Despite what many people believe today, the View-Master wasn’t a toy. It was a photographic instrument, sold for decades alongside disks of stereoscopic photo pairs that took you a world away. And that’s where my story with the View-Master – and even my interest in photography – begins.

But my part of the story comes later. The View-Master’s story starts at the mouth of a cave in southern Oregon in 1938.

According to the Oregon Historical Society, Harold Graves, the president of Sawyer’s, a photo-finishing company in Portland, was vacationing there when he met a photographer named William Gruber, who was carrying a homemade stereo photography rig.

Sawyer’s had become the nation’s largest producer of scenic postcards. Gruber had figured out how to mount tiny chips of the then-new Kodachrome film into a paper reel that could be viewed through a small handheld stereoscope. Graves, Gruber and Sawyer’s co-owner Edwin Mayer, sensing an opportunity, struck up a partnership and developed the View-Master, which made its debut at the 1939 New York World’s Fair.

It’s worth thinking about what Sawyer’s thought it was selling. The View-Master was pitched as an alternative to the scenic postcard, targeting the same channels postcards did: gift shops at scenic locations, stationery stores and even photography shops. Notably, not toy stores.

Dale Baskin

Even the US military took notice; it ordered 100,000 of the viewers to use for training during World War II.

The View-Master wasn’t the first device for viewing stereo images, a technology that predated practical photography; Charles Wheatstone, a member of the Royal Society, described his stereoscope, which used drawings, in 1838, a year before the daguerreotype was announced to the world. But photography made stereo viewing far more compelling than drawings ever could, and “stereographs” became a popular form of visual entertainment in the latter half of the 19th and earlier 20th centuries.

What the View-Master managed to do was productize stereo photo viewing in a dummy-proof device that was easy to use, in beautiful Kodachrome color. The earliest reels featured the same things as postcards, including National Parks, famous landmarks, and scenic travel destinations.

The View-Master-as-toy came later. In 1951, Sawyer’s bought Tru-Vue, its main competitor, which had a license with Walt Disney Studios, and Disney reels and other entertainment brands like Looney Tunes and The Muppets followed. So, the View-Master was eventually sold as a toy. It just didn’t start as one.

Dale Baskin

As a child, I loved the View-Master. Whenever we got a new set of picture disks, it gave me a new world to explore. During our family’s summer road trips, I could spend hours in the back of our banana-yellow station wagon, looking at photos through my View-Master.

That’s pretty remarkable when you think about the fact that each disk contained just seven pairs of images. In an age where the phones in our pockets put limitless media at our disposal, that seems like a staggeringly small set of photos, but somehow I just kept looking at them. Over and over again. I probably looked at some of those photos thousands of times, and I never got tired of it.

Back then, View-Master disks could be found at tourist locations. Every National Park gift shop had them. Sure, you could buy a postcard, but the View-Master disk of the park was way better. (Unless, of course, you actually wanted to send someone a postcard.) You could relive the experience of that National Park for hours during the drive to the next National Park, where you could acquire a new set of View-Master reels. In contrast, you had to wait until you got home to see the photos your parents took.

In 1952, in a further nod to photographers, Sawyer’s launched the View-Master Personal Stereo Camera, which allowed you to capture 69 pairs of photos on a 36-exposure roll of film. The company offered a mail-order mounting service, or users could mount their own photos on View-Master reels. You still had to wait until you got home to process your images, but you could have View-Master reels of your trip. It’s amazing to think you could buy an entire camera system built around this.

John Alan Elson

While visiting my parents recently, I found a box with my childhood View-Master inside. Nostalgia is a strong thing, so I immediately took it off the shelf, inserted one of the reels and found myself staring at Yosemite National Park, displayed in rich colors and deep shadows. It had the unmistakable look of Kodachrome and reminded me of the slides my father shot on family vacations.

My father was always taking pictures. No vacation was complete without a camera coming along. Back home, we’d gather in the living room for slideshow nights, kind of like movie nights today, where he would load one box of 36 slides at a time into the stack loader on our Kodak projector, allowing us to relive whatever slice of our lives had passed during that roll of film. Those slides were usually Kodachrome, too.

The images on those old View-Master disks had that same look, but with a couple of important differences. First, they were stereo pairs, and the depth made them less like pictures and more like places.

The second one mattered more. Most were of incredible landscapes I had never seen, or people from different cultures and faraway lands. It was like browsing through the photos in a National Geographic magazine (something else I did a lot as a kid; I wasn’t as good about reading the articles back then), except better. My father’s slides showed me where we had been. The View-Master showed me where I hadn’t been yet, and I wanted to go to those places and take pictures of them.

Dale Baskin

In retrospect, I think the View-Master was a proxy for the camera I didn’t own yet. Today, I realize that it wasn’t just looking at the pictures that I enjoyed, but the act of holding the device up to my eyes, of looking through the viewfinder up close, and having the all-immersive experience of seeing that and nothing else.

We live in a time when taking photos often involves holding a screen in front of our faces. I still don’t get the same satisfaction from that experience as bringing the viewfinder to my eye, focusing on the image and letting the rest of the world fade away. And I suspect that’s one thing that draws a lot of new photographers to a dedicated camera. Once you know that feeling, it’s addictive.

As a kid, I wanted to take photos like my Dad. I wanted to take photos like the ones in National Geographic. And I wanted to take photos like the ones I saw in the View-Master.

And when I finally bought my first roll of film with my own money, it was Kodachrome.

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Meet Afzal Khan

Home base: Kathmandu, Nepal

I’m always interested in the way photographers describe their relationship with their camera, and Afzal Khan’s story is a particularly thoughtful example. What began with film rolls and childhood self-portraits evolved into a nearly 16-year photographic journey, influenced by a search for calm amid a demanding advertising career.

From Kathmandu, Nepal, Afzal now uses photography to take it slower and notice the people around him, finding deep stories in their solemn faces, old homes and the majestic landscapes of Nepal. In this edition of ‘What’s in your bag?’, he also talks about his move from a Sony A7R IV to the Hasselblad X1D II.

