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Fujifilm's X100VI seems destined to perpetually dangle just out of reach.
Photo: Richard Butler
Fujifilm's X100VI remains hard to get hold of, over a year after its launch. Demand significantly outstripped supply and the company has been struggling to catch up, despite talk of trying to increase production capacity.
So, if you're fed up of waiting for an X100VI to become available, and don't want to line the pockets of scalpers on eBay, what are your options?
Why do you want an X100?
The word unique has been devalued by misuse, but I'd argue the X100 series offers a genuinely unique combination of style and capability. Some users won't care that it's a beautiful-looking camera, others won't care about working to squeeze out every last drop of potential image quality, but the X100 series appeals to both groups and many people in between.
So, before you can pick an alternative, it's worth being honest with yourself about what aspects of it appeal to you. If it's purely the desire for a small camera with good image quality, then there might be other options. If it's the classic aesthetics, you'll find the task harder. And if it's a bit of both, you might be better off waiting until they become available.
Which compact cameras can I get, instead of an X100VI?
The Ricoh GR IIIx can be a substitute for some of the things the X100VI does, in an even more convenient package, but they're hard to get hold of, too.
Photo: Carey Rose
2025 seems to be the year of cameras being unavailable, even prior to talk of tariffs and trade wars. Models such as the Ricoh GR IIIx or Canon G7 X III, that can, in their own ways, offer some of the X100VI's 'high image quality in a small body' appeal, have also become hard to source. In both cases, their manufacturers insist they're still in production, and yet...
What are the mirrorless alternatives to the X100VI?
Compounding matters, the small, rangefinder-style mirrorless cameras we used to suggest as ersatz X100 stand-ins seem to have fallen out of fashion. Canon has abandoned its EOS M system, so the EF-M 22mm F2 lens doesn't have a contemporary body to mount on. All of Panasonic's GX models are looking distinctly dated and, while OM System still makes a PEN camera, the E-P7 is only sold in certain markets.
Even with a small lens, the Sony a7C II leaves you quite a long way from the X100VI's size, price or experience.
Photo: Richard Butler
You can recreate much of the X100's technical capability with a Sony a6700, but there aren't any particularly compact circa 35mm equiv lenses to pair with it. A Sony a7C II with a 35mm F2.8 is another option but you're drifiting further and further away from the idea of a good-looking, enjoyable or compact camera at that point, and your expenditure risks spiralling.
Should I get an older X100 model instead?
Going back one generation to the X100V (left) sees you lose the X100VI's image stabilization and 40MP sensor, but go back further and you lose the newer design, movable screen and a further generation of responsiveness, so we wouldn't advise venturing beyond the X100F (right).
Photo: Dan Bracaglia
The continued shortage of X100VIs makes the previous models tempting, instead. The series has developed iteratively over fifteen years and six models, with appreciable improvements each time. The X100V is still a very nice camera, even if it misses out on the VI's higher resolution sensor and image stabilization. The problem is that their popularity also surged towards the end of their product life, so their second-hand prices can be as off-putting as those of the VI.
The X100F was the fourth-generation X100 and taking this further step back in time sees you move to an earlier lens design, less streamlined body and fixed rear screen, along with the performance drop you'd reasonably expect of an eight-year-old camera. It could still be a reasonable option, but it's only worth taking if you can get it at a significant discount compared with the X100VI's list price, which is an unlikely prospect at present. We wouldn't recommend going back any further in the series than that.
Sadly – and even more so than when we tried to address this question with the X100V – there really isn't a great alternative to the Fujifilm X100VI. It's an excellent camera and one for which there are precious few plausible substitutes, and those that there are are also in short supply.
We'd generally suggest putting in your order with a trusted retailer and waiting for Fujifilm to address the backlog
If you can find a Ricoh GR IIIx, it's definitely worth a look, but beyond that we'd generally suggest putting in your order with a trusted retailer and waiting for Fujifilm to address the backlog. Unless there's some important and unrepeatable event (a significant vacation or family event, for instance) imminent, we'd advise against paying the ludicrous markups some resellers are charging.
Partly because, while we gave it a Gold award as a camera costing $1599, its lustre dims if you have to pay hundreds of dollars over that price. But mainly because we wouldn't recommend that anyone help to line the pockets of people who only bought them solely to profiteer. Because they're part of the reason you can't get an X100VI.
Jupiter’s ice-covered ocean moon Europa floats above the planet’s Great Red Spot in this 1979 image from Voyager 1. This is a mosaic of several images in orange and violet filters. The scene is about 22,000 miles across.
I’m both an amateur and professional photographer. As an amateur, my photography is a source of great enjoyment, but nothing special. But my professional photographic work is more interesting. As a member of several large teams of planetary scientists and engineers, I get to photograph other worlds, from up close.
The cameras we use cost millions of dollars and are attached to some of NASA’s robotic interplanetary spacecraft, which take them to amazing places. But photography is photography, and the fundamentals of how we capture the interaction between light and matter to generate images are the same. I’m surprised how often the two kinds of photography overlap.
"But photography is photography."
We explore the worlds of our solar system using spacecraft bristling with many tools – magnetometers, mass spectrometers, radar, and so on. But cameras provide the most accessible information on the worlds we explore and are incredibly versatile in the range of phenomena they can capture. It’s rare for a spacecraft to head out to the planets without cameras of some kind.
Planetary Photoshoots
Our first visit to a new world is usually a flyby, using a spacecraft that doesn’t even slow down as it passes its target but grabs what images and other data it can in the precious few minutes or hours when it’s close by.
Every detail is planned months or years beforehand and rigorously tested before being uplinked to the spacecraft for execution. The flybys themselves are then a matter of watching and waiting, hoping everything goes smoothly, and excitedly pouncing on the new data when it hits the ground.
