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.

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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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Viltrox seems poised to start selling lenses for Micro Four Thirds, according to a post on social media platform Xiaohongshu. It shows a puzzle piece about to be slotted into a hole labeled “M4/3,” and teases an announcement coming on July 23rd. While the company hasn’t posted about it on its Instagram pages, the Viltrox US account did comment on a Reddit post about the teaser, saying “Something new coming soon.”

The teaser doesn’t say what to expect, beyond having hashtags that translate to “lens.” But the idea of getting a Micro Four Thirds lens from Viltrox is exciting on its own; the company has become a major player in the world of third-party lenses, and it’s an interesting sign that it’s looking to throw at least some of its weight behind the mount, as we haven’t seen many others do so for a while.

Viltrox

There are a wide variety of companies, well known and not, making manual focus lenses for the system, and a few that continue to sell a handful of autofocus options, too. But beyond Panasonic and OM System, who also make cameras using the mount, there haven’t been any new Micro Four Thirds lenses from a major player in quite some time. Sigma used to have some options for the system, which you can still buy, but they haven’t been updated like we’ve seen with the company’s APS-C and full-frame offerings.

Of course, there are many ways to release a lens for a system. While Viltrox could come out with a lens custom-designed for Micro Four Thirds, with a sensible focal length and a small, compact size. It could also, however, just be swapping out the mount on one of its existing APS-C or, worse, full-frame designs (not that such a move would be unheard of). Even if it is a lens with a larger-than-neccesary image circle, though, it’s still a start. If whatever Viltrox releases ends up being successful, it could lead to the brand giving Micro Four Thirds more attention.

Or it could wind up being something completely unexpected, like a camera that uses the mount. It’s hard to put anything past companies at this point. Whatever it is, we won’t have to wait too long to find out.

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Sony has released a teaser for a new product announcement in its cinema line. As always, the video is very short on details, showing just the silhouette of a camera, tally lights blazing and a top handle attached, and the tagline “lighting the way forward.”

The company is no stranger to posting teaser videos, but, unlike with the one for what turned out to be the RX10 V, it isn’t giving a lot of time for hype to build. The video says the announcement is coming on July 22nd at 7 AM PT (15:00 BST), which is just around 24 hours after the video was published. Whatever the camera is, it seems we won’t have to wait long to get more details.

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The latest version of Adobe Camera Raw, 18.4.1, started rolling out a few weeks ago, but it quietly introduces a feature that I’ve personally wanted for years: the ability to see where your camera’s focus point was set to. This makes it much easier to tell whether it was your camera’s autofocus system that messed up, or if you simply put the focus point in the incorrect place (which is especially important when, say, you review cameras for a living).

The way it works is relatively simple (if a bit of a finger workout): you open up a Raw in ACR, and press Ctrl + Alt + Shift + O on Windows, or Command + Option + Shift + O on Mac. You can also right click on the image and select the “Show Autofocus Points” option. After you do, ACR will draw a red box around the camera’s selected focus point or area.

Screenshot: Mitchell Clark

While the feature isn’t a fool-proof way of assigning blame for an out-of-focus image – if the box is in the wrong place, it could either mean that you put it there in error, or that your camera’s tracking failed – it’s still very nice to have access to this information without having to view it on your camera’s screen, or in camera makers’ own software. Sometimes it’s just nice to be able to check where you were trying to focus, or, to pick a random example, to see where the photographers from your favorite camera review site were focusing in the images they uploaded to their sample galleries.

Currently, the feature is available for Raw files from Canon, Sony and Nikon cameras. We confirmed that we weren’t able to see autofocus points from the most recent cameras from any other manufacturer, so hopefully Adobe will expand the models it’s available to in the future. We’d also hope that this feature, which is currently only available in Photoshop’s ACR module, makes its way to Lightroom and Lightroom Classic, too.

