Gavin Free, one half of the YouTube duo The Slow Mo Guys, is a camera nerd through and through. His 2015 video “Inside a Camera at 10,000fps” was one of the catalysts for me deciding to actually learn about the technical side of photography, rather than treating my camera as a sort of magic box that takes photos. But slow-motion videography and cameras have changed a lot since then, which is why it’s so exciting that he’s taken another run at the subject. 

The video he released today covers way more than the mirror and shutter mechanism of DSLRs, though he goes into that a bit too. It also shows the exact way that electronic first curtain (or, really, mechanical second curtain) shutters work, how they synchronize with a lens’s aperture mechanism and captures a leaf shutter in action. The video also covers various flash sync modes, showing how a camera manages to capture the light from a strobe, and explaining the things that can go wrong in that process (especially when using High-Speed Sync). 

If you’ve never dug into how a camera shutter works, this video is an excellent primer. Sure, you can figure it out by reading metaphors and explainers and looking at diagrams and animations (and those help you go deeper on a subject), but watching extremely slow-motion footage gives you a very visceral understanding of what’s happening. And if you are familiar with a camera’s mechanisms, it’s still fun to see them in action, in both high definition and slow motion. One thing I learned from the video is just how much the blades of a leaf shutter jiggle when it closes; it’s the kind of thing that really makes you appreciate just what a marvel of precision engineering and manufacturing cameras are.

This year started out quite quiet for new cameras and almost as quiet for photography-related gear in general. We saw some lenses and a few cameras trickled out in the first half of the year, each of which told us something interesting about the market, but there have been fewer releases than in past years. Thankfully, this week marked a bit of a shift, and we suddenly had some actually new products to share. In case you missed some of it, here’s all we saw over the last seven days. 

OM System PEN

Richard Butler

Perhaps the standout launch this week was the OM System PEN, a compact, Micro Four Thirds camera built around a 20MP sensor that marks the first time in a decade that a Pen camera has been sold in North America. The camera is aimed at travel and everyday use, offering a compact build with retro styling at a very reasonable price.

OM System M.Zuiko Digital 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 III

OM System

Released alongside the PEN was an updated model of OM System’s standard zoom, the M.Zuiko Digital 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 III (28-84mm equiv.). The new version is a small upgrade, but it finally offers weather sealing and lets you focus more closely. It is slightly larger than its predecessor, but it’s still quite small for what it is, fitting nicely on cameras like the new PEN. 

Laowa 180mm F4.5 1.5x Ultra Macro APO for X and F-mount

Laowa

While not a new lens, Laowa announced this week that the previously released 180mm F4.5 1.5x Ultra Macro APO is now available for Fujifilm X-mount and Nikon F-mount. It is the first autofocus Laowa lens available for X-mount, and offers a 270mm equiv. field of view on Fujifilm’s APS-C cameras. The price is also a pleasant feature: it costs just $499. 

Sony FE 8-14mm F3.5 Fisheye G

Dale Baskin

Sony released a lens this week that is a first in its lens lineup. The FE 8-14mm F3.5 Fisheye G is the company’s first standalone fisheye lens for E-mount, and it says it’s the most compact lens of this type. At 8mm, the lens provides a circular fisheye image, which will be very familiar to anyone who watched 90’s skateboarding or music videos, while zooming to 14mm results in an image that fills the frame. 

Sigma 20-60mm F2.8-4 DG Contemporary

Sigma / Jack Redgate

Sigma announced two lenses this week, one of which was the 20-60mm F2.8-4 DG Contemporary, a kit lens upgrade for E and L-mounts that is remarkably compact. It weighs 385g (13.6oz), and is 88mm (3.5″) long at its shortest (it extends as you zoom). It is limited in on-lens controls, but Sigma says it’s dust and splash-resistant, and at $849, it’s relatively affordable, too. 

Sigma 85mm F1.2 DG Art

Sigma

For those looking for a more portrait-focused lens, the new Sigma 85mm F1.2 DG Art may be of interest. Like the above lens, it is available for E and L-mounts and is the company’s third F1.2 prime lens, joining 35mm and 50mm options. A lens of this type will have some bulk, but Sigma says it is the “smallest and lightest in its class,” and it weighs just 905g (31.9oz). It’s also significantly more affordable than the Canon and Nikon 85mm F1.2 lenses, coming in at $1599. You can see sample images from the lens here. 

