The term ISO invariance is being used increasingly widely in camera technology circles, but the comments we’ve seen suggest it’s often misused and misunderstood.

This is partly our fault: ISO invariance is the term we chose to describe a phenomenon that was already being discussed, and our usage and tests have helped popularize the term. So we thought it made sense to make clear what it is, what it isn’t, and why it matters.

Sensor performance, not camera behavior

ISO invariance is an assessment of how much or little improvement in noise you get by increasing gain.

It’s an assessment of a sensor‘s performance, not a description of how a camera delivers its ISO settings.

Why add gain?

The best way to understand it is probably to take a look at why gain / amplification is used in cameras in the first place. If you take a photo in low light, your sensor has less light to work with and will generate a smaller signal from your exposure. Amplifying this signal before it’s digitized has two potential benefits:

• It helps match the signal voltage to voltage range that your analog to digital converter (ADC) is designed to digitize. (In other words, you make sure that the signal is captured using lots of your available Raw values)
• It reduces the impact of any noise that might be introduced after amplification (if you double the scale of the signal, then any noise introduced later has half the impact).

It also has a major cost:

• If you take the signal coming off the sensor and amplify it 2x (ie: add one stop of gain), then the brightest stop of highlights will be represented by a voltage that’s too great for your ADC, and those values will be recorded as its maximum value: they’ll be clipped.

In the early days of digital cameras, cameras would add more amplification every time you increased the ISO setting. This link between ISO and gain is no longer as rigid as it was, but in very broad terms, it’s still usually the case that most cameras typically apply more gain when you increase the ISO setting. How’s that for definitive?

Modern sensors are excellent

Photons-to-photos

However, in recent years, sensor and electronics designs have improved to the point that there isn’t much post-amplification electronic noise to overcome. And, after a certain point, it’s worth questioning how much of a shadow improvement am I getting in return for the highlight information I’m throwing away?

And that’s what ISO invariance assesses: are there circumstances in which it would be better to keep the ISO down, and save the highlights, if there’s not much improvement in noise performance?

Mitchell Clark

We opted to call this ISO invariance because the existing term “ISO less” sounded like an binary: something sensors either were or weren’t. We hoped the term “invariance” would make it clearer that sensors would have a degree of variance or, as it turns out, ranges over which they are less or more ISO variant.

In hindsight, ISO invariance isn’t the best possible term for this phenomenon, not least because it’s an assessment of the impact of analog gain, and ISO doesn’t necessarily depend on analog gain. But also because it got interpreted by some people as a binary position anyway.

ISO invariance does not tell you how a camera delivers its ISO settings

Another common misunderstanding of the term is that it means the camera doesn’t change gain when you change ISO. This is not the case

Delivering multiple ISO from the same gain level would be a method of exploiting a sensor’s high degree of ISO invariance, but it’s extremely unusual for a camera to do this. There are lots of cameras that deliver some of their ISO settings without changing gain, or have modes that change ISO value without changing gain, but the majority of cameras do change gain when you change the ISO setting.

It doesn’t mean you don’t have to worry about what ISO setting you use

ISO invariance also doesn’t mean it no longer matters which ISO setting you use on your camera. If you’re in a mode with any degree of automation (Program, Shutter Priority or Aperture Priority), your ISO setting will change the exposure your camera tries to achieve. Setting ISO higher than you need will result in capturing less light than you might others, and this reduction in light leaves the image looking noisier.

But also, because most cameras increase gain as you increase ISO, some amount of highlight information is pushed to clipping unnecessarily and this can’t be recovered, later.

Why don’t cameras exploit this?

Richard Butler

So far, we’ve not encountered a stills camera that exploits ISO invariance performance by separating exposure and image lightness from gain. There are modes that take some advantage of it, though: many cameras’ DR modes work by intentionally giving lower-than-normal exposure to a given gain level so that the camera captures and retains an extra stop or two of highlight information, then apply a different tone curve that accommodates these extra highlights.

But generally, though, exploiting an ISO invariant sensor is a bit messy: you have to set an appropriate exposure in a low light scene and then lower your ISO setting without changing this exposure, to prevent the highlights in that scene from being amplified into clipping. This usually results in preview that’s multiple stops darker than you want the final image to be. Or, if you turn off exposure preview, fewer cues for assessing exposure. It’s a pretty clumsy, Raw-only way of working.

There is hope, though

Mitchell Clark

Interestingly, it’s becoming more common on the video side of things. Sony’s FX series cameras (many of which share their core hardware with Alpha models), offer an ‘Exposure Index’ mode, where the camera always operates at the low or high conversion gain states of its sensor, then records ‘ISO’ as a metadata tag that’s interpreted when editing. Increasing the ISO setting doen’t increase gain, so you don’t lose highlight data.

Similarly, the biggest distinction between NRaw and R3D raw video modes on the Nikon ZR is the way ISO is handled. NRaw works like stills mode: adding gain each time you increase the ISO setting, but in R3D mode it sticks to the two native conversion gain states of its sensor. This means that you don’t push data to clipping when you increase ISO, you just change a metadata tag indicating how light or dark the footage should be rendered. This is what makes it possible to adjust the apparent “ISO” after the fact in editing software.

But, for now, we’ve seen no such mode in a stills camera. In part this is because it would require a fundamental rethinking of how exposure, gain and image lightness should be handled. And, for now at least, the industry seems happier to tinker with the increasingly strained-looking ‘it’s just like film speed’ metaphor that is ISO, than to think about how best to make use of modern sensor performance.

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Compact cameras used to dominate the market. Every manufacturer made tens of new models each year, typically differentiated by pixel count, zoom range and screen size. Plus, usually, a single model with a tunnel viewfinder for the “no viewfinder, no sale” faction, which almost nobody bought.

They were a huge part of the camera market: twenty years ago, compact cameras made up 88% of Canon’s unit sales.

You might have noticed that this is no longer the case. Smartphones obliterated the mass-market compact camera, initially through convenience and then increasingly by combining multiple exposures to surpass small-sensor compacts in terms of image quality, too.

But there’s been an unexpected consequence of the death of the mainstream compact: the remaining models are the ones that aren’t compact.

Mitchell Clark

This has left us in an awkward position. We always used the term ‘compact’ to mean any camera on which you couldn’t change lenses because, with very few exceptions, they were the small ones. But, now that the mainstream compact has died, we’re instead left with the more ambitious models, the ones whose larger sensors and longer lenses continue to offer things that smartphones don’t. The Panasonic L10 isn’t especially compact, the Sony RX10 V won’t fit in most pockets, the Fujifilm X100 series is almost as large as the rangefinder cameras it mimics and then there’s the Fujifilm GFX100RF.

All of them ‘compacts’ by our standard. None of them particularly compact.

We can’t call them point-and-shoots, because the models that survived are precisely the ones that you do more than simply frame and click with. We can’t call them fixed-lens cameras, partly because it’s just not a phrase we’ve ever heard anybody use, and also because it can be misunderstood as meaning ‘camera with a fixed focal-length lens.’

So what do we do? Is it really worth trying to come up with a new term, to describe what it ultimately a handful of niche products? For now I think we just have to accept that progress has caught us out again, and that most attempts to arrange cameras (or the world) are imperfect, and prone to their original meaning being outpaced by history.

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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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This is the first of several guides intended to help you navigate the new website and forums. We want you to be able to quickly locate items you’re used to using, and perhaps discover an interesting new feature or two along the way. We will highlight items in both desktop and mobile views if there is enough distinction between them.