ACR 18.4.1 also adds a “presentation” mode that shows the photo you’re editing full-screen with a customizable matte around it, and which lets you use the arrow keys to move through the photos you currently have open within the tool. It also lets you use the company’s AI-powered “Generative Expand” feature to fill transparent edges, and improves bidirectional gradient masks, adding support for feathering and giving you more precise control over them. You can download the update through the Creative Cloud app, or via the standalone installer.

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Tamron is introducing a fast, ultra-wide zoom lens for full-frame cameras: the 12-20mm F2.8. It’s being released for Nikon Z-mount and Sony E-mount, and is also ushering in a new look for the company’s lenses.

The 12-20mm F2.8 uses an optical formula with 17 elements in 12 groups, with one expanded glass molded aspherical element, three glass molded aspherical lenses, one extra low dispersion element, and three low dispersion elements. The company says it’s designed to be sharp to the corners, and to minimize and correct for aberrations like color fringing and sagittal coma flare. The latter is especially important for astrophotographers, who may be interested in this lens thanks to its wide focal range.

At 12mm, it can focus on subjects as close as 0.18m (7″), and at 20mm, its minimum focusing distance is 0.28m (11″). It has a 12-blade aperture. Because of its bulbous front element, it can’t accept front filters, but it has a rear filter holder in addition to its integrated lens hood.

Focusing is handled by a linear motor and is internal. While zooming doesn’t make the lens any longer, the front element does physically move back into the body. The lens has both an MF/AF switch and a manual focus lock switch; the latter is again something that will be appreciated by astrophotographers.

Beyond those switches, the lens is covered in controls. There’s a customizable function button in both portrait and landscape orientations, a zoom lock switch that can be used to keep the lens at either 12mm or 20mm, a lock for the aperture ring (or control ring on Nikon), a switch to click or declick that ring and a custom setting switch, which you can use Tamron’s Link software to configure to switch between focus position, change your rings’ rotation direction, limit focus, etc. There’s also a USB-C port you can use to update the lens’s firmware, or to connect it to your phone via a cable or wireless adapter to use Tamron Link.

In its briefing, Tamron took a lot of pride in the lens’s size and weight, saying it was comparable to slower lenses, or ones with less range, and substantially lighter than other options. The E-mount version of the lens weighs 570g (20.1oz), with the one for Nikon weighing 15g more. The Sony version is 119mm (4.7″) long, with the Z-mount version adding 2mm.

This isn’t just a new lens for Tamron, though. The company is also introducing its new branding alongside it. Those familiar with the company’s naming conventions may have noticed what’s not there, first: there’s no “Di III” or “VXD” at the end of the name, denoting it as a mirrorless lens that uses a linear motor. Like Sigma , the company has decided that it doesn’t need to distinguish its DSLR lenses from its mirrorless ones directly in the name, and likewise, most of its lenses going forward are likely to use linear motors.

The updated industrial design language that Tamron is launching with the lens is called “Toned Profile Next,” which the company says is made to match how modern cameras are designed, while feeling better in the hand and more recognizably Tamron. Compared to its older lenses, the 12-20mm F2.8 has chunkier rings for zooming, aperture control and focusing, updated textures for its touchpoints, and new placement and print color for its branding. It also narrowed the champagne-colored “brand ring” that borders the lens mount.

I personally quite like the new look, especially since it comes with a clicking aperture ring on E-mount, something Tamron hasn’t been including on its recent lenses. I also appreciate that it’s now quite easy to grip the control rings and to distinguish which one your finger is on just by feel. The switches and buttons are all satisfying to use, and the lens feels solidly built, even if I don’t prefer the finish’s smooth texture.

The Tamron 12-20mm F2.8 will cost $1699 for the E-mount version and $1799 for the Z-mount version; the company says the difference comes down to volume, behind-the-scenes differences in manufacturing, and the competition on the different mounts. The Sony version will be available starting July 30th, while Nikon owners will have to wait until August 27.

Sample Gallery

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

Thanks to Nikon for the loan of a Z8 to 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 corrects a minor amount of distortion – barrel at the wide end and pincushion at the long end – but we wouldn’t consider it an essential part of the lens design.

