.

Publisher information

Price and availability

Vivian Maier: Street Photographer is available in hardback from all major retailers, priced around $40 / £40; however, it is often on sale for much lower.

Review

What strikes you most, moving through these photographs, is how fully formed Maier’s visual instinct was. She wasn’t shaped by an art school or a photographic movement; her education came from the daily act of observation. That makes the sophistication of her images even more compelling. There’s an alertness to her frames. A feeling that she recognised the street as a place where the ordinary can pivot into the extraordinary at any second.

Her talent for closeness is a defining quality throughout. The Rolleiflex let her work from the chest rather than the eye, and that position created a gently disarming angle. People don’t flinch from her; they meet her. Children look at her with open curiosity, while adults regard her with a kind of guarded interest. These small exchanges give the work its emotional tension. It’s not confrontation or performance.

Visually, she had a natural feel for structure. Shadows, reflections, diagonals, frames within frames, and repeated patterns: she folds these elements into the frame with a light touch, turning simple scenes into something sharper and more layered. A reflection in a window becomes a second, ghostlike city. A long shadow becomes a self-portrait. A momentary gesture becomes the hinge on which the whole composition turns. She wasn’t trying to expose a grand theme; rather, she was attuned to daily life, and she trusted the street to provide.

What gives the work its lasting power is her way of seeing people. She didn’t sentimentalise, but noticed. A tired face, a worn coat, a look of private worry, she found dignity in these fleeting signals. There’s empathy in the images, but it isn’t announced. It’s simply there, built into the timing and the attention she brought to each moment.

Looked at together, the photographs suggest someone deeply present yet slightly apart from the world she was recording. That distance, part personality, part circumstance, becomes an essential part of the work. It allowed her to move through the city with both intimacy and detachment, seeing it as a place full of odd alignments, quick emotions, and unguarded truths. It’s a perspective that gives her pictures a freshness that hasn’t faded, even now.

Geoff Dyer’s foreword frames the book with literary elegance, setting the reader up to consider not just the images, but the act of looking itself. His reflections on Maier’s perceptive intelligence and the subtle poetry in her everyday observations encourage a slow, deliberate engagement with the work. Dyer captures the tension between her private life and public vision, highlighting the extraordinary quality of a photographer who created with instinct, curiosity, and an unshakable sense of empathy.

Final thoughts

Vivian Maier: Street Photographer is a remarkable and deeply inspiring monograph. It offers more than a collection of images; it is an immersive study in observation, empathy, and the quiet artistry of everyday life and street photography. The combination of John Maloof’s careful curation, Geoff Dyer’s insightful foreword, and Maier’s extraordinary vision transforms the book into both a historical document and a masterclass in seeing.

Her photographs feel alive, intimate, and timeless, revealing a photographer who trusted her instincts and found meaning in the overlooked details of the street. For anyone drawn to the art of looking, the poetry of human interaction, or the craft of street photography, this book is essential.

Alternatives

Where many ‘how-to’ books lean heavily on technical instruction, this one teaches photography as a way of being, a vital part of books on street photography. Meyerowitz writes with the warmth of someone who has spent a lifetime paying attention, and his reflections seamlessly integrate practice, philosophy, and lived experience into something much more valuable than a checklist of tips. It reads, in many ways, like a conversation with one of the greats.

Publisher information

Price and availability

Joel Meyerowitz: How I Make Photographs by Joel Meyerowitz is available in hardback from all major retailers, priced around $21.99 / £14.99; however, it is often on sale for much lower.

Review

What stands out immediately is Meyerowitz’s ability to turn experience into actionable insight without ever diluting its complexity. His opening chapters on ‘Be Inspired’ and ‘Embrace the everyday’ set the tone. Photography, for him, begins long before the shutter is pressed. He emphasises receptiveness, rhythm, and the simple act of noticing. As someone who spends a great deal of time shooting in the streets, I found these early pages surprisingly energising and wholly inspiring. They re-aligned me with the fundamentals and the why of shooting on the street.

The book is structured into short, focused chapters, each a principle Meyerowitz has carried through his career. Composition, color, gesture, pacing, and the emotional charge of a scene are all addressed with the directness of someone who genuinely wants you to improve. His language is clear and unpretentious, and the advice is rooted in real practice rather than abstraction. He is not instructing you to chase perfect moments; he is teaching you how to become more receptive to them.

The strongest parts of the book, for me, are the chapters on light and the choice of color or black and white. Meyerowitz’s relationship with color – he was one of the earliest advocates for colour as a serious artistic medium in the 1960s – is foundational to modern street photography. Here, he explains how he learned to follow the color, how light informs atmosphere, and how slowing down allows color and gesture to reveal themselves. These sections feel particularly valuable for anyone who leans heavily on black and white; they remind you of how strategically expressive colour can be when treated as a compositional force rather than an afterthought.

His guidance on timing and responsiveness is equally insightful. Meyerowitz has always been a photographer of movement, the fluid energy of a street in motion. He articulates how to anticipate rather than react, how to stay loose, how to work around a subject rather than pounce on it. These are techniques that are hard to teach, yet he manages to make them feel legible and learnable.

The production of the book enhances all this. The layout is uncluttered, images are used meaningfully, and every principle is paired with an example from his archive. It’s a format that avoids overwhelm while offering plenty of material to revisit. As with all the Laurence King titles, the sequencing is tight and considered; each chapter builds logically on the last without ever lecturing. It is the perfect book for dipping in and out of.

What I appreciate most is the humility in the writing. Meyerowitz never positions himself as a master instructing novices from a pedestal. Instead, he returns repeatedly to curiosity. The same curiosity that pushed him onto 1960s Fifth Avenue with a camera and no roadmap. For a book dedicated to teaching, it retains a sense of discovery.

Final thoughts

How I Make Photographs succeeds because it refuses to split photography into technique and philosophy; it sees them as inseparable. It’s a book I find myself wanting to keep in my bag because it’s a reminder of what matters when we’re out making pictures. Whether you’re new to street photography or experienced and looking to refresh your instincts, Meyerowitz’s voice is a steady guide. It is generous, insightful, and rooted in a lifetime of seeing well.

Most practical guides teach mechanics. This one teaches perception. That distinction is what makes the book so enduring.

Alternatives

To understand the book’s impact, it is worth remembering who Moriyama is and what he represents. A central figure in post-war Japanese photography, he rose to prominence in the late 1960s and became one of the defining forces behind the Provoke movement. His signature language of are, bure, boke (grainy, blurry, out-of-focus) fractured traditional photographic expectations and prioritised sensation over clarity. It was a radical, almost confrontational way of seeing, and it permanently shifted the vocabulary of street photography.

Collected here, the images from Record’s second run retain that spirit of immediacy. They feel urgent, instinctive, alive to the fleeting currents of city life in Moriyama’s homeland of Japan. Record 2 is not just a book of great street shots; it is a sustained immersion in Moriyama’s way of experiencing the world. A reminder that street photography can be as much about presence, movement, and feeling as it is about precision.

Publisher information

Price and availability

Record 2 by Daido Moriyama, Mark Holborn is available in hardback from all major retailers, priced around $75 / £60; however, it is often on sale for much lower.

Review

What immediately strikes me about Record 2 is its sheer intensity. Moriyama’s photographs aren’t organised around themes or linear narratives; they’re driven by rhythm. The rhythm of wandering, noticing, and shooting before thought has a chance to interfere. Each image either has the immediacy of something intercepted in motion or a small, intricate detail that would otherwise go unnoticed, yet is integral to the place.

The hallmarks of his visual language are present in full force. The high contrast. The fractured compositions. The blur that swallows detail and replaces it with atmosphere. These are not technical imperfections but creative choices, and in Moriyama’s hands, philosophical ones. His now-famous are, bure, boke (grainy, blurry, out-of-focus) style is less an aesthetic than a position on what photography can be. The world, as he presents it, is unstable, emotional, and flickering, and so the photograph should be too.

Despite the grain's rawness, blown highlights, and often indistinct forms, these images retain a surprising emotional clarity. Moriyama photographs the street not as a stage for isolated ‘decisive moments’, but as passing impressions. A blurred figure becomes a gesture, or a long shadow marks the passing of time. The impact comes not from what is literally shown, but from the way the scene is felt in that instant.

This is precisely where his influence on street photography becomes unmistakable. Long before the contemporary embrace of imperfection, Moriyama challenged the idea that technical clarity equates to artistic truth. He opened the door for photographers who prioritise instinct, atmosphere, and presence over conventional notions of sharpness or composition. Record 2 is charged with that energy on every page; a reminder that the street is defined by movement and mood, not precision.

One of the most compelling aspects of this volume is how diaristic it feels. Record has always been Moriyama’s personal journal, a space where he responds intuitively to whatever pulls at his attention, and that sensibility comes through clearly here. The accompanying texts, spread throughout the book, add a further dimension: candid, reflective entries that illuminate how he thinks, what compels him, and why he continues to photograph with the same curiosity. For anyone interested in street photography, these fragments offer rare insight into one of the medium’s most influential living practitioners.

The production of the book matches the urgency of the images. The printing is rich and dense, pushing the contrast to a point where the photographs feel dynamic on the page. Full-bleed layouts heighten this immersion, giving the sense that each spread has been pulled directly from the street. There is no polish or smoothing of edges; the roughness is the point, a discipline unto itself. A hardback book presented in a slipcase, this is a beautiful object that I personally have been returning to time and time again.

A credit to Mark Holborn’s fantastic editing, taken as a whole, Record No. 2 reaffirms what makes Moriyama such a singular voice in photography. His pictures are not just seen; they are felt. And that is why, decades after he first picked up a camera, they continue to resonate with such force, more so now than ever.

Final thoughts

Record 2 is more than a continuation of Moriyama’s long-running journal; it’s a reminder of his profound influence on the evolution of street photography. Raw, restless, and emotionally charged, it demonstrates a way of seeing that resists categorisation. Moriyama trusts instinct over intention, sensation over clarity, and the result is a body of work that still feels ahead of its time.

For anyone interested in the history of street photography, the legacy of Provoke, or the expressive possibilities of the medium, this volume feels essential. It reinforces the value of photographing without hesitation, of letting the world pull you in and responding before the moment disappears.

Alternatives

An updated version swiftly followed: the Kodak Ektar H35N. At first glance essentially identical, the H35N nevertheless comes with a few extra features, probably the most interesting of which is the upgraded two-element lens, including a glass element and an aspherical acrylic element. Elsewhere, we get a tripod socket, a bulb mode for the shutter release, and a new ‘star’ filter for creating dramatic points from strong light sources.

I reviewed the original Kodak Ektar H35 in 2023, and have kept it in occasional rotation since then. My opinion hasn’t changed massively since (though I do think that 3.5-star rating was perhaps a little generous) – it’s a fun and easy camera to use, but the image quality is pretty average. So, I’m interested to see if the new lens means the Kodak Ektar H35N is a noticeably better performer.

Specifications

Price & availability

The Kodak Ektar H35N can currently be picked up for around $52 / £67, making it one of the cheapest 35mm film cameras around (of course, the film itself is an ongoing cost). This is a small increase from the original Ektar H35, which debuted at $49 / £50, though not enough to make a fuss about. It’s available in a wide range of colors, including: Striped Black, Striped Green, Striped Silver, Glazed Orange, Glazed Blue, Glazed Pink, and a pinky-blue ‘BT21 Edition’, which I believe is a KPop thing.

Build & handling

Were I a lazier sort, I could basically copy and paste my comments on build and handling from the original Ektar H35 review, since the two really do look and feel almost exactly the same. The Kodak Ektar H35N is a plastic box with rounded corners and very few controls. Film is loaded in the back, there’s a shutter button on top, and a twisting lens ring to activate the flash. It’s not what you’d call ergonomic, and doesn’t feel particularly robust, but it’s lightweight and pocketable.

When I used the original Ektar H35, the elastic on the protective pouch broke immediately and the flash stopped firing after a single shot. Neither of those things happened this time, so either my luck has improved, or Kodak brand licensee Reto Project (who manufactures this camera) has tightened up its quality control.

In terms of new features, the Ektar H35N now has a screw thread on the base for a tripod mount, and a socket on top for a cable release – both included to facilitate the use of the newly added bulb shutter mode for long-exposure shots. I’ll admit I’m not sure who exactly this is for – it’s hard to imagine a person who owns both a cable release and a tripod, but has no better options for long exposures than the Kodak Ektar H35N.

Nevertheless, new features are always welcome. The other new control is the switch for the star filter, located on the lens ring. Flick it up to create a ‘four-beam flare’ when photographing strong light sources.

The Kodak Ektar H35N is very easy to load and use, befitting its status as a beginner-friendly film camera. The only real annoyance I found was that the flash ring was bizarrely stiff, requiring a forceful, two-handed wrench to activate and deactivate.

Performance

Having reviewed my images from the Kodak Ektar H35N alongside some of my older shots from the original Kodak Ektar H35, there’s really no contest. The new glass element hasn’t radically transformed the camera into an ultra-sharp SLR-beater, but I definitely came away with a much higher rate of keepers.

As I mentioned in my review, the previous camera was essentially incapable of shooting into the light – you just ended up with a blown-out blurry mess. This time, I shot a couple of backlit images and they came out quite nicely. Indeed, I felt overall that the improvement in quality meant the camera better fulfilled the value-for-money promise of a half-frame camera. Getting 72 shots out of a 36-shot roll may sound cool, but it doesn't mean much if half of them are muddled, soupy clunkers.

It still has many of the same restrictions. The fixed exposure settings limit your choice of film – I wouldn’t go below ISO 400 unless you’re going to be exclusively shooting in very bright daylight. You have to key yourself into the idea of shooting in a vertical aspect ratio, and remain aware that the view through the viewfinder isn’t necessarily a very representative view.

Really, with this camera, you need to let go and have fun. It’s not one for pixel-peepers (or their analog equivalent), it’s not one for those who obsess over the corner sharpness of lenses – which is good, because this lens doesn't have any. Indeed, Reto Project has leant further into this with the addition of the star filter, which I actually found rather charming. Find a strong light source and the effect is indeed very pronounced.

Sample images

These images were all shot with the Kodak Ektar H35N, on Kodak Ultramax 400 film, on a sunny day in December. They were developed at box speed, and are unedited.

Verdict

In retrospect, I do think my 3.5-star rating for the original Ektar H35 was a little generous – I think I was just happy to see someone out there actually trying to make film photography more affordable. I’m more comfortable awarding the same rating to this newer camera (maybe let's retroactively downgrade the original to a 3).

It’s a fairly minor overhaul, but the upgraded lens did make a tangible difference to my hit-rate. It’s lightweight and easy to carry, with a low asking price, and its improved quality means that its ability to double the shots from a roll of film feels more like a genuine saving.

The extra features like the star filter may be a bit gimmicky, but sue me, I enjoyed it – and after all, this is a camera that firmly puts fun first, pristine image quality second. Frankly, I’d be happy to see more such gimmicks on the next Ektar camera.

Alternatives

Home cinema or a display for gaming enthusiasts is likely the main market, but portability is a useful addition for this projector, which is designed to display on a screen or surface at up to 150-inches.

Epson has targeted quality rather than the biggest stats (there are plenty of competitors who will happily suggest they can display at 200-inches), so the question in this review is do you want to go for Epson – a brand with many years in the game and which has made quality a big part of their pitch, or would another brand serve you?

I have tried a lot of projectors recently – including the Epson – so here is what I think:

Pricing

Although the launch price was higher, as I write this review a few months after I first tested the new model, the 4K model is generally available for $999 or perhaps less if you know where to look.

Specifications

Epson Lifestudio Flex EF-72: Build and handling

The construction of this projector is where it really stands out from anything else I've ever tried. Sure, I've tested massive big feeling devices that are clearly built to dominate, but this is by far and away the highest quality seeming projector I've encountered that is designed to sit in the room with you.

Given that, realistically, almost all portable projectors are going to end up sitting in the room with you (and a fan will end up running inside them), that should be a consideration!

The design has LED light display under the main unit, which can be changed with a tap on the top, or turned off altogether with a long press. This could have been over the top, but has been integrated with style and I really liked as a feature.

As for the build in general, it has become relatively commonplace among projectors to include a large gimbal arm around the whole projector housing, increasing the physical size.

Epson, in the past, has created black cube-like projectors which Star Trek fans might have associated with the Borg (aliens with cube-shaped ships to the uninitiated), but this time the cube seems to have managed chic.

Epson has, rather than copying the gimbal approach (which is very practical) come up with a more compact alternative – a single column in the center of the device. The designers didn't even let this interfere with the appearance when the projector was at a relatively level angle, by providing a simple blanking plate to match the appearance of the speaker grille which appears to go all the way around the projector.

By basing the projector on the Android TV system which has spread like wildfire through the consumer projector market, Epson has delivered another projector with a sophisticated but easy-to-use operating system that can do most of the operations you'd imagine.

The design is completed with a host of other small refinements. One I liked was the fact the power connection port was recessed, so if you keep your projector near the wall, you won't end up forcing the cable into a nasty bend.

This kind of thoughtful touch – like the blanking plate – are appreciated, but don't seem to have stopped Epson having a bit of modern fun with features like the LEDs. Bravo.

Epson Lifestudio Flex EF-72: Performance

While the image brightness isn't as high as some other projectors tested recently, that shouldn't be an issue for home movies, especially in the long dark winter nights (or anywhere you can close the curtains). 1,000 is bright but not the brightest.

The speed the EF-72 was able to perform operations was tasks was not a problem for me, and in general I have no issues with Google's TV platform. Doing everything via Wi-Fi is convinient (once I've tracked down that password!)

Auto keystone correction worked well, and the audio from the 'Audio by Bose' speaker system built in was certainly enough to fill the ordinary rooms that I tested the system in.

The image is created by 4K pixel shifting, but seemed sharp. All the key apps worked (Netflix, Disney Plus, Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime Video) (and in the UK Channel 4 but not BBC iPlayer, which rarely seems to get on with Google TV on projectors I test.)

Sound can pass Atmos out via the HDMI eARC, but the 10W internal speaker (2x 5W in fact) is pretty handy too. For the most cinematic picture, use the settings to choose Cinema or Natural modes would be my advice, by the way.

Epson Lifestudio Flex EF-72: Overall Verdict

There was a time when I'd just advise you to look for the highest number of lumens (ANSI lumens – compare like with like), but if we're in the 1,000 territory that isn't where we're aiming. This is all about home theatre and a room where not too much light is coming from outside but, given there are many environments where we can control the light, why not invest in a projector which has its own qualities – style, image sharpness and the like? A coffee table projector.

The Epson Lifestudio is a winner in these categories, and you only have to look at it to see whether you think it'll seem at home on your coffee table in a way that quite a lot of big, heavy, noisy boxes might not.

For that reason, I went into this review a little cautious – wondering if this was going to be a bit of "style over content" and came out really wanting one of these devices for myself! The projector's compact portability and performance is very appealing, and for the scenarios I use projection in – evening light – a few hundred lumens would make little difference, while having something that looks this good and performs this well would be noticed!

Small design touches – the recessed power socket – as well as major ones like the single pillar design – make it easy to see why it has won design awards.

Alternatives

How I test

When I test projector I use several different test surfaces because no one does the same thing all the time, right? I have a dedicated projection screen – a 100-inch pull-down type – and I also use a white-painted wall. Reflected light, after all, is what cinema is all about. I also test on a light gray-painted wall to see how it copes with less-than-ideal conditions; this projector, for example, promises to be able to compensate for imperfect paint and in general life is a lot easier, especially with a portable projector, if you can use a wall!

I also conduct what I call the 'coffee table test', putting the projector on a table at an awkward angle from the wall. This is important to check the automated keystone correction.

I also always test by connecting to a MacBook to see how typical monitor images look – after all, this is a photography & video site! The appearance of type (black on white, white on black, etc.) and typical sample photos as well as standard tests like the color bars, and a selection of video clips with dark backgrounds, fast motion, and other key criteria are all important.

Finally, I also like to declare it "movie night" and see whether the device works with friends and family. My girlfriend's input is always interesting too, different pairs of eyes might feel differently about projector effects.

Pancake is a suitable term for the Fujifilm 23mm f/2.8 lens, which adds less than an inch (23mm) to the front of the camera and weighs around 3.17 oz / 90g. I spent a few weeks with the 23mm attached to the Fujifilm X-E5, and I could almost forget that I was shooting with a mirrorless camera.

While the 23mm was originally only available as a kit lens option for the X-E5, Fujifilm is bringing the pancake to all X-Mount fans in December 2025 as the lens launches outside of a kit for the first time.

Fujifilm 23mm f/2.8 R WR: Specs

Fujifilm 23mm f/2.8 R WR: Price & Availability

Originally available only with the Fujifilm X-E5 kit, the Fujifilm 23mm f/2.8 R WR becomes available without a body in December 2025. Fujifilm’s increasing popularity means that many of its newest launches take some time before they’re available without a waitlist. I wouldn’t be surprised if the 23mm follows the same fate, so check the shipping date when you order.

The Fujifilm 23mm f/2.8 R WR retails for about $500 / £400 / CA$560. (Australia pricing has not yet been announced.)

Fujifilm 23mm f/2.8 R WR: Design

The Fujifilm XF 23mm f/2.8 R WR crams a moderately bright aperture into a lens that’s less than an inch / 90mm long. The lens weighs just 3.17 oz / 90g. When it comes to building a compact camera kit, the lens choice matters, and the 23mm mounted on one of Fujifilm’s more compact bodies feels very much like a Fujifilm X100VI.

Cramming a lens into a length less than an inch, of course, leaves less space for controls, but the essentials are still intact. There’s the aperture control (a must-have in my book), which also has an A position with a lock for automatic exposure modes. It’s a clicked ring that’s nicely labeled with a texture around most of the ring.

The focus ring is so tiny it feels more like a filter frame than a focus ring, but it’s still there and turns smoothly.

That small size leaves out other features. The most noticeable missing control is a manual-to-autofocus switch, but it’s far from the first Fujifilm lens to control the autofocus on the camera body rather than the lens.

Outside of the lens’ small size, I think my favorite feature is that it’s also available in silver. That really highlights the retro look of Fujifilm’s bodies, but there’s the longstanding black too.