“Photography has been close to me since childhood. During the film era, I used to buy film rolls and take photographs of myself, usually with the help of friends. It was just something I enjoyed, without really thinking that photography would become such an important part of my life. What started as something I enjoyed as a child has now been with me for nearly 16 years, and I am still continuing the journey.”

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

How did you get started as a photographer?

Afzal Khan

“When I started working in advertising in 2004 as a creative, I slowly found myself getting involved with photography from the other side of the camera. As a creative director, I worked with many reputed photographers in Nepal and spent a lot of time observing how they worked and how they saw things through the lens.

Around 2009, I carried a friend’s camera on a trekking trip, and that was probably when I started to feel I might have an eye for photography. Then, around 2010–11, I bought my first camera, a Sony A230, and started taking photography more seriously.

At that time, my advertising career was at its peak, and the work was quite hectic. I needed a break, some peace and a little calmness in my life. Photography gave me exactly that. It became almost like a medicine for me. I could step away from the pressure of work, go somewhere, observe things and just spend time with the camera.”

What’s in Afzal’s bag

Afzal Khan

Favorite cameras(s): Hasselblad X1D II and Sony A7R IV

Favorite lens(s): Sony Zeiss 55mm FE ZA, Sony Zeiss 135mm F1.8 and a Lensbaby Sol 45.

“Just a few months ago, I switched brands. I am currently shooting with a Hasselblad X1D II and Hasselblad XCD 65mm lens. It is a new chapter for me, and I am enjoying the change.”

Must-have accessories: “One accessory I really like is the Peak Design Capture Clip, especially the limited edition made with Carryology. I also like the Peak Design backpack from the Coyote series. Apart from that, I prefer not to carry too many things. For me, the simpler the setup, the easier it is to concentrate on what I am seeing and photographing.

I love writing and reading, too, so my camera bag usually has one or two books in it. I also carry a wired earphone, a pen and a small box of natural solid perfume. They are not really photography essentials, but they are things I like having. My camera bag is not just a camera bag; it carries a few things that are part of my everyday life, too.

I am also looking forward to getting the Chinotech waist-level viewfinder, which is currently on my wishlist.”

What do you like to shoot?

Afzal Khan

“I never really believed in dividing photography into genres. A camera doesn’t say, “I only capture landscapes” or “I only capture wildlife.” For me, a camera is simply a tool that allows me to capture what I love to see. I am usually more attracted to things that people tend to ignore, forgotten places, ordinary people and small moments of life that may look insignificant but actually have many stories hidden inside them. There are so many moments happening around us that we hardly notice, and I think I am always looking for those moments.

If I had to describe myself as a photographer, I would probably say I am a storyteller. I am always hunting for a story, whether it is in a person’s face, a place, a small detail or a particular moment. I enjoy many kinds of photography, but if I had to pick my favorites, portraits, macro, and more artistic and experimental work are what attract me most. They give me the freedom to look at things a little differently and tell a story in my own way.”

What’s changed since the beginning?

Afzal Khan

“I have gone deeper into searching for stories and understanding life and nature. I think most of my improvement came from regular practice. I never really made photography my profession, and I was never behind followers or trying to become popular. I simply kept doing it because I love photography.

That regular practice not only refined my skills of capturing things, but also improved my observation. I became more curious and more of an observer. I started noticing things, moments and stories that I might have ignored before. I think photography has not only made me a better photographer, but it has also made me a better observer and, in some ways, a better human being.”

What places have helped you to better understand your photography?

Afzal Khan

“I believe I can find stories in almost every corner, though I am not really a crowded-place or festival-kind-of photographer. I need some breathing space to observe things, understand the surroundings and create or capture some stories. I usually feel more connected to quieter places, where I can slow down and look around.

In recent years, two places that really stayed with me are Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha, and the Forbidden Kingdom of Mustang. Both places helped me understand my subjects in a different way.

In Mustang, I started to feel stories even in the landscapes. The sand, land and mountains create a kind of magic that makes you look at the landscape differently. Lumbini gave me something completely different. Its spirituality and calm made me look at human life in a quieter way, and that was reflected in the pictures I took there. Both places were not just trips for me; they changed the way I saw and photographed the subjects around me.”

What would you say to other photographers about their work mattering?

Afzal Khan

“I feel many photographers today are trying to capture photographs with their brain, thinking they can make everything later on a computer or through an app. But for me, the photograph is actually created at the time of the shoot. So I would say, shoot with your heart, not just with your brain. Cameras already have enough brains these days.

What we need is the heart to understand and feel the subject, to observe before pressing the shutter, to feel the moment, and to hunt for your own kind of light. Getting good light and capturing a photograph is not enough. Look for ‘your’ kind of light, the light that is pleasant to your eye and makes the subject feel more like yours. That, for me, is where photography becomes personal.

It may sound a little weird, but I actually talk to my camera sometimes. I might say, “It’s good, let’s capture,” or after taking a photograph, “That’s great, well done.” I think this little friendship between my camera and me actually makes a difference.

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

You can check out Afzal’s other work at behance.net/afzalkhanvisuals.

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

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Leica has announced the Summicron-M 66 F2, which it says is a “reinterpretation” of one of the rarest M-mount lenses ever made: the Elcan 66mm F2, which was specially designed for the US Navy’s use in “covert reconnaissance photography.”

According to Leica’s press release, there were only around 200 copies of the original lens, designed by Dr Walter Mandler of Ernst Leitz Canada in the late 1960s, ever made. Its spy-centered origins also explain the odd focal length; it was designed to balance providing maximum resolution and contrast, without being too big. It’s not hard to imagine why the US Navy and its allies would want that in the midst of the Cold War.

Leica

The new lens contains several references to its lineage. Leica says the aperture ring turns in the opposite direction from a typical M-lens – you twist it left to stop down, instead of right – and the distance scale is military-spec. It will also be a limited edition; the company is producing 660 of them, which will have their serial number engraved on the front ring. The first lens, 001, will be auctioned.

Optically, the lens has 6 elements in 5 groups, and can focus on subjects as close as 1m (3′ 3″) away. It has a 9-bladed aperture. Leica says that, at F2, it will have “distinctive rendering” with “soft bokeh and high contrast,” while providing “maximum resolution” when stopped down. You can see some samples taken by Mike Chudley and provided by Leica below, though it’s hard to critically examine a lens’s performance based on JPEGs that have gone through an unknown editing process. Thankfully, Leica has also provided MTF charts.

