This month, Nikon released the Z5IIC, which is essentially a version of its Z5II mirrorless camera, but with the viewfinder removed and a lower price point. And while that top-line summary is closer to the whole story than usual, there are a few nuances that are worth looking at if you’re trying to decide between the two models.

No EVF

Richard Butler / Mitchell Clark

The most obvious difference between the two cameras is that the Z5II has a (particularly nice) electronic viewfinder that you can use in sunny conditions, or when you’d prefer not to look at a rear screen, and the Z5IIC does not. How much that will bother you comes down to personal preference; are you willing to give up an EVF to save some money, and do you value you the camera being a bit smaller and easier to get into and out of a camera bag?

While both the Z5IIC and the Z5II have 3.2″ fully-articulating displays, the one on the more expensive, full-size model is a bit higher-resolution at 2.1 million dots, versus the Z5IIC’s 1.04M. That’s not as big a difference as those numbers may seem – they equate to 1024 x 682px and 720 x 480px, respectively – but while we found the screen to be quite usable, it is undoubtedly not quite as nice. Neither comes all that close to a display you’d find on a smartphone, though.

Storage

Richard Butler / Mitchell Clark

This is another relatively simple arena: the Z5II has two UHS-II card slots, while the Z5IIC has one. This could be a slight annoyance when shooting video, where it can be nice to have your recording automatically roll over to a second card once you’ve filled one up, and can bring some peace of mind if you’re a photographer worried about the possibility of your card dying before you can offload it (something that can happen, but very rarely). That assurance is also nice if you’re capturing a once-in-a-lifetime event or trip.

Most shooters, however, will be perfectly well-served by a single card-slot camera. And in cases where you absolutely must have backups, Nikon’s app lets you automatically transfer 8MP JPEGs from your camera to your phone as you take them. (Unfortunately, there’s no option for full-size JPEGs or Raws, unless you have the camera directly connected to Wi-Fi and set to automatically upload to Nikon’s Imaging Cloud service).

Controls and handling

Richard Butler / Mitchell Clark

The Z5IIC and Z5II have, once again, very similar controls, with essentially the exact same mix of programmable buttons on the top, rear and front plates. (The one difference: by default, the button to the right of the mode switch on the Z5II is set to AF On, while on the Z5IIC it’s focus and exposure lock, though either can be customized to behave like the other). Likewise, both cameras have twin top-plate control dials.

The one control omitted on the Z5IIC is a joystick, leaving you to control your AF point using the touchscreen or the multi-directional controller. When we were using it, we frequently found ourselves reaching for the nonexistent joystick, since it can be more convenient than using the touchscreen, especially if you’re shooting at odd angles. But at least we never had to worry about how to control the focus point when we had the camera’s EVF up to our eye…

There is one other difference between the two: the Z5II has three user-defined settings on its mode dial, while the Z5IIC only has two, replacing the third with a “Scene” setting.

Scene modes

Richard Butler / Mitchell Clark

Choosing the Scene setting lets you select what you’re trying to take a picture of and have the camera automatically optimize some of its settings for it. For instance, if you set it to sports, the camera will do its best to choose a fast shutter speed. If you instead tell it you’re trying to capture a dusk or dawn scene, it’ll set the white balance to preserve the colors as your eye sees them.

This isn’t a feature Nikon has included on its full-frame cameras before, so it’s absent on the Z5II. This may make the Z5IIC seem more attractive if you’re looking for your first camera and aren’t accustomed to having full control over the wide variety of settings mirrorless cameras offer. (However, we believe you’ll be better served by learning to make those decisions yourself, rather than using a somewhat clunky mode that can restrict your creative freedom).

Size and weight

Richard Butler / Mitchell Clark

Despite the Z5IIC’s lack of an EVF, it isn’t substantially lighter than the Z5II. It comes in at 620g (22oz), versus 700g (25oz), a mere 11% reduction.

Likewise, it’s only marginally shorter at 81mm (3.2″) tall, rather than 101mm (4.0″). We did find the lack of an EVF hump meant it was easier to slip in and out of a camera bag, but it being the same thickness and width as the Z5II means you’ll probably need to have a dedicated bag to carry it around in. Once you have a lens mounted, it’s a bit big for all but the roomiest of purses, and would struggle to fit in even the most generous of jacket pockets.

Autofocus

Richard Butler / Mitchell Clark

Both cameras have very similar autofocus systems, with all the features we’d want from a modern mirrorless option, including the ability to recognize and track various subjects. And while we haven’t done our in-depth testing on the Z5IIC yet, the experience we’ve had with it gives us no reason to suspect that it won’t perform the same as the Z5II.

The one other autofocus difference: the Z5II has an AF assist lamp, which the camera can use to add a little extra illumination when it’s trying to focus in an extremely dark scene. The Z5IIC trades this for a tally light to indicate when the camera is recording video.

Pricing, now and in the future

Richard Butler / Mitchell Clark

Many people have been quick to point out that, at the moment of the Z5IIC’s launch, you can buy a standard Z5II for around the same money, or even less. And if that’s the still the case as you’re reading this, our advice is straightforward: you should buy the Z5II.

However, it’s worth keeping in mind that MSRP is always an opening bid. This is likely the most expensive the Z5IIC will ever be (at a price that still makes it the joint second least expensive full frame camera ever), and, based on past pricing trends, we expect it will be sold for remarkably cheap after a few months on the market. That is, after all, what it seems to be designed to do. If and when you can buy it for as much cheaper than the Z5II as the delta between the cameras’ MSRPs suggests, it’ll be a much easier recommendation if you’re trying to save some money while starting a new hobby.

Summary

The Z5IIC and Z5II are much more alike than they are different. Beyond what we’ve covered in this article, they’re essentially the same, spec-for-spec, with the same stabilized sensor, mechanical shutter, burst rates, ports, video modes and more. It’s remarkable how inexpensive Nikon has managed to make the Z5IIC without making it feel cheap, both in terms of features and build.

Deciding between the two will largely depend on your budget and how much you value an EVF and the other features the Z5II offers.

Nikon Z5II

Nikon Z5IIC

The Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards has announced the finalists of its 2026 competition. This year’s edition drew more than 10,000 entries, which the competition says was the highest number in its history. Photographers hailed from 112 countries.

This year’s finalist selection includes 40 individual finalists, 3 under-16 finalists, 4 Portfolio Category finalists and 9 video finalists. The individual competition also includes 4 categories of its own: mammals; birds; reptiles, amphibians and insects; and aquatic species. The Overall, Category and Highly Commended Winners will be announced on December 8 at an awards ceremony in London.

The competition was founded in 2015 in part to promote conservation, and to that end, every year it lends support to a sustainable conservation organization. This year, it is working with the Born Free Foundation, an international charity that rescues and protects wild animals from exploitation while also conserving threatened species and their natural habitats.

You can see a selection of the finalist images below, and see the full gallery at the competition website.

Push Over – Barbara Seiberl-Stark, Austria

© Barbara Seiberl-Stark / Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards

Photographer’s description: A lion pride was playing in the riverbed of Ruckomechi in Zimbabwe – The picture was taken during my very first Safari this year in june in Zimbabwe. We were out for a game drive early in the morning and were lucky to spot a pride of young lions in the dried-up riverbed just in front of the Kavinga-Camp. The rising sun bathed the landscape in glorious light and the lions had obviously a lot of fun. As there were 7 of them, it was hard to decide in wich direction or on what scene to point the camera. From all photos, I took this morning ‘Push over!’ was the funniest.

Location: Zimbabwe

Technical details: Sony a1 II | Sony FE 300mm F2.8 GM OSS | F2.8 | 1/1600 sec | ISO 1000

Lessons – Heather Cudworth, USA

© Heather Cudworth / Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards

Photographer description: Amboseli was in the midst of a 4 year drought. The land was extremely parched. Elephants are known for giving themselves dust baths. This behavior provides protection from the sun and soothes their skin. While observing elephants tossing dust and mud over their bodies is somewhat common, I don’t think the huge plume of dust delivered directly to this youngsters face would have been possible if not for the extreme dry conditions. While this photo is objectively funny, there is a lesson to be learned by us humans, too. Our actions create ripple effects which spread far and wide. Much like this cloud of dust this baby elephant is about to endure! Mum took a break from walking to enjoy a soothing dust bath. She began to pick up piles of dirt, dust, and grass and toss them effortlessly over her head. She paused for a moment then gathered a particularly large amount of debris. She pulled her trunk back as if she was winding up for a strike-out pitch, then proceeded to shower her youngster with presumably the most high-pressure dust bath he’d ever experienced, directly to the face! Whether she was teaching him a lesson in cleaning his skin, keeping his mouth shut, or both, I don’t know. However, I am certain she got her point across. Listen to your mother, little one.

Location: Amboseli National Park, Kenya

Technical Details: Canon EOS R5 | Canon RF 100-400mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM | 300mm | F5.6 | 1/200 sec | ISO 100

If I can’t see you – Cliff Fawcett, UK

© Cliff Fawcett / Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards

Photographer’s description: I watched this bull in South Africa stroll toward a group with absolute confidence, until he got within twenty yards. Suddenly, the trunk went up, the eye went into hiding, and he executed a very slow, very awkward U-turn. We’ve all been there; he just happens to weigh six thousand kilos. I was observing an elephant herd in Addo National Park, when one juvenile caught my eye, repeatedly swinging his trunk with reckless abandon. It meant I completely ignored the other thirty magnificent, full-grown elephants at the same waterhole to stay glued to one goofy youngster messing about. I kept the frame tight, resisted the urge to look away, and waited for the motion to peak. I certainly didn’t plan for him to blindfold himself, but the moment he slapped his trunk across his eye, it was peak toddler logic: if I can’t see you, you can’t see me. The second I saw it on the screen—I knew it was going straight to the Comedy Wildlife Awards.