Who is this guide for

• By the end, you’ll know how to control notifications for email and on-site activity
• You’ll be able to directly set “Watch” preferences on discussions and article comments
• You’ll know what to change if you’re receiving too many notifications

For this first guide, let’s talk about receiving those important activity notifications. Take a look at the top right of the website, you’ll notice a flag icon and a message bubble icon. These are your activity and direct messages received notifications, respectively:

Notification icons

DPReview

If there are unread notifications, the red-circled number will appear. Clicking an icon will display a summary of those notifications.

We are aware that there are still some display differences between viewing this space on the main website vs. from the forums, such as notifications being completely cleared only in the main website dropdown. Let us know if this guide doesn’t track with what you are seeing.

To the left of those icons, you’ll see your profile icon. If you are in desktop view, you will also see your account name. Clicking your profile image will open a list of settings. This guide is about notifications, so for today, let’s click on the ‘Forum settings’ option:

DPReview

Profile and forum notification settings

The forum settings link takes you to a detailed list of options to customize your forum experience. Near the top, you have several ways to be notified of messages via email. From there, you can set global notifications that will automatically inform you of updates to your created content. The forum system recognizes this action as a “Watch” (aka, “Follow” for the content you are interested in tracking):

DPReview

Mobile users: Ensure push notifications are enabled on your phone. You may also need to click the ‘Enable push notifications’ button in the current forum options page you are in, before seeing the following options:

DPReview

Scrolling down a bit further (you can skip past several of the other options for now), you’ll come to ‘Settings by notification category: When someone…’ section.

If you do not see this section, keep scrolling (it’s a long list). Please check:

• Rotate your phone from portrait to landscape view.
• May be blocked if you’re using a business phone and it’s company-controlled.

Otherwise, please log in on a desktop device for now to adjust these settings:

DPReview

There are three checkboxes available for each item, depending on how you want to receive notifications for that item.

1. Alert: Shows a number indicator on the icons at the top of the page for new unread alerts or messages
2. Pop-up Auto-read: Displays a small pop-up window that sets any unread notices to have automatically been read upon that window popping up.
3. Push: Functions just like mobile push notifications, sending alerts directly to your device

The forum system manages notifications across the site, from front-page articles to forum activity. It is designed to give you granular control over what you’re notified about in articles, including responses to your article comments.

Using Watch and Unwatch settings on discussions

DPReview

Moving out of the profile settings options, the above image shows a discussion thread as viewed at the top of the thread. Clicking ‘Watch’ will set your account to receive notifications when someone posts in that thread, even if you are not contributing to that thread.

What’s the difference between this watch option and those profile settings from earlier?

• Profile settings dictate the baseline for how you receive notifications. You will use this when you want to be notified of a response whenever you, say, reply to a forum thread.
• The ‘Watch’ setting is a manual option that lets you receive specific updates for a particular thread, regardless of whether you’re actively participating in it or not. 

Receiving too many notifications

Your profile settings also have an automatic watch option for threads that you start. It’s one of the easiest ways to stay connected to a conversation without having to manually check whether someone has replied. If you feel that you are receiving too many notifications and are not sure where they are coming from, you may need to:

• Unwatch threads you no longer want to follow (click the same button, “Watch”, you initially used to watch the thread, which will now read “Unwatch”)
• Check your profile settings to ensure that automatically enabled settings are disabled
• Reduce e-mail notifications and rely more on on-site alerts

Personally, I use on-site alerts for most things and reserve email for threads I want to follow more closely. But this is very much a “set it how you like” system.

Try adjusting a notification setting today

Even if everything is working great for you right now, try using the Watch feature on a discussion you’re interested in to explore the many options available. 

If you have any concerns with the notifications system after reviewing these settings, please let us know in the comments below. Also let us know in the comments what other guides we should introduce.

We hope this guide helped your DPReview reading experience!

There’s no shortage of content out there about Kodak’s rise and fall, but this deep dive from Design Docs takes a slower, more granular approach to the story behind the company. The feature-length documentary dives into Kodak’s rise, dominance and collapse, and how a lab engineer’s toaster-sized prototype set the company’s eventual downfall in motion.

The video walks through George Eastman’s early years and the business decisions that turned Kodak into a near-monopoly, from roll film and the Brownie to the marketing machine that embedded “Kodak moments” into everyday language. It also spends plenty of time on the culture around Rochester, including an interesting look at how Eastman took care of his employees and supported the community – in Rochester, New York and beyond – in ways that were well ahead of their time.

Of course, the story wouldn’t be complete without touching on what happened to Kodak with the rise of the digital age, and the documentary also covers that. It digs into the internal politics around Kodak’s invention of the digital camera, the fear of cannibalizing film and the decisions that eventually pushed the company toward bankruptcy. At just under an hour, it’s on the longer and slower side for YouTube, but if you’re willing to settle in, you’ll get a level of detail that most Kodak documentaries skip.

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In June, Flic Film, a Canadian manufacturer and distributor of analog photography goods, posted on social media that it had released “an all-new film stock.” While that’s certainly exciting on the surface, the announcement sparked a flurry of questions and speculation, with a bit of contention.

Flic Film isn’t alone in this situation either. There has been an increase in supposedly new film stocks in the last few years, but inevitably, the comments are full of discussion about what the film really is. There also seems to be frustration floating around about how all film stocks these days are the same, and that brands are essentially misleading us into thinking we have options. But all of that oversimplifies what’s really going on.

What’s going on with film these days?

Abby Ferguson

If you aren’t closely involved in the photographic film world, some context will help you understand why that post (and similar ones by other brands) ruffled some feathers. At the time of writing, there are only three to four facilities producing color film at a commercial scale. A handful of additional producers are making black and white films.

Despite the limited producers, there seems to be no shortage of film brands. Depending on your location, you can buy film branded by the likes of Lomography, Flic Film, Reto, CineStill, Candido, Japan Camera Hunter, Rollei, Leica and so many more. Even my local film lab has its “own” stock. This is where the confusion stems from. Each of these brands isn’t making their own film from scratch, given the resources and equipment required, so what’s going on?

There are a few things at play here. Some companies are simply repackaging (sometimes referred to as respooling) film. They buy it in bulk from a manufacturer, load it into canisters and boxes with their own label, make no changes to the film itself and sell it as their own.

At times, brands are upfront about this. For example, Flic Film sells Elektra 100, which its website has clearly labeled as re-spooled Kodak Aerocolor IV color negative film. Flic Film named the film something else, but it is upfront about what the film actually is. That’s not always the case, though, and there are certainly instances of repackaged film that don’t have the actual stock disclosed.

It goes beyond repackaging

Abby Ferguson

Another fairly common occurrence is a brand having an existing film stock modified for its use. CineStill is a good example of this, as it takes Kodak’s motion picture stocks and removes the remjet layer for its 800T and 50D films. Other brands also take motion picture stock and modify it in similar ways, so that it’s more easily processed by the general consumer and the labs they take film to.

Modification isn’t only happening on motion picture film, either. Still picture film is also modified in multiple ways in order to create a different look from the base stock. Manufacturers can do things like pre-flashing, which exposes film to a small amount of light to reduce contrast and compress the tonal range, or they can change the backing to alter how light interacts with the emulsion. They can also treat the film in various ways to push the effective ISO higher, add sensitizing dyes to shift spectral sensitivity or add additional coatings.

All that to say that there are quite a few options for altering a film stock that will result in a fairly substantial change in look. Some of these changes happen at the source by the original manufacturer, others are made by the brand in its own facilities. The changes can completely alter the colors you get from a film, its sensitivity to light, its contrast and its grain character, giving it a distinctive look.

Why don’t brands just say what it is?