Tamron 12-20mm F2.8 specifications:

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Alongside the EOS R6 V, Canon introduced the 20-50mm F4 L IS USM PZ. Like most power-zoom lenses, it’s clearly mainly focused at video users who have access to a zoom toggle at their fingertips. But Canon made the unusual decision to take a hybrid approach; with the flick of a switch, you can control the zoom in the traditional manner by rotating a ring on the lens barrel between two fixed points.

We’re in the process of testing the EOS R6 V, but thought it’d be worth taking the lens out to shoot a few photos, too, to see if it also makes a decent photo lens on a camera without that zoom lever.

To answer the most obvious question first: no, the manual zoom mode isn’t mechanical. The lens’s focal length is still controlled by the power zoom motors, and there is an ever-so-slight delay between you turning the ring and the lens arriving at its destination. The lens is pretty quick, so it’s not too noticeable if you’re just zooming in slightly, but you can definitely see (and maybe hear) it if you’re going from 20mm to 50mm.

This somewhat breaks the illusion of direct control that the manual zoom portion of the lens is designed to add. It also doesn’t help that the ring is just a bit too easy to turn. That both makes it easy to accidentally change your zoom level when you didn’t mean to, and acts as another signal to your brain that you’re actually remote-controlling something, rather than physically moving parts of the lens yourself.

The good news is that, unless you bump the zoom ring, the lens will retain its focal length setting when you turn the camera body off; unlike with a compact camera, you don’t have to wait for it to move back through its range to 50mm when you turn your camera back on. However, if you move the zoom ring while the camera’s off (accidentally or otherwise), you’ll have to wait an extra moment or two for the lens’s motors to change its focal length when you turn the camera back on, during which time you won’t have any live view preview.

While I imagine some photographers may be disappointed reading the above, I’ll also say this: after about an hour or two of shooting with the lens, I mostly stopped noticing the quirks. That’s not something I can say about any of the other power zooms I’ve shot photos with, which were always that bit more annoying to use. Sure, the experience of using the 20-50mm isn’t the same as using a mechanically zooming lens. But it’s also much nicer for photography than a traditional power zoom that can only be controlled with a rocker or finicky on-lens control.

For those who care about video, the story is more straightforward: this lens is really nice to use, especially if the camera it’s on has a zoom toggle. Even if it doesn’t, the power zoom control on the lens works well. With a bit of finesse, you can use it for slow, purposeful pushes or pulls, or for crash zooms, depending on how far you push it to the W or T side.

There are also times when it’s nice to use it in the manual zoom mode, where how easy the ring is to turn becomes a feature, rather than a bug. I’ve always found it quite difficult to get smooth zoom pushes or pulls using a lens’s traditional mechanical zoom ring, but with this lens, it’s a breeze, while still offering a bit finer-grained control than the traditional power zoom control.

Canon RF 20-50mm F4 L IS USM PZ specifications:

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I have an admission: there’s just something I don’t love about shooting with the Nikon Z8. Pressing the shutter and hearing the speaker go “click” just isn’t the same experience as hearing and, more importantly, feeling, a mechanical shutter fly open and slam closed at 1/200th of a second.

There are absolutely benefits to this approach: the e-shutter won’t wear out, no matter how many times it’s used, you don’t have to worry about shutter shock* and the sensor never being blocked means the EVF has a constant feed of what’s happening in front of the lens. Were the Z8 the only camera I shot with, I’m certain I’d grow used to it and, in time, probably come to love the experience of an e-shutter-only life.

I think, though, that this mild dissatisfaction has less to do with the Z8 specifically, and a… let’s not call it an issue, but perhaps a quirk of mirrorless cameras in general and how they interact with my specific experience. They are, unquestionably, technological marvels, better in almost every way than what came before. But they aren’t mechanical wonders.

Richard Butler

I’m approaching 30 years old, which means my entire life has taken place after the digital revolution, both in cameras and the world at large. There is no Before Computers for me; some of my earliest memories are messing around with the settings of the family desktop when I was four.