The WR in the lens name stands for weather-resistant. (Oddly enough, the X-E5 that the lens was originally paired with is not weather sealed, so make sure you pair this lens with a sealed body before heading out in rain or snow, and use a camera cover for bodies that are not sealed.)

Fujifilm 23mm f/2.8 R WR: Performance

The Fujifilm 23mm f/2.8 R WR is built to prioritize size, not image quality – but it’s still no slouch, even paired on Fujifilm’s 40.2MP camera bodies.

The 23mm pancake isn’t Fujifilm’s sharpest lens, but it is quite good. Sharpness is excellent in the center wide open. Photographing a test chart, lines towards the edges of the frame were almost just as sharp. In real-world use, I occasionally wanted to tweak that sharpness slider a bit for off-center subjects. It’s not Fujifilm’s sharpness lens, but it’s acceptably sharp in most scenarios.

As a 23mm lens, this pancake lens captures a fairly wide view, but not so wide that there’s a lot of distortion to contend with. Turn off the built-in lens correction profile on RAW files, and there’s some bending and vignetting at the corners. Use the lens profile, however, and most of that corner darkening and bending is remedied.

Wide-angle lenses aren’t known for bokeh, and the wider 23mm perspective is another strike against the Fujifilm 23mm pancake’s bokeh. Still, capturing bokeh isn’t impossible, especially when getting up close to the subject.

Bokeh is often round with soft edges, shifting towards a cat-eye shape at the corners of the image. Extremely bright light sources can create a more mixed bag of bokeh. In the shot below, using the sun hitting the snow to create bokeh, some of the bokeh balls have a hard “onion ring” edge to them, and others take on a rainbow of colors.

I’m a fan of lens flare, and there’s plenty to be had there, directing the Fujifilm 23mm pancake towards the sun. Golden hour creates a nice warm lens flare, but mid-day light will create brighter flares with some potential light color shifts in the surrounding area.

I used the 23mm on a mix of travel photography, landscapes, and wide portraits. I did have a few occasional autofocus misses, which seemed to happen more frequently when working with backlighting.

I was pleasantly surprised at how close the lens could focus for such a small optic. The Fujifilm 23mm f/2.8 R WR can focus as close as 7.9 inches or 20 cm from the front.

Fujifilm 23mm f/2.8 R WR: Images

Fujifilm 23mm f/2.8 R WR: Verdict

The Fujifilm 23mm f/2.8 R WR isn’t Fujifilm’s best lens – but it’s Fujifilm's best travel prime. The 23mm is fantastic for how small it is. The pancake lens makes a mirrorless feel more like a compact camera, and for photographers who already have a Fujifilm body, at a price far less than options like the X100VI. I loved that the design still had enough room for an aperture ring.

Outside of the biggest feature – the size – the lens delivered images on par with what I would expect from a Fujifilm optic at this price point. No, an f/2.8 aperture isn’t the brightest option out there, but Fujifilm’s 23mm f/1.4 R LM WR costs twice as much (not to mention the size difference). There’s little chromatic aberration, and barrel distortion is similarly nearly absent. Lens flare is lovely at golden hour, though it has a larger impact on colors midday.

I experienced a few occasional autofocus misses in my travel shots with this lens, so like the 27mm pancake, there’s a little room for autofocus improvements. Bokeh can also occasionally take on a harder onion ring edge with the harshest light sources.

Alternatives

You may also like

Browse the best Fujifilm X Mount lenses or the best Fujifilm cameras.

The XPPen Artist Ultra 16 is a 4K OLED pen display that claims to offer a color gamut of 99% sRGB, 99% Adobe RGB, and 98% Display P3. It’s also Calman Verified for color and can produce 1.07 billion colors with an astonishing 100,000:1 contrast ratio. Calman Verified means that the display has high color accuracy out of the box, with the idea being that you can connect the display, install the drivers, and get to work instantly.

As a 16-inch pen display, the Artist 16 provides a comfortable working area and screen size without taking up too much desk space; this is something you have to accept with much larger 24-inch pen displays. The Artist 16 also offers pen sensitivity of 16,384 levels and 10-finger multi-touch capabilities. This means you can use either one of the two X3 Pro styluses or your fingers to draw and zoom into images.

With the resolution, OLED screen, and specs in general, the Artist Ultra 16 is fairly expensive compared to XPPen’s more budget-conscious entry-level pen displays. However, it is a high-end device. The question is, do you get the features and functionality you’re paying for? Let’s find out…

XPPen Artist Ultra 16: Specifications

XPPen Artist Ultra 16: Price

The XPPen Artist Ultra 16 launched on September 26, 2025, and costs $900 / £899 / AU$1,500, which is quite a high price for a 16-inch pen display. However, it has a 4K AMOLED Calman Verified screen with 10-finger multi-touch capability, making it a rather unique proposition at the time of writing, so it’s arguably priced competitively.

In the box, you get the Artist Ultra 16, an X3 Pro Smart Chip Stylus, an X3 Pro Slim Stylus Pen, case with nibs (X3 Pro Slim Stylus nibs x 4, X3 Pro Stylus felt nibs x 4), an ACK05 Shortcut Remote, a Bluetooth Receiver, 2x USB-C to USB-C Cables, a USB-C to USB-A Cable, a Power Adapter, a 3-in-1 Cable, 10x X3 Pro Slim Stylus nibs, 10x X3 Pro Stylus Standard Nibs, a ACS 16 Stand, a Cleaning Cloth and glove. This is everything you need to keep working for many years to come.

XPPen Artist Ultra 16: Design & Handling

The XPPen Artist Ultra 16 is a slick-looking device with a clean bezel featuring no controls whatsoever. The dial and shortcut buttons are all on the ACK05 Shortcut Remote, which can be connected to computers via Bluetooth or a USB cable. This controller features a dial and 10 buttons that can be customized with different keyboard functions.

The buttons are blank since they don’t have specific functions tied to them, so you have to remember what each one does once set up. Over time, the button functionality will become second nature, but at first, things can be hit or miss. For a pen display of this price and quality, it would be great to see buttons with mini screens that display their function, like the Logitech MX Creative Console, and present on other pen displays such as the Xencelabs Pen Display 16.

The pen display is also quite slim, which adds to its portability and provides a more modern look. There are no fans for cooling, so the Ultra 16 is silent during operation, and there’s ventilation on the back of the device for heat dissipation. When using the Ultra 16 on your lap, it’s worth being sure that the ventilation isn’t being covered by your legs to avoid the risk of overheating.

Build quality is excellent, and the Ultra 16 looks and feels like a professional device. Overall dimensions are 405x273x13.5mm / 15.94x10.75x0.53in with a weight of 1.53kg / 3.4lbs, putting it in the medium-size pen display category. The display comes with a basic stand for angled use, can be used flat, and at this size and weight, it can also be comfortably used on your lap if you prefer.

I tended to use it on my desk with my keyboard behind, using the stand to tilt the Ultra 16, and found this a comfortable way to work. I also used it connected to my notebook, resting it on my lap while I sat on the sofa. The ability to move away from what you might call a formal workspace and continue to work comfortably is great. And while this isn’t the smallest and most portable XPPen pen display available, it’s not so large and heavy that you can’t travel with it.

The screen itself offers a generous 344.2x193.6mm / 13.55x7.62in working area. The AG nano-etched glass also provides both viewing comfort and general comfort in use. Setting up the driver software is simple, and once you calibrate the input by clicking on reference points on the screen, you can take advantage of precise and accurate input. Calibration is essential because without it, the mouse pointer never sits directly below the stylus, but this only takes a minute during the simple setup.

XPPen Artist Ultra 16: Performance

With a 4K OLED screen, a color gamut of up to 99% sRGB, 99% Adobe RGB, 98% Display P3, and a contrast ratio of 100,000:1, the image produced by the Ultra 16 is fantastic as you’d imagine. It’s punchy and highly detailed, making it ideal for drawing, design work, and even more colour-critical photo editing tasks. The screen is also 10-bit and can produce up to 1.07 billion colors. Brightness is 350 nits, and there’s a 170-degree viewing angle. This is wide, and I never once had any viewing issues.

The Ultra 16 comes with the X3 Pro Smart Chip Stylus and the X3 Pro Slim Stylus, both offering 16K pressure sensitivity and 60 degrees of tilt recognition. These come in a handy storage case that doubles as a pen stand and stores the spare nibs, etc., for each stylus. Having two styluses available allows you to choose the one that’s most comfortable to you personally, and I found the chunkier X3 Pro Smart Chip Stylus most comfortable.

The X3 Pro Slim Stylus is indeed comfortable and feels much more compact in use. This, paired with the touch control allowed for what felt like a seamless workflow using both stylus and hand to navigate images when drawing and photo editing. For touch control, you can even customize zones to avoid accidental palm inputs.

There’s also a Floating Menu that can be initiated and customized with keyboard shortcuts or touch gestures. As the name suggests, the menu floats on screen. This is alongside the ACK05 Shortcut Remote, so you can use one or both depending on your preference.

The Ultra 16 is compatible with Windows, macOS, Chromebook and Android smartphones. It isn’t, unfortunately, compatible with iPhones because of the way they work. Plugging the Ultra 16 into my Samsung Galaxy Ultra opened up Samsung Dex, which provides a more desktop-like experience, and I was able to edit phone Raw files in Lightroom Mobile using a much larger touchscreen than my phone. It’s not essential functionality in my opinion, but it’s not a bad thing to have either.

XPPen Artist Ultra 16: Verdict

The XPPen Artist Ultra 16 is an impressive pen display that blends an excellent range of features with fantastic image quality. The 10-bit OLED screen produces vibrant images that are bursting with detail. Not to mention, a color gamut of up to 99% sRGB, 99% Adobe RGB, and 98% Display P3, Calman Verification, and the ability to produce 1.07 billion colors mean it can be used for color-critical work.

The pen and touch input, including 10-finger multi-touch with customizable zones, allows you to blend touch and stylus control for a much more efficient workflow. This isn’t a cheap pen display by any stretch, but it’s not the most expensive either, especially when considering what’s on offer. Plus, the build quality is excellent while the design is simple and stylish.

Alternatives

This type of gimbal is an ideal solution for solo creators who need to be able to accommodate multiple setups. Its ability to flip between portrait and landscape modes also makes it a perfect fit for social media creators who crave versatility.

The Smooth Q5 Ultra competes admirably for a place in our guide to the best smartphone gimbals, with direct competition coming from the Insta360 Flow 2 Pro and DJI Osmo Mobile 7P. Zhiyun's offering features some innovative accessories and a fill light, which help to set it apart.

Zhiyun Smooth Q5 Ultra: Specifications

Zhiyun Smooth Q5 Ultra: Price

The Zhiyun Smooth Q5 Ultra is available from Zhiyun's Official Store for $99.99 / £84.99. If you'd like the combo kit that includes the AI tracking module and wireless remote control, then that costs $119.99 / £99.99. Alternatives include the DJI Osmo Mobile 7P for $129.99 / £118.50 and the Insta360 Flow 2 Pro for $159.99 / £145. Each device offers a similar set of specs, with the Smooth Q5 Ultra proving to be the best budget-friendly option.

Zhiyun Smooth Q5 Ultra: Design & Handling

Having unboxed the gimbal, AI tracker, and remote control, I was fully up and running in around ten minutes. Everything shipped fully charged, and all I had to do was clip my phone in, attach the AI tracker, and pair it with my phone, and I was away. It could not have been easier.

The gimbal itself has a primary construction of plastic, which contributes to the overall lightweight design, weighing approximately 390g / 13.8oz. Holding it, even for long periods of time, didn't result in any arm, wrist, or hand strain, and for that I was grateful. It's marketed as a compact gimbal, and even though it's foldable, unfortunately, it's not small enough to fit comfortably in a pocket.

The design includes an ergonomic grip for comfortable single-handed operation, and the exterior boasts a matt white finish that is both scratch and stain-resistant. I have no concerns that it'll stay looking new for a long time to come.

At the top of the handle is a color display that keeps the user updated on the current state of the gimbal. This includes the amount of battery left, whether it's connected via Bluetooth, if the AI tracking is enabled, and a host of other indicators.

The clamp that holds the mobile phone is sturdy and strong, so strong that I nearly trapped my fingers in it while removing my phone. Take this as a positive rather than a potential health hazard. Zhiyun has also included an abundance of rubber grips inside the clamp to ensure your phone stays scratch-free.

At the bottom of the gimbal is a 1/4-20 screw mount that enables the attachment of a tripod or similar compatible accessories. There is a small tripod included in the kit, which is ideal for positioning the gimbal on a tabletop or even on the floor. There's also a 215mm extension pole built into the center of the gimbal. You wouldn't immediately know it's there, but if you push on the top of the handle, it'll begin to extend. This was super useful for capturing more arty, unusual shots.

A final feature that is worth mentioning is the inclusion of a fill light on the back of the gimbal. Using it will significantly reduce the battery life, but it is a handy little addition, especially for creators who want a lightweight run-and-gun setup.

The gimbal has a companion app called the ZY Cami App, which includes more intelligent tracking, an editor, and a slew of other additional features. It's not required, though, with the gimbal functioning fine with any mobile phone's default camera app.

Further to the core gimbal, the combo kit of the Smooth Q5 Ultra includes a detachable remote and an AI tracking camera. The remote allows for long-distance control, including the ability to hit record. The tracking camera attaches underneath the clamp mechanism and includes an indicator light that keeps you updated on its status.

Zhiyun Smooth Q5 Ultra: Performance

Overall, I was very impressed with the performance of the gimbal. As mentioned, it was very easy to set up, and I was quickly able to crack on with capturing photos and videos. The 3-axis operation was reliable and predictable 99% of the time, although there were a few occasions where it seemed to drift a little from what I expected. At that point, I was grateful for the ability to recenter the gimbal head with the quick press of a button.

Operating the gimbal was straightforward, and even my ten-year-old, who has no prior experience using a device like this, was able to quickly yield predictable results. The button and dial placement also meant that it was possible to change settings while operating the gimbal.

The AI tracker was able to track my face with no difficulty and yielded smooth results every single time. This tracker is able to pick up gesture controls such as an okay sign that enables tracking, double thumbs up to toggle between portrait and landscape orientations, as well as a peace sign to take photos or start filming. Unfortunately, the sensors' ability to recognise these gestures was so hit and miss that I wasn't able to use them predictably.

The small and handy remote control allows for operation up to 10m away from the gimbal. It works seamlessly and includes the ability to control the gimbal's orientation as well as start/stop recording. With the remote switched on, it's also possible to control the gimbal with voice commands. It was responsive and much more reliable than gesture commands. One change I would like to see in this feature would be a move away from direct commands towards an AI model that lets you use more natural language to get the same results.

In terms of battery life, the gimbal lasts up to 13.5 hours, although this is reduced to 5.5 hours with AI tracking enabled and the fill light turned on. This is just about sufficient for a full day's filming, and you can always turn the fill light off between shots. It only takes two hours to recharge, although it's not a removable battery, so you might find it hard to operate the gimbal while you're charging.

Zhiyun Smooth Q5 Ultra: Verdict

The Zhiyun Smooth Q5 Ultra is a lightweight gimbal that is quick to set up and generally reliable in its operation. With AI tracking and a detachable remote, the device offers several innovative features that elevate the user experience. I wasn't enamored by the gesture commands, but that aside, I found the gimbal to be reliable, predictable, and overall a joy to use.

Alternatives

Since 2013, the digital APS-C GR line has carried that legacy forward, evolving steadily through the GR, GR II, and GR III. The Ricoh GR IV continues this lineage, keeping the familiar metal body and 28mm-equivalent prime lens that define the series while introducing its most substantial set of upgrades yet.

Ricoh maintains the minimalist, photography-focused philosophy that has always made the GR a favourite among street photographers: a “real camera” interface, prime lens, and pocketable design. But under the surface, almost everything has been tweaked – from a new backside-illuminated sensor to a redesigned lens and overhauled control layout.

These changes build on the strengths of the GR III while addressing long-standing complaints such as battery life and storage limitations – positioning the GR IV as the most refined entry so far in Ricoh’s iconic fixed-lens compact line.

Specifications

Price

The Ricoh GR IV launches at $1,499 / £1,199 / AU$2,199, placing it at the premium end of fixed-lens compact cameras – though part of the appeal of the GR line is that it delivers APS-C image quality in the smallest possible package. Its price reflects both the cult reputation of the series and the significant upgrades added here: a BSI sensor, redesigned lens, stronger stabilisation, and a larger battery.

The GR IV has little direct competition, with the closest options being the compact APS-C Fujifilm X100VI, which is a larger and much more premium camera, but with an even more premium price point. However, Fujifilm's entry-level X-M5 might be worthy of consideration, as together with a pancake lens (such as the new XF 23mm f/2.8), it challenges the GR IV on size and price.

A special thanks to Park Cameras for loaning us a copy of the Ricoh GR IV for this review.

Design & Handling

Ricoh has been slowly chiselling away at the GR formula for years, and with the GR IV, you can feel just how much the company has learned from the previous generations. In the hand, it’s still that unbelievably slim magnesium-alloy brick – somehow even a touch thinner than the GR III – and at 267 grams it all but disappears into a pocket. The handgrip is still small, of course, but it’s just enough to anchor the camera securely, and after a few minutes of shooting, I barely thought about it.

What I noticed immediately, though, was how much better the revised controls feel. Ricoh has brought back the plus/minus rocker from the older models, and honestly, I’ve missed it. It makes exposure tweaks so much faster when you’re working on instinct. The new rear e-dial is also a proper dial this time – not the odd pseudo-wheel from the GR III – and the press-to-ADJ action feels natural once you customise the five tiles. With 17 different options to choose from, you can pretty much tailor the camera to shoot exactly the way you want.

The move from a rear wheel to a navigator keypad also helps the camera feel more decisive. I liked having direct access to ISO, white balance, macro, and drive modes without diving into menus. There’s only one Fn button, but Ricoh lets you assign 37 different functions to it, so you’re hardly left wanting. The menus are still written in that slightly tiny Ricoh font – the brand stubbornly hanging on to this quirk, but the layout is at least clean and well structured across the five chapters. The touchscreen helps too, not just with AF point placement but also sliding through menus and reviewing images like you would on a smartphone.

As expected, there’s no built-in flash, and the optional GF-2 accessory flash remains a curious non-TTL unit. Personally, I think most GR users will skip it and use the hotshoe for one of Ricoh’s optical viewfinders instead, which genuinely suits this camera’s shooting style. Physical connectivity is minimal, just a USB-C port, but wireless options are more up to date now with dual-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.3 for the GR World app – handy for geotagging and remote control.

The fixed 7.62 cm LCD is the same panel as before, though the new Outdoor View Setting is a welcome addition when you're out in bright sun. You still get the option to display histograms, grids, highlight warnings and level indicators, and in playback, the 20- or 81-thumbnail view and dual histograms make reviewing images surprisingly deep for a compact. Ricoh has packed in a huge amount of useful editing tools too – Levels Compensation, White Balance Adjustment, Colour Moiré Correction, and even a proper post-capture parameter adjustment system that feels unusually powerful for such a tiny camera.

This all adds up to a camera that, once configured, feels very natural to shoot with. There are quirks, sure — it’s still a tiny camera with tiny buttons — but Ricoh has polished the experience enough that I stopped thinking about the compromises and just enjoyed shooting.

Performance

Performance is where the GR IV really starts to feel like a meaningful step forward. The updated hybrid AF system is simply quicker and more confident than before. It locks on faster, misses less, and even the tracking feels more secure – at least until you get major obstructions in the frame. The face and eye detection work well enough, and the various zone and pinpoint modes let you choose exactly how deliberate you want to be. And, of course, the GR’s secret weapon is still Snap Focus. Setting a distance and having the camera snap to it instantly with a full shutter press is as addictive and fast as ever.

Exposure is handled by a very capable 484-point metering system, and I found the highlight-weighted option particularly useful for keeping drama in bright outdoor scenes. The new Snap Distance Priority AE mode is clever too – letting you pick both a Snap distance and a depth-of-field profile and having the camera take care of the aperture. It’s a feature that feels like it was built for GR users specifically. With ±5 EV of compensation and three-shot bracketing, there’s plenty of control when you want it.

What surprised me most, though, was the impact of the upgraded five-axis stabilisation. Ricoh claims up to six stops of correction, and in practice it really does make the camera more resilient when shooting in low light. Paired with the new BSI sensor – which gives a more even brightness across the frame – the GR IV feels more capable at night than any previous GR.

Image quality is exactly what GR fans hope for: crisp detailing, smooth tonal transitions and plenty of dynamic range. Highlights in particular hold up beautifully. RAW files give you at least four stops of usable shadow recovery, which is impressive for such a small camera. The redesigned lens’s improved corner sharpness also pays off, giving the images a more polished look across the frame.

High-ISO performance is strong. According to the test shots, the GR IV looks almost unchanged from ISO 100 right up to ISO 6400, which is remarkable. You only start to see meaningful noise at ISO 12,800, and even ISO 51,200 keeps a surprising amount of detail intact. Sure, ISO 102,400 and 204,800 soften noticeably and colours start to fall apart, but they’re still usable when you absolutely need the shot. For an APS-C compact, this is impressive.

Continuous shooting remains modest at 4fps, and the camera captured 23 JPEGs in about 5.8 seconds in testing – perfectly fine for the kind of photography this camera is built for. Ricoh’s claim of a 25% faster start-up time seems believable, too; the camera jumps to life noticeably quicker, and the redesigned lens mechanism should also help reduce dust intake, which GR users will appreciate.

Video is still very much an afterthought – Full HD only, no AF tracking, no manual exposure, and limited mic control – but honestly, the GR has never been a video-first camera, and the GR IV doesn't pretend otherwise.

Overall, once I’d set the camera up the way I like to shoot, the GR IV felt fast, responsive, and instinctive. Ricoh has smoothed out many of the friction points from the Mark III, and the combination of the new stabilisation, BSI sensor, and autofocus improvements makes this the most capable GR yet when you’re moving quickly and reacting to the world around you.

