Blackmagic has released a firmware update that adds continuous phase-detect autofocus, complete with object tracking and face detection, to its full-frame Cinema Camera 6K. This makes the camera more competitive in an increasingly crowded landscape of video-centric cameras focused on owner-operators and creators.

When the $3000 Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6K launched, it could acquire focus on something in the center of the frame, but it was a one-time operation; it wasn’t able to keep the subject in focus as it or the camera moved. While this wouldn’t have been a deal-breaker for many users – as the “cinema” name implies, much of its target audience will be using manual-focus lenses with focus pulling equipment – it also narrowed the scope of what you could do with it. It would work fine for more careful, scripted shoots, but wasn’t really ideal for more run-and-gun productions.

BlackMagic

Now, though, the camera will be able to continuously focus on a human subject, tracking their face, or on a generic subject through object tracking. Blackmagic also isn’t making you completely give up control to use autofocus; the camera has settings to control how fast it transitions focus, and lets you pause autofocus by holding down a button. That way if your subject goes from moving to stationary, you can make sure the AF system isn’t going to pulse or try to focus on something else.

That last point, however, highlights a potential gap between the Cinema Camera 6K and other video-focused cameras, like the Sony FX3, Canon EOS R6 V and Nikon ZR. Those cameras use AF systems that are much more mature, so you don’t have to worry as much about managing them; you can just leave them on, and trust them to keep your subject in focus in most situations. While Blackmagic’s autofocus system has been out in public beta for around a year now, early adopters reported mixed results, and it’s still not as tried and tested as the others.

However, this full release is a starting point for the company’s autofocus ambitions and at least puts the Cinema Camera 6K in the conversation with those other cameras, giving people who need autofocus another option that has a robust set of features. It offers 6K open gate recording and internal Raw, full-size HDMI and mini-XLR connectors, a 5″ rear display and an optional detachable EVF. It also uses L-mount for lenses, which is relatively adaptable and has a growing selection of native options.

Hopefully now that the Cinema Camera 6K’s autofocus support has fully launched, we’ll see it come to more cameras in Blackmagic’s lineup. While not all of them will have the phase detection hardware on their sensors, the company promised it’d be coming for more, unspecified cameras when it initially announced the feature last year, and it’s currently available in beta for the Pyxis 6K.

The Blackmagic Camera 10.2.2 firmware that enables autofocus is available as a free download from the company’s website. It also adds support for Blackmagic’s cloud streaming system, 4-channel audio recording and up to 10 minutes of pre-recording, letting you save the moments before you press the record button.

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Earlier this week, Sony announced the FE 100-400mm F5.6-8 OSS, a stabilized, full-frame telephoto zoom that comes in well under $1000. We were able to spend some time shooting with it to see how it performs, and you can see the results in the gallery below.

What the images won’t show is just how easy it is to carry around. It tips the scales at just 654g (23.1oz), which, combined with its length, meant that it and the a7R V I had it attached to fit comfortably into my sling bag, so I didn’t think twice before bringing it along on hikes and other outings.

Mitchell Clark

The lens feels nice in the hand given the price, and the zoom ring is easy to use, with a relatively short throw. It’s an extending zoom, so the center of gravity inevitably changes as you adjust your focal length, but that weight means it’s still quite easy to manage. Lens creep, where it will slowly extend as you walk around with it, is an issue, though the lens does have a lock switch to keep it at 100mm. It’s nice to see that Sony has still included that detail, along with the focus limiter and function button, despite the lens’s budget nature.

Sony’s linear focus motors continue to make for a very good AF experience, with the lens able to quickly and accurately go from focusing close up (though not that close; it has a 0.86m (2.8′) minimum focusing distance at the long end) to far away. However, the manual focus ring is less lovely, as its stepped response and lack of precision made it very difficult to focus on a bird that the camera wasn’t able to recognize, or a particular part of a flower. 

While I haven’t subjected the lens to a full battery of tests, I’m pretty happy with the images it produced, again, given its focal range and $850 price tag. However, I’ll add the caveat that the entire state of Washington was covered in wildfire smoke for the entire time I had the lens, and it was especially bad in Spokane, where the gallery was shot. That makes it hard to judge things like sharpness, especially for a telephoto lens. 

Mitchell Clark

Of course, a major limit to the image quality you can get out of this lens will be its light-gathering ability. I found myself having to put it away relatively early in the evening; even before sunset, shooting at 400mm in the shade meant having to raise the ISO up to 10,000, even with the benefits of coordinated in-body and optical stabilization.

Still, I’m sure many people will be willing to make that trade-off, given the lens’s size and price, especially if they mostly shoot in the daylight. Canon has already proven that there’s a market with its very similarly-speced option, and while third-parties like Sigma and Tamron have made budget-oriented telephotos for E-mount, they are about twice the weight due to their more ambitious focal ranges and light-gathering abilities. It’s also nice to see Sony releasing a 100-400mm aimed more towards beginners, after its announcement of the $4300 pro-grade FE 100-400mm F4.5 GM OSS earlier this year.

Thanks to Sony for the loan of an a7R V to shoot this 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 fixes an extremely minor amount of barrel distortion at the lens’ wide and long ends, and we don’t consider it to be an essential part of this lens’s design.

Tamron has announced its second quarter financial results for 2026, reiterating its goal of releasing ten new own-branded lens models this year. While the promise isn’t new, the company bringing it back up to investors is a chance to measure its progress towards that goal.

By Tamron’s math, it has released six new models already this year. That decidedly doesn’t mean six new lenses, though: it means two versions of the 35-100mm F2.8 (one for E-mount, one for Z-mount), bringing the 17-70mm F2.8 from 2021 to Canon RF and Nikon Z mount, and releasing the new 12-20mm F2.8 for both Sony and Nikon.

Tamron

While Tamron hitting its goal of releasing 10 models this year theoretically means it has four more models to go, that’s unlikely to mean that we’ll see that many new optical designs. Indeed, the company can hit that goal without any new optical designs, as it still makes plenty of lenses that are currently only available on E-mount that it could bring to other platforms.

Still, it’s clear the company is becoming more ambitious with its releases. The chart in its financial statement says that from 2023 to 2025, its goal was six to seven models launched per year; before that, it was five new models.

Mitchell Clark

Part of the strategy to increase releases likely involves a shift away from only releasing new lenses on E-mount. When we interviewed the company at the CP+ trade show earlier this year, Kei Nagai, the section manager of Tamron’s Overseas Sales Department, told us the company was “moving toward simultaneous multi-mount launches.” He also said Tamron would “take a holistic view of the entire market and existing lineups to carefully determine which spec and mounts to prioritize.”

At the same time, the company’s future is more in question now than ever. Last week, Tamron announced that Sony had made an offer to acquire it, and said it had set up a special committee to evaluate that offer. If that deal goes through, it’s unclear how it would affect that strategy, or the company’s goals.

One thing is sure, though: with the promise of more releases and a potential resolution to the Sony story, the next few months are shaping up to be very interesting for Tamron.

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Nikon has released firmware updates for two of its six-year-old DSLRs: the D6 and the D780, as discovered by Nikon Rumors. While the fixes included in them are relatively minor, it’s impressive to see last-generation models getting some love, and it speaks to how Nikon has become an exemplar of improving its cameras through software.

According to the release notes, firmware version 1.71 for the D6 fixes an issue where photos taken with older D-type lenses would “sometimes be underexposed,” as well as one where using the recall shooting feature to quickly change settings could limit your shutter speed if you were also using Auto FP High-Speed Sync. Firmware version 1.21 for the D780, meanwhile, solves an issue where the camera could underexpose images if you were zooming in while shooting a high-speed continuous burst. Both firmware updates are available to download via the company’s website.

Nikon also released a firmware update for a much newer camera, the Z50II, though its changelog makes the updates to the D6 and D780 look like complete overhauls in comparison; it basically just changes the names of some menu items in Chinese.

While all of these are minor updates, they’re illustrative of Nikon’s commitment to software updates. Ask a camera enthusiast about post-release software support, and you’ll probably hear about Fujifilm and Kaizen, but it’s worth realizing that other companies like Nikon and Panasonic have caught on. In recent years, the company has released software updates that substantially improve the capabilities of its cameras be that the addition of bird detection mode to the Z6III, a new film grain mode and support for its Imaging Cloud service to the Zf or the ability to use shutter angle in video on the Z8.