I like to say I have a mind trained in psychology and a life shaped by adventure. What is means is that my work is rooted in an understanding of what grabs human attention and creates lasting meaning and all as an excuse to see as much of this crazy beautiful planet as possible. I’m not obsessed with gear and I don’t put too much focus on rigid composition rules. It’s about learning to see the quiet signals in images that actually move people.

Location: Addo National Park, South Africa

Technical Details: Nikon Z7 II | Tamron 100-400mm F4.5-6.3 Di VC USD | 400mm | F6.3 | 1/1000 sec | ISO 800

Sexy mantis – Diego Perez, Peru

© Diego Perez / Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards

Photographer description: A tiny green mantis peeks over a leaf during a night walk in an area of Cusco, Peru, that is still waiting to be protected. I decided to enter this photograph because almost everyone I showed it to had the same reaction: they laughed immediately, even if they could not quite explain why. At first, the mantis seems to be sunbathing, or perhaps striking a rather glamorous pose. But there is also a small visual trick: half of the insect is hidden behind the leaf. Its hind legs disappear from view and, suddenly, its enormous forelegs begin to look almost like a pair of human legs.

I have photographed mantises several times before and have always found them surprisingly difficult subjects. Their long bodies, tiny heads and oversized forelegs are almost the opposite of the proportions that normally make an easy portrait. At first, I tried photographing this one with its entire body in the frame, but the images felt too familiar. So I began lowering my angle and using the leaf to hide different parts of the insect. That was when the image suddenly came together.

It was actually the first insect I photographed on the very first night of the trip, during a night walk in Camanti, Cusco. I was there documenting the forests and wildlife of the proposed Bosques del Araza Regional Conservation Area, one of Peru’s rainiest landscapes and an area increasingly threatened by illegal gold mining. The proposed protected area seeks to safeguard the headwaters of several important rivers and the biodiversity they support.

Location: Camanti, Cusco, Peru

Technical Details: Canon EOS R5 C | Venus Laowa 100mm F2.8 2X Ultra Macro APO | F14 | 1/200 sec | ISO 100

The different one – Dirk Koster, Netherlands

© Dirk Koster / Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards

Photographer description: I took this photo in 2025 in the Masai Mara, Kenya, in the Oltepesi area. Three young giraffes were standing side by side on the open, dry savanna and looked back at me with great curiosity. Then I noticed that right behind the middle one stood a single umbrella acacia, perfectly lined up with its head and neck. Suddenly that giraffe seemed to be ‘wearing’ the tree, like a green hairdo or a rather fancy hat. The other two looked completely normal, which made the middle one ‘the different one’. Nothing was staged or arranged; it was simply a matter of being in the right spot at the right moment, and seeing it. For me that is what wildlife photography is about: looking closely, being patient, and letting the animals tell the story. Sometimes they have a great sense of humour. Dirk Koster is a semi-professional nature and wildlife photographer from the Netherlands. After many years as a business consultant, he now has more time for photography. What he looks for in nature is not so different from his former work: not just what is there, but how things relate to each other. He is drawn to stories and interaction between animals. His photos are found, not staged. His work is regularly awarded on https://dk-foto.nl, and in mid-November 2026 the book ‘100 mooiste bomen van Amsterdam’ (The 100 most beautiful trees of Amsterdam, Noordboek) will be published with his photographs. Earlier he photographed in Guatemala as a member of Photographers Without Borders.

Location: Masai Mara

Technical Details: Sony a1 | Sony FE 50-150mm F2 GM | 63mm | F4 | 1/1600 sec | ISO 100

Angry Bird – Jan Wittmer, Germany

© Jan Wittmer / Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards

Photographer description: During my photo trip to the island of Helgoland, I encountered a goldcrest for the very first time – and it was love at first sight. Europe’s smallest bird wandered around on the ground right in front of me, presumably searching for food. To get a perspective at eye level, I placed my camera on the ground. My heart was pounding, and my finger was glued to the shutter as the tiny bird darted back and forth every second. Suddenly, it came to a complete stop and looked straight into the camera. That was the exact moment this photo was taken.

Location: Helgoland, Germany

Technical Details: Sony a1 | Sony FE 100-400mm F4.5-5.6 GM OSS | 400mm | F5.6 | 1/4000 sec | ISO 1600

Are You Kidding Me? – Kevin Lohman, USA

© Kevin Lohman / Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards

Photographer description: A young Great Horned Owl had barely settled onto its perch before a protective squirrel launched a surprise aerial tackle, knocking it into the grass below. The most unbelievable part? The squirrel repeated the stunt two more times. The owl and squirrel were shaken up, but unharmed. I have been observing and photographing Great Horned Owls at this location for around nine years, and I had never seen anything like this before. An adult pair was raising two chicks, and once the young owls began branching, I started visiting them regularly in the mornings and evenings to observe their behavior. On this particular morning, I spotted one of the seven-week-old owlets perched in a pine tree along the path.

As soon as I saw the young owl, I stopped and watched it for a few minutes. It was fairly close to the ground, and I did not want to get too close. While I was standing there, the owlet hopped onto another nearby branch. I liked the way the pine branches framed it against the sky, so I raised my camera and began photographing as the young owl looked up and over its shoulder.

Just as I pressed the shutter for a burst of images, a squirrel suddenly launched from a nearby branch and landed directly on the owlet’s head, knocking both animals out of the tree. It happened so quickly that the squirrel essentially photobombed my photograph! I moved to another position and found the owlet sitting in the grass. It appeared to be fine and gradually worked its way from the ground back into the tree. Then, incredibly, a squirrel knocked it out of the tree again. The owlet climbed back up once more, this time moving closer to its mother, who was perched nearby. Surely that had to be the end of it. But no. A squirrel knocked the young owl out of the tree for a third time! After photographing these owls for so many years, I could hardly believe what I was watching. The same young owl had been knocked out of the tree three times in about an hour and a half.

After the third encounter, the adult female began hooting, and the owlet eventually made its way back up to her perch. She began preening the young owl, and the two finally settled down together. I stayed for a while longer, but everything became quiet. When I returned that evening, the mother and owlet were still perched together, with no squirrel in sight.
That morning, as was often the case during my morning visits, I was there by myself. I was handholding a Nikon Z9 with a NIKKOR Z 400mm f/2.8 TC VR S. Working with a long lens allows me to remain at a distance, stay quiet, and reposition easily without disturbing the owls. Handholding also lets me respond quickly when unexpected behavior unfolds. In this case, I was shooting a burst at 20 frames per second at exactly the moment the squirrel appeared. I certainly wasn’t expecting a squirrel to come flying into the frame and land on the owl’s head!

Location: Natural Bridges State Beach, Santa Cruz, CA, USA

Technical Details: Nikon Z9 | Nikon Z 400mm F2.8 TC VR S | TC engaged | F4 | 1/1000 sec | ISO 1000

Elvis – Paolo Torre, Italy

© Paolo Torre / Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards

Photographer description: This caiman emerged from the water in an area with a lot of floating vegetation, and part of it remained on its head. It resembles a 1950s rock and roll hairstyle.

Location: Pantanal, Brazil

Technical Details: Nikon D300S | 300mm | F5.6 | 1/1000 sec | ISO 200

Oops – I think I just parped – Carolyn Moore, UK

© Carolyn Moore / Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards

Photographer’s description: In the spring of this year, I went with a friend to a spot that we knew had a healthy population of hares. Our plan was to see how close we could get to the hares without disturbing them using a little of what we knew about fieldcraft – it is important to stay below the horizon when tracking hare and to disguise solid shapes – such as human shapes! Sure enough, there were a few hares in the field and the grass was just long enough to give a bit of protection to the hares and set a nice backdrop for the photographs. I set myself up with a long lens and tripod on the edge of the field using camouflage netting and wearing camouflage clothes. I stood next to the hedge using the netting to break the solid shapes that would be caused by me and my tripod. The next stage was to send my friend off to walk the perimeter of the field on the other side of the hedge with the intention of not disturbing the hares but encouraging them into, rather than away from, the field.

I didn’t need to wait for long, several hare came close to where I was standing without seeing me, enabling me to snap away without worrying them at all. I think the image shows just how relaxed this little fella was. It was a joy to watch them going about their activities and seemingly totally relaxed. This is what wildlife photography is all about for me!

Location: Wiltshire, UK

Technical Details: Canon EOS R5 II | Canon EF 500mm F4 L IS II USM + Canon EF 1.4x III | F5.6 | 1/2000 sec | ISO 2000

Ballet Dancer – Robert Nairn, UK

© Robert Nairn / Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards

Photographer description: I am 69 and an amateur photographer and member of Ayr Photographic Society. I am a general photographer but enjoy wildlife photography and was inspired by David Bailey and bought an Olympus OM1 in 1978. However, having four children I did not return to more serious photography until after I retired. This image was taken in Dumfriesshire, Scotland with a Nikon z8 and 100-400 mm lens.

Location: Dumfries, Scotland

Technical Details: Nikon Z8 | Nikon AF-S 300mm F2.8G IF-ED VR II | F3.5 | 1/3200 sec | ISO 500

#ForTheGram – Rosie Barrett, UK

© Rosie Barrett / Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards

Photographer description: I went on a photography mission in Finland and my absolute dream species was the brown bear. After a few days of observing bears in the woods, I was lucky enough to encounter a family with 3 playful yearling’s. They were all climbing up and down the trees and one stopped for just a moment in this perfect pose. Pretty sure he knew it was for Instagram..un-bear-lieavable!