Nine Nikon cinema lenses

Nikon

Not to be left out of the slew of announcements this week, Nikon announced it will be releasing a series of nine T1.9 cinema lenses. Details are still sparse on most of them, including availability, pricing and focal lengths, but it did say one of the nine lenses will be a 50mm. We’ll have to wait for more details, but it does appear Nikon is busy at least.

Fujifilm XF 400mm F4.5 R LM OIS WR

Abby Ferguson

Fujifilm released the XF 400mm F4.5 R LM OIS WR at the end of last week, but for the sake of thoroughness, we’re including it here. The $3200 super-telephoto prime lens rounds out its trio of such lenses, joining the XF 500mm F5.6 R LM OIS WR and XF 200mm F2 R LM OIS WR. It provides a 609mm equivalent focal length on X-mount cameras, and is relatively compact and lightweight for what it is. 

Apple iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max and iPhone Duo

Apple

Shifting gears away from lenses, this week marked the release of Apple’s latest iPhone lineup, which includes the iPhone 18 Pro, 18 Pro Max and Duo. The most notable update from a camera perspective is the variable aperture found on the main camera of the 18 Pro and Pro Max, which ranges from F1.48 to F4. It also finally unlocks manual control over some settings within the native camera app.  

The Duo is Apple’s long-awaited entry into the folding phone market, and while it doesn’t feature very advanced cameras, it does offer some camera tricks. 

Insta360 Luna Pro

Mykim Dang

Lastly, Insta360 announced the global release of its Luna Pro, a single-lens gimbal camera aimed at creators who want a portable, stabilized camera for social-ready video. It keeps the specs of the main camera found on the Luna Ultra, and comes in at $600, $170 less than its dual-lens sibling. You can see our hands-on footage here. 

Photographers usually discuss focal length in millimeters. But the San Diego Air & Space Museum’s newly unpacked reconnaissance camera is identified in inches: 24 of them, or roughly 610mm. According to the museum, an even longer 48-inch version followed. 

The camera was part of a cache of unused 1960s-era equipment supplied with the museum’s Lockheed A-12, the CIA’s Mach 3 reconnaissance aircraft and the predecessor to the SR-71 Blackbird. The video is nearly 20 minutes long and begins with substantial background on the A-12 (it is an aviation channel, after all) so photographers may want to jump to the 11:47 mark, where the museum gets into the cameras and how they were used. 

In the video, host Gordon Permann walks through some of the challenges of making a sharp photograph from about 80,000 feet while traveling at roughly 2500 mph. The ground would move hundreds of feet beneath the aircraft during an exposure, resulting in a blurred image. Making matters worse, neither the aircraft nor the terrain would necessarily be level. The solution was motion compensation: the camera itself would “skew,” or make a small movement as its aperture opened, counteracting image smear.

Another fascinating feature is simply how much film these systems used. Permann first shows the standard film canister used in reconnaissance aircraft from the 1950s through the 1990s, which he says held roughly 1200 feet of film. But the A-12 and SR-71 Blackbird needed still more film, so a larger canister was made. The museum has one of those, too, which Permann lifts in the video. He explains that the larger camera used a five-inch-wide film strip, with around 4.5 inches of usable image area. Each individual frame measured about six feet long.

Permann says the system could image more than 100,000 square miles in a single hour, capturing huge swathes of land or sea at once. He also recounts a Blackbird making a turn with its camera running and pointed out to sea. When the film was developed, analysts reportedly spotted a U.S. destroyer on the horizon, 94 miles away, and were able to identify the ship’s type despite the distance.

A separate, still-factory-wrapped camera in another crate is the real mystery: its 1953 date predates the A-12 project by six years, so it couldn’t have come from a Blackbird-family aircraft. The museum is seeking the public’s help to identify what airplane it may have been used on, so anyone with a theory can head to the video and share it in the comments.

Earlier this week, Sigma fully unveiled the 85mm F1.2 Art, a lens it announced would be coming earlier this year. We had the chance to shoot with it, and mainly focused on testing out its capabilities for portraiture, as that’s the traditional use for fast 85mm primes.