As I grew older, I turned that interest into a job, building and fixing computers and, eventually, programming them and writing about technology. As a result, I understand how they work at a pretty fundamental level. While I might describe a mirrorless camera’s autofocusing and subject recognition capabilities as “magical,” I know they’re not. I’m familiar with how machine learning works, and could explain it in excruciating detail. I can recognize great software engineering, but I’m not astounded by it.

This isn’t the case for DSLRs. While I have a decent understanding of how they do what they do, I still find it incredible that it’s all possible at all. What do you mean you can use a system of mirrors, optical splitters and custom-made line sensors to let you look through the lens and autofocus at the same time? And the mirror and shutter coordinate to flip up and fire at precisely the right time to expose the sensor? 10 times a second? And they figured this out in the 90s?

Canon

It’s even truer for film, where you have a similar level of SLR complexity, but the computer part – the stuff I understand – is replaced by a strip of chemicals that physically change when exposed to light. Again, I have some knowledge of what’s actually going on. I’ve done the reading. But every time I pull developed film out of the tank and look at the negative, it just feels like witchcraft. How could pressing a button on a mirrorless camera and kicking off the take picture function in its computer ever compare?

Until you look at the pictures and realize that the Z8 can track a subject from the very edge of the frame, and have it in focus the entire time. And that it can capture it at 20fps, with no viewfinder blackout. And sync with flash at 1/250 of a second, without a mechanical shutter . It’s old news today, but versus any (D)SLR, it’s revolutionary.

Richard Butler

This effect extends beyond cameras, too, in our increasingly computerized world. I’ve pretty much exclusively worn digital watches of some form, but my coworker Richard says the obvious point of comparison is intricately made and fully mechanical watches versus computer-powered smartwatches. The silicon models are simpler, easier to understand, and more accurate than a mechanical model could ever be. But where’s the soul?

For me, the more obvious point of comparison is one more familiar to me (but no less clichéd): internal combustion engine vehicles versus electric ones.** Like with mirrorless systems, I understand at a fundamental level how EVs work. And no matter how many truly excellent explainers I watch, and even how often I work on my own cars, I still can’t really wrap my mind around how a combustion engine does what it does. (You expect me to believe all these precise operations can be synchronized by a belt or a chain?) But like with cameras, that complexity, beautiful as it is, comes with a cost: I know some prefer the traditional experience, but driving an EV, it’s hard not to see it as the future.

With all this said, there are still mechanical wonders around; both the kinds you’d expect, and ones that are a bit easier to overlook. As an example of the former, take Leica’s M-series cameras; the rangefinder mechanisms are intricate and precise, the kind of thing an unskilled technician could take apart, but not put back together. And while the company was, at one point, only producing a few hundred of its film rangefinders a year, they’ve seen a surge in popularity again, indicating a demand for that mechanical, analog experience.

There’s plenty of complex physical engineering to be found in the mirrorless world, too. Stabilization systems, both in-camera and in-lens, are an impressive dance between gyroscopic sensors, software and actuation mechanisms, and become even more so when coordinating together. And gimbals take this to an even higher level; seeing one in action can be so mesmerizing that you’d be forgiven for forgetting that the device that you’re watching corrects for the movement it’s detecting in real-time and moving a who-knows-how-heavy camera setup to match only costs $300.

I also fully realize that there will be those for whom the wonder is flipped; a mechanical engineer might be more awestruck by complex algorithms than mechanical linkages, no matter how delicate or ingenious. And some folks may be completely flummoxed by cameras new and old, alike. But whichever makes most sense with your brain, it’s worth stopping to remember that cameras aren’t just technology. They are, of course, impressive pieces of tech. But they’re also doing something special, whether we understand how it’s happening or not.

* – Which becomes an increasing concern as sensor resolution increases; there’s a reason the Sony a7R series use electronic front curtain, which avoids shutter shock, by default.