Leica

The lens weights 456g (16.1oz), and is around 60mm (2.4″) long. It has a 49mm filter thread and, unlike some other premium Leica lenses, has a screw-on hood, rather than an integrated one.

This isn’t the first reinterpretation of the lens that we’ve seen. Leica’s movie-focused sister company, Leitz Cine, sells the Hugo 66mm T2.1, which is also based on the Elcan. However, that lens is designed for PL and L mount, is much larger and has geared focus and aperture rings designed to make life easier on a movie set.

Leica says the Summicron-M 66 F2 will be available starting September 3 for $10,900. While that’s a hefty sum for an F2 lens, even by Leica standards, it’s a pittance for what you’d pay for one of the originals, assuming you were even able to find one (which is apparently no small task). One went up for auction in 2020, with a starting price of €40,000, though it ended up going unsold. Similarly, every listing of the cine version of the lens that I found had a “Contact Us” button instead of a price, essentially saying that if you have to ask, you can’t afford it. 

Manufacturer Samples

Leica

Leica Summicron-M 66 F2

Specifications

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DJI has announced the Osmo 360 II, its second-generation 360-degree action camera. The latest version is an iterative successor rather than a redesign, building on the original model’s dual square-sensor design and 8K panoramic capture, without substantially changing the camera’s core hardware or shooting concept.

DJI

One of the most consequential changes is the move to swappable lenses, rather than the fixed ones used by the original Osmo 360. Following in the footsteps of Insta360, DJI now sells a replacement kit for $30, which is substantially more affordable than having to replace the entire camera if you accidentally scratch or crack a protruding lens.

The camera uses two Type 1/1.1 square sensors (one for each lens) with 2.4 μm pixels, matching the sensor specifications of the original Osmo 360. The company says each of its sensors features “an imaging area equivalent to that of a 1-inch CMOS sensor with a 4:3 aspect ratio,” or 123mm² each.

DJI claims 14.5 stops of dynamic range from the camera, which is one additional stop compared to the previous model. As with most dynamic range claims, though, we’d take that number with a grain of salt, and DJI hasn’t specified where that extra stop is coming from. There’s every chance it’s mainly due to noise reduction, although DJI did somewhat quietly switch to a LOFIC sensor in its Osmo Pocket 4P to improve dynamic range.

DJI

The camera is capable of up to 8K/60 video, up from the original version’s 8K/50. Slow motion video also gets an increase, with up to 4K/240 possible, compared to a max of 4K/100 previously. Panoramic photo resolution remains at 120MP, though it gets the benefit of HDR this time around. DJI also added a ‘Spotlight Follow’ mode that promises to track your subject, keeping them in the center of the frame, with footage up to 4K/30 possible in this mode. 

DJI has also updated how users connect the camera to its Mimo app. It now supports the ability to tap to connect using NFC. The Osmo 360 II keeps the same 105GB of onboard storage and is waterproof to 10m (33′) without a case.

The DJI Osmo 360 II will be available for purchase outside of Asia starting on September 15. As expected, it will not be officially available in the US. In most EU countries, the new camera will cost 589 EUR.

DJI

DJI Osmo 360 II

GoPro has announced that it’s entered into a “definitive merger agreement” with Starman Optical, a little-known entity described in the press release as a “privately held optical-photonics company.” According to current GoPro CEO Nick Woodman, the company hopes the move will help it “grow across consumer, commercial and defense markets,” and address “important areas of national security related to cameras, optics and AI infrastructure.”

This is, to put it mildly, a bit of a pivot from its current role as an action camera company. A few hints suggest that the action camera business may not be going away, though. For one, GoPro promises it will “continue to fully support its existing consumer products and its subscription and cloud platform.” While that’s good news for anyone who just bought the Mission 1 Pro ILS, released just a week before this news broke, the word “existing” casts a bit of doubt on whether we’ll see new consumer cameras from the company in the future. 

There are a few references to the company’s “growth potential” in consumer markets, but there’s much heavier emphasis on US national security and manufacturing. GoPro founder and CEO Nick Woodman says the company plans to address “important areas of national security related to cameras, optics and AI infrastructure.” And Charles Tebele, CEO of Starman Holding, says “The combination of GoPro’s world-class optical expertise and intellectual property with Starman’s advanced transceiver capabilities and U.S. manufacturing platform creates a unique opportunity. Together, we intend to bring production of these critical components back to the United States.”

In the US, national security has long been big business, with lucrative military contracts sustaining many companies, even ones better known for their consumer products. But it’s become an increasingly hot-button topic in recent years, with the US government promising billions to companies making semiconductors within its borders, and placing import restrictions on companies like DJI based on perceived threats to national security. The company also promises to expand into the hot and controversial “AI Data Center” space, though to me that reads more as it filling out its bingo card of phrases you’re required to use in a press release in 2026.

As a camera company, GoPro has some share in the military industrial complex – when we interviewed NASA astronaut and US Air Force Col. Terry Virts in 2019, he said Russia beat the US to the punch by flying GoPros into space (though NASA has since included the cameras on multiple flights, including its recent Artemis II mission) – but it’s not exactly a major player. It’s clear its leadership sees the merger as an opportunity to change that, with intents to “leverage its IP, optics and imaging capabilities across defense, government, robotics and aerospace markets, building on demand for U.S.-made solutions.” Woodman reiterates that point, saying: “We’re excited to combine with the Starman team to capitalize on this opportunity and play an important role in America’s future.”

Mitchell Clark

GoPro has been in dire financial straits for a while, following years of Chinese competitors like DJI and Insta360 introducing action cameras that tempted would-be buyers away with innovative features, new form factors and larger sensors, while the Hero line largely stagnated. This year, the company announced the Mission 1 series that largely caught back up with, and in some respects surpassed, those competitors, but it may have been too late. Earlier this summer, it warned investors that there was “substantial doubt” about its ability to continue in business. At the time, it said it was investigating “opportunities within the defense and aerospace sector.” Those investigations were apparently fruitful.