You can check out the sample gallery below to judge its performance for yourself. 

We found that shooting with it was the characteristically refined experience that we’ve come to expect from Sigma’s Art-series lenses. While a quality F1.2 lens will never be the smallest or lightest option, we appreciated that this particular lens is light for what it is; Sigma actually claims it’s the smallest and lightest full-frame 85mm F1.2 with autofocus for mirrorless cameras. It feels like something you could conceivably carry around all day without having to worry about waking up the next morning to an unusably sore arm (though I had it paired with an original Panasonic S1R, so it still made for a relatively hefty setup). 

The controls on the lens are also well-judged. I always appreciate a clicked aperture ring, though Sigma also lets you de-click it if you prefer. It’s also nice that you can lock it either into or out of the ‘A’ mode that hands over control of the aperture to the camera body.

While we haven’t put the lens through a full battery of tests to determine every aspect of its image quality, it’s hard to find much fault with the samples we’ve taken. It’s quite sharp across the frame, even at F1.2 (though obviously you’ll be working with razor-thin depth of field), though there’s definitely some chromatic aberration present. There’s also relatively strong vignetting at F1.2, which isn’t necessarily a surprise given the lens’s size, though it largely clears up by F2.8.

Whether you think the trade-offs of an F1.2 lens are worth it over an F1.4 or F1.8 will largely depend on your thirst for light and background blur. But before now, your options for this kind of lens on E and L-mount were limited to non-existent, so it’s nice that we’re getting a genuinely good option, especially one that comes in at just over half of what Nikon and Canon will charge you for a similarly-speced lens.

This week, Apple announced the iPhone 18 Pro, the latest entry in its lineup of high-end smartphones. As we’ve come to expect, the update includes several new camera features, and even some new hardware. So how does it stack up against the last few years of Pro phones from Apple?

Before we get to what’s changed, let’s quickly cover what stayed the same: the 48MP ultra-wide camera, which provides a 13mm equiv. field of view and uses a 1/2.55 (23.5mm²) sensor, is the same model on the iPhones 16, 17 and 18 Pro. Likewise, Apple hasn’t updated the selfie or telephoto cameras on the 18 Pro either; they’re the same ones from the iPhone 17 Pro (though they were upgrades from those of the 16 Pro).

It’s also worth stating up front that the camera layouts on the 18 Pro are the same whether you go with the standard or Max versions, leaving you free to decide whether you want a 6.3″ or 6.9″ display, without having to worry that you’re compromising your phone’s photographic abilities.

The main camera

Apple

So what has changed then? The major hardware change Apple made to the iPhone 18 Pro is the addition of an adjustable aperture to the main 24mm equiv. camera. Unlike the fixed aperture lenses that all previous iPhones have used, this allows you or the phone’s software to choose whether it wants to cut down on the amount of light hitting the sensor, or make adjustments to the depth of field without resorting to software tricks. And if you stop it down all the way, you can even get some sun stars.

The six-bladed aperture has four settings: F1.48, F1.8, F2.8 and F4. Notably, the brightest aperture is faster than the lenses used on the iPhone 17 and 16 Pro, which were fixed at F1.78. While I’m on record saying that an adjustable aperture probably won’t be a ground-breaking change (something I still generally believe), I caveated that statement with the assumption that the phone’s maximum aperture wouldn’t change. At the time, I thought the feature would make for a lens that goes from F1.78 to F4, or F6.1 to F13.7 equiv., letting you switch from a setting with enough depth of field to more than enough. But the difference should be a bit more noticeable now that you’re starting at F5.1 equiv.

Tucker Bowe

While Apple says the sensor behind the lens is new, details are light on what’s changed. It’s still the same size – Type 1/1.28 (71.5mm²) with 1.22µm pixels – as the one used by the 17 and 16 Pro, so it won’t gather any more light; the 50% improvement that Apple references in its presentation is entirely accounted for by the fact that the lens’s maximum aperture is half a stop faster.

