The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show is in full swing, and Nikon has joined in, releasing a YouTube video teasing new Z Cinema glass. The video, which is also co-branded with Red, also heralds "a new Nikkor chapter."
The lens(es?) is only shown in shadow, but behind it, videos of older Nikon lenses are projected. Notably, it seems like the footage largely depicts wide-angle lenses, including a fisheye model and a 12-24mm; whether that's a hint or a coincidence, we'll have to wait and see. The video also shows cinema-styled controls, an autofocus/manual focus switch, and a line of lenses, which could hint that what's being announced is a series, rather than a single option.
Whatever Nikon ends up announcing – currently, the video and its description contain no mention of a date – it's interesting to see that the company is working on expanding its options for pro video. It already teased late last year that it was working on cinema-focused lenses, and has released a very video-focused lens in the Z 28-135mm F4 PZ power zoom.
Thypoch is showing off a groundbreaking lens at the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) Show this weekend: the Voyager 24-50mm F2.8, a full-frame autofocus zoom. It's not just a first for the brand; it's the first full-frame autofocus zoom lens we've seen from a Chinese manufacturer.
While this kind of lens has seemed like an inevitability for a while, as we've seen increasingly ambitious primes from the likes of Viltrox, Laowa and Sirui, it's a bit surprising that it's come from Thypoch. The company is mainly known for manual focus primes, though its sister brand, DZOFilm, does make a range of manual focus zooms focused on cinema users.
The company isn't releasing full details for the lens yet – though stay tuned – but you can tell just by looking at it that the goal was to make it relatively compact. It's around the same size as Sony's 24-50mm F2.8 G lens, though Thypoch's lens features an internally-zooming design: this is no clone. It also has a clicking aperture ring, a customizable function button and an AF/MF switch.
The Voyager 24-50mm F2.8 is relatively compact for a fast, full-frame zoom.
The brand teased this lens on Instagram a few weeks ago, but its public unveiling is exciting, as it means it's one step closer to launching. We've seen Chinese manufacturers offer very decent budget prime lenses, and even come into their own with more advanced optics, becoming a competitive force driving the traditional players to come up with interesting offerings. If the same happens for zoom lenses, 2025 may not hold the title of the most interesting year for lenses for that much longer.
We've been able to spend some time with the lens and get some sample images with it, which you can check out below. We'll go more in-depth into image quality in a future article. For now, the high-level overview is that we found it to be relatively impressive, though we noticed some softness at the edges (especially when shooting wide open) and a propensity to flare under bright lighting.
We were impressed by its build quality; the aperture ring is satisfying to turn, and the rubber coating on the zoom and focus rings makes it very easy to handle.
Sample Gallery
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Sample gallery
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Thank you to Sony for the loan of a Sony a7R V to capture this gallery. All images were processed using our standard lens workflow in Capture One, with no vignetting correction applied.
Nextorage today announced the start of its NAB Special Deals at B&H Photo and Amazon. The promotion includes significant discounts on CFexpress memory cards and card readers.
Sony is expected to announce the long-rumored a7R VI camera in May. Here are the latest rumored specifications:
Sensor resolution: approx. 67 megapixels
Body design: All-new body design
Processor and core performance: BIONZ XR2 processor + High-Bandwidth LSI; up to 8.5 stops of IBIS compensation; 30 fps continuous shooting in 14-bit RAW (electronic shutter); very fast readout (~60 fps full sensor in 14-bit ES with AE/AF).
Autofocus and dynamic range: New professional-grade AI autofocus model with significantly improved accuracy; 16 stops of dynamic range in mechanical shutter mode via Dual Conversion Gain HDR (DCG-HDR).
Video capabilities: High-end options including 10K oversampled 8K 30p (full-frame), various 4K/6.4K oversampled modes, and 4K 120p options.
Other rumored features: 9.44M-dot OLED EVF with grayscale correction and high brightness; triple-band Wi-Fi (6/5/2.4 GHz); support for importing custom stylized looks from the Creators’ App.