This isn’t to say that Nikon has done things perfectly. It’s easy to find complaints about how some features take longer to come to some cameras than others, when it seems like the models should be on par with each other. And  the company has, on occasion, broken things with its updates. (Its still-unfixed Content Credentials implementation for the Z6III and issues with updating cameras with third-party lenses – even licensed ones – attached come to mind.) And while these issues may stem from the practical realities of software engineering and how many resources Nikon can put into it, that doesn’t change the fact that those issues don’t make for a great user experience.

Still, it’s commendable that Nikon is continuing to support older cameras and improve its existing models. I’m sure most Nikon users would rather it continue along that path with the occasional misstep, rather than it not bother with updates at all. Now we just need that update it promised for the ZR.

Viltrox is making it easier for owners of Fujifilm cameras with silver bodies to accessories. The company has announced “the silver trio” of lenses: the AF 9mm F2.8 Air, AF 15mm F1.7 Air and AF 25mm F1.7 Air for X mount, which you can now get with a coat of silver, rather than black, paint.

Apart from the different coloring, the lenses are the same as the black versions that the company released throughout last year. However, those undeniably looked like many other Viltrox lenses, which themselves have similar styling to the lenses released by other third-party manufacturers. The silver versions might stand out just that bit more, and should better match the myriad cameras that Fujifilm makes in a similar finish. It’s easy to imagine these being mounted to an X-M5, or an X-T30 III.

Despite the “silver trio” name, these lenses join another two X-mount lenses that Viltrox was also producing in silver: the AF 35mm F1.7 Air and the AF 56mm F1.7 Air. 

Of course, there will be those who prefer the black versions, and some people will scoff at the idea that anyone cares about what color their lens or camera body is, and whether those things match. There will also be those that wish the emulation of Fujifilm’s style wasn’t just skin deep, and that the lenses would include things like aperture rings, which both drastically change the aesthetic, as well as the experience of using them.

But whether it makes sense to the function over form crowd, many photographers clearly care about the color and decoration of their gear, as evidenced by the fact that Fujifilm itself sometimes sees fit to create silver versions of its lenses to sit alongside the black ones, and the frequency with which companies like Leica produce equipment in new colors. It’s nice to see a company providing these options on some of its budget-oriented gear as well; the prices vary depending on which lens you’re looking at, but they all come in under the $250 mark.

The silver versions of the lenses are available now from Viltrox’s website, at the same prices of their black counterparts. Humorously, the versions of the lenses for Sony E and Nikon Z mount are still only available in black for the time being (though neither company is as prolific as Fujifilm when it comes to releasing silver cameras).

7Artisans is making its tiny, lightweight 40mm F2.5 lens available to more shooters. The $159 full-frame option launched for Sony E-mount earlier this year after its announcement at CP+, but is now available Nikon Z mount and L mount.

The lens is the same one we saw at the trade show in February. It has a clicking aperture ring, tiny function button, 46mm filter ring and a manual focus ring, as well as a switch to go between manual and auto focus modes. The latter is provided by a stepper motor, and the lens can focus as close as 0.4m (15.7″). Despite this list of features, which is about as complete as you could hope for a compact prime lens, it only comes in at around 90g (3.2oz).

Optically, the lens consists of 7 elements in 6 groups, with one aspheric lens and three high refractive index elements. It has a 9-bladed aperture. 

Zorta / 7artisans

When the lens was announced in February, options for small, lightweight lenses were relatively thin on the ground for Z and L mount users. However, there have since been a few new options released: Panasonic announced its compact 40mm F2, and Viltrox has come out with a tiny 26mm F2.8 pancake for E and Z. Both fit into the same role as a small, walkabout lens (though obviously the 26mm offers a very different focal length), though they are also a fair bit more expensive.

The Z and L mount versions of the 40mm F2.5 are now available through 7artisans’ website, though they haven’t made it to online retailers like Amazon or B&H at the time of writing.

We’ve seen a recent trend of camera accessory companies building in clever hiding spaces for Apple AirTags into their products. Whether it’s a camera cage with a hole for one cut out, or a bag with a tiny pocket for them, there are more and more options for making sure you can find your expensive gear if it gets misplaced or stolen.

Falcam is taking the concept even further, building support for Apple’s Find My network into batteries for Canon and Sony cameras. For those unfamiliar, the trick of Apple’s Find My is that it uses many of the company’s products – including the iPhone – to anonymously track the location of devices on the network. This solves the issue of previous Bluetooth trackers by making it so you’re no longer relying on a relatively small group of people who use the same tracker as you and are running the app to be around the thing you’re trying to find.* The tech is what powers Apple’s ever-popular AirTags.

Falcam

Of course, the main purpose of Falcam’s TagBatts isn’t to find a misplaced camera; it’s to power the device you have in your hand. The company is making two versions: one that’s compatible with cameras that use Sony’s NP-FZ1000 series batteries (which is to say, most of the company’s modern cameras, as well as a host of other devices), and one that mimics Canon’s LP-E6 (again, supported by a wide range of the company’s DSLRs and mirrorless cameras). Falcam’s site also indicates that versions for Nikon and Fujifilm cameras are coming soon.

Both versions of the battery have a 17.4Wh capacity, which is slightly higher than the own-brand models they’re meant to replace. In an FAQ on its website, Falcam says the tracking feature uses a very small amount of power that “does not meaningfully reduce normal camera runtime,” though notes that it won’t work if the battery is completely drained. The battery also has a built-in USB-C port, letting you charge it directly outside the camera if you want, though it’s still compatible with traditional cameras and can also be charged inside the camera.

There are a few caveats to note. The first is that camera manufacturers don’t typically guarantee support for every camera feature when you’re using a third-party battery, and Falcam is new to making batteries, so it might be worth waiting for a few reviews to make sure everything works as expected. The second relates to Find My; many people will be familiar with the AirTag feature that lets you search around for your device, using your phone to point the way. This feature, however, isn’t inherent to Find My devices, and Falcam’s website makes no mention of the ultra-wideband tech that enables it on its product page for the batteries. That means they’ll be useful for seeing where your camera is on a map, but won’t help you figure out which bag you left your spare batteries in.

The Falcam TagBatt costs $70 for the Sony version and $65 for the Canon one, and they are available from the company’s website. That’s definitely pricier than competing third-party models from companies like SmallRig and Wasabi Power, but those don’t include Find My functionality. Neither do the own-brand models, which cost more.

* Though it introduces a new problem in that it’s not particularly cross-platform compatible. Android phones won’t report a Find My device’s location, and the Find My service won’t be particularly useful to you if you don’t have an Apple device. Google has its own version of the system, but the two are broadly incompatible.

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Last week, DJI finally launched its dual-camera DJI Osmo Pocket 4P outside of China. If you’re living in the parts of the world where it’s now on sale (a list that unfortunately doesn’t include the US) and are curious about it, here are a few great videos you can watch to get up to speed on it.

DPReview’s overview

Our very own Mykim Dang had the chance to spend 48 hours with the Osmo Pocket 4P, putting it to the test on a trip to Toronto, Canada that DJI put on. Her video breaks down what it is, and how it compares to the pocket camera that many creators already carry around with them: a phone.

The reigning champ versus the upstart

The DJI Osmo Pocket series has been around a while, and has become the de-facto pick for people who want a vlogging camera that produces a high-quality image and steady footage, thanks to the built-in gimbal. But like it did with action cameras, Insta360 is now making a play for the market with its very comparable Luna Ultra camera. Shahbaz Sheikh does a great job of breaking down the differences that don’t show up on the spec sheets, but that really matter.

Stay for the cinematography and story

To test the Osmo Pocket 4P, Brandon Li decided to shoot a beautiful short documentary about a very interesting subject as a preface to his thorough explanation of what the camera is. While the video is sponsored by DJI (a fact that Li is up-front about), he also doesn’t shy away from covering some of the camera’s downsides and some of the things it doesn’t do as well.

Why is this a big deal?

If you’re not sure why people are so interested in a small gimbal vlogging camera, this video by YouTuber Chollette will explain it. It was actually made using a previous version, the Osmo Pocket 3, but it shows what kind of content people are using this tool to create… or, at the least, the kind of videos people imagine they’ll be able to make when they buy one.

Want to go more in-depth?

If you have any more questions about the Osmo Pocket 4P and the market it’s launching in to, our coverage of its launch in China and, later, globally should answer them.

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Updated August 2, 2026

Travel can expose you to once-in-a-lifetime sights and experiences, and a good camera can be the perfect way to preserve those memories. We’ve looked at a range of models that offer great image quality, good autofocus and excellent video, so you’ll be prepared to capture whatever you run into.