According to the press release, the merger – which will see $285 million paid to GoPro shareholders – will see the company’s $92 million in debt paid off, “resulting in a clean, substantially debt-free balance sheet.” The company will remain publicly listed, though its unclear whether that listing will be for GoPro alone or the newly combined entity; GoPro’s press release promises “additional information regarding the transaction upon closing.”

Finally, there’s the question of who Starman Optical is, and how it has the money to buy GoPro. As best I can tell, it’s a subsidiary of Starman Holding, a company that owns several sub-brands, including popular phone case and accessory companies like Incase and Incipio. While Starman Holding’s website doesn’t list Starman Optical as one of its companies, it does list Starman New Photonics, and its About Us page names Charlie Tebele as its CEO. The websites for both Starman Holding and Starman New Photonics don’t have a ton of information on them, though that’s not that odd for this kind of company.

GoPro expects the deal to close by the end of the year, assuming it’s approved by regulators and GoPro shareholders. 

Camera Intelligence, the company behind the Caira camera that attaches to the back of your iPhone, is adding even more AI features to the device. The app that powers the camera is getting the ability to edit videos shot on it using generative AI, building on a feature that allowed you to make similar adjustments to your photos.

The company says the feature will support a few types of edits: “relighting” footage (making a video shot at noon look like it was taken at golden hour, for instance), reframing it, emulating a camera motion like a tilt or pan and “set extension,” which the company says lets you “extend the world by 10 seconds beyond what was filmed on location.” The options are presented as templates that you can pick from, though there is a chatbot that you can use to give additional input; for example, you can use it to tell the AI that the “orbit” camera move should be centered around a specific person in the shot.

Camera Intelligence

The Caira shoots at up to 4K, though the clips produced by the generative AI are limited to 720 or 1080. The tool can use Google’s Gemini Omni 1.1 Flash model, or Runway’s Aleph 2.0, and gives you the option to select which one you’d like before setting it to work. The company says it takes one to three minutes to produce a finished video.

Camera Intelligence stresses that the tool can only be used to edit existing footage that you took with the camera, not create something entirely new. It’ll keep your original footage, and the generated file will have a Google SynthID watermark. The company says it started work on the feature after surveying 111 Kickstarter backers* and hearing from 77% of them that they’d like the feature. 

In a press release, it says the feature is designed for “solo creators and marketers who may not have the budget to commission this work and who are often overwhelmed by pro editing tools – but who are excited by these technologies and what they make possible.”

Generating video, like generating images, isn’t particularly cheap. The company says the feature will be available “alongside Generative Image Editing and a yet-to-be-announced feature” as part of Caira Studio, which is launching later this year. Pricing hasn’t been announced yet, but the company has made it clear from the start that generative editing features would require a subscription. The Kickstarter page promised that the “Caira Pro” plan would be $7 a month, but that only included stills editing.

Camera Intelligence says the generative video editing feature will only be available in the US and UK.

Watching the samples that Camera Intelligence included in its announcement video, I understand why the company is pitching this as a prototyping tool – something you can use to see if a shot will work before actually trying to capture it – rather than something you’d use to produce final footage. While the company says the Omni model is “physics-aware and remembers the scene across an entire clip,” if you look close you can definitely still see some AI artifacting. 

Even if the model produced perfect footage, this still isn’t the kind of tool I’d like to use. But it doesn’t surprise me that the people who initially backed the camera based on the pitch of its AI capabilities are interested in it, and it seems like a natural extension of the work Camera Intelligence was already doing. I’m just not sure this feature will entice anyone else to buy the Caira if they weren’t already sold, or demand that the traditional camera makers start building something similar. 

* Speaking of those backers, the company says it’s “delivered the majority of Kickstarter units” of the Caira and is delivering the outstanding ones on a monthly basis.

The National Audubon Society has announced the winners of the 2026 Audubon Photography Awards, with Jacqueline Burke of the US winning the US and Canada Grand Prize for a photo of a Roseate Spoonbill and Francisco Castro Escobar of Chile winning the Chile and Colombia Grand Prize for a photo of a Lesser Horned Owl.

The specific geographic designations reflect the Audubon Society’s hemispheric conservation model. Birds aren’t bound by international borders, and hundreds of species migrate thousands of kilometers each year along flyways that stretch between North, Central and South America. Colombia hosts nearly 20 percent of the world’s avian species, and Chile’s 6,435km (3,999mi) of coastline and wetlands are vital stopovers and wintering grounds for many shorebirds coming from as far away as the Arctic.

The National Audubon Society, founded in 1905, sponsors the contest each year to celebrate bird and bird habitat photography and to further its conservation mission. This is the second year the competition has included prizes to Chile and Colombia residents. Winners and honorable mentions will be published online in Audubon magazine, and winners will be featured in the Fall 2026 print issue. The top 100 photos will be announced on September 23. If you’re interested in entering next year’s competition, which opens for entries on January 13, 2027, you can find the full contest rules and category details on the Audubon website.

If you really enjoy bird photography, you can also check out our coverage of Audubon’s previous award winners from 2025, 2023 and 2022.

U.S. and Canada winners

Jacqueline Burke

Photographer: Jacqueline Burke (USA)
Award: Grand Prize
Species: Roseate Spoonbill
Photo location: St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park, St. Augustine, Florida, USA

Liron Gertsman

Photographer: Liron Gertsman (Canada)
Award: Birds in Landscapes – Winner
Species: White-tailed Tropicbird
Photo location: Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park, Volcano, Hawai’i, USA

Nick Parayko

Photographer: Nick Parayko (Canada)
Award: Birds Without Borders – Winner
Species: Tennessee Warbler
Photo location: St. Albert, Alberta, Canada (in his backyard)

Josh Galicki

Photographer: Josh Galicki (USA)
Award: Conservation – winner
Species: Northern Gannets
Photo location: Isle of Noss, Shetland Islands, United Kingdom

Mike Henry

Photographer: Mike Henry (USA)
Award: Plants for Birds – winner
Species: Gila Woodpecker and saguaro cactus
Photo location: Tucson, Arizona, USA