Some of the science team for the Lucy asteroid mission, at the moment we got our first look at images from the Lucy cameras that showed a moon, unknown until then, orbiting the asteroid Dinkinesh. The gobsmacked author is seated, center, in the blue t-shirt.
Image: Stuart J. Robbins.
That first picture of Dinkinesh and its moon Selam (left), from Lucy’s low-resolution tracking camera, is responsible for the reaction above. Much better pictures (right), from our long-lens LORRI camera were downlinked a couple of hours later. Dinkinesh is about 0.4 miles across.
Later, if we can, we return with spacecraft that carry the big rocket engines and fuel needed to get into orbit for an extended stay, often spending years in detailed exploration or even landing and roving for a much closer look.
Cameras
NASA was, by necessity, an early adopter of digital camera technology. The first close-up pictures of Mars, taken by Mariner 4 in 1965, were obtained with an analog vidicon camera, but were digitized (200 x 200 pixels, 6-bit) for transmission back to Earth at a blistering 8 bits per second.
This technology (upgraded to 800 x 800 pixels and 8 bits) was used until the late 1970s, and the Voyager mission’s astonishing images of the outer gas giant planets and their moons, and that final, famous, “pale blue dot” look-back image of the Earth, were all digitized vidicon images.
The first interplanetary photograph, of the Martian horizon, was taken on July 14th, 1965. The actual image is on the right. The scene is about 300 miles across. On the left is the first rendering of the image, made by an impatient engineer by hand-coloring pasted strips of printouts of the data numbers.
But starting in the 1980s, long before they were adapted to consumer cameras, solid-state CCD detectors became the norm, bringing greatly increased sensitivity and image quality. Camera designs tend to be conservative, though, because reliability is an overriding concern when the nearest repair facility is a billion miles away, and the tried and true often beats the innovative.
CMOS detectors, originally developed for NASA use, are now becoming common, but we chose a 1 Megapixel CCD detector for the LORRI telephoto camera included on our asteroid mission, Lucy, which launched in 2021. The format may be small and the technology old-fashioned, but we’d flown the LORRI camera before, on the New Horizons mission to Pluto, and we knew that it would work.
Pluto, photographed in approximate natural color (left) and enhanced color that includes near-infrared data (right) by the New Horizons spacecraft on July 14th, 2015 (coincidentally, 50 years to the day after that first Mars image). Pluto’s diameter is 1,470 miles.
New Horizons MVIC, 0.60 sec, f8.7 Image: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/Alex Parker
For larger format images, we often use long, skinny, “pushbroom” arrays. A scan mirror, or the entire spacecraft, moves to sweep the array across the target while the array is read out in lockstep with the scene motion. Pushbroom has the advantage over large framing arrays in that the detector is much more compact, and it’s also easy to incorporate color by using a series of parallel arrays, each with its own color filter, which scan over the target in turn.
Because maximizing detail is paramount, focal lengths tend to be long, and most planetary cameras are really telescopes. MVIC is the “wide angle” camera on New Horizons, but has a field of view of just 5.7 degrees (350 mm equivalent focal length), while its narrow-angle traveling companion, LORRI, has a 0.29-degree field (7000 mm equiv. focal length). Focal lengths are limited both by camera weight and by how steadily the spacecraft can track the target for the necessary exposure times.
Color
The simplest planetary cameras, like the New Horizons and Lucy LORRI cameras, are monochrome. For color, scanning with a set of linear pushbroom arrays, each with a different-colored overlying filter, is often used, as mentioned above. Other cameras obtain color images with Bayer-type filter arrays or filter wheels that step through the wavelengths in turn, as in the Voyager image of Jupiter and Europa above.
"When the nearest repair facility is a billion miles away, the tried and true often beats the innovative."
Matching human color vision is usually less of a priority than choosing the most scientifically diagnostic wavelengths; the New Horizons MVIC camera carries blue and red filters, but not green, and has two near-infrared filters, one tuned to a wavelength (0.89 microns) that is strongly absorbed by the frozen methane that’s abundant on Pluto’s surface.
Reconstructing “natural color” images from the resulting data can thus be tricky and somewhat subjective. But the aim is generally to show real variations in the color of the scene, whether or not they correspond precisely to what the eye would see, as well as to produce something aesthetically pleasing. Including wavelengths beyond human vision increases color contrasts and reveals patterns that the eye would miss, as with the Pluto example above.
Sometimes, color saturation is cranked up to bring out subtle features. We try to label released images to make these distinctions clear, though the provisos often get lost when the images are reproduced.
Color image releases of Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io, 2250 miles in diameter, from Voyager in 1979 (left), Galileo in 1997 (middle) and Juno in 2023 (right), illustrate the vagaries of representing planetary colors. Colors vary due to the different sets of color filters used and the preferences of the image processors. Voyager, in particular, missed the red color of the huge oval ring of volcanic fallout surrounding the Pele volcano (lower-right center, left image and lower-left, center image), because Voyager’s vidicon detector was blind to red light. Spot-the-difference fans can enjoy finding the changes wrought by volcanic activity between the Voyager image and the Galileo image, which cover much of the same terrain.
Left: Voyager ISS NAC, 0.49 sec (orange), 0.36 sec (blue and violet), f8.5 (NASA/JPL)
Right: Juno Junocam, red, green, blue filters, f3.2 (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstädt)
Lighting
All interplanetary photography is outdoor photography, and the sun is our primary light source. We have one variable that earth-bound photographers don’t need to worry about, which is the varying brightness of the sun depending on our distance from it.
"All interplanetary photography is outdoor photography."
