Nikon's been on a roll this week. Following firmware updates for the Z9 and Z50II, the company released version 2.3.0 of NX Tether, its free tethered shooting software. NX Tether allows photographers and videographers to connect their Nikon camera directly to a computer for real-time control over focus, exposure, white balance and more, all while using a larger screen for improved precision.
Users can download and enhance photos on their computers, as NX Tether is compatible with Nikon's NX Studio and third-party tools, including Adobe Lightroom and Capture One. This latest update enhances compatibility and introduces new features that streamline studio and on-location workflows. Let's take a look at some of the updates:
Expanded Camera Support: NX Tether 2.3.0 makes tethered shooting available for Nikon Z5II users.
Live View Accessibility: Live view functionality is now available when connected to a Nikon Zf.
Framing Guide Display: The addition of a framing guide in the live view window helps with precise composition, which is especially beneficial for video shoots and detailed product photography.
Power Zoom Position Memory: Users can save and load power zoom positions on compatible models like the Z9, Z8, and Zf, for consistent framing across sessions.
Pixel Shift Photography: Enhanced support for pixel shift photography is available on the Z8 and Zf, enabling higher-resolution imagery.
Slow-motion Video Recording: The Zf now supports slow-motion video recording.
Birds Detection Feature: The Zf now supports the "Birds" detection feature, which improves autofocus performance when photographing avian subjects.
NX Tether's interface mirrors the controls found on Nikon cameras. The application is compatible with macOS versions Sequoia 15, Sonoma 14, and Ventura 13, as well as Microsoft's Windows 10 and 11 software. Full details on camera compatibility can be found on Nikon's website.
Nikon's NX Tether 2.3.0 offers updates that enhance the tethered shooting experience, especially for users of the Z5II and Zf models. It's a valuable and free tool for photographers and videographers looking for efficient, real-time control over their cameras.
For a visual overview of NX Tether's capabilities, you may find this demonstration from Nikon's YouTube page, recorded last year, helpful:
World Press Photo has announced its 2025 Photo of the Year, along with two finalists, highlighting some of the most impactful photojournalism of the past year. 3,778 photographers submitted 59,320 photographs, and DPReview recently covered the category winners. This year's top honor, revealed last night, was bestowed upon Samar Abu Elouf, a Palestinian photojournalist based in Doha, for The New York Times.
Her winning image is a portrait of Mahmoud Ajjour, a young boy wounded while fleeing an Israeli airstrike in Gaza in March 2024. The boy had turned his back to urge his family to move faster when an explosion tore through the street, severing one of his arms and damaging the other. It's a stark depiction of the toll ongoing violence has taken on the denizens of the region.
Elouf was evacuated from Gaza in late 2023. She shares an apartment complex with Ajjor, the double amputee subject of her image. In recent months, she has continued to document the lives of a small number of severely-wounded Gazans who, like Mahmoud, were able to leave for medical treatment.
Mahmoud Ajjor has a modest goal: to receive prosthetic limbs and live like other children. By the end of 2024, the United Nations estimated that Gaza had the highest number of child amputees per capita in the world.
Two other finalists were selected as runners-up: John Moore for Night Crossing, depicting Chinese migrants warming themselves at the US-Mexico border at night. Musuk Nolte was also recognized for Droughts in the Amazon, capturing a young man bringing food to his mother in the drought-ridden village of Manacapuru.
Moore's image of Chinese migrants warming themselves after a rainstorm, at the US-Mexico border, captures a moment of vulnerability that contrasts with how migration is depicted in mainstream talking points.
"I remain endlessly grateful for the photographers who, despite the personal risks and emotional costs, record these stories to give all of us the opportunity to understand, empathise, and be inspired to action," said Joumana El Zein Khoury, World Press Photo's Executive Director.
A young man carries food to his mother in Manacapuru, a village in the Amazon that was once accessible by boat. Now, the river has dried up due to drought, and he walks several kilometers across the cracked riverbed. A harsh reality: the world's largest rainforest increasingly resembles a desert.
The awarded stories will be shown to millions as part of the World Press Photo annual traveling exhibition in over 60 locations worldwide. These locations include the premiere in Amsterdam and then move on to other significant metropolises, including London, Rome, Berlin, Vienna, and Budapest. More information about the images and photographers can be found on the World Press Photo site.
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Canon EOS R1 | RF 70-200mm F2.8 L IS USM Z | 200mm | F4 | 1/1000 sec | ISO 3200 Photo: Mitchell Clark
Canon's EOS R1 is the company's first '1 series' flagship camera to be mirrorless and is specifically aimed at sports and action photographers. Given its narrow focus, we wanted to test it out at a professional sports game – preferably one supported by its Action Priority autofocus mode, which Canon says will recognize when players are performing a specific action and automatically focus on them.
Thankfully, we were able to get a media pass to photograph a Spokane Velocity FC game, which was the perfect opportunity to put the EOS R1 to the test. A caveat before we start: I am by no means a professional sports photographer, nor am I a football expert. However, part of the pitch for Action Priority autofocus is that it's able to react to what's happening in the game automatically, which made this an especially interesting test of its abilities, even though most people looking to buy an R1 are likely fully capable of shooting a game without it.
So how'd it do? Quite well, I found. It made shooting feel natural; I would move the camera along with the action, and most of the time, it just handled subject selection, making sure the player in control of the ball was the one in focus. However, it clearly wasn't a magical replacement for talent, either. There were a few times it decided to track a player who wasn't involved in the action, though it was relatively easy to correct it by manually putting the AF tracking point over the player.
RF 70-200mm F2.8 L IS USM Z | 200mm | F2.8 | 1/1000 sec | ISO 1600 Photo: Mitchell Clark
Despite its occasional missteps, upon reviewing my shots, I found that Action Priority mode got me far better results than the combination of my football-tracking skills and standard subject recognition did. The EOS R1 was very tenacious at tracking people and excelled at keeping them in focus – which is great if you have the skill and knowledge necessary to know who to track and when to start tracking someone else.
I actually got the chance to talk to someone with those skills. One of the professional photographers at the game asked what I was shooting with, then said they also use an EOS R1; previously, they'd used an EOS R3. When I asked what they thought of the Action Priority mode, they said they didn't think it made much of a difference. Given that they'd essentially trained themselves to do what it does, it's not surprising that they didn't find it as useful as I – someone without that training – did. However, they did find the EOS R1's standard subject detection to be stickier than the EOS R3's, especially when players were passing in front of and behind each other.
They were very fond of the camera's Eye Control autofocus, where the camera automatically places the focus point on whatever you're looking at. Despite having calibrated it a few times, I couldn't get it to work reliably enough for me to be an asset rather than a liability. I tried it for a little bit at the game but ended up turning it off. However, it's easy to see how it could improve the shooting experience if it does work for you – rather than relying on the camera to figure out what player is important, you can just follow the action with your eye.
Getting back to Action Priority mode, I did bump up against a few limitations with the system. It's only available when using the electronic shutter and can't be used with the EOS R1's anti-flicker feature. While the camera's readout is jaw-droppingly quick – I didn't notice any rolling shutter artifacts on soccer balls in mid-flight – you will still see banding on electronic screens and under some LED lights.
You can eliminate banding by switching to the mechanical shutter, but doing so means giving up some of the EOS R1's features and capabilities.