Verdict

The Ricoh GR IV takes everything people love about the GR series – portability, sharp optics, discreet shooting – and improves almost every meaningful component. It isn’t perfect, and its video mode remains an afterthought, but for stills shooters the GR IV is a brilliant, pocket-sized photographic tool and the strongest GR model yet.

Alternatives

That’s when I started testing the best pet cameras, products which are largely security cameras with pet-centric features and apps, and in some cases, treat dispensers. The Petcube camera 360 is the latest release from Petcube, one of the leading makers of pet monitors. The first pet cam I ever tested was the Petcube Bites 2 Lite, a tall, boxy device with a treat tosser but a static camera. The Petcube camera 360 doesn’t feature treats. It’s a combination of the affordable Petcube cam and the brilliant Furbo 360, as it can swivel on its axis and cover a full rotation as well as pan up and down.

On paper, the Petcube Cam 360 is a great solution if you want to record more of your room, or simply if it's a big room that a standard, static wide-angle lens can’t cover. It’s also very affordable, at around $50/£55 with an optional monthly subscription to unlock more features on the Petcube app.

Whether you're a new or experienced pet owner, you might have wondered whether a pet camera is a good investment. Will the Petcube camera give you the confidence to go out sooner or more often, knowing you can check in on your furry pal at any time? Maybe, but given it has no treat-tossing abilities or toys to attract your pet, would you do well enough with an indoor security camera on a shelf instead? I tested it for several months to find out.

Petcube Cam 360: Specifications

Petcube Cam 360: Price

The cost of pet cameras has come down considerably over the past few years, and the Petcube Cam 360 is what I'd call an affordably priced model, but not an entry-level one.

The camera is widely sold through Petcube's website and major retailers like Amazon, as well as John Lewis, Curry's, and Pets at Home in the UK. Its up-front cost hovers around the $47–$53/£45–£55 range, an RRP that looks much brighter than the Furbo 360° Pet Camera, which retails closer to $99 (but which regularly goes on sale to around £50/$60).

The cost is only half of the puzzle for pet owners, though. I really don't like having to pay monthly fees, but to get the full functionality out of the camera, I'd recommend an ongoing subscription to Petcube Care. Without a subscription, the Cam 360 won't record any clips, for starters, meaning you can view your pet live but won't review any mischief or mishaps.

There are two tiers of Care package: an Optimal plan starts at $5.99 a month ($47.88 a year), which includes 3 days of cloud video history, 30-second video clips, AI-powered Smart Alerts (being able to distinguish between pets and humans, barks/meows), and the 24/7 online vet chat – which I haven't tried, but wouldn't want to rely on for medical advice over my own vet.

Shelling out for the premium plan is $11.99/month, giving you three months of video history storage to 90 days, and covering unlimited Petcube cameras on the same subscription, along with a 2-year warranty.

It's worth saying that you don't have to pay for a subscription, and if you just want a reliable, pan-and-tilt camera for quick live check-ins, I think the camera-only cost is good value. That said, Furbo has recently launched the similarly small Furbo Mini 360 with 2K QHD video (double the resolution, in theory) at a slightly cheaper price.

Petcube Cam 360: Design & Handling

The Petcube Cam 360 is teeny tiny, and it arrived in a small cardboard box that fit in my palm. That Petcube has managed to squeeze everything into such a compact cubed unit (each side is around 2.2 inches) is impressive, and is helped by the fact that there’s no treat dispenser to house.

The original Petcube Pet Cam has a plastic base that attaches to the camera unit to allow it to rotate up and down. But here, a motorized, rotating base and pan-tilt turret allow the full movement of the camera. I love the look of the unit and think it’s sleeker than the original static camera.

It’s small and square, black and mostly white, and for that reason, easier to blend into light walls than dark. It was perfect for the largely minimalist design in my house, and it’s also nice how subtle the Petcube logo is when it could have been made more obvious on the body.

Petcube gives you the option (and fixings) to wall mount the device, but I think it’s far easier to position it on a flat surface so you can move it around if you (or your pets) swap rooms in the house.

There’s little setup required if you don’t want to wall-mount. You plug the camera in via a USB-C cable at the back of the unit, and, crucially, this included white cable is flattened widthways to ensure the entire unit sits flat and rotates effectively.

In terms of handling, I have few complaints or notes. The Petcube app is simple to use, and the interface is well-designed. Once you’ve downloaded the app and plugged in the camera, it’ll walk you through the steps for setup.

I found it a breeze to connect the Petcube to Wi-Fi thanks to the QR code on the bottom of the camera, and it took about five minutes from unboxing the camera to having a live feed.

It's easy to know when the camera is online, thanks to the small blue indicator light on its bottom, which blinks when recording footage or is solid when connected.

When you first log in, you're presented with a few setup options like motion sensitivity, which you can easily tweak later. Using the iOS app, I was able to open the live feed and start manually panning the camera in minutes.

Because the wide-angle lens captures so much, I immediately noticed that the shelf or table edge was dominating the frame. I'd recommend checking the coverage area on the live feed after setup and adjusting the camera's position to the very edge of the surface to avoid this. This is quickly done as it's so light and portable. And if you unplug the camera to move it, it doesn't take long for it to reconnect to the WiFi.

Petcube Cam 360: Performance

Above: Sample clip from the Petcube Cam 360 camera

The Petcube Cam 360's 1080 camera captured footage that was clear and crisp in bright daylight (which we get little of in winter), but it gets very fuzzy as you zoom the picture in. At 8x zoom, the feed was usable for surveillance but definitely not at a shareable quality.

Having an all-black dog highlighted the limits of the camera's dynamic range, as it was often hard to tell her apart from our dark navy sofa in lower light. That said, even my expensive mirrorless camera suffers from this, and overall, I'd say the camera performed well under artificial lamps in the evening and morning, with little noise or distortion.

I was most impressed by the quality of the night vision camera, which I set to activate automatically depending on the light levels. It was easy to see Remy's eyes and outline (and my own while wandering about in pyjamas).

The camera reliably captures standalone clips for playback in the app, along with a fun 3-second daily diary, and it's easy to start recording manually from the live feed. You can also capture still images, or snapshots, by tapping the camera icon from the live feed – but only in wide-view and not at any level of zoom.

I had less success shooting images, because unless it was bright enough, to image came out with motion blur. But as this isn't the camera's main function, I'm happy enough with the image quality versus the price.

Petcube doesn't get carried away with hyperbolic claims when describing the Cam 360. It says that "Cam delivers a sharp 1080p HD live streaming video with a 105° wide-angle view for full-room coverage." That description is apt and true for the results I got during testing.

Having reviewed several security, bird feeder, and pet cams before, my expectations are never too high for the image quality – after all, I'm not looking to print these images, I just want to be able to clearly see what's going on.

I found Petcube to be mostly a set it and leave it alone sort of camera, which suits me perfectly. What I mean by that is that you don't have to actively record clips of your pet, but that Petcube will take the settings (recording times, motion sensitivity) you dial in and shoot clips automatically based on those.

It did a great job of recording my dog's movements, without capturing hundreds of clips every time she stretched or repositioned herself on the sofa. And I didn't get hundreds of phone notifications disrupting my day either.

What's great here is that you can customize Petcube for exactly how checked in or out you want to be on your pet's time at home, down to the specific notification frequency from immediate to every 4 hours. I found notifications reliable yet unintrusive when set to every hour.

The main event for Cam 360 over static rivals is being able to move it around from the app to follow your pets. All the movements are made by tapping virtual arrow buttons on the live feed on the Petcube app interface – left, right, up, and down.

It's simple and effective. The motorized base gives smooth 360-degree rotational motion (perhaps a little slow for speedy pets), and it's quiet, too, which is crucial if you don't want to startle or wake your furry family members when using the camera remotely.

The panning motion up and down is just as gentle. I rarely needed to see as high or low as the Petcube Cam 360 could cover when monitoring my dog (who mainly just sleeps when I'm out), but I imagine owners of climbing cats will enjoy how much of a room you can cover. Position the camera in a hallway, and you'll also be able to cover the landing, the stairs, and the front door.

It's a shame that the camera's movement isn't automatic, and it can't track your pets without your manual input. But I expect Petcube is working on this for future, and likely more expensive, iterations.

The Petcube Cam 360 is designed for two-way communication with your pet, meaning there's a speaker and microphone built in to make things more interactive.

This isn't novel for pet or indeed security cameras, but it's helpful if you want to hear your pet barking, crashing about the house, or if you just want to make some reassuring noises or reinforce good behaviour when you're out.

It's easy to toggle the mic and speaker using buttons on the live feed screen. I rarely check in with my dog verbally when I'm out of the house, as it tends to confuse her more than comfort her.

But the microphone and speaker are both clear enough to deliver commands, and with less of a delay than I've encountered on rivals, and even the Petcube Bites 2 Lite.

There is some reverb and distortion from the microphone, especially when sounds aren't in the same room. But you can adjust the speaker volume and microphone sensitivity from the Video & Audio setting menu, which I found helpful for filtering out the number of clips captured by Smart Alerts.

Petcube also says that voice assistant integration is an option with the Petcube 360, but I don't have an Amazon Alexa to test this feature out.

Petcube Cam 360: Verdict

The Petcube Cam 360 is a camera I'd recommend to friends with dogs and cats who want peace of mind when they're away from home, and only have $50/£50ish to spend. Even though it doesn't have any pet-specific features (you don't get the hilarity of tossing treats to your furry pals while you're out, for example), it does have all the qualities of an affordable monitoring camera – clear visuals, clear audio, and a reliable feed sent to an easy-to-use app.

With the Cam 360, I loved knowing that I could check in and see my dog at any time while out (or when I was working in my garden and wanted to lazily check the living room without coming in). The camera's smooth pan and tilt, which lets you cover those hard-to-reach areas that are out of sight on even wide-angle static security cameras.

Unfortunately, what keeps it grounded is the way that Petcube has limited functionality to monthly subscribers and a premium plan. Once signed up to Petcube's monthly Care subscription, I got to record clips, see alerts for barking, and watch a cute rundown of my pet's daily diary. Without that, this is just a compact pan-and-tilt mini cam with a live feed. Albeit a very responsive one that loads quickly.

Without a subscription, I think I'd have been a bit frustrated by the limited use of the Petcube camera. But for owners on a budget who haven't tested any different options, the Cam 360 does what it needs to.

I'd really have liked to see this camera feature some automatic motion tracking, but that might be too big an ask for its low upfront price. Overall, it's great looking, easy to use, and clear to view – just don't expect too many pet-specific features.

Alternatives

Scanners exist for a wide variety of use cases, and none cover all the ground. In the case of the Three, the aim is very much for scanning smaller objects. The Three comes with a turntable to aid in this, so I’ve set it up and spent some time to see how good the results and the experience are, and how it compares to the best 3D scanners on the market.

Matter and Form Three: Specifications

Matter and Form Three: Price

With a list price of $1499.99 in the USA, the Three is a hefty investment, but it can often be found for significantly less. Even at the higher price, I’d suggest it should be on your shortlist due to its build quality and performance. If you’re budgeting for a complete setup, keep in mind that with most other options you’ll need to factor in a computer of some kind, but the Three does all the computation internally, which could mean a decent saving.

Matter and Form Three: Design & Handling

There’s been a slow adoption by tech companies of supplying gear in semi-rigid cases over the last few years, and while this is a good thing, they are not made equal, with some not even able to house all the parts of a given device. Matter and Form ships the Three in a pretty rigid case, which feels very premium and is a custom-fit to carry the entire setup, which I really appreciate. Nothing rattles around or slips out of place in transport.

Everything you need is contained in the case, including the scanner unit, WiFi antenna, tripod, calibration boards and stand, documentation, and the power adapter with locking terminals for different countries. Everything is very well made indeed, even the tripod, which is often a cheap, flimsy affair. Worthy of mention is that the power cord is 10 feet long, making this usable in many environments without the need to run extension cables. It’s a small thing, but one that I really welcome.

There are two calibration boards, with a pattern of glyphs used to ensure accuracy, as well as the larger one that serves a second purpose I shall get to shortly.

The main unit feels quite weighty, no doubt partly due to its housing of all the computing hardware in addition to the scanning components. Yes, that’s right. No need to tether to a desktop or laptop, or even a phone. All you need is something with a web browser. I love this approach, as it means less to carry, store, or travel with. Good move!

This may have led to a finicky setup, dealing with an on-board computer, but MAF has developed a pretty sleek process, where you pop the larger calibration board on the stand, mount the scanner on the tripod, connect it to the turntable (by a very nice magnetic connector), screw in the antenna, and power it up. The scanner projects menus onto the board, and you simply follow the instructions to get set up, using whichever device you want to use. This is done using the IP address you’re given and works really well. I found the connection pretty stable, with only the odd hiccup. On first launch, the projection will run you through a tutorial, so you can get up to speed.

Once you’re set up, you can very easily access the Three without the need to use the projection again. Simply connect from your chosen browser, and off you go. All smooth and easy.

Matter and Form Three Performance

I adore the browser-based approach to operating the Three; however, it is worth noting that your browser choice may affect your experience. I couldn’t get it to work using Edge. It’s a browser I rarely use personally, and I'm not sure it’s widely used either, but I feel it's worth mentioning, as it is listed as compatible on the MAF site. Every other browser I tried worked just fine. Do pay attention to your device's display resolution too. I tested it on all kinds, and they all work okay, but I felt somewhat handicapped by my iPhone, which required a lot of scrolling around. My preference is an iPad or a laptop, where you can see everything all at once using Safari or Chrome.

Before scanning, a calibration process is needed, but don’t be put off by that, as it is quick and easy. The scanning process is pretty intuitive, too. You pop your target object onto the turntable and adjust a few settings in the software, mostly specifying the number of scans and the exposure. When it comes to the number of scans, I found the sweet spot to be five or six. Unlike some scanners, which use a single, constant moving scan, the Three takes a set of still scans, which are then stitched together automatically to produce the final mesh. Both methods work well, but I found this to be more predictable.

For complex objects or those with overhanging portions that the scanner can’t see, you can flip the object and take further scans to capture these other areas, which the Three’s software then stitches together, and it does it really well.

Like most scanners, the Three can struggle a little with very underlit areas or objects that are painted black, but adjusting the exposure to compensate works well to counter this.

When setting the number of scans, you can choose to scan only a portion of the full 360 degrees. This is a handy option that will save both processing time and file size when scanning objects where the back isn’t needed, and can be adjusted from 1º up to the full 360º.

It’s almost inevitable that the scanned geometry will have some gaps in it, but not to worry, as the Three’s software can handle that for you, too.

So, what are the results actually like? I’m truly impressed with the Three's output. I think this is due, in part, to the pair of Sony 13-megapixel cameras that it uses, which far exceed not just the resolution but the quality of the sensors used in so many 3D scanners. These cameras also have autofocus, ensuring optimum results.

The actual fidelity of the Three goes right down to 37 microns for smaller, closer scans, although this drops off to (a still very respectable) 114 microns when scanning from around two feet away. This means fine details scan pretty much perfectly, edges retain sharpness, and all but the very finest surface textures are picked up.

What’s more impressive is that these details are stitched seamlessly when doing multi-part scans. Now, this brings me to a slightly frustrating element, although it can be managed. The scans can be quite dense, which is necessary for good results, but it does mean files get quite large, slowing down processing. In these situations, I found that the turntable rotation gave a lot of overlap, and more data was captured than is really needed. In these cases, I was able to delete some scans while preserving the coverage of the object and freeing up space. This gets easier as you scan more and learn the best settings. It’s not a deal-breaker by any means and is completely manageable, but waiting for processing can be annoying at first.

I said earlier that the Three is meant for smaller objects, and while that is true, it is relative, to a degree. The camera coverage and autofocus can capture objects up to two meters away, but some detail is lost at that distance. I’d be most comfortable scanning objects up to around 30 centimetres across, so, basically, if it will fit on the turntable, you’re good to go. That turntable can take a good amount of weight too, so if there’s masonry or metalwork you need to capture, it will take it, up to a maximum load of 20 pounds.

Matter and Form Three: Verdict

The experience of scanning using the Three is a really positive one. It makes the entire process simple, but doesn’t skimp on performance. The details it can capture are very impressive indeed, and for anything up to a couple of feet in size, this is my new go-to 3D scanner.

Alternatives

Revopoint offers a wide range of scanners for different uses. Some are designed for scanning small objects, while others, like this Range 2, are aimed at capturing larger ones. The Range is optimized for scanning people, automobiles, furniture, and so on, so its design is all about making that easier. I’ve spent some time with it to see how it compares to the many other 3D scanners I’ve used over the years.

Revopoint Range 2: Specifications

Revopoint Range 2: Price

The Range 2 has a retail price of $729 / £699 / AU$1,250, although at the time of writing, it was available at a 20% discount. That’s a considerable saving, making what was already good value even better.

Revopoint Range 2: Design & Handling

The Range 2 ships in a good, padded semi-hard case, which holds everything you need and does so well, unlike some cases of this type. There are cutouts for the main components on one side, and on the underside, you'll find spaces for cables, a tracking mat, and a sheet of tracking stickers.

The main unit is surprisingly light and feels nimble in the hand, even with the battery grip and a phone attached, and I had no issues holding it for extended scans. This light weight does mean some of the plastics feel cheap, but I think that the balance is just right between quality materials and the intended use. Overall, the build feels great, everything fits nicely, and I never feel like anything is at risk of breaking.

The Range 2 can be used in two ways. Firstly, it can be connected to a Mac or PC via the Revo Scan software to control everything, or to a smartphone using the app version of the program. Considering this scanner is aimed at users who want to scan larger objects, I think most will opt for the phone method, which is what I did for the most part. The computer system works just as well, so long as you don’t mind carrying a laptop, too.

The Range 2 connects to the battery grip via a split cable. A locking USB-C cable connects to the scanner, with a USB-C and a USB-A connecting to the handle. Between the two sits the phone holder, which has a button for quickly connecting to the main unit. This is handy for quick setups, and the adapter can stay screwed to the scanner, which still fits in the case nicely.

Revopoint Range 2: Performance

Let's talk about the basics first. Once everything is connected, the first step is to get the app up and running with WiFi. This is a simple case of connecting the Range 2 to the battery grip via the split cable. You’ll see a green light, at which point you can go to your phone's settings and choose the Range’s WiFI network. There’s no password to remember or save, which is great, plus no need to worry about being within range of a router. This makes perfect sense for a device meant to scan larger objects, enabling you to work outdoors on cars and other large items.

Now that brings me on to the main issue with the Range 2. Lighting in the area you wish to scan is key to good results, and harsh shadows can really throw it off, so bright, sunny days are a no-go. Ideal conditions are overcast, with even lighting and soft shadows. The Range 2 is equipped with four flashlights, but they can’t overpower the sun, so be mindful of this if your use case calls for extensive outdoor scanning.

But once you find yourself in suitable surroundings, the going is fantastic. The app is easy to use, with a large bar indicating the optimum distance from the target object. This makes it really easy to get the best results. Alongside the main 3D viewer, which shows the mesh as scanned so far, are other viewers showing the object in greyscale and colour. A neat feature of the main unit is a trio of buttons on the rear. You can use these to start a scan or, more usefully, adjust the exposure on the fly. If you move to a less well-lit section of an object, you can increase the exposure, helping the scanner resolve finer detail in those areas.

The actual scanning process is really very simple. You press the Start button and move around the object to be scanned, using the distance guide to ensure you are at the optimum range and check the images to see what you are capturing. You’ll likely capture other things too, especially the surface your scanned object is sitting on, but don’t worry: the software can handle that.

There’s a frame rate counter on the main screen. It’s worth keeping an eye on this, especially during your first few scans, since the Range 2 runs at 16fps. That doesn’t sound all that fast, but in use, it’s higher than you might think, and it’s worth slowing down a little to capture full detail.

The main difference in my experience, compared to scanners for small items, is the working window. The Range 2 can capture a larger area per frame, meaning you can cover the entirety of your object in fewer passes; this is very welcome when scanning something like a car! This also means less strain on the battery as you can work faster. That said, the battery life is pretty good. I scanned for nearly four hours before needing to charge the battery grip.

The software, Revo Scan, is really the heart of the setup here. Once you have your scan, you can process it with a single click. It can then identify parts that aren’t connected, like the floor, or sections of other objects that have entered the frame, which you can then delete.

The app even has tools to fill any holes in the mesh, which is nice to have generally and vital if you plan to 3D-print your models. You may prefer to do this in another piece of software if you’re a seasoned 3D pro, but the app does a good job, with pleasing results. The scanner does a really good job, and any gaps in the geometry tend to be very small. Plus, as you get used to adjusting exposure and speed of movement, any geometry issues like this will be reduced to pretty minimal.

Although the Range 2 is aimed at users wanting to scan large items, which it does very well, it can handle smaller objects too. I scanned everything from an apple, through a small fridge used for storing film, to an armchair. They all produced good results, but I would suggest the experience is better when scanning anything over around two feet in size, where the form factor, scan speed and working distance are really optimized.

If you are hunting for a scanner for small jobs, check out our guide to the best 3D scanners to see the alternatives best suited to your needs.

The Range 2 ships with a mat covered in tracking dots, which you place your object on for increased accuracy. There are also some adhesive tracking markers for the same purpose. I’d say the mat is probably better suited to smaller jobs, but the markers can be useful. If you need to scan bigger objects with large, smooth surfaces, placing some of these will really help the scanner produce good results on the first attempt.

One note on scale: yes, the Range 2 is the right tool for scanning large objects, but before you begin, make sure you have access all around and above your target. You may want to get a stepladder so you can reach taller objects, and it can be surprising how quickly you get to the limits of what you can comfortably cover. Luckily, you can pause and restart a scan, so moving a ladder or a box around to make life easier isn’t too much of a hassle.

Revopoint Range 2: Verdict

If you plan to scan objects that tend to be on the larger side, the Revopoint Range 2 is a great option. It’s truly portable, doesn’t rely on WiFi (other than its own), and is easy to operate. The software is excellent, with built-in processing and hole-filling. The geometry produced is accurate, and you can capture objects of almost any size. Highly recommended.