Pluto, which the New Horizons spacecraft flew past in 2015, was then 33 times further from the Sun than the Earth is, and sunlight was 1000 times weaker, something like the illumination in a cozy terrestrial restaurant. This effect is predictable, and our camera focal ratios and exposure times are designed to handle it.
New Horizons’ MVIC camera had no trouble obtaining those color images of Pluto in that dim light. But in 2007, when New Horizons flew past Jupiter en route to Pluto, and we were six times closer to the sun, and the sun was forty times brighter, MVIC was hopelessly overexposed, and we didn’t get any decent color pictures of Jupiter.
Part of the bizarre surface of Europa, seen by the Galileo Jupiter orbiter, under high sun (left) and looking very different in a closer image mosaic of the region in the yellow square, taken with oblique illumination (right). The yellow square is about 220 miles across. The left-hand image shows compression artifacts, a consequence of Galileo’s broken main antenna, which required severely compressing images for downlink at very low rates through its backup antenna.
With the sun as our primary light source, we don’t have the luxury of repositioning it to our liking. But like any landscape photographer, we can control the lighting by choosing the timing and viewpoint for our images.
As on Earth, long shadows provide the most dramatic landscapes, highlighting subtleties in topography that would be washed out with the sun overhead. So low sun is best for understanding the lie of the land, while high sun is best for capturing brightness and color variations that give clues to what the surface is made of.
The night side of Saturn’s distant moon Iapetus (912-mile diameter) photographed in Saturn-light. The spacecraft rotated to track Iapetus during the exposure, streaking out the images of background stars.
Cassini ISS NAC, 82 sec, f10.5 Image: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Space being black, our sources of indirect light are limited, and space lighting tends to be direct and harsh. But sometimes, we can use indirect lighting to see where direct sunlight can’t reach.
Sunlit topography can reflect light into nearby shadowed regions; a NASA camera called ShadowCam on the Korean KPLO lunar orbiter exploits this indirect light to look for signs of ice in frigid lunar polar crater bottoms that never see direct sunlight.
Other nearby worlds can also provide indirect illumination, just as Earthshine illuminates the dark side of the crescent moon. Our best images of some parts of Saturn’s moon Iapetus were obtained, with very long exposures, using Saturn-shine. Saturn’s enormous rings provide dramatic indirect lighting on Saturn’s night side, which I’ve always found particularly beautiful, providing a soft light rarely seen in space scenes.
Ring-shine illuminates the night side of Saturn, as seen from Voyager 1 in 1980. Saturn’s shadow cuts across the rings on the left. The scene is about 50,000 miles across.
Saturn-shine illuminates the night side of Saturn’s active moon Enceladus. Jets and curtains of ice particles, erupted from geyser-like fissures in Enceladus’ south pole, rise up out of Enceladus’ shadow to catch the direct sunlight. The scene is about 250 miles across.
We’re rarely doing this for art’s sake; our goals are utilitarian, pursuing the best possible combination of detail and coverage to understand our targets. Considering where we are and what we’re looking at, though, the results are often stunning. And we still make aesthetic choices when choosing which images, or parts of images, to highlight for early public release.
Creative cropping. A parting shot of Pluto from New Horizons (left), and the most spectacular part of the image (right), which we chose for early public release. We would have loved to take this picture in color, but couldn’t spare the time to store the additional color data. Pluto’s diameter is 1470 miles, and the enlargement on the right is 230 miles across.
New Horizons MVIC, 0.40 sec, f8.7 Image: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
Cassini ISS NAC, 1/12th sec, f10.5 Image: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Occasionally, when the timeline is relaxed and we have resources to spare, we have the luxury of planning photos primarily for their aesthetic appeal. The Cassini Saturn orbiter took many images during its 13 years in Saturn orbit that were designed primarily to capture dramatic alignments of Saturn, its moons, or rings.
When New Horizons flew past Jupiter in 2007, we enlisted the help of amateur space enthusiasts to help us compose some of these scenic shots, including this alignment of the ice-covered ocean moon Europa with Io, its volcanic sibling.
Jovian moons Europa (left) and Io (right), imaged by New Horizons shortly after flying by Jupiter on the way to Pluto. The night side of Io is illuminated by Jupiter. Three volcanic eruptions, one with the red glow of incandescent lava at its center, can be seen on Io. This image is a composite of a high-resolution monochrome image from the LORRI camera with color from the lower-resolution MVIC camera. The diameters of Europa and Io are 1940 and 2260 miles, respectively.
New Horizons LORRI, 1/12th sec, f12.6; New Horizons MVIC, 0.6 sec, f8.7 Image: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
Exposure
Like all photographers, we think a lot about exposures. Aperture is fixed by the camera system – all our subjects are at infinity, and we always shoot wide-open. For exposure times, the usual trades apply; we don’t want to blow our highlights, but we want to minimize noise and retain shadow detail.
We also want to minimize motion blur and camera shake, so the motion in the scene, and the steadiness of our platform, are important. The Cassini spacecraft that took the above long-exposure Iapetus image was spectacularly steady, other craft are less so.
"Like all photographers, we think a lot about exposures... we don’t want to blow our highlights, but we want to minimize noise and retain shadow detail."
But we have some unique challenges. First, we can’t make adjustments on the fly – shutter lag is a big deal when your camera is up to several light-hours away, and with flyby missions, our subjects would be long gone before we could tweak our exposures. And we rarely use auto exposure, mostly because of its unpredictability.
Second, we often don’t know how bright our targets are going to be if we’ve never seen them up close before. So we often fall back on the old photographer’s standby of exposure bracketing, or we increase dynamic range by taking a bunch of short exposures and stacking them later.