Ian Shultz

Photographer: Ian Shultz (USA)
Award: Youth – Winner
Species: Rock Pigeon
Photo location: Golden Gardens Park, Seattle, Washington, USA

Gail Bisson

Photographer: Gail Bisson (Canada)
Award: Female Bird – Winner
Species: Common Merganser
Photo location: East Bay Sandbar, Nova Scotia, Canada

Photographer: Piper VanOrd (USA)
Award: Video – Winner
Species: Great Blue Heron
Photo location: Allegheny Islands Wilderness, National Wild & Scenic Allegheny River, Warren, Pennsylvania

Chile and Colombia winners

Francisco Castro Escobar

Photographer: Francisco Castro Escobar (Chile)
Award: Grand
Species: Lesser Horned Owl
Photo location: Antofagasta, Chile

Rodrigo González Pairoa

Photographer: Rodrigo González Pairoa (Chile)
Award: Birds Without Borders – Winner
Species: Black-browed Albatross
Photo location: Almirantazgo Fjord, Chile

Photographer: Nicolás Muñoz García (Chile)
Award: Video – Winner
Species: Black-browed Albatross
Photo location: Isla Chañaral Marine Reserve, Huasco Province, Chile. The nearest town is Caleta Chañaral de Aceituno

Santiago Giraldo

Photographer: Santiago Giraldo (Colombia)
Award: Plants for Birds Colombia – Winner
Species: Yellow-eared Parrot and Quindio wax palm
Photo location: Anaime, Cajamarca, Tolima

Juan David Camacho Márquez

Photographer: Juan David Camacho Márquez (Colombia)
Award: Youth – Winner
Species: Canada Warbler
Photo location: Doña Dora Birding, El Queremal, Valle del Cauca, Colombia

Santiago Pérez Rincón

Photographer: Santiago Pérez Rincón (Colombia)
Award: Conservation – Winner
Species: Yellow-eared Parrot
Photo location: Anaime River Canyon, Rural District of the Municipality of Cajamarca, Department of Tolima, Colombia.

Faber Mosquera Alvarez

Photographer: Faber Mosquera Alvarez (Colombia)
Award: Birds in Landscapes, Colombia – Winner
Species: Oilbird
Photo location: Pijao, Quindío, Colombia. In the Cañón de los Guácharos

Gonzalo Bertolotto Quintana

Photographer: Gonzalo Bertolotto Quintana (Chile)
Award: Coastal Birds of Chile – Winner
Species: Gentoo Penguin
Photo location: Fildes Bay, Antarctica, in the vicinity of the Chilean bases

Timothy Dhalleine

Photographer: Timothy Dhalleine (Chile)
Award: Birds in Landscapes, Chile – Winner
Species: Crested Caracara
Photo location: Torres del Paine National Park, Magallanes and Chilean Antarctic region, Chile

Close-up wildlife encounters are one of those things you tend not to forget, especially if you’re a photographer and always have your camera at the ready. From massive bison to tiny birds, our community certainly impressed us this week with the encounters they shared for our Question of the Week series.

See below for some of those photos and stories. Even our own team got in on the fun! Click a member’s photo to see more.

Vladimir Nogin

David Lal

“I live in a rural English village which is in a national park. We get a lot of animal visitors to the garden. I care for them: feeding in the winter or offering water in our current drought. One winter morning, I was putting out the rubbish bin for collection. On turning round to walk back up the drive to the house, I noticed a young vixen on the drive staring at me. She was cold and wet – and hungry. I spoke gently to her and told her to follow me to the kitchen door. Blimey me, she did!

I keep a camera always ready. I threw her some dog biscuits, then offered her one with my left hand while my right held a Nikon D300 with an 18-35mm lens.”

Krusty79

Krusty79

“My friend and I were driving around some hills on the rural roads around Hollister, CA. We had spotted a golden eagle and had photographed it from a distance. Another golden eagle started following the first one. It must not have noticed us, because it came over a small hill right towards us! It got so close that my camera couldn’t focus on it. If I didn’t have my camera, I might have been close enough to touch a wingtip.”

dgbinpc

dgbinpc

“My first trip to Yellowstone National Park in winter was amazing. Snow everywhere. Bison covered in snow. Pillows of white piled along the rivers. It was a trip that exceeded all my expectations. We were told we might see wolves, and we did – miles away, through a spotting scope. It was exciting, but hardly intimate.

A few years later, I returned to Yellowstone in winter. As our snowcoach took us into the park from West Yellowstone, our driver pointed out wolf tracks that left the roadway and climbed the hillside beside us. He suggested we drive a little farther down the road. Maybe, if we were lucky, we would see them.

And see them we did. The wolves emerged from the trees several hundred yards behind us and dropped onto the groomed road. Apparently, the road was a pretty good travel route for them, too.”

RichDitch

RichDitch

“I had been in Arizona a bit over one year when there was a surprising report of an Eared Trogon seen about 2 hours north of Phoenix along Christopher Creek. Elegant Trogons are sparse nesters in southern AZ; Eared Trogons are very rare vagrants near the border with Mexico.

I had to go to Christopher Creek, hoping to see the reported bird. I waited around with a few other birders for over an hour after they had given up when I heard an unfamiliar call. I looked up in the tree I was standing under, and there it was! This is my best shot of the bird, on Fuji slide film with an N90 (probably) and my manual focus Nikkor 400 F5.6.

The species is now known as the Eared Quetzal. This shot was used as the Cover of the Western Birds Journal.”

CaseyD

FujiRon

“When my girlfriend and I moved from a small town in California to an even smaller town in rural Oregon, we were amazed by the amount of wildlife that came out of the forest and wetlands behind our home. We’ve had Black Bear, Bobcat, Black-tailed Deer, Coyote, Raccoons, too many species of birds to account for, frogs, snakes, newts, and who knows what else goes through at night.

As a cat owner, I particularly enjoyed my backyard encounter with a young Bobcat that stopped to pose for pictures, eventually got bored, and walked back into the forest.”

elliottnewcomb

elliottnewcomb

“I stepped out of my front door, exactly when the cicadas came out of the ground, emerged from their shells, and were drying their wings, so I could get within inches of them. I used a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 M1 – close focus and no macro setting or macro lens.”

fuji_phile_e

fuji_phile_e

“Being an inner-city dweller, we don’t see much other than gulls, sparrows, blackbirds and jackdaws on a regular basis, though I sometimes see various tits, occasional dunnock and robins, and once a dinky Eurasian wren.