Alternatives

Other than simple toys, there are three concepts that most drone users are already familiar with:

• Standard camera drones: by far and away the most popular, a remotely controlled camera at the front and a monitor (often taking the form of your phone) attached to a remote control
• FPV drone: First-Person View drones let you 'sit in the cockpit' by wearing goggles and look through the camera at the front, making it easy to fly amazing stunts and a whole genre of into and out of building videos.
• Follow-me drones: Using AI, the drone doesn't need a remote controller at all but follows the subject with its camera or sensors and takes action videos like an angel on the shoulders.

The Antigravity A1 takes elements of all of these and introduces an entirely new technology: 360-cameras. We've already seen the best 360 cameras growing in popularity in the action camera space because there is no need to 'frame' the shot until later, and that makes a ton of space for drone pilots – especially, of course – with high speed flying like FPV.

Essentially, those are the elements we've got. The question is, do they actually work together? It's asking a lot...

Antigravity A1: Pricing

At launch, in December 2025, the Antigravity A1 is being sold in three bundles. The cheapest of these is the 'Standard Bundle' at $1,599 / £1219, which includes the A1 Drone, the Grip controller, the Vision goggles, a battery for the goggles, and a battery for the drone.

There isn't an easy comparison as to whether this is good value because there is no comparable product, but you could say that a 1-battery DJI Avata 2 bundle – which also has goggles and a similar style of controller – but no 'world first' 360 camera is around three-quarters of the price.

On the other hand, you could see the A1 as affording the opportunity to shoot video as one person but control the camera separately (later) – a new way of achieving results a bit like DJI's $15,000 Inspire 3. I'll look at both these theories as we go, but my overall feeling is that, in essence, the pricing represents good value for someone who understands what they are buying.

The other bundles are Explorer Bundle (3 batteries) $1,899 and Infinity Bundle $1,999.

Antigravity A1: Specs

Antigravity A1: Build & Handling

Unboxing and exploring the Antigravity A1 was one of the more exciting experiences for me as a drone expert for a long time, even though I'd been out to a press event several months ago and seen a pre-production model. It's great to see a technology has made it through the pitfalls of development and exists in real, complete, usable form.

I was immediately struck by the quality and professionalism of everything in the boxes. This is right up there with the biggest name in the industry – yeah, we know who Antigravity need to go up against – and that isn't something I've seen a lot. No expense has been spared and that means every step of the process is a joy.

The Antigravity A1 itself does feel light, of course. Because it's meant to. It's a sub 250g drone. It's made of similar scratchy plastic to other drones in the weight class. But folding the legs out still introduces you to positive design choices: the legs can be folded out in any order without bumping into each other. A simple design thing, you'd thing, but a lot of other firms have not managed it.

Admittedly, the A1 solves it because it needs to introduce a new element – landing legs – that do introduce an additional complexity, but they are handled broadly automatically and give the drone a joyously insectile look.

At the front there is no camera gimbal. Instead the 360-degree camera system is made up of two lenses – one facing up and one down – mounted on a dampened element. At the very front are two optical collision sensors (this drone will go to a lot of effort not to let you crash it!)

I strongly advise a landing mat, by the way.

The Grip controller may look a little intimidating at first, with an extensive array of buttons, but the software makes it easy to get to grips with (sorry). The textured design helps too.

On the underside, you'll see the drone is well equipped with landing sensors.

An essential aspect of the Antigravity A1 experience is the goggles. These use motion sensors so that you can look around and see the entire world from the drone's perspective. This is achieved without you needing to give it a second thought thanks to the 360 camera technology and the near-invisible stitching, something which Antigravity adopted from sponsor Insta360. That, of course, is no bad thing since that company has been top of our best 360 camera guide for a long while!

I found that my view through the goggle's Micro-OLED dual 1-inch displays was good, and I was able to adjust them without the built-in adjustments need for the extra lens adapters that were supplied for me to review with. The tutorials made the process very straightforward.

Charging everything was all easy too, with one exception. I tried plugging the goggles in with a USB-C to USB-C cable at first and couldn't work out why the wouldn't come on. As it turns out, a USB-C to barrel cable takes the power from the special battery, which is worn like a necklace.

Antigravity A1: Experience

I made this quick video showing my experience with the drone...

Antigravity A1: Performance

When you get on location, it'll take you a few moments to get things together, but everything has been considered by Antigravity. The battery for the goggles is worn on a neck strap, so the goggles seem to have a low weight. Each of the devices is powered up with a short press then long press approach and I found that they all connected seamlessly (and I didn't actually need to get my phone app involved which cheered me up – standing in fields updating software is never fun!)

Antigravity A1: Camera Performance

The output is produced via your phone or computer app and, if you're not planning on experiencing it using something capable of viewing the 360 experience, you need to use these tools to produce traditional video or stills. These essentially allow you to play the whole spherical view and crop onto any part of it – in any shape (you can get 16:9 or 9:16 video, or 1:1 video come to that, just as easily, from the same shot.

The limitation is that the entire field of view recorded in video is 8K at 30fps (or 5.6K at 60fps) so if you only want, say, proportionally a quarter of that view you'll be getting the equivalent of a Full HD amount of resolution.

The software will fix things a bit, but there are limits, of course.

Ultimately, in terms of quality, the output is best when the view is either of a subject relatively near the drone, or seen relatively wide – broadly at the equivalent of a 30mm EFL lens or wider, I'd say, like most camera drones that don't boast telephoto cameras.

That's fair enough – and also true of FPV drones (or the best action cameras) which all seem to have very wide-angle lenses. Zooming in is tempting, but is always digitally zooming, so reducing the data you are working from, so the sharpness of the video is at risk.

In terms of flight performance, I found the drone relatively snappy, and the Grip controller very natural to use, especially in its default mode.

The ready availability of tutorials and tips helped, as did the layout. My only slight gripe was that I didn't feel very comfortable flying much over 300m (900ft) from myself before the radio range was reaching its limits. Admittedly, I was testing in the UK, near an urban area, with evidence of a morning mist, so there would be more interference than ideal circumstances, but I couldn't leave that unmentioned.

Antigravity A1: Editing

Be prepared to spend a bit of time getting this right, and the results will please you. The same is true with any 360-camera.

Where things could be a little better in the editor is with tracking of relatively distant objects, like the train. There isn't really the AI to handle it passing behind the small bridge. The AI is much better when it stays nearer people or things, which is likely something from the heritage (Insta360's physical cameras are usually held on a pole of a few feet at most).

Antigravity A1: Overall Verdict

This is not only a good drone, but an impressively successful fusion of two technologies, and one which makes me think "this is something I could use" – not always the case when someone brings a new idea to the market.

There are, essentially, two compromises that you need to consider in exchange for the A1, but, personally, I think they're both more or less worth it. The drone isn't as screaming fast as you might hope for from a heavier FPV drone because keeping under the 250g limit has issues when it comes to physics. The other is resolution; a total of 8K seems to be the limit for consumer 360 cameras at the moment.

That is a challenge, especially if stills photography is important to you, but if you're looking to create video – especially attention-grabbing stings and the like – this device feels like it is unleashing a whole new set of possibilities.

I enjoy the Grip controller. I was taken aback by how few issues I discovered with the design – my only real complaint is that the batteries for the drone and the goggles can't be interchangeable. There are, no doubt, good reasons.

Antigravity A1: Alternatives

How I test drones

I've had a lot of experience with drones before joining Digital Camera World – I was an enthusiast building drones when it was just a hobby world, and I even wrote books on the subject to help others adopt the hobby which became bestsellers.

I later became a professional drone operator, taking on commercial jobs. I even ran a business offering 'drone experiences' (which meant, among other things, teaching drunk business people to fly drones in safety cages!)

These days I've taken the most recent UK professional exams and I still help others fly – including my son, who has also become quite a drone enthusiast. That means I get a very broad perspective on using drones – not just from an experienced photographer and videographer with clients in mind, but from younger operators.

I test drones by taking them out into the real world and flying them and trying them, working through the features and taking advantage of my knowledge.

I prefer continuous lighting solutions like the Godox ML80Bi for several reasons. As a photographer, the continuous LED light eliminates the need to worry about the flashgun's infrared receiver pointing towards the camera-mounted remote trigger during portrait shoots, and thus the risk of misfires. This continuous light source also lets me see how the subject is illuminated and adjust the light stand or color temperature and intensity on the fly for a more flattering (or dramatic) look. Additionally, I shoot a lot of video, so a continuous light source is highly advantageous and a flash becomes redundant, especially in gloomy locations like the corridors in London’s Brutalist Barbican Centre.

As the ‘Bi’ in its name indicates, the Godox ML80Bi is a bi-color LED. This means it can emit a wide range of color temperatures, measured in degrees Kelvin, from a warm 2800K to a cooler 6500K. However, it isn’t an RGB LED, so you can’t dial in a more creative range of colors to simulate different-color gels. This lack of an RGB capability initially put me off, as I do like to get creative and add cinematic teals and oranges to my portraits.

However, as you’ll see from this review’s supporting clips and photos, I had a ball using the Godox ML80Bi, especially as my review sample shipped with optional accessories such as a soft box for more flattering portrait lighting effects, and is sure to earn its place as one of the best continuous LEDs.

Godox ML80Bi: Specifications

Godox ML80Bi: Price

The list price of the Godox ML80Bi is $299 / £203 / AU$383. The kit ships with the new ML-Z zoom lens reflector, which boosts the output of the LED by up to an impressive and eyeball-blinding 10x. It contains an ML-BA battery that docks to the LED via a secure push-and-click mechanism. For the price, you also get a sturdy yet compact carry case that should fit into most camera kit bags. Oh, there’s also an adaptor to attach the LED to a light stand (or you can screw it to a mini tripod via a thread on the bottom of the LED).

For the price, the ML80Bi is relatively expensive compared to the similarly specced but slightly cheaper 80W Neewer HB80C, which retails at $179.99 / £129. The ML80Bi also lacks the Neewer HB80C’s RGB ability to mimic a wide range of color gels. However, the ML80Bi is still a powerful and portable portrait light, and unlike the Neewer HB80C, you can adjust the focus of its reflector to get a wider or narrower beam of light. It’s also an attractive LED to look at, with a design that’s reminiscent of the stylish (and much more expensive) bi-color Harlowe Avant Max.

Godox ML80Bi: Design & Handling

As the number in its name indicates, the Godox ML80Bi is an 80W LED, though thanks to the supplied reflector, it can emit a 10x brighter output of 29,000 lux. On unboxing the LED, I was impressed at how heavy it felt, which gave me the impression of a well-built piece of kit. On the downside, the white plastic body of the main LED made me doubt that it would survive unscathed if I dropped it or knocked it over when mounted on a light stand.

The ML80Bi is a modular portrait light. In the sturdily built but compact carry case, you’ll find the body of the LED, plus a clip-on ML-BA battery. The battery is also constructed of white plastic, and when clipped onto the LED, it creates an attractive, sleekly designed light that looks like a boxy retro camera, especially when you clip on the supplied white plastic reflector, which looks a bit like a camera’s lens. The battery can be charged up by plugging in a USB-C power cable. This enables you to shoot in any location without requiring a cabled connection to the mains, which suits my needs as a ‘run and gun’ location-based portrait shooter. You can also power the Godox ML80Bi via NP-F batteries, but you’ll need to purchase the Godox ML-NPA battery adaptor plate to do that. You can also attach a V-Mount battery (sold separately).

As a bi-color light, the controls on the side of the lamp body are very easy to use. A circular textured plastic dial enables you to adjust the LED’s color temperature between a warm candlelight 2800K to a cooler daylight color temperature of 6500K. You can view the chosen color temperature on an LCD screen. After tapping the Set button, you can use the same dial to adjust the intensity of the LED. The mode button also enables you to access 11 animated special effects – Flash, Lighting, Cloudy, Broken Bulb, TV, Candle, Fire, Firework, Explosion, Welding, and SOS.

This isn't quite as many as the competing 80W Neewer HB80C can manage, which boasts an additional seven animated effects. This is because the Neewer LED is an RGB light, so it can produce a wider range of colors in its animated effects. The Godox’s ML80Bi bi-color nature means that its animated effects can only include warm or cold color temperatures rather than the creative reds and blues you’d need to mimic a police car, for example. But despite the lack of RGB colors, I still found the Godox’s ML80Bi capable of producing a range of colored light to complement and contrast with existing light sources on location.

Godox ML80Bi: Performance

To test the Godox ML80Bi, I popped its carry case into my favoured camera backpack of choice – the Wandrd Stratus Photo 18L. I then headed to London’s Barbican Centre for a photo shoot rendezvous with model Maryna. I planned to kill two birds with one stone by using the Godox ML80Bi to illuminate Maryna while testing the iPhone Air's camera capabilities.

In addition to the Godox ML80Bi, I also brought a Godox ML-S50 soft box and a Godox ML-CFL5 Collapsible Silicone Fresnel Attachment with me in the Wandrd backpack. These optional extras proved to be very useful accessories on my shoot, as I’ll explain.

As it was a cold day, we started our shoot in one of the Barbican Centre’s indoor corridors. My first corridor of choice had a stone ramp that made a perfect ‘catwalk’ for Maryna. The location was already illuminated by yellow and blue lights, so I mounted the Godox ML80Bi on a lighting stand, courtesy of the Godox kit’s supplied AD-E2 Stand Mount. As it was a full-size lighting stand, I was able to extend it to Maryna’s head height and shine a key light on her.

To magnify and direct the light, I attached the supplied ML-Z reflector to the front of my ML80Bi. Rotating the reflector adjusted its emission angle between 13º and 30º. A 13º angle produced a more tightly focused, stronger beam, while a 30º angle created a wider, slightly softer flood. The reflector’s bright key light was so intense that I had to reduce it using the plastic control dial on the LED’s body.

Inspired by its strong key light, I began my iPhone Air shoot with some ‘film noir’ style shots of Maryna. She was dramatically lit from the side, with half her face plunged into shadow, evoking the look of a mysterious Hollywood femme fatale. To contrast with the existing blue and orange light, I set the ML80Bi’s color temperature to a cool 5300K. The harsh light created a very striking and defined shadow, which complemented the film noir look of our first shots.

As Maryna was wearing a glamorous dress, I wanted to capture some less dramatic and more flattering photos of her, so I mounted the Godox ML-S50 soft box onto the ML80Bi. I felt really pleased to have a studio-style lighting setup on location and was delighted with the softer key light (and softer shadows) that the soft box produced. The soft box also provided enough light to make Maryna stand out from the background (and add some modelling light to shape her face) when I filmed her walking through the location to test the iPhone Air’s video recording capabilities.

Talking of video, the next part of the test involved testing the Godox ML80Bi’s 11 animated effect presets. I found a dramatically low-ceilinged corridor and asked Maryna to walk through it as if she were in a thriller movie (which was a bit of a challenge due to her high heels). I then used the Godox Light app on my phone to trigger the ‘Bad Bulb' effect on the LED. This intermittent flickering from the ML80Bi made it look like the location’s lighting was failing, which added a sense of drama to the scene. I was able to use the app to adjust the effect's properties, such as the flickering frequency, more quickly and easily than I could using the physical control dial on the body of the LED. I also used the ‘Lightning’ effect to add dramatic lighting to my footage, though this produced a colder-looking light than the warm ‘Bad Bulb’ preset.

After a change of outfit for Maryna (to add variety to my shots), we headed out into the cool November Barbican exterior. The sun was setting, which would normally allow me to capture my model bathed in a flattering golden-hour glow, but due to shadows from the urban location’s surrounding buildings, only the tallest towers were sunlit. Fortunately, I was able to dial in a golden hour color temperature on the ML80Bi, so it complemented the existing sunlight. Thanks to the LED’s adjustable color temperature, I was able to make it look like Maryna was lit by the same sunlight illuminating the distant tower, creating a dramatic golden-hour portrait that would not have been possible without the presence of the ML80Bi.

As the shadowed outdoor sections of the Barbican were quite gloomy, I popped the Godox ML-CFL5 Collapsible Silicone Fresnel Attachment (sold separately) onto the front of the ML80Bi. The accessory produced a much stronger and more directional beam of light, which enabled me to bring the setting sun down to earth and illuminate my model. The Fresnel attachment is made of silicone, so it can collapse flat and fit nicely into my Wandrd backpack alongside the ML80Bi. I can certainly see myself using this compact and portable collection of lighting equipment in future portrait shoots!

Godox ML80Bi: Verdict

Thanks to separately sold accessories, such as the Godox ML-S50 soft box and the Godox ML-CFL5 Fresnel lens, I was able to take my usual Barbican-shot portraits to the next level. Being at the mercy of available light can lead to gloomy and flat-looking portraits, but the customizable light from the ML80Bi helped me emphasize the shape of my model’s face and helped her stand out from the location’s gloomy background corridors.

By changing the LED’s color temperature, I was able to light her as if she were bathed in the same golden hour hue that was illuminating the background buildings, leading to a more attractive collection of outdoor portraits. The animated effects were fun to use when shooting video, though the lack of an RGB LED panel's more colorful gel effects makes the ML80Bi less useful for creative video makers, but still perfect for ‘run and gun’ portraits.

Alternatives

The Camp Snap CS-Pro feels film-like not because of what this tiny budget camera has, but what it doesn’t have: a screen. There’s no temptation to flip through all the photos. Framing shots in the tiny viewfinder didn’t take me away from the moment any more than using a disposable film camera would.

The CS-Pro builds on the success of the original Camp Snap. The Camp Snap originally launched as a way to send kids to screen-free summer camps with a fully digital camera, but the unusual design quickly found a following beyond kids' cameras, including adult digital minimalists and retro camera fans.

The Camp Snap CS-Pro feels far more grown-up than the original, yet every bit as retro.

Camp Snap CS-Pro Review: Specifications

Camp Snap CS-Pro Review: Price

The Camp Snap CS-Pro costs more than the original Camp Snap camera, but still qualifies as a cheap camera. The CS-Pro retails for about $99 / £90 / AU$153 / CA$141.

In comparison, the original Camp Snap sells for $65 / £53 / AU$106 / CA$85.

Camp Snap CS-Pro Review: Design & Handling

The Camp Snap CS-Pro still looks retro with its screen-free design, but takes on the beloved classic silver-with-a-black-wrap look. I love the iconic colors and shape of the CS-Pro, but what’s most important here is that Camp Snap fixed some of my biggest complaints about the design of the original.

First, there’s a film simulation dial at the top of the camera. This allows you to choose from four different digital filters, whereas the original camera needs to be plugged into a computer if you want to change the digital filter. This dial also serves as the camera’s off switch.

My other complaint about the original Camp Snap design was that the microSD card was annoyingly difficult to access. The CS-Pro still has a little screw in the card door, but there’s a quick-release catch there too, so you can loosen the screw and leave it off if you want, or keep the screw fastened if you’re handing the camera over to a child where the microSD may get lost or pose as a choking hazard. There’s also a quick-access USB-C port on the bottom, which can be used for charging as well as transferring photos.

While there’s a “Pro” in the name, the compact camera remains very simple. The only controls are the shutter release, the digital filter dial, and a flash toggle. There’s no label on the flash toggle, but down is off, the middle is auto flash, and all the way up is forced flash.

The back remains blissfully screen-free for digital minimalists and keeping a more film-like experience. There’s a small counter that tallies the number of photos that you’ve taken, and, if you press the menu button hidden underneath the SD card door, you can adjust the date so that the correct day writes to the photo’s metadata. Four small lights indicate the remaining battery life.

Another key change? The lens has a filter thread, so the compact camera can also take 37mm filters.

My only complaints about the design are minor. The hook to attach a strap is a bit small and isn’t going to accommodate every kind of strap on the market unless you add a keyring loop first. (And unlike the inclusion of a microSD card, there’s no strap in the box). The CS-Pro also feels a bit plasticky, but this isn’t really a con on a sub-$100 camera and is rather expected.

The Camp Snap CS-Pro both feels more grown up, yet remains simple enough that I think this camera would still work for school-aged kids as well as adults.

Camp Snap CS-Pro Review: Performance

The trend of fixing the original Camp Snap’s quirks continues in the CS-Pro’s performance. One of my biggest complaints with the more affordable camera from the brand is that the shutter lag – the time between when the shutter release is pressed and when the photo is actually taken. The original has a significant shutter lag, making it hard to time the photo just right.

With the CS-Pro, the shutter lag is significantly reduced. The artificial (but endearing) shutter sound happens immediately after pressing the button. I was able to get the timing down right far better than with the older camera. The lag is now very minor, and only the fastest motion, like my cat turning his head away, leads to a missed shot.

The CS-Pro has a fixed focus lens, which means you don’t have to wait for it to lock focus. But, that also means it doesn’t have the best of close-up capabilities. Camp Snap recommends standing at least three feet from the subject, and any close-ups I attempted were a bit soft. That includes selfies (unless perhaps you have arms longer than mine).

The CS-Pro also uses an upgraded Xenon flash that is pretty powerful for the small size – in fact, at times it was too powerful. The forced flash mode tended to overexpose indoors at a semi-close distance. The auto flash mode – the middle position on the switch on the front of the camera – fared much better, offering less noise and that retro direct flash look. Once I saw my flash images, I’m sticking to the auto flash and off modes, not the forced flash.

Photos from the CS-Pro feel like a mix between the 2000s-era digicam trend and the look of a cheap disposable film camera. The images aren’t meant to be perfect, and that’s actually kind of the point.

The Camp Snap CS-Pro upgrades to a 16MP resolution, and it feels a bit sharper, but it’s still a camera that embraces old-school imperfections rather than making an attempt at pixel-peeping perfection. Images are charming, not perfect. If you want images better than a smartphone, you’ll be disappointed – but at this price, you really shouldn’t expect better photos than a device that costs ten times more.

Those imperfections that feel like a retro throwback include noise in low light – and even outdoors on a cloudy day, there’s some slight grain to the images. The lens also creates some noticeable colored fringing, which seems most obvious around backlit tree branches and other thin objects. The lens still has a bit of softness and flare to it that reminds me of a disposable film camera.

That’s all par for the course, however, and in line with what I was expecting both from the price point and my experience with the original. The dial to change the digital filter or color mode is fantastic. I loved being able to swap looks without having to connect the camera to a computer.