With that context in mind, let’s look back at what happened with Flic Film’s latest release. When Flic Film posted about its new product, it said explicitly that it is “an all-new film stock.” Given that it seemed highly unlikely that Flic Film managed to establish its own film production facility, or even that they developed something new from the ground up that’s produced at an existing facility, people were upset about the claim that it’s “all-new.”

Flic Film subsequently released a video addressing the questions and complaints. In the video, a representative for Flic Film says, “The only answer I can honestly give is I don’t know.” He goes on to explain that they of course know the manufacturer, but when they receive the film, they get it as a number, not with the original name noted, so they truly don’t know what the stock was originally.

He also explains that when they put out a new film, they buy a master roll from a manufacturer, but that things don’t stop there. “The manufacturers don’t just grab something off the shelf and sell it to us. They actually do little tweaks to that film to make it individual to us,” he says. “They’re not going to sell us their best-selling film straight up and have us just replicate it, that makes no sense and it’s no good for the customers.”

But even when modifications are subtle, or a film is simply respooled, not sharing the name of the original film isn’t inherently nefarious. As Flic Film’s video explained, it’s very possible the brand doesn’t even know what the original stock is.

Abby Ferguson

Non-disclosure agreements (NDA) are another common practice in this industry. When working with a manufacturer, a film company may have to sign an NDA that prevents them from sharing the manufacturer’s name, the original stock name or both. In the case of CineStill, while it’s a poorly kept secret that it uses certain Kodak motion picture film, it’s never listed outright in CineStill’s marketing. In fact, its FAQ page says, “out of respect for our unique relationships with our suppliers, we are careful not to openly claim and benefit from the goodwill and reputation of the brands and trademarks of the original products.”

CineStill is considered one of the more transparent brands, but just because other companies aren’t sharing as much doesn’t necessarily mean that they are intentionally being deceitful. They could have more strict agreements in place with producers, or other factors could be at play. It certainly would be nice to have greater transparency, and I firmly believe brands should disclose information when they are able to. But it isn’t always a sign of a company trying to scam us out of our money if they aren’t upfront.

Modified film is still legitimate

Abby Ferguson

Transparency is one thing, but the other frustration I see coming out of recent film launches is rhetoric that all film stocks are the same these days and choice is an illusion sold to us by all of these companies. In the case of simply respooled film, yes, that is absolutely true. But, producers and brands can create quite distinct looks by modifying stocks. If a film looks different than what it came from, it seems reasonable to call it a new film.

Something similar happens in the digital camera world, too. Camera manufacturers source sensors, EVFs, displays and more from a handful of suppliers, yet it’s silly to argue that all cameras are the same as a result. Each camera manufacturer has to make additional decisions in terms of processing, colors, ergonomics and UI. What matters is what a company does with those common components.

We are quite far from the 1990s heyday when you could walk into a store and see a colorful wall of different film stocks. But a recent resurgence has led to more film brands working with producers in new ways, giving photographers more options than they had just five years ago. More options mean more people finding a film they love, and more people shooting film is only a good thing for the medium, which is always worth celebrating in my book.

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Community member John Freeman, known as john80504 in the forums, loves peering into the distance at intricate landscapes, capturing them at the highest resolution possible, then framing multiple shots on a wall to admire. Some of his murals are as large as 15 feet by 50 feet, showcasing wide mountain ranges and vast river valleys.

According to John, he’s the only person in the world who teaches a workshop on Gigapixel Photography, the art of taking dozens or even hundreds of photos and stitching them together into a single image with a resolution that measures in the thousands of megapixels.

Editor’s note: because of the nature of the ultra-high resolution images Freeman creates, we don’t have a way to post the full versions to our site in a way that would let you sensibly view them. We’ve provided links to his website that let you experience them in all their glory.

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 John has to share.

John Freeman

Meet John Freeman

Home base: Longmont, Colorado, USA

Photography has been a lifelong pursuit for John, one that has evolved significantly over the decades. It eventually led him to a highly specialized niche that combines technical precision with artistic vision.

“For more than 58 years, starting at age 13, photography has been a central part of my life. My parents gave me a Kodak Brownie camera for Christmas the year I was in 8th grade. Over that time, I’ve explored many different genres and techniques, but few have challenged and rewarded me as much as gigapixel panoramic wall mural photography. My gigapixel photos are among the largest, highest resolution Fine Art Wall Mural Photos available on the internet.”

That specialization is gigapixel panoramic photography, a field he has spent more than a decade refining and pushing further with advanced techniques.

“When I first started doing gigapixel photos in 2011, I entered a niche market. Gigapixel photography is the process of capturing hundreds – or sometimes thousands – of individual photographs and stitching them together into a single seamless image. Over the past 10 years I have been doing focus bracketing/stacking of the individual images that are stitched into the final image. Adding focus bracketing/stacking has been the single most important skill that has improved my work.”

What’s in John’s bag

John Freeman

Favorite camera: Canon EOS R5 Mark II, though he still carries a Mark I for nostalgia.

“For the past five years, my main camera has been a Canon EOS R5, but before a trip to New Zealand this past April, I added a Canon EOS R5 Mark II to my bag. It has quickly become my favorite. I especially appreciate that it stores focus-bracketed images at 14-bit resolution rather than 12-bit, like the original R5, and that it captures focus-bracketed sequences much faster, which is a big advantage when photographing large landscapes. Most of the time, you’ll find my Canon RF 100-400mm F5.6-8 IS USM mounted on the camera.”

Lenses used across all cameras:

• Canon RF 100-400mm F5.6-8 IS USM
• Canon RF 28mm F2.8 STM
• Rokinon 14mm F2.8

John Freeman

Any experienced photographer is going to have a set of gear that works well together and is ready to go at a moment’s notice. Apart from the cameras and lenses above, here’s John’s other interesting gear he takes with him on trips into the mountains.

Support gear: “For panoramic photography, I typically carry a Nodal Ninja M2 manual nodal head mounted to a SLIK carbon fiber tripod with a Really Right Stuff leveler, along with a Vello Wireless ShutterBoss remote shutter release to minimize camera shake. For longer hikes, I also pack granola bars, a CamelBak water bladder and a phone running the PhotoPills app for planning.”

Camera bags: “For many years, I used a Tamrac Expedition 9x backpack, which had plenty of room for all my gear but became too heavy for long hikes. Last fall I switched to a lightweight Mosiso backpack that’s just big enough for my camera, three lenses and the Nodal Ninja. It also has a side pocket for my tripod, although that part could be better.”

What are some great locations for super high-res shots?

John Freeman

When John goes to a location, one of his goals is to shoot the largest, highest-resolution photo ever taken there – not just by him, but by anyone else.

“One of my most unique and difficult shoots was one I did in February 2026 of the frozen waves that occur in winter at Dream Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park. The frozen ice waves are an unbelievable wintertime phenomenon that is caused by freezing temperatures and strong, dry winds. It is called sublimation, the process in which solid ice changes directly into a gas without becoming a liquid first. The result is a 4.63 gigapixel focus-stacked, stitched image made up of 7090 individual focus-bracketed images. This yielded 225 focus stacked sets in a 9 row by 25 column array.”

While Dream Lake stands out as one of his most technically demanding projects, John is always planning his next destination in search of another record-breaking panorama. Earlier this year, that pursuit took him to New Zealand.

“My wife and I just returned from a second honeymoon trip, a 27-night camper-van tour of New Zealand, in April, 2026. During the trip, we visited both the North & South Islands. While not every photo met my 1 gigapixel requirement, I did manage to capture numerous photos of some of the most beautiful areas of New Zealand.”