Location: Finland

Technical Details: None provided

Spicy Orangutan – Tanner Mansell, USA

© Tanner Mansell / Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards

Photographer description: A wild orangutan in the rainforests of Borneo appears to deliver a perfectly timed gesture toward the camera. As he finishes a meal with one finger extended, it creates the unmistakable impression that he is flipping off the lens. Though entirely coincidental, the moment captures an almost unsettling reflection of ourselves in one of our closest relatives. Taken in the disappearing jungles of Borneo, the photograph highlights both the intelligence and personality of these critically endangered great apes. Orangutans have so much personality, and there’s something wonderfully familiar about their expressions and gestures. Even though he was completely wild and just enjoying his food, I couldn’t help wondering, “Does he know what he’s doing?” That’s what makes the moment so funny to me.

I also hope the photograph encourages people to appreciate orangutans and care about protecting them. Beyond the humour, these remarkable animals face the loss of their forest habitat, and their future depends on conservation.

Location: Borneo Jungle

Technical Details: Sony a1 | Sony FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II | 200mm | F4 | 1/640 | ISO 640

Out of water – Thong Duy Vu, Vietnam

© Thong Duy Vu / Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards

Photographer description: On a gentle sunlit afternoon, a little sunbird excitedly set off for a five-star spa deep in the forest. From afar, he spotted a “natural bathtub” – a bright red banana blossom, filled with cool water and plenty of sweet nectar. He landed on the blossom and savored the sweet nectar. After his treat, he hopped into the “tub” and began enjoying the refreshing, cool water. He tilted his head this way, stretched his wings that way, and wagged his tail, sending droplets splashing all over his body. The feeling was incredibly relaxing and refreshing. With his tiny beak, he carefully preened each feather until all the dust was gone. Then, he hopped back onto the edge of the tub, enjoyed some more nectar, and didn’t forget to sing a few cheerful notes as if to say, “Today I must be the freshest, cleanest, and most dazzling bird in the forest!” He jumped back into the tub, repeating his routine—tilting his head, spreading his wings, wagging his tail—but alas, why wasn’t there a single drop of water left? He looked up at the sky and exclaimed, “Oh my goodness, where did all the water go? What kind of half-finished bath is this?” He thought, this spa definitely deserves a one-star rating. I should’ve just bathed in the rain earlier. What a buzzkill! In the end, he had no choice but to dust off his wings and fly away, muttering to himself, “Next time I go to a spa, I need to check the calendar.” And just like that, the fancy five-star spa trip ended with the water running out.

Location: Vietnam

Technical Details: Nikon D4S | Nikon AF-S 200-400mm F4G IF-ED VR II | 400mm | F4 | 1/1000 sec | ISO 1000

Little Godzilla – Udo Harms, Germany

© Udo Harms / Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards

Photographer description: This squirrel had taken a bit too much in its mouth – but with a few firm bites, the greenery was made to fit. Taken with the Nikon Z6 II and AF-S Nikkor 500mm PF, 1/1000 sec., f8.0, Iso 4500

Location: Hannover, Germany

Technical Details: None provided

Playing Dress-Up – Phiané Oosthuizen, South Africa (U16 category)

© Phiane Ooshuizen / Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards

Photographer description: I captured this photograph of a Southern Double-Collared Sunbird (Cinnyris chalybeus) at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden in Cape Town, South Africa. These tiny nectar-feeding birds are closely connected to the fynbos of the Cape and play an important role as pollinators. Southern Double-Collared Sunbirds are one of the nectar-specialist sunbird species found in the Cape Floristic Region, and Kirstenbosch is home to an incredible diversity of birdlife, with more than 125 bird species recorded in the Garden. What made this particular moment so special was that the bird was feeding from a flower. He pushed his beak deep into the flower to reach the nectar, and when he pulled away, the petal came with him. For a moment, it looked as though he had suddenly put on an enormous beak and was playing dress-up! It was such a funny and unexpected little moment that I was so grateful to have captured it.Photographing birds like this requires a lot of patience. They are incredibly quick and constantly moving, so you can spend a long time waiting for the right moment. I love that aspect of wildlife photography – you cannot force the photograph to happen. You have to slow down, sit quietly and observe. Eventually, if you are patient enough, these tiny birds begin appearing all around you, almost like little fairies moving between the flowers. Kirstenbosch is one of my favourite places to photograph because of the incredible combination of wildlife, flowers and the Cape landscape. The Garden lies against the eastern slopes of Table Mountain and contains beautiful natural areas of fynbos and forest. The Cape Floral Region is exceptionally rich in plant diversity, and the fynbos provides an especially important habitat and food source for sunbirds and other pollinators.

For me, wildlife photography is about more than simply getting a technically good photograph. It is about noticing the small, unexpected moments in nature and capturing something that someone else might otherwise miss and never get to see, and now the joy of that moment can be shared. This photograph is special to me because it captures both the beauty and the playful, unpredictable character of one of the Cape’s smallest birds

Location: Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, Western Cape, SA

Technical Details: Canon EOS R5 | Canon RF 100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM | 363mm | F7.1 | 1/1250 sec | ISO 5000

A new website called Camera Index has set itself an enormous task: cataloging every film camera ever made. The in-progress project comes from PPP Cameras founder and camera repairer Pierro Pozella, who has begun building a free, searchable database of film cameras, as Kosmo Foto reports.

Pozella is starting the database alphabetically with manufacturers under “A.” The site already includes entries for brands such as Agfa, Alpa, Ansco and Argus, with plans to expand steadily into a far broader record of camera makers, models and related gear.

Screenshot from Camera Index

In the mission statement on the site, Pozella explains that “Camera Index is a long-term project that will take several years to build. New cameras are being added every week, with major manufacturers and popular models being documented first before the archive gradually expands into the more obscure corners of photographic history.”

Pozella spoke with Kosmo Foto‘s Stephen Dowling, providing more insight into why he’s tackling this project. “As a camera repairer first and foremost, I’m aware of what happens when knowledge isn’t recorded – and the gaps that occur,” he said. “I therefore felt strongly that information should be compiled and made accessible, as this is what will fundamentally keep analog cameras alive well into the future.”

Here at DPReview, we have our own extensive product database, though ours is focused on digital cameras and lenses. We know firsthand how much of a challenge it can be to maintain such an archive, and creating a similarly comprehensive resource for film cameras could be an even messier challenge.

The pre-digital camera market was filled with short-lived manufacturers, regional brands, rebadged models, minor revisions and poorly documented products. Adding to the difficulties, much of that information remains distributed among collectors, print reference books, auction listings and scattered enthusiast sites.

Screenshot from Camera Index

Pozella’s project is not the first attempt to organize this history. There have also been a few websites that attempted to offer something similar, including Camera-wiki. Prior to those resources, McKeown’s Camera Encyclopedia & Price Guide was long considered a major collector reference. It was last published in 2004 (the 12th edition), though its website currently says a new version is coming in the summer of 2027. The site says the forthcoming work will contain three times more information than the last edition, and will be available online.

Camera Index is still early in its rollout, and its alphabetical progress underscores the scale of the undertaking. Plenty of information still needs to be filled in for models already on the site, too. Still, if it can grow into a dependable, well-sourced and easily searchable archive, it could become something film photography has long lacked: a DPReview-style reference point for the vast, unruly history of analog cameras.

Meet Jean-Pierre Zanotti

Home base: Toulon, France

Jean-Pierre Zanotti, known as JP Zanotti in the forums, is a Toulon-based photographer who explores the remains of abandoned buildings across France and Italy. Working primarily with Fujifilm X-series cameras and ultra-wide lenses, he captures the light, objects and human traces left behind in these forgotten spaces.

“I’ve been doing this since my teenage years, so a long time now. I got into photography through astronomy, which I practiced with a club. The ever-present clouds of my native Lorraine home quickly pushed me toward something else: the decaying industrial sites that dotted the region. I later took a long exposure (pun intended) to raise my children, then picked this dusty road back up – digitally this time.”

Our ‘What’s in your bag?’ community spotlight series features readers sharing their favorite gear and photography, including from past DPReview collaborators. See below for what Lester has to share.

What’s in Jean-Pierre’s bag

Jean-Pierre Zanotti

Favorite cameras(s): Fujifilm X-T2, Fujifilm X-T3 and Fujifilm X-T5

Favorite lens(s):

• Fujinon 8mm F3.5, 16mm F1.4, and 56mm F1.2
• Viltrox 9mm F2.8 Air and 13mm F1.4

“I gradually converged on Fujifilm back in 2014, after going through Canon, Nikon, Olympus and Sony along the way. For what I shoot, it simply delivers the best overall image quality. For years, the Fujinon XF 10-24mm F4 was my main companion – most of the images here were shot with it – before I moved on to fixed focal lengths that suited me better: the Viltrox 9mm F2.8 Air and 13mm F1.4.”

Must-have accessories: “An ultra-light rain jacket, folded down small, since some spots are one hour or more on foot – there’s no turning back to the car if the weather turns. And obviously, food and water.

If I had to pick one favorite thing, it’s the X-E5 paired with the Viltrox 9mm – that combination handles the tight, cluttered interiors I shoot in better than almost anything else in my bag.”

Any more unusual accessories you carry?

Jean-Pierre Zanotti

“Does a folding Silky saw for clearing branches count? It’s amazing how quickly vegetation reclaims the abandoned areas I photograph, sometimes literally blocking the way in.