We’ve also tried to select relatively small cameras so they don’t interfere with your trip, though it’s worth touching briefly on lens size. If you choose a system with a Four Thirds or APS-C sensor, you’ll be able to use lenses that are lighter and more compact than their full-frame counterparts. Full-frame sensors, however, offer the potential for even better image quality, so it’s worth considering whether portability or image quality matters more to you and doing some research on what types of lenses you’d like to use and how big the full-frame versions are.

Our recommendations

• Portable full-frame: Sony a7CR
• All-round compact capability: Sony a6700
• The great travel kit: Fujifilm X-T50 with 16-50mm F2.8-4.8
• The ready-for-anything option: OM System OM-3
• The stylish travel companion: Nikon Zf
• Best pocketable travel camera: Ricoh GR IV
• The classic choice: Fujifilm X100VI
• The fun-to-use compact with a zoom: Panasonic L10
• The portable option with a ton of reach: Sony RX10 V
• The best video camera for travel: DJI Osmo Pocket

Portable full-frame: Sony a7CR

Richard Butler

The Sony a7CR is a relatively compact full-frame camera with an image-stabilized 61MP CMOS sensor. You sacrifice the convenience of an AF joystick and get a pretty small and basic viewfinder to keep the camera’s size down, but there’s little else that delivers this much image quality in such a compact package.

You’ll need to pick your lenses carefully to keep the camera portable but the a7CR’s autofocus means it can respond rapidly to just about anything you encounter on your travels.

Read our full Sony a7CR Review

See the Sony a7CR studio scene

All-round compact capability: Sony a6700

Richard Butler

The Sony a6700 is built around a 26MP APS-C-sized sensor. Its excellent autofocus performance means it excels at both stills and video capture. There’s a good choice of relatively compact lenses available, too. We’d suggest avoiding the really small 16-50mm F3.5-5.6 though: it’s not the lens to get the most out of this camera.

Fast, dependable autofocus with a selection of subject recognition modes means the a6700 will help maximize your chances of capturing the unexpected moments on a trip.

Read our full Sony a6700 review

See the Sony a6700 studio scene

The great travel kit: Fujifilm X-T50 w/ 16-50mm F2.8-4.8

Richard Butler

The X-T50 can be purchased with Fujifilm’s excellent 16-50mm F2.8-4.8 kit lens, which provides a versatile focal length for travel and should be able to keep up in darker environments. Fujifilm also sells a wide variety of relatively fast, compact primes.

Read our full Fujifilm X-T50 review

See the Fujifilm X-T50 studio scene

The other APS-C options

If you’re looking for an APS-C camera that’s even smaller than the X-T50, the Fujifilm X-M5 may be worth considering. It’s substantially cheaper, though it’s easy to see where the company has saved money: it uses a lower-resolution 26MP sensor, which isn’t stabilized, and there’s no EVF. It does have the same film simulation dial and autofocus subject recognition modes, though, so those tradeoffs may be worth it if size or price are your top priority.

The Nikon Z50II is also a strong all-around contender, but its lens selection isn’t as strong as Sony or Fujifilm’s, nor does it have a stabilized sensor. However, it does have solid autofocus performance, a viewfinder, and a sub-$1000 price point.

The ready-for-anything mirrorless: OM System OM-3

Mitchell Clark

The OM-3 is well-suited to traveling, as the Micro Four Thirds system lets you use especially compact lenses, and its Stacked sensor gives it fast autofocus, incredible burst rates for shooting even the fastest subjects, and the ability to use computational modes to adapt to a wide variety of situations. It also sports an IP53 rating for dust and water resistance, so you won’t have to worry if it starts raining.

Read our OM System OM-3 review

See the OM System OM-3 studio scene

The other Micro Four Thirds options

OM System’s OM-5 is substantially cheaper than the OM-3, though you give up the speed, USB-C port and advanced subject recognition autofocus, as well as a few of the computational modes. It is, however, slightly more compact if space is at a premium in your pack.

The stylish travel companion: Nikon Zf

Richard Butler

The Nikon Zf is a classically styled full-frame camera built around a 24MP full-frame sensor that’s used by many of its peers. The angular 80s-style body isn’t the most comfortable to hold in your hand for extended periods, but the lack of stick-out grip makes it smaller than many of its rivals, making it a tempting travel companion. However, like with the a7CR, many of the full-frame lenses available for it will greatly increase its size and weight.

At least in its all-black form, there’s a chance of it being mistaken for a film camera, which may help avoid the wrong kind of attention when you’re out and about in an unfamiliar setting.

Read our review of the Nikon Zf

See the Nikon Zf studio scene

Best pocketable travel camera: Ricoh GR IV

Richard Butler

The Ricoh GR IV is the latest entry in the company’s series of classic compact cameras with large APS-C sensors and a 28mm equivalent lens. It’s not the most flexible camera, but it has engaging controls and is one of the most pocketable models with a large sensor, which is probably why the GR series has built up a dedicated following of photographers who find it a joy to shoot with.

Our one concern with using the GR IV for travel is that some users of the previous generation model reported dust getting into the lens. Ricoh has said it’s made a few changes that should help prevent that, but still doesn’t make any claims of weather sealing, so it may be worth keeping it in protective bag and putting it away in particularly unpleasant weather.

There’s also the GR IIIx , which has the previous generation sensor and processor, but with a longer, 40mm equivalent lens. This may be a little tight for documenting your travels, but it’s historically a popular focal length. Ricoh also sells a GR IV Monochrome, though a camera that only shoots black and white probably wouldn’t be our first pick for travel photograph.

Read our Ricoh GR IV review

See the Ricoh GR IV studio scene

Other compacts

Canon has recently announced that it plans to increase its production of compact cameras, citing an increasing number of orders for the PowerShot G7 X III , which has a 24 – 100mm (equiv.) zoom lens, providing a solid range for travel photography. Its autofocus isn’t

The Leica D-Lux 8 features a larger sensor than the G7 X III – it uses up to up to 83% of the area of a Four Thirds (17.3 x 13 mm) sensor, while the G7 X III has a Type-1 (13.2 x 8.8 mm) sensor – and has a photo-focued interface that we particularly like. However, its slow zoom, only decent image quality and substantial price tag make it hard to recommend to all but the most Leica-faithful.

The classic choice: Fujifilm X100VI

Richard Butler

Like the Fujifilm X100V before it, the Fujifilm X100VI is a classically styled fixed lens camera with a 35mm equivalent F2 lens. Updated with in-body image stabilization rated at up to 6EV of correction and a 40MP BSI CMOS APS-C X-Trans sensor, the X100VI is a significant upgrade over its predecessor despite looking virtually identical. And those improvements in part explain the X100VI’s $200 increase in list price to $1,600.

It’s not smallest or most inconspicuous camera, but its fixed focal length means you develop an ‘eye’ for the photos it’ll take, essentially making it a better quality, more engaging alternative to snapping away with your phone.

The addition of subject-detection autofocus has given the X100VI the ability to recognize animals, birds, automobiles, motorcycles and bikes, airplanes, and trains though human (face/eye) detection is a separate mode. However, the lens the X100VI shares with the X100V is not the fastest to autofocus, prioritizing sharpness over speed.

The X100VI brings a level of polish you would expect from a sixth iteration of a camera. Fujifilm has done a great job keeping the X100-series up to date without messing with the formula that’s made it so popular. No surprise, this is the best X100 yet.

Unfortunately, despite ramped-up production, demand for the X100VI seems to have outstripped supply with the camera already on backorder at virtually all dealers.

Read our Fujifilm X100VI review

The fun-to-use compact with a zoom: Panasonic L10

Mitchell Clark

The L10 takes a lot of what the Ricoh GR IV and Fujifilm X100 VI get right – it’s relatively small, engaging to use, and has great image quality – and pairs it with a zoom lens instead of a prime one. While primes definitely have their place, it can be hard to tell what you’ll run into while traveling. If you want the experience of a compact but the flexibility of a 24-75mm equiv., the L10 is the camera to pack.

Read our Panasonic L10 review

See the Panasonic L10 studio scene

The portable option with a ton of reach: Sony RX10 V

Richard Butler

The Sony RX10 V is built around a Type 1 (116mm2) 20MP Stacked CMOS sensor, and features a far-reaching 24-600mm equiv. F2.4-4 lens.

For many of us, traveling somewhere and looking at faraway things is a big part of vacationing. And with its 24-600mm equiv. zoom, blistering fast burst rates and best-in-the-business autofocus, the Sony RX10 V is the perfect tool for photographing things in the distance (while still being engaging for capturing nearer subjects). It’s not the smallest compact ever, but almost anything else with this kind of reach would be much bigger, heavier and more expensive.

While we haven’t completed our full review of the camera yet, we’ve used it enough to know that it belongs on this list. It provides good image quality, is engaging to use, and features Sony’s latest autofocus tech, which is still among the best in the business.