Techniques that captured that perfect gigapixel shot

John Freeman

“Even after decades behind the camera, I still find myself excited by the challenges and possibilities of gigapixel photography. One of my current projects is what I call Virtual Rocky Mountain National Park – a long-term effort to create immersive panoramic experiences throughout the park and to preserve these remarkable landscapes in extraordinary detail. This virtual tour of RMNP is free to the public to view and enjoy.

Projects like Virtual Rocky Mountain National Park have also pushed John to refine the technical side of his craft. One of the biggest hurdles comes when photographing scenes with an extreme range of light.

“One of the biggest challenges in gigapixel photography is dealing with scenes that contain both extremely bright and extremely dark areas. Unlike traditional photography, where HDR techniques can often solve these problems, focus stacking and HDR do not work together because the camera cannot perform both focus and exposure bracketing simultaneously. To overcome this challenge, I rely heavily on a technique called Expose To The Right (ETTR). This approach has become an essential part of my workflow, particularly when photographing complex landscapes that contain bright skies, deep shadows, waterfalls, and other high-contrast elements.”

John’s advice for photographers

John Freeman

“I always tell my workshop students, don’t be afraid to make mistakes, just make sure that you learn from your mistakes and avoid them next time.”

John 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 John’s other work at abbascreationsphotography.com.

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

The Sony DSC-RX10 V appears just as prices of the remaining RX10 IV started to get silly. Nearly nine years have elapsed since the launch of the Mark IV but despite first appearances, almost everything has changed in the new camera.

Basic hardware

Both cameras are based around the same fundamental specs: a 24-600mm equivalent F2.4-4.0 zoom and 20MP Type 1 (116mm²) stacked CMOS sensors.

Sony says the lens is the same, despite reporting the focal lengths differently on the side of the barrel. Our understanding is the RX10 IV reports the effective focal length with corrections applied, whereas the RX10 V lists the literal focal lengths.

We were briefed that the sensor has been “updated” but without any specifics about what those changes are. The new camera has significantly more powerful processors and updated AF algorithms, so it’s hard to be sure which, if any, of the spec changes can be ascribed to sensor differences. It seems notable, though, that Sony no longer mentions DRAM, which it did in its description of the previous version.

Ergonomics

The RX10 V’s ergonomics have been reworked, mostly for the best. It has a more comfortable grip, more prominent command dials on its shoulder and one of the large, easy-to-position AF joysticks we’ve seen on the last few generations of Alpha cameras. It loses its top-plate LCD and its focus drive mode switch on the front of the camera, instead getting an AF/MF switch on the side of the lens.

The net effect is a definite positive: the RX10 V feels a lot more like one of the more recent Alpha models, rather than a box full of goodies that you constantly feel you need a tin-opener to get at. It’s disappointing that all three of the camera’s dials (if you include the awkward little dial on the rear face) need to be controlled with the thumb: a front dial would have been a further boost, but overall it feels much nicer to control. And that’s before you get to the menus which, if nothing else, are much more sensibly arranged, with related options much more logically grouped and labeled.

AF and performance

The new camera has Sony’s latest AF system, which is a surprisingly large step forward. The RX10 IV was the first in the series to gain phase detection AF: delivering a big leap forward over previous models, and early instances of Eye detection and animal eye detection autofocus. In video it fell back on the older, clunkier ‘Center Lock-On AF’ system that required a degree of button-pressing and missed focus that seems unthinkable by modern standards.

The RX10 V illustrates just how far things have come in the meantime. The clutter of AF area modes persists, but it’s now backed up by a subject recognition system that can cope with a wider range of subjects, works more effectively and is available in video. The near decade-long lull in enthusiast compact cameras happens to have coincided with one of the most sustained periods of improvement in AF performance and ease-of-use,

Viewfinder and screen

Richard Butler

Both the viewfinder and rear screen have been upgraded, compared with the RX10 IV. We wouldn’t be at all surprised to find some of this is down to old components no longer being available, but if it results in a better viewfinder, we’ll take it.

The RX10 V has a 3.69M dot EVF, meaning 1280 x 960px resolution, rather than the 1024 x 768px view of its predecessor. It’s a physically larger panel, too, with updated finder optics boosting the magnification from 0.7x to 0.78x.

The rear screen gets a more modest boost: 1.62M dots (900 x 600px) in a 3:2 aspect ratio that matches the camera’s sensor, rather than the 4:3 screen on the RX10 IV, which had 800 x 600px resolution, of which 800 x 533px would be devoted to previewing images. In both instances, the screens tilt up or down, but don’t hinge or tilt sideways.

Movies

For the most-part, the RX10 V’s movie capabilities are greatly enhanced: it can shoot 4K at up to 60p from the full width of its sensor (vs 30p on the old model), or 120p with a crop. The AF tracking is vastly improved, it gains Sony’s Auto Framing system that crops in and follows a subject around, to give movement to otherwise static shots, and it adds the ‘Active’ Steadshot stabilization mode. Above all, though, it gains the ability to capture 10-bit footage, making its Log files much more flexibile than before, particularly S-Log3. It also lets you shoot in S-Cinetone, and attractive, ready-to-go profile we’ve liked on other cameras.

Somewhat contraversially, the RX10 V doesn’t offer the 1000fps (960fps in NTSC mode) 1080 video capture of its predecessor. Whether this is a consequence of a lack of DRAM to buffer all that information, or because Sony has just refocused its attention on more mainstream video needs is unclear. The footage was never particularly good (not least because each frame of a 1000fps burst is made up from very little light), but it was a feature that wasn’t really available elsewhere.

Storage / communication

Richard Butler

As you might hope, the RX10 V now accepts UHS-II SD memory cards, letting it write and read data much faster than the older model, which had a UHS-I interface. UHS-II had started to appear in cameras nearly three years prior to the Mark IV, so this isn’t really a case of bringing the new camera up-to-date, and more of reaching the point the IV could have been at, nine years ago. The industry looks unlikely to ever use the newer UHS-III format and may even skip SDExpress, which is based on the same technology as the CF express cards Sony uses elsewhere in its range.

The Mark V does at least gain a modern USB connector, though. It can communicate at up to 10Gbps and can be used for charging the camera. It retains the Micro-B USB socket that the IV had, so that it’s compatible with the same accessories, but this port can no longer be used for charging.

Battery

Richard Butler

Finally, there’s the battery. The RX10 V makes room for the much larger NP-FZ100 battery, which has over twice the capacity of the NP-FW50 used in the Mark IV. This doesn’t result in double the battery life, perhaps because of the additional processing power and higher resolution viewinder, but still sees the battery life rating jump by more than 50%. Ratings of 570 shots per charge via the viewfinder and 630 shots per charge using the rear screen are well into the territory that it’s unlikely you’ll ever have to worry about battery life, as a stills shooter. As usual, we’d expect most people to get around double this number of shots, and still more if you shoot bursts.

Overall

It’s easy to look at the RX10 V, see that the lens and pixel count is the same and conclude it’s a minor update. In practice, just about every aspect of the camera has been improved. The RX10 V looks much more expensive, but a lot of that is because inflation – or, to put it another way, the devaluing of the money in your pocket – in the intervening nine years exaggerates the difference.

As always, it’s up to each individual to decide whether they think a product is worth the cost, but in terms of usability, performance and capability, the RX10 V is a big step forward.

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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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The DPReview forums have nearly 100 customized sections to discuss all your gear and photography interests. From reading official DPReview news to talking about camera brands and Nature and Wildlife Photography, there’s a space for everyone’s curiosity.