I also carry an inflatable LED light stick and a small 3.5×3.5-inch LED panel for pitch-black spaces. That said, I rarely actually shoot with them: artificial light tends to look wrong in this kind of photography, so they’re mostly there as a distant fill when nothing else will do, or just so I can see where I’m walking. I still bring a Nodal Ninja panoramic head occasionally, but modern ultra-wide lenses have improved so much that I rarely need it anymore.

For abandoned buildings, bring a sturdy 5-meter cord to haul camera bags up high places. And bring with you a hard hat, Petzl headlamp, tough clothing, high boots, clear safety glasses to keep debris out of your eyes, a dust mask and flexible yet sturdy gloves for handling broken glass.

All of it goes into a Lowepro Flipside Trek BP 350 AW, and I love it: lightweight, genuinely tough and with enough real capacity to fit all the gear I just listed.”

What about abandoned buildings is so interesting to photograph?

Jean-Pierre Zanotti

“What draws me in is anything that still holds real photographic potential – and that potential rarely depends on the place being spectacular. Sometimes the most striking shot comes out of the plainest room: a bare corridor, an empty doorway, where the light and the composition just happen to align. I live in the south of France, with Italy just two hours away, so a lot of what I shoot comes from there.

The most memorable trip I took was an entire day, alone, in a former psychiatric hospital in Italy. It’s one of those rare places that has everything at once – strong photographic potential in nearly every room, an unusual density of objects and traces left behind, a history that’s genuinely unsettling once you start reading into it, and an atmosphere that’s hard to describe to someone who hasn’t experienced it.

Spending a full day there, completely alone, gave me the strongest sense of time travel I’ve ever had on one of these expeditions. It’s still the single most impactful place I’ve visited.”

What’s changed since the beginning?

Jean-Pierre Zanotti

“I’ve practiced street photography for years, as I’ve seen others in the DPReview community do. I think it’s shaped how I see these places, even though the two couldn’t be more different on the surface – one is pure instinct, the other pure patience. What connects them, I think, is an interest in people, whether they’re right in front of the camera or long gone.

There’s nothing mystical about it: a room still holds the shape of the lives that were lived in it – how furniture was arranged, what was left on a shelf, which door got used most. Reading that is, in its own way, still photographing people, just at one remove.

Really, it’s less about the type of place than what happens once I’m inside. Silence is the first thing that hits – a total absence of noise that’s genuinely rare to experience today. The light is almost always diffuse, filtered through vegetation that’s reclaimed the space or through windows boarded up to keep intruders out. Whatever the building was – a factory, church, hospital, home – it all triggers the same immediate shift into another time.”

Taking a moment to plan a shot is a common theme among veterans. What does this mean for your photography?

Jean-Pierre Zanotti

“Some of these sites are so overwhelming that I get a kind of shooting frenzy – the urge to photograph everything at once – and that’s exactly when concentration goes out the window. These places are abandoned, but that doesn’t mean private or safe, so there’s no coffee break to fall back on; you just have to force yourself to slow down.

Then it’s a checklist: setting to the lowest native ISO, tripod fully deployed and stable – no exceptions, ever – bracketing almost as a systematic precaution, manual focus with focus peaking, and a thorough blower cleaning, since dust becomes a real problem on wide-angle shots against the light. I step back from the tripod to avoid transmitting any vibration through the floor during long exposures. Then, a careful check of sharpness before moving on. All told, a single shot can easily take five to ten minutes to set up.

If you’re tempted to try this kind of adventure, take real precautions and don’t be reckless. Accidents always happen exactly where you least expect them – never where the danger looks obvious.

Jean-Pierre Zanotti

And on gear: don’t let it become an excuse. I’ve made large prints I’m genuinely proud of with a Canon PowerShot A70 (bought new for $449) and a secondhand $50 Panosaurus head, and shot excellent large-format results with an old Olympus bridge camera and a wide-angle converter. The gear in this article helps, but it was never the reason any of these photos worked.”

Jean-Pierre really enjoyed participating in this spotlight article and would love to hear what you think of his photography and to answer any of your questions in the comments below.

You can check out Jean-Pierre’s other work at jpzanotti.com.

Editor’s note: This article continues a series, ‘What’s in your bag?’, highlighting DPReview community members, their photography and the gear they depend on. Would you like your photography to be featured in a future installment? Tell us a bit about yourself by filling out this form.

When you use DPReview links to buy products, the site may earn a commission.

Nocs Provisions, an outdoor optics brand known for its compact and colorful binoculars and monoculars, is venturing into the camera market with the announcement of the Portal AFN7. The company says its first camera is “designed to remove the friction between experiencing a moment and capturing it.”

Like its existing optics lineup, the Portal AFN7 is made to be rugged. It offers an IP56 rating, making it usable even in harsh weather conditions or on adventures. It’s also compact and lightweight, weighing just 140g (4.9oz), making it easy to toss in a bag while hiking.

Nocs Provisions / Aubrey Janelle Photography

Nocs Provisions says the AFN7 uses a screenless design aimed at encouraging “people to trust their instincts, stay in the moment, and notice more.” There is a small OLED display on the back for adjusting settings, though it doesn’t support image playback.

While it lacks a display, the camera features a digital viewfinder to help with composing images. It also comes with the NocDoc alignment shroud, which allows users to easily connect Nocs Provisions binoculars and monoculars for magnified images.

Nocs Provisions

In terms of core specs, it features a Type 1/3.06 (16.6mm²) CMOS sensor that delivers 16MP photos. It’s also capable of 4K/30 video. The 22.5mm equivalent lens offers F2.2 aperture, and it supports up to 8x digital zoom. It offers six “film-inspired”presets, which include Kodachrome 64 and Kodak Gold 200, or users can opt for no filter. The camera also features an LED flash.

Nocs Provisions promises a battery life of up 30-35 minutes of 4K recording per charge. It requires a MicroSD card for use and comes with a 4GB card, but it supports cards up to 128GB. It comes in three colors: Galapagos Gray, Moonwalk White and Lassen Black.

Nocs Provisions

Nocs Provisions says that the Portal AFN7 is just the first in a new lineup of cameras, too. “We’re not detailing what’s next yet, but Portal was designed as a series from the start,” the company said in its press materials.

The Nocs Provisions Portal AFN7 is available for purchase today for $179 through the company’s website and REI.

Nocs Provisions

Nocs Provisions Portal AFN7

• $180 at Nocs Provisions
• $180 at REI

This is the concluding article looking at why our perspective on cameras’ prices can seem out-of-step with other people’s initial reactions, on the day of launch. And it covers that fact the MSRPs always seem expensive, at first.

I don’t think we’ve reported on many launches without at least some people commenting, “it’s too expensive, what are they thinking?” or some variation thereof. And then comparing the price to the cost of an outgoing model, the price they paid for something in a sale, years earlier, or a second-hand deal on a completely unrelated camera type.

All of which is to miss the point. MSRPs aren’t the same thing as street prices and, although they’re quoted in the same units, they’re not particularly comparable.

MSRPs are the manufacturer’s opening gambit: they generally represent the highest price they’ll ever get for a product. An ‘early-adopter tax’, in many instances.

On the day of launch, all cameras look over-priced because their peers have been on the market for a while, their prices have softened somewhat, or they’ve explicitly been put on sale. And those MSRPs look even more overpriced if you compare them to the outgoing model, or a previous one because the manufacturer and retailers are trying to get rid of them, before they become impossible to sell.

Richard Butler / Mitchell Clark

But, just in case it needs saying: no manufacturer can introduce a new product at the narrow-to-no margin price that the outgoing model is being flogged-off at. Nor can they sensibly consider the second-hand prices of decade-old higher-end models, when setting prices.

This all varies somewhat between markets. In the US, list prices are more aggressively maintained than in Europe and the UK, where retailers have more freedom to offer some sort of discount fairly soon after the camera hits the shelves. This, along with Euro and Sterling prices usually being quoted including tax, is a big part of why US prices typically appear cheaper at first: because the US list price is set at a level that more people will have to actually pay.

None of which is an attempt to say you should just pay the MSRP on Day 1: quite the opposite. If an older, higher-end model is still floating around when the new model is launched and it suits your requirements, you should probably buy that. Our attempts to put pricing in a longer-term context aren’t an attempt to encourage you to buy something at full price.

But if history has repeatedly shown that those old models disappear from the market and the price of the new camera drops to a level comparable to others launched at the same MSRP, then it would be perverse and unhelpful to pretend we don’t know this. We want our reviews to still make sense a month or so after publication, which they won’t if we declare all new cameras “overpriced” despite what we know will happen next.

MSRPs let us see how things are positioned, relative to one another. They help us understand the price point, rather than the literal consumer price, of a camera.

Inflation muddies the waters still further, and prices are going up, but it’s worth remembering that launch prices have always looked too high. Even for that camera you’re now holding up as an example of what this new model should cost.

When you use DPReview links to buy products, the site may earn a commission.

Lomography has announced the Joseph Petzval Métamorphose 35mm F1.8 Art lens, a full-frame manual-focus prime for Canon RF, Nikon Z and Sony E cameras. The lens lets photographers and cinematographers adjust the intensity of its swirling bokeh and embraces flaws that modern lens designs aim to avoid.

Lomography

The Métamorphose 35mm F1.8 Art lens offers seven levels of bokeh, allowing photographers to customize the look of their images via a dial on the lens. Lomography says that with the effects turned down, the bokeh is similar to its previous Petzval Art lenses, with softer edges and soap-bubble bokeh.