Electronic shutter | RF 70-200mm F2.8 L IS USM Z | 200mm | F2.8 | 1/1000 sec | Edited to taste in ACR Photo: Mitchell Clark
The former was definitely an issue at the Spokane One stadium, and I found myself having to choose between giving myself a better chance of capturing the game with Action Priority and not having some quite distracting artifacts in the background. With that said the mechanical shutter on the EOS R1 can only shoot at 12fps instead of 40, which helped make the decision a bit easier.
I also found myself wishing that the pre-burst capture feature was configurable. The amount it buffers is based on your shooting speed: Canon's manual says that in the 40 shots per second mode, it'll buffer around half a second, but there's no setting to control for how long or how many shots you'd like it to buffer.
Because my shooting style involves starting focus tracking with a half-press of the shutter button well before actually taking the photo, I wound up filling almost a third of my storage in the first half-hour of the game since every shot I took saved the 20 shots before it. Rather than trying to get myself used to back-button focusing, which doesn't start pre-capture*, in the middle of the game, I just turned it off, but I feel like I could've gotten a few more good shots if I could've used the pre-burst capture, but set to only save five or ten photos from before the shutter press.
* And, in fact, cannot be set to start pre-capture, something that irked the pro I talked to.
It took me a while to get a header shot, which I strongly suspect would've been easier with pre-capture.
RF 70-200mm F2.8 L IS USM Z + RF 1.4x Teleconvertor 150mm | F4 | 1/100 | ISO 320 Photo: Mitchell Clark
Also, Canon, while I have your attention, why can't I set one of my custom buttons to turn pre-burst capture on and off? To get around this, I followed Brian Worley's trick of setting up a custom mode that's exactly the same as my manual shooting mode, except with pre-capture off, but even that's a bad solution. For one, there's only one button you can assign to switch between modes, but also, if I made any changes while I was shooting pre-capture, those wouldn't be carried over when I switched modes to turn it off.
While I've picked a lot of nits here, there were, unsurprisingly, a lot of things the EOS R1 did right. Its buffer felt endless – during the game, the camera only ever stopped shooting when I took my finger off the shutter, and never because it had to stop and write the photos to the card. At home, I let it run at 40fps for around 20 seconds and still didn't reach the bottom of the buffer.
Sample gallery
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Being able to let the camera run at 40fps means you can capture the entire moment without having to worry about whether you captured the key shot.
The battery had a similar amount of stamina. Over the course of the 90-ish minute game I shot mostly using the viewfinder and took around 9000 photos. (If you're not confident that you can capture the decisive moment, you might as well capture every moment.) At the end of the day, I still had three out of four bars of battery and would've felt quite comfortable shooting for another 90 minutes. I couldn't have, of course, but the camera could.
That's probably the moral of the story. It's no shock that using the EOS R1 didn't immediately make me a pro sports photographer. Action Priority mode did, however, let me capture moments that only pro sports photographers could've not so long ago, and I suspect that Eye Control could've done the same if I could get it to work reliably for me.
It's easy to imagine that sort of thing being really exciting as it makes its way into more accessible models – there's always been something of a Catch-22 where entry-level cameras aimed at beginners come with the autofocus systems that offer the least assistance. Something like Action Priority mode or Eye Control could help parents capture their children's sporting achievements without requiring them to become pro photographers or buy high-end cameras that cost thousands of dollars.
RF 70-200mm F2.8 L IS USM Z | 200mm | F4 | 1/1000 | ISO 1250 Photo: Mitchell Clark
That future may be a ways off, though, and it doesn't really help tell the story of the EOS R1, a camera almost exclusively for pros. That's not to say that they won't use those features, just that they'll have different considerations when doing so; is Action Priority worth narrowing your shooting options and giving up some manual control so you can fully focus on composition and understanding the state of play, and can you rely on Eye Control when everything's on the line?
Realistically, I'm not the person to answer those questions. However, it's interesting that Canon added so many features designed to make a camera that'll likely only ever be used by professionals easier to use. It's like getting into an F1 car and discovering that, alongside all the manual controls, it actually has a quite capable self-driving system. The surprising part isn't that the EOS R1 was up to the task of shooting the game – it's essentially designed from the ground up to do that – but I wasn't expecting it to also help me out so much along the way.
Sony's World Photography Awards celebrated the 18th edition of its Overall Winners competition with a gala ceremony in London. Ten professional category winners received recognition for their work across multiple genres, including architecture, wildlife, portraiture, and landscape. Each winner participated in Insights, a day of industry talks, and received Sony digital imaging equipment as a prize.
British photographer Zed Nelson was named Photographer of the Year for The Anthropocene Illusion, a six-years-in-the-making documentary project examining how humans shape and simulate nature in an increasingly artificial world. He will have the opportunity to present an additional body of work at next year's Sony World Photography Awards 2026 exhibition.
Olivier Unia was awarded Open Photographer of the Year for his image of a traditional Moroccan equestrian performance. Micaela Vidivia Medina was awarded Student Photographer of the Year for her series about incarcerated women in Chile's prisons. Daniel Dian-Ji Wu won Youth Photographer of the Year for a skateboarding silhouette shot at sunset in Venice Beach, California.
Acclaimed documentary photographer Susan Meiselas was honored with the Outstanding Contribution to Photography award. Sixty of her images will be featured with more than 300 total prints, including the competition's second and third-place finalists from the World Photography Awards, at Somerset House in London from April 17th to May 5th. You can see all of the winning images on the contest website, worldphoto.org.
Photographer of the Year
Photographer: Zed Nelson
Series title:The Anthropocene Illusion
Description: In a tiny fraction of Earth’s history, humans have altered the world beyond anything it has experienced in tens of millions of years. Scientists are calling it a new epoch: The Anthropocene – the age of human. Future geologists will find evidence in the rock strata of an unprecedented human impact on our planet, from huge concentrations of plastics to the fallout from the burning of fossil fuels, and vast deposits of concrete used to build our cities.
We are forcing animals and plants to extinction by removing their habitats, and divorcing ourselves from the land we once roamed. Yet we cannot face the true scale of our loss. Somewhere within us the desire for contact with nature remains. ‘So, while we devastate the world around us, we have become masters of a stage-managed, artificial ‘experience’ of nature – a reassuring spectacle, an illusion.’
Over six years, and across four continents, Zed Nelson has explored how we immerse ourselves in increasingly choreographed and simulated environments to mask our destructive impact on the natural world.
Camera & equipment: Hasselblad X1D, D810, Mamiya RZ67, D850
Description: Many of the photographs taken during a traditional Moroccan ‘tbourida’ show the riders firing their rifles. With this image, the photographer wanted to share another side of the event, and show how dangerous it can be when a rider is thrown from their mount.
Professional Category Winner: Architecture & Design
Photographer: Ulana Switucha
Series title:The Tokyo Toilet Project
Description: The Tokyo Toilet Project is an urban redevelopment project in Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan that involves the design and construction of modern public restrooms that encourages their use. The distinctive buildings are as much works of art as they are a public convenience. These images are part of a larger body of work documenting the architectural aesthetics of these structures in their urban environment.
Description: Throughout history, 117 billion humans have gazed at the same moon, yet only 24 people – all American men – have seen its surface up close. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the artist discovered an application for the ultimate art residency: dearMoon. In 2018, Japanese billionaire and art collector Yusaku Maezawa announced a global search for eight artists to join him on a week-long lunar mission aboard SpaceX’s Starship – the first civilian mission to deep space.