For visitors who are interested in buying or selling their gear, we also have the For Sale and Wanted forum section. And if you are a mobile phone camera user and love to share your on-the-go photos, not to worry, we have Mobile Photography Talk forum as well.

So, with that said…

Which forum sections are your favorite to visit for both camera brands and digital photography, and why?

I would also like to take this opportunity to ask you which forum sections you would like added that we don’t currently have?

Drop a reply in the comments section below, and if you’ve got a photo to include from your mentioned forum sections, it may be selected for next week’s showcase article on this topic!

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The Sony FX5 is a compact cinema camera capable of up to 4.5K120 and Raw video capture, aimed at independent videographers and small productions. It builds on the legacy of the FX3, adding a host of features we’ve not previously seen from Sony.

Key features

• 16.6MP Full-Frame stacked CMOS sensor
• 4K/60 from 5K capture
• 4K/120 from 4.5K crop
• 4K/240 capability via firmware due in late 2027
• Open gate shooting
• Combined dual gain mode for increased DR
• Three “base” ISO steps
• Internal Raw capture
• Subject recognition autofocus
• 32-bit float audio compatibility
• Large 16:9 rear LCD
• Waveform display
• Optional EVF

The FX5 will be available, body-only, for $4899, or $5499 with the XLR top-handle, which allows 32-bit float audio capture. Other optional accessories include a removable, tiltable viewfinder and a USB-C-to-BNC timecode cable. It will be available from August.

What’s new

The FX5 is a surprisingly significant upgrade compared to the FX3, suggesting Sony is still working out what this type of camera needs to offer, and iterating. It nominally sits above the FX3 but looks like it’s trying to do what the FX3 did, plus a lot more, making it most directly comparable to the likes of Canon’s C50 cinema camera.

The most visible addition is its ability to capture Raw footage, but that’s just the most dramatic departure from the existing camera. There are also a host of features and UI changes that have come down directly from the company’s pro cinema products, to the degree that it represents not just a major upgrade but will also present an appreciable learning curve for existing FX3 users.

Don’t call it Raw

Interestingly, Sony doesn’t refer to the camera’s Raw mode in those terms, instead settling on the snappy X-OCN, which I’m sure we can agree is clearer. They tell us it’s a 16-bit linear Raw format, which is a lot more detail than we’re typically given about the other Raw video codecs. Linear encoding is a rather inefficient way of doing things but, in theory at least, gives the maximum flexibility in terms of highlight editing and reconstruction.

This “EXtended tonal range Orginal Camera Negative” gives you more flexibility in terms of correcting white balance, applying noise reduction, highlight and tonal adjustment and color grading. It’s a version of the format already used by the Burano and Venice cameras, so should be compatible with DaVinci Resolve, Adobe Premiere Pro, Avid Media Composer and Baselight software.

The FX5 uses the X-OCN LT (Light) version of the codec, used on the Burano cinema camera (and that’s even an option on the company’s flagship Venice 2 model).

New sensor

James Tirado

The FX5 is based around a new stacked CMOS sensor. Sony quotes the pixel count as 16.6MP which, given the FX3 turned out to have a 48MP behind a 12MP color filter array, should make us wonder how similar it is to the 66.8MP sensor in the recent a7R VI.

Sony wouldn’t be specific about any differences, but the significantly higher output speeds make us assume that there’s DRAM or more complex readout circuitry built into the back of the sensor. We know that the a7R VI’s 4K video comes from combining quartets of pixels, so placing that same pixel architecture behind oversized color filters that extend across sets of four pixels would make a lot of sense. Even if you’re not that interested in video, this ability to produce variations of a sensor with different capabilities might still offer an interesting insight into the products we’ll see in the coming years.

In practice, the FX5 is faster at reading out a comparable region of its sensor (around 5.5ms in full-width, 16:9 5K modes, around 24% quicker than the 7.2ms that the a7R VI takes in its ‘5K sampled’ 16:9 modes). Open gate mode read out the full height of the sensor in 8.3ms (1/120 sec).

Sony says the camera has a “Dual Gain” mode that boosts dynamic range by combining the low gain and high-gain signals being read off the sensor. It is available in the camera’s lowest native gain mode (ISO 800) and the modes derived from it (ie up to EI 3200). It can be used at up to 60p in most resolutions or up to 30p in open gate mode.

We’re told it may operate differently from the combined dual gain mode the a7R IV offers in video, though. We were briefed that the image is analysed and the high gain (low noise) data is only utilized in the shadow regions of the image, making the process faster than combining both gain settings for all pixels. Engaging the Dual Gain mode (via the ISO menu) increases the readout time by a factor of 2.1x, which is very similar to the proportion of increase we measured on the a7R VI.

Three “base” ISO settings

Interestingly, Sony also says the FX5 has three “base ISO” settings: 800, 4000, 12,800. To make sense of this, it’s worth noting that there isn’t a fixed or universally shared definition of what ‘base ISO’ means. What it doesn’t directly refer to is conversion gain steps at the sensor level. So, for instance, the FX3 and a7S III had dual conversion gain sensors, but Sony says it does not consider them to be cameras with dual base ISO.*

James Tirado

Instead, Sony tells us its definition of base ISO relates to modes that offer the same dynamic range distribution between highlights and shadows, and have a near-identical noise floor, allowing footage to be intercut between the modes. This makes most sense when working in the camera’s Cinema EI mode, where the camera is locked to one of these “base” states and then delivers ISO settings up to two stops higher or lower by essentially under- or over-exposing the ‘base’ state, then including a metadata tag saying how light or dark the footage is meant to be rendered. This really comes into its own in a Raw workflow, as this is how it’s possible to adjust the “ISO” of footage, after the fact.

The decision of Sony to offer three “base ISO” states shouldn’t lead you to conclude that there are three distinct gain steps at the hardware level, nor should it be confused with the camera’s optional “Dual Gain” mode that combines the output of different hardware states.

*Just to make clear how slippery the concept is, the FX3’s firmware V2 added Cinema EI, including a setting called Base ISO, which has two settings. We are told the higher of these is officially considered a High Sensitivity mode, not a second base ISO.

New UI, wider range of features

Beyond these, the most radical change is to the user interface, with the FX5 gaining an all-in-one settings display borrowed almost directly from the Burano (and closely mimicking the displays that Panasonic borrowed from Arri, etc, etc). Its menus have also been re-worked to make them look more like Sony’s pro cinema models, which will add a bit of a learning curve for existing FX users but brings it closer into line with other production cameras.

The company says it will be adding a vertical version of the UI in firmware 2.0.

James Tirado

Also added are a host of tools that other brands have started offering but that have been absent from previous Sonys at this point in the market. So, in addition to options like the focus map, that highlights blocks of the image that are in and out of focus, the FX5 offers a false color display and waveforms for helping to judge exposure, and a vectorscope display for assessing color distribution. These come on top of tools such as zebras, focus peaking and a histogram, that were already available.

James Tirado

The camera is based around Sony’s latest Bionz XR2 processor, so gains all the subject recognition AF modes that we’ve become used to on the stills side of things, boosting autofocus dependability for run-and-gun shooting.

Body and handling

James Tirado

At first glance, the FX5 looks a lot like the FX3, but the changes reveal themselves, the closer you look. It’s a fraction larger, for a start, having grown a couple of mm in each direction but significantly the body of the camera itself is deeper, within those boundaries, so it feels bulkier. It’s also a fraction heavier, though Sony says it’s a less than 5% increase.

The layout of the camera’s six programmable buttons has been reworked and relabeled to better match what you’d find on the company’s higher-end cinema cameras. It also gains the multi-function dial from the Sony Burano, which can be used to navigate through menus, and make quick changes from the live view screen.