With the bokeh level increased, Lomography says a much more dramatic change takes place. According to the company, the center stays sharp while the edges stretch and appear blurred. Lomography describes it as a “powerful hallucinatory effect around your subject.” It says the effect is best used to convey a disoriented state or when you want to create a sense of motion.

Lomography

The effect becomes even more pronounced at the lens’s 0.35m (1.1′) close focusing distance, where swirling bokeh and outward-stretched edges surround a sharp center. In the company’s sample images, only the very center of the frame remains sharp in these cases.

In addition to changing the look of the bokeh via the seven adjustments, the lens supports drop-in rear aperture plates to change the bokeh’s shape. It comes with five plates: a star, a sun, an oval, a heart and a snowflake.

Lomography

Lomography designed the Métamorphose for both photo and video work. It offers a 180-degree focus throw, Mod 0.8 gearing for standard follow-focus systems and a de-clicked aperture ring for smooth exposure adjustments. Its bokeh control can be adjusted without shifting focus, allowing users to alter the image’s rendering during a take. A built-in 1/4-inch mounting point can support the lens directly on a compatible camera rig, while a 67mm front thread accepts filters. The optical design comprises six elements in five groups.

The Métamorphose joins Lomography’s Petzval Art range of manual-focus, full-frame mirrorless lenses. The line is named for Joseph Petzval, who designed an influential portrait lens in 1840 that became known for its fast aperture, sharp central rendering and softer edges caused by field curvature. Lomography introduced its first modern Petzval lens in 2013 and has since expanded the series with 27mm, 35mm, 55mm, 80.5mm and 135mm models.

Unlike those more direct Petzval-derived designs, Lomography says the Métamorphose also draws on an early Gaussian optical formula developed by Carl Friedrich Gauss in 1817.

The Joseph Petzval Métamorphose 35mm F1.8 Art lens is available for pre-order now for $649 and will ship beginning in December.

Lomography

Lomography Joseph Petzval Métamorphose 35mm F1.8 Art

• $649 at Lomography

LK Samyang has started to tease the arrival of a 28-135mm F2.8 autofocus zoom for Sony E-mount, more than four months ahead of a February 2027 launch.

The company has only released close-up photos of the lens, so far, but has also published full specifications.

So we know it’ll be an extending zoom that expands from 151mm to 190mm long, as you zoom in (6.0-7.5″). We also know that it’ll weigh 854g (1.9lbs).

This makes it almost 30% longer than the Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 G2 and around 60% heavier, so you definitely pay a price for the additional flexibility the Samyang should offer. It’s around 27% longer and 50% heavier than Tamron’s 35-100mm F2.8, that doesn’t offer either the wide-angle or telephoto capabilities that this will.

It will also take an 82mm filter, rather than the 67mm filter used by the two Tamrons.

As with other recent LK Samyang lenses, its autofocus will be driven by a voice coil motor, which should be quiet and fast.

And, although no mention of them is made, the preview images show control ring grips that match the company’s lenses co-developed with Schneider-Kreuznach.

Camera prices, like most other prices, are going up. Part of this has been manufacturers focusing on high-end users, because they tend to buy the higher-margin products. But even attempts at making more accessible cameras can seem wildly expensive, compared to the prices we remember paying.

And that’s not a question of manufacturers being foolish or greedy. Whether we like it or not, we are living through a period of higher inflation than we’re used to.

This is the first of a two-part series looking at why the perspective on cameras’ prices in our reviews can seem out-of-step with other people’s initial reactions, on the day of launch.

Many of us lived through a more than twenty-year period of relatively low inflation. Prices of most things rose by around 2% per year, the cost of electronics fell, partly with the outsourcing of manufacture and through increased efficiencies and economies of scale. Wages typically kept pace with inflation, so things didn’t feel more expensive. Large sensor digital cameras got cheaper at first, then settled into a pattern of improving while maintaining their existing price.

Richard Butler

Sadly, that’s no longer the world we live in. It’s impossible to enumerate all the factors that got us to here without spiraling off into discussions of politics, but there have been a host of inflationary pressures over the past few years. Whether it’s supply-chain shocks, tariffs, wars putting pressure on oil and gas prices or out-of-control demand for processors and RAM, there’s more pushing prices up than encouraging them to drop.

Manufacturer’s materials and energy costs have gone up. Their component prices have become erratic. Their wages have gone up. Their logistics costs have increased. They cannot make cameras for the prices we used to pay. And, because of the way inflation works, the $1000 you had planned for your next purchase simply isn’t worth as much as that figure have been, five or six years ago.

I suspect it’s not just me who finds myself marveling at articles or footage from the 70’s showing a pint of beer priced in pennies or a gallon of ‘gas’ in cents. To a more modern ear, that just seems unimaginable, and it’s hard to see how we got from there to where we are. For most of my adult life, the changes have been incremental enough that I didn’t notice the jump. But thinking back to when I was at college, a pint in my favorite pub was £1.36. I visited the same pub this summer, and it was £5.30. Those little changes have ramped up into big ones in the past few years, and now the prices of my own yesteryears are beginning to seem impossibly distant. 

The same thing is happening with cameras, and just about all manufactured products: the value of money is dropping faster than any reduction in the cost of electronics (and a lot of key components are being bought for AI, before it can get anywhere near consumer products). Also, there’s every chance that it’s been some time since you last bought a new camera, and that precisely remembered reference point is no longer realistic.

None of which is to say that we have to like it. I’m not trying to defend it, or suggesting you should (or even can) just decide it doesn’t matter. But getting frustrated about it or insisting that the latest camera should cost what your last one did, pre-pandemic, isn’t going to change things. None of us enjoys it, but pretending inflation doesn’t exist or that rising prices are down to manufacturer misjudgment or greed doesn’t get you anywhere useful.

Laowa has announced the Acris 35mm F2.8 1X AF Macro APO, which it says is the “world’s first full-frame autofocus 35mm lens with 1:1 macro magnification.” It’s also only the fifth autofocus lens we’ve seen from the company, though some of the lens mounts it’s being released for will get a manual focus-only version.

Laowa says the autofocus versions of the lens will be available for Sony E, Nikon Z and Canon EF mounts. L mount and Canon’s mirrorless RF mount, meanwhile, will only be getting a manual focus version.

The lens is made up of 13 elements in 10 groups, and while Laowa doesn’t call out any special glass it’s using, the company says the apochromatic design means you’ll get “zero color fringing” due to chromatic aberration. In manual focus mode, it has a minimum focusing distance of 18cm (7.1″). This means the front of the lens has to be around 49mm (1.9″) away from your subject to achieve the 1:1 lifesize reproduction that gives the lens its name.

Leslie Jie / Laowa

Like with Laowa’s 180mm F4.5 macro lens, the autofocus capabilities are quite limited in macro mode. From the minimum focusing distance to 0.5m (19.7″), you have to manually acquire focus, but the lens can make precise adjustments for focus stacking purposes. If the subject you’re shooting is more than 0.5m away, though, Laowa says it’ll work like any other AF lens, providing “fast, responsive, and accurate subject acquisition.”

Of course, this is assuming you have the version of the lens that comes with autofocus, rather than being manual focus only. Beyond the lack of motors, there are two interesting differences between the two lenses: the AF version has 9 aperture blades and is threaded for 72mm filters, while the manual focus version has 13 and uses 67mm filters. Both, however, zoom internally.

Laowa

The dimensions of the lens will vary substantially based on which mount you get it in; for instance, the Sony E-mount version is 114mm (4.5″) long, while the EF version is 87mm (3.4″) long. The lens’s weights are much closer, though, with the E-mount one coming in at 560g (19.8oz) and the EF at 530g (18.7oz). Laowa says the lens is sealed against dust and moisture.

In terms of features, the lens is relatively spartan. It has a USB-C port for firmware updates, and a function button that Laowa says “allows seamless switching between modes.”

The Acris 35mm F2.8 1X AF Macro APO will be available starting today and will cost $449 in the US, though regional pricing may vary.

Laowa Acris 35mm F2.8 1X AF Macro APO specifications

Every photographer has a first moment when they realize their time behind the camera is something they truly care about. For some, the spark comes from a chance encounter with a unique camera in a shop window or from the skills of a beloved relative who’s also into photography. For others, it stems from a childhood TV hero, or perhaps an interest to document family life.

Last week, we asked our community what set their photography journey in motion, and the replies were as varied as the photographers themselves. Read on to see what sparked the DPReview community into photo-taking action.

lumigraphics: I was in the Navy when Queen Elizabeth made an official state visit to my ship (USS Ranger in San Diego, 1983). I only had a little 110 camera and wanted better results, so I bought a Canon AE-1 Program from the ship’s store, and the rest is history. 43 years later, I’m a working pro. Might be the only person around who is a photographer because of the Queen.

Dimpsey: Early morning trips to buy bread rolls for breakfast. The bakery often wasn’t open, but the chemists across the road had cameras in their window. One was all shiny silver knobs and a gleaming top plate. It was utterly irresistible, and I wanted it. That was over 60 years ago, and I’m still taking the camera(s) out today!

SGA

SGA: As a kid, I wanted to be Jimmy Olsen, Cub Reporter. I loved watching him on the original Superman TV show, running around Metropolis with his old folding camera. But all my parents got me was a Kodak Brownie, which used 127 film.

NorCalPhotonFoundry: My grandfather was a lifelong photography enthusiast, and when I was 6 or 7 years old, he gave me a cheap little plastic point-and-shoot camera for Christmas. For me, the “spark” was the magic of being able to capture, keep and share a moment or perspective; something which still brings me joy to this day. I still have and use my childhood QL17, and am grateful to my grandpa for giving me that first plastic point-and-shoot.