Read our Sony RX10 V review

See the Sony RX10 V studio scene

The best video camera for travel: DJI Osmo Pocket

Richard Butler

DJI’s Osmo Pocket series of cameras feature a stabilized handheld vlogging camera, designed for on-the-move vlogging. The main cameras on them are built around a type 1 (13.2 x 8.8mm) sensor mounted on a tiny gimbal, meaning it can deliver stabilized footage with smoother motion than any conventional camera or phone.

When you’re traveling in an unfamiliar place, there are a million things to focus on; the Pockets let you capture it all, without requiring much effort on your part. It can also natively film in horizontal or vertical, which can be useful if you’re looking to share footage from your travels on social media.

The reason we’re referring to multiple cameras is that the Pocket’s availability will vary depending on what region you’re in. If you’re in the US, the latest version you have access to is the Pocket 3. In the rest of the world, though, the Pocket 4 is now available, adding integrated storage, high framerates and better controls, along with a few other improvements. There’s also the Pocket 4P, which adds a second 60mm equiv. camera with a Type 1/1.28 (75mm²) sensor and features better dynamic range on its main camera.

The Pockets’ small sensors mean they works better in well-lit situations, though a reasonably bright F2.0 lens on the main camera mean they’re usable indoors, too.

It can shoot 4K 16:9 video or, by rotating the screen into the upright position, 3K vertical 9:16 footage. A small joystick lets you control the camera’s movement, and tapping the joystick button flips between the camera pointing toward you or away from you.

The older Pocket 3’s reliance on contrast-detection autofocus means its focus can be prone to hunting, though the cameras’ face-detection mode works well enough that this is rarely a problem when talking to the camera.

The video quality isn’t always the highest, and the autofocus can occasionally lead to frustration, but overall the quality and convenience of the Pocket as a package is really hard to beat.

Read our hands-on impressions of the Osmo Pocket 3

Why you should trust us

This buying guide is based on cameras used and tested by DPReview’s editorial team. We don’t select a camera until we’ve used it enough to be confident in recommending it, usually after our extensive review process. The selections are purely a reflection of which cameras we believe to be best: there are no financial incentives for us to select one model or brand over another.

Want to stay up to date on the latest product news and releases? Add DPReview as a preferred source to ensure our independent journalism makes it to the top of your Google search results.

Updated August 1, 2026

Not long ago, it seemed like the market for new compact cameras with zoom lenses had mostly dried up, despite the demand from enthusiast photographers who like the form factor and people looking for a nostalgic photographic experience. This year, though, the market has picked up, and not just with subtle refreshes that remove as many features as they add.

You may still have to hunt to find certain models in stock, and if you haven’t bought a compact in a decade or two you’re almost certainly in for some sticker shock. But each category has at least one or two very capable options, and the cameras of today can still offer an experience, image quality or both that can’t be matched even by top-end phones.

Our recommendations:

• Enthusiast camera
  • Best enthusiast compact: Panasonic L10
  • Best long-zoom compact: Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX10 V

• Waterproof cameras
  • Best waterproof compact: OM System Tough TG-7

• Vlogging cameras
  • Best vlogging compact: Canon PowerShot V1

Enthusiast compacts

The final niche in which it’s difficult for a smartphone to compete is for enthusiast photography. No matter how good smartphone image quality gets, it’s difficult for a phone to provide the feeling of connection to the process of taking photos that an enthusiast compact with lots of direct controls can offer.

We’ve picked cameras with large sensors that deliver good image quality, zoom lenses and direct controls. Some have built-in electronic viewfinders for shooting when it’s bright outside, again giving a more pleasant experience than a smartphone.

Best enthusiast compact: Panasonic L10

Mitchell Clark

The L10 combines an engaging control setup with modern connectivity and features and an ambitious lens with a focal range that’s standard for a reason. It’s not particularly pocketable, but is still small enough that you won’t have any reason not to take it with you on a trip, to an event or even just out on the town.

Read our Panasonic L10 review

See the Panasonic L10 studio scene

Honorable Mentions

If you need something that’s more pocketable, the Canon G7 X III offers a similar focal range to the L10 in a much smaller package. It also has engaging controls, but its smaller sensor means there’s a bit of an image quality trade-off, and enthusiast photographers may not prefer its EVF-less design. Its biggest downside, though, is availability. Despite multiple assurances from Canon that it’s working on increasing production, it’s still quite hard to find. If you can get your hands on one, though, it offers a good experience at a great price.

The Sony RX100 VII is similarly pocketable, but features a pop-up EVF and a lens that reaches further, going out to 200mm equiv. Even at its widest, it’s not as bright as the one on the L10 and G7 X III, putting it at an image quality disadvantage, especially as light levels fall, and the camera is seriously expensive thanks in part to the stacked sensor that lets it achieve blistering burst rates. But if you need a little extra reach in something that’s pocketable, it’s still a very capable pick.

Best Long Zoom Compact: Sony RX10 V

Richard Butler

The Sony RX10 V is built around a Type 1 (116mm2) 20MP Stacked CMOS sensor, and features a far-reaching 24-600mm equiv. F2.4-4 lens.

It may be pretty much the only camera left in this category that doesn’t use a minuscule sensor, but it’s not just on this list by default. Sony has equipped it with its latest autofocusing system, menus and battery, and has reworked the ergonomics and controls.

While we haven’t completed our full review of the camera yet, we’ve used it enough to know that it belongs on this list above other cameras that offer similar reach. It provides good image quality and, while not small, is much easier to carry around that most other setups with this kind of reach.

Read our Sony RX10 V review

See the Sony RX10 V studio scene

Waterproof cameras

Waterproof cameras are another specialty that smartphones can’t necessarily displace. Many flagship phones are waterproof to a decent degree but you shouldn’t try to submerge them to any appreciable depth or use them in salt water. Waterproof cameras also tend to be pretty rugged, designed to withstand a lot more mistreatment than a phone will withstand, meaning you can carry them with you at all times, without ever having to worry about it. Great for bikers, climbers and custodians of small, inquisitive but not necessarily careful children.

Best waterproof camera: OM System Tough TG-7

The OM System Tough TG-7 is a rugged, waterproof compact with a 25-100mm equivalent zoom lens. It is fully waterproof down to a depth of 15m (50 ft).

The OM System isn’t the only rugged waterproof still on the market, nor the cheapest, but it has several major factors in its favor. The first is that it lets you shoot Raw images, which gives you the ability to correct the white balance, which even the best cameras tend to get wrong when shooting underwater. Another factor is that there is a range of accessories for the TG-7, including a light guide that directs light from the built-in flash into a circle around the lens, letting you illuminate close-up objects.

Beyond this there are a few details that different users may find handy: it has an unusually wide-angle lens with a bright maximum aperture, helping the performance underwater and in low light. It also has a built-in GPS, compass and pressure sensor that lets you log your adventures. These all add up to a camera that’s worth the added expense, we feel.

Read our hands-on with the OM System TG-7 article

Vlogging cameras

Smartphones are great for vlogging, but a dedicated vlogging camera can shoot better quality video, have more sophisticated microphones (and provide options for connecting better mics), and can autofocus very reliably, dependably delivering YouTube-ready footage.

Best vlogging compact: Canon PowerShot V1

It offers a competitive suite of vlogging features, a built-in ND filter and good stabilization options. It’s also comfortable to hold pointing towards you, and lets you access key settings from the touchscreen. It includes microphone and headphone jacks and a fan for extended recording sessions.

The V1 is a capable option with a useful zoom range, and while its slower sensor may not be the greatest for capturing fast action, it has all the features you’d need to start capturing the world around you.

Read our full PowerShot V1 review

Why you should trust us

This buying guide is based on cameras used and tested by DPReview’s editorial team. We don’t select a camera until we’ve used it enough to be confident in recommending it, usually after our extensive review process. The selections are purely a reflection of which cameras we believe to be best: there are no financial incentives for us to select one model or brand over another.

There’s little I love more than when I creator I like steps outside of their wheelhouse to cover something I’m passionate about in a new way. Still, I never expected to see a video about photography from Alex Hall, who goes by Alexander the ok on YouTube, as the ex-engineer turned data scientist usually covers things like complex mechanical computers, obscure and interesting air and spacecraft, and the designs of various missiles.

You can imagine my delight, then when I saw a video from him pop up about Polaroid film. And in his typical fashion, he dives deep into the topic, covering the fundamentals on how traditional film photography works, and then going into the clever chemistry that allows instant film to develop in a self-contained packet without a darkroom. It also covers various tangents; nearly 20 minutes is dedicated to his journey of making peel-apart instant film at home, and there’s a section on the interesting modifications and improvements he’s made to his personal Polaroid SX-70.