Software

Apple

The rest of the camera improvements on the iPhone 18 Pro come from software, and many of the features are only available when using that upgraded main camera. The biggest finally comes from the the “Pro controls” mode, which lets you manually set parameters like white balance, aperture, shutter speed, and view a histogram. (Disappointingly, there’s no mention of manual focus control, for when the AF system doesn’t get things right. While this is theoretically something Apple could port to its older Pro phones, minus the aperture control, of course, its comparison page indicates that it has no intention of doing so.

Apple has also introduced a new “Reference” mode for the main camera, which it says bakes authenticity data into photos taken with the phone into the image on a pixel level. This appears to be an answer to Google Pixel’s inclusion of C2PA Content Credentials in its camera app, though its inclusion as a separate mode means you have to actively decide to use it.

The iPhone 18 Pro introduces Photographic Styles 3, an update to the system that gives you more control over what your phone’s photos look like, letting you adjust things like contrast and color at the point of capture. The system was majorly overhauled with the iPhone 16 Pro, giving you a lot more control and letting you change the style after-the-fact, rather than permanently baking it into the image. The version on the 18 Pro is a much more minor change, adding the ability to “customize texture and grain to soften skin details or achieve an artful film look.”

Finally, Apple is adding a “Smart focus tracking” mode, which will attempt to recognize and stick to a subject after you’ve tapped on it to focus. Again, this feels like something that could come to previous models, but Apple’s comparison tool says it won’t.

Video

Many of the iPhone 18 Pro’s video upgrades are the same as they are for stills: you get the benefits of the variable aperture, and the ability to manually control it and other parameters, along with the tracking autofocus.

Otherwise, the changes are relatively minor: you can now record at up to 4K/60 in the “Cinematic” video mode that adds simulated background blur, where the iPhone 17 and 16 Pro max out at 4K/30. More importantly, though, is that you no longer have to make the on whether to apply the effect or not when recording; you can apply it after the fact. The timelapse video feature is also upgraded to 4K, and Apple appears to have improved its noise reduction as it claims the 18 Pro has better low light video across the board, including on the selfie camera.

The rest

Apple

Of course, a phone isn’t just a camera, and Apple’s made some big changes under the hood that make the iPhone 18 Pro enticing even if you’re happy with your phone’s photos. You can read our launch coverage for the full story, but the top-level summary is that the chip is now substantially faster (especially when it comes to AI tasks, with twice the number of neural cores), and is kept cool thanks to a more advanced vapor chamber design, and some clever engineering choices. The battery life has also gotten a relatively impressive bump, and you can new refill it faster with 60W wired charging, where the 17 Pro topped out at 40W.

You will, however, pay for all these upgrades, in more ways than one. The iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max start at $100 more than their predecessors for the same spec, and, while they keep roughly the same dimensions as past Pros, are the heaviest ones yet, despite their aluminum, rather than stainless steel, frames. That metal is, however, once again in four colors: black, burgundy, silver and a light blue.

Earlier this year, we reported on a novel photography contest sponsored by Icelandair: a competition to identify the worst photographer it could find, offering a free trip to Iceland and $50,000 cash. The premise was that Iceland is so beautiful that even a terrible photographer could capture its stunning landscapes, and Icelandair wanted to prove it. 

It turns out the airline got a much bigger response than it anticipated, receiving 127,642 entries from 178 countries. That’s a lot of bad photographers, and to find the winner, the judges spent more than 2,000 hours screening what were, by all accounts, terrible photos. You can’t make this stuff up.

Fast forward to June, when we reported on the winner, 28-year-old Blanche Mortemard of Paris, France, who wowed the judges with her inept technical ability and lack of compositional skill.

Blanche Mortemard

But the story didn’t end there. Shortly thereafter, Blanche jetted off to Iceland, presumably on Icelandair, to put her – ahem – skills to the test, spending 10 days touring the island and shooting its landscapes with no filters, no retouching and no AI.

The results are in, and while Blanche isn’t likely to be named photographer of the year by any other organization on the planet, she got some nice shots – along with less-than-perfect photos. As for Iceland? It understood the assignment and came through, looking beautiful, even if obscured by body parts. 

Blanche Mortemard

Reflecting on her experience, it seems that even Blanche thinks Icelandair’s marketing department was onto something. “Iceland makes it almost impossible to take a bad photo, despite my total inability to straighten the camera or take one without my thumb in shot,” she said.