The mission's flight path would echo that of Apollo 8’s 1968 journey, which famously led astronaut Bill Anders to suggest NASA ‘should have sent poets’ to capture the sense of wonder he experienced. In 2021, Rhiannon Adam was chosen as the only female crew member from one million applicants, with the chance to achieve the seemingly impossible. For three years she immersed herself in the space industry, until, in June 2024, Maezawa abruptly canceled the mission, leaving the crew to pick up the pieces of their disrupted lives.
Camera & equipment: Polaroid SLR 680, RZ-67 pro II, Canon 5D MKIV, Wista Field, Apple Mac screenshot, iPhone 15 Pro Max, Canon EOS R
Professional Category Winner: Documentary Projects
Photographer: Toby Binder
Series title:Divided Youth of Belfast
Description: ‘If I had been born at the top of my street, behind the corrugated-iron border, I would have been British. Incredible to think. My whole idea of myself, the attachments made to a culture, heritage, religion, nationalism and politics are all an accident of birth. I was one street away from being born my “enemy.”’ Paul McVeigh, Belfast-born novelist.
Binder notes ‘there is hardly any other country in Europe where a past conflict is still as present in daily life as it is in Northern Ireland.’ It is not only the physical barriers – the walls and fences – but also the psychological divisions in society. For many years, Toby Binder has been documenting what it means for young people, all of whom were born after the peace agreement was signed, to grow up under this intergenerational tension in both Protestant and Catholic neighbourhoods.
Description: Alquimia Textil is a collaborative project undertaken by Nicolás Garrido Huguet and researcher and fashion designer María Lucía Muñoz, which showcases the natural dyeing techniques practiced by the artisans of Pumaqwasin in Chinchero, Cusco, Peru. The project aims to bring visibility to, and help preserve, these ancestral dyeing practices, which demand many hours of meticulous work that is often underestimated within the textile sector.
Industrial methods are close to displacing these traditional dyeing processes completely, while climate change threatens the plants that are crucial to these practices. These photographs feature three dye types: qolle (Buddleja coriacea), a shrub with yellow-producing flowers; ch’illka (Baccharis sp.), a shrub whose leaves and stems yield ochre and green hues; and cochineal (Dactylopius coccus), an Andean insect producing reds, carmines and purples in a broad color spectrum.
Camera & equipment: EM, Epson scanner v550, Nikon Z7 II, Mamiya RB67
Description: This project invites viewers to consider what it means for a country to grow, and the advantages and disadvantages linked to that growth, by overlaying archival photographs from the 1940s-60s within current scenes of the same location. Early in Japan’s period of rapid economic growth from 1945 to 1973, the trade-off for affluence was pollution in many parts of the country. As an island, its land and resource constraints also led to an uneven population distribution.
Description: Making our way home from school is a simple, nostalgic, universal activity that we can all relate to. This project explores the tumultuous public lives of young people in the gang-governed Cape Flats area of Cape Town, South Africa, where their daily commute carries the risk of death.
Using handmade, lo-fi experimental techniques, this project explores how young people have to walk to and from school avoiding the daily threat of gang crossfire. Through poetry, analogue photography, drawings, collages and cyanotypes, an intimate portrayal of adolescence amidst stark social divides is created that offers a rare insight into this confusing and challenging world.
Description: M’kumba is an ongoing project that illustrates the resilience of Afro-Brazilian communities in the face of local religious intolerance. Its name derives from an ancient Kongo word for spiritual leaders, before it was distorted by local society to demean African religions. For more than 300 years, nearly 5 million African people were brought to Brazil.
They lost their freedom, and their spiritualities were persecuted by colonial ideologies. Until 1970, Afro-Brazilian religions were criminalised, and due to longstanding prejudice they still face violence – more than 2,000 attacks were reported in 2024 alone. Although 56 per cent of Brazilians are of Afro-descent, fewer than 2 per cent identify as Afro-religious due to fear of persecution.
As an Afro-religious priest in training, Gui Christ wanted to photograph a proud, young generation representing African deities and mythological tales. Through intimate imagery, this project challenges prejudice while celebrating these spiritual traditions as vital to Brazil’s cultural identity.
Description: M’kumba is an ongoing project that illustrates the resilience of Afro-Brazilian communities in the face of local religious intolerance. Its name derives from an ancient Kongo word for spiritual leaders, before it was distorted by local society to demean African religions.
For more than 300 years, nearly 5 million African people were brought to Brazil. They lost their freedom, and their spiritualities were persecuted by colonial ideologies. Until 1970, Afro-Brazilian religions were criminalised, and due to longstanding prejudice they still face violence – more than 2,000 attacks were reported in 2024 alone. Although 56 per cent of Brazilians are of Afro-descent, fewer than 2 per cent identify as Afro-religious due to fear of persecution.
As an Afro-religious priest in training, Gui Christ wanted to photograph a proud, young generation representing African deities and mythological tales. Through intimate imagery, this project challenges prejudice while celebrating these spiritual traditions as vital to Brazil’s cultural identity.
Description: Still Waiting presents collages that capture moments of pause, of waiting. They depict the liminal space between events, a threshold where time seems to stretch, and meanings remain unfixed. The juxtaposition of objects within the space leaves room for interpretation, inviting surreal flights of thought. Everything is suspended, held in a fragile equilibrium where intervention feels imminent. Just fractions of a second away from some decisive action, the images linger in a fleeting moment of stillness, a breath before the world moves again.
Series title:The Last Day We Saw the Mountains and the Sea
Description: This project explores the complexity of female prison spaces and the people who inhabit them, from the inmates to their families. The series consists of photographs of the architecture of the prisons, the neighbourhoods they are in, and the dynamics at the visitor and family member entrances. This project was carried out at the women's penitentiary centres of San Miguel, San Joaquín and Valparaíso, between the months of March and July 2024.
Description: Daniel Dian-Ji Wu took this photo during summer break in 2024, at Venice Beach Skatepark in LA during golden hour. The photographer captured this image of a skater mid-air, silhouetted against the sunset, expressing the raw energy of that moment. He says this image ‘made me feel a sense of passion and freedom.’
Blackmagic Design, an Australian company known for its professional cinema cameras and DaVinci Resolve editing software, had ambitious plans to expand into American manufacturing with a new factory in Dallas, Texas. However, thanks to the newly introduced US tariffs, those plans have hit a snag.
The company had hoped US-based production would strengthen ties with American semiconductor firms and streamline its supply chain. However, BlackMagic spokesperson Patrick Hussey told The Vergethat the broadly applied tariffs have made the move financially unviable.
While parts like semiconductors and the PCBs used in Blackmagic's cameras are sourced from US companies, many are still manufactured overseas and are subject to tariffs. "If we proceed with the US factory, we'd incur tariffs on those parts, increasing costs and negating the savings we anticipated," Hussey said.
This exact dilemma reflects a broader issue facing companies with global supply chains. Though the tariffs were intended to encourage domestic manufacturing, many businesses report they'd be better off moving operations to countries with lower tax burdens. A survey conducted by CNBCfound that 61% of businesses favored relocating to low-tariff countries over the US. 81% said they'd automate US production rather than hire workers.
"Production of some product lines has been relocated to reduce the impact on our customers"
Blackmagic has already passed on some of the additional costs to consumers, with the prices of certain products rising in the US. For example, the new Pyxis 12K camera, initially listed for $5,000, jumped to $6,600 before settling at $5,500 after Blackmagic shifted production to mitigate tariff impacts. Prices elsewhere in the world remain unchanged.
"We operate factories in several countries, so production of some product lines has been relocated to reduce the impact on our customers," Hussey explained, noting that the company is holding off on a US factory decision for now. If more components begin production domestically, the plan may be revived.