In other words, it’s a video for real photography nerds, which is why I thought it’d make sense to share it here. I’m sure not every DPReview reader will be interested in watching something over an hour long about film (our bread and butter is digital photography, after all), but I’m also convinced that those who are interested will get a lot out of it. I certainly did, and while I don’t think I’ll be making any instant film anytime soon, I know I’ll have a greater appreciation for the science and art of instant photography the next time I pick up my Instax or Polaroid Time Zero OneStep.

Want to stay up to date on the latest product news and releases? Add DPReview as a preferred source to ensure our independent journalism makes it to the top of your Google search results.

Photography and consumer electronics giant Sony has offered to buy Tamron, a company well-known for its lenses and optics. This would be, to put it mildly, a massive shake-up in the photography market, that could end up having profound impacts on the lenses available to photographers using other systems in the coming years.

What’s happening?

According to a statement Tamron made to investors, Sony has made “a non-binding proposal” that would result in Tamron being “a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation.” Tamron says it’s set up a special committee to review the proposal, but that it currently has nothing else to disclose.

One of the most important things to glean from that statement is that, according to Tamron, it would end up as a subsidiary of Sony. That implies that, at least at the beginning, it would still exist as a separate entity. Keep that in mind, as it’ll be important later on in the discussion.

Why does Sony want to buy Tamron?

Mitchell Clark

There are several potential reasons for Sony to want to acquire Tamron, not all of which have to do with photography. While the majority – 74.2%, in 2023 – of Tamron’s sales come from its “photographic products,” the company’s surveillance, automation, mobility and healthcare divisions also make millions of dollars each year. Sony’s a big player in those spaces, too. While most of us are familiar with Tamron because of its camera lenses, we shouldn’t discount the possibility that those other businesses play a part too.

With that said, Sony told Reuters that its reasoning for the offer is because it thinks the acquisition would be good for Tamron’s shareholders, and that it could help Sony’s imaging business too. That seems to mean that the company’s photography business is one of the main draws for Sony.

Tamron’s place in photography

Tamron, like Sigma and Viltrox, is a third-party lens manufacturer, meaning it produces lenses for a variety of camera systems (unlike, for example, Sony, Nikon and Canon, which make lenses pretty much exclusively for their own cameras). The company is known both for making very good lenses that are much cheaper than the own-brand equivalents, and for making zoom lenses that are a bit out of the ordinary; think the 35-150mm F2-2.8, or the 17-50mm F4. Lenses that some people will find useful, but that might be a bit too niche for other companies to make.

Tamron

It’s worth explicitly saying that every single mirrorless lens Tamron makes is available for Sony’s E-mount; for many, it’s the only mount they’re currently available on. Tamron makes lenses for all the major mounts – Canon, Nikon etc – but, probably as a result of the stricter licensing policies of the other two big brands, it’s only Sony’s E-mount for which is can offer all its lenses. There are also occasionally differences between the Sony versions and the others. The company’s latest release, the 12-20mm F2.8, will be available for both Nikon and Sony, but the E-mount version is coming out first, and for less, with a spokesperson citing volume, manufacturing differences and a different competitive landscape for the price difference.

While Tamron is known for the lenses that bear its name, it’s also a major original equipment manufacturer, or OEM. That work, which includes making lens modules and interchangeable lenses for clients including Nikon, made up 29% of the company’s revenue in 2025, and accounted for 41% of the sales in its photography division in 2023.

So what happens if Sony buys Tamron?

Neither company has commented yet on what will happen if the deal actually goes through, but there are a few possible scenarios that are worth exploring should that happen.

Scenario 1: Tamron continues on with business as usual

Sony could essentially keep Tamron as a relatively separate company under its umbrella in perpituity, leaving it to continue making lenses for other mounts, and doing OEM work for other companies. And in some ways, this seems like the sensible move; why buy a company, and then nix 30% of its revenue?

Sony acting as a steward would potentially benefit it in a few ways. For one, it wouldn’t have to worry about outside forces messing around with a valuable partner; according to PetaPixel Sony was, until recently, the largest individual shareholder in Tamron before an investment firm took that spot, giving it less sway over the company’s decisions. It would also have greater insight into the company’s developments, and could plan its own releases around those, and could apply some of its optics expertise to lenses bound for other company’s cameras, letting it benefit in a way that it wouldn’t have been able to before.

However, there are some potential downsides, too. Sony wouldn’t be capitalizing on the ability to make access to Tamron lenses an exclusive benefit of buying an E-mount camera, and it’s hard to imagine that the company’s relationship with the other camera companies would be completely unchanged if it’s suddenly owned by a competitor. Nikon might think twice about choosing Tamron as an OEM (assuming, of course, that it has other options). Then again, it doesn’t seem in any rush to stop using sensors from Sony’s Semiconductor division, or sourcing its OLED EVF panels.

There isn’t a ton of precedent for this scenario in Sony’s history of acquisitions, though there are parallels. It famously purchased Konica Minolta in 2006, which has completely disappeared into its camera division. The same is true of Toshiba’s image sensor business, which it bought in 2015, though Sony’s sensor group does a lot of business with other camera companies.

To us, this path feels like the best outcome for photographers, if a buyout has to happen. Non-Sony owners would still get to benefit from Tamron’s lenses, and it could act as a competitive force in the market, driving other lens makers to improve their own offerings.

Scenario 2: Tamron stills exists, but only makes lenses for Sony

Tamron

Of course, Sony could keep Tamron around as a lens brand, but make it so the company only produces E-mount options. It’s hard to argue that Sony would need to do this to bolster its cameras – as stated, all of Tamron’s lenses work with them anyways, as do hundreds of options from Sony and others – but it would be a blow to its competitors. Canon and Nikon’s more restrictive licensing policies already limit the choices for their users: losing the few options Tamron provides would only make that situation worse.

In our view, this wouldn’t be good for the camera industry. We’d like photographers to have more options, not fewer.

However, this path is not unfamiliar to Sony, if you look outside of its imaging division. The company has acquired several studios that make video games exclusively for its PlayStation consoles. And while some of those games eventually make their way to other systems years after their original release, it seems like the company may be in the process of walking even that tepid support back.

Scenario 3: Tamron disappears into the behemoth

Tamron could also wind up broken up into pieces, with its medical and automotive divisions becoming parts of Sony’s corresponding groups, and its lens businesses folding into Sony’s. This would simplify things on Sony’s end, where it gets the benefit of the company’s designs and intellectual property without the headache of having two separate, somewhat competing brands. To us, though, it would seem like an odd decision; it’s not like Sony needs help designing lenses (though perhaps this is a play to increase its production capacity), and it would be forfeiting the cahcet of a brand that dates back to the 1950s.

What does this mean for photographers?

If the deal ends up going through, the impact on photographers will depend heavily on which path Sony chooses to take. But even if it went with the first option and mostly let Tamron be, that path wouldn’t be set in stone. Sony could, at any time, decide to cut of other company’s access to Tamron’s lenses and manufacturing, an outcome that wasn’t previously on the table.

While there are exceptions, consolidation in an industry with an already limited number of players isn’t typically in the best interest of the consumer. While it may be, as others have argued, a great option for Sony, that doesn’t mean it would be good for the camera market overall.

That’s not to say that there aren’t potential upsides. Tamron is a publicly-traded company, subject to the desires of its investors. While its latest fiscal reports don’t paint a picture of a company in dire straits (absolutely not financial advice, to be clear), we’ve all seen companies whose products have taken a turn for the worse because the money people decided that they weren’t happy with the current profits. It feels less likely that Tamron would meet that fate were it owned by a company that’s deeply invested in photography than if it were bought out by a private equity firm.

It’s also possible the company’s products could improve if it had access to Sony’s technology, expertise, manufacturing capacity and vast financial resources (Sony’s imaging division alone brought in $11.2 billion in 2025, compared to Tamron’s $533 million).

For now, though, this is all hypothetical. Tamron could choose to reject Sony’s offer, deciding to continue going it alone. But while neither company has commented on the terms of the deal, Diamond Online, the outlet that originally broke this story, has reported that the offer is somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.2 billion, which is around Tamron’s current market cap (or, at least, what its market cap was before the news of a potential acquisition broke).

After what has felt like an odyssey of a product rollout, DJI’s latest vlogging camera, the Osmo Pocket 4P, is finally here. It’s launching in Europe, the UK, Canada and Australia, after its initial rollout in China a month ago.