And with that, the saga of one of the most interesting photo contests to cross our desks in quite some time comes to a close. Well, almost.

Blanche Mortemard

Blanche Mortemard

Blanche Mortemard

Blanche Mortemard

If you find yourself inspired by Blanche’s photography – and we’re not making any judgments – and are near London, you can attend the Iceland by the World’s Worst Photographer exhibition in person at White Rabbit Studios in Shoreditch on September 11 (2 – 8pm) and 12 (1 – 9pm). What’s more, you can attend a moderated talk by the “artist” (and we think even Blanche would use that term loosely) on Saturday, September 12 at 5pm. Admission is, mercifully, free, but needs to be booked. And if London isn’t on your itinerary, Icelandair says it plans to take the exhibition to a handful of other cities in North America and Europe. Because why not?

And let’s admit it – we probably all wish it could have been us on that trip.

The OM System PEN brings a lot of camera (interchangeable lenses, twin command dials, an EVF, in-body stabilization and a rated degree of weather sealing) to not a lot of camera (it’s usefully small).

Here’s our hands-on overview of a camera that brings together familiar components in a form that we haven’t seen (at least in North America) for some time.

It’s more an E-P7 with a viewfinder than a direct PEN-F successor, but that delivers an interesting, relatively affordable option for everyday and travel photography.

If you want to read about the PEN in more depth and see more sample images, check out our written review.

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Laowa has announced that it is bringing its 180mm F4.5 1.5x Ultra Macro APO lens to Fujifilm X-mount and Nikon F-mount. The lens was originally released almost exactly one year ago for Sony E, Nikon Z, Canon EF, Canon RF, and L-mounts, and the new additions mean that most photographers, no matter their system, have access to an affordable macro lens, though not every mount offers autofocus. 

Laowa

The Fujifilm X-mount version, like the E, Z, and EF-mount iterations, is an autofocus lens and marks the first autofocus Laowa lens for X-mount cameras. The Canon RF, L-mount and Nikon F versions, though, are manual focus only. Complicating matters further, the autofocus versions of the lenses only have their full abilities from 1.5m (4.9′) to infinity. For subjects between 1.5m and the lens’ minimum focusing distance, 30cm (11.8″), you only get “limited autofocus assistance for focus stacking.”

On Fujifilm X-mount cameras, the lens offers a 270mm equivalent field of view. Optically, all mounts are the same, with an apochromatic design and 12 elements in 9 groups, which Laowa says results in excellent sharpness and reduced chromatic aberration. It features a nine-blade aperture diaphragm. 

Laowa

The exact weight depends on the mount, but the Fujifilm X version is the heaviest of the bunch, weighing 526.2g (1.2 lbs). All iterations are compatible with 62mm filters. 

Laowa’s 180mm F4.5 1.5x Ultra Macro APO for X and F-mounts is available for purchase today for $499. 

Laowa 180mm F4.5 1.5X Ultra Macro APO

• $499 at B&H Photo
• $499 at Laowa

It looks like Viltrox is gearing up to release a lot of lenses, including bringing several of its existing full-frame designs to L-mount. The news comes from the company’s press release about its attendance of the International Broadcasting Convention, or IBC, this week. While the show is typically focused on video, the company says it’ll be showing off several photographic tools there, too.

First are its L-mount lenses. Viltrox is bringing its autofocusing 14mm F4, 20mm F2.8, 40mm F2.5 and 50mm F2 lenses to the mount, which are all part of its “Air” series of relatively lightweight options that were originally launched for Sony E and Nikon Z mounts. Given that the company has only released two autofocusing lenses for the mount since it joined the L-mount Alliance in 2025, this looks like a relatively dramatic expansion of its offerings. What stands out more, though, is that these lenses aren’t all standard fare; sure a 50mm F2 isn’t that exotic, but there aren’t exactly a ton of affordable ultrawide autofocus lenses already on the market for those with L-mount cameras.

The company also says it’ll be introducing two new APS-C lenses, the 18mm (27mm equiv.) F1.2 Pro and 40mm (60mm equiv.) F1.2 Pro. These are also exciting options, as I wasn’t able to find any other lenses like them currently available for sale (assuming they’ll have autofocus). Of course, they’ll probably be quite large and heavy, but for those who want fast glass to pair with an APS-C camera, these could be options to watch out for. 