James Tirado

The FX5, like the recent Alpha cameras, gains a second USB-C socket. This can be used for a range of things, from tethering, powering the camera, data transfer or for accepting a timecode signal. As with other recent Sony cameras, the second USB-C socket is actually a USB 2.0 (480Mbps) socket, so can only be used for power and less data-intensive tasks.

The camera’s connectivity is further updated with an upgrade to Wi-Fi 6E, and the addition of an Ethernet port, which will likely find use in many houses of worship.

Display

Sony has upgraded the rear tilting/articulating display to a 3.5″ model with a video-friendly 16:9 aspect ratio. Sony says the latter change makes it a much bigger upgrade to the 3″ display on the FX3 than it appears at first glance, as that screen’s 4:3 aspect ratio meant you were looking at a video that was really only 2.5″. Now, it can fill the entire screen, provided you’re not using an open gate or DCI (“17:9”) recording mode.

James Tirado

The FX5 has two slots, each of which take either CFexpress Type A cards or the slower UHS-II SD cards. The two card types don’t connect to the same connectors: one socket it essentially sited within the other.

Battery

James Tirado

The FX5 becomes the second camera to adopt Sony’s new 20.9 Wh NP-SA100 battery, following the a7R VI. This not only provides higher voltage and capacity than the NP-FZ100 batteries the FX3 used, but should allow for slightly longer record times. Sony says it can shoot for 130 minutes at 4K/60, while the FX3 caped out at 113. Of course, this change means that those with a large collection of batteries will need to spend quite a bit to rebuild it (provided they were running off an internal unit, rather than powering their cameras via an external V or Gold mount battery).

Despite the increased battery capacity, and smaller tweaks to the body like the addition of a second 1/4-20″ socket on the bottom plate to reduce the risk of rotating, Sony says the new camera is close to the FX3’s weight, coming in at 734g (25.9oz), versus 715g (25.2oz)

Accessories

While the camera doesn’t have an integrated EVF – likely a concession to keeping its body as protrusion-free, and therefore gimbal-friendly as possible – Sony is making a removable one as an optional accessory. It features a 3.68M-dot panel that can reach up to 2500 nits peak brightness, and supports a wide color gamut to provide a more accurate preview. It’ll plug into a new port right above the multi-interface shoe, meaning you can’t have it attached if you’re also using the shoe. However, Sony says it’s working with a third-party to create an extension cable for it that will let you place it in more ergonomic position. The EVF, named the DVF-EL1, costs $698.

Another accessory is the XLR handle which, like the ones released for Sony Alpha-series cameras, will enable both the use of professional microphones as well as 32-bit float audio recording. The latter feature will an exciting addition for documentary and event shooters, as its different method for storing data essentially eliminates the risk of clipping, no matter what your gain levels are set to (though your microphone can still be overwhelmed). The handle can be purchased in a bundle with the FX5, or separately for $798

Video modes

Like most of Sony’s previous cameras, the FX5 delivers all its compressed footage in output-ready 4K resolutions: with in the 16:9 UHD or ~17:9 DCI formats. However, in a detail borrowed from cameras like the Venice and Burano they are named in terms of the pixel region used to capture them. So, although the camera has “Imager Mode” options called 5K 16:9, the output is still the standard 3840 x 2160 UHD footage.

James Tirado

The Raw footage, by contrast, arrives in your editor in the resolution in which it was captured. So 5K means 5K.

One of these Raw modes is a 3:2 open gate mode, capturing the full area of the sensor to make it easier to output both landscape and vertical cuts from the same clip (if you can find a composition that’s sensible for both, that is). The camera can also apply a real-time desqueeze correction for anyone using anamorphic lenses, with 1.3x, 1.5x, 1.6x, 1.8x and 2.0x squeeze factors being supported.

Raw recording

When recording to its internal Raw X-OCN codec, the FX5 can shoot at roughly 5K in 3:2, ∼17:9 and 16:9, at up to 60p. There are three levels of compression for the codec, with the standard being “LT,” and C1 and C2 recording at increasingly lower bitrates to reduce file sizes. Sony says C1 will be around 25% smaller than LT.

The company says it plans to release a firmware update sometime in 2027 that will allow for recording 4K/240 footage in Raw, though it hasn’t provided any details on whether the mode will have a crop.

The camera needs to reboot in order to switch into or out of Raw mode. As we’ve seen on other cameras, it also needs to reboot to switch between 24p, PAL and NTSC modes, as the system clock needs to reset to work in multiples of 24, 25 and 29.97 frames per second. Because there’s no separation of Raw/Compressed or 24p/PAL/NTSC, it’s very easy to accidentally prompt the camera to reboot if you select the wrong shooting mode.

Likewise, the camera will only playback footage if it’s in the right system clock mode, and will only show you the Raw clips if you’re in Raw mode and only your compressed clips when in compressed mode.

Compressed footage modes

The FX5 names its video modes by the areas that are sampled, rather than their output resolution. The camera’s “17:9” modes (5K and 4.5K) are output as DCI 4K (4096 x 2160), while the 16:9 modes (5K, 4.5K and 3.2K) are output as 3840 x 2160 UHD.

The DCI modes can only be shot in XAVC S-I (All-I H.264), whereas moving to 16:9 adds the option to shoot XAVC H (H.265) or XAVC S (H.264) with a choice of 4:2:2 or 4:2:0 chroma sub-sampling.

Sony says the FX5 will gain support for shooting 3:2 open gate in XAVC S-I will come as part of firmware 2.0, due in around October 2027.

Super35

The FX5 also provides an option of cropping in to an APS-C-sized region of the sensor, providing compatibility with lenses designed for Super35 cameras. While the FX3’s APS-C mode was sampled from an 1080p region of the sensor, the FX5’s higher-resolution sensor means it can capture a 3.2K (3264 x 1836) region in 16:9. However, this is still output as 1080p when shooting in compressed modes.

Support tools

The FX5 gains a whole host of video-specific tools meant to make it easier to get proper exposure and focus. It has a waveform monitor for clearer and more accurate exposure monitoring, a false color overlay that makes it easy to see at a glance whether your subject is properly exposed and whether any of your highlights and shadows are clipping, a vector scope for more information about your colors and a focus map overlay to assist with focus.

The company has also added more options for desqueezing the preview when shooting with anamorphic lenses, providing several options between a 1.3 and 2.0x ratio.

Initial impressions

James Tirado

The FX5 is an evolution of the FX3 concept that tries to accommodate a wider range of users, and we doubt any one user will want or need the full range of its capabilities. Where the FX3 was essentially an a7S III in a more video-friendly format (or, perhaps, the camera the a7S III should have been, in the first place), the FX5 is a much more capable machine that tries to address multiple different workflows.

Small scale cinematographers can adopt its Raw workflow, while others might choose to shoot open gate and some users will output H.265 UHD files in S-Cinetone. Some people will build it into a rig, others will mount it on a gimble, while others will leave it on ‘sticks.’ The fact that the XLR handle and EVF module are optional suggests that these are option that some people will find essential while others would resent the bulk and cost of something they don’t want. Then there’s the Ethernet port, which allows the camera to be mounted and operated remotely, for applications such as churches, we’re told.

In doing so, though, Sony has made the camera a fraction larger, but probably not to the point that it would alienate many of the run-and-gun shooters who came to love the FX3.

However, the major changes to the user interface, including its frequent decision to reboot, if you accidentally select the wrong frame rate, while changing settings, are likely to make the camera seem surprisingly daunting to existing FX3 users.