While the current US administration recently added smartphones, computers and other electronics to a temporary list of tariff exemptions, cameras and related equipment were omitted. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick warned that the exemptions are not permanent and that new tariffs targeting the semiconductor industry, for example, could be introduced in a month or two. Policy indecision like this adds even more uncertainty for companies like Blackmagic.
Insta360 released a teaser video on its YouTube channel this morning for an upcoming product launch on April 22nd. Titled "All Day. All Night. All Angles," the fast-paced 51-second clip showcases a variety of high-energy activities and stunts, suggesting a new 360-degree camera designed for versatile day-to-night shooting.
While the company hasn't officially named the product, speculation in the video clip's comments section suggests it's an Insta360 X5, a successor to last year's X4 360-degree action camera. If true, it would be slightly over a year since the X4's April 16, 2024 announcement.
The X4 supports 8K 360° video recording at 30p for 2.7k reframed 16:9 footage, a vast improvement from its predecessor X3's 5.7K/30p with 1080p output. The teaser trailer's emphasis on nighttime shots and low-light performance hints at further enhancements if it does, in fact, turn out to be an X5.
Whatever it is, Insta360 plans to unveil its new product at a pop-up event located in Vanderbilt Hall, Grand Central Terminal, New York City at 9:00 AM, EST, this coming Tuesday.
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Image: Viltrox
Viltrox gave us a preview of its AF 35mm F1.2 Lab FE lens back at CP+, but today, it's making the lens available to purchase and releasing full details about it. As the name implies, it's a full-frame lens for Sony's E-mount, and the company says it combines "cutting-edge optical performance" with "professional-grade handling."
The lens is made up of 15 elements in 10 groups, with five ED elements, three high-refractive-index elements and two aspherical lenses. The company also says it features nano multi-layer coatings to reduce flare and ghosting, as well as a moisture-resistant coating on the front element.
Image: Viltrox
Viltrox says the lens has an "advanced dust and moisture-resistant design." It features two programmable buttons, a multi-function ring that can be set to have clicks or no clicks, and a display that you can customize via Viltrox's app to show information such as your aperture setting or focusing distance. The lens also has a USB-C port for firmware upgrades, weighs 920g (32oz) and is 122mm (4.8") long.
Autofocus is handled by a pair of "HyperVCM" linear motors, which the company says should silently provide fast, accurate tracking for both stills and video. It has a minimum focusing distance of 0.34m (13.4").
It's exciting to see a new Lab lens from Viltrox, as the 135mm F1.8 lens with the badge was quite well-received, especially given its price. The AF 35mm F1.2 Lab is available to order today and costs $999.
Press Release:
Viltrox AF 35mm F1.2 LAB FE
Full-Frame Ultra-Large-Aperture Autofocus Prime Lens “Flagship, Redefined“
Brief Introduction to the LAB Exploration Series
Viltrox has always been dedicated to the relentless pursuit of optical excellence, continuously exploring the infinite possibilities of image creation. The LAB series represents the pinnacle of Viltrox’s optical innovation, pushing the boundaries of traditional technology to deliver an unprecedented imaging experience. As the latest masterpiece in the LAB series, the AF 35mm F1.2 LAB continues Viltrox’s commitment to exceptional image quality and outstanding performance, setting a new benchmark for flagship full-frame, large-aperture prime lenses.
Lens Introduction:
The AF 35mm F1.2 LAB is the second full-frame, large-aperture autofocus prime lens in Viltrox’s LAB series. It integrates Viltrox’s cutting-edge optical technology, pushing the resolution and bokeh performance of the F1.2 aperture to new heights. Featuring a professional lens control system and custom color display with startup animations, it offers an efficient and personalized shooting experience. Whether for portraits, street photography, or nightscapes, this lens delivers exceptional optical performance, capturing every detail and unleashes limitless creative potential.
Exploring Optical Excellence
AF 35mm F1.2 LAB redefines flagship-level resolution, achieving a groundbreaking leap in optical performance. Designed to fully meet the demands of ultra-high-pixel sensors, it delivers razor-sharp detail from rear to far, capturing even the finest textures of skin, hair, and other intricate subjects.
Even at maximum aperture, it maintains exceptional edge-to-edge sharpness, ensuring consistent image quality across the frame. This guarantees remarkable detail retention for post-cropping flexibility, offering an unparalleled shooting experience and creative freedom.
F1.2 Ultra-Wide Aperture
Pure Clarity in Darkness
The F1.2 aperture excels in creating exceptional bokeh while significantly enhancing light transmission, allowing for sharp, noise-free images even in challenging low-light conditions without the need for additional lighting. The lens adapts seamlessly to complex lighting scenarios, offering unparalleled sharpness and purity in every shot.
Dreamy, Immaculate Bokeh
The F1.2 ultra-large aperture creates an exquisite background blur, with smooth, delicate bokeh and no optical vignetting at the edges, rendering a dreamy visual effect. Whether for portrait photography or nightscapes, the lens easily renders perfect separation between the subject and background, presenting a visually striking composition.
Innovative Aperture Blade Drive Technology
The lens aperture drive adopts the Viltrox HyperVCM motor technology, delivering more precise and efficient aperture control.
Flagship Optical UA Lens (Ultra-Large & Precision Aspherical Lens)
The manufacturing of aspherical lenses poses immense technical challenges. Breaking through traditional craftsmanship constraints and exorbitant cost limitations, Viltrox UA lenses spare no effort in innovative optical design. This breakthrough effectively reduces onion-ring bokeh artifacts while achieving both high resolution and exquisitely smooth bokeh rendering, ultimately delivering refined and exceptional imaging performance.
Viltrox HyperVCM for Fast & Precise AutoFocus
The AF 35mm F1.2 LAB features Quad Viltrox HyperVCM motors, powered by Viltrox's proprietary core technology, delivering robust focusing power while significantly improving autofocus speed and precision. Whether shooting static subjects or tracking dynamic motion, the lens achieves swift, quiet, and micron-level accurate focusing, capturing every fleeting moment with ease.
Compared to traditional STM motors:
150% faster autofocus speed
Micron-level positioning accuracy
100ms switching from closest to farthest focus points
Supports face/eye recognition autofocus and other camera feature, securely locking onto subjects for a top-tier autofocus experience.
Efficient Control for Professional Experience
The AF 35mm F1.2 LAB is equipped with a comprehensive professional control system, enabling photographers to adjust settings more efficiently and unlock creative possibilities.
Multi-Functional Ring
Multi-functional control ring supports quick adjustments of parameters such as aperture and focus, adapting to the needs of various shooting scenarios.
Customizable Fn Buttons
The lens is equipped with two customizable Fn buttons, allowing users to assign shortcut functions according to their shooting needs. Additional configurations can be made via the Viltrox Lens APP, thereby enhancing operational efficiency.
AF/MF Switch
Seamlessly switch between autofocus and manual focus modes to adapt to different shooting requirements.
Click/Stepless Aperture Adjustment
Easily switch between stepped and stepless aperture adjustments for the ultimate creative flexibility.
Customizable Color Display for a Personalized Experience
The AF 35mm F1.2 LAB is equipped with a custom color display, allowing users to personalize settings through the Viltrox Lens App. Features such as startup animations and parameter previews offer a unique identity to the lens, while providing an entirely new level of control. In specialized shooting environments, the color display can also show real-time information such as the lens aperture and object distance, enhancing shooting precision and creative control in all time.