The company also promises to expand its flash lineup – which has, until now, consisted mainly of small, on-camera models – with a “new high-power” option. Whether that means a particularly bright version of what it’s made before, or a speedlight or standalone strobe to compete with companies like Godox, we’ll have to wait and see.

While Viltrox will be showing these lenses off at IBC, this doesn’t quite seem to be an official announcement yet. We don’t have release dates for the L-mount lenses, nor do we know if they’ll be the same price as the Sony and Nikon versions. Nor do we have much info on the APS-C lenses. But it’s clear that we should keep a close eye on Viltrox in the coming weeks.

Meet James Fawcette

Home base: Los Altos Hills, CA USA

For this spotlight series, we sometimes get a variety of photos from an individual to share with you, and then there are also specialist photographers like James Fawcette, known as JimLosAltos in the forums. James has spent decades since junior high school covering sports games. He started with the NBA (basketball) using a Kodak Tri-X, and is now aiming a Nikon Z9 at professional tennis events.

“When camera companies use the term ‘prosumer’, I suppose that’s what I am. I’m an amateur photographer who extends my enjoyment of tennis by capturing photos of pro tennis players. And I’ve been able to sell enough of these to more than pay for generations of my camera equipment.”

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 James has to share.

What got you into photographing sports?

James Fawcette

“Since the 1960s, as a junior high school student, I sold my first photos of the Boston Celtics and Killington, Vermont ski resort to the local newspaper, the Rutland Daily Herald. I first worked in the Herald’s darkroom, where I learned to develop negatives “by observation.” I had to learn how to “push” the Tri-X from 400 to – who knows. There were no numbers to guide us, so we had to do it by eye. We had pushed the boundaries of that era’s film to its limits.

I managed to get more time behind the camera after the Herald published an on-court shot I took of Wilt Chamberlain. Then I got assignments, first to shoot Killington when it was sub-zero and the NYC tourists were getting frostbite, when my lens literally froze. I couldn’t turn the focus ring. Then I turned an assignment on a new shopping mall into something publishable by getting a private plane ride. I asked the pilot to help me “shoot straight down”. So, he did a wingover, and I was looking literally straight down. Nearly threw up right then and there.”

What’s in James’s bag

James Fawcette

Favorite cameras(s): Nikon Z9 & Nikon Z7

Favorite lens(s):

• Nikkor Z 14-24mm F2.8 S
• Nikkor 24-140mm F4 S
• Nikkor 105mm F1.4 F1.4E ED
• Nikkor Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S II
• Nikkor Z 400mm F4.5 VR S
• Viltrox AF 85mm F2.0 Evo

“When I first started, I used what I’m pretty sure were Herald’s Honeywell Pentax reflex cameras that had a long lens of 100m or 135mm, I think. When I had more time for photography years later, I started using lower-end Nikon film equipment, then progressed from the D810 to the D850, and finally to the Z7 and Z9.

Most of my pro tennis shots have been taken by rentals from the likes of old Borrow Lenses to Lensrental, because I do events sporadically, and the physical location varies so widely. My go-to lens for many of my most successful shots after moving to the Z-mount was still an F-mount lens: the 500mm PF on an FTZ converter with a Nikon Z7, then my Z9. It’s remarkably sharp, compact enough to fit in a transparent NFL bag and quick focusing.”

What’s your favorite bag and accessories?

Must-have accessories: “Tile trackers (for theft prevention and tracking) and rubber lens hoods from Kurvd. And of course, the more expected items like backup storage, batteries and a MagSafe Tripod for the phone.”

Favorite bag(s): “I’m totally not satisfied here. This is an endless quest. Frankly, I have a Peak bag I ‘bought’ from that company’s first Kickstarter program. Loved it at first, then the knife-edge shoulder strap, combined with having to spend so much time reconfiguring it every time I changed lenses, turned me off.

Being plenty frustrated with specific camera bags, I now use a regular Tumi or Oakley, which is just a bag with no dividers. I place foam dividers around whatever combination of equipment I put in there.