Our coverage of that launch has the complete specs, but here are the most important parts, in case you missed them or have since forgotten them. The 4P is an upgraded version of the company’s Osmo Pocket 4 vlogging camera with an integrated three-axis gimbal. Like the standard model, it has around 100GB of built-in storage, and a Type 1 (116mm²) sensor with a 20mm equiv. lens, capable of shooting at 4K/240p in landscape. It can also take 33MP 16:9 stills or 37.7MP 1:1 stills, and a ~3K (1728×3072) vertical crop from the middle of the sensor for portrait-orientation video at up to 60p.

While those specs are similar to the original Osmo Pocket 4, the 4P uses a new sensor that utilizes a LOFIC (lateral overflow integrating capacitance) design to retain more information in the highlights, and a new version of the company’s Log curve, D-Log2, to capture the extra dynamic range. D-Log2’s base ISO is two stops lower than the original’s, meaning it can tolerate up to 2EV additional light.

It’s also not the only camera. The 4P adds a Type 1/1.28 (75mm²) sensor with a 60mm equiv. lens for extra reach, though that one doesn’t have the same dynamic range capabilities – it uses the original D-Log – and caps out at 4K/200p.

Taking a break from specs: what’s the camera like to use? DJI brought our social director Mykim Dang to Toronto for two days to test it, and you can see her impressions, along with sample footage from the 4P, below.

The power of the Osmo Pocket series has always been in its ability to be an all-in-one solution. The cameras provide image quality that’s more than good enough for social media or YouTube, work natively with DJI’s popular wireless lavaliere microphones and produce steadier footage than you can get from a phone alone

As a bit of inside baseball, we recently went through the process of putting together a standard kit for shooting social video here at DPReview and our sister company, Gear Patrol. It includes an iPhone, several accessories like a cage and ND filters, a microphone, tripod, etc. When we were discussing the Osmo Pocket 4P, Mykim said she wished it had existed when she was putting the kit together, because she would’ve just gone with it.

What really sold her was the accessory remote, which provides a wireless live preview, the ability to start and stop recording, and a joystick to control where the camera is pointed at. It doesn’t come with the camera, but is available as part of the Vlog Combo, which also includes a fill light, Mic Mini 2 transmitter and receiver, a mini tripod and more, as well as a pouch to put it all in.

DJI

This does, however, bring us to one of the elephants in the room: Insta360’s Luna Ultra, which is about as similar a competitor as you could ask for. It also puts a Type 1 sensor with 20mm equiv. lens and a Type 1/1.3 sensor for its 60mm equiv. lens on an integrated gimbal, works with the company’s wireless microphones and includes some (but not as much) internal storage. However, it shoots 8K (as well as 4K), and its remote is built-in; you can detach the front with the controls and rotating screen, and use it to remotely operate the camera.

The Luna Ultra launched just as DJI had gathered everyone for its Osmo Pocket 4P event, and apparently struck a nerve at the company. DJI sued Insta360 in US court, accusing it of patent infringement, and Insta360 is countersuing. The second elephant is that, despite DJI’s choice of jurisdiction, the US isn’t among the list of places the Osmo Pocket 4P is launching today. The company tells us “the application for authorization is still pending.”

That’s no surprise given the country’s government’s ongoing actions against the company, and the fact that none of its recent products have been available there (at least, not bearing DJI’s name). Insta360’s offering, however, is, despite the fact that it’s also based in China and sells drones. For those in the regions that the camera is launching in, though, that may all be unnecessary drama, or at most food for thought when it comes to picking between the Osmo Pocket 4P and a competitor.

The black version of the Osmo Pocket 4P is launching today for £529 in the UK and around €599 in Europe, though the exact pricing for the latter will depend on which country you’re in. The Vlog Combo kit is available for around £/€80 more, which feels like quite an aggressive price given everything it includes.

* The two cameras’ vlogging combos are similar, though not exactly the same

Tamron has released a firmware update for its 25-200mm F2.8-5.6 Di III VXD G2 lens that actually makes a noticeable change to its performance. The company says that now, when you’re shooting at focal lengths between 25-70mm, the lens’ maximum magnification ratio is greatly improved, letting you get much closer to your subject.

When the lens launch, Tamron said it could achieve approximately half-macro, or 1:2, reproduction at its widest end. However, as lens reviewer Dustin Abbot points out, shooting so close at 25mm has practical challenges, and can make it very difficult to get a well-lit photo. By the time you were shooting at 50mm, where you had a more reasonable working distance, the maximum reproduction ratio dropped to 1:3.1, or around 0.32x magnification.

Tamron

This is where the firmware update comes in. At 35-50mm, the lens can now manage a ratio of 1:1.7, or 0.58x, which is a substantial improvement. Tamron also says that it will achieve at least 1:2 reproduction throughout the 25-70mm range. For those that like to get close to their subject, this makes and already versatile lens a lot more flexible.

It’s rather unusual to see a lens firmware update that noticeably changes how you can use the lens. It’s not entirely unique – we’ve seen Laowa launch a macro lens that couldn’t autofocus in its macro range, only to enable that functionality later via software – but it still remains among the more interesting bits of lens firmware news. Tamron’s press release doesn’t include any technical details on how the company was able to achieve this, but we’ve reached out to see if it can share any. We’ll update this story if we hear back.

The V3 firmware is available to download for free via Tamron’s Lens Utility software.

It’s undeniable that, in terms of the tech and experience around its sensor, the Sony RX10 V is an excellent example of how far the camera industry has come in the last 10-ish years when compared to the Sony RX10 IV from 2017. But during that time, we’ve also seen a lot of discussion around how image quality has stagnated, and there’s no obvious difference between the V’s 20MP Type 1 (116mm²) stacked CMOS sensor and the IV’s.

There’s some truth to the idea that gains in image quality are coming slower these days, as much of the past decade’s progress has been more focused on performance in aspects like autofocus and readout speeds. That’s not to say there have been no advancements in image quality, but Sony hasn’t bragged about including them in the RX10 V. The only real way to find out, though, is to put it in front of our test scene.

Studio test scene

Our test scene is designed to simulate a variety of textures, colors, and detail types you’ll encounter in the real world. It also has two illumination modes, full even light and low directional light, to see the effect of different lighting conditions.

Unsurprisingly, the RX10 V performs very similarly to the RX10 IV when looking at its Raw images at base ISO, which is a good thing. It captures a good amount of detail, and at 88mm equiv., its lens actually holds up quite well compared to other cameras with Type 1 sensors and lenses with much less ambitious focal lengths. It also provides more detail with less noise than the Nikon P1000, which offers much more reach but uses a lower-res and much smaller 16MP 1/2.3″ (28mm²) sensor.

The RX10 V’s JPEGs are where the decade of progress becomes apparent. The colors are much more pleasing than those of the IV, with more natural skin tones, and the vibrancy of colors turned up where they were lacking, and turned down where they were overbearing. We also found this to be the case in the sample photos we shot with the V. Sony’s progress on this front has been slow and steady, but with so much time between the two models, it’s much more noticeable.

This class of cameras has never been the best pick for low light photography, the RX10 V’s Raws again look as we’d expect. Switch over to JPEG and it’s clear that Sony has upgraded the camera’s noise reduction to some extent, but in higher-contrast, more detailed areas, we’d be hard-pressed to tell its performance apart from its predecessor’s. However, it does outperform Panasonic’s similarly-specced (and now discontinued) FZ-1000 II from 2020 in this regard, and is significantly better at low light than the P1000.

Summary

The RX10 V doesn’t represent a massive shift in terms of image quality from its predecessor, nor, indeed, the RX10 III and RX10 II before it, which both used similarly-specced sensors. When those cameras were released, we called their image quality excellent*, and even these days it’s hard to argue that the pictures the RX10 V produces aren’t very good.

However, it’s hard to ignore that images from smartphones, armed with increasingly sophisticated computational photography tricks, have been getting better and better. Some models even include Type 1 sensors, too, edging in on even the highest-end enthusiast compacts, if only in terms of image quality and not shooting experience. Arguably, the RX10 V, with its massive focal range, is one of the compacts most insulated from this, as phones’ telephotos are often paired with much smaller sensors, and don’t offer anywhere near the level of reach. But it does raise questions about how the next versions of cameras like the RX100 will differentiate themselves.

Going back to the camera at hand, though, regardless of how much the RX10 V has or hasn’t improved when it comes to imaging, it’s still the best in its class… even if it is the only pupil remaining.

* – as long as you set aside their JPEG colors, which the RX10 V has thankfully greatly improved on.