Exposure challenges. Left: The Kuiper Belt object Arrokoth, severely underexposed to limit smear, given the feeble sunlight at 42x the Earth’s distance from the sun. Noise was reduced in the final product (below) by combining nine of these individual images. Arrokoth is 22 miles long.
New Horizons LORRI, 1/40th sec. f12.6 Image: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
Right: The asteroid Dinkinesh, with blown highlights in the center of the image. Exposure choice here was a deliberate gamble, as we had to choose a single exposure for a long sequence of images with varying lighting. We chose to risk overexposure when the sun was behind us, as in this image, in order to optimize exposures in the rest of the images (including the image of Dinkinesh and Selam above), where Dinkinesh was fainter. Arrokoth and Dinkinesh are made of stuff with similar intrinsic brightness, but Dinkinesh is 20x closer to the sun, and sunlight is 400x brighter. Dinkinesh is about 0.4 miles across.
Lucy LORRI, 1/500th sec. f12.6 Image: NASA/Goddard/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL
The final processed closest Arrokoth image (left and right), flanking an earlier image (center) taken in a similar way from a different angle, from greater distance. The images are arranged so Arrokoth can be viewed in stereo, either via parallel viewing (left and center) or cross-eyed viewing (center and right).
Image: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
Summary
The adventure of planetary exploration continues. I’ve focused on U.S. missions here, which currently face serious budget threats. But this is now an international effort, with players including Europe, Japan, China, India, and several smaller nations. In addition to a fleet of spacecraft currently exploring Mars, spacecraft are currently on their way to Mercury, several asteroids, and Jupiter’s moons Europa and Ganymede, with launches planned soon to the Martian moons, and Saturn’s moon Titan. All of them carry cameras, and hold the promise of amazing photographic opportunities to come.
Additional notes:
Spaceflight is plagued with acronyms, and I haven’t attempted to spell them out here. For explanations and much more detail, follow the included links for the various cameras. The raw image data are generally available for download from the NASA Planetary Data System- see, for example this excellent search tool for outer planet images. Extensive processing of the raw data, often done by enthusiastic amateurs, is used to create many of the images here, but they remain true to the original data. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me in the comments.
John Spencer is a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. A member of the science teams for NASA missions to Jupiter, Saturn, Pluto, and the Trojan asteroids, he has led the science planning for several planetary flybys. His earthbound photography includes documenting the excitement of planetary encounters, including the New Horizons encounter with Pluto.
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For people in many western states, summer is synonymous with rodeo. Above, a rider sits on her horse after failing to rope a calf at the Flathead River Rodeo in Polson, Montana, part of the Indian National Finals rodeo circuit.
Photo: Dale Baskin
The theme for our June Editors' photo challenge is 'Chasing Summer'.
With summer just around the corner, we want to see photos that evoke the spirit of summer fun and adventure. Whether it's jumping into cold water on a hot day, melting ice cream, or epic road trips, we want to see what 'Chasing Summer' looks like through your lens. Our favorites will be featured on the DPReview homepage later this month.
This challenge is open to photos taken at any time.
Photos can be submitted between Sunday, June 8, and Saturday, June 14 (GMT).
Important: Images MUST include a title and a caption of at least 25 words to be eligible. We need to be able to share the story behind your photo. We will consider both photos and captions when selecting our winners, so make sure to tell us that story!
Visit the challenge page to read the full rules and to submit your photos for consideration as soon as the challenge opens.
E8M8888 reports that Fujifilm could announce two new cameras at the upcoming X Summit in Shanghai:
"I was a little surprised to receive the news that Fujifilm is going to release two new products. Fujifilm has registered FF250001 and FF250003 on the Bluetooth official website in the past two days. It should be noted that the Bluetooth Association only registers information about products that are about to be released (within 3 weeks) or after they are released."
One of the rumored models is the previously reported Fujifilm X-E5.
Here is the full list of unreleased Fuji camera models:
For people in many western states, summer is synonymous with rodeo. Above, a rider sits on her horse after failing to rope a calf at the Flathead River Rodeo in Polson, Montana, part of the Indian National Finals rodeo circuit.
Photo: Dale Baskin
The theme for our June Editors' photo challenge is 'Chasing Summer'.
With summer just around the corner, we want to see photos that evoke the spirit of summer fun and adventure. Whether it's jumping into cold water on a hot day, melting ice cream, or epic road trips, we want to see what 'Chasing Summer' looks like through your lens. Our favorites will be featured on the DPReview homepage later this month.
This challenge is open to photos taken at any time.
Photos can be submitted between Sunday, June 8, and Saturday, June 14 (GMT).
Important: Images MUST include a title and a caption of at least 25 words to be eligible. We need to be able to share the story behind your photo. We will consider both photos and captions when selecting our winners, so make sure to tell us that story!
Visit the challenge page to read the full rules and to submit your photos for consideration as soon as the challenge opens.
The details of the previously reported Hasselblad X2D II medium format camera leaked online from the recent FCC filing - the confidentiality request was for 180 days starting from 12/02/2024. I posted the first leaked pictures in March of this year. Here is a quick recap on what to expect:
The HASSELBLADTM HB722 is Hasselblad’s next generation mirrorless medium format digital camera with a large 100-megapixel CMOS sensor that boasts 16-bit colour depth and a dynamic range of 15 stops. The camera features a 5-axis 8-stop in-body image stabilization (IBIS) and face detection. Hasselblad Natural Colour Solution (HNCS) technology is integrated into the camera’s system, delivering superb, true-to-life tones that match what the human eye sees. The HB722 offers more storage with a built-in 1TB SSD and users can expand the capacity further with a CFexpress Card Type B. With access to a vast range of high-quality lenses including XCD, HC, HCD, XPan, and V System, the creative possibilities with the HB722 are endless.
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Illustration: Hasselblad
It was something that haunted the fringes of my consciousness, like some half-remembered nightmare. It couldn't have been real, surely? And yet it had the shape of an actual memory.
News of the death of filmmaker David Lynch no doubt caused plenty of us to recall the strange, compelling and sometimes distinctly unnerving visions he committed to film. This week it unexpectedly prompted some other memories.
The online auction of many of the auteur's personal possessions includes, as you might expect, a great deal of photo, video and film equipment. Buried in amongst it was a reminder of one of the weirder paths taken by the camera industry.
In amongst a lot that included a Pentax 645 film camera and a Sony NEX-5 was a relic from a period we'd seemingly collectively erased: a Hasselblad Lunar.
What were they thinking?
Like many instances of misbegotten folly, the Lunar sprang from the involvement of private equity. Hasselblad was bought by Swiss/German capital fund Ventizz in 2011, with TechCrunch predicting this could lead to something like the Leica/Panasonic attempt to expand the brand. They weren't wrong, but perhaps underestimated the level corporate hubris in the offing.
2012 looks like a very different era, viewed from our modern perspective. Compacts were still being released in their bucket loads, the enthusiast compact revival was reaching its peak with the likes of the Sony RX100 and Olympus XZ-2, and although mirrorless cameras were strongly emerging, with the likes of Fujifilm's and Canon joining the market alonside second-gen models from Nikon, Sony and Olympus, but DSLRs still ruled the roost with Canon launching the EOS 6D and Nikon its D600.
But one of the most talked about releases at the Photokina trade show, that year didn't come from any of the big brands. Or, at least, didn't have their name on it. Instead is called itself the Hasselblad Lunar.
As the show opened, Hasselblad announced a partnership with Sony, to "cultivate new markets for photo enthusiasts and consumer digital imaging products." This would include "a new range of advanced mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras (a.k.a. compact system camera), which will be followed by new products for DSLR and compact camera segments," it said.
The Hasselblad Lunar added exotic materials to a spec sheet remarkably similar to that of the Sony NEX-7.
Photo: Richard Butler
The Lunar was the first of fruit of this union. "the Lunar has both a vintage and a high-tech aesthetic, exemplified by its Italian design and its Swedish pedigree," the company's marketing claimed: "It’s unmistakable."
But for all the adornments of titanium, carbon fibre, exotic woods and leathers, the thing that was unmistakable to most people was how much it looked like a Sony NEX-7, right down the the Minolta-style hotshoe. We were able to shoot a side-by-side comparison that couldn't help but emphasize the similarities.
A side-by-side comparison showed a lot of commonality between the Lunar and the NEX-7
Photos: Richard Butler
The three lens models mounted on the 40-or-so prototypes that dominated the Hasselblad stand were also distinctly familiar. The 18-55mm, 18-200mm and 16mm lenses may have had the classic 'Hasselblad' logotype draped around their barrels, but even their model names included Sony's 'SEL' designation.
It was going to take more than Hasselblad's talk of taking "aesthetic and technological inspiration from the first camera to go into space," to sell the idea that Sony's $1399 enthusiast APS-C mirrorless flagship, launched a year earlier, should be worth $6995; craftsmanship, Tuscan leather, ruby record buttons or not.
Carbon fiber was one of the materials on offer.
Photo: Richard Butler
The result was immediate and widespread derision, with the company rattled enough to respond that the camera wasn't just an NEX-7, and that it wasn't profiteering, though details weren't given on what work Hasselblad has done, other than restyling the exterior.
The Lunar finally reached the market nine months later. We don't have an insight into how many sold, but the fact Lynch's lens is marked as a prototype could be taken as a hint that it wasn't many.
The a7R-based Lusso was the final model in the series. The Hasselblad Solar, rumored at the time of the original a7/a7R launch proved to be a hoax.
Illustration: Hasselblad
The Sony collaboration continued for another couple of years and a change of CEO, spawning the a99-based HV, the RX100-derived Stellar and Stellar II and even a variant of the Sony a7R, called the Lusso, produced in a limited edition of 100 for the Asian market. The company says the Stellar, at least, was profitable.
By 2016, new investment and new management had set a new course for the company
Photo: Damien Demolder
By 2015 the company had yet new management and, by the end of the year, new investment from the company that would later take full ownership: DJI. The Italian design studio responsible for the Hassel/Sonys was closed in 2014 and by the next Photokina, Hasselblad had a product and a direction that fitted much more happily with its medium format heritage.
Looking back it barely seems credible, but we were there as it happened.
Last year, Wired reported that 28 Years Later, the upcoming sequel to the classic zombie flick 28 Days Later, was being filmed using an iPhone 15 Pro Max. A new IGN interview with the film's director, Danny Boyle, now confirms that at least some parts of the movie were shot with the phone and sheds even more light on that process.
Apparently, several iPhone shooting rigs were used on the production. According to IGN, there was one that held eight phones, one that held ten, and one that held up to 20, which could be used to create what Boyle calls "basically a poor man’s bullet time."
The phone rigs could be attached to cranes or carried by people. Photo: Sony
He also says that having so much coverage also provided options in post. "It gives you 180 degrees of vision of an action, and in the editing you can select any choice from it, either a conventional one-camera perspective or make your way instantly around reality, time-slicing the subject, jumping forward or backward for emphasis." Boyle also called it "a wonderful tool" to keep the actors on their toes. "They get to know where the cameras are and they get to know lenses and they get to know what they're doing. But [the multi-camera rig] throws them."
As for why Boyle decided to use iPhones at all for the production, he says it's a callback to the vibe of the original. IGN points out that when 28 Days Later came out footage of an apocalyptic event would've been shot on cheap digital camcorders, similar to the ones they used to make the movie. Nowadays, such an event would be recorded on smartphones.
With that said, it's hard to say that the footage from the trailer looks like phone video. With some movies shot on iPhone, like Sean Baker's Tangerine or Steven Soderbergh's Unsane, the shot-on-a-cell-phone aesthetic is strong, but, to my eye, 28 Years Later just looks like a movie. That's not necessarily a surprise, though – on-set photos from Sony show the crew using full-blown cinema lenses in front of the phone's built-in cameras.
If you're at all interested in the movie, the full interview is well worth the read. It goes into how Boyle and his team use the widescreen 2.76:1 aspect ratio to put the audience on edge, and how the movie's story (penned by Alex Garland, like the original) was inspired by major events over the past two decades, such as Brexit. 28 Years Later is set to hit theaters on June 20.
The Clever Photographer released a brand new and first AI personal assistant called LumiBot for Luminar NEO, trained to help you edit faster, stay creative, and avoid getting stuck (on sale this weekend for $29, the price after will be $39).
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Canon EOS R50 V vs. Sony ZV-E10 II: which is the best vlogging camera?
Product Photos by Mitchell Clark and Richard Butler
With the EOS R50 V, Canon has joined the fray of manufacturers selling boxy, EVF-less APS-C cameras aimed mainly at vloggers and videographers. Those who have been considering other models, such as the very capable Sony ZV-E10 II, may find themselves swayed by the EOS R50 V's much lower price tag.
In this article, we'll break down the differences between the two, so you can figure out if it's worth saving the money, or springing for the more expensive option.
Vlogging-specific features
Both cameras have loads of vlogging-specific features to make it easier to get the look and feel that you want. The EOS R50 V has a product demo mode that overrides its facial recognition autofocus so the camera will focus on whatever you're holding up to show it, a cinematic mode that bakes black bars onto your footage to emulate a movie-like aspect ratio and the ability to be used as a USB webcam without any additional drivers or software. Its vlogging controls will switch between vertical or landscape depending on the camera's orientation, and it has two record buttons: one at the top and a front-facing one on the right-hand corner.
Except for that front-facing record button, the ZV-E10 II has all those features plus a background defocus mode that you can switch on to prioritize a wide-open aperture for a blurry background. There are also a few other features handy for vloggers that we'll cover in later sections.
Rolling shutter
The EOS R50 V's sensor is quite slow compared to more modern models and therefore has quite poor rolling shutter performance in its standard 4K 24p mode. You'll have to be careful about how you move the camera and what subjects you shoot to avoid the dreaded jello effect.
4K 24p
4K 60p
1080p 24p
EOS R50 V
31.9ms
15.7ms (1.56x crop)
12.3ms
ZV-E10 II
16.7 ms
16.2 ms (1.1x crop)
6.8 ms
The ZV-E10 II's sensor is much faster and has good rolling shutter performance. You'll still see a bit of artifacting if you're shooting a very fast-moving subject or whipping the camera around, but it won't be something to worry about in most circumstances.
4K 60p recording
Both cameras can record in 4K 60p, letting you shoot slow-motion video, or achieve a hyperreal look that some viewers appreciate. However, the EOS R50 V has to crop in to a 1.56x center region of its sensor in order to read out the data fast enough for 60p recording. This will significantly tighten your frame, which may not be ideal for vlogging, depending on what lens you're using.
The Sony has to crop in far less – 1.1x – to shoot at 4K 60p.
The ZV-E10 II's 4K 60p mode has a much smaller 1.1x crop, so switching to it won't change your field of view nearly as much. Its 4K 60p footage is also oversampled from 5.6K, while the EOS R50 V's is a native 4K capture, so it can produce slightly more detailed results.
Color modes
The EOS R50 V and ZV-E10 II both have standard, punchy-rather-than-accurate color profiles, the ability to shoot 10-bit footage with an HLG response curve for HDR playback and a Log mode for those looking for more color-grading flexibility.
While both cameras have 'Log assist' modes to give a corrected preview to help with getting exposure right, the Sony also lets you load in custom LUTs and overlay them, to let you preview your 'look' of choice, though they won't be baked into the footage. The ZV-E10 II also has Sony's S-Cinetone profile, which is lower contrast than the standard color mode and thus gives you more room to make edits, without requiring as much grading as full-on Log.
Both cameras also include a variety of other color mode presets that you can tweak, which are meant to emulate certain styles if you don't want to spend the time to do it yourself in post.
Autofocus
Sony and Canon's autofocus systems are both at the top of the pack. Their tracking algorithms are generally reliable, and their subject recognition modes are even more so.
The ZV-E10 II has fewer of those available, though; it can recognize humans, animals, and birds, but the EOS R50 V can pick out all of those, plus vehicles. It also has an "Auto" mode that will automatically detect those subject types if they're in the frame, which can be handy if you frequently switch between filming humans and animals, people and cars, etc.
In both instances, these systems work hand-in-hard with the rest of the AF system: only selecting a recognized subject near your chosen AF point, if you want to specify.
Audio
Both cameras have microphone and headphone sockets and can support four-channel audio when paired with certain their respective multi-function shoe accessories. However, while the EOS R50 V has a standard stereo internal microphone, the ZV-E10 II has a three-capsule model that lets you choose whether you want it to bias towards sounds coming from a certain direction.
More importantly (the audio quality from multi-capsule mics usually isn't anything to write home about), the ZV-E10 II includes a fluffy wind blocker for its built-in microphone. You'll have to buy one separately for the EOS R50 V to get usable audio outdoors without an external microphone.
Shooting stills
Neither camera is particularly fun to use for shooting stills, thanks to their lack of an EVF and second top-plate control dial. However, the EOS R50 V does have the advantage of a mechanical second-curtain shutter, whereas the ZV-E10 II only has a fully electronic shutter. That means the Canon has a much higher flash sync speed: 1/250 sec vs 1/30 sec for the Sony.
Flash aside, both cameras can produce pleasing images with good colors. The Sony technically has a higher resolution sensor with 26MP compared to the Canon's 24MP, but such a small difference isn't noticeable in real-world use.
The extras
Both cameras have a few little things that stand out. For example, the EOS R50 V has a second tripod socket on its side, which makes shooting vertical video as simple as attaching your tripod plate to a different part of the camera. It also includes false-color monitoring, which can help you nail exposure for skin tones.
The ZV-E10 II distinguishes itself with a side-mounted SD card slot, meaning you'll never have to remove your tripod plate to get at your videos, something that can happen with the EOS R50 V. However, the 10Gbps USB-C port on the Canon is twice as fast as the Sony's, so there is an alternative option for getting data off it.
Sony also chose to use a much larger battery in the ZV-E10 II, which could be helpful on longer shoots. The battery life on the EOS R50 V isn't bad, and both cameras can charge via USB-C while in use, but you won't have to reach for a power lead as often with the Sony.
Kit lenses
Both cameras can be optioned with powerzoom lenses that have focal lengths suited to vlogging. Canon launched the EOS R50 V alongside a 14-30mm F4-6.3 lens (22-48mm equiv.), which is wide enough that most people's arms will be long enough to vlog with it, even with the 1.56x crop for 4K 60p (giving 35-75mm equiv). You can get it for $200 when purchased with the EOS R50 V.
The 16-50mm F3.5-5.6 (24-75mm equiv.) Sony lens is more versatile: it can zoom in much further, is faster at both ends and only adds $100 to the price. And while it doesn't go as wide as the Canon, in the ZV-E10 II's 60p mode it ends up being a 26.4mm equiv. compared to the Canon's lens which ends up as a 35mm equiv. thanks to its more severe 60p crop. However, we're not particularly thrilled by the Sony lens' image quality – we wouldn't be surprised if many ZV-E10 II owners end up wanting something sharper, though they'll likely have to give up the powerzoom feature to get it.
Conclusion
While the EOS R50 V is a capable camera with some interesting features like its side-mounted tripod socket, the ZV-E10 II's faster sensor and larger battery make it the overall more powerful camera for video. However, that comes at a price, literally – it costs $350 more. Depending on what you're filming, it may not be worth paying the extra; if you're mostly shooting semi-static subjects indoors, the rolling shutter and 4K 60p crop may not be as big a concern.
It's also hard to ignore that you could buy a cheap gimbal with your EOS R50 V and still come out ahead while getting much less shaky handheld video. However, if you're shooting faster moving subjects, or prefer extra bells and whistles like the background defocus button and microphone pickup area selector, the Sony definitely still justifies its price tag.
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Photo: Richard Butler
There's a funny thing that can happen with technology. Sometimes, products will get so good, and so easy to use that manufacturers start adding throwbacks to years past that reintroduce a bit of the friction. Think home arcade machines that still require you to put in a quarter, phones that purposefully can't run most apps, and, yes, cameras that make you wait to see your pictures.
Fujifilm's recently announced X half is just the latest example. It includes a film camera mode that prevents you from seeing the pictures you've taken until you've shot an entire "roll" and then used an app to "develop" it. This isn't the first time a digital camera has required an extra step to see your photos either; there are several apps that emulate that experience on your phone. One example is Dispo, an app that gained whirlwind popularity a few years ago that makes you wait until 9 AM the next day to see the photos you've taken.
As with anything, these nostalgic recreations have elicited scoffs from some, and confusion from others. Isn't the whole appeal of digital photography that we don't have to live with these sorts of limitations? Why artificially undo decades of progress in user experience and design?
Disposable cameras and apps that emulate them are another example of doing things the hard way despite having "better" options
The answer is that, sometimes, it's fun to get a break from what you're used to. A person in the 1990s probably wouldn't find these cameras at all charming since they're just recreating everyday photography for them. For them, having to wait for their photos, perhaps with some anticipation about whether they even turned out, is a frustration they're obligated to put up with. Nowadays, though, that ritual can be an endearing throwback to a style of photography that we haven't had to deal with for years or, perhaps, ever.
To borrow a term from wrestling, there's a kayfabe – a playing pretend – to these sorts of experiences. Case in point: you can take the SD card out of your X half and get at the film mode pictures the second after you take them. Or if you really can't miss the moment, you can take out your phone – a do-everything device that would've seemed miraculous in film's heyday – or another, more traditional modern camera and use it to take a picture instead.
Temporarily going without the extras can help you focus
The limitations are artificial, just like they are in so many of the other activities we participate in; football players agree not to ruin the game by picking the ball up, and going camping doesn't mean permanently converting to an 1800s lifestyle without running water, electricity and toilets.
Sometimes, temporarily going without the extras can help you focus on something else that you'd typically pay less attention to. If you know you won't be able to immediately review your photo and fix something if it doesn't turn out, you may take a bit more time composing it and making sure your exposure settings are correct. Or you may enjoy not worrying about those things, and letting the photos be a surprise when you do finally see them. And when you choose to use a camera with all the modern features instead, you may find a newfound appreciation for them.
Of course, there will be those who just don't enjoy these kinds of modes, and that's okay too. On most of the cameras that include them, they're entirely optional. For cameras where it's not optional, such as the Camp Snap or the disposable film cameras it emulates... well, consider that a good reason to save your money instead.
Do you want to shape the online experience for one of the world's largest audiences of photography enthusiasts? DPReview is hiring! We're looking for a full-time Community Manager with experience building active and engaged online spaces to join our Editorial team and help grow our online forums.
Community Manager, DPReview
Full-time remote in NY, CA, WA, TX, CT, CO, NJ, OR Full-time contract opportunities available to candidates living outside of these locations
The Role
We're looking for an experienced and passionate Community Manager to lead the charge in revitalizing and growing our online forums. This is a critical role for someone who thrives on building active, engaged online spaces and understands how to foster a positive and inclusive environment. You won't just be managing; you'll be innovating, strategizing, and executing plans to boost participation and breathe new life into our community discussions. If you have a proven track record of growing online communities and a knack for building active, engaging, and welcoming forums or discussion groups, we want to hear from you.
This role requires a high-energy self-starter with a strong bias for action. You see opportunities for engagement and growth and pursue them independently, without needing constant oversight. You’ll be a key ambassador, bridging the gap between our editorial team and our users, and you’ll play a vital part in shaping the future of our community.
What you will do:
Own the strategy: Define, own, and execute the community growth strategy, setting measurable goals for participation, engagement, and user satisfaction. Identify opportunities to increase forum engagement and participation.
Analyze and refine: Regularly analyze community data and user feedback to identify trends, report on progress, and refine strategies to boost forum participation.
Engage and connect: Be an active, visible presence in our forums. Engage directly with users, answer questions, and spark conversations. Act as the primary liaison between our community and the editorial team.
Innovate and program: Design and implement engaging community programs, campaigns, and events (e.g., Q&As, contests, themed discussions) to foster interaction and attract new members.
Lead and develop moderators: Provide guidance and structured training to our dedicated team of volunteer moderators. Ensure moderation is consistent and aligned with our community guidelines. Develop resources and programs to support moderator effectiveness, handle recruitment and orientation, and arbitrate conflicts when they arise.
Help create and publish content: Proactively seed discussions and solicit user contributions in the forums to develop unique, community-driven stories, and identify existing organic content opportunities, transforming both into engaging, publication-ready articles that meet DPReview's high editorial standards.
Advocate: Serve as the primary advocate for the community within DPReview, channeling user feedback to the editorial and product teams.
Manage and administer: Oversee the moderation queue, review and approve flagged posts, and handle user requests.
What You Bring:
Proven community growth experience: Significant (3+ years preferred) experience managing large-scale online communities (forums, social media groups, etc.). Crucially, you have demonstrated success in growing communities, ideally including experience in revitalizing forums with declining engagement
Initiative and drive: You are a proactive, energetic self-starter who doesn’t wait to be told what to do. You can identify needs, formulate plans, and execute them quickly and effectively.
Exceptional writing skills: You possess exceptional writing skills with demonstrated experience authoring and publishing written content for a publication with high editorial standards. You can craft engaging articles that are ready for publication.
Diplomatic communication: You possess excellent communication skills, capable of interacting clearly, professionally, and with empathy, especially when navigating sensitive community disputes or moderation issues.
Strategic and analytical thinking: You can analyze the landscape, identify factors influencing community health, use data to make decisions, and develop creative solutions.
Passion for photography (highly desired): A genuine interest in and knowledge of cameras, photography, and related technology is strongly desired and will be invaluable for connecting with our community.
Authentic voice: An understanding of how to communicate authentically and establish a trusted, approachable presence that aligns with the DPReview brand.
Experience with volunteers (a plus): Familiarity with managing or working alongside volunteer teams is beneficial.
Flexibility: Ability to work flexible hours as needed to engage with a global community.
What a typical week might look like:
This is a new full-time position at DPReview, and as such, the role will likely evolve. However, we think it’s safe to say your week will be driven by strategic action. Your primary focus will be advancing initiatives designed to revitalize and grow our forums, analyzing results, and planning your next moves. Alongside strategic work, you'll spend time actively participating in key forums, talking with users, and getting a feel for the community pulse. You'll check in with moderators, provide support and training, and ensure moderation standards are applied consistently. You'll dive into community discussions to unearth interesting content ideas and dedicate time to writing articles for the main site. You'll also manage user support requests and review flagged posts.
Why DPReview?
We’re a small, passionate team dedicated to the world of cameras and photography. This is a chance to make a tangible impact on one of the most respected photography communities online. You'll have the opportunity to shape strategy and see your ideas come to life. If you're ready to roll up your sleeves and build something special, we'd love to talk.
How to Apply:
Please send your CV/resume, LinkedIn profile link, and cover letter to the Managing Editor, Dale Baskin (dbaskin@dpreview.com), with the subject heading: “Community Manager.”
A brief introduction of yourself that includes an overview of why you believe you are a good fit for the Community Manager Position.
In your message, please include examples of past work managing and growing communities that you believe are most related to this role.
Only those candidates considered for an interview will be contacted. Please regard your resume as having been received unless your email bounced back.
The salary range and final title for this position is $70,000 to $90,000, depending on the candidate's experience. Where an employee or prospective employee is paid within this range will depend on, among other factors, actual ranges for current/former employees in the subject position; the associated discipline; market considerations, budgetary considerations, geographical considerations; tenure and standing with the company (applicable to current employees); as well as the employee's/applicant's background, pertinent experience, and qualifications.
DPReview strives to be a diverse and inclusive company. We firmly believe that different voices, experiences and points of view are an essential component of our current and future success. We do not discriminate on the basis of an individual’s gender, age, race, religion, national origin, marital status, sexual orientation, disability, genetics or any other personal characteristics protected by law.
A new Fujifilm X-E5 camera is expected to be announced on June 12th during the Fujifilm X Summit in Shanghai. Here is what to expect from the new X-E5:
40MP sensor
23mm pancake lens
IBIS
Similar to the Fuji X-T5, with reduced video features due to the compact rangefinder-style body