The camera ships with four digital looks pre-installed: a neutral standard, a warmer retro look, a cooler retro look, and a black-and-white mode. If you don’t love those looks, you can connect the CS-Pro to a computer and download different ones or use Camp Snap’s online tool to create your own.

Camp Snap CS-Pro Sample Images

Camp Snap CS-Pro Review: Verdict

The Camp Snap CS-Pro is a wonderfully retro compact camera with an impressively cheap price tag. The images feel like a throwback mix between early digital compact cameras and disposable film.

But what I love about the CS-Pro isn’t just the old-school feel of the images, or the classic silver-and-black look. The screen-free design brings back the film-like ability to capture memories without the distracting notifications and apps of a smartphone or the temptation to check each shot as moments are still unfolding.

But if you’re considering the CS-Pro, it’s also important to understand what this cheap little compact camera is and what it is not. It is not going to snap better photos than a decent smartphone camera. But it is going to take nostalgic images with the feel of a film camera, but the convenience of digital.

The Camp Snap CS-Pro is an easy choice over the original, fixing complaints like shutter lag and adding space for up to four swappable digital filters without a major jump in price. The more affordable original feels more like a disposable and will be easier for younger kids with fewer controls, but for nostalgia-seeking adults and digital minimalists, the CS-Pro is well worth the price difference.

Alternatives

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I’ve recently been impressed with the Neewer RF1 Macro Ring Flash, but the new Z3 looks and feels more like the Godox V100 flashgun that I reviewed a while ago. Like its Godox competitor, the Z3 is a 100Ws flashgun that features a built-in RF wireless transceiver for master/slave operation with multi-flashgun setups, or remote off-camera use with the similarly color touchscreen-based Neewer QZ hot-shoe trigger. The Neewer Z3 definitely has its eyes on the prize, aiming to be one of the best flashguns on the market, available in Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Fujifilm-dedicated options.

Neewer Z3 100Ws Flash: Specifications

Neewer Z3 100Ws Flash: Price

Everybody loves a bargain, right? The Neewer Z3 100Ws flashgun costs around $280 / £236 / AU$430. That’s a sizeable chunk off the similarly specced Godox V100, which sells for $349 / £339 / AU$610. It’s also a whole heap of money less expensive than own-brand flashguns from various camera manufacturers, which have relatively slim pickings in their feature lists. Potentially, this Neewer gun is standout value for money. Let’s see how the design, handling and performance stack up.

Neewer Z3 100Ws Flash: Design & Handling

The whole design and handling characteristics of the Neewer Z3 revolve around its comfortably large 2.75-inch color touchscreen, so it had better be a good one. And it is. Fitting seamlessly into the range of gadgets for the smartphone generation, you can go anywhere you want to go and do anything you want to do with the minimum of taps and swipes on this intuitive, responsive touchscreen display. And as you’d expect, you’re rewarded with instant feedback in the way of information displayed about flash settings and adjustments.

I’ve picked out four of the main screens from the interface for the gallery below, which show how the illuminated touchscreen looks in auto TTL (Through The Lens) flash metering mode, the underlying menu that’s revealed if you swipe upwards, and then manual flash mode and programmable repeat / stroboscopic mode. I’m sold on the intuitive convenience, but take a look for yourself and see what you think.

Not just a pretty interface, this Neewer flashgun has a clever head. With an octagonal profile, it’s more rounded than the letterbox shape of most flashgun heads and includes a frontal lens for evenly distributing the light. Compared with regular flashguns, the rounded head of this one delivers a softer quality of light that has a nicer fall-off towards the circumference.

And that’s not all. Bounce and swivel functions are taken care of, with an extravagant range in both respects, comprising -7-degree downward to 120-degree rear-facing bounce, and full 180-degree swivel rotation to both the left and the right. In a nutshell, you can bounce the flash off any nearby wall or ceiling, with a full range of movement.

Fancy taking a shot in the dark? No, I thought not. It’s nice being able to preview the effect of flash and, to this end, the Neewer features not one but two powerful modelling LEDs. You can switch them on and off and adjust their intensity. Not just for a preview of flash effect, they also work well as autofocus assist lamps when using mirrorless cameras. For legacy DSLRs (dare I say it), there’s also a red AF-assist beam that you can enable or disable in the menu system.

I’ll confess to having a love/hate relationship with TTL flash metering. When I’m in a big hurry and need to best-guess a flash power setting for a defining moment with no time to compose a shot, I’ll take TTL any time. But if time is on my side, I prefer to test the waters and tailor the strength of the flash in manual mode.

The Neewer makes it quick and easy to swap between both modes, not just through the touchscreen interface but also with a straightforward M/TTL switch on the left-hand side of the flashgun. Sometimes a physical, dedicated switch is hard to beat. Just below this is a test-fire button and, unlike the piffling equivalents in most flashguns, this one fires the flash at the strength you’ve preset. Lovely. And below that, there’s another physical pushbutton for quickly reverting to the previous menu level. All is good.

Let’s flip the flashgun over and take a peek at the right-hand side. Top of the tree is a power on/off button. Simply use a long-press to switch the flashgun on or off, with no need for supplemental touchscreen taps or swipes to confirm. Just below this is a dedicated button for turning the modelling lamps on or off. There’s also a 2.5mm sync socket for retro cable-linked rather than RF wireless sync. At least cable connectivity is catered for, although it’s not the favored option in this RF-linked day and age.

Next up are not one but two USB-C ports. The first one is colored black and is a data port for applying firmware updates if and when needed. The second is an integral part of the Li-ion battery that powers the flashgun, and is power color-coded in red. This one is for recharging the 3000 mAh battery, which takes around 90 minutes, if the battery is completely drained.

Some of the smaller Li-ion-powered flashguns I’ve seen of late have a built-in battery that’s fixed in place. I’m happy that the battery of this more powerful flashgun is an interchangeable unit. As such, you can buy a spare for backup if you tend to take on prolonged sessions. You can also charge up your spare battery while using the other one slotted into the flashgun. It’s a good way of keeping pace with the busiest workloads.

The collection can sometimes be more than the sum of the parts, and the Neewer comes on strong in this respect. I was pleased to find many and varied components in the box, including the flashgun itself, the Li-ion battery, a carrying case, a cold-shoe stand with a metal threaded 1/4-inch socket, a USB charging cable (but no mains charger), a clip-on diffusion dome, and even a rubber weather-seal shroud for the hot-shoe foot. All in all, it’s a very complete kit.

Back in days gone by, I used to religiously use a Sto-Fen Omni-Bounce diffusion dome with most of the flash-lit shots that I took. I’ve since moved on to using bounce flash more often, but a diffusion dome is still a great tactical weapon to have in your arsenal of winning flash accessories. A clip-on diffusion dome for the Z3 is supplied as part of the kit, giving you the opportunity of softening the quality of light without paying for optional extras.

Neewer Z3 100Ws Flash: Performance

There’s plenty of power on tap. In my lab tests using a Sekonic flash meter, the Neewer outgunned the Godox V100 round-headed flashgun for maximum power at longer zoom settings, the Godox also being rated at 100Ws. In old money, the Neewer equates to a Guide number of Gn 45 (meters, ISO 100) at the longest 105mm zoom setting.

The overall zoom range is actually the same as in the Godox, at 28-105mm. That’s fine as far as it goes, but wide-angle coverage is a little limited compared with most conventional flashguns that have a rectangular flash tube. On the plus side, the Neewer is supplied with a neat clip-on diffusion dome that spreads the beam to wider angles. It also softens the quality of light, reduces specular highlights, and makes shadows less harsh.

One slight niggle, as far as I’m concerned, is that I couldn’t find a menu option for changing the very fine 0.1EV adjustment steps to coarser 0.3EV steps. I often prefer to use larger step changes, and the option is available in the companion Neewer QZ touchscreen wireless flash trigger, but not in the Z3 touchscreen menu. I sometimes found it a bit tricky, for example, to increase or decrease the manual flash power by exactly a single EV step. I’d end up using the main touchscreen scale to make roughly the right change, then use the virtual + and - virtual buttons to home in on the correct value in 0.1EV steps.

As I’d expect from a flashgun that runs on a chunky Li-ion battery, recycling speeds are very quick. In my tests, recycling proved virtually instantaneous all the way up to 1/4 of full power, 0.5 seconds and half power and 1.5 seconds after a full-power flash.

There’s plenty of stamina as well, with the battery being rated at 530 full-power flashes and many more at lower power settings. It takes about 90 minutes to fully charge a flat battery, which again is pretty quick. In another element of stamina, resistance to overheating is also good, and you should be able to shoot a burst of up to 100 full-power flashes before things start to slow down and you need to give the Neewer a break. You’ll probably be ready for a break as well, after all that.

Neewer Z3 100Ws Flash: Sample images

The following gallery of example images was taken of a model car measuring about 20cm / 8 inches in length. I set the white balance of my Nikon Z 6II to Flash and used the Neewer in direct flash mode, then at a 60-degree upward angle with the diffusion dome fitted, then without the dome, but bouncing the flash at a rearward 120-degree angle off the ceiling. Finally, for creative effect, I fired the flash with the diffusion dome fitted again but remotely off-camera, using a Neewer QZ trigger. The last option gives the most creative freedom over lighting effects. See what you think.

Neewer Z3 100Ws Flash: Lab Results

We test all available features for each flashgun that goes through out labs. To test power output, we use a Sekonic flash meter placed at a distance of one meter from each flashgun. We check the complete range of manual power settings, in one-stop increments. Based on a sensitivity of ISO 100, the figures correlate directly with the Gn (Guide number) in meters. The results are double-checked by taking shots of a gray card with the appropriate lens apertures and using the camera’s histogram display in playback mode. We also use the gray card to test the accuracy and consistency of Auto and Auto TTL flash metering, where featured.

We check the speed with which each flashgun can recycle to a state of readiness, throughout its range of power settings, culminating in a full-power flash. We use freshly charged Ni-MH rechargeable batteries for this, or the supplied rechargeable Li-ion battery pack where featured in some flashguns. The graph below shows the power output (Gn, ISO 100, meters) at each full EV step through the complete power range, from minimum to maximum output. The recycle speed in seconds is shown at 1/8, 1/4, 1/2 and full power settings.

Power output:

As I’d expect, maximum power output rises at longer zoom settings but I’m impressed how the strength of the flash stays the same throughout the entire range in the shorter 28-50mm zoom range. At its maximum output setting and longest 105mm zoom setting, the Neewer edged ahead of the competing Godox V100 in my tests, returning a value of Gn 45 compared with Gn 38 (ISO 100, meters).

Recycle speed:

Recycling speeds are virtually instantaneous, from the minimum power setting of 1/256 all the way up to 1/4 power. Half a second is still very quick after a half-power flash, as is 1.5 seconds after a full-power flash. Unlike using alkaline batteries in a flashgun, there’s no slowdown as the Li-ion battery starts to discharge.

Neewer Z3 100Ws Flash: Verdict

I feel that the Neewer Z3 100Ws Flash is powerful and sophisticated, yet intuitive and easy to use. The color touchscreen interface makes everything I need very accessible and simple to adjust, and I like that the high-end features include a wealth of flash modes, along with a built-in RF transceiver, so it can be used as both an RF wireless master or slave in multi-flashgun setups.

There’s a nice range of extras included in the box, with a clip-on diffusion dome and rubber shroud that you can fit to the hot-shoe mounting foot. All in all, the Neewer is a great gun that delivers a lovely quality of light with excellent consistency. It’s also great value at the price. I’m hooked!

Alternatives

This Epson EcoTank printer is a cost-effective, bottle-fed, multi-function printer that claims to save you up to 95 per cent in ink costs, with up to three years’ worth of ink supplied in a set of full-sized bottles in the retail pack. The setup procedure consumes a little of this but you should still have enough ink left over for 6,600 mono pages and 5,500 color document pages. That should keep you going for ages and when you do need replacement bottles, they’ll be good for 8,500 mono pages and 6,500 color pages. It’s a whole different world to using cartridges and the Epson aims to be one of the best all-in-one printers for the home office and hybrid working.

Epson EcoTank ET-2950 / ET-2980: Specifications

Epson EcoTank ET-2950 / ET-2980: Price

Manufacturers have to make their money somewhere. Historically, cartridge inkjet printers have often been relatively cheap to buy but there’s a sting in the tail, with your first set of replacement cartridges costing more than the printer itself. You might be tempted to just buy a new printer instead, but setup cartridges can have a notoriously short lifespan. Flip the coin and you’re often looking at comparatively expensive initial purchase costs for EcoTank printers, but with much cheaper running costs going forward. Pay your money, take your choice. Either way, the up-front price of the Epson EcoTank ET-2980 / ET-2950 is pretty competitive for a bottle-fed printer, at $330 / £320 / AU$499. That’s a modest outlay for a brand new EcoTank printer, especially as you’re unlikely to need to buy any ink for a long time to come.

Epson EcoTank ET-2950 / ET-2980: Design & Handling

A key design factor is that the Epson has large tanks of ink which are replenished with bottles, rather than using cartridges. The inks themselves feature a pigment-based black and dye-based cyan, magenta and yellow. The mix aims to deliver crisp, durable and smudge-resistant black text on plain paper, along with strong color performance. The dye-based inks should ensure a smooth finish on glossy photo paper, but the absence of an additional black dye cartridge could be a limiting factor for photo quality. I’ll come back to this later in ‘performance’.

It’s only natural to feel short-changed when the ‘setup cartridges’ supplied with some printers seem to last barely any longer than the actual setup procedure. This EcoTank printer is supplied with a complete set of full-sized bottles, comprising 127ml of ink for black and 70ml for each of the cyan, magenta and yellow inks. That’s a tick in a box as far as I’m concerned. It’s also fairly common to worry that bottled ink is going to be a messy business. However, the bottles are designed to be easy to use with separately keyed tops so you can’t pour ink into the wrong tank. They’re drip-free, gravity fed with no squeezing, and shut off automatically with built-in valves to avoid any danger of over-filling at top-up time. In short, the whole process of initially filling the tanks and topping them up later is quick, easy and entirely painless. That’s a tick in another box.

You can get a status report on ink levels via the printer driver but the easiest way to keep tabs on ink is simply to take a glance at the tanks, which have clear inspection windows at the front. Each window has five level markers, from full to empty.

After filling each of the tanks, hinged stoppers fasten securely and are hidden away beneath a cover. It’s all very neat and tidy. The initial setup uses a fair bit of ink to prime the heads, but you should still have enough left over for 6,600 mono pages and 5,500 color document pages. Going forward, replacement bottles should last for 8,500 mono pages and 6,500 color pages, and cost $24.99 / £15.49 / AU$39.98 for a bottle of black ink or $75.95 / £39.49 / AU$99.95 for a full set of all four ink bottles. Suffice it to say that running costs are very inexpensive and massively cheaper than using cartridges.

The final part of the installation process is to print a test/alignment page which you then scan in using the printer’s flatbed scanner. It’s fully automatic so you don’t need to compare a bunch of printed blocks or lines and enter numerical values for each set of test areas, as you do with many printers.

Placing the calibration page into the scanner and completing the process only takes a few moments and ensures that the print heads are optimally aligned for the best and sharpest printing results.

A disappointment as far as I’m concerned is that, while the printer is pleasingly compact and sits fairly low on a table, there’s no internal paper feed cassette. As such, you need to slot paper into the upright feeder at the rear, which comes complete with a pull-up support and adjustable width guides. At least it makes it relatively easy to swap between different sizes and types of paper. Even so, I’d rather be able to fill an internal cassette with plain paper and pop photo paper into a rear feeder as and when required.

While the paper input system is fairly basic, the output tray is more refined. I’m happy that the output tray is fully motorized, so it extends automatically when you’re printing and there’s an option to fully retract it again when you switch off the printer. It’s a space-saver and again helps to keep everything neat and tidy.

Some people love touchscreens for everything but I see absolutely nothing wrong with having a regular color display screen and a set of dedicated buttons for making adjustments. That’s what’s featured here, and the control panel is both logical and intuitive. To be picky, the 3.7cm / 1.5" color LCD screen is pretty small, but I found it clear enough to read comfortably.

Around the back, there’s an auto duplex unit, so double-sided printing is on the menu without the need to flip paper over manually feed it back into the printer. And if you’re unlucky enough to suffer a paper jam during the automatic process, the duplex unit easily detaches for inspection and paper removal, with just a couple of pinch-action clips.

The rear of the printer also features a socket for the mains cable and a time-honored printer-type USB socket. As I’d expect in this day and age, the printer also supports Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi direct. This enables you not only to print wirelessly from computers around the home, but also to print and scan from smart devices, taking advantage of the Epson Smart Panel app. There’s support for Apple AirPrint, Mopria Print Service and Mopria Scan. I’d have also liked to see a USB socket on the front panel, for scanning to and printing from a memory stick, but that’s not featured.

Epson EcoTank ET-2950 / ET-2980: Performance

I’ve used ink tank printers that were rather slower than cartridge-based models, but this Epson is no slouch. It can output mono text pages at 15ppm and color pages at 8ppm in standard quality mode, rising to 33ppm for mono and 20ppm for color at the top speed setting. In my tests, printing single mono text and color text and graphics pages, the printer took 7 seconds for mono and 14 seconds for color in standard quality mode, and I can certainly live with that.

True to my expectations, black text on plain paper is crisp, dark and robust with good attention to fine detail. Color graphics are also reproduced very well, with good vibrancy and boldness. Arguably more of a handling plus point than a performance factor, I like the way that the front panel hinges upwards, so you can more clearly see the small LCD screen and use the pushbutton control panel to make any required changes.

This printer is clearly designed and advertised as a document printer, and I’ve only seen print speeds and page counts for ink usage quoted by Epson for documents, not for photos. Even so, the dye-based cyan, magenta and yellow inks work well for creating photo prints on glossy paper, up to a point. Being dye-based rather than pigment-based inks they’re fully absorbed beneath the outer glossy layer of photo paper, resulting in a smooth and uniform finish with no ‘bronzing’ or areas of uneven reflectivity.

However, the absence of a secondary dye-based black ink means that really dark areas of photos are reproduced with ‘composite black’ from all three colors. The result is that photos can be a bit lacking in contrast and depth. Photo printing is also relatively slow. I found that the printer took 1m 30s or 2m 55s to output a borderless 7x5-inch photo print in standard and high quality settings respectively. And for borderless A4 photos in standard or high quality mode, it was 2m 45s or 5m 15s. In terms of photographic fidelity, I found no benefit in switching from standard to high quality print mode.

Back on the plus side, the Epson printer driver is typically intuitive and easy to use. That really can be a performance boost, as it’s quick and simple to make any necessary changes to printer settings, and the same goes for running maintenance routines like nozzle checks and cleaning cycles. The gallery below shows the three main screens for the Windows printer driver.

Another performance facet is that you don’t want downtime when you’re counting on your printer. It’s generally not so much of an issue nowadays but historically, many inkjet printers needed to be sent away for servicing if the ‘maintenance cartridge’ became full of excess ink. Like most of its modern competitors, this Epson has a user-replaceable maintenance cartridge, and if you should come to need one, it’s cheap to buy at $10.99 / £10.49 / AU$15.99 for the genuine Epson article.

Epson EcoTank ET-2950 / ET-2980: Verdict

One of my pet hates with cartridge-based printers is the seemingly continual need to buy and replace ink cartridges. And it can be a very pricey business. I like that by comparison, this Epson printer is very cheap to run, and that bottles of ink last for absolutely ages. Despite this, the up-front purchase price of the printer is very reasonable, which I can’t say for many bottle-fed printers. All in all, the Epson is great value for money, easy to use and delivers very good quality mono and color documents with a quick turnaround. It’s less ideal for glossy photo printing, which is relatively slow and not of the best quality, but it can certainly turn its hand to the task when needed. I think it’s also a shame that the printer doesn’t have dual paper feed trays, with an internal cassette and separate rear feeder. All things considered though, it’s a very good choice as a multi-function printer for the home office and for family life.

Alternatives

However, the City 300 looks more like a regular compact camera than a would-be SLR. It actually sits at the pinnacle of Yashica’s City range, which includes the City 100 and the City 200. Both of those cameras have a smaller 13 megapixel 1/3" CMOS image sensor and a 3x or 10x optical zoom lens respectively.

The City 300 has a larger (but still physically small) 50 megapixel 1/1.56" CMOS image sensor, the likes of which you might find in a smartphone. It also has a fixed rather than zoom lens. It aims to be one the best cheap cameras on the market, so let’s see how it measures up.

Yashica City 300: Specifications

Yashica City 300: Price

The Yashica City 300 definitely isn’t what I’d call a ‘cheap camera’. The list price $420 / £330 / AU$665, which is a fair bit more than for the City 100 at $260 / £195 / AU$443 and the City 200 at $300 / £255 / AU$524, although it costs a little less to buy than the FX-D 300. The City 300 itself looks and feels like a mash-up of the FX-D 300 and the City 200, so the price seems pretty fair on paper. Naturally, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, or in this case, the picture quality.

Yashica City 300: Design & Handling

I’m not generally one to quote manufacturers’ advertising but I’ll make an exception. Yashica says, “Discover the Yashica City 300, the ultimate tool for photographers who demand excellence. With a professional-grade 50MP native sensor, this camera is built to capture the world just as you see it.” Those are bold claims indeed, and I feel it’s a massive stretch of the imagination to describe a 1/1.56" image sensor as ‘professional-grade’. I wasn’t impressed by the coupling of the same sensor and lens when I reviewed the Yashica FX-D 300, but more on that later. For now, let’s just say that cameras with professional-grade 50MP image sensors (or thereabouts) put me more in mind of the likes of the Nikon Z8 and Canon EOS R5 Mark II, which are naturally way more expensive to buy.

As with any digital compact rather than interchangeable-lens camera, the image sensor is buried away inside and not to be seen. The lens, on the other hand is much more accessible, being front and center, or rather positioned towards the edge of the front panel. It has a fixed focal length, equivalent to 24mm in full-frame terms. I think that’s a good choice as it enables a usefully wide viewing angle. Perhaps a surprisingly for a prime lens, it has a control ring that rotates along with markings of ‘D’ along with 24, 35, 50 and 60.