Alun Thomas: My interest was kindled by my cycle touring interest. I would go on forums to read others’ trip reports and wonder why my photos were so rubbish compared to theirs. So I bought a Sony A5100, then soon started buying different lenses. I eventually switched to full-frame, and now the hobby is more prominent for me than cycling.

GWKilgore: I grew up hunting. I was in my 30s when I went out to Oregon in 1975 to hunt mule deer. Right after sunrise, I bagged a nice buck. I was worn out and told my hunting companions this was too much work. I said that I would trade my rifle for a camera.

GatoAmarillo

Gato Amarillo: I think it might have started here (see photo above). That’s me in about 1952 with my father and sister at the Tri-State Fair in Amarillo. The photographer was from one of the local newspapers, and I still vaguely remember being fascinated by the big camera. It was another 20 years or so before I started serious photography myself, but I suspect that experience was the spark.

Edgar_in_Indy: When we started having kids in the early 2000’s, my wife and I would go to one of the franchised photography studios at the mall. It would kill us to see the screen fill up with dozens of great pictures of our child, but only be able to pick a handful due to the cost of each picture.

I ended up buying an early DSLR and a couple of old studio strobes and never had to visit those mall studios again. I’m not sure we actually saved any money in the long run, given my camera collection, but we have so many great family photos from over the years.

GeoInSD: When I was a child, my family used cheapie cameras, like Kodak Brownies and Instamatics. I remember seeing my granduncle having an SLR system that I thought was pretty cool. My interest in photography started when I took a photography class in high school. I was stunned by the vastly superior image quality of a 35mm SLR compared to Kodak Brownies and Instamatics.

I was not an early adopter of digital. I held off until shutter lag was comparable to film AND the DSLR body was under $1000 US. The Nikon D70 was the first DSLR that met those criteria in my book.

There are many other stories from our community. We would love for you to join in on the discussion!

Richard Butler

This wasn’t the camera I was using when the Frame No. Full warning popped up, but it did happen on a Fujifilm camera.

On a recent outing while testing Fujifilm’s new 400mm F4.5 lens on a loaner camera, I ran into something unexpected: 15 minutes into my hike, an error message appeared on the camera, and nothing happened when I pressed the shutter button.

The message on the screen read “Frame No. Full.” Admittedly, I was left scratching my head. I had formatted the card before I left and knew there was plenty of room on it. A quick Google search while I was in the woods informed me that the camera had reached the end of its file numbering system. The only fix that I could find while I was in the woods was to reset the camera’s file-number sequence with a formatted card, effectively ending my hike shortly after I started (I was there to take photos, after all).

Why file numbering can become a problem

Mitchell Clark

While I experienced this issue on a Fujifilm camera, it isn’t something specific to Fujifilm. Digital cameras commonly assign images a three-digit folder or directory number and a four-digit file number. For most, those numbers top out at 999-9999, though the exact number of images per folder may differ depending on the particular model.

The exact label differs, but there is usually a continuous, series, or auto option that carries the sequence forward across cards, plus a reset-style option that starts over when a new card or folder is used. Continuous numbering helps reduce duplicate filenames, but it also means a borrowed, rental, used, shared or demo body can inherit a numbering history that began long before you received it. Canon, Nikon, Sony, OM System, Panasonic and Leica all document variations of that basic approach.

Mitchell Clark

It’s also important to note that the file number does not represent a simple shutter count. It may look as though reaching 999-9999 would require nearly 9 million shutter actuations, but continuous-numbering systems can advance to the highest number already present on a card. Many camera manuals across brands say that in continuous mode, the camera will use the last file number recorded or the first available number, whichever is higher.

In other words, a high frame number may reflect a camera’s or memory card’s file-management history rather than a straightforward count of images taken. That is likely why the Fujifilm loaner reached its final available identifier, 999-9999. I had formatted my own card in-camera, but that did not reset the stored sequence because the body was set to Continuous. Fujifilm’s manuals say the shutter is disabled once that number is reached.

What to check before an important shoot

Fujifilm was simply the camera in my hands when I experienced the issue. Exact limits and reset behavior vary by brand and model, but every continuous numbering system has some ceiling. It is probably rare, but it could be a costly surprise in the middle of a wedding, event, wildlife outing, or other once-only shoot.

File-number history can follow both cameras and cards, so the risk is not limited to loaner gear. It can also affect photographers who rotate cards among multiple bodies, work on shared kits or pass cards between shooters. Before an important assignment, check the camera’s current folder/file number and its file-numbering setting. It may also be smart to reset the sequence with a safely backed-up card if it looks unusually high before heading out to an important shoot (and keep a backup card on hand, too).

With the release of Adobe Camera Raw 18.7, we now have Raw support for the OM System PEN, bringing us one step closer to being able to complete our review.

As you might expect, the PEN’s performance is a match for that of the OM-5 Mark II, with which it shares a sensor and processor. This may seem obvious but we have to check, to be certain that our assumptions about shared components are correct and that there are no unreported changes to the processing. It also ensures that you can select the OM System PEN in our test scene, if you want to make any comparisons in future.

Its 20MP sensor captures a good level of detail (our test scene gives a slight benefit to 4:3 aspect ratio cameras, reducing the already minor difference between the PEN and the 24MP of the Canon EOS R10). In terms of noise the PEN’s performance is a little behind the larger sensor of the Nikon Z50II, but it’s not significantly noisier than the Canon, whose 1.6x crop sensor seems to slightly underperform expectations.

The PEN’s performance is entirely in keeping with what we’d expect to see from a modern sensor, backing up the results we got when shooting its sample gallery. We’ve already seen that the JPEG engine can produce a range of attractive results and these confirm that the technical underpinnings are sound.

When you use DPReview links to buy products, the site may earn a commission.

7Artisans has announced the AF 18mm F2.0 Lite lens. The new pancake lens for Sony E-mount APS-C cameras offers a wide field of view in a tiny package.

The AF 18mm F2.0 Lite provides a 27mm full-frame equivalent view on APS-C cameras, a focal length ideal for street and travel photography. 7Artisans says it is the lightest autofocus F2.0 prime lens for APS-C cameras, and it weighs just 109 g (3.8 oz). The lens measures just 32mm (1.3″) long, with a diameter of 64mm (2.5″).

Despite its compact size, the lens features a clicked aperture ring, providing on-lens aperture control. The lens also uses an all-metal build, which 7Artisans says is dust-sealed for added protection. It also has a USB-C port for firmware updates.

7Artisans

7Artisans says the lens’s stepping motor delivers fast, quiet autofocus suited to both photo and video. It can focus as close as 0.2m (7.9″). The lens features a fast F2.0 aperture and a nine-blade diaphragm.

The optical design comprises nine elements in seven groups, including one extra-low dispersion element and one high-refractive index lens. It’s compatible with 52mm filters.

The 7Artisans AF 18mm F2.0 APS-C Lite for Sony E-mount is available for purchase as of today for $169.

7Artisans

7Artisans AF 18mm F2.0 Lite

• $169 at Pergear
• $169 at B&H
• $169 at Amazon

When you use DPReview links to buy products, the site may earn a commission.

Polaroid has announced its latest take on instant photography with the Polaroid Mod. The camera offers four in-camera creative modes, with the company’s press release describing it as “designed for creative people who want to do more than point and shoot, without needing to be an expert behind the camera.”

The creative modes – Split Shot, Double Exposure, Motion Freeze and Light Painting – are the standout features of the Polaroid Mod. Double exposure and light painting were previously available through Polaroid’s app, but the Mod provides access directly from the camera’s mode dial, making them easier to use.

Polaroid

“With Mod, we wanted the creative experience to be built into the physical design of the camera,” says Stine Bauer Dahlberg, Chief Product Officer at Polaroid, in the press release. “We wanted the camera itself to encourage you to try something different every time you pick it up.”

Double Exposure allows users to expose the same frame twice, creating overlapping images. Split Shot also involves two photographs in one frame, but it requires an included accessory that blocks half the lens. It allows users to combine two photos without overlap, provided the half-lens cap is rotated appropriately.

Motion Freeze uses a longer exposure with a flash fired at the end (a rear-curtain sync technique) to combine motion blur with a sharp subject. Lastly, Light Painting is simply a long exposure to capture trails of light.

The mode dial also offers an auto mode for more straightforward instant images. Like Polaroid’s other cameras, the camera features a brightness dial to adjust exposure.

Polaroid

In terms of general camera specifics, the Mod shares a lot in common with the Polaroid Now+ Gen 2 camera. It uses a two-lens system with a 94.96mm (roughly 35mm equiv.) close-up lens and a 102.35mm (roughly 40mm) distance lens. The camera automatically switches between the two: the close-up lens focuses from 0.40m to 1.3m (1.3 to 4.3 feet), while the distance lens covers 1.0m to infinity (3.3 feet to infinity).

Polaroid lists six usable apertures ranging from F11 to F64 and a custom shutter driven by a precision step motor, though it has not published the shutter-speed range. It also has a built-in flash powered by a vacuum discharge tube strobe system.

Polaroid

The Mod is compatible with i-Type and 600 film. It uses a rechargeable lithium-ion battery with USB-C charging. The camera measures 161.7 x 110.2 x 98mm (6.37 x 4.34 x 3.86″) and weighs 520g (18.34 oz), making it slightly larger and heavier than the Now+ Gen 2.

The Polaroid Mod is available through the Polaroid website as of September 29 for $170. It will be available through other retailers in the US starting on October 6, with global availability early 2027.