By now, you’re probably familiar with the DJI Osmo Pocket 4P, despite the fact that it hasn’t officially launched outside of China. It’s the company’s vlogging camera with an integrated gimbal, featuring a Type 1 (116mm²) sensor with a 20mm equiv. lens and, new to the series, a secondary Type 1/1.28 (75mm²) sensor with a 60mm equiv. lens.

Earlier this summer, DJI invited our Director of Video and Social, Mykim Dang, to an event in Toronto to let her get some time with it, but made the choice to let influencers and creators share their footage before traditional media outlets were allowed to do so. However, ahead of the official regional launch, we’re now able to share some of the footage we shot on that trip, including shots with both cameras, and ones that use D-Log2, the profile making its debut on the series (if only on the main camera).

DJI boasts that the new Log profile, combined with the main sensor’s use of LOFIC technology to capture additional information in the highlights, allows the camera to provide up to 17 stops of dynamic range when shooting with its 20mm equiv. camera. While this number, like most manufacturer-provided DR figures, should be taken with a massive grain of salt, it helps show the ambitions the company has for the Pocket 4P. It was initially teased at the famous Cannes Film Festival as a “a bold evolution of the Pocket series from a creator tool into a cinematic imaging device capable of professional-grade storytelling.”

We’ll be sharing more on the camera soon, so stay tuned.

We’re just over halfway through 2026, and it’s already been a very strange year for cameras. It kicked off with a months-long drought that saw no major releases, which was finally broken by the surprise announcement of the Panasonic L10. Since then, a few new cameras have crossed our desks, but if this pace continues, 2026 is set to be a low-water mark for releases.

Which is not to say that it’s been boring. Unlike in 2025, which saw three full-frame enthusiast cameras released, all jockeying for the same position, each of this year’s crop has been almost entirely unlike the rest. Every release tells a story about a different facet of the camera industry as a whole, and, if we listen, we may just get a feel for which way the winds are blowing.

Ricoh GR IV Monochrome – Drill into the niche

Richard Butler

The Ricoh GR IV, with its prime 28mm equiv. lens, pocketability-above-all-else design philosophy, laser-focus on a specific shooting experience, and relatively high price point is already a relatively niche proposition. And a version of it that literally can’t shoot color, and which costs hundreds of dollars more, appeals to an even more limited market.

And yet it’s a camera that really, really works. Yes, every decision limits the potential audience, but it also makes the camera more and more unlike the rest of the market, which, in general, is full of other cameras that overlap substantially. You could have an extensive collection of cameras, and still have nothing like the GR IV Monochrome.

From the outside, it’s hard to tell if this approach has been a financial success for Ricoh. But it’s clearly a continuation of the trend we saw in 2025, where several camera makers opted to produce something that breaks the mold, rather than trying to compete in an increasingly crowded market.

The Panasonic L10 – Is this what you wanted?

Mitchell Clark

Technically, the L10 is not the first compact Panasonic released in 2026. That honor belongs to the DC-ZS300. It’s a very minor refresh, updating an older model with USB-C and removing the EVF. Its story is simple, not warranting an entire section, as it likely exists solely thanks to EU regulations about charging ports, supply chain constraints and consumers that are willing to buy anything that looks like an old compact camera.

Conversely, the L10 is something we don’t see that often anymore: an enthusiast compact with a zoom lens. Prime-lens compacts have been having a moment, with the continued viral success of Fujifilm’s X100 series, and last year seeing the release of the Ricoh GR IV, Sony RX1R III, Fujifilm GFX100RF and more. While there’s obviously a market for those, there’s also always a contingent commenting, “Why can’t we get something like this with a zoom lens?” And Panasonic, apparently, saw fit to grant their wishes, producing a camera with a Four Thirds sensor, EVF and plenty of tactile controls.

Of course, there were some who found plenty to not like about it, from its lack of weather sealing to its size. But even if those things really bother you, surely we can agree that it’s a good sign that someone is releasing a large-sensor compact with an ambitious zoom and modern internals, features and connectivity, at a time when the competitors that have managed to stick around are both from 2019. Even if this particular one isn’t your cup of tea, it could be a sign that manufacturers are starting to take an interest in this category again.

Canon EOS R6 V – Power to the creators

There’s a reason every storyteller worth their salt is familiar with the rule of three. Once you’ve seen something thrice-over, it becomes obvious there’s a pattern. On that note, the EOS R6 V is the latest entry into a market that an increasing number of companies seem to be paying attention to: enthusiast-tier video cameras designed for creators and owner-operators, based around hardware from hybrid mirrorless cameras. Think the Nikon ZR, Panasonic S9 (or, further back, the S1H), or Sony ZV-E1.

It’s tempting to call these vlogging cameras, and some of them fit that moniker better than others, but with features like open gate recording, internal Raw, and a variety of assist tools and features that you’d have had to buy Hollywood-grade gear to get just a few years ago, they’re clearly designed for a bit more than that. They’re for the age where “creator” is a job, not just a hobby, and where people with that title might want to stretch to full-on production (or, at least, think they might and therefore want a camera that conceivably could).

Canon throwing its hat into the ring with this kind of camera confirms that it, too, sees room between an entry level video camera like the EOS R50 V, and a professional workhorse like the EOS C50. There’s no longer a question of whether there’s a market for this sort of thing, and it has instead become a search for what really matters to the people buying them. Will the ZR’s big screen, Red-inspired Raw codec and internal 32-bit float audio sway people, or will they flock to the EOS R6 V with its button-heavy UI, high-resolution open gate and well-judged (if pricy) kit lens? Only time will tell, and we’ll be interested to see which cameras get follow-ups*, and how that next generation will be different as camera companies take users’ feedback into consideration.

* – And whether Panasonic will release a more fully-featured entry into the market that it arguably helped invent.

Sony a7R VI – There’s room for a stills powerhouse

Richard Butler

Beyond the fact that it’s exceptionally good, one of the most interesting things about the a7R VI is its bucking of a trend we’ve noticed in mirrorless cameras. We’ve seen video capabilities become an increasing driver of technological developments, both because gains there help camera manufacturers address a new (and, by all accounts, growing) market, and because the technology for photography is so mature and good that it’s frankly just plain harder to make noticeable improvements to the stills experience. But while Sony absolutely has improved the video capabilities of the a7R VI, I get the sense that the reasoning is flipped; it had to include a faster sensor to improve the photographic experience, and already built many of the features for other, more video-focused models, so the upgrades were a relatively low-lift.

My evidence that the improvements were done with photographers in mind? The a7R VI’s increased speed doesn’t turn it into a great video camera, but it does reap rewards when it comes to stills. The much faster sensor means it’s actually usable when shooting with e-shutter, unlocking features like pre-capture and 30fps bursts in stills, greatly expanding what you can do with the camera compared to its predecessor. Its autofocus is better, its photos are a little higher resolution, and its dynamic range is some of the best we’ve seen thanks to its ability to combine both its low and high gain steps in modes where the mechanical shutter ends the exposure.

While plenty of lower-end cameras have similar features, the a7R VI shows that there’s still room for improvement at the pinnacle of image quality, and that cutting-edge tech doesn’t just benefit videographers. Just wait until someone uses this tech in a medium format camera.

Leica SL3-P – It’s not just what’s on the inside that counts

The Leica SL3-P has the same bones as a Panasonic S1RII. They share a sensor, a processor, a viewfinder, lens mount and many other core technologies and capabilities. With the hefty price difference between the two cameras, it’s easy to dismiss the Leica as little more than a frivolous remake with a different UI.

Unless you’ve actually used them both. The SL3-P is the latest in a series of Leicas that lay bare something other cameras hide a bit better: there’s a lot more to a camera than the hardware it’s made of. Realistically, there are only a few companies making sensors, viewfinders, rear display panels, and so on, so most companies are picking from the same parts bins and differentiating themselves based on their selection of lenses and software.

But it turns out that the differences in how you actually use the camera are some of the most significant ones, something the SL3-P highlights incredibly well. Its controls and operating system are utterly unlike Panasonic’s, and, consequently, it feels like an entirely different camera, despite all its shared DNA. That’s a lesson worth remembering.

Sony RX10 V – A return to form

Richard Butler

Who would’ve guessed that we’d see a new high-end bridge camera? Clearly not me, if you read my lamentation of an introduction to our compact camera buying guide, where I say that the golden age is over and that manufacturers have seemingly given up on large swathes of the market. (Don’t worry, I’ll update it.) Some of them may have, but it seems like Sony was just biding its time.