The gist is that the D setting enables digital zoom via a rocker switch on the top panel. Alternatively, you can step through ‘effective’ focal lengths of 24mm, 35mm, 50mm and 60mm using the control ring. What’s actually happening is a ‘crop to zoom’ facility, which crops the image frame progressively at greater digital zoom settings. For example, while you get a full 50MP at 24mm, that shrinks to 24MP at 35mm, 12MP at 50mm and just 8MP at 60mm. To me, that seems like a very poor substitute for an optical zoom lens and there’s likely to be serious loss of image quality with such aggressive cropping at the long end of the ‘digital zoom’ range.

On the plus side, there’s a major bonus in the City 300’s fixed lens, compared with the 3x zoom of the City 100 and 10x zoom of the City 200. That’s the addition of optical image stabilization, which works on three axes, whereas the other cameras have none. Considering that the City 200 zooms to a maximum effective focal length of 338mm, stabilization can be sorely missed. Another advantage is that the fixed lens enables a rather slimmer form factor than the for the other two cameras with their zoom lenses.

One thing that’s lacking in the City 300 is a built-in flash, which is featured in the City 100 and City 200 cameras. All three have a hot-shoe up top but the City 300 is only one to be supplied complete with a mini flash that slots into the shoe.

Along with the hot-shoe on one side of the top panel, there’s a built-in microphone and a set of control buttons for power on/off, auto exposure/autofocus lock and shooting modes, along with separate buttons for the shutter release and video recording start/stop. There’s also a rocker switch marked W/T, for digital zoom. The buttons and rocker switch, as well as the hot-shoe and mic, have an identical placement to those of the City 200.

Moving around to the left hand side of the camera, there’s a 2.5mm mini-jack socket for connecting an external microphone, and a USB-C port. The latter enables data transfer for downloading images and video clips, as well as in-camera charging of the removable Li-ion battery.

Around the back, the camera again looks just like the black version of the City 200. There’s a 2.8” screen which can flip around to face the front, and be positioned any angle in between. It’s all but essential for selfies and vlogging. You might feel it’s a shame that it’s not a touchscreen but the omission perhaps isn’t surprising at this price point.

While the screen takes up most of the back panel, there’s a thumb-rest to enhance handling. Beneath this is a conventional set of buttons and a 4-way pad with an OK button at its center. The arrangement gives easy access to the menu system, display options, exposure compensation and playback mode, the last of these complete with a Delete button.

The bottom of the camera features a metal tripod socket with a standard 1/4” thread, and a hinged flap with a lock/release slider for access to the battery and memory card. The memory card slot caters to microSD cards, with a recommended maximum capacity of 256GB. I’m glad that the battery is removeable rather than being a fixed internal type, as this makes it possible to buy a spare for lengthy shoots or for taking on your travels.

Sometimes I feel that even the most expensive cameras come with an almost embarrassing lack of bundled accessories. That’s not the case here, as the City 300 has a bunch of little extras in the box. These include the ‘QuickFlash’ module I’ve mentioned already, plus wrist strap, storage pouch, cleaning cloth, USB charging cable and even a key chain.

Yashica City 300: Performance

Bold claims give rise to big expectations. The advertised ‘professional-grade 50MP native sensor’ in such a budget-friendly camera would have got me seriously excited, had I not already tested a pre-production version of the Yashica FX-D 300, which I can only assume has the exact same image sensor. As with that camera, I found that shooting at the default resolution of 50MP left a lot to be desired in terms of image quality.

On the plus side, if you’re shooting under good lighting conditions, you can expect bold color rendition and good vibrancy even in the Standard picture style of ‘filter’. Other filters are available for different image treatments and overall, photos look good on the surface. However, if you zoom in to images on a computer screen, they soon start looking very blotchy and pixelated, with a real absence of fine detail and texture. ‘Pixel peeping’ will result in serious disappointment. To give some numerical credence to this, I shot a detailed landscape scene at 50MP in the maximum ‘super fine’ JPEG quality setting, and resulted in an image file with a data size of a mere 10MB, suggesting a distinct absence of fine detail.

Other resolution options when shooting stills in JPEG quality modes are 12MP and 24MP. I found that photos still had an interpolated look to them at the 24MP setting and the best results were gained at the lowest 12MP resolution setting. A notable difference between this camera and the other City models as well as the more similar FX-D 300, is that you can capture stills in RAW + JPEG quality mode on the City 300, instead of just in JPEG. RAW files are captured in the Adobe DNG (Digital Negative) format. Interestingly, when I shot in RAW + JPEG, I found that the resolution options were disabled in the shooting menu, and that all the resulting RAW images and most of the JPEGs were saved at a resolution of just 12MP, with a random few of the JPEGs stretching to higher resolutions.

As I’ve mentioned, if you shoot at longer focal lengths than the standard 24mm, the image frame is cropped anyway, resulting in lower megapixel counts. The quality therefore doesn’t increase with lower numbers of megapixels, as they’re cropped from 50MP frames. To show how it all works out, the following gallery of images was taken of the same scene from the same vantage point. It starts off with a wide-angle image taken at 24mm (50MP), moving on through 35mm (24MP), then 50mm (12MP) and finally at 60mm (8MP).

Along with the various shooting modes, there’s an HDR (High Dynamic Range) mode which is more ideal for high-contrast scenes. There are also various scene modes comprising landscape, portrait, sports, night portrait, night scene, food, sunset, backlight and high-ISO. This helps you optimize the camera’s performance for different shooting scenarios, at least up to a point.

Cramming so many megapixels onto such a physically small image sensor comes with the risk of poor signal-to-noise performance. The City 300 does a lot better than some cheap compact cameras that I’ve used, for keeping image noise at bay. I was quite impressed that it delivers reasonably detailed images with restrained noise all the way up to its maximum sensitivity setting of ISO 3200.

The example images in the gallery below were taken of a model motorcycle indoors, under low-level ambient lighting. I used all sensitivity settings from the lowest ISO 100 up to the highest ISO 3200 in the range. The ISO 100 image is quite dark, despite applying +0.67EV of exposure compensations. You’ll notice that image noise and the retention of fine detail become progressively worse as I’ve gone up through the sensitivity range, but results remain reasonably good until the end.

Yashica City 300: Sample Images

The following example shots were taken in the English city of Wells, including the marketplace, Bishop’s Palace Gardens and the cathedral. Weather conditions for all of the outdoor shots was bright and sunny, while the interior shot of the cathedral was taken with just indoor ambient lighting.

Yashica City 300: Video

The camera’s maximum video resolution maxes out at 4K30. Smaller available options include 2.7K at 60fps or 30fps, and 1080p or 720p, both at 120fps, 60fps or 30fps. The file format for all of them is MP4/H.264. The camera features an internal microphone plus a standard mini-jack socket for an external mic. Image stabilization is on the menu as an options, with other video functions that include slow-motion recording, loop recording, time-lapse recording and pre-recording.

Yashica City 300: Verdict

I’m not convinced about the quality of this camera. The Yashica City 300 is certainly compact, lightweight and easy to use, making it a fun little camera that I can take pretty much anywhere and everywhere. The flip-around rear screen is useful for selfies and vlogging, and it comes with a neat range of extras including a swiveling mini-flash. The two minus points for me are that I don’t think the physically small mobile phone-alike 50MP image sensor does the camera any favors in terms of image quality, and for this type of camera I’d prefer the versatility of a zoom rather than fixed focal length lens. Form the Yashica City range overall, I’d go for the least expensive City 100 camera with its 13MP sensor and 3x optical zoom range.

Alternatives

Availability is currently offered in black, ivory-white, or amber-brown, though I have also seen wine-red, navy, and champagne-gold alternatives online. I was sent the black option for review, which would be the colorway I’d personally choose, especially for surreptitious use in a theater setting where I don’t want to be a distraction and annoy my seated neighbours.

Like opera glasses, they’ve obviously been designed to fit easily into a pocket or handbag. There's no need for a thick supporting neck strap here, as with binos designed for birdwatchers. However, Nikon has been thoughtful enough to include a very slender wrist strap for threading through a left-hand lug, which is useful for avoiding mislaying your investment when watching a show in a busy venue.

When folded to their narrowest proportions, the 4x10D CF will fit within the tub of an overpriced theater ice cream, so alternatively they’ll slip into a pocket without a second thought.

And yet, has achieving such a compact, lightweight construction compromised performance? Is the asking price fair, or would it be better spent on a pre-theater dinner and taxi ride home, or a cheaper, near-doppelganger from a lesser-known brand?

Nikon 4x10D CF: Specifications

Nikon 4x10D CF: Price

Having handled and used these binoculars before looking up the price, I was surprised to find them retailing for a manufacturer’s suggested $224.95 / £199 / AU$299. Okay, so we’re getting Nikon's optical expertise here and are paying a premium for it, rather than the cost of a budget, no-brand offering. But they do feel very highly priced in the current market.

For example, alternatives such as the Carson 4x10 Operaview, which are even lighter at 62g, can be had for a third of the asking price of these Nikons. As ever, it pays to shop around. Discounts, should they come over time, may help tip the balance more in favor of a purchase for those reassured by a more widely known brand with a long and illustrious heritage.

Nikon 4x10D CF: Design & Handling

With a roof prism design and multi-coated lens and prism construction, the chief claim here is that these are Nikon’s smallest and lightest binoculars to date, at a ‘thickness’ of 19mm and a mere 65g in weight.

The design is more low-key than your typical opera glasses, which tend to opt for more obviously classical styling and gold-rimmed lenses. By contrast, Nikon’s effort is distinctly modernist and practical rather than posh. Although the house lights reflected in the glossy, lacquered look of my review sample as I took my seat, spotlighting an understated elegance.

The slick finish hides some more disappointingly plasticky elements, including the focus dial. This is readily adjustable in the dark and offers just the right amount of resistance. But it still looks a little like it has tumbled out of a Christmas cracker when examined in less forgiving daylight.

More positively, the operation of these Japanese-made binoculars includes a central folding mechanism that instantly adjusts the interpupillary distance between the eyepieces to best match up with your own eyes. A soft rubber surround on the eyepieces adds a tactile feel while also preventing injury if accidentally jabbing them into your eyes in the dark. That’s a possibility, as they’re far narrower than the large, rounded eyepieces of more conventionally sized binos.

To be picky, the focus wheel can also butt up against the bridge of the nose when in use, as that control sticks out at the back. Its positioning does, however, allow for quick-and-easy focus adjustment without affecting concentration – useful when panning across a stage and shifting attention between actors in a play.

Nikon 4x10D CF: Performance

What I did notice, in the theater, is that the view I had through these binoculars was dimmer than the same view seen with the naked eye. However, unlike my own eyes, they did allow me to zoom in closer to the action. The delivered view was clear enough for me to more easily ‘read’ actors’ expressions from my seat in the upper circle than I would have been able to without them.

Partly because of their modest magnification, the field of view here is wider than some more professional binos. So I was able to keep subjects within my frame and follow them around the stage – even during complex, choreographed dance sequences involving multiple performers.

In this sense, the binoculars did allow me to enjoy the performance more, and while I didn’t feel the need to hold them up to my eyes constantly, they added an extra dimension to what I could take in.

Whether this means these ultra-compact binoculars/opera glasses are worth the asking price is another matter entirely, however. The Nikon 4x10D CF is a costly pair of binoculars. You’ll feel this too, if looking at an outwardly very close alternative in the Carson 4x10 Operaview. There are also Nikon’s own compact Aculon T01 10x21 binos, with higher magnification and larger objective lenses, at less than half the price of the 4x10D CF.

Nikon 4x10D CF: Verdict

To my mind – and eyes – the Nikon 4x10D CF are useful but not without compromise. Sure, ultra-compact pocket binoculars appeal for their extreme portability and unobtrusive size; they're certainly convenient. But small optics also mean a rather dingy view at a venue, unless the stage lights are spectacularly bright.

While a perfect size for theatergoers and smaller, even, than those found latched to the back of some theater chairs, the compact dimensions and plasticky finish also make these Nikons appear noticeably toy-like.

Plus, smaller, when it comes to tech, is not necessarily always better. A bigger lens means a brighter view – which is what I want in a dark venue, although this necessitates bigger binos overall. Here, Nikon gets the job done, but you’d have to really want to go as small as possible to part with the cash.

Alternatives

For a busy home office environment or as a printer for the whole family, Epson reckons the ink supplied with this printer straight off the shelf should keep you going for up to three years. Indeed, it’s supplied with a set of full-capacity ink bottles, plus an extra bottle of black ink for twice as much text printing. Crunching the numbers as well as a mighty stack of paper along the way, the supplied ink should be sufficient for printing up to 15,100 pages of mono text and 5,500 color documents. I hate to think how many cartridges I’d have to buy and how much they’d cost, to rack up those kinds of numbers. This Epson certainly aims to be one of the best all-in-one printers for the home office and for hybrid working.

Epson EcoTank ET-4950: Specifications

Epson EcoTank ET-4950: Price

You can buy cartridge-based inkjet printers for a lot less than this one, which sells for $500 / £460 / AU$729. But the savings tend to be short-lived. Typically, the ‘setup cartridges’ supplied with the printer don’t last very much longer than the setup procedure itself. From then on, you’re into buying expensive cartridges, often on an alarmingly frequent basis. While this EcoTank printer is relatively pricey up-front, the flip side is that running costs are massively cheaper if you need to print documents more than just occasionally. Ultimately, the ET-4950 can save you a big pot of money in the long term.

Epson EcoTank ET-4950: Design & Handling

Inks are a fundamental design factor for any inkjet printer. This one runs on a pigment-based black ink and dye-based cyan, magenta and yellow inks. The sum of the parts is geared to enabling crisp, durable black text on plain paper, along with convincing color performance. Color printing on glossy photo paper comes with the advantage that only the dye-based inks are employed, so you’re guaranteed a smooth finish with uniform reflectivity. The downside is the absence of an additional dye-based black cartridge, which can degrade photo quality.

Unlike many printers that come with low-capacity ‘setup cartridges’, this EcoTank printer is supplied with a complete set of full-sized bottles, to keep you going for longer. It’ll actually be a lot longer, as you get not one but two 127ml bottles of pigment black ink, as well as regular 70ml bottles of dye-based cyan, magenta and yellow inks. And if you’re thinking that bottles of ink bring the risk of spillage, rest assured that the bottles have a gravity-fed delivery system with shut-off valves to avoid any mess. They also have individually and differently keyed tops, to stop you accidentally pouring ink into the wrong tank.

The printer driver can give you updates on ink levels within the tanks but for a more hands-on, or rather eyes-on approach, the tanks have inspection windows at the front. This makes it easy to keep track of ink levels with just a quick peek.

As a final word on filling the tanks, access to them is gained by a cover that hinges forward. The cover also happens to have a pleasant blue-illuminated ring around the top, which gives a visual indication of when the printer is in use. After hinging the cover forward, you get access to the tanks.

After filling each of the tanks, flip-over stoppers fasten securely and are hidden away beneath the cover. The initial setup procedure uses some ink to prime the print heads, but you should still have enough left over for 15,100 mono pages and 5,500 color document pages. That’s a lot of pages! Going forward, replacement bottles should last for 8,500 pages of black text and 6,500 color documents. The cost works out to $24.99 / £15.49 / AU$39.98 per bottle of black ink or $75.95 / £39.49 / AU$99.95 for a full set of all four ink bottles. The net results is that running costs tend to be massively cheaper than for cartridge-based printers.

The installation procedure is quick and easy, taking less than half an hour from start to finish. The final part of the process is to print a test page which also acts as a print head alignment page. In some cases, print head alignment is a chore, based on manually entering different numbers into various boxes. In this case, it’s all automatic and quickly finished.

After you place the calibration page onto the scanning platen, the printer simply scans the page and carries out the alignment procedure all by itself, in just a few moments. This ensures that the print heads are optimally aligned for the sharpest printing results. For more typical scanning jobs, you’re probably more likely to use the auto document feeder.

When folded out for use, as shown below, the ADF can accommodate up to 30 sheets of paper, ideal for scanning, copying or faxing multi-page documents. It also stretches the maximum size of originals that can be scanned, from A4 or 8.5x11.7" to 8.5x14”. The ADF is definitely a useful feature to have and doesn’t add much to the overall height when in use.

Although the Epson is predominantly a document printer, I’d still like to have the luxury of putting plain paper in an internal feeding cassette, and photo paper or other specialist paper like letterheaded paper in a top feeder or secondary tray. The printer gets half way there with a convenient space-saving 250-sheet internal paper feed cassette, but there’s no secondary cassette nor an upright feeder at the rear.

I’m a lot happier about the output tray than the single input cassette. It’s fully motorized and extends automatically when you start a print job. You also get the option to automatically retract the output tray when switching off the printer, so the front of the printer is flush from top to bottom.

Following the recent trend for touchscreens in almost any type of gadget, the printer features a 6.1cm / 2.4" color touchscreen on its front panel. It’s certainly not massive but, to my mind and eye, it’s big enough to do the job. It’s also quite easy and intuitive in use. And to make it easier to see and to operate, the front panel hinges up so that you can choose the angle you find most convenient.

An auto duplex unit is built into the back of the printer, enabling automatic double-sided printing without the chore of manually flipping paper over and feeding it back into the printer. It worked reliably throughout my testing but if you should suffer a paper jam, it’s easy to unclip the unit at the back and clear any stuck paper.

There’s a variety of sockets and ports built into the rear of the printer. These include USB, LAN and fax, along with the mains socket. The printer also has built-in Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi direct, which many of us find more ideal for printing from multiple computers or laptops around the home. You can also print and scan from smart devices, taking advantage of the Epson Smart Panel app. There’s support for Apple AirPrint, Mopria Print Service and Mopria Scan, but no card slot nor a USB socket for scanning to and printing from a memory stick or memory card.

Epson EcoTank ET-4950: Performance

The ET-4950 has a decent turn of speed, outputting mono text pages at 18ppm and color pages at 9ppm in standard quality mode. The ‘first page printout’ speed can be notoriously slower but I was impressed during my tests. Printing a single mono text page took just 5 seconds, while a page of mono text and color graphics took 12 seconds, both in standard quality mode.

Mono text on plain paper is crisp and robust, as I’d expect from a pigment-based black ink, and fine detail as well as the ‘small print’ are clearly rendered. There’s also good vibrancy for color graphics, which literally look good on paper. Solid blocks of color and graduated tints are both reproduced very nicely.

On Epson’s spec sheet and supporting online literature, I haven’t seen any claims about print speeds for glossy photo printing, nor how many photo prints you can expect from a set of ink bottles. That’s fair enough, as the ET-4950 is predominantly designed as a document printer. Even so, the dye-based cyan, magenta and yellow inks make a decent stab at glossy photo prints. The dye-based inks are fully absorbed beneath the outer glossy layer of photo paper, resulting in a smooth and uniform finish with no ‘bronzing’ or areas of uneven reflectivity. However, the pigment black ink isn’t used for glossy photo output and the lack of an additional dye-based black ink limits the gamut and tonal range, so dark areas in photos can look a little insipid.

Photo printing is also relatively slow. I set about making 7x5-inch borderless photo prints on glossy paper and they took me 1m 30s or 2m 55s each, in standard and high quality settings respectively. Stepping up to full A4 borderless photos in standard or high quality mode, prints took 2m 45s or 5m 15s each. There was very little to choose between high quality and standard quality modes in terms of photographic fidelity.

I’ve become well used to Epson printer driver software being intuitive and easy to use over the years, and the drivers for this model are no exception. That’s a performance boost in my books, cutting down the time it takes to adjust settings. The gallery below shows the three main screens for the Windows printer driver, include the Maintenance section with options like nozzle checks and print head cleaning.

Performance can be put on hold if you need to send your printer away to be serviced. This has often been the case in the past when maintenance cartridges have become full to capacity with excess ink. Like most modern competitors, the ET-4950 has a user-replaceable maintenance cartridge, which is quick and easy to change if it becomes full. The genuine Epson replacement is inexpensive to buy, at $10.99 / £10.49 / AU$15.99.

Epson EcoTank ET-4950: Verdict

I really like the stamina of the Epson EcoTank ET-4950 printer. I find the relatively continuous and arduous task of searching for, ordering and replacing ink cartridges to be a time-wasting and money-wasting chore. The ink tanks are sufficiently large in this printer that I can simply fill them with the supplied ink and forget about them for months on end. I like the speed and quality for mono and color document printing on plain paper, and that the ‘all-in-one’ features stretch to direct faxing as well as just printing, scanning and copying. The auto document feeder for the scanner, auto duplex unit and motorized output tray are further plus points, and so is the intuitive color touchscreen. I’m less impressed by the lack of a secondary paper input tray and glossy photo printing could be better and faster. All in all though, this Epson printer is a very good fit for the busy home office and for productive families taking on anything from general paperwork to homework assignments.

Alternatives

Newman is often mentioned in passing during conversations about the early pioneers of color photography, but far less frequently celebrated. Yet his street photography, made in the same years and city as icons like Saul Leiter and Ernst Haas, stands firmly on its own.

His New York is neon-soaked and architectural, full of graphic edges, bold hues, color blocking, and an almost cinematic sense of timing. This book brings that world together for the first time on such an ambitious scale, presenting Newman not as a footnote in the history of color street photography, but as one of its essential, and too often overlooked, authors.

Publisher information

Price and availability

Marvin E. Newman: Photographs 1949–1983 is available in hardback from all major retailers, priced around $80 / £60; however, it is often on sale for much lower.

Review

My first reaction to this book was simple: why haven’t I heard his name before? Marvin E. Newman was photographing at the same time as Saul Leiter and Ernst Haas, two of the most celebrated pioneers of early color photography, and yet his name rarely appears in the same breath. Opening this substantial Taschen coffee table book, it becomes immediately clear that this absence is not due to the work itself. Newman's photographs are electric. They carry the visual daring of a medium still in its infancy, where color was not a given, but an experiment, a risk, a new frontier.

The cover image alone feels like a thesis statement. In typical Taschen fashion, it’s an arresting choice; saturated neon, signage turned almost painterly, and an atmosphere that feels like Leiter turned up to eleven. The photograph pulls you in with its mix of bold color and graphic composition, announcing a photographer whose visual language was entirely his own. That single image sets the tone for the 250 pages that follow: vibrant, modern, effortlessly sleek, and surprisingly contemporary.