Built for All Conditions: Dust and Moisture Resistance
The AF 35mm F1.2 LAB features a high-grade dust- and moisture-resistant design, offering reliable durability against harsh conditions like sand, rain, and challenging environments. Built to meet the demands of professional photographers, it ensures dependable performance in any shooting scenario.
Ultra-high dustproof and drip-resistant construction - Effectively prevents sand, dust, and water droplets from entering the lens interior, ensuring the delicate internal components remain undamaged.
Water- and stain-resistant coating on front lens
Aerospace-grade full-metal housing
Get More Immersed in Backlit Shooting
15 elements in 10 groups optical structure: 5 ED lenses, 3 high refractive index lenses, 2 UA lenses.
Even in strong light conditions, the lens delivers excellent color reproduction and contrast, resulting in unparalleled image performance.
Even in strong light conditions, the lens delivers excellent color reproduction and contrast, resulting in unparalleled image performance.
Excellent chromatic aberration control effectively reduces purple or green fringing in high-contrast shooting conditions.
High-definition multi-layer nano coating, Effectively suppresses flare and ghosting during backlit shooting, ensuring pure and sharp images.
Outstanding Video Performance, Focused on Creativity
The advanced Viltrox Quad HyperVCM motor eliminates noise from traditional gear-driven motors, delivering quieter focusing and faster autofocus tracking for video shooting.
With excellent focus breathing control, this lens ensures smoother focus transitions, unleashing endless creative potential for video production.
Superior Distortion and Vignetting Control
The advanced optical design of the AF 35mm F1.2 LAB ensures uniform light distribution even at its maximum aperture, significantly reducing vignetting. Additionally, it excels in distortion control, ensuring minimal edge distortion for a more authentic visual experience.
0.34m MOD: Exceptional Details
Dual floating focus design significantly enhances close-up image quality, ensuring excellent close-up resolution while continuously optimizing aberrations across the entire focal range. From close-up to infinity, the sharpness remains consistently balanced throughout.
With a minimum focusing distance of 0.34m, the AF 35mm F1.2 LAB is perfect for close-up photography, effortlessly capturing intricate textures and fine details in any scene.
Details
Material: Magnesium-aluminum alloy die-coating; Aerospace-grade metal material.
OTA (Over-the-Air) Updates: Bluetooth connectivity for firmware upgrades through the Viltrox Lens App.
LAB Signature Design: A unique marking that identifies the lens as part of the exclusive LAB Series.
Inspiring Creative Scenarios
Portrait Photography
With its large F1.2 aperture and exceptional bokeh, it effortlessly captures the delicate textures and emotional expressions of portraits, making It especially ideal for environmental portraits and street portraits.
Street Photography
The 35mm standard focal length is ideal for street photography, offering a natural perspective to capture fleeting street moments. The F1.2 wide aperture ensures bright and sharp images even in challenging lighting conditions.
Night and Low-Light Photography
The ultra-wide F1.2 aperture allows the lens to perform exceptionally in night and low-light environments, without additional light sources, making it easy to achieve high-quality night photography.
Still Life and Detail
With a minimum focusing distance of 0.25m, this lens excels at close-up shots, capturing intricate details in still life photography or fleeting expressions in street photography with precision and clarity.
Powered by Viltrox’s proprietary HyperVCM motor, the lens achieves 150% faster focus than traditional STM systems, with micron-level accuracy and lightning-fast 100ms near-far focus transitions. Ideal for capturing fleeting moments in portraits, events, or dynamic video work.
2. Flagship Optical UA Lens Design
With Ultra-Large & Precision Aspherical Elements, the lens delivers edge-to-edge clarity even at its blazing-fast F1.2 aperture. Designed for ultra-high-pixel sensors, it resolves intricate textures—skin pores, hair strands, fabric weaves—with stunning fidelity, whether shooting close-ups or infinity landscapes.
3. F1.2 Ultra-Large Aperture: Master of Bokeh
Create cinematic depth with lush, dreamy backgrounds and pristine highlight rendering. The F1.2 aperture isolates subjects effortlessly, transforming chaotic scenes into gallery-worthy compositions—perfect for portraits, astrophotography, or low-light storytelling.
4. Macro to Infinity: Seamless Sharpness
A 0.34m minimum focus distance and 0.17x magnification unlock macro capabilities, while the dual floating internal focus system ensures real-time aberration correction. Edge-to-edge sharpness remains consistent from intimate close-ups to sweeping vistas.
5. Advanced Optical Construction
14 elements in 9 groups—including 2 UA lenses, 5 low-dispersion elements, and 3 high-refractive-index elements—combat chromatic aberration and flare. Even in harsh lighting, the lens maintains premium color accuracy, dynamic contrast, and near-zero purple/green fringing.
6. Pro-Grade Customization
2 customizable Fn buttons for instant access to frequently used settings.
Multi-function control ring with click/clickless switch for silent video adjustments.
This week, Polaroid announced its Flip point-and-shoot instant camera. In a world overrun by smartphones, digital addiction, and instant gratification in the form of endless online oversharing, the company is attempting to make a case for slowing down, being intentional, and enjoying something more tangible in photography. At its core, the Flip gives you a red button, eight exposures per film pack, and a flippable lid.
The Flip combines several of Polaroid's legacy technologies with a few modern updates. Its camera is built around a four-lens system that automatically adjusts to one of four preset focus points, depending on the subject's distance. It measures that distance using sonar, which should provide accurate results – even in low light. This lessens the likelihood of blurry shots and eliminates the need to fiddle with manual settings.
The last few sentences in the above paragraph are what Polaroid's press release claims. However, we'd be remiss at DPReview not to attempt to explain how this system works. The Flip uses a sonar sensor to estimate how far away your subject is and then selects one of four fixed lenses preset to specific distances: 0.65m, 0.85m, 1.2m, or 2.5m.
It's a simplified take on autofocus – rather than continuously adjusting focus for a single lens like most autofocus systems, the camera switches between all the lenses. It works, but it doesn't mean focus is infinitely flexible. You'll get clarity across shooting distances, but not the same nuance you'd find in a manual-focus system or smartphone camera.
Precision isn't necessarily a top priority for casual use, which this camera is geared toward. Its target audience is likely to use it for in-the-moment experiences. That said, the Flip comes with some cool technical perks. An LED inside the viewfinder acts as a 'scene analysis' and lights up when a photo is under or overexposed. The built-in flash adapts based on subject distance and can illuminate a scene up to 4.5 meters away, making it handy in low-light settings.
The Polaroid Flip will be available on April 29th on the company's main website. It is priced at $199.99. Members get early access starting April 15th. Other retailers will begin selling the camera on May 13th. The Flip is compatible with Polaroid's i-Type and 600 film. It connects to the Polaroid app via Bluetooth and offers additional manual settings along with remote control of the camera. Bonus features users may appreciate include a Self-Timer mode and the ability to create double exposures.
Press Release:
Introducing the Polaroid Flip: The ultimate point-and-shoot instant camera for an analog life
High quality shots every time thanks to a hyperfocal 4-lens system, sonar autofocus, Polaroid’s most powerful flash and new ‘scene analysis’ feature that warns when photos will be over or underexposed.
Packed with iconic innovations from Polaroid’s 80-year photography legacy, all in one easy-to-use, point-and-shoot instant camera.
Tech-packed instant camera for sharper shots.
With a flippable lid for ultimate protection, the Polaroid Flip embodies 80 years of Polaroid innovation and iconic features. Flip is the best camera for everyone who wants to get great shots with ease.