What’s probably my most unique setup? That’s tough to decide, but freezing on a Killington chairlift in sub-zero temperatures or on my nose looking down from an airplane, I think, qualifies.”

What do you like to shoot?

James Fawcette

“My main focus is professional tennis. I’ve captured images of players from Roger Federer to Jannik Sinner and from Serena Williams to Coco Gauff, which have appeared in all sorts of media. Since I like tennis, my focus is more on playing tennis than on reaction shots, which bore me (sorry). I attempt to capture the energy, the technique, the athleticism of these great players. That passion evolved into photo-illustration.

Sometimes I have media credentials and shoot from the edge of the court. Other times, I shoot as a ticket-buying fan (something that is becoming near impossible, as another subject of your spotlight series stated in his article. I find that very sad and short-sighted.)”

How do you photograph constantly moving objects, such as sports players?

James Fawcette

“It’s kind of impossible to keep up with the quick movements of professional athletes, so knowing the sport well enough to anticipate action helps. Also, I’ve learned a few tennis-specific tricks, but I imagine they have parallels in other sports.

One such example is trying to time the ball’s impact with the racket’s strings. Pros are so precise, and their skills make them so consistent, you can often watch for the ball to get in the right position with confidence that’s where they’ll make contact. I suppose another example would be that of a high cross in soccer (a pass kicked through the air from one side of the field to the other), which will lead to a header (when a player uses their head to play the ball).”

What would you say to other photographers about building a lasting career?

James Fawcette

“As photography gets commoditized, being able to add value to the photo has helped me. The photo-illustrations differentiate my work. In some cases, I’ve created cover images for a set of photos using typography on the names or headlines that graphically overlap the image. But if I’m trying to get an image published, rather than simply for fun, the illustration or abstraction has to serve a purpose.

For example, a photo-illustration I called “Sinner Hydra” was inspired by a tennis analyst, the excellent Brad Gilbert, saying “He gives you nowhere to go. Everywhere you look, Sinner has a weapon”. So, I created an image of Sinner with four arms holding a racket. Point made.

Another tactic that has worked for me is to understand the publication’s or site’s mission and create packages that fit that. A more pragmatic example is a set of images where I overlaid pop-up windows showing close-ups of how tennis players grip their rackets for a website that caters to teaching tennis pros. That’s added value. Differentiating your product is key.”

James 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 James’s other work at jfawcette.myportfolio.com/work.

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.

Insta360 has announced the global launch of the Luna Pro, a compact, single-lens gimbal camera designed for vlogging and social-first video. The camera is Insta360’s second entry in the category after the dual-lens Luna Ultra, sharing the more expensive model’s Type 1 sensor, Leica-branded 20mm-equivalent F1.8 lens and 8K Dolby Vision video while omitting its dedicated telephoto camera. You can learn more about the camera in our full coverage.

A spec sheet is one thing, but we wanted to see how the Luna Pro holds up in the real world. To that end, we brought it into a dim listening bar, attached it for first-person rock-climbing footage and took it aboard a working lobster boat. The videos above and below look at stabilization on moving water, the effectiveness of the camera’s zoom, and its close-up shooting abilities with animals and other natural subjects.

The resulting footage offers a more practical look at how Insta360’s lower-priced Luna model handles unpredictable, active settings, and where the single-lens design may be enough for creators who do not need the Luna Ultra’s dedicated telephoto camera.

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Insta360 is continuing its challenge to DJI’s popular Osmo lineup with its second gimbal camera in just three months. The Luna Pro is a single-lens device designed to take on the DJI Osmo Pocket 4, targeting creators who want a more portable option for stabilized, social-ready video without the higher price tag of the dual-lens Insta360 Luna Ultra.

The Luna Pro shares the Luna Ultra’s headline Type 1 sensor and Leica-branded 20mm-equivalent F1.8 lens specifications, but lacks that model’s dedicated telephoto camera. The Luna Pro can record HDR video in Dolby Vision at 8K/30, as well as 4K/120 footage for slow motion. It features a dedicated low-light mode called PureVideo that uses AI to reduce noise and enhance brightness and detail, which works up to 4K60. The camera can also record 4K/30 vertical video using 6K oversampling for social-first sharing and can take up to 37MP still photos.