** – Apologies for choosing three particularly contentious examples.

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Sony is set to announce a new model of its RX10 enthusiast long zoom compact next week, according to a teaser video. Captioned “The wait is over. A new RX10 is coming 7/9/2026,” it shows off a silhouette of what appears to be the camera’s lens and body.

The reference to a wait is apt. The RX10 IV, which featured a 20MP Type 1 sensor (116mm²) and a 24–600mm equiv. lens, was released in late 2017, and hasn’t been available to buy new for a while now. That absence has been felt even stronger because of the lack of other cameras in this class. Panasonic’s FZ1000 II was one of its closest competitors, but is also now unavailable.

Other bridge cameras, like the Nikon P1100 or Panasonic ZS300, fill similar roles of offering a ton of zoom range, but with different sets of trade-offs. The P1100 offers a massive 24–3000 mm zoom range, but uses a Type 1/2.3 (28mm²) sensor that makes even the RX10 IV’s look massive by comparison. And while the ZS300 also uses a Type 1 sensor, its 24–360mm is decidedly less ambitious with an aperture range of F3.3–6.4, compared to the RX10 IV’s F2.4-4 (equivalent to F9-17.4 and F6.5-10.9, respectively).

Sony’s teaser has essentially no other information on what upgrades it has made to the RX10 IV’s formula in the near decade since it launched, but we don’t have long before we find out. According to the video, the announcement will be at 07:00 Pacific / 15:00 BST on July 9th.

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Rishi Sanyal

This weekend, people and cities across the US will be celebrating the Fourth of July with the traditional large firework displays. If you’re trying to capture those, there are a few things you’ll want to keep in mind if you want to get pictures that truly sparkle.

We’ve outlined the most important ones in a video, which you can watch below:

If you’re looking for a more in-depth look at how to shoot fireworks, including tips from someone who’s done it professionally, we have a few articles you can dive into, too. Stay safe, have fun, and get some great shots!

PS: not American? These tips will work just as well on November 5th, December 31st or any other day with big fireworks displays. It’s never too early to start planning!

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Panasonic

When I reviewed the Panasonic S1II, one of my biggest complaints about it was the price . It’s a very capable camera, but it was also competing against other very capable cameras that were several hundred dollars cheaper, and which didn’t ask you to give up much in return.

Now, though, things have changed a bit. Instead of selling for $3200 in the US, it’s currently listed as $2900, an approximately 9% reduction. That makes it the same price as the Sony a7 V, and only $100 more than the Canon EOS R6 III. While Panasonic’s website lists this as a sale, there’s no clear indication of an end date. B&H’s website , meanwhile, implies that this is just the new price, and, indeed, price tracking site CamelCamelCamel reports that it’s been selling at this price for about a month.

The same has happened to the S1II’s higher-resolution sibling, the S1RII. When that camera launched in February 2025, a few months before the S1II, it was listed at $3300. It’s now an even $3000, putting more distance between it and cameras like the Nikon Z8 and Canon EOS R5 II (though those cameras’ benefits over the S1RII are more obvious than with the S1II’s competitors).

In some ways, this isn’t unusual. The S1II and S1RII are over a year old now, and cameras frequently get cheaper as they age. The Nikon Z6 III is a perfect example; it launched at $2500, and is currently available for just under $2000 (which, despite its few minor flaws, is a screaming deal). This will happen to the EOS R6 III and a7 V, too, and at that time the S1II may go back to seeming like not as great a value, unless you specifically need the relatively niche features it offers that the others don’t.

This is why we typically base our pricing analysis around MSRPs; it’s not because the street price of the camera won’t change over its life, but that they typically tend to change by around the same amount, relative to the camera’s launch price and age. Still, it means that if you need to buy a camera right this moment and aren’t currently wedded to a system, the S1II makes a lot more sense than it did before. And if this truly is a change to its MSRP, and it’ll at some point go on sale even further, that could make it a very interesting option indeed.

Panasonic S1II

Panasonic S1RII