James Tirado

Sony talked about adding features and capabilities that have been requested by users, but it also feels like the FX5 is much more a product of the cinema department, like the FX6, rather than having evolved from an Alpha model, as the FX3 appeared to. A lot of the features (not least Raw) might have trickled down from the Burano, but an awful lot of the interface and operational logic has done, too, which is likely to be something of a shock to anyone primarily familiar with the FX3 or 2.

James Tirado

It its favor, it’s stayed in the relatively compact body that has made the FX3 a success, but this means there isn’t room for the variable ND filter system that slides in filters from below the sensor on the bigger camera, that a lot of users were hoping for. Additional options like a USB timecode sync cable aren’t necessarily going to excite a lot of independent FX3 users, but they broaden the camera’s appeal.

It’ll be interesting to see whether Sony decides that the FX5 (or, rather, the existence of both the FX5 and FX2) means that it doesn’t need to create a direct replacement for the FX3.

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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The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is proposing a retroactive ban on suspected DJI‑linked drones and cameras, affecting products sold under brands like Xtra and Skyrover. The move escalates last week’s announcement of proposed $25,000 fines against eight companies that allegedly ignored FCC inquiries about DJI‑related gear marketed in the U.S., penalties that were technically for non‑response rather than the hardware itself.

In the past, the FCC’s decisions generally couldn’t touch products that were already approved, but a recent rule adjustment changed that. As The Verge reported, in late 2025, the Commission amended its equipment‑authorization rules so it can now restrict the import and sale of previously approved devices from companies on its national‑security “Covered List,” without formally revoking those original approvals or disabling gear that’s already in users’ hands.

DJI itself was added to the Covered List in late 2025 after a national‑security review under the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act, a designation that already blocks new DJI radio‑equipped products from receiving FCC approval in the U.S.

Skyrover

This could be the first time the FCC uses its new power, with potential bans on products from Cogito, Fikaxo, Lyno Dynamics, Skyhigh Tech, Spatial Hover, SZ Knowact, WaveGo, Xtra and XAG. The Commission says those products “pose an unacceptable risk” to U.S. national security because they are suspected of containing DJI‑designed radio components under different brand names.

Those who already own products from the at-risk companies won’t be impacted by the FCC’s decision and can continue using them. However, affected drones and cameras are expected to disappear from major online retailers and from the brands’ own sites if the order is finalized, and unsold inventory in the U.S. could need to be written off.

The FCC is accepting public comments for 30 days, so the ban won’t take effect immediately. The Commission says it will consider “specific evidence” that might show the products are compliant, though, as The Verge points out, the organization doesn’t have a great track record of listening to public sentiment. If you would still like to voice your opinion, you can do so via the FCC’s Electronic Comment Filing System on the FCC website.

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It’s been about two weeks since we launched the new DPReview website, and our team is still hard at work. Along with fixing some critical behind-the-scenes bugs, we’ve been collecting your feedback and have already made some fixes where we could act quickly, with much more to come.

In the whirlwind since launch, however, there’s one new feature we haven’t talked about much: it’s now possible to see fewer ads on DPReview.

Ads were a source of frustration on the legacy site, and the new site gives you an easy way to cut down on them.

How to see fewer ads

It’s simple: use DPReview while logged in. That’s it. Logged-in readers see fewer ads, particularly the most disruptive kinds, like motion-heavy and video ads.

To be clear, this isn’t an ad-free experience; you’ll still see ads, just fewer of them. Consider it our way of thanking logged-in readers for your support as we continue to improve the ad experience for everyone.

Don’t have a DPReview account? Now’s a great time to create one. Just click the Register link to get started.

We know nobody loves ads. Believe me, we don’t either, but they’re a necessity to keep the site running. It costs real money to operate DPReview, and advertising is an important part of how we cover those costs. It’s not our only source of revenue, but it’s one of the things that lets us offer all of our content for free, whether you visit every day or once in a blue moon.

We also get why people use ad blockers. The reasons aren’t lost on us. We just ask you to keep one thing in mind: when you block ads, you’re not only preventing us from earning revenue, you’re actively costing us money. A photography-rich site uses a lot of bandwidth, and that’s a big part of our expenses. Every time you load our content without ads, we lose money, which makes it harder to do things like pay our writers and maintain our servers.

So if you’ve been browsing with an ad blocker, we ask that you try the new site without it (while logged in). We think you’ll find the ads less intrusive than they were on the legacy site, and you’ll be helping us stay on the internet.

In case you missed it

If you haven’t seen our earlier coverage about the new website, a few links are worth your time:

Gear Patrol founder and CEO Eric Yang – a DPReview user for over two decades – wrote about why we needed to rebuild the site from the ground up, including some helpful historical perspective.

If you want to track improvements as we make them, report a bug or usability issue, or just discuss the new site in our forums, we’ve published a guide on how to do that.

Finally, thank you for bearing with us as we improve the site. We know some things aren’t working as expected and that there’s plenty left to fix and improve. We appreciate your patience while our team works overtime to address those issues so we can remove the beta logo from the site.

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After becoming a go-to brand for tripods and various ways to carry your camera around, Peak Design is tackling the next piece of the puzzle: the L-bracket. As is its usual style, the company isn’t content with simply making a piece of hardware that makes it easy to switch between portrait and landscape shooting. Instead, it has built the Field Bracket as a modular system, launching it alongside additional accessories that aim to solve multiple issues.

The Field Bracket takes design cues from the “Field” tripod plate the company released last year. Like the Field Plate, the L-bracket doesn’t require a tool for installation. Instead, it uses the company’s “Field Latch” mechanism, which features a tab that pops up with the press of a button, turning into a thumb-drive handle. That means no more relying on having a hex tool on hand at all times.

Peak Design

The tool‑free design makes it quick and easy to attach the part of the bracket that goes up the side of the camera, transforming from a simple base plate into a full L‑bracket for shooting in portrait orientation on a tripod. Users can also adjust the upright position to provide room for tethering cables, making it easier to use in a studio setup. The Field Bracket is camera-specific, with versions for select Sony, Canon, Nikon, Fujifilm and Leica camera systems.

Peak Design says that the Field Bracket is the base of a modular system of accessories. In that spirit, it’s also launching the Beacon Finder Tag, a smaller version of its card-sized tracker that it released with its wallet system and which ties in with Apple’s Find My ecosystem. Peak Design says the tag is the first tracker specifically designed to fit in Arca-compatible camera plates, offering a discreet way to keep track of camera gear.

Peak Design

The company has also created a few additional new accessories for the Field Bracket. Its Cheese Plate adds 1/4″-20, 3/8″-16 and cold shoe mounting points for adding accessories like lights, mics, monitors and more. There’s also a hand strap, making it easier to work handheld with it attached to your camera. No matter which accessories are attached, Peak Design says all your camera’s ports and controls will remain easily accessible. It also allows full integration with existing Peak Design accessories, such as its camera straps and Capture Clip.

As is typical for Peak Design product launches, the new gear will first be available via Kickstarter (its 17th such launch). The Kickstarter campaign will allow users to purchase the system at a discount before the retail release. The camera-specific Field Brackets have an MSRP of $150, while the Cheese Plate, Hand Strap and Beacon Finder tag will be sold separately, starting at $40.

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Last year, Adobe’s Nextcam team launched Project Indigo, an experimental camera app for iPhones that offered full manual controls and promised a more natural look from smartphone photos. Now, the team has announced AI Playground, an experimental generative AI tool inside of Project Indigo.