The RX10 V focuses on the types of photography that a phone can’t replicate. At the wide angle, the latest flagships may be able to provide similar or better image quality via computational photography, despite having sensors much smaller than the Type-1 model found in the Sony, but their measly 5 or 10x telephoto lenses (which often use smaller still sensors) can’t hope to compete with a 24-600mm equivalent zoom lens. The camera also has much improved ergonomics and controls, alongside modern autofocus that’s some of the best in the business.

Both this and the L10 raise the question: what other camera models are stuck languishing, waiting to be revived with a decade’s improvement in technology? We wouldn’t have expected the RX10 series to get that treatment, yet here we are. The smaller RX100 series feels like a shoo-in for what’s next, but beyond that, it feels like Sony may have opened the door for even further experimentation and revival.

Sony FX5 – It’s what you do with it

James Tirado

I’ll keep this section brief, but one of the stories quietly in the background last year was the one of manufacturers being able to pull more out of sensors; see the difference in dynamic range performance between what appear to be very similar models in the Nikon Z6 III and the Panasonic S1II, and the use of partial stacking tech to make the a7 V’s sensor more capable than the otherwise very similar one in its predecessor. With the FX5, Sony appears to have taken this a step further, seemingly adapting the photo-first 66.8MP sensor from the a7R VI into a more video-friendly 16.6MP model.

The ability to tweak existing tech to suit a specific need, rather than having to build something new from the ground up, has always been an important part of building specialized gear. (See also: astro-editions of cameras.) It’ll be exciting to see if we see more cameras in a similar vein.

What’s next?

As a camera reviewer, it’s been refreshing to see such a variety of releases this year. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to be spoiled for choice; it’s just not the most exciting thing ever to write a conclusion that says “yep, this camera is really, really good, just like the two others just like it that came out this year.” But beyond the excitement of any single release, it’s the trend lines that make me look forward to what we’ll see in the back half of this year and beyond the most. I still think there’s more wide-open blue sky for manufacturers to explore, if they want to continue this trend of releasing different and exciting cameras.

Or maybe everyone’s had their fun and will go back to simply producing more exceptionally capable all-rounder cameras. That’s fine too.

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We recently wrote about the experience of using Canon’s latest RF 20-50mm F4 L IS USM PZ lens for photography, focusing on what it was like to use its manual zoom mode which provides a more satisfying and tactile experience than the typical powerzoom. As usual, the process of writing that article involved – what else – taking lots of pictures in a variety of situations.

You can now see those images in the gallery below, and download the Raws yourself if you want to really dig into its performance. While we were relatively pleased with the images we got out of it, it’s also still clear that this is a hybrid lens that leans towards video use, rather than being a dedicated photo lens. The edges and corners aren’t the sharpest ever, even when stopped down, and it has just okay vignetting performance, with there still being a noticeable improvement going from F5.6 to F8.

Neither of these is likely to be a dealbreaker for photography, and may not even be noticeable in most videos, and it’s worth keeping in perspective just how compact this lens is for something that goes as wide as 20mm, while also being a constant aperture power zoom.

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 Canon for the loan of an EOS R5 II to shoot this 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 is an essential part of the lens design, especially when shooting at the wide end of its range.

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Canon has released firmware updates for its vlogging-focused EOS R6 V, and its enthusiast mirrorless hybrid EOS R6 III, adding some new features and quality-of-life improvements.

The EOS R6 V gets the heftiest update, adding the ability to shoot flash with the camera, which the company promised at launch. This comes with a new menu that allows you to adjust your settings when using a flash, though it’s still a relatively limited implementation. To start, the camera is still primarily designed for video, so it doesn’t have any sort of mechanical shutter. This means you can only use flash at up to 1/60 sec, which will be a big limitation if you’re shooting outdoors. The camera also doesn’t have any of the traditional pins on its hotshoe, meaning your limited to flashes that work with the digital mutli-function shoe, unless you happen to have an adapter. (Sorry, fans of the Godox iT32.)

Still, it’s nice to see Canon following through on its plan to add flash support to the EOS R6 V for the niche situations where it’ll be useful. The V1.10 firmware also adds support for the BR-E2 wireless remote that Canon announced alongside the camera, allows the gridline overlay to display on the live view screen while you’re recording video and fixes several bugs.

The list of updates for the EOS R6 III, which, as the names imply, features very similar hardware to the EOS R6 V, is unsurprisingly similar. It too gains support for the BR-E2 and grid lines while recording, and receives several bug fixes. It also gains a feature introduced by EOS R6 V: the ability to use the AF for close-up demos setting across video modes. This feature overrides the camera’s facial recognition system if it detects that you’re holding something up to show the camera, and was previously only available in a specific mode that took away most of your manual exposure, focus and audio controls. Now, you can use it while retaining control over the rest of your image, making it much more flexible.

While it’s a relatively small feature, it’s also not always a given that manufacturers will bring features from their newer cameras to their older ones, even if it seems that they should support them. While the EOS R6 III hasn’t received all of the EOS R6 V’s video tricks, it’s nice to see that one of the camera’s quality-of-life improvements isn’t exclusive to people who aren’t as interested in photography.

The firmware updates for the EOS R6 V and EOS R6 III are available for free from Canon’s website.

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Samsung has announced three new folding phones, updating its existing models and adding a new one to its lineup, complete with a new form factor.

The flagship model is getting a rebrand. Formerly known as the Galaxy Z Fold series, this year’s entry is called the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra. Like its predecessor, it has a 6.5″ display on the outside, and an 8″ one on the inside. As you’d expect from an “Ultra” phone, it has a triple-camera setup. The main “wide” and telephoto cameras are unchanged from the ones found on the Galaxy Z Fold 7, but the ultrawide has been upgraded from a 12MP Type 1/2.5 (25mm²) sensor with an F2.2 lens, to a 50MP one with an F1.9 lens, which Samsung says will let in 33% more light.

Samsung

The company says it has enhanced its HDR mode for the main camera, as well as its low-light “Nightography” mode. The phone’s 8K video also now records in the APV codec, which Samsung says “gives users greater flexibility and quality for editing and production workflows.”

Aside from the upgraded ultrawide camera, Samsung has included the new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor with 12 or 16GB of memory (dependent on what storage size you get), along with a higher-capacity 5000 mAh battery, up 600 mAh from the one in the Z Fold 7. The company has also re-engineered the phone’s internal screen to make the crease less visible, while making it brighter and nicer-feeling to open. And despite all this, it weighs the same 215g (7.6oz) as its predecessor, and each half is a hair thinner at 4.1mm.

None of these improvements come cheap, though. Last year’s Z Fold 7 was $100 more than its predecessor, and Samsung has bumped the price again, with the Z Fold 8 Ultra starting at $2100 for the 256GB model.

Samsung

There is, however, now a new option below it: the Z Fold 8, which takes on a slightly different form factor. While the Ultra has a relatively tall and narrow 3:7 outer screen and a nearly-square 1.11:1 inner screen, the new model’s cover is a wider, shorter 10:16, and the inner display is 4:3. The Z Fold 8’s outer display has a 5.5″ diagonal, while the inner one is 7.6″.

While the Z Fold 7 (which was, remember, moreso the predecessor to the phone now called “Ultra”) marked a turning point as a folding phone that didn’t come with big compromises to its camera system compared to its candybar counterpart, that trend hasn’t continued with the Z Fold 8. It drops the telephone camera entirely, and its main 23mm equiv. camera is smaller, slower and lower resolution than the one on the Ultra. The ultrawide, however, is the same 50MP model.

Not everything is a downgrade compared to the Ultra, though. The displays may be a different size, but are still just as bright, and the Z Fold 8 has the same processor and storage options. And while it’s thicker both folded and unfolded, it’s also a touch lighter. Even if you don’t prefer the more passport-style form factor, though, the price may be slightly more attractive than the Ultra’s, as the phone starts at “just” $1900.

Samsung

Finally, Samsung has also updated its Z Flip 8, the smaller model that unfolds to be a similar size to a more traditional smartphone. The company doesn’t seem to have made any changes to its cameras – it still has a wide 50MP Type 1/1.57 (50mm²) and ultra-wide 12MP Type 1/3.2 (15mm²) – but it’s lighter and thinner than its predecessor. The company has also updated the processor to that same Snapdragon model (though there’s no option for one with 16GB of RAM like with the larger models), and has made improvements to the front screen’s interface, making it easier to use if you want to avoid opening your phone and potentially getting sucked in by feeds and apps.

The Z Flip 8 retains its position as Samsung’s least expensive foldable, but its $1200 price tag represents a $100 increase over its predecessor’s.

The Z Fold 8 Ultra, Z Fold 8, and Z Flip 8 are all available to pre-order today, and are set to become available on August 7th.

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