Hyperfocal 4-Lens System for beautifully sharp shots: Four automatically selected sweet spots, depending on the distance to the subject (0.65m, 0.85m, 1.2m, 2.5m) that ensure sharper focus across photography styles.
Sonar Autofocus ensures your subject is always in focus: Sonar waves to determine subject distance and select the right lens, for maximum focal clarity, delivering crisp focus – even in the dark.
Polaroid’s most powerful flash for any lighting condition: Located in the Flip’s ‘lid,’ this adaptive flash adjusts power based on subject distance, illuminating up to 4.5m away.
Scene Analysis for well-exposed pictures, more often: Photographers receive an alert when the photo might be over or underexposed through the viewfinder LED, or when the subject is too close on the ‘lid’ display.
Instant photography over instant gratification.
Polaroid Flip is more than just a camera—it’s an invitation to embrace real-life moments. In this hyper-digitized, constantly doomscrolling, high-anxiety age, the Polaroid Flip offers a way to connect with life’s best moments – the real, tangible, analog ones; with eight pictures in a pack that will connect to life far more than 800 digital ones. Polaroid delivers a true analog experience: photos you can hold forever, not pixels lost in the cloud or forgotten on a phone. The Flip invites creators to simply live a life worth capturing, then click the Flip’s iconic red shutter button.
Available from April 29
The Polaroid Flip will be available for €219 / $199,99 / £199,99 / CNY 1699, with early access for members starting April 15. It launches on polaroid.com on April 29 and in retailers from May 13. Compatible with Polaroid i-Type & 600 film, the Flip is USB-C rechargeable and comes with a neck strap. It connects to the Polaroid app via Bluetooth®, offering newly optimized manual settings through the app, allowing full remote control. Additional features include Double Exposure and a Self-Timer mode, giving creators even more creative freedom.
Adobe is diving deeper into artificial intelligence with a new investment in Synthesia, a British AI startup that lets users create videos with lifelike avatars and voiceovers in 140+ languages. CNBC officially confirmed that Adobe's venture capital arm gave Synthesia an undisclosed amount of capital as part of a "strategic partnership."
While neither company shared detailed terms of the deal, the move signals Adobe's growing interest in AI tools that can enhance and disrupt traditional video workflows. Synthesia's platform enables users to create videos using text prompts and AI-generated avatars — including customized versions of real people. Users can choose from over 230 pre-made avatars on Synthesia's site. They can also create their own in a Synthesia studio or remotely on personal devices.
Synthesia aims to make video production quicker and easier using text prompts and AI-generated avatars.
The company claims that over 70% of Fortune 100 companies use its tools. "We're building the world's leading AI video platform for enterprise, and Adobe's investment validates that direction," said Victor Riparbelli, Synthesia's CEO. "We share a vision: democratizing high-quality content creation and making enterprise communication faster and more effective."
Adobe, with an estimated market cap of $150 billion, is best known for its creative tools like Photoshop and Premiere Pro – the latter widely used in professional video production. This partnership could expand Adobe's presence in AI-native video generation. It isn't Adobe's first foray into related startup investments, either. The company attempted to acquire Figma for $20 billion before backing out due to regulatory changes in the EU and U.K. Previous stakes in companies like VidMob and Captions were successful.
Alongside Adobe's investment news, Synthesia announced it has surpassed $100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR). Riparbelli said the company has grown 100% year over year, and the ARR puts it in "a very small group of AI-native companies with real commercial traction."
Despite its rapid growth, the venture remains unprofitable. In 2023, Synthesia posted a pre-tax loss of £25.2 million on revenues of £25.7 million, according to filings with the U.K. Companies House. However, profitability is not a near-term priority.
One of Synthesia's competitors is OpenAI's Sora tool.
"We've never chased growth at any cost," Riparbelli said, pointing out that the company still has leftover capital from a previous funding round in 2023. It was last valued at $2.1 billion in January. Synthesia faces competition from rivals, including Colossyan, Filmora, and Veed.io. Open AI's Sora also offers a text-to-video model.
This partnership with Adobe, the world's leading producer of creative software, signals a broader trend. AI video is being viewed as a tool for enterprise communication. It's becoming less about cameras and crews and more about text and creativity.
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Photo: Richard Butler
Last week, Nikon announced a firmware update to its Zf camera that added its bird-specific subject detection mode, promising it'd be quicker and more accurate at detecting and tracking birds than the Auto or Animal modes. Our comments section resounded with a single question: when is it coming to the Z6III?
Nikon now has an answer: sometime this year. Nikon Rumors spotted a reply from the Nikon USA account on X, formerly known as Twitter, that reads: "We plan to add Bird detect AF to the Z6III by the end of the year. Stay tuned!"
Z6III users have been waiting for the feature even before it arrived on the Zf. It debuted with the Z9 and was later brought down to the Z8. With Nikon pitching the Z6III as a powerful, do-everything camera, the bird-specific autofocus mode seemed like a natural fit. The omission seemed even stranger when lower-end cameras, like the Z50II and Z5II, launched with the feature.
That pent-up demand may be why Nikon shared that it's coming on social media before it's actually ready – to give Z6III users some assurance that it hasn't forgotten that they want the feature. We'll be sure to let you know as soon as the firmware update enabling it becomes available.
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Sigma CEO Kazuto Yamaki at the CP+ expo in Yokohama, Japan.
Photo: Richard Butler
“Yeah, of course," Sigma CEO Kazuto Yamaki replies when we ask if Sigma is still working on a full-frame Foveon sensor. "It takes a long time, so after we brought the project from the US to Japan, we had to start from scratch."
It's the kind of direct answer we've come to expect from Yamaki, who is famously forthcoming when speaking to the media.
In a conversation with Yamaki in Japan, he shared his candid insights on the state of the camera industry, what part of the Sigma BF's design he's most proud of, and the ongoing development of the highly anticipated full-frame Foveon sensor.
The camera industry landscape: Innovation required
With the camera market currently stable, Yamaki says he's concerned that seemingly positive sales figures could be hiding a longer-term problem.
“As you know, according to the statistics, the camera market has been growing the last couple of years in terms of the value."
"Compared to the market size in the 2012 or 2013 timeframe, the number of units is about one-third, but the value is about the same. So, the unit price, the average unit price, is three times higher than that time. But my concern," he continues, "is that the number of people who buy cameras and lenses is decreasing. That's my concern."
"With the camera market currently stable, Yamaki says he's concerned that seemingly positive sales figures could be hiding a longer-term problem."
He puts the onus on manufacturers, including Sigma, to create products that continue to engage consumers.
“I think it really depends on the innovation we create. Many people are interested in cameras, and although the camera market has shrunk by volume, many media influencers or YouTubers still talk about cameras. So I think that's proof that many people are still interested in cameras, but a lack of innovation from the manufacturers' side cannot support the growth of the market. So if there is innovation, I think people will come back and buy more cameras.”
Turning the focus to his own products, Yamaki describes the market's reception to Sigma's release of APS-C lenses for Canon RF-mount and Nikon Z-mount cameras.
“It's great. We've been receiving lots of orders, especially for the RF-mount. It's quite well received by customers.”
According to Yamaki, Sigma has received many orders for its APS-C lenses for RF and Z-mount cameras, including the 10-18mm F2.8 DC DN for RF-mount above.
Image: Sigma
More broadly, he highlights the strategic importance of the APS-C format in today's market, which has tilted toward full-frame models – and higher prices – in recent years.