In its announcement, Adobe explains that text-based editing (e.g., asking an AI chatbot to make changes to a photo for you) is still clunky, both in its results and usability. This new tool aims to improve that experience by keeping more of the process – both capture and edit – in one app. It says that AI Playground aims to “explore how generative AI can assist mobile photographers at the point of capture.”

AI Playground offers a handful of buttons that, when tapped, trigger specific generative AI prompts engineered by Adobe. These include options for removing distractions, creating a shallow depth of field, applying certain styles, changing lighting and critiquing photos. There’s also a Custom Edit button where users can input their own prompts, either via typing or dictation. For now, Adobe says it is using Google’s Nano Banana model, but that is subject to change, and may even change on a per-button basis.

Adobe

The “Styles” button allows users to apply a range of preset styles, turning photos into drawings or paintings or changing the lighting. Adobe says the available options “represent techniques we have found to be most successful when applied to everyday snapshots,” so it isn’t an endless list. It also clarifies that it trained the model to identify and highlight the main subject to keep focus on the most important parts of the photo.

Adobe

Object Editing offers tools familiar to editing apps, but Adobe says it is “exploring whether simple editing operations can be performed in the camera app using a generative model.” There are buttons for removing distractions and creating a shallow depth of field. If those specific tools don’t cover what you are looking to do, the Custom Edits button lets you change almost anything, similar to standalone generative AI tools. That includes completely swapping out backgrounds and specifying different styles. Adobe also showed off the ability to turn a drawing into a photo-like image, or change a sculpture into a “real” person.

Adobe

Adobe also highlighted the feedback section, which looks to be a more robust version of Google’s “Camera Coach,” albeit one that critiques photos after the fact, rather than giving you suggestions as you’re composing. It says that it is aimed at helping users learn or advance their photography by providing critique. The tool can provide both reshooting suggestions since it operates within a camera app, along with editing suggestions. Adobe says it is “working on customizing these prompts to reflect individual phone models and lenses, each of which has unique capabilities,” so that users get suggestions specific to what their phone is capable of.

There are some caveats with the AI Playground. First, while it’s free (for now) and doesn’t require sign-in, Adobe is only rolling this out to a small percentage of Project Indigo users. It says that if AI Playground is successful, there will be a paid version. Adobe also makes it clear that this is an experiment inside of an experimental app, so things are subject to change. You need to be connected to the internet to use AI Playground, and to save transmission and generation time, images are 2K pixels on a side.

Adobe

The Nextcam team also explains that it has had to create a workaround for HDR images, as image-generation models only output SDR images at this point. So, if you use Nano Banana to edit an HDR photo (even one taken with Project Indigo), it will produce an SDR image. To address this, Adobe says it built a custom ML model to post-process the SDR image and boost it back to HDR, but warns that it isn’t always accurate.

The announcement also briefly addresses ethics as well. Adobe says it is “working to attach metadata to AI-edited images produced from the AI Playground by using technology from Adobe’s Content Authenticity Initiative,” and specifies that some models, such as Nano Banana, apply invisible watermarks to images. At the end of the day, though, Adobe puts the onus on users: “Whether the edits you apply are ‘fair’ or ‘misleading’ depend on what you do, who you share the images with, and how you present them.”

Adobe

Ethics aside, it seems like an interesting move for the app, given that the original goal of Project Indigo was to produce more natural images that offer “SLR-like” quality from your iPhone. DPReview’s Dale Baskin even chose Project Indigo as his Gear of the Year last year, because it unlocked the ability to take more natural images, encouraging him to use his phone for photos more often. The AI Playground tools, however, seem to take things in a very different, more synthetic direction.

Additionally, the results, at least for now, don’t necessarily inspire confidence. The image at the top of this article looks more like a video game rendering than a photograph, with a distinctly synthetic sheen rather than the ‘natural’ look Indigo set out to offer. Plus, in some instances, such as the cycling image above, Adobe acknowledges that the models will change details that you don’t want changed. That includes altering face shape and expressions, even if it isn’t part of the user’s prompt or intent. The company’s workaround is to upload reference photos, which certainly isn’t ideal.

For those interested in testing AI Playground, you’ll need to update the Project Indigo app to version 1.1. If you are one of the selected users, you’ll see a screen pop up inviting you to use the feature. If you’re not a fan of GenAI in your camera app and you get invited, you can simply decline and keep using Project Indigo as you did before. Adobe also says that the Nextcam team is working on non-GenAI computational photography features that it plans to launch soon.

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I’m not completely shocked that Sony updated the RX10: the existing model was clearly out of production and increasingly silly second-hand prices suggested there was pent-up demand. And now the work of integrating more modern components with a Type 1 sensor has been done, surely an updated RX100 will be next?

I found myself thinking about what that might look like, and the more I do, the more I suspect it won’t be what I want.

Two years ago I made the argument that there is a market for enthusiast compacts: small cameras with decent image quality and sufficient direct control to give a satisfying photographic experience. I proposed an RX100-style camera with a less-expensive sensor and the original 24-70mm equiv F1.8-2.8 lens. Sadly, that’s not what I’m expecting Sony to make, at all.

Sony is a technology company. A technology company that makes some very good cameras, but ultimately a company that believes that their cameras will always be made better by throwing more and newer technology into them.

So instead of the stripped-back camera with direct controls and a (relatively) accessible price tag that I’d love someone to make, I suspect we’ll get a camera with, at the very least, all the bells and whistles of the RX10 V. I’m going to guess it’ll have the rangier but slower 24-200mm equiv lens, the ability to shoot at framerates around double the speed of a pro-targeted DSLR and a list price of at least the $1500 that the VII’s launch price would equate to, today.

And thinking about this made me remember how frustrated I’ve always been with the RX100 cameras. Because, with their introduction of the Type 1 (13.2 x 8.8) sensor to the compact market, they represented a huge step forward in terms of how much image quality you could fit in your pocket. The JPEG color on the first one was perhaps a little wonky but that 116mm² sensor was nearly three times the size of the Type 1/1.7 (43mm²) chip that had dominated the space up until then, and that’s the kind of difference you could see in every photo.

Richard Butler

But despite the appearance, price and that short, bright lens, the RX100 never felt like an enthusiast compact. Compared to the likes of the Olympus XZ models or Canon’s G and S-series cameras, the Sony sorely lacked engaging control points. Typically I’ll use an enthusiast compact in Aperture Priority mode, so would want to be able to control the aperture value and exposure compensation: both of them settings that adjust in fixed, stepped intervals. The RX100 doesn’t have a well-placed clicking control point, meaning you have to change most settings via the vague, free-rotating ring around the lens. There’s a lag before it recognizes that your input is intentional and there’s no tactile feedback that you’ve changed anything.

The result, even before you visited the old, rather chaotic menus, was a user experience that left you feeling detached from the photo taking process: the precise opposite of what I believe a standalone camera needs to offer. The RX100 series have always been products whose engineering I admired, rather than cameras I enjoyed.

I remember being advised “stop trying to make it do what you want, and just use it as a point-and-shoot,” and finding that helped. But if I wanted to just take snaps, I’d probably use a smartphone, because the phone makers know their devices aren’t about taking control, so they’re happy to shoot and combine multiple images with every shot, letting them rival or exceed the image quality of a Type 1 camera taking single photos.

I could be wrong, of course. Sony might significantly rework the RX100 to make it fun to take control of. Or it might not make one at all. And, even if it does, I’m not going to assume that the things I, personally, want are the things that the market as a whole wants: Sony will have a much better idea of what sells and what doesn’t, and of what would-be customers are asking for.

But, while the whole thing remains hypothetical, you can’t blame me for hoping.

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