I’m sharing some juvenile jackdaw images here. It was waiting for its mam, by the looks of it. I kept out of sight to avoid stressing it, using a window angled obliquely to obscure me, my XF100-400mm on my X-T3 poking under the window.

This first pic is what I call the Marilyn Monroe shot.”

Nigelpitt13

Nigelpitt13

“While on an early morning walking safari in Southern Africa, I came across four young cheetahs in my path approximately thirty yards from me. I was standing in long grass because there had been heavy rain the previous week. I stopped, raised my camera lens and focused on the Cheetah closest to me. The Cheetah stopped in the open and stood and looked straight at me while I took a few shots. I then focused on the others as they made their way down to the open riverbed and crossed into Botswana.

A beautiful moment in close contact. Luckily, there were no lions, leopards, or hyenas nearby (The cheetah would’ve known). In a matter of minutes, all four cheetahs had moved off. Two things one never does when encountering wild animals: never show fear (they can sense it); two, never ever run (they’ll see you as prey).”

FuhTeng

FuhTeng

“My family and I (wife and two pre-teen boys) had a wonderful road trip to Grand Teton National Park (and then Yellowstone and then Badlands) this summer. We kept hearing from everyone about how they’d seen bears, but we hadn’t seen one yet. We were in the Colter Bay visitor center area and went for a hike, knowing there was a grizzly who’d been around the area. We hoped to see him from a nice, safe distance.

I was grumpy from not seeing a bear, and tired and warm from the hike, so I just wanted to get back to the car. At that moment, I came to a land bridge between the near-island we’d hiked around and the mainland. It’s only a few yards wide, maybe 8 or 9, when THIS appears. I didn’t believe it at first. I remember pausing and going, “That’s not real.” Then instincts took over, and I dropped to my knee and got my long lens up for a couple of shots.

Then I realized – THERE’S NO WHERE TO GO. He’s coming right at us…”

BenGauthier

BenGauthier

“I spent the summer in a coastal small town of Britanny, Trébeurden. I like to fish nearly every day. For a couple of years, I have been admiring seals that live on rocks around the location, 1 mile from the coast. It seems that they became used to my small boat. On the first encounter, they were difficult to see from less than 150 feet away. This year, they stay on their rocks even though I can see them from 50 feet away.

Here is a picture taken with a 100 mm equivalent (Sony RX100). One of the seals came close to the boat. These animals are beautiful and sometimes noisy, and their song sounds like a wolf’s.”

There are many other photos that we unfortunately couldn’t fit into this article. They all deserve praise and to be seen, so be sure to visit the forum discussion. Thanks to everyone who took the time to step outside and capture the unique wildlife encounters of your region.

Zeiss has named KEH Camera its exclusive authorized repair and service center for photography lenses and equipment in the US and Canada, the two companies announced today. The Atlanta-based used-gear specialist will handle work on everything from postwar Zeiss Jena glass to current Otus ML optics.

KEH will handle both in-warranty and out-of-warranty work for those in the US and Canada. The KEH technicians are trained directly by Zeiss and will use genuine manufacturer parts along with Zeiss-approved calibration tools and procedures, according to the announcement. The companies specify that all repairs will meet Zeiss engineering standards. 

KEH

The most important detail of the announcement is the scope. Coverage extends to “decades-old legacy lenses,” with the companies specifically citing postwar Zeiss Jena optics, the 1960s Contarex system and large-format Zeiss lenses built for Linhof and Graflex, alongside current Batis and Otus ML lines. “Be they new or legacy ZEISS cameras and lenses, we are confident that KEH Camera has the skills necessary to provide value to our loyal optics owners,” said Tony Wisniewski, senior manager for Zeiss Photography Americas.

The coverage of older lenses represents a reversal of Zeiss’s long-stated position: its photography service pages state that legacy Hasselblad, Contax/Yashica, Rollei, Carl Zeiss Jena and Zeiss Ikon gear “can unfortunately no longer be repaired by Zeiss,” directing owners to independent workshops. Now, though, the companies have confirmed that even Yashica and Rollei optics can be serviced by KEH.

For gear that previously fell under Zeiss’s service policy, the new partnership replaces a rather roundabout arrangement. Until now, Zeiss instructed US photo lens owners needing warranty service to contact their dealer or the distributor in the country of purchase, rather than sending equipment to a dedicated Zeiss service center. Under the new agreement, users can initiate repairs through Zeiss’s online service portal, with KEH coordinating shipment. Customers can also drop off equipment at KEH’s retail location in Atlanta. 

KEH already serves as an authorized repair partner for Sony and Sigma, and says it is the only reseller in the camera industry with manufacturer-approved repair facilities. Its track record shows that repair is central to its business. KEH chairman and CEO Glenn Kaufman connected the Zeiss agreement to that mission, explaining that it’s “a natural extension of what KEH has always stood for: keeping great gear in circulation and out of landfills.”

Zeiss

Zeiss “decided to kind of hit pause on photo, to wait and see what happens” during the pandemic, Wisniewski told us last year, while continuing to sell the lenses it already made. That pause ran nearly six years, ending with two Otus ML lenses in 2025. This partnership to expand repair options for customers in North America suggests the company’s renewed investment extends past new products.

Disclosure: MPB, a competitor to KEH in the used-gear market, is a DPReview sponsor. This article was produced independently.

Adobe recently released the newest version of its Raw processing software, Adobe Camera Raw 18.6. Its headline feature is a native Glow effect tool that gives users three analog-inspired looks – diffusion, bloom and halation – directly within ACR. Other features include a new Metadata Info Panel that shows image data directly in the editing workspace, and photographers and designers who work with composites gain a new Trim tool that makes everything outside a crop transparent, rather than leaving it as hidden pixels. The update also adds support for additional camera and lens profiles.