Insta360

Insta360 says the Luna Pro offers a 2x zoom mode that crops in on the center region of the sensor, which still provides a 4K window, plus 4x ‘HighRes Zoom,’ which Insta360 says uses AI to maintain detail and quality. It supports 10-bit I-Log, preserving more color, highlight and shadow detail for grading and supports ACES workflows. It also features in-camera Leica color profiles and other filters for those who are after more polished looks straight out of the camera.

As a gimbal camera, it offers 3-axis stabilization, promising smooth footage even when moving. It also offers multiple subject tracking modes, including single person, multi-person and pets. 

Insta360

Like its sibling, the Luna Pro features a detachable two-inch touchscreen that can be used as a remote control. Insta360 promises up to 4 hours of use, and it also supports fast charging. It includes 47GB of built-in storage, though it also accepts microSD cards up to 2TB for those who need more storage space. It weighs 215g for the black version, though the white comes in 3g heavier. The camera is also compatible with a range of accessories, including Insta360’s mics and its head tracker, which you can see in action in our hands-on footage.

The Luna Pro will be available globally beginning September 10 for $600, or $170 less than the dual-lens Luna Ultra. For U.S. customers, the Luna series has a clear advantage over DJI’s current Osmo Pocket models, which are not officially available in the country because DJI is affected by the FCC’s Covered List restrictions on newly introduced foreign-made camera equipment. For those in the U.S. who like the idea of a gimbal camera but find the Luna series a bit steep, the Osmo Pocket 3 remains available for $439 because it was released before DJI was added to the FCC’s Covered List.

Insta360

Insta360 Luna Pro

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September 9th is Sigma’s 65th anniversary of being in business and its CEO, Kazuto Yamaki, has published a letter marking the occasion. While it doesn’t contain any news, it’s well worth a read, as it’s illustrative of what makes the company different.

While Sigma is best known for its lenses, it’s also a company that hasn’t been afraid of trying something a little out there, be that chasing the long-standing dream of a full-frame Foveon camera, creating a radically simplified user interface for its BF camera or even growing rice. And indeed, it’s hard to imagine many other companies taking time in a letter celebrating an anniversary to call attention to the “stern feedback” they received after the times their products or services fell short.

Yamaki states in the letter that the company hopes to “contribute to the development of photographic and visual culture, social peace, and human happiness” in the future. You can read the full letter here, or take a trip down memory lane and read the letter Yamaki wrote for Sigma’s 60th anniversary in 2021, before checking out the company’s history page.

Today, Apple announced the new iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Duo, its first foldable, making it seem as if the standard line of iPhones, along with the ultra-thin iPhone Air were untouched. And while those phones haven’t been updated yet, something about them has changed: their prices.

When the iPhone 17 launched in September of last year, it started at $799 for a model with 256GB of storage. Now, that same model is $899. If you want to upgrade your storage to 512GB, it’ll bring the price up to $1099. Apple is no longer selling the 17 Pro that launched alongside it, as is tradition for when it updates a Pro model.

The iPhone Air, launched at the same time as the 17, has also received a $100 price bump, now starting at $1099 instead of $999. 

What’s more painful is what’s happened to the cheaper end of Apple’s lineup. The iPhone 17e, the company’s budget model which originally launched in March, has gone from $599, the same price as its predecessor, to $699. And the now two-year old iPhone 16 now sells for $799, which is the same price that it launched at in 2024.

This move isn’t necessarily a surprise from Apple. The company recently raised prices on many of its other devices like Macs, Apple TVs and more, likely due in part to rising storage and memory costs. However, it had seemed like the iPhone may have been spared, with the price increases coming with the next generation. And indeed, the iPhone 18 Pros announced today start at $100 more than their predecessor. However, it seems like that price increase isn’t just limited to the latest and greatest.

Earlier this week, we published a news article about a new Sony lens, along with a sample gallery we shot with it. That gallery came with the following editor’s note:

“Due to a memory card failure, this sample gallery contains fewer images than usual; most of the photos captured for it were lost before they could be transferred.”

Reader Horshack pointed out that the camera I used to shoot that gallery, the Sony a7 V, has two card slots, and proceeded to cut through my editor-speak in five words.

“The dog ate my homework.“