Polaroid

Polaroid

Polaroid Mod

• $170 at Polaroid

Alongside the addition of a variable aperture and manual controls, Apple introduced an interesting feature to the iPhone 18 Pro: it’s called Reference Image, and is designed to prove that a photo wasn’t altered at any point after the photons hit the sensor.

This system, which currently only works on the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max’s main camera, is a distinct mode in the camera app and is aimed primarily at journalists. It tries to overcome several technical hurdles to ensure that both the data as captured by the sensor and the processed result of that data, can be tied back to a specific device within a narrow period of time. In other words, it tries to authenticate both the Raw and the processing that turns it into a viewable image.

Dale Baskin

Apple isn’t the first company to try to solve this problem. A coalition of companies, including Adobe and several major camera manufacturers, has thrown its weight behind Content Credentials, another system designed to be able to prove that an image is what it claims to be in the age of wholesale AI image generation and assisted editing.

While we’ve written extensively about Content Credentials, Apple has characteristically taken a completely new approach with its own system. So why has it invented its own tech, rather than using the existing standard that some of its competitors have adopted, and how does it work?

What problems is Apple trying to solve?

Apple says it designed the Reference Image system to meet three requirements:

• The resulting image “must faithfully show what the sensor captured,” and you can verify both the Raw capture and the process that turned the raw data captured into a viewable photo
• A false image created via tampering with the sensor, cryptographic software or phone’s OS will fail the verification process. If it’s later discovered that the system verified an image it shouldn’t have, the certificate marking it as authentic must be able to be revoked.
• The images can’t reveal who took them, or whether the same device took any two images. Apple shouldn’t be able to tell what’s in the image when it’s signing it.

The company argues that existing systems like Content Credentials don’t meet these standards. Part of that is because they have different goals; one of the explicit appeals of Content Credentials is that it lets you bake image attribution into the file in a way that’s hard to remove. But Apple also argues that adding a credential after the image is created, as Content Credentials does, leaves space for bad actors to create false images and then sign them as authentic (something that one of our forum members was able to demonstrate with the implementation in the Nikon Z6III).

The system looks to be incredibly robust, which is unsurprising given the level of attacks Apple’s devices have to defend against. (It basically has to assume its systems will be tested by the full capabilities of a hostile government.) It’s built to protect against verifying images made by feeding fake data to the sensor itself through its electrical contacts or by removing it from the phone, and from quantum computers being used to break its encryption, something Apple says no other image provenance systems do. The company says this is to make sure the images are verifiable far into the future; traditional encryption algorithms can withstand most kind of attacks, but because quantum computers work fundamentally differently from the computers they were designed for, they can easily crack them.

What does taking a reference image look like?

The high-level overview is that the phone isn’t always taking Reference Images. You have to purposefully switch to taking them in the camera app, which will reboot the sensor into a special mode. So far, this is only available on the iPhone 18 Pro or Pro Max’s main camera – either in 1x or 2x mode, though not night mode since it appears to only use a single exposure – as it’s a hardware-based feature. Even then, it isn’t available in the EU or China (likely due to its reliance on Apple’s Private Cloud Compute service, which we’ll cover shortly).

Dale Baskin

After you take a reference image, you then have to choose to “develop” it before you’re able to view or share it. You can share the developed HEIC file as a normal photo, viewable by anyone, or as a special reference image that, currently, can only be viewed using an Apple device running its latest software. The person receiving it will be able to see a version with any edits you’ve made, as well as what the camera originally captured, and the interface can even highlight the differences. It will also show verified metadata, such as when the photo was captured. This does, however, rely on them using Apple software on Apple hardware: otherwise, it’ll just render like a normal HEIC.

How does a Reference Image work?

Apple’s document on the technical details of the Reference Image system is, unsurprisingly, pretty complex, so I’ll try to explain it in a way that will make sense to most people.

The process for creating a reference image starts at the factory, when the phone’s sensor and security chip are tied together in a way that Apple can check later, to confirm that the two actually worked together to create and secure the data that it’s interpreting as a photo.

Dale Baskin

When you switch to the camera’s Reference Image mode, it reboots the sensor into a secure mode that basically ignores what the operating system is doing, except for receiving a “digest” that contains a securely computed timestamp range and some identifying information for the device and its security chip. The sensor then collects light and digitizes it into data (as cameras tend to do). It then cryptographically signs it before sending it off the chip. This basically means that the raw data the camera captured can’t be changed by the sensor firmware, phone’s processor, operating system or anything else. Otherwise, the signature created by the sensor won’t match the signature produced by the data, and the system could tell something was wrong. The secure metadata, including what time the photo was taken, is also included in that package, before it’s handed back to the OS for storage

This leaves you with what Apple calls a “secure digital negative,” stored as a DNG Raw file, which you can edit and share like normal if need be. However, to make it a Reference Image, you need to then be able to trust the process that turns that “negative” into a viewable file, as the raw data from the image sensor isn’t actually an image. Even when opening a Raw file on your computer, what you’re actually seeing is that data processed in several ways, like demosaicing to interpret color, lens corrections and the application of a tone curve. You are seeing your program’s interpretation of the Raw, not the data itself (which is why it may look different from program to program).

This is where the second part of the system comes in. After you’ve taken the picture, you can choose to “develop” it into a Reference Image (something that doesn’t happen automatically, and which requires an internet connection). When you do, that “digital negative” is sent to Apple’s Private Cloud Compute servers, which will then recompute the “digest” containing the timestamp and data from the phone and its security chip, ensure the certificate matches the raw data and that it was actually issued by the sensor. It checks a few other things too, making sure that the sensor and the security chip haven’t been altered since they left the factory.

Apple says it takes great pains to ensure that the timestamp attached to the image is accurate. Rather than using on the device’s clock, your phone routinely gets cryptographically-signed timestamps from Apple’s servers, which it uses to create a window of time that the image must’ve been taken in, based on the timestamp it received before it was taken, and the next one it received, after. (Apple says this happens on average every 15 minutes, though it’ll depend on network connectivity; it can also account for phones that are offline for long periods of time).

After the Private Cloud Compute service has checked over all the certificates, it creates what’s called a confidence score for the image, which decides how likely it is that it is a real photograph based on how well the data matches “physical characteristics expected of raw output from our sensors.” It then turns the Raw into a JPEG before “hashing” it, creating a signature that ensures that the rest of the development process won’t change it, and to identify any subsequent changes that occur after the image is returned to the user.

The JPEG’s unique identifier, the hash for its Raw, the confidence score and the sensor’s ID, though not the JPEG itself, are sent to a separate service, which checks a few things. Most importantly, it makes sure the image wasn’t created by a sensor that’s been added to a revocation list for having uploaded fake or suspect data. Apple keeps a running tally of the confidence scores attached to the images submitted by each sensor; if that number gets low enough, indicating that something suspicious is happening with that device’s reference images, the Private Cloud Compute service will never sign pictures from it again.

If everything checks out, though, the service signs the JPEG with Apple’s signature, letting everyone know that it passes the company’s technical checks. Importantly, this replaces the photographer in the chain of trust: the company says the system intentionally doesn’t provide a way to identify who took a reference image, to the point where you can’t even use it to tell if two photos were taken by the same phone. It only tells you that Apple can attest to it being unaltered from the point of capture. The Private Cloud Compute server then sends the JPEG, packaged as a HEIC, back to the phone, and moves the “digital negative” to the trash, for deletion after 30 days (though you can tell it not to delete it within that timespan if you want).

Whenever you go to view that image on a supported device, using supported software, it’ll check to make sure it still has the signature, and that Apple’s system hasn’t retroactively revoked it. From there, you’re able to make edits to it, though the end user will be able to see the original, provided you share the Reference Image HEIC, rather than an exported JPEG.

In Apple we trust?

Apple

As with most security standards, whether or not you believe an Apple Reference Image is a source of truth*will require putting some amount of faith in the company. The company has a relatively solid track record when it comes to security and cryptography, so it’s not implausible that it could implement a system like this, and Apple says the Private Cloud Compute software that turns those into viewable photos is publicly auditable. Of course, if you’re not a security and cryptography expert, you will have to trust researchers to actually do that work and communicate that it is, in fact, safe.

To me, the real act of faith won’t be in deciding whether the pictures Apple certifies are genuine. It’s trusting the company to never revoke a certificate of a legitimately-captured image for any reason, something that it appears to have the power to do. I also have to assume the system will occasionally get it wrong, either signing an image that shouldn’t have been signed, or not signing one that should, and the test will be how Apple reacts in such situations. Or, indeed, whether it bothers to continue operating the service indefinitely, irrespective of profitability and take-up.

The company has a history of standing up to governments – even powerful ones in the US and UK – when ordered to compromise user privacy and security, and offers some of the most comprehensive protection modes you can get on a phone. However, its track record isn’t spotless. It famously handed off control of the iCloud data for its users in China to comply with the country’s laws, a move that Reuters reports will give that government “far easier access to text messages, email and other data.”

Notably, the Reference Image feature isn’t available in China. It’s also not immediately launching in the EU – Apple is currently in a spat with the bloc over how much privilege it gives its own services on iOS – but the company has at least promised that it’ll bring the feature to the EU at some point in the future.

The chicken and the apple

Mitchell Clark

I’d like to leave you with a few parting thoughts. While there is undoubtedly use for pictures that are in some ways verifiable – especially as journalistic institutions change, and as news is increasingly captured on phones, both by professionals and everyday people – it’s also worth considering how much that can actually move the needle.