What Glow does

The new Glow tool lives in Camera Raw’s Effects panel alongside the existing Vignette and Grain sliders. Adobe’s documentation describes three selectable styles. Diffusion applies a hazy, film-like softening effect that spreads across the frame, similar to what a Black Mist or Pro Mist filter attached to your lens would achieve. Bloom produces a softer, more even glow confined to the highlights, which could be useful for misty scenes and waterfalls. Halation adds a colored halo effect around bright edges and light sources, similar to the warm, or red-orange fringing that appears on film when light reflects off the film base back through the emulsion.

Glow works inside Camera Raw’s masking system, so the effect can be dialed up or down on a subject, a luminance range or a selected area, though the Style, Range, Spread and Warmth sub-settings are shared globally – masks control how much something glows, not the kind of glow.

Greg Benz, a digital photo educator (and a member of the DPReview community), posted a helpful video on his YouTube channel illustrating the capabilities of ACR’s new Glow tool, including examples of using masks to achieve localized results. If you’re interested in learning more about it, we highly recommend giving it a watch.

One thing worth calling out: Glow is currently an ACR-only feature and isn’t available in Lightroom. Though given the close relationship between the two applications, we wouldn’t be surprised to see it show up in Lightroom at some point.

Other new features

ACR’s new Metadata Info Panel provides an easy way to see read-only metadata for any photo you’re viewing in Camera Raw. Clicking the small “i” on the right-hand pane of ACR will display the camera model, lens, image dimensions, file size, capture date, copyright information, file name and caption (if present). It will also display any content credentials information embedded in the photo.

Mitchell Clark

The new Trim tool is located in the Crop & Expand panel. It can be used to trim an image to the exact area you’ve selected, making everything outside the crop transparent rather than retaining it as hidden pixels. This is different than a normal crop in ACR, which is non-destructive, keeping the pixels outside the cropped area but not displaying them. This removes a step for photographers or designers creating composites or those who need transparent backgrounds. 

Trim can also be used in conjunction with Generative Expand: trim to the area you want, then expand the canvas using generative content from Adobe Firefly.

According to Adobe, ACR 18.6 also supports additional cameras and lenses, including the Tamron 12-20mm F2.8 and Reeflex anamorphic and fisheye lenses for iPhone. As of this writing, Adobe hasn’t updated its list of supported camera models since earlier in August; you can check the company’s camera support page for the latest information.

ACR 18.6 is available now through the Creative Cloud desktop app. You can find the full release notes on Adobe’s website with additional details in a post to the Adobe Community site.

Experimenting with “recipes” that build on Fujifilm’s “Film Simulations” to change the look of your JPEGs – subtly or not so much – has long been a tradition among a certain set of the company’s users. However, actually getting the recipes to your camera has historically been a bit of a pain, requiring you to manually adjust several parameters and save them to a custom profile that you can later recall. Recent cameras from Fujifilm have somewhat improved the experience with a dedicated recipe system, but it’s still a lot of manual data entry.

This month, though, two apps have promised to solve that problem. One from a major player in the Fujifilm recipes field, the other from a scrappy upstart. For both, recipe syncing is only available for iOS devices (there currently isn’t even an Android version of the latter), but are signs of exciting things to come.

Fuji X Weekly

Mitchell Clark

The first is the Fuji X Weekly app, which is an extension of the popular website that hosts many community created recipes. The app has been around for a while, letting you browse and save recipes that you’d then have to manually enter in on your camera. Now, though, it’s able to download recipes, and then sync them to your camera via a standard called Picture Transfer Protocol. You can do this using the hundreds of recipes in the site’s repository, or with custom ones you’ve entered yourself. 

The process is relatively simple, as it is for the rest of the apps we’ll cover today. You put your camera in USB Raw Conv. / Backup Restore mode, then connect it to your phone with a USB cable. From there, the app should be able to send your selected recipe to whichever custom slot you choose, though the first time you go through this process, you may need to give the app system-level permission to talk to an attached camera. Then, you can select the custom setting mode from your camera (which, in my testing, helpfully already had the name of the recipe in the name field) and start shooting.

Mitchell Clark

While the app is free to use, there is a $20/year subscription that unlocks a few extra features. That list now includes the ability to sync sets of recipes to your camera, rather than having to do them one at a time. Say, for example, you have five recipes you use around town every day, and six that you like to have access to while traveling. Paid members could switch between the two with a press of a button.

FujiShare

Mitchell Clark

A newcomer to the scene is an app called FujiShare, which Reddit user Rude_Shoulder_2895 posted about on the FujifilmX subreddit. They said they built the app to make it easier to load sets of recipes to their X100V. It also aims to give you more information about the example photos used for a recipe, to make it easier to distinguish how much of the aesthetic is down to the camera settings, the recipe and the scene. The app also has tools built in to let you load a JPEG from a Fujifilm camera and save the recipe that was used to make it, and to apply frame effects to your photo, making it look like it’s matted or on a film reel.

FujiShare is a sleek app with a modern UI, and it’s undeniably nice to scroll through the recipes on offer, though there seem to be far fewer than on Fuji X Weekly. Otherwise, the actual process of syncing your recipes is much the same as it is using the other app, though users can post packs of recipes as well, letting you just save an entire set of recipes at once, before sending it off to your camera. On that note, FujiShare’s ability to send over multiple recipes at once currently isn’t pay-gated.

Mitchell

The FujiShare app is currently in public beta, and being distributed through Apple’s TestFlight system, which will take a bit of setup if you haven’t used it before. The beta is free, but it’s unclear what, if any, monetization scheme the app will use when it launches.

Is this new?

Mitchell Clark

One thing worth noting about these apps is that they don’t appear to be the first to come up with the idea. About a year ago, the team behind the FujiStyle app announced a very similar feature, letting you sync recipes to your camera’s custom settings slots via USB. It works very similarly to the other apps and, perhaps most excitingly, I’ve confirmed it works with Android. (I did, however, have to dive into the phone’s developer settings to get it working; your mileage will vary depending on what version of the OS you have.) Unlike the other apps, it doesn’t appear to support syncing sets of recipes at a time, but I bet I could sync seven recipes using the app faster than I could input one on the camera manually.