One of the standout features of this monograph is the opening essay, Trade Secrets, authored by Lyle Rexer. It offers an insightful look at Newman’s philosophy and working methods, highlighting how he never accepted the conventional division between “artist” and “working photographer”, the former dedicated solely to self-expression, the latter bound to client assignments. Newman himself is quoted, “My photographs will live on after me. Everything I wanted to put in a photograph is here.”

The essay frames the book beautifully, positioning Newman not just as a master of his craft but as an artist whose commercial and personal work were inextricably linked, each informing and strengthening the other. This perspective adds a layer of understanding that enriches the visual experience, making the monograph not only a pleasure to look at but also a compelling study of a photographer’s approach to life and work.

As I moved through the book, I found myself increasingly drawn not just to the images but to Newman’s fluency across genres and subjects. His street work overflows with color and compositional precision, but his sports and documentary photographs are equally commanding. Very few photographers navigate multiple visual territories with this level of assurance. In Newman’s hands, color becomes a unifying force; a structural tool as much as an aesthetic one. Whether he is photographing a baseball pitch or a bustling New York street corner, the chromatic decisions are deliberate and often brilliant.

Taschen’s curation and sequencing elevate this further. The book moves with a clear narrative rhythm, presenting Newman’s life’s work without forcing it into neat academic categories, rather locations and subjects. Instead, the photographs breathe. Themes emerge organically. You sense a photographer following his curiosity, rather than a career designed around a single style. For someone like me, a photographer who works predominantly in black and white, it was a powerful reminder that ‘style’ is something that emerges from the individual, not the other way around.

The production quality is, of course, outstanding. The printing is sharp and richly toned, with colour that feels both accurate and generous. The large format encourages slow looking – you’re not glancing at images, you’re entering them. Details reveal themselves: the glint on a chrome fender, the geometry of signage, the contradictions and harmonies of mid-century America. It is a genuinely immersive object, the kind of book whose physical weight reinforces its sense of importance.

Historically, Marvin E. Newman: Photographs 1949–1983 feels long overdue. Color photography wasn’t taken seriously as fine art during Newman’s early career. Museums and galleries clung fiercely to black-and-white modernism, and anyone working in color was fighting an uphill battle. Add to this the fact that Newman was shooting similar subjects to Saul Leiter, in the same city and era, and it becomes clearer how he might have been overshadowed. Yet looking at this book today, none of that diminishes the work. If anything, it heightens its impact. He emerges as an overlooked pioneer, someone pushing colour forward before the world was ready to recognise it.

By the end of the book, I felt genuinely inspired. Newman’s photographs made me reconsider my own practice, especially the potential of colour as a compositional tool. They also serve as a lesson for any artist that working across modes and disciplines is not a dilution of vision, but a deepening of it.

Final thoughts

Marvin E. Newman: Photographs 1949–1983 feels like a long-overdue restoration of a name that should have never drifted into the margins. It is rare for a monograph to feel both revelatory and inevitable, but this one achieves exactly that. The edit is thoughtful, the sequencing generous, and the production unmistakably Taschen: heavy, tactile, and full of reverence for the images it holds. But most importantly, it repositions Newman where he belongs – as a pioneering colour photographer whose work helped define the visual vocabulary of modern street photography.

Alternatives

I’ve seen some pretty dire cheap cameras over the last year or so, promising 50+ megapixel resolution but serving up images and video that were only fit for the bin. The Yashica City 100 is a cut above those in terms of build, handling and performance, and the City 200 raises the bar a little higher, with a more versatile 10x rather than 3x zoom lens. Like the Kodak PixPro FZ45, AgfaPhoto Realishot DC8200 and Minolta MND25, the Yashica comes from a famous name with a lot of photographic heritage. However, those names have all been sold on, the cameras themselves having nothing to do with the original companies.

Yashica City 200: Specifications

Yashica City 200: Price

Compared with ultra-cheap plastic digital cameras, the Yashica City 200 costs relatively serious money. It sells for around $300 / £255 / AU$524, which is around three times as much as the Kodak PixPro FZ45. It also costs a bit more than the Yashica City 100, which sells for around $260 / £195 / AU$443. That’s the price you pay for that more powerful 10x zoom lens.

Yashica City 200: Design & Handling

Color, like taste, is a matter of personal preference. Like the City 100, the City 200 is available in black or white, the latter with a metallic silver color lens barrel. You’d think that with a 10x rather than 3x optical zoom range, the lens of the City 200 would be chunkier, and you’d be absolutely right. Even so, it’s not overly large. However, the lens isn’t retractable in either camera, making them a bit large to slip into a spare pocket.

That 10x optical zoom range stretches from 33.8-338mm in full-frame terms. Compared with the effective 25.4-76.3mm effective zoom of the City 100, it’s noticeably less wide-angle at the short end, but naturally very much powerful at the long end, giving serious telephoto reach. That’s quite a compelling argument for using the City 200 in preference to shooting stills and video on your mobile phone. Another notable difference is that the City 100 has a twist-action zoom ring on its lens, whereas the City 200 has a rocker switch on its top panel for operating the zoom, which is motorized in both cases.

Let’s lift the hood and check out the image sensor at the heart of the camera. We’re back in step with the City 100 again, as both feature exactly the same, physically small 1/3-inch Sony image sensor with a native resolution of 13 megapixels. Yashica follows suit with a lot of other makers of low-budget cameras, in advertising them as capable of delivering 72 megapixel still images. That outlandish claim is based on a lot of digital interpolation and is rather misleading as far as I’m concerned, but at least Yashica redeems itself by also clearly stating the ‘actual’ megapixel count of the image sensor.

There’s more to the front of the camera than just the 10x zoom lens. It also sports a small built-in flash module and a sculpted hand grip. A secure grip comes in very handy, considering the long telephoto reach of the lens and the camera’s lack of image stabilization. To the right and to the left, there are two pairs of holes on the side panels for attaching the supplied wrist strap, suiting both right-handers and left-handers. I like that a wrist strap is included as part of the kit, along with a cord for attaching the lens cap. The latter is useful as the magnetic lens cap can be accidentally knocked off and would otherwise be lost quite easily.

The camera isn’t limited to its tiny built-in flash, as it has a hot-shoe on its top panel for attaching a separate flash. Unlike the ‘range-topping’ City 300 camera, however, the additional flash module isn’t supplied as part of the kit. Next to the hot-shoe is a built-in microphone for video capture. Another upgrade over the cheapest cameras out there is that the City 200 has a socket for an external mic. There’s also a USB-C port for charging the battery and downloading images and video clips.

Inherited from the City 100, buttons on the top panel include a shutter release with half-press action for autofocus and metering, video recording start/stop, mode selector, AEL/AFL (auto exposure lock and autofocus lock) and power on/off. The City 200 also adds a rocker switch for motorized zoom.

The choice of shooting modes is expansive, including full ‘intelligent’ Auto, Program, Shutter-priority, Scene modes, Macro and Movie. Dig a little deeper and you’ll also find that the scene modes include options for landscape, portrait, sports, night portrait, night scene, food, sunset, backlight and high-ISO. All in all, the modes cater to a diverse range of shooting scenarios and preferences.

Most of the back panel’s real estate is taken up by a 2.8-inch LCD screen. It’s not a touchscreen, which is only to be expected at this price point. Unlike in many cheap cameras, however, it’s a flip-around screen which is fairly unusual for the price bracket. Advantages include being able to shoot around corners, but the main bonus is that it works as a front-facing screen for taking selfies and vlogging.

Simple but effective, the control layout on the back panel includes a 4-way pad for access to display options, exposure compensation, +/- and an OK button at its center. You also get Info, Menu, Playback and Trash buttons. In keeping with its target audience, the menu system is simple and intuitive, ideal for beginners.

The bottom panel of the camera includes a tripod mounting socket with a standard 1/4” thread, which is sadly lacking in some small compact cameras. A locking flap uncovers the rechargeable Li-ion battery that’s supplied with the camera, and a slot for a microSD card, which isn’t supplied so you’ll have to buy one separately.

Yashica City 200: Performance

Photos taken under good lighting look vibrant and richly saturated, even in the standard picture style. There’s also a wealth of scene modes and ‘filter’ options (picture styles) like vivid, natural, monochrome and several more, to tailor the treatment. However, there’s no RAW capture option, so you need to choose between filter options wisely at the shooting stage.

As with the City 100, I found that the camera was rather prone to purple color fringing. The City 200’s much bigger ‘effective’ zoom range of 33.8-338mm, compared with the City 100’s 25.4-76.3mm sounds an attractive proposition but you lose out on wide-angle coverage. Another minus point is that sharpness and the retention of fine detail and texture drop off towards the long end of the zoom range. The lack of image stabilization can also impact on long-zoom sharpness in practical terms.

The following gallery of images demonstrate the overall zoom range, taken of the same scene from the same vantage point, starting off with the most wide-angle setting and stepping through to the most telephoto focal length.

The Achilles heel of many inexpensive cameras with small 1/3” image sensors is low-light performance, or rather the lack of it. There’s actually a pretty generous sensitivity range on offer, of ISO 100-3200, along with an Auto ISO option. I shot the following sequence of a motorcycle model under low-level indoor ambient lighting, at all manual sensitivity settings from ISO 100 to ISO 3200. As I’d expect, images become noisier at higher ISO settings, with a progressive loss of fine detail, but the Yashica doesn’t do too badly compared with similar cameras.

The advertised maximum resolution of 72 megapixel sounds too good to be true and that turned out to be the case in my tests. I found no good reason to bump up the resolution from the Sony image sensor’s native 13 megapixels of its Sony sensor. The higher you go in megapixel count, the more obvious interpolation becomes, with images looking pixelated and blotchy, with diagonal lines becoming jaggy. Ultimately, it’s best to stick with a lucky number 13.

Yashica City 200: Sample Images

The following example shots were taken in the English city of Wells, including the marketplace, Bishop’s Palace Gardens and the cathedral. Weather conditions for all of the outdoor shots was bright and sunny, while the interior shot of the cathedral was taken with just indoor ambient lighting.

Yashica City 200: Video

Along with its ambitious claim of 72 megapixel stills, the Yashica promises 5K30 and 4K60 video capture. I found no benefit in going beyond 1080p and, even then, there’s nothing much to be gained from sticking with the base video resolution of 720p. Image stabilization is on the menu for both stills and movie capture but I didn’t find any practical advantage when switching it on. The example video footage below is a short clip taken at 1080p. Video quality is generally acceptable but nothing special, as with competing low-budget compact cameras.

Yashica City 200: Verdict

By and large, I think you get what you pay for with the Yashica City 200. It’s a relatively inexpensive point-and-shoot compact camera with a 10x optical zoom lens. It’s quite fun to use and picture quality is pleasantly bright and vibrant for shots taken under good lighting conditions. Sharpness drops off towards the long end of the zoom range but is still acceptable for snapshots. The flip-around screen is a bonus for selfies and vlogging but I miss the greater wide-angle potential of the Yashica City 100 for this sort of shooting.

Alternatives

While the A7 V has many, many improvements that trickle down from other recent models, Sony has introduced a couple of firsts. There is the debut of a new partially stacked sensor, which improves readout times for faster burst speed and writing video. This is joined by a refreshed Bionz XR2 processor, which finally integrates the separate AI unit we have seen in most of Sony’s recent range into the processor itself, and enables an evolution in autofocus performance over the prior model.

It’s still very recognisably an A7-series body, but it's faster, more intelligent, and more refined than the A7 IV. However, since the A7 III came along and changed the mirrorless camera game forever, the competition has finally come to the party. The latest mid-range bodies from the big players, including the Canon EOS R6 Mark III, Nikon Z6 III, and Lumix S1 II, challenge Sony’s once-dominant position in this market segment. Does the A7 V do enough to stick its nose back out in front?

Specifications

Price

Slipping further into professional territory, the A7 V is the most expensive main A7 series camera yet, launching for $2,899 / £2,799 / AU$4,699 for the body only, or $3,099 alongside a redesigned FE 28–70mm f/3.5–5.6 OSS lens (other territories TBC).

But compared to the competition, the Sony A7 V has its work cut out. It clocks in at around $100 more than the full price of the new Canon EOS R6 Mark III, or the Nikon Z6 III (which is actually heavily discounted at the time of writing), and is only slightly cheaper than the powerful Lumix S1 II.

All these cameras offer similar bang-for-your-buck to the A7 V, and in many cases, outperform it, especially when it comes to video. If you are already deep in the Sony ecosystem, then the A7 V is a no-brainer, but if you are looking to swap systems, or this is your first serious camera, there is a lot more to consider.

Design & Handling

If not for the camera name printed along the top plate, you might not spot the difference between the A7 V and the previous model. Sony hasn’t radically changed the design, which is completely fine. Sony cameras are some of the best-handling and looking cameras around, as the saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Tweaks include a slightly redesigned grip that is marginally deeper than the previous model, with more of a lip at the top. Though the camera is still very compact, I found the A7 V still feels comfortable and well-balanced in the hand, even with he huge array of Sony E-mount glass. However, I feel it could still use a little more support at the bottom for larger hands, as it leaves my little finger dangling.

The A7 V still has controls everywhere, including a button for almost every function you’d want during everyday shooting. Most can be remapped to taste, making the camera feel more personalised the longer you use it.

The EVF is identical to the one on the A7 IV. It’s a 0.5-inch, 3.68m-dot screen with a 0.78x magnification, and it is switchable between 60 and 120 fps, for power conservation or smoother subject tracking. It’s not class-leading, but it's a fine EVF that you won’t struggle to use. The LCD screen has received a more significant improvement, with a bump in size from 3 inches to 3.2 inches, and a long-overdue leap in resolution from a 1.03m-dot screen on the A7 IV to a 2.1m-dot screen on the A7 V.

Sony’s menus are well-designed and relatively easy to navigate through, although some newer users might find them slightly overwhelming due to the sheer number of options. Fortunately, Sony does have brief in-camera explanations for settings, should you be a little confused about what something does. But, I still had to Google a couple of times where a specific setting was, after my initial trawling through the menus had me pulling my hair out.

Thankfully, there is a simplified touch interface that is the fastest way to change key settings without diving through layers of menus, which is a huge timesaver.

The A7 V has also inherited the 4-axis multi-angle screen we have seen on recent Sony models. It's a big upgrade over earlier A7 bodies, and with the added tilt, it makes low-angle photography easier and more subtle, as you no longer have to flip out and rotate the entire screen. It can also avoid the awkward cable congestion, with the additional axis providing enough space for the screen to clear any HDMI or USB-C cables connected to the camera during filming.

I am a little torn on the unmarked port doors. On one hand, it looks super clean and minimal, but the unmarked flaps can be confusing until you develop the muscle memory to know exactly what is underneath which. A few times, I opened the wrong flap in search of the USB-C ports. I don’t think subtle markings would ruin the overall aesthetic of the camera.

Underneath those ports, Sony has included a full-size HDMI for connecting to an external monitor, a headphone jack for monitoring sound, a mic jack with plug-in power, and a new addition that is slightly surprising – two USB-C ports – one for mains power and one for connecting accessories. Maybe Sony has feedback that says different, but for me, this feels a little bit unnecessary for this camera, as it doesn’t feel like a scenario that will trouble many users.

Finally, the two SD card slots from the previous model remain, with one doubling as CFexpress Type A. This is useful if you shoot a lot of high-bitrate video or long bursts, but Type A cards are still prohibitively expensive and not widely used outside of Sony cameras. Sony is, of course, going to support its own format, but CFexpress Type B is more affordable and would be more useful for any frequent system switchers.

Performance

Sony has decided to keep the resolution at a respectable 33MP, which does actually make it the highest resolution partially stacked sensor yet, albeit from a limited field. But I think 33MP remains a sweet spot between file size, detail, and overall usability, and if you really need more resolution, then the Sony A7R V has you covered.

When it comes to image quality, A7 V doesn’t bring any surprises here – it simply refines what Sony already did very well. This will be somewhat dependent on the lens you use, but combined with the excellent Sony FE 24-50mm f/2.8 G lens, my images were packed with plenty of detail, with a decent amount of scope for cropping, but I think you’d struggle to see any difference over the prior model.

Sony is promising 16 stops of dynamic range, which I will have to wait until I can edit my RAW files to see if that holds true, and there is a good amount of scope to push and pull shadows and highlights.

JPEGs/HEIFs are good, highs and lows are nicely balanced without looking overly processed. I shot in some of the harsh, low winter sun lighting conditions, but the JPEGs retained a surprising amount of detail in the highlights without brightening the shadows too aggressively. And shooting in 4:2:2 10-bit HEIF, I was especially impressed by the amount of detail I was able to salvage from underexposed images, and the scope to manipulate colors.

Noise performance has so far been strong throughout the 100-6,400 range, but noise becomes an unavoidable issue at higher ISOs. You can go up to 51,200, although I wouldn’t recommend these extreme values unless you really need that shot.

Sony is also claiming white balance will look more consistent thanks to AI-assisted AWB, and I have been impressed by the accuracy from the A7 V, and even in challenging light, it has avoided the slightly greenish cast Sony has been known for.

Colors are accurate and true to life, but don't have a signature look. Sony offers some control over JPEG images, with several different pre-programmed styles, including a few non-specific film emulations and black and white profiles, and you can also tweak your own. These are great for adding a quick bit of style to an otherwise mundane image, but these profiles don't have the flexibility of Fujifilm's recipes or Lumix's LUTs to really consider the A7 V JPEGs as being social-media-ready.

Autofocus on the A7 V is the biggest improvement Sony has made over the prior generation. The A7 V doesn’t see anything new here that hasn’t already debuted on other Sony models, but the new AI unit (now integrated into the main processor) brings the latest subject recognition across all subject types, not just human faces, but also to animals, birds, insects, and vehicles. There is also a whopping 759 PDAF points covering 94% of the sensor.

The A7 V also benefits from the latest auto subject recognition mode, which means you no longer have to pick the specific type of subject you’ll be shooting; the camera can recognize all subjects in one unified mode. Although you can still pick a specific subject type, should you wish to focus on a pet and not the owner, or a driver and not the car, for example.

In practice, I found autofocus lightning quick. It also just seems certain of what it’s doing; it's one of the most confident and accurate subject recognition focuses I have used. Tracking is just incredibly sticky and so easy to use; just tap on your subject on the touch screen, and the autofocus glues itself to them.

I am yet to really push this to the limits, but one of the big benefits of the partially stacked sensor is the A7 V’s blistering 30fps blackout-free shooting with autofocus and auto exposure, while the buffer can handle up to 185 JPEG or 85 RAW images when using CFexpress Type A cards. You also get pre-capture, which is programmable from 0.03-1 second before you press the shutter, and gives you a small safety net for moments that happen just before your reactions can catch up.

I have found battery life to be good. Official ratings of 630 shots with the EVF or 750 with the LCD do represent an improvement – and are much better than most mirrorless rivals. In practice, I wasn't quite getting those top numbers, but there was a noticeable improvement, and I would be confident shooting a full-day event like a wedding on just a couple of NP-FZ100 batteries.

When it comes to video, it's another big leap from the prior generation, adding 4K/120P, and the new partially stacked sensor improves readout speeds for less rolling shutter. But while video has improved, some limitations feel more noticeable given what other brands are offering.

Where rival brands are pushing 6, 7, or even 8K open-gate video, the video from the A7 V tops out at 4K. The 4K is oversampled from the 7K readout of the sensor, and video quality is absolutely excellent as I would expect from Sony. But missing out on open gate limits a creative tool that is becoming increasingly useful to video editors trying to edit for multiple platforms. While restricting the resolution limits in post-production cropping.

Using the full sensor, the A7 V can record in 4K up to 60p. 4K/120P, on the other hand, requires a more significant Super35 (roughly APS-C) crop. This is to be expected and does allow better control over rolling shutter speed, color dynamic range. The Canon EOS R6 Mark III is the only similar hybrid camera around this price point that offers full frame readout 4K/120p – but we are yet to see how that really performs.

The rolling shutter is very well controlled; testing on some high-speed trains, they remained firmly upright rather than skewed. This is not just a huge improvement on the last generation, but it embarrasses recent video cameras like the Sony FX2, and it's pretty lousy rolling shutter.

Unfortunately, Sony also continues to avoid RAW video. This is another Sony camera with no internal RAW, including industry standards like Apple ProRes, which again sets it behind similarly priced rivals – but you do get 4:2:2 10-bit footage in S-Log or S-Log2, which does give plenty of scope for changing colors and lighting in post production, but it makes it more challenging to use with footage shot using other systems.

For video stabilization, the A7 V has an improved 7.5 stops of in-body stabilisation in the centre and 6.5 stops on the peripheries. The A7 V is impressively stable for handheld video in subtle movements like pans, but IBIS alone won't counter heavier movements like walking.

However, the A7 V now benefits from improved digital stabilisation, with Active and Dynamic stabilization modes. These do add a slight crop to the footage, but I found they are really effective and make handheld footage look smoother than before. It isn't quite up to Lumix/OM level, but the A7 V remains one of the better stabilised full-frame cameras for general use.

Early Verdict

While the autofocus leap alone might have been enough to make this a compelling upgrade over the prior model, Sony has also improved the handling, stabilisation, burst speed, and with the new partially stacked sensor – video gets a big boost with 4K/120P and tighter rolling shutter.

It’s not flawless. Despite the video improvements, the video specs still feel a little held back compared to rivals, with no open gate, a max resolution of 4K, and limited codecs with no internal RAW. CFexpress Type A also remains a pricey investment to get the best out of the latest power features.

But the bottom line: the A7 V is faster and smarter than the A7 IV and a worthy upgrade. Although it is even further out of enthusiast and into professional territory, and for many photographers, this might be overkill, for serious enthusiasts, pros, and hybrid creators – this is the best Sony camera in some time.

Alternatives

Also see our Sony A7 V vs A7 IV head-to-head comparison

Tilt shift lenses like this Laowa offer two unique features. First, the lens can be tilted, or angled, relative to the camera. This offers extended depth of field for angled surfaces, which is great for studio product shots, especially of flat objects. Or, if you tilt the lens in the other direction, you can create extra-shallow depth of field effects to make street scenes shot from high viewpoints look like tiny models.