“As I said, the price point of cameras is quite concerning. So, the affordable price of APS-C cameras should have a future, and an APS-C camera has a great benefit because we can make the lens much smaller. That's a great benefit.”
Crafting the user interface for the Sigma BF
The Sigma BF has captured attention for its industrial design, so we were surprised to learn it's not what Yamaki is most proud of on the camera.
“The menu system is created from scratch, and it's really well done. I think it's well done by our UI designer, so I think the UI is quite good. Of course, I like the design of the camera, but it's customers who judge if it's a good design or not."
“[This is] a new interface we developed first for the BF, but I think we need to improve it further after we get a response from users. It can't be perfect from the beginning. So, the concept is there, and we implemented the user interface, and then it's time to improve.”
The Sigma BF has captured attention for its industrial design, but Yamaki is particularly proud of the camera's menu system and user interface.
Photo: Richard Butler
He underscores the core challenge: making an enjoyable everyday camera in an era of smartphones.
“If we fail to succeed in making the BF the most enjoyable camera to use, it's our fault. We have to make the BF the most enjoyable camera to use. Then people take out the camera every day and take photos. It's a challenge. You always have a camera in your pocket, which is a smartphone. You can take an everyday photo with a smartphone, but having a camera means something different for everybody. But in this case, the camera must be simple, easy to use, and enjoyable. That's the concept of the BF.”
Foveon: The full-frame quest continues
Many Foveon enthusiasts hoped that Sigma's next camera would be a long-awaited full-frame Foveon model. That dream didn't materialize, but Yamaki confirmed Sigma's continued commitment to the project, revealing details about the development process.
“Yeah, of course," he reiterates regarding his interest, explaining that progress involved collaboration: “We have been working with a university. It's a joint project with a university in Japan. We worked with a researcher, a professor."
The journey has required significant effort and resetting of expectations.“It takes a long time, so after we brought the project from the US to Japan, we had to start from scratch," he remarks.
"We have two stages for development, the technology development and the product design. It took longer than we expected for the technology development. We made several pixel prototypes. It's not a full-frame sensor, but we made prototype pixels, and we experienced some design errors."
"Every time we make a prototype, we find some kind of issues, and every time we find some issues, we fix the problem. And we are now almost at the last stage of the technology development. If everything is done, then we start the product development.”
While a final product may remain a ways off, Yamaki's vote of confidence gives the Foveon faithful good reason to keep the faith.
This article is based on an interview by Dale Baskin and Richard Butler. It has been edited for clarity and flow.
British tech company Nothing released its Nothing Phone (3a) a little over a month ago, promising its "most advanced camera system to date." The Phone 3a lineup is the company's budget line, which includes the base 3a for $379 and the slightly more advanced 3a Pro for $459. Those prices are pretty impressive considering the features and specs of both.
The Phone 3a's 24mm equiv. main camera and 50mm equiv. telephoto camera both offer a resolution of 50MP. However, the camera app defaults to 12MP. If you want 50MP photos, you'll need to go into the settings and change it each time you open the camera app. There's also a 15mm equiv. ultra-wide camera, though its resolution is even lower at 8MP.
Beyond the basic camera specs, the Phone 3a offers the various camera modes you'd expect on a smartphone, including Portrait, Night and Pano. Nothing's default camera app also features a few presets, including one called Soft Focus for portraits, a B&W Film preset and the more unique Lenticular preset. You can create your own presets based on settings you typically use or import presets as well.
Nothing sent over the Phone 3a, which I've been shooting with for a few weeks. You can check out a selection of the images in the gallery below.
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.
Sample gallery
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Photo: Richard Butler
The Sigma BF caused quite a stir when it was announced, largely thanks to it's drastically different design. That buzz has apparently resulted in an overwhelming number of pre-orders ahead of its April 24th release. Sigma has even issued an apology because of the situation.
Sigma had hinted at possible delays on April 7th when it announced updates about the release of a handful of L-mount lenses and the BF. At the time, it said that the "Sigma BF Silver is made to order," suggesting that those ordering the silver should expect a bit of a wait. It also explained, "There is limited production capacity for Sigma BF (Black/Silver), so it may take some time for some customers to receive the product." Now, the company is taking things a step further with its apology.
In the most recent announcement, Sigma said it had received more orders than expected for the new camera. The news was only posted on the company's Japanese website, which we translated with Google Translate. "Despite our limited production capacity, we are unable to keep up with demand. As a result, it may take some time for some customers to receive their products," the post says.
Sigma didn't provide any additional details about just how delayed things will be, simply saying, "We ask that you please wait for a little longer." As of now, you can still pre-order the camera at B&H, so things aren't so bad that Sigma is shutting down pre-orders at least.
OmniVision, one of the leading developers of digital imaging sensors, has announced a new smartphone sensor that promises the highest dynamic range of any option currently on the market, as Digital Camera World reports. OmniVision isn't new to innovation, previously releasing the world's smallest commercially available image sensor. The company says the OV50X CMOS sensor is made for "movie-grade video capture" for flagship smartphones.
The OV50X is a 50MP Type 1 (13.0 x 9.8mm) sensor. The pixels are larger than those found in its predecessor, the OV50H, with 1.6‑micron (µm) pixels compared to the OV50H's 1.2µm pixels. OmniVision says it provides close to 110-decibel (dB) single-exposure HDR thanks to its TheiaCel technology, a pixel design that attempts to retain charge that would otherwise overwhelm the sensor.
It also uses the company's PureCelPlus-S stacked-die technology, which promises better low-light performance thanks to greater sensor sensitivity and full-well capacity.
The sensor's primary focus is to boost video performance for flagship-level smartphones, so much of the information OmniVision supplied centers on that. "Smartphones are used in the majority of video and photo capture today, and cinematic-quality video recording has become a highly demanded feature among consumers for flagship mobile phones,” said Takuritsu Li, marketing manager, OmniVision.
The sensor supports four-cell binning to produce 12.5MP images at up to 180 frames per second (fps) or 60fps with the sensor's three-channel HDR on. The company says it offers "premium-quality" 8K video with dual analog gain (DAG) HDR. It is also capable of on-sensor crop zoom, which punches in to the central portion of the sensor. This process maintains native pixel quality, though it results in a lower resolution. OmniVision also says it will offer best-in-class autofocus performance with 100% coverage quad phase detection (QPD).
Image: OmniVision
Of course, at this point, we haven't seen images taken with the OV50X sensor other than the sample above provided by OmniVision. Additionally, while the actual sensor may capture an impressively wide dynamic range, most camera systems offer a more limited dynamic range because of factors like optical design, lens flare and processing algorithms, and the ability to convey that dynamic range in the final output. So, what this sensor is capable of regarding general image quality remains to be seen.
We may not have to wait long to see it in action, though. OmniVision said that the OV50X is sampling now and expects it to be in mass production in Q3 2025.
Press release:
OMNIVISION Launches Ultra High Dynamic Range 1‑inch Image Sensor for Movie-Grade Video Capture in Flagship Smartphones
OV50X Image Sensor Features TheiaCel™ Technology for Best-in-Class Photos and Videos in All Lighting Conditions, Day and Night
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — April 10, 2025 — OMNIVISION, a leading global developer of semiconductor technology, including advanced digital imaging, analog and display solutions, today launched its new OV50X CMOS image sensor with the mobile phone industry’s highest dynamic range, for movie-grade video capture. The OV50X is a 50‑megapixel (MP) sensor with a 1.6‑micron (µm) pixel in a 1‑inch optical format designed for flagship smartphones that require high dynamic range (HDR) video and preview with single exposure, excellent low-light performance, fast autofocus and high frame rates.