We live in a relatively low-trust environment, where large groups of people can’t agree on even relatively basic facts. (Calling topics “debated” would be giving too much credit; debate implies people are willing to change their minds based on evidence presented.) While people not being able to trust images is certainly a problem, especially at scale, there are a lot of examples of hard evidence being ignored because it’s inconvenient.

This is, frankly, not really a problem that Apple can even solve, no matter what technical expertise it brings to bear. I also shudder to think of us handing over that responsibility to a private company, more than we already have. But I also think that it’ll be hard to get back to a place where images are trustworthy again, because it’s a chicken and egg problem: you can’t rely on things like Reference Image or Content Credentials as an indicator of whether an image is fake or not until most or all of the real images you see have them attached. Sure, they can “prove” an image is authentic, but with their limited market penetration, they’re currently not very useful in spotting fakes.

Even if you could flip a switch today and have every picture taken on an iPhone be easily verifiable on any platform where they’re displayed (something that’s currently absolutely not true of the much more widely-adopted Content Credentials), it would probably still require sweeping social changes for that to actually matter. Again, though, that’s not really within Apple’s control. But as things stand, there’s at least one more tool that journalists and citizens can use to try to prove that their images are authentic… assuming the viewing public trusts the system, and that those trying to verify the image own enough new Apple products to do so.

* As much as any photograph can be. Pictures can depict what happened in a moment, but you still have to trust that the photographer or person or organization sharing the image are being honest about the context surrounding it.

This summer, Viltrox released the AF 26mm F2.8 Evo, a pancake-style full-frame lens that aims to be an excellent everyday carry option. I’ve had the chance to spend some time shooting with it in a variety of conditions, and have a surprising number of thoughts on it given how relatively simple it seems.

Optics with character

Despite my concerns about focus, I ended up being pleasantly surprised by how sharp this lens is in the center given the size, weight and price. It won’t win any awards, and you’ll definitely want to stop down for best results (especially at the edges), but again, for what it is I was quite pleased with the results I got. Vignetting is also quite well-controlled, even at F2.8.

The lens shows some longitudinal chromatic aberration in relatively harsh lighting, but again, it’s a pretty decent performance for this category of lens. There’s what I’d call a low-to-medium amount of barrel distortion, too, which Viltrox corrects for with a software profile, but it’s not to the point where we’d say that the software profile is mandatory if you’d rather not, or can’t, use it.

Mitchell Clark

I appreciated the 26mm F2.8’s close-focusing abilities – it’s nice to see that manufacturers are really paying attention to those these days – and I found its bokeh to be inoffensive. It’s not the cleanest ever, but I’m also not typically using a 26mm lens to get the blurriest backgrounds.

This is all relatively standard fare for a prime these days, so what makes me say it has a lot of character? It’s the flare, because wow is there ever a lot of it. If there’s a bright light source just outside of frame, expect the image to look fairly washed-out. The included lens hood (which reduces the lens’s size advantage, though, admittedly, not by much) helps a little, but the effect is still quite strong.

Point light sources in the frame will also produce relatively large streaks of light, in a way that I haven’t seen in a lens for a while, outside of ones explicitly designed to produce that effect. I personally think it’s neat and don’t mind it on a lens that I’d mainly use for fun, but it and the flare are intense enough that I would absolutely think twice before trying to use this lens for a professional shoot, especially if it took place at night. Frankly, I’m a little confused why Viltrox used its “Evo” branding on this lens, as I typically associate it with an impressive level of image quality that this doesn’t quite deliver on.

The shooting experience

While our lens testing standards meant that I exclusively used this lens paired with a relatively hefty Nikon Z8, I still found myself being delighted with this lens’ small size. Paired with a smaller camera, like a Nikon Zf or Z5IIC or a Sony a7C-series, it would make for an impressively small full-frame kit.

Mitchell Clark

Despite its size, the lens has two rings: one for manual focus and a clicked one for aperture. I did, however, find the latter to be a bit touchy, and I ended up with a lot of shots at aperture settings that were 1/3EV off from what I was aiming for. Thankfully, it has an “A” position that hands over control to the camera, which I found useful for times when I was constantly putting it back in a bag.

If you’ve seen our unboxing video for this lens, you’ll know that I was extremely excited upon discovering that it has a magnetic lens cap, which is very easy to remove and, perhaps more importantly, to put back on. After a few months of use, my enthusiasm remains, and it’s something I’d like to see on more lenses. It’s not entirely perfect – I found it was a bit more eager to detach than a traditional pinch design when I was taking my camera out of a bag or putting it back in – but I found myself being much more willing to use it because of the lack of fiddliness in putting it on and taking it off.

The focusing experience with this lens wasn’t my favorite, even compared to other Viltrox lenses I’ve used for Z-mount. It has a unit focus that physically moves in and out as you go from close to infinity, and it’s not particularly quick. While I had a decent hit rate with it, it wasn’t particularly confidence-inspiring in the moment; even a slight move of the autofocus point often led to the lens dramatically changing focus, making the whole scene soft before slowly bringing it back into focus.

This experience isn’t uncommon among pancake lenses, but it’s worth keeping in mind, depending on what you wish to shoot with this lens.

The manual focus experience also isn’t lovely. Given its size, the ring is relatively easy to manipulate, but there was a touch of lag between when I turned it and when the focus actually changed, which led to me frequently overshooting my intended subject. There also isn’t much fine-grained control once you get near infinity, which changes happening in chunks, instead of smoothly.

Summary

I don’t want to come across as being too harsh on this lens. While its $299 price tag may be a bit more than the rock-bottom prices some buyers may be accustomed to from Viltrox, it still seems fair to me given what this lens offers, especially to fans of the 26mm focal length. Pancake lenses often come with sacrifices, and this one is no exception, but the Nikon and Sony lenses it’s competing with cost substantially more… though there are, perhaps, more reasons to choose the own-brand versions over the Viltrox than we’re used to seeing from the brand.

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. 

Thanks to Nikon for the loan of a Z8 to produce this sample gallery. All images were processed using our standard lens workflow in Capture One, with the manufacturer’s distortion correction applied but no correction of vignetting. The profile corrects a fair amount of barrel distortion, but we don’t consider it an essential part of the lens’s optical design.

A few months ago, we quietly launched Today in Photography, a new version of DPReview’s weekly email for anyone who wants to keep up with the photo world. It also marked a return to one of the site’s early ideas: our newsletter dates back to 1999, and past versions included more than just links to the latest stories.

Now, we’re excited to announce that we are expanding to twice a week, arriving in your inbox every Sunday and Wednesday, with original content you won’t find on the website.

Today in Photography includes far more than just a roundup of stories already on DPReview. It features a wide selection of newsletter-only material we’re creating specifically for subscribers: a personal note from the editor, behind-the-scenes looks at what our team is testing, inspiring photos and posts we spot on social media, standout images and quotes from the DPReview community, photography history and more.

You may also find quick newsletter-specific photo challenges, accessory reviews, reader polls, firmware and software update roundups, camera and imaging tech explainers, photography tips, upcoming photo opportunities, deals, quizzes, culture picks and occasional reader Q&As with the DPReview team. In other words, there’s a lot to check out in each edition of Today in Photography.

We still cover the latest articles and biggest industry news, but Today in Photography is a chance to step beyond the homepage, with interesting, useful and fun parts of photography that don’t always make it into a full article.

If that sounds like your kind of email, sign up for Today in Photography at the link below to keep up with what’s happening at DPReview and across the photography world, plus plenty you won’t find on the site. We’d love to have you join us.

Viltrox recently announced that four of its lightweight Air series prime lenses (14mm F4.0, 20mm F2.8, 40mm F2.5 and 50mm F2.0) are now available for L-mount. Although Viltrox joined the L-Mount Alliance just over a year ago, it had released only two lenses for the system before this announcement, making this a substantial expansion of its L-mount lineup.

While the lenses themselves aren’t new beyond an updated mount option, we took the opportunity to test the Viltrox AF 50mm F2.0 Air on the Panasonic S1RII.

Abby Ferguson

First, let’s put the lens in context with Viltrox’s other offerings. The Air series is the company’s compact, budget-oriented lens line, designed around portability. Compared with the company’s larger, faster-aperture Pro and Lab lenses, Air models prioritize low weight, smaller dimensions and affordability over professional-grade construction, on-lens controls and top-end optical performance.

As a result, the lens is remarkably simple, with its only feature being a manual focus ring. I found the texture on the ring to be quite nice; enough to give me grip, but not too aggressive. The focus throw strikes a good balance, allowing quick shifts between near and far focus without contorting my wrist. It also has just enough resistance to make it easy to get precise adjustments when manually focusing.

Abby Ferguson

In terms of autofocus, I found the lens performed well. I didn’t have any substantial issues or exceedingly slow-to-focus moments. I didn’t test the lens on many fast-moving subjects beyond my black dog, which occasionally resulted in focus falling just behind her face as she moved. It’s hard to say whether that’s an issue with the camera not quite nailing where to drive the lens, or with the lens not keeping up with what the camera’s telling it to do.

Size is the main selling point of this lens, and indeed, it is remarkably compact and lightweight. On the bulky S1RII, the 50mm F2.0 Air was hardly noticeable. It barely sticks out from the camera and only adds 205 g (7.2 oz). It was an ideal lens for keeping in a small sling while walking about.

Abby Ferguson

My biggest complaint about the lens is how it handles lens flare. I’m someone who, at times, is like a little flare in an image. But I am not a fan of the flare that this lens produces. It can be really overpowering, and, to me at least, doesn’t have a very pleasing look to it. It isn’t very susceptible to flare unless pointed very directly at the sun, so it’s easy to avoid, but I didn’t like the look very much. You can judge for yourself in the samples below.

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.