The caveats

Since these apps all seem to use a similar system to sync recipes, they share a lot of the same warnings and asterisks. The biggest one is made explicit by Fuji X Weekly. In the blog post announcing the feature, Ritchie Roesch says: “While there’s not a lot that can go wrong with PTP, there is a minor chance of adverse affects, especially if not handled carefully by the developers.” While Roesch says they tested many ways that things could go wrong, and built several safeguards into the app, there is still a risk. 

“Very importantly, connecting your camera to any unofficial, unlicensed, unsupported program may void your camera’s manufacturer warranty,” Roesch says. “Fujifilm confirmed this with me. I tried very hard to obtain a license from Fujifilm so that it wouldn’t risk voiding your warranty, but ultimately that didn’t work out.”

The app also makes this clear when you first go to use the feature, making it clear that you’re doing so at your own risk. While the other apps don’t make the warning as explicit, they come with similar warnings, so it’s probably a good idea to approach all of them with a sense of caution.

It’s also worth noting that these apps aren’t universally compatible. They should work with cameras newer than the X-T3 and X-T30, but those cameras and anything older don’t support the system that these apps use to transfer recipes. Likewise, if you have an older iPhone with a Lightning port, it may not be as simple as using a Lightning-to-USB-C cable; Fuji X Weekly reports those won’t work, but that adapters may. 

Finally, there’s the fact that the recipe-transfer feature is only available on iOS for Fuji X Weekly, and the FujiShare app currently only exists for iOS. Both developers have said they’re working on version for Android, but the timetables are to be determined. That’s unfortunate for Android users in the short term, as it means they have fewer options. Hopefully that situation will improve soon, but in the meantime, the FujiStyle app is there to serve Android users in the meantime.

Summary

Among the DPReview staff, there were two reactions to the news of these apps. The first was “this is great, why hasn’t Fujifilm built this into its own app yet?” The second was “Please don’t ask them to complicate things, I just want the app to transfer pictures reliably, nothing more.” While that reaction is understandable, I also suspect there’s been some pressure on Fujifilm to integrate this kind of feature into XApp. Recipes are a relatively well-known part of its brand identity, and other companies, like Panasonic and Nikon, have beaten it to the punch, building systems that allow users to download community-created color profiles to their cameras using an app (and Ricoh has made mention of doing something similar, too). 

Perhaps the existence of these third party options could take some of that pressure off, letting Fujifilm focus on reliability and compatibility. Or perhaps it’ll build it into XApp at some point in the future and, to borrow a phrase from the Apple developer community, Sherlock these apps. Either way, at the moment Fujifilm users have options they didn’t before.

If you’ve ever held a small card of 24 colored squares up to your subject, you’ve used a piece of imaging history that just hit a milestone birthday. The ColorChecker (also called the Macbeth chart if you’ve been around a while) is turning 50, and Calibrite has marked the occasion with a virtual museum for the little chart that helps photographers keep colors accurate. 

The anniversary hub for the occasion includes a timeline from the founding of the Macbeth Artificial Daylight Company to today, along with fun facts about the card and some of its famous uses. It also breaks down the purpose behind each of the 24 patches and features a quiz to test your knowledge of each color. 

The small chart debuted in a 1976 paper, “A Color-Rendition Chart,” by C.S. McCamy, H. Marcus and J.G. Davidson, written while Macbeth was a division of Kollmorgen. The idea was simple but clever: each patch was locked to a spectral reflectance value instead of a printed ink mix, so the card could be measured, reproduced and trusted across different materials and lighting conditions. 

Calibrite

When photography went digital, the ColorChecker came along for the ride. Shoot a Raw file with one in the frame, then feed it into Adobe Lightroom or DxO PhotoLab, and you get a custom camera profile that pulls your colors closer to how the scene actually looked. The ColorChecker Digital SG, though, saw an expansion of color, jumping to 140 squares that include the original 24 colors, a 17-step grayscale for fine tonal control, and 14 dedicated skin-tone patches.

The card has changed hands a few times: Gretag, GretagMacbeth and X-Rite all owned it before Calibrite took over. It’s also changed in size. The original measured roughly 13 by 9 inches, with proportions that closely match a 35mm film frame, and it now comes in a range of sizes, including one barely bigger than a postage stamp for macro subjects. But the patch layout and spectral targets have stayed consistent enough that profiles built around the standard remain interchangeable. Fifty years on, and photographers still reach for this tool for the same reason they always did.

Fujifilm is strengthening its ties with Google, taking a larger part in the company’s photo printing service. The company announced that it’s taking a “leading” role when it comes to operating and supporting the Google Photos Print Store in the US.

This takes the form of a co-branded store built directly into the Google Photos interface. Once you navigate to the Print Store and select a product to order, you’ll be prompted to connect your Google account to Fujifilm’s services*. From there, Fujifilm will take care of payment, printing, shipping and customer support. Fujifilm also says there are “plans to roll out new features, new products and a more robust user experience.” 

You’ve long been able to get printed products directly from the Google Photos app – I personally have a book I made with the service in 2017 – but the company says this expanded partnership will give users “more ways than ever before to print their memories, including an expanded range of print formats, frames, décor, and gift items, going well beyond the offerings of the previous platform.”

There’s a very good chance that, if you bought prints from Google Photos prior to this announcement, Fujifilm or its equipment were involved in some way. The company is a major player when it comes to photo printing for both consumers and industrial clients. Last year, the company identified “growth in the number of images taken and printing needs due to smartphone proliferation” as one of its key opportunities for mid-to-long-term growth.

While this announcement seems like it’s probably a bigger deal for Fujifilm and Google, rather than the people actually printing their photos, we always appreciate people having better and easier access to printing their photos. While it used to be a vital part of the process, it’s an easy one to forget nowadays, especially if you’re part of the younger generations who have grown up with purely digital photography. It’ll be exciting to see if this partnership makes printing smartphone photos that bit more attractive to the people who may use it to see their images rendered in ink on paper for the first time.

* While Fujifilm’s press release says the platform “began rolling out to Google Photos users in the U.S. at the end of August 2026,” it seems that’s still in progress. When I tried it on September 1st, I ended up in the old Google Photos payment flow. 

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