“Smartphones are used in the majority of video and photo capture today, and cinematic-quality video recording has become a highly demanded feature among consumers for flagship mobile phones,” said Takuritsu Li, marketing manager, OMNIVISION. “Our OV50X image sensor was designed with the professional videographer and photographer in mind, featuring a large 1‑inch optical format image sensor that provides close to 110 decibel (dB) single-exposure HDR; consumers can now own a smartphone capable of superior video and photo capture around the clock, even in challenging capture conditions such as sunrise, sunset, nighttime with bright lights, or overcast days.”
The OV50X supports 4‑cell binning for 12.5MP at 180 frames per second (fps) and 60 fps with three-channel HDR. It offers premium-quality 8K video with dual analog gain (DAG) HDR and on-sensor crop zoom. OMNIVISION’s TheiaCel™ technology further expands single exposure HDR close to 110 dB—the highest range possible in smartphones. The sensor also supports 100% coverage quad phase detection (QPD) for best-in-class autofocus performance. The OV50X is built on OMNIVISION’s PureCel®Plus‑S stacked-die technology, enabling excellent low light performance.
The OV50X is sampling now and will be in mass production in Q3 2025. For more information, contact your OMNIVISION sales representative: www.ovt.com/contact-sales.
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Photo: Richard Butler
Forget about technical specs. The most intriguing aspect of Sigma's newest camera, the BF, might be the philosophy baked into its name, which CEO Kazuto Yamaki says stands for "beautiful foolishness," reflecting a deliberate design philosophy rooted in Japanese culture and aesthetics.
Where did this concept originate? And how did a bottle of Chanel No. 5 perfume influence the camera's design? We explored these questions and more in a conversation with Mr. Yamaki in Japan shortly after the camera's launch.
On beautiful foolishness
"BF stands for beautiful foolishness," Yamaki explains. "This phrase was taken from the The Book of Tea, and the original phrase was ‘a beautiful foolishness of things.'"
He elaborates: "There are numerous things in the world, beautiful and ugly, useful and useless. In this context, the original implication of this book was to find beauty in seemingly worthless things, even though this world is judged good or bad based on a utilitarian value. That’s the spirit of the tea ceremony. The author wanted to explain that it’s a part of Japanese culture."
Sigma CEO Kazuto Yamaki celebrates in Yokohama harbor following the launch of the Sigma BF camera.
Photo: Dale Baskin
The philosophy, he suggests, extends beyond appreciating the world to the very act of creating and using the camera. He sees the camera as embodying this principle in multiple ways.
"I took the phrase as having multiple meanings. First, I took it because I liked this phrase. Second, using the camera in daily life can be beautiful foolishness because everyone has phone cameras in their pocket. Third, this is somewhat self-mocking, but I thought that, in order to achieve the best feel, spending seven hours to machine an aluminum ingot to make a part is quite beautiful foolishness."
"Spending seven hours to machine an aluminum ingot to make a part is quite beautiful foolishness."
Essentially, the camera itself is slightly irrational. It's a product where meticulous, perhaps even excessive, craftsmanship contributes to its unique appeal. But that's not necessarily a bad approach when everyone else is off doing the sensible thing. After all, being different is what sometimes allows you to create something iconic.
Inspired by Coco Chanel
Hold the BF, and you immediately sense that the camera is something special, even if its design doesn't fit the way you personally use a camera. That's not an accident.
"When we started the project, there was an exhibition of Gabrielle Chanel in Tokyo," Yamaki explains. "In other words, Coco Chanel, she's the founder of Chanel. And, of course, the dresses from a long time ago were quite fascinating."
"But the most fascinating item for me was a bottle of the Chanel No. 5 perfume. It was from 1921. Very simple and minimal, but very elegant, although it's a hundred years old. At that time, I thought I really wanted to make a camera that has a timeless value like the Chanel No. 5 bottle."
A bottle of Chanel No. 5 perfume inspired Mr. Yamaki to create a camera with a timeless design.
While in pursuit of this "timeless value," Mr. Yamaki didn't involve himself directly in the design process.
"I did not [suggest] any of my ideas into the design because I trusted the designer. So I did not say anything about the design. I like product design in general, but I don't believe it's good for the CEO of the company to say something about the design. Sometimes, it confuses the designer."
The resulting design is a camera that isn't just unique. It's memorable. Just as he envisioned.
The joy of photography
Mr. Yamaki acknowledges the Sigma BF isn't intended for every photographer. It's about embracing the joy of photography and capturing everyday life in a way that brings you happiness. Beautiful foolishness, if you will.
"It's about embracing the joy of photography and capturing everyday life in a way that brings you happiness. Beautiful foolishness, if you will."
"It doesn't have to be BF, but once you have the camera, you try to find some beautiful scenes in your daily life. Maybe if you see the sunlight coming in, you see some contrast, and you want to take a picture with some kind of subject," he says.
"So if you have the camera in your hand, try to take pictures, and it makes our life more meaningful. Right?" he posits. "So I think of the BF as a simple minimum camera, which you want to bring anytime. It's a nice camera to be on the table at a restaurant or bar, and then you can take pictures with a nice thing. That's the BF."
Beyond BF
Mr. Yamaki proudly notes that Sigma builds all of its products in its hometown of Aizu, Japan, a fact Sigma has started to incorporate into its marketing message. Between his philosophy of beautiful foolishness and simple but elegant design, we're curious if he sees the BF as a way of sharing Japanese culture with users.
"I hope so," he tells us. "I would be happy if we could make a product that users can feel a 'Japanese touch' through, not only the design of the camera but also the quality of all of our products. We paid careful attention to every detail, which I believe is very Japanese culture."
Sigma's new product packaging balances sustainability with aesthetics.
Photo: Dale Baskin
That meticulous attention extends beyond camera bodies and lenses to details like packaging.
While many companies in the industry have moved to functional but rather pedestrian-looking recyclable cardboard, Sigma has infused its newest product boxes with subtle elegance and style, balancing sustainability with aesthetics. It's a nuance, but the type of detail that matters at Sigma.
Mr. Yamaki's enthusiasm for his philosophy is both contagious and thought-provoking. Next time you go out to shoot, consider just capturing the beautiful foolishness of the world and life. Sometimes, it's best to metaphorically sit back, enjoy your cup of tea, and embrace whatever comes your way to find beauty, even in seemingly worthless things.
Submissions for our April editor's challenge have ended, which means it's time for voting to begin. This month's theme was RGB, and we tasked photographers to come up with pictures featuring a red, green, and blue color palette.
You can head to the challenge page to see the entries and vote for your favorites. User votes don't determine which photos end up getting selected to be displayed on our homepage – it is the Editor's challenge, after all – but they do help show support for community members who share their photography.
A reliable source confirmed to me today that Fujifilm has suspended orders for the GFX100RF, X100VI, and X-M5 cameras in the US. It looks like the company will very soon implement significant price increases (in the US only) due to the new tariffs introduced by President Trump, just like Canon and Blackmagic. It is unclear if the new price increase will impact all Fujifilm products or only the suspended models.
As I already mentioned, there will be more price increases to come. If you are planning on purchasing new gear, now would be a good time to do so since I expect more prices to be adjusted in the coming weeks. B&H and Adorama are currently closed for the next 10 days, but you can check our sponsors Amazon, Paul's Photo, and Service Photo for your photo equipment needs.
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