The shift movement is especially useful for architectural photography, where you can use it to avoid perspective distortion by keeping the camera level while photographing tall buildings.

These tilt shift movements require some very precise engineering, both in the optical construction and the lens movements. The optics have to be designed in such a way that the image circle produced is much larger than normal, to allow for these tilt and shift movements,. This is one reason why tilt shift lenses are both expensive and heavy.

There are some restrictions that tend to be common with all lenses of this type. It’s not possible to maintain mechanical or electronic connections with the lens’s movements, so this is a ‘dumb’ lens where you have to focus manually and your aperture settings are not recorded in the EXIF data.

And while you can apply tilt shift movements both horizontally and vertically, this is done by rotating the lens so that the movement axes work in the direction you want. You can’t apply horizontal and vertical correction at the same time, so it’s not like using a large format analog camera where both the camera back and the lens panel can both move independently in any direction you like.

So is this Laowa one of the best tilt shift lenses you can get? Maybe the focal length is a bit too long for a lot of architectural or interior work, but while its 0.5x macro capability is not quite a true 1:1 macro, its tilt movement is something that even the best macro lenses don't match.

The size, weight and complex movements mean that the Laowa is not designed for handheld use, though. You would use it for tripod shots where there’s time to set up the lens movements very carefully.

Can you not do all these things digitally and save yourself the trouble? You can, kind of, but it’s really not the same. Digital keystone correction sacrifices detail in the stretched areas, and digital ‘miniature’ effects use fake bokeh which isn’t hard to spot. And there’s no digital equivalent of the depth of field extension you can get with a controlled shift movement.

Laowa 35mm f/2.8 Zero-D Tilt Shift 0.5x Macro: specs

Laowa 35mm f/2.8 Zero-D Tilt Shift 0.5x Macro: price

The Laowa 35mm f/2.8 Zero-D Tilt Shift 0.5x Macro goes on sale at a price of $1,249 / £1,269 (about AU$1,930). That’s towards the upper end of the Laowa price scale, but well below own-brand perspective control lenses from Canon and Nikon – both of whom still sell DSLR PC lenses but don’t bother with mirrorless versions. There are cheaper third-party alternatives to the Laowa 35mm f/2.8 Zero-D Tilt Shift 0.5x Macro, but not with Laowa’s reputation for optical and engineering quality.

Laowa 35mm f/2.8 Zero-D Tilt Shift 0.5x Macro: design and handling

The Laowa 35mm f/2.8 Zero-D Tilt Shift 0.5x Macro is beautifully made, but it’s not an easy lens to use. Part of that is because lenses like this never are, and partly because of a couple of design aspects of this lens in particular – though ours was an early sample, and some details may change.

We tested it on a Sony A7 III, and even fitting the lens was a puzzle. That’s because (I found out) the Sony E-mount uses unequal spacing between the bayonet lugs (bet you didn’t know that!) and because this lens can rotate on its mount through 360 degrees, you can’t simply line up the markings on the top in the usual way. In fact you need to look for a small red dot on the mount base to line it up for mounting. Once you know, you know, but it’s just one respect in which this lens (and others like it) are different.

Another issue is that this is a big, wide lens that doesn’t leave much of a gap to the grip on our camera, so some controls are quite awkward. The lens release button on the body is harder to get to and the mount rotation button can become hard to keep pressed as you rotate the lens. There’s really very little space between the lens and the camera grip for any kind of hand-holding.

The vertical shift movement isn’t ideal either. Like the tilt movement it has a locking screw on one side of the lens and a geared screw on the other – but with the lens rotated for vertical shift movements, the weight of the lens completely overpowers the click-stops on the adjustment knob, so that you have to take the weight of the lens as you adjust it.

There's another thing. If you want to use some tilt to create a miniature effect for a seen-from-above cityscape, infinity focus is no longer available at higher tilt settings – you have to set infinity focus first then adjust the tilt as far as it will let you. Hmm.

This lens feels like a piece of real precision engineering, but it’s also big and heavy, and its operation foibles make it just a little more difficult to use than I'd like.

Laowa 35mm f/2.8 Zero-D Tilt Shift 0.5x Macro: performance

Any tilt shift lens needs patience and precision to get the most from it – but here it’s absolutely worth it. The Laowa 35mm f/2.8 Zero-D Tilt Shift 0.5x Macro has a complex (and, we guess, expensive) optical design that shows no obvious drop-off in quality at the extremes of its movements. The only quality issue is some flare shooting wide open into bright light with lots of tilt, but that's not really a common set of circumstances.

It’s a ‘dumb’ lens, so it won’t automatically trigger your camera’s focus magnifier mode – you’ll have to activate it yourself if you need it. With a good EVF or rear screen, though, you may be able to judge focus well enough without zooming in.

Shooting with the Laowa 35mm f/2.8 Zero-D Tilt Shift 0.5x Macro can be hard work at times, but the quality of the results it delivers are absolutely first rate.

Laowa 35mm f/2.8 Zero-D Tilt Shift 0.5x Macro: verdict

You don’t buy a perspective control lens for fun effects. You buy one because your work demands the perspective control and focus plane adjustment that only a lens like this can deliver. It requires time and concentration to use properly, but this Laowa lens can do things that other lenses simply can’t. It’s a shame that it’s only a 0.5x macro, not a ‘true’ macro lens, but this will still get you close enough for all but the tiniest subjects.

In a sense, you’re getting three lenses in one – a perspective control lens for architecture, a shift lens for product shots and miniature effects and a macro lens (sort of) for close-ups. But is it trying to do too many things. I admit, for architecture I’d rather have a much wider lens and maybe I wouldn’t need the tilt movement… but if the 35mm focal length suits your work and it’s of a precise and paintaking nature, then the Laowa 35mm f/2.8 Zero-D Tilt Shift 0.5x Macro could be exactly what you need, and at a very competitive price.

Street photography has become one of the most widely practised genres of the social-media era. Its appeal is easy to understand as it is one of the few genres where you can step outside with a camera and start taking pictures immediately. However, while photographing the street is simple, doing it well is another matter altogether.

Photographers have been documenting public life since the earliest days of the medium, long before ‘street photography’ became a defined category, and the best work has always come from a deeper sense of looking and an awareness of what you’re responding to, and why.

That awareness is often missing today. The sheer accessibility of the genre has led to a flood of images made quickly and without much intention. For me, a strong street photograph isn’t just a scene encountered at random; it’s the result of learning how to see, anticipate, and bring meaning to moments that might otherwise pass unnoticed.

I’ve always approached ‘how-to’ photography books with caution, because too many present their advice as the only correct way to work. The books I return to most are the ones that give you tools to develop your own way of seeing. Find Your Frame belongs firmly in that category.

Whitehead, alternatively known as @sixstreetunder, may have risen to prominence in the age of Instagram, but his approach is grounded in the longer tradition of street photography. He writes with clarity, experience, and a genuine desire to help photographers understand not just how to shoot, but how to look. For me, Find Your Frame encourages moving beyond chance encounters and creating work with intention; a practical, insightful companion for anyone wanting to strengthen their street photography practice.

Publisher information

Price and availability

Find Your Frame: A Street Photography Masterclass by Craig Whitehead is available in paperback from all major retailers, priced around $20 / £15; however is often on sale for much lower.

Review

Find Your Frame is structured around chapters that balance theory with practical, technical guidance, and it’s in this blend that the book shines. A few chapters stood out to me in particular.

The opening chapter, Street Your Way, immediately sets the tone. Whitehead encourages readers to define their own approach to street photography, to look beyond the obvious and make the genre their own. It’s a reminder that there isn’t a single ‘correct’ way to work on the street, and that creativity comes from making the practice your own.

In Get Out There, the message is simple but powerful: just go. You can plan, choose locations, and study techniques, but nothing replaces actually being on the street. So much happens when you’re present and ready to respond, and if you’re not there, you’ll miss it. For me, this chapter was a reaffirmation of a truth every street photographer knows but sometimes forgets – presence is everything.

Whitehead also offers a thoughtful approach to social media, showing how it can be a tool for sharing work without becoming a source of validation. It’s a timely reminder in an era where likes and follower counts often overshadow the work itself.

A particularly effective technical insight is his discussion of frames within frames. Whitehead explains how to “make order out of chaos by boxing your subject in.” In the busy streets, full of crowds, cars, and movement, isolating a subject through doors, windows, or other structures draws the viewer’s eye and clarifies the story in the image. It’s a simple compositional tool, but one that can dramatically improve the way a street scene reads, and Whitehead’s examples make it easy to understand and apply.

Even as an experienced photographer, I found plenty of practical tips and encouragement throughout. The writing is clear and broken into manageable sections, so it never feels overwhelming, particularly for new shooters. What makes the book even stronger is that Whitehead practices what he preaches. His own images consistently illustrate the lessons he sets out, giving readers examples that feel both inspiring and achievable.

Since reading it, I’ve been taking these ideas with me on every street shoot. Even small reminders, such as looking for frames within frames or following the light, have changed the way I approach my own work.

Final thoughts

For me, Find Your Frame succeeds because it does more than teach techniques. It fosters a way of seeing. Whitehead’s guidance is practical, his writing clear, and his images consistently illustrate the lessons he presents. Whether you’re just beginning or have years of street photography experience, the book offers both encouragement and practical insight. It also encourages readers to explore different sections at will. It is not a linear read, but rather a collection of lessons.

It reminded me to slow down, to look more carefully, and to approach the street with intention rather than chance. In short, it’s a book that doesn’t just tell you how to photograph but shows you why it matters, and how to make work that lasts.

Alternatives

Part history lesson and part practical guide, this photography book brings together some of the most significant street photographs ever made – from Henri Cartier-Bresson, Garry Winogrand, and Vivian Maier to contemporary voices like Alex Webb – and presents them through an accessible, articulate lens. For anyone serious about understanding street photography, both its past and its potential, this is a book worth holding close.

Publisher information

Price and availability

Street Photography: A History in 100 Iconic Photographs by David Gibson is available in paperback from all major retailers, priced around $35 / £22; however, it is often on sale for much lower.

Review

Street Photography: A History in 100 Iconic Photographs is structured with a clarity that makes it easy to read. Each image receives a single page of analysis, offering just enough context and interpretation to illuminate the work without overwhelming it. This format makes the book incredibly approachable, something you can pick up for five minutes or fall into for an hour, while providing a broad sweep of street photography’s evolution.

The strength of Gibson’s approach lies in the precision of his observations. He’s concise without being simplistic, and his analysis consistently draws a line between the photograph, its maker, and the wider culture it emerged from. One section that particularly stood out to me was the inclusion of Thomaz Farkas.

I’d known of Farkas in passing, but Gibson’s reading of his image, a beach goal set against the shoreline of Rio de Janeiro, was a revelation. He writes about the romance embedded in the scene, the relationship between place and sport, and the visual influences that may have shaped Farkas’s seeing. It was a reminder that even our most historically significant photographers were part of a lineage themselves, working within traditions, responding to the world, and building on the shoulders of those who came before.

This, in turn, influenced my own practice. Not only as a photographer, but as a curator of images. Some of the most recognisable names in street photography appear here, but often through works that aren’t their most famous. Whether that was a deliberate curatorial choice or a practical consideration is unclear, but the result is refreshing. You encounter new images by familiar giants, which has the effect of expanding their legacy rather than simply repeating it. I found myself stepping away from the book with a list of photographers I wanted to revisit and others I wanted to discover for the first time.

If there is a limitation, it’s one rooted in its own design: each section is brief. Personally, I often wanted more. Another page of context, another layer of interpretation. But the more I read, the more I began to see this brevity as intentional. The book functions almost as a set of prompts, planting seeds that you’re invited to nurture through your own further research. For newcomers to the genre, the concise format makes the history accessible rather than intimidating. For experienced photographers, it serves as a gateway into deeper study.

Looking back through the history presented here also reveals the absences that have shaped the field, most notably from Eastern photographers such as Fan Ho and Daido Moriyama – although the reason to omit the former is supplied in the foreword.

I was also struck by the limited representation of female photographers. That isn’t Gibson’s oversight; it’s reflective of the broader, historically male-dominated world of photography. It’s an important reminder of how the narrative needs to continue to evolve. As a community becomes more inclusive, the history of street photography will too. After all, art grows richer with every additional perspective.

Final thoughts

This is a concise yet meaningful look at the history of street photography, distilled into one hundred images that collectively tell the story of the genre. Gibson writes with clarity, respect, and genuine enthusiasm, making the book both engaging and instructive.

Whether you’re new to street photography or have been immersed in its history for years, this is a valuable addition to your shelf; a reminder that understanding where we come from is essential to understanding where we’re going.

Alternatives

We say "generally", as not all Type A cards are inferior to their Type B siblings, and this Lexar card is a good case in point. It uses the next-gen CFexpress 4.0 standard, which makes it twice as fast as the first generation of Type A cards (confusingly called CFexpress 2.0). This makes CFexpress 4.0 Type A cards just as fast as version 2.0 Type B cards (CFexpress 4.0 Type B cards are twice as fast again, but precious few people actually need that much speed).

The Lexar Professional GOLD CFexpress 4.0 Type A card is available in five capacity options, from 256GB up to the 2 terabyte capacity we're testing here. All capacities boast read speeds of up to 1800MB/s and an impressive 1650MB/s max write speed. The larger capacity cards are also capable of a 1400MB/s sustained write rate, and though the 256GB and 512GB versions can 'only' manage a 1000MB/s sustained write speed, that's still more than fast enough to gain VPG400 certification. This means the card is guaranteed to sustain a minimum 400MB/s during video recording - ideal for capturing 6K or 8K footage.

Specifications

• Max read speed: 1800MB/s
• Max write speed: 1650MB/s
• Available capacities: 256GB, 512GB, 640GB, 1TB, 2TB

Build and handling

The Lexar Professional GOLD CFexpress 4.0 Type A card is exactly like any other Type A card, at least on the surface. That is to say, it's remarkably small. If you took a Type B card and split it in half widthways, each half would be around the size of a Type A card, only the actual Type A card would be thinner. A Type A card is also smaller in terms of length and width than an SD card, and only around 50% thicker. Considering this Lexar Type A card is around 6x faster than even the fastest UHS-II SD cards, you get an awful lot of performance crammed into a tiny form factor.

Lexar claims the Professional GOLD CFexpress 4.0 Type A card is IP68-rated against dust and water ingress, while also being drop-proof from heights up to 5 meters. The card is built to be bend-resistant, shock- and vibration-resistant, and it's able to resist pressures of up to 150 newtons. Lexar even states that it's been tested to withstand up to 12,000 insertion and ejection cycles.

Performance

To determine exactly how fast the Lexar Type A card really is, I fired up my memory card benchmarking software of choice: CrystalDiskMark. This is capable of extracting the maximum possible performance from a memory card, but only if the supporting hardware is up to the job. So to ensure no testing bottlenecks, I used a fast Windows 11 laptop with USB4 connectivity. USB4 has a maximum 40Gbps bandwidth, equating to around 5000MB/s - more than enough to max out any Type A card. I also used Lexar's WF370 Workflow CFexpress 4.0 Type A card reader, which is based around a USB4 interface, so it too should enable any Type A card to work at full speed.

And the results are pretty respectable. Though a little way short of Lexar's claimed 1800MB/s read and 1650MB/s write speeds, the difference isn't enough to be concerning, or particularly noticeable.

Storage benchmarks are all well and good, but to determine the real-world performance you're likely to get when using the card to transfer images or video to a computer for editing, I took a single large video file, as well as a folder full of small images, and moved them to and from the card to see what sort of read and write speeds you can expect during typical use:

These real-world results are a bit disappointing when you consider that the card was nearing 1700MB/s read and 1550MB/s write speeds in benchmarking software. Even so, this level of performance is still comfortably quicker than a CFexpress 2.0 Type A card, and way faster than any UHS-II SD card.

Verdict

If you're lucky enough to own a camera such as a Sony a1 II, a9 III or a7R V, you're going to want the fastest, most reliable memory card to use with it. The Lexar Professional GOLD CFexpress 4.0 Type A card fits the bill almost perfectly. It's easily fast enough for 8K Raw video recording, and it won't even break a sweat keeping up with the a9 III's 120fps burst shooting mode.

When it comes to transferring footage for editing, then that too will be blisteringly fast, assuming you've got a computer and card reader that are up to the job. It's a bit disappointing that we couldn't get closer to Lexar's speed claims when moving files between card and computer, though it's possible that's an issue confined to our particular test set-up.

But that's our only issue with this otherwise stellar Type A card. It also comes in a good range of capacities, is built to last, and is priced fairly for the performance on offer. If you need a fast, capacious, and reliable Type A card, the Lexar Professional GOLD CFexpress 4.0 Type A card should be high on your shortlist.

The Sony FE 100mm f/2.8 Macro GM OSS offers a 1.4:1 reproduction ratio (1.4x magnification) as standard – going above and beyond the 1:1 (1x) true macro ratio for larger-than-life-size reproduction. Which isn't unique, as the Canon RF 100mm f/2.8L Macro does the same.

However, the G Master goes an extra step by offering compatibility with 1.4x and 2.0x teleconverters – delivering up to 2.8:1 reproduction (2.8x magnification). Again this isn't unique, as OM System's M.Zuiko 90mm f/3.5 Macro offers 2:1 (2x) macro as standard and offers up to 4:1 (4x) macro when using a teleconverter (if you want to get technical, with the crop factor of Micro Four Thirds cameras that gives you up to 8:1 (8x) macro).

Still, for the Sony FE 100mm f/2.8 Macro GM OSS to offer a full-frame f/2.8 lens with teleconverter compatibility – along with autofocus and image stabilization – is an absolute triumph. And that's before you consider the G Master image quality that captures images so sharp you could slice your lens cap in half.

This isn't just the best E-mount macro lens, it's one of the best macro lenses period.

Sony FE 100mm f/2.8 Macro GM OSS: Price & availability

The Sony FE 100mm f/2.8 Macro GM OSS is on sale now in the US and releases elsewhere imminently. It carries a price tag of priced $1,498 / £1,400 / AU$2,599.

For comparison, the 10-year-old Sony FE 90mm f/2.8 Macro G OSS is still selling for $1,048 / £819 / AU$1,200.

To put that into context in terms of rival systems, Canon's equivalent lens (the RF 100mm f/2.8L Macro) sells for £1,249 / £1,370 / AU$1,899, so Sony's optic is in a similar ballpark.

Sony FE 100mm f/2.8 Macro GM OSS: Specifications

Sony FE 100mm f/2.8 Macro GM OSS: Design & handling

The 100mm Macro looks and feels every inch a G Master lens. It's quite long, but with its working distance this isn't a problem at all. And despite its size, this is a pretty light optic given all the glass and clever tech inside it.

Obviously some of the extra length is devoted to the compatibility with teleconverters, which is one of the headline features of the lens. This really is something to shout about; converters are supported by so few lenses, so I always relish the opportunity to dig one out and use it with a new toy.

This does, of course, lengthen the lens even further – and while it balances well handheld, the front-heaviness can make things tricky if you don't have a super sturdy tripod. However, the handheld potential of this lens is something that's really worth discussing.

Anyone who shoots macro knows the perils of doing so when handholding, but the clever stabilization system here really makes it practical – which will be music to the ears of outdoor and nature shooters, who don't always have the luxury of setting up a tripod.

The Sony FE 100mm f/2.8 Macro supports Body-Lens Coordinated Control, and the compensation now supports depth shale along the Z-axis – something that's super important for this kind of shooting – in addition to angle and shift along the X and Y.

The autofocus is fast, accurate and honest, so it's able to keep up with micro-movements caused by handheld shooting, and thus it really is feasible to shoot tripod-free – though you're a brave soul if you're going to do this at 2.8x magnification!

Something that's essential for macro lenses is having a proper manual focus ring – as in, one that has hard stops at each end with granular control and distance markings. By pulling down the "Full MF" clutch at the nose of the lens, the 100mm Macro engages this true manual focus system.

You also have control over the aperture ring, both in terms of having it clicked or de-clicked and disengaging it completely if it's not your thing. Finally, this is a weather-sealed lens – which again is great news for outdoor shooters who capture macro shots out in the elements.

Sony FE 100mm f/2.8 Macro GM OSS: Performance

As you'd expect from a G Master lens, this is an absolutely stellar performer. I tested this lens with a Sony A7R V, to truly test the limits of how well this lens can capture fine detail. And while some optics start to fall apart when you put them under such a ridiculous megapixel microscope, here it reveals the awesome resolving power of the 100mm Macro.

Even when shooting wide open, sharpness is truly superb across the entire frame – if, of course, you can get the whole plan in focus, which can be tricky when working at 1.4x magnification, let alone 2.8x!

I paired the 100mm Macro with Sony's 2x teleconverter for some of my testing. If you're unfamiliar with how converters work, they increase the focal length of lenses along with their magnification – but they have the inverse effect on the aperture.

So with my 2x converter, this 100mm f/2.8 lens with 1.4x magnification becomes a 200mm f/5.6 with 2.8x magnification. With the 1.4x teleconverter, it becomes a 140mm f/4 with 2.0x magnification. Obviously this means that you aren't able to gather as much light, which requires slowing the shutter speed and / or boosting the ISO.

Of course, by virtue of what they're doing, teleconverters are famous for degrading image quality. However, as you can see in the image above, you still get an incredible level of detail. It's not on par with shooting using the lens alone, but it honestly isn't far off – and I dare say that nobody will be able to tell, so minor is the effect.

However, something that is somewhat noticeable is a touch of color fringing. This admittedly only occurs in fairly specific situations – namely shooting white open in a high-contrast situation – but it happens nonetheless.

While it's more common to stop down when shooting macro, in order to increase depth of field, there are definite use cases for shooting wide open (both for creative effect and to gather more light, given the f/2.8. limit – or indeed both!). I'm someone who loves the super-shallow depth of field when shooting close-ups, so it's something I embrace fairly often.

Here's an example of the kind of wide-open fringing that occurs – it really is pretty minor, and it's nothing that a couple of sliders in Photoshop can't fix. In fairness it's really operating at the optical limits of this or any lens, but it's worth being aware of: