This week, Apple announced its first foldable: the iPhone Duo. It’s launching into a mature market with lots of competition, though it adopts the still relatively rare passport form factor. This means it’s designed to be short and wide, rather than tall and thin, a decision with relatively fundamental implications on the aspect ratio of its interior screen.

While there are plenty of options to compare it with, we’re choosing some of the more established competitors: the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 series (both the passport style phone and the boxier Ultra variant) and the Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold. However, we will bring up some of the other foldables on the market at points where they’re relevant.

Cameras

One of the areas folding phones differ the most is in their camera layouts. Some opt for a three camera array, while others opt for two (usually, it’s the telephoto option that gets the axe). But different phones will make different compromises, so it’s up to you to decide what parts of the camera experience you value.

Comparing the options across the foldables from Apple, Samsung and Google to a standard slab phone – in this case the iPhone 18 Pro – a few things become clear. Both Apple and Samsung decided that there just wasn’t room in a passport-style phone for a three camera array (though, notably, Xiaomi managed it).

However, while the larger foldables offer telephoto cameras, they’re usually very compromised compared to what you’d typically get on a standard phone. Samsung’s “Ultra” foldable, the most expensive in this roundup, is also the only one that has what we’d consider to be a flagship-class main camera, though Motorola’s new Razr Fold has a comprable camera layout, albeit with an slightly worse ultrawide and substantially nicer telephoto.

Samsung

As for how the iPhone Duo compares: it’s very similar to the Z Fold 8, and Apple has made a different trade-off than Google, opting for a better ultra-wide with no telephoto rather than relatively poor versions of both. But like the rest of the phones, it’s pretty much no contest between it and the Z Fold 8 Ultra, or the iPhone 18 Pro it launched alongside.

Screens

Apple

Of course, the main reason to get a folding phone is that they come close to the pocketability of a standard phone, will unfurling to give you a large display that lets you run multiple apps at once, or view videos and photos on a much larger canvas. (But while the iPhone Fold is IMAX-shaped, we suspect Christopher Nolan still wouldn’t approve of watching movies on one.)

Your choice of form factor will largely dictate what kind of screen you get, with the passport-style phones offering slightly smaller displays with aspect ratios more suited to viewing content, but not quite as ideal for running apps side-by-side (though both the iPhone Duo and Galaxy Z Fold 8 can). Meanwhile, the more traditional folding phones offer nearly square screens, which offer a multitasking experience that’s almost like having two standard phones next to each other.

Samsung

While you may need to compromise on cameras to get a folding phone, you’re not compromising on screen specs. All the phones in our roundup have incredibly bright displays – Apple and Samsung* offer 3000 nits peak brightness on bother inner and outer screens, while Google ratchets that up to 3600 – with variable refresh rates that go from 1 to 120Hz.

The one place Apple has thought different is in the finish of its inner display; it has a matte “nano-texture” coating, where its competitors have glossy displays. Apple says this does a better job of hiding the crease in the middle – though it’s barely noticeable on the Samsungs either, according to most reviewers – and makes it less prone to scratches. We’ll see what happens when JerryRigEverything does his durability tests on it, though.

Size and Weight

There’s no getting around it: the iPhone Duo is hefty, especially given its size. Despite Apple’s use of titanium in its construction – typically a material that offers incredible strength for its size – it winds up being substantially heavier than even the larger Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold.

To us, this comparison illustrates Samsung’s experience as the company that’s been making foldables the longest. Its models are substantially thinner and lighter than their Apple and Google counterparts, while having roughly similar battery capacities. Of course, Apple is known to let its devices be a bit heavier to give them a premium feel, but it’s up to you whether the feel in your hand is worth the heft in the pocket.

The rest of the experience

Each brand, will, of course, have its own take on what the foldable experience should be like. These range from macro-level decisions, like how the transition from folded to unfolded should work and how multitasking is handled, to smaller quality-of-life features like Google and Apple’s inclusion of camera features made to make kids smile as you’re taking their picture, and automatically capture group photos when you have your phone set up on a flat surface.

Google

While we won’t know the full scope of those usability differences until all the phones are available, there are a few things we can glean from what we know so far. While all the phones can be stood up on a table in the a-frame-like tent mode for watching video, the Galaxy Z Fold 8’s hinge design means it can’t be used half-unfolded (in a way that makes the phone sort of like a laptop). This is an ability the Ultra version, as well as the Pixel and iPhone, have.

While none of the selfie cameras on the inner screens will be great – they’re designed mostly for video calls – Apple goes the extra step of hiding its one under the display when it’s not in use, so you can get a truly full-screen experience when watching video, without the hole-punch you’ll get in the Galaxies and Pixel. Ironically, this was something Samsung used to do with its foldables, but has dropped in recent years.

The iPhone Duo and Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold both offer dust and water ingress protection that’s equivalent to a standard cell phone (which is important given their oh-so-complex hinges and display mechanisms), with an IP68 rating. The Samsung models fall a bit short on the dust protection, only boasting IP48.

If you want to see how the iPhone 18 Pro compares to its traditional smartphone competitors, check out our story below.

* – It’s also no secret that Samsung, innovator in the foldable space, provides the panel for Apple’s foldable; no wonder it has similar performance.

It’s been a week packed full of launches and announcements, so we thought: what better time to bring back our DPReview Discussions podcast series, where we get the editors together to discuss the latest cameras, lenses and more? This episode is a bit wider-ranging than usual. Of course, we cover the new OM System PEN and iPhones 18 Pro and Duo, as well as our audiences’s reactions to them, but we also touch on the new Sigma lenses and the news that Ricoh has discontinued the remaining K-mount Pentax DSLRs.

We hope to make these discussions a more regular thing going forward, so let us know what you think. Do you prefer the longerform conversations, where we cover most of our thoughts in full, or do you prefer tighter episodes focused on just a single topic or two? Sound off in the comments below. 

Gavin Free, one half of the YouTube duo The Slow Mo Guys, is a camera nerd through and through. His 2015 video “Inside a Camera at 10,000fps” was one of the catalysts for me deciding to actually learn about the technical side of photography, rather than treating my camera as a sort of magic box that takes photos. But slow-motion videography and cameras have changed a lot since then, which is why it’s so exciting that he’s taken another run at the subject. 

The video he released today covers way more than the mirror and shutter mechanism of DSLRs, though he goes into that a bit too. It also shows the exact way that electronic first curtain (or, really, mechanical second curtain) shutters work, how they synchronize with a lens’s aperture mechanism and captures a leaf shutter in action. The video also covers various flash sync modes, showing how a camera manages to capture the light from a strobe, and explaining the things that can go wrong in that process (especially when using High-Speed Sync). 

If you’ve never dug into how a camera shutter works, this video is an excellent primer. Sure, you can figure it out by reading metaphors and explainers and looking at diagrams and animations (and those help you go deeper on a subject), but watching extremely slow-motion footage gives you a very visceral understanding of what’s happening. And if you are familiar with a camera’s mechanisms, it’s still fun to see them in action, in both high definition and slow motion. One thing I learned from the video is just how much the blades of a leaf shutter jiggle when it closes; it’s the kind of thing that really makes you appreciate just what a marvel of precision engineering and manufacturing cameras are.

Earlier this week, Sigma fully unveiled the 85mm F1.2 Art, a lens it announced would be coming earlier this year. We had the chance to shoot with it, and mainly focused on testing out its capabilities for portraiture, as that’s the traditional use for fast 85mm primes.

You can check out the sample gallery below to judge its performance for yourself. 

We found that shooting with it was the characteristically refined experience that we’ve come to expect from Sigma’s Art-series lenses. While a quality F1.2 lens will never be the smallest or lightest option, we appreciated that this particular lens is light for what it is; Sigma actually claims it’s the smallest and lightest full-frame 85mm F1.2 with autofocus for mirrorless cameras. It feels like something you could conceivably carry around all day without having to worry about waking up the next morning to an unusably sore arm (though I had it paired with an original Panasonic S1R, so it still made for a relatively hefty setup). 

The controls on the lens are also well-judged. I always appreciate a clicked aperture ring, though Sigma also lets you de-click it if you prefer. It’s also nice that you can lock it either into or out of the ‘A’ mode that hands over control of the aperture to the camera body.

While we haven’t put the lens through a full battery of tests to determine every aspect of its image quality, it’s hard to find much fault with the samples we’ve taken. It’s quite sharp across the frame, even at F1.2 (though obviously you’ll be working with razor-thin depth of field), though there’s definitely some chromatic aberration present. There’s also relatively strong vignetting at F1.2, which isn’t necessarily a surprise given the lens’s size, though it largely clears up by F2.8.

Whether you think the trade-offs of an F1.2 lens are worth it over an F1.4 or F1.8 will largely depend on your thirst for light and background blur. But before now, your options for this kind of lens on E and L-mount were limited to non-existent, so it’s nice that we’re getting a genuinely good option, especially one that comes in at just over half of what Nikon and Canon will charge you for a similarly-speced lens.

This week, Apple announced the iPhone 18 Pro, the latest entry in its lineup of high-end smartphones. As we’ve come to expect, the update includes several new camera features, and even some new hardware. So how does it stack up against the last few years of Pro phones from Apple?

Before we get to what’s changed, let’s quickly cover what stayed the same: the 48MP ultra-wide camera, which provides a 13mm equiv. field of view and uses a 1/2.55 (23.5mm²) sensor, is the same model on the iPhones 16, 17 and 18 Pro. Likewise, Apple hasn’t updated the selfie or telephoto cameras on the 18 Pro either; they’re the same ones from the iPhone 17 Pro (though they were upgrades from those of the 16 Pro).

It’s also worth stating up front that the camera layouts on the 18 Pro are the same whether you go with the standard or Max versions, leaving you free to decide whether you want a 6.3″ or 6.9″ display, without having to worry that you’re compromising your phone’s photographic abilities.

The main camera

Apple

So what has changed then? The major hardware change Apple made to the iPhone 18 Pro is the addition of an adjustable aperture to the main 24mm equiv. camera. Unlike the fixed aperture lenses that all previous iPhones have used, this allows you or the phone’s software to choose whether it wants to cut down on the amount of light hitting the sensor, or make adjustments to the depth of field without resorting to software tricks. And if you stop it down all the way, you can even get some sun stars.

The six-bladed aperture has four settings: F1.48, F1.8, F2.8 and F4. Notably, the brightest aperture is faster than the lenses used on the iPhone 17 and 16 Pro, which were fixed at F1.78. While I’m on record saying that an adjustable aperture probably won’t be a ground-breaking change (something I still generally believe), I caveated that statement with the assumption that the phone’s maximum aperture wouldn’t change. At the time, I thought the feature would make for a lens that goes from F1.78 to F4, or F6.1 to F13.7 equiv., letting you switch from a setting with enough depth of field to more than enough. But the difference should be a bit more noticeable now that you’re starting at F5.1 equiv.

Tucker Bowe

While Apple says the sensor behind the lens is new, details are light on what’s changed. It’s still the same size – Type 1/1.28 (71.5mm²) with 1.22µm pixels – as the one used by the 17 and 16 Pro, so it won’t gather any more light; the 50% improvement that Apple references in its presentation is entirely accounted for by the fact that the lens’s maximum aperture is half a stop faster.

Software

Apple

The rest of the camera improvements on the iPhone 18 Pro come from software, and many of the features are only available when using that upgraded main camera. The biggest finally comes from the the “Pro controls” mode, which lets you manually set parameters like white balance, aperture, shutter speed, and view a histogram. (Disappointingly, there’s no mention of manual focus control, for when the AF system doesn’t get things right. While this is theoretically something Apple could port to its older Pro phones, minus the aperture control, of course, its comparison page indicates that it has no intention of doing so.

Apple has also introduced a new “Reference” mode for the main camera, which it says bakes authenticity data into photos taken with the phone into the image on a pixel level. This appears to be an answer to Google Pixel’s inclusion of C2PA Content Credentials in its camera app, though its inclusion as a separate mode means you have to actively decide to use it.

The iPhone 18 Pro introduces Photographic Styles 3, an update to the system that gives you more control over what your phone’s photos look like, letting you adjust things like contrast and color at the point of capture. The system was majorly overhauled with the iPhone 16 Pro, giving you a lot more control and letting you change the style after-the-fact, rather than permanently baking it into the image. The version on the 18 Pro is a much more minor change, adding the ability to “customize texture and grain to soften skin details or achieve an artful film look.”

Finally, Apple is adding a “Smart focus tracking” mode, which will attempt to recognize and stick to a subject after you’ve tapped on it to focus. Again, this feels like something that could come to previous models, but Apple’s comparison tool says it won’t.

Video

Many of the iPhone 18 Pro’s video upgrades are the same as they are for stills: you get the benefits of the variable aperture, and the ability to manually control it and other parameters, along with the tracking autofocus.

Otherwise, the changes are relatively minor: you can now record at up to 4K/60 in the “Cinematic” video mode that adds simulated background blur, where the iPhone 17 and 16 Pro max out at 4K/30. More importantly, though, is that you no longer have to make the on whether to apply the effect or not when recording; you can apply it after the fact. The timelapse video feature is also upgraded to 4K, and Apple appears to have improved its noise reduction as it claims the 18 Pro has better low light video across the board, including on the selfie camera.

The rest

Apple

Of course, a phone isn’t just a camera, and Apple’s made some big changes under the hood that make the iPhone 18 Pro enticing even if you’re happy with your phone’s photos. You can read our launch coverage for the full story, but the top-level summary is that the chip is now substantially faster (especially when it comes to AI tasks, with twice the number of neural cores), and is kept cool thanks to a more advanced vapor chamber design, and some clever engineering choices. The battery life has also gotten a relatively impressive bump, and you can new refill it faster with 60W wired charging, where the 17 Pro topped out at 40W.

You will, however, pay for all these upgrades, in more ways than one. The iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max start at $100 more than their predecessors for the same spec, and, while they keep roughly the same dimensions as past Pros, are the heaviest ones yet, despite their aluminum, rather than stainless steel, frames. That metal is, however, once again in four colors: black, burgundy, silver and a light blue.

It looks like Viltrox is gearing up to release a lot of lenses, including bringing several of its existing full-frame designs to L-mount. The news comes from the company’s press release about its attendance of the International Broadcasting Convention, or IBC, this week. While the show is typically focused on video, the company says it’ll be showing off several photographic tools there, too.

First are its L-mount lenses. Viltrox is bringing its autofocusing 14mm F4, 20mm F2.8, 40mm F2.5 and 50mm F2 lenses to the mount, which are all part of its “Air” series of relatively lightweight options that were originally launched for Sony E and Nikon Z mounts. Given that the company has only released two autofocusing lenses for the mount since it joined the L-mount Alliance in 2025, this looks like a relatively dramatic expansion of its offerings. What stands out more, though, is that these lenses aren’t all standard fare; sure a 50mm F2 isn’t that exotic, but there aren’t exactly a ton of affordable ultrawide autofocus lenses already on the market for those with L-mount cameras.

The company also says it’ll be introducing two new APS-C lenses, the 18mm (27mm equiv.) F1.2 Pro and 40mm (60mm equiv.) F1.2 Pro. These are also exciting options, as I wasn’t able to find any other lenses like them currently available for sale (assuming they’ll have autofocus). Of course, they’ll probably be quite large and heavy, but for those who want fast glass to pair with an APS-C camera, these could be options to watch out for. 

The company also promises to expand its flash lineup – which has, until now, consisted mainly of small, on-camera models – with a “new high-power” option. Whether that means a particularly bright version of what it’s made before, or a speedlight or standalone strobe to compete with companies like Godox, we’ll have to wait and see.

While Viltrox will be showing these lenses off at IBC, this doesn’t quite seem to be an official announcement yet. We don’t have release dates for the L-mount lenses, nor do we know if they’ll be the same price as the Sony and Nikon versions. Nor do we have much info on the APS-C lenses. But it’s clear that we should keep a close eye on Viltrox in the coming weeks.

September 9th is Sigma’s 65th anniversary of being in business and its CEO, Kazuto Yamaki, has published a letter marking the occasion. While it doesn’t contain any news, it’s well worth a read, as it’s illustrative of what makes the company different.

While Sigma is best known for its lenses, it’s also a company that hasn’t been afraid of trying something a little out there, be that chasing the long-standing dream of a full-frame Foveon camera, creating a radically simplified user interface for its BF camera or even growing rice. And indeed, it’s hard to imagine many other companies taking time in a letter celebrating an anniversary to call attention to the “stern feedback” they received after the times their products or services fell short.

Yamaki states in the letter that the company hopes to “contribute to the development of photographic and visual culture, social peace, and human happiness” in the future. You can read the full letter here, or take a trip down memory lane and read the letter Yamaki wrote for Sigma’s 60th anniversary in 2021, before checking out the company’s history page.

Today, Apple announced the new iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Duo, its first foldable, making it seem as if the standard line of iPhones, along with the ultra-thin iPhone Air were untouched. And while those phones haven’t been updated yet, something about them has changed: their prices.

When the iPhone 17 launched in September of last year, it started at $799 for a model with 256GB of storage. Now, that same model is $899. If you want to upgrade your storage to 512GB, it’ll bring the price up to $1099. Apple is no longer selling the 17 Pro that launched alongside it, as is tradition for when it updates a Pro model.

The iPhone Air, launched at the same time as the 17, has also received a $100 price bump, now starting at $1099 instead of $999. 

What’s more painful is what’s happened to the cheaper end of Apple’s lineup. The iPhone 17e, the company’s budget model which originally launched in March, has gone from $599, the same price as its predecessor, to $699. And the now two-year old iPhone 16 now sells for $799, which is the same price that it launched at in 2024.

This move isn’t necessarily a surprise from Apple. The company recently raised prices on many of its other devices like Macs, Apple TVs and more, likely due in part to rising storage and memory costs. However, it had seemed like the iPhone may have been spared, with the price increases coming with the next generation. And indeed, the iPhone 18 Pros announced today start at $100 more than their predecessor. However, it seems like that price increase isn’t just limited to the latest and greatest.

Apple has announced its long-awaited take on the folding smartphone form-factor, and it’s called the iPhone Duo*. It features a “passport” style design, which is relatively short and wide, giving the interior screen an aspect ratio that’s better for watching video, viewing photos, and running apps side-by-side.

Like the iPhone Air, Apple says it’s managed to fit everything it needs to into the phone by putting “critical components” in the camera plateau. Of course, the protrusion also houses the Duo’s camera system, which, appropriately, features two cameras. The main camera features a 26mm equiv. lens and an F1.6 aperture – no adjustable aperture here – as well as a 48MP stabilized sensor. While the company doesn’t typically share sensor size info, the specs are an exact match for the iPhone Air’s Type 1/1.56 (48mm²) main camera, which would make it a substantial step down from the larger sensor used in the Pro phones.

Apple also says it’s using the same 48MP ultra-wide camera as the iPhone 18 Pro, which is almost certainly the same model found in the iPhone 17 Pro, featuring a Type 1/2.55 (23.5mm²) sensor.

Apple

Like Google before it, Apple is using the folding form factor to enhance the camera experience. It has a mode that lets you halfway fold the phone, so it will sit up on a surface with the cameras pointing outwards. The phone will then analyze the scene, taking pictures when it recognizes that everyone’s posing. The company says this makes it easier to take group shots and selfies without having to worry about a timer. There’s also a mode that will play cartoons on the front screen, aimed to make kids smile as you’re taking pictures of them.

Apple says durability was a big focus for the phone, and that the inner folding display is “designed to withstand the wear of everyday use.” Its frame is made from titanium, with the back glass getting Apple’s Ceramic Shield coating that makes it relatively resistant to shattering from drops. The glass covering the outer 5.4″ display uses the scratch-resistant Ceramic Shield 2 coating. The phone has an IP68 water and dust resistance rating, a rarity among folding phones (though Google’s Pixel Fold series has had it since last year).

According to Apple, the Duo has the “largest display for an iPhone” ever, with its interior screen measuring 7.6″ It features a “nano-texture” surface, similar to what Apple’s been providing on its iPads and Macs, that Apple says will minimize the risk of scratches (a common concern with foldables, which typically have a plastic screen protector that can be marked with a fingernail), and the visibility of the crease. Both of the phones’ screens have a 1:1.4 aspect ratio, and are capable of reaching 3000 nits peak brightness outdoors, and 1600 nits when viewing HDR content. Support for using them with the USB-C version of the Apple Pencil stylus will be coming in a later firmware update.

Apple

The phone does away with the FaceID authentication system that’s been ubiquitous on Apple’s phones for the past few years. The phone instead features a fingerprint reader integrated into the power button. The phone also foregoes the customizable “Action” button, but keeps the touch-sensitive “Camera Control” button, which lets you launch the camera and control various settings, like zoom. However, the camera app doesn’t feature the manual control mode debuted on the iPhone 18 Pro, nor does it have the Reference Image content authenticity mode, ProRes Raw recording, Apple Log 2, and a host of other video features that Apple reserves for its pro phones.

The iPhone Duo uses the same A20 Pro system on a chip as the iPhone 18 Pro, which Apple says will provide an up to 35% performance uplift compared to the standard iPhone 17 Pro. It also features Apple’s new, in-house “C2” chip for cellular and wireless connectivity. To that matter, the phone is e-SIM only, world wide; that’s been the case for the company’s US models for a while, but international models have typically come with a slot. However, Apple says it needed as much room for the battery as possible.

Apple

Thankfully, the phone retains Apple’s MagSafe wireless charging system, which it can use to charge at up to 25W. It also has a 10Gbps USB-C port on the bottom. (Though Apple says you can use the phone in any orientation, so who’s to say it’s not the top or the side?) The compnay claims the phone has “all day battery,” though per usual doesn’t provide specific capacity figures. It does, however, say it can do 31 hours of video playback with the inner screen, and 44 hours with the outer screen, putting it a touch behind the 18 Pro Max, which can do 45 hours.

Apple says the iPhone Duo is its thinnest phone ever when unfolded, coming in at just 5.2mm thick. Of course, it takes up a bit more room when folded, at 11.3mm. It’s also relatively hefty at 254g (~9oz).

As is often the case, Apple’s first crack at the form factor is launching into a relatively mature market. Samsung is up to its eighth generation of foldables, which first debuted in 2019. Earlier this year, the company announced the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, which features a triple-camera setup, alongside the dual-camera Galaxy Z Fold 8, which features a “passport” form factor that’s a bit wider and substantially shorter. Likewise, Google recently announced its fourth foldable, the Pixel 11 Pro Fold, which features three cameras. Companies like Xiaomi and Oppo also have several options, and have experimented with exotic form factors, such as tri-folds.

Apple

The phone will be available in black and silver. It starts at $1999 for a model with 256GB of storage, and the company says pre-orders start on October 16th, with the phone becoming available on the 23rd.

* – Nerdy fact: Microsoft already used this name for a foldable in 2020.

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Alongside the new PEN camera, OM System has announced an upgrade to its 14-42mm (28-84mm equiv.) F3.5-5.6 standard zoom lens for Micro Four Thirds. Beyond being one of the kit options for the PEN, The M.Zuiko Digital 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 III is more protected from the elements than its predecessor, and can focus closer.

Like the II, the III is made up of eight elements in seven groups, with three aspherical lenses. However, that doesn’t mean it’ll perform exactly the same. OM System says it can now focus as close as 0.13m (5.1″) at the wide end, down from the 0.25m (9.8″) on its predecessor. This helps you get a little tighter, reproducing objects at up to 0.26x, where the previous lens maxed out at 0.19x. However, this minimum focusing distance does extend a bit as you zoom in, going up to 0.3m (11.8″) when you get to 42mm for 0.19x reproduction.

OM System

OM System also says it’s improved the weather resistance of the lens, with it now being IPX1 rated when paired with a dust and splash proof camera. While that’s the lowest tier of IP rating, only requiring a device to survive dripping water for 10 minutes, it’ll still provide a bit of peace of mind for anyone hoping to use it as a travel lens (though if you expect to encounter rain, it might be worth picking up the sold-separately lens hood to keep the front element clear).

The company also says that it’ll focus faster, and support the computational in-body focus stacking features found on many OM System cameras.

These changes have resulted in a lens that’s a touch heavier than its 112g (4oz) predecessor, as it now weighs 125g (4.4oz). It’s also slightly larger, with a 60mm diameter and being 51mm long. This also equates to it taking larger filters; 46mm rather than 37mm. However, it’s still quite a small lens for what it is, made smaller by its retracting design.

The OM System 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 III will be available in late October and retail for $350 standalone. However, we suspect it’ll be more popular as a kit lens for the new PEN, where you can get it for a $100 premium over the body-only price.

You can see several shots taken with the lens in our sample gallery for the OM System PEN.

OM System

OM System M. Zuiko Digital 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 III

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With Sony offering over 70 E-mount lenses, it’s unusual for the company to release something that’s a first in its lineup. And yet today it’s doing so: the new FE 8-14mm F3.5 Fisheye G is the company’s first standalone fisheye lens for E-mount, one that it says is the most compact of its kind.

At 8mm, the lens creates a circular fisheye image, the kind popularized in ’90s skateboarding videos. At 14mm, the image fills the frame. Both capture a 180° field of view, but the zoom lets you choose which way you want it presented. You can also turn distortion compensation off to switch from equisolid rendering, where the center of the image is larger, with the edges being compressed, to equidistant rendering where the center looks smaller and the image looks more “even” overall. This is mostly a JPEG setting, as, if you shoot Raw, you can change whether you’re using distortion correction in post.

Sony

The lens is made up of 16 elements in 13 groups, with three aspheric elements, four extra-low dispersion (ED) elements and one aspheric ED lens, with the company promising minimal chromatic aberration across the frame. It has a 7-blade aperture, and can focus as close as 0.15m (5.9″) throughout its focal range. Focusing is handled by a pair of linear motors, which, when paired with a high-end camera, can track subjects at 120fps.

Physically, the lens is surprisingly small for a full-frame option. It weighs 314g (11.1oz), which is substantially less than the 476g RF 7-14mm F2.8-3.5 L Fisheye STM that Canon recently released (though that is a touch faster and wider at its wide end). The Sony has a diameter of 63mm, and is 83mm (3.3″) long. It also zooms internally, meaning it’ll stay that length. Its lens hood is removable, though, depending on your focal length, you’ll have to take it off to avoid it appearing in the frame. It’s also sealed for dust and moisture resistance, and has a flourine coating on its front element to repel dirt and oil.

Despite its small size, Sony hasn’t skimped on features. The lens has an aperture ring, which can be clicked or declicked, a customizable button, zoom lock switch (which can hold the lens in circular fisheye and diagonal fisheye for both APS-C and full-frame) and a rear filter holder. It also has an AF/MF/FH switch, the latter of which locks your focus after you set it manually, which Sony says will be handy if you’re shooting astro or VR content.

Sony

Sony clearly sees this lens not just as a photography tool, but one for video and VR as well. The company says it has minimal focus breathing and that you can use a pair of them for VR capture, or a trio for recording 360° footage. When shooting flat (aka standard) video, though, there is one small downside: in 16:9, you won’t get the full circle, though you can avoid that if you have one of the few cameras Sony makes capable of shooting 3:2 open gate.

The Sony FE 8-14mm F3.5 Fisheye G will launch in October, and will retail for $1599.

Sample gallery

Editor’s note: Due to a memory card failure, this sample gallery contains fewer images than usual; most of the photos captured for it were lost before they could be transferred. We attempted data recovery without success and are working with Sony to arrange additional time with the lens to capture more samples.

Please do not reproduce any of these images on a website or any newsletter/magazine without prior permission (see our copyright page). We make the originals available for private users to download to their own machines for personal examination or printing; we do so in good faith, so please don’t abuse it. 

Sony

Sony FE 8-14mm F3.5 Fisheye G

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Sony FE 8-14mm F3.5 Fisheye G specifications

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Sigma has announced the 20-60mm F2.8-4 DG Contemporary, a full-frame zoom lens that goes from quite wide to approaching telephoto. For full-frame shooters who wish their kit lens was just a bit more capable, or for anyone looking for a compact but relatively versatile option, it could be a great pick… as long as the company that makes your camera has decided to allow Sigma to use its mount.

One of the big appeals of the lens is its size. It weighs 385g (13.6oz), and is 88mm (3.5″) long at its shortest (though it will extend as you zoom in). It also takes 67mm filters, helping you keep your photography kit relatively small. Sigma says it’s dust and splash resistant, too, and that the front element has a water and oil-repellent coating. It is, however, relatively sparse on controls; you get the zoom ring and a manual focus ring: that’s pretty much it.

Sigma

The lens is made up of 15 elements in 13 groups, with three aspheric lenses and three SLD elements. It can focus on objects as close as 15.8cm at 28mm, providing a maximum reproduction of 0.43x, though at the long end that goes down to a still-respectable 0.34x.

Autofocusing is handled by a linear motor, making for a responsive shooting experience even at higher framerates*.

Sigma

Arguably, the biggest downside of this lens has nothing to do with Sigma. The 20-60mm F2.8-4 DG Contemporary will be available for L-mount and Sony E-mount, but, as we’ve come to expect, not for Nikon Z or Canon RF, despite the fact that it’d make a great pairing for budget cameras like the EOS R8 and Nikon Z5II. Of course, anyone outside of those systems now have an excellent step-up option from their relatively slow kit-lenses, one that doesn’t ask them to sacrifice size or versatility for light-gathering ability. 

First impressions:

This first thing you notice about the 20-60mm is how compact it is, to the point that I had to look for the letters ‘DG’ to confirm to myself that it was designed to cover full-frame.

Despite going significantly wider than a conventional 24-70mm, and without losing much at the long end, it’s a usefully small and light option.

As such, it probably shouldn’t be a surprise to find that the lens drops away from its F2.8 maximum aperture almost immediately. Mounted on a Panasonic body, that reports aperture value with an unusual level of precision, the lens drops to F2.9 before you’ve zoomed as far as 21mm, so it’s worth thinking of this lens as closer to being an F4 than an F2.8 zoom.

The other factor contributing to the lens’s small size is its use of digital distortion corrections as part of its design. On L-mount bodies these are typically applied automatically, but third-party lens makers can’t force E-mount bodies to Auto apply them, so it’s essential that you engage them if you’re shooting on Sony.

Aperture progression

This is a pretty standard approach for lenses in Sigma’s more cost-sensitive ‘Contemporary’ series, and it’s worth recognizing that this lens wouldn’t be possible at this size, weight or price if geometric distortion was handled using glass elements.

In use, we’ve been pretty impressed with the results and extremely impressed with the flexibility of an ultra-wide to standard zoom. I’d be inclinded look at this lens as a replacement for the basic kit lens on any system that Sigma’s been allowed to make it for (E and L-mount, so far).

The ultrawide 20mm setting also makes the lens a handy option for video, as does its gimbal-friendly size and weight. It extends a fair amount on zooming but it’s light enough that this shift in its center of gravity shouldn’t be too much for a good gimbal to handle.

Both E and L-mounts have 20-something zooms available already, but this is smaller and more ambitious than the Panasonic 20-60mm F3.5-5.6 and much smaller and lighter than the Sony 20-70mm F4. Its extra range over the Tamron 20-40mm F2.8 is likely to be more valuable as an everyday lens than the extra stop of brightness that the Tamron offers for much of its range.

The lens will retail for $849, and will be available starting October 6.

* – Though Sony limits continuous autofocus on third party lenses to 15fps, so the motor’s responsiveness won’t help beyond that. That’s not an issue on L-mount, though.

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Sigma is finally releasing its 85mm F1.2 DG Art for E and L-mount, after announcing that the lens was in development early this year. This is the company’s third F1.2 prime, following 35mm and 50mm options, and provides a classic focal length for portraiture.

The lens has 17 elements in 12 groups, with two SLD elements and three aspheric lenses. It has 13 aperture blades, which is a few more than we’d typically expect. It can focus as close as 84cm (33″), for a maximum reproduction of 0.11x.

Sigma

Sigma says the lens is the “smallest and lightest in its class.” It weighs 905g (31.9oz), which is around 24% lighter than Canon’s 85mm F1.2 for RF, and 22% less than Nikon’s Z 85mm F1.2 S. (Of course, this lens doesn’t directly compete with those options, as it’s not available on those mounts.) The E-mount version is around 122mm long – the L-mount version is 2mm shorter – and both have an 87mm diameter. It can accept 82mm filters, and is “dust- and splash-resistant.”

Despite its focus on being relatively light, the lens still feels premium, and has all the features we’d expect of a high-end prime. It has an aperture ring, which can be clicked or declicked, a switch that locks it into or out of ‘A’ mode for aperture (which hands over control to the camera body) and a customizable button, duplicated in the portrait and landscape shooting orientations.

Sigma

Its autofocus is handled by dual linear motors, and the company says it’s designed to have minimal focus breathing for video shooters. 

As my colleague Richard Butler pointed out when this lens was first announced, its release means that all four major full-frame mirrorless systems now have an autofocusing 85mm F1.2 option; the lenses previously available for E and L-mount only went down to F1.4 (though relative newcomer SongRaw has announced its own 85mm F1.2 for Sony and Nikon systems, but it doesn’t seem to be widely available yet).

While Nikon and Canon’s 85mm F1.2s retail for $2999 and $3099, respectively, Sigma’s comes in at substantially less. It costs $1599, and will be available starting October 6.

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Nikon will be releasing a new firmware update for its video-focused ZR, which seems to correct some of the complaints videographers have had with the camera, including the more mature Log3G10 curve only being available when shooting in Raw, the relatively heavy-handed noise reduction and focus peaking not always being available. The company is also promising a big update for next year that will unlock open-gate recording, a first for its mirrorless cameras.

Nikon says firmware version 2.00 will make Log3G10 available when recording in H.265. Previously, you could use Log3G10 – a Red-developed Log curve that we found to be more sophisticated – in the R3D NE Raw format, which takes up substantially more space and requires more post-processing. You could shoot Log in H.265, but only using Nikon’s NLog. 

The company says it’s also adding an option that lets you select the level of High ISO noise reduction when recording H.265 in Log, “enabling image rendering tailored to the creator’s intent and the tone of the work.” When we reviewed the camera, we found that the ZR was clearly applying more noise reduction in the shadows than the Z6III with which it shares a sensor. This problem was also famously highlighted by YouTuber and cinematographer Philip Bloom, who cited it as a major issue with the camera. It’s good to see that Nikon’s taking that feedback and giving users more control over the effect.

Finally, the firmware will let you use focus peaking when recording in R3D NE, a feature that was bizarrely missing from the camera since its launch last year. The ZR supported focus peaking in its other Raw recording modes, just not the one that was introduced with the camera.

The company also says its goal is to add additional requested features to the ZR next year via a firmware update, including adding an open gate mode and a desqueeze assist mode for shooting with anamorphic lenses.

Many of the changes coming in V2.00 were already being promised by company representatives earlier this year, though there are still a few things they brought up that aren’t included in the upcoming updates Nikon’s announcing today. There’s no mention of a further compressed mode of R3D NE, like the one that exists for N-Raw, which uses half the bitrate. Arguably, this has become even more important since this summer, as the cost of SSDs and storage media has continued to rise thanks to AI. (It’s also a bit of an odd exclusion, given that R3D NE appears to be heavily based on N-Raw.) 

I’m also not quite sure Nikon is delivering on its promise of general improvements to H.265 recording, based on what’s in its press release. Control over noise reduction is a great first step, but there are still a few odd issues to have on such a video-focused camera, including the bitrate being substantially lower in the first few seconds of footage, and the camera not providing an accurate report of how much record time it has left.

Still, it’s great to see that Nikon is solving some of the community’s biggest issues with the ZR, and promising to make it even more powerful in the next few years. The update may be a bit overdue, but if it’s done right it’ll have been worth the wait. Nikon also says it’s updating the Red Control and Red Control Pro apps to support remotely controlling the ZR, and says it will “continue to enhance its products through firmware updates that address user needs, while also contributing to the development of imaging culture in the field of cinema.”

The firmware update is due out at some point this year.

Nikon is announcing a series of nine T1.9 cinema lenses, following up on a teaser from this time last year and another (slightly more detailed) one in April. The company is still keeping plenty of aspects about the line under wraps, though. There’s no word on pricing, when they’ll be available or what focal lengths will be included, with one exception.

Here’s what Nikon has said: the lenses will be branded as the “Nikkor Z Cinema T1.9 VV ” series, and one the nine lenses will be a 50mm. (While there’s no word on what the other options will be, the relatively fast T1.9 figure suggests they’ll all be primes.) The company also says it’ll be the “first Nikkor lens series to feature an image circle large enough to cover the V-Raptor [X] VV sensor,” which has a 46.3mm diagonal, versus standard full-frame’s 43mm.

The company also says the lenses will feature “a highly precise autofocus mechanism,” though that was hinted at in the teaser by the presence of an AF/MF switch. It also seems safe to assume they’ll be fitted with the Z-mount, given both the name and the fact that many more standard cinema mounts like PL don’t support autofocus. 

It’s hard to guess when we’ll get the next drop of information about these lenses. This is one of several cinema and video related announcements this month, which are likely tied to the International Broadcasting Convention happening in Amsterdam this week. And while there’s a National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show happening in New York in October, the main event is scheduled for next April.

We here at DPReview aren’t immune from falling into time-worn debates. When discussing the upcoming iPhone Fold, which, if the rumors are to be believed, will only feature two cameras, I made a comment about how I was annoyed that, when phone manufacturers choose to drop a camera from the ultrawide-wide-telephoto trio included on most flagships, it’s the long option that always gets the axe. If I can only have one (a choice I don’t think I should even have to consider for a phone rumored to be over $2000, but whatever), I’d prefer it to be the telephoto.

My colleague Dale Baskin, however, disagreed, saying he’d prefer to keep the ultrawide. And, surveying the the market, it seems like a lot of people, or at least phone manufacturers, agree with him. So I figured I’d put forward my argument for why the telephoto should be raised above the ultrawide… and then begrudgingly give the latter its due as well.

Go long

Mitchell Clark

Before we start, I want to note that I’m coming to this with data: I’ve owned two phones that have all three focal lengths on them – an iPhone 11 Pro and an iPhone 15 Pro – and in-between I owned an iPhone 12 Mini, which just has a wide and ultrawide. Barely a day went by that I didn’t miss the that telephoto option and, now that I have it again, I use it more than the 0.5x option. Of the 7000 pictures I’ve taken with my phone, around 830 of them were taken with the telephoto, versus around 750 with the ultrawide. (It’s admittedly a much smaller gap than I expected, though if I narrow it down to my favorites, it’s no competition; the tele wins 5:1). 

To me, that’s for a very simple reason: I run into more scenarios where I can’t get closer than ones where I can’t get further away. Almost certainly, this will come down to my shooting style. Looking at the ultrawide photos I’ve taken, it’s pretty much exactly what you’d expect: interior shots, landscapes, photos of large objects that I didn’t feel like stepping back from and pictures of my cat where I’ve made him look goofy by getting the camera really close to him. Except for the latter, they’re all shots I probably could’ve replicated relatively closely using my phone’s main camera and a bit more effort. 

Mitchell Clark

That’s not the case for the 4x telephoto shots. Those are comprised of pictures at concerts where the artist was far away, wildlife shots, portraits or product shots where I wanted background compression, odd things I saw off in the distance and, again, pictures of my cat being goofy, but in a way where I suspect he’d stop if I got up to get a closer picture. Sure, there are a few where I could’ve just zoomed with my feet, but they’re honestly in the minority.

This has become even more true as Apple has continued to increase the reach of its telephoto cameras. What was once something like a 50mm equiv. has become a 100mm equiv., which genuinely gives you the option to take pictures of things that are too far away for your standard camera.

Go wide

Mitchell Clark

There are, of course, reasons to prefer an ultrawide to a telephoto. Wider focal lengths are almost required for many forms of photography, like architecture, wide-field astrophotography (not that the iPhone has a great astro mode, but some Android models do) and more. And just like there will be times when you can’t get closer to something, there will be times when you actually can’t get far enough back to take the photo you want with a normal lens.

But while I can understand why you’d want an ultrawide, I’m also clearly biased (see the previous section). So I’ll hand it over to Dale to talk about why he would pick them over a telephoto.

Dale’s thoughts

My own preference for ultrawides likely comes down to my shooting style. I like to get close to things. To me, a subject photographed close-up offers a perspective that’s more intimate and personal than one shot from farther away. It puts you closer to the story and can immerse you in it, rather than placing distance between you and the subject. That doesn’t mean I don’t like or use telephoto lenses, and I’d be lying if I said I never used the one on my smartphone, but if I had to choose between the two, I’d go with my storytelling tool: the ultrawide.

Maybe I’m the outlier here. After all, I’m the guy who picked an altrawide lens as my DPReview gear of the year not once, not twice, not thrice, but four times, so I clearly have a bias. But I also know that when I show a friend or family member how to use their ultrawide lens to get a more dramatic landscape shot, they discover a new way of seeing that expands their photographic repertoire. And they love to use it.

And I can certainly appreciate why some people would prefer a telephoto option; there really are times when you just want to zoom in on something, whether it’s one of your kids playing sports or to shoot a portrait.

Mitchell Clark

Beyond the general photographic reasons, the iPhone utilizes the ultrawide in extra features in a way that it doesn’t for the telephoto. For the past few years, Apple has been using the camera to provide a “macro mode” that lets you take pictures of very close-up objects. It also uses it for “desk view” if you’re using your phone as a webcam. Finally, it has some computational purposes too; if you’re taking a “Spatial” photo that will render using depth data in VR, the phone uses the wide and the ultrawide camera to get its dual perspectives on the scene (though it’s possible that’s mainly because it’s the camera that most iPhones will have). 

You can’t always get what you want

As I alluded to before, I realize that my preference for telephoto lenses probably isn’t widely held. When Samsung was deciding which cameras to put on the Galaxy Z Flip and passport-shaped Galaxy Z Fold8, it went with the wide and ultrawide, same as it had done with the ultra-thin S25 Edge. Apple does the same for the baseline iPhone series, and that was true for Google as well, before it decided it was better to have three mediocre cameras than two that were pretty good. And while I haven’t seen the market research that says the people at large prefer ultrawides, I’m certain it exists; otherwise, dual-camera phones that pair a wide and a telephoto wouldn’t be as rare as they are.

Samsung

Part of that likely comes down to marketing. With most phones, you can at least somewhat approximate having a telephoto lens by zooming in. Phone manufacturers even make it easy to do, and say that even phones with a single camera actually have a zoom option with “optical quality.” I think they’re wrong, but when has that ever stopped marketers? And yet its true that you can’t even really approximate the effects of an ultrawide lens, nor can you use software to emulate the close-up shooting you can do with them like you can to telephotos with portrait mode.

Dale also pointed out that it may simply be easier and/or cheaper for manufacturers to build ultrawide lenses than telephoto ones, reducing costs while still allowing them to market their phones as having two cameras. And, indeed, I have to wonder if that’s part of the reason why folding phones, which have to fit their cameras into a much slimmer profile than normal, often compromise on the telephoto. It’s possible there’s just not enough room for the more ambitious lenses.

Is it a dealbreaker?

Whatever arguments there are for including an ultrawide to the exclusion of the telephoto, the strongest one is this: I, and I suspect many others like me who prefer the latter, will still buy a phone that doesn’t have the camera layout we want. That could be for many reasons; maybe you want to save money by not going with a higher-end model, or maybe (like I’ve done in the past and likely will do again in the future) you simply prefer the form factor of the phone that doesn’t have the complete suite. But even if I buy the iPhone Fold and love it, I know that, in the back of my mind, I’ll always miss that extra reach when I open the camera app.

Earlier this week, Xiaomi announced the Poco F9 Ultra, the latest entry in its lineup of phones that started as “flagship killers”; devices with specs similar to top-of-the-line models, but with substantially lower price tags. It’s the first in its series to include a 200MP main camera and let you shoot at that resolution, but it also starts at €1099, which is less flagship killer and more just… regular flagship. While it might’ve been easy to forgive lackluster cameras on the 2020 F2 Pro given its €499 price tag, and perhaps even with its predecessor, the €830 F8 Ultra, the F9 Ultra is now in the realms of phones like the Pixel 11 Pro and the standard iPhone 17.

So how does it stack up? Well, what you want out of your phone’s photos will depend a lot on your preferences; what kind of colors you like, what lens options you want, etc. The Poco F9 Ultra offers three: a 0.7x ultra-wide, a standard wide that’s around 24mm equiv. (though you can configure it to add a little digital crop by default if you prefer 28 or 35mm equiv.), and a 5x telephoto zoom. It also has center crop modes for the main and telephoto cameras to provide “2x” and “10x” options, though these only use a quarter of the sensor, so you’re giving up quite a bit when it comes to image quality.

We’ll let you take a look through our sample gallery to see if the pictures the phone produces match your tastes and expectations for a phone at this price point.. We’ve made sure to use all three of its cameras, both in their standard 12.5MP outputs, as well as their 50MP modes (and 200MP mode for the main 24mm equiv. module), and to shoot in a variety of conditions, from sunny days to low light situations. Once you’re done looking, I’ll suggest comparing it against our recent Pixel 11 Pro gallery as a benchmark.

Of course, if you want my opinion, I’m happy to give it. Overall, I think it’s fine, but it’s probably not the phone I’d choose if its performance as a camera were important to me. Foundationally, I find its mix of cameras to be a bit… odd. A 24mm equiv. is perfect for a main camera, but the ultrawide option only going out to 17mm equiv. leaves it still feeling a bit cramped; I think there’s a reason most phones go with 0.5x rather than 0.7x.

Likewise, while a “5x” 120mm equiv. has become relatively standard – it’s close to what Apple and Google use for their telephoto options – I’ve always found it a bit of an unhappy medium; too tight for most casual shooting situations, while not providing as much reach as the “10x,” ~220mm equiv. options included on some other Android phones. I’d probably prefer something closer to 80mm equiv., or, if I’m dreaming, 50mm equiv. with a fourth camera for longer zoom (though even at €1100, that’s probably asking for too much).

Mitchell Clark

As for the software side of things, I’ve found it tends to overexpose things a bit much for my tastes. And while I find the colors to be more saturated than I like, I’m more annoyed by the fact that they change quite noticeably when you switch between cameras. The 200MP mode definitely provides more detail than the default 12.5MP mode when there’s plenty of light, but I think it also highlights that the lens isn’t the sharpest once you start getting to the edges.

I have fewer complaints from a usability standpoint. My personal phone is an iPhone 15 Pro and Xiaomi has clearly taken… inspiration from Apple when designing its camera app, so I found it very easy to navigate. The Poco offers several more options, though, including a Pro mode that gives you manual exposure and focus control, which can be useful in those situations where you just can’t get the phone to do what you want (though I thankfully found that I could typically get something I was happy with just using exposure compensation). It also has a frankly ludicrous number of face-tuning options for selfies, if you’re into that kind of thing; I tried taking one with all the sliders, which include options like “slender,” “head size”, “big eyes,” “hairline” and “teeth” set all the way to max and the results were, well… See for yourself.

Ultimately, though, if you’re looking to purchase this phone, it’s up to you whether you’re happy with the photos for the price Xiaomi is asking. Hopefully the sample gallery below will help you decide.

Sample gallery

Please do not reproduce any of these images on a website or any newsletter/magazine without prior permission (see our copyright page). We make the originals available for private users to download to their own machines for personal examination or printing; we do so in good faith, so please don’t abuse it. 

Here’s a refreshing bit of news: there’s at least one camera company out there whose products are getting appreciably cheaper. Today, cinema company Blackmagic Design announced that it’s slashing the prices of its full-frame Cinema Camera 6K and Pyxis 6K models by over $1000, something it says it can do after “securing better pricing on parts.”

Neither camera is particularly new: the Cinema Camera was announced in 2023, and the Pyxis in 2024. So it’s not surprising that Blackmagic is able to make them for less than it initially was. What I wouldn’t typically expect is the company passing those savings on to its customers, given our age of prices rising due to AI-driven chip scarcity and inflation. 

It’s also not a situation where Blackmagic raised prices due to tariffs in the US, and is lowering them back down now that they’re gone. It did raise prices – the Cinema Camera 6K launched for $2595 – but the new prices are well below what the cameras were originally announced at.

Realistically, I realize most of our audience won’t be interested in dedicated cinema cameras in an age when the best hybrid mirrorless models excel in both video and stills, no matter how inexpensive they are. But I’d like to think this is a sign that things might be changing in the camera world. While it may be too much to hope that we’ll see new models that are cheaper than their predecessors, or similar price reductions for existing cameras – I suspect the bigger, more established companies are already getting parts for as cheaply as they can, and Blackmagic is just moving up towards that level of economy of scale – perhaps we’ll at least see some cameras that aren’t substantially more expensive than their predecessors.

GoPro’s merger with Starman Optical doesn’t mean the company will stop making action cameras, according to a letter from the action cam company’s CEO, Nick Woodman. Earlier this week he said the company planned to address “important areas of national security related to cameras, optics and AI infrastructure,” but now tells the GoPro community that he expects the merger to “make GoPro a stronger, more capable camera company than ever before.”

If you missed the merger announcement earlier this week, that statement may seem unnecessary; of course GoPro would keep making cameras, that’s the main thing it does. But its consumer-facing business didn’t get much attention in its merger announcement, with the company talking more about expanding into “AI data center, government, defense and aerospace markets.” It did promise to “continue to fully support its existing consumer products and its subscription and cloud platform,” but the word “existing” made some (myself included) wonder how much work it’d put into future consumer cameras.

In his new letter, Woodman says the company’s “improved financial strength” after the merger, planned for later this year, pending regulatory approval, will put the company in “a much better position to innovate, invent and advance the future of consumer and professional content creation.” He also says that Starman is passionate about the GoPro brand, too.

“We plan to bring you more innovative cameras, smarter accessories, and more powerful software and services designed to make capturing, editing and sharing your experiences easier and more exciting than ever,” he says later in the letter.

Personally, I’m glad to hear this, as I think GoPro is an important competitor in the action camera space, even if it’s struggled to keep up with the pace set by other companies like DJI and Insta360 in recent years. Of course, there’s a storied history of companies and executives making promises about what things will be like post-merger, with the reality ending up very different. But for now, it sounds like GoPro plans to continue working on cameras alongside bringing manufacturing of optics and transceivers to the US and breaking into the defense market.  

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Leica has announced the Summicron-M 66 F2, which it says is a “reinterpretation” of one of the rarest M-mount lenses ever made: the Elcan 66mm F2, which was specially designed for the US Navy’s use in “covert reconnaissance photography.”

According to Leica’s press release, there were only around 200 copies of the original lens, designed by Dr Walter Mandler of Ernst Leitz Canada in the late 1960s, ever made. Its spy-centered origins also explain the odd focal length; it was designed to balance providing maximum resolution and contrast, without being too big. It’s not hard to imagine why the US Navy and its allies would want that in the midst of the Cold War.

Leica

The new lens contains several references to its lineage. Leica says the aperture ring turns in the opposite direction from a typical M-lens – you twist it left to stop down, instead of right – and the distance scale is military-spec. It will also be a limited edition; the company is producing 660 of them, which will have their serial number engraved on the front ring. The first lens, 001, will be auctioned.

Optically, the lens has 6 elements in 5 groups, and can focus on subjects as close as 1m (3′ 3″) away. It has a 9-bladed aperture. Leica says that, at F2, it will have “distinctive rendering” with “soft bokeh and high contrast,” while providing “maximum resolution” when stopped down. You can see some samples taken by Mike Chudley and provided by Leica below, though it’s hard to critically examine a lens’s performance based on JPEGs that have gone through an unknown editing process. Thankfully, Leica has also provided MTF charts.

Leica

The lens weighs 456g (16.1oz), and is around 60mm (2.4″) long. It has a 49mm filter thread and, unlike some other premium Leica lenses, has a screw-on hood, rather than an integrated one.

This isn’t the first reinterpretation of the lens that we’ve seen. Leica’s movie-focused sister company, Leitz Cine, sells the Hugo 66mm T2.1, which is also based on the Elcan. However, that lens is designed for PL and L mount, is much larger and has geared focus and aperture rings designed to make life easier on a movie set.

Leica says the Summicron-M 66 F2 will be available starting September 3 for $10,900. While that’s a hefty sum for an F2 lens, even by Leica standards, it’s a pittance for what you’d pay for one of the originals, assuming you were even able to find one (which is apparently no small task). One went up for auction in 2020, with a starting price of €40,000, though it ended up going unsold. Similarly, every listing of the cine version of the lens that I found had a “Contact Us” button instead of a price, essentially saying that if you have to ask, you can’t afford it. 

Manufacturer Samples

Leica

Leica Summicron-M 66 F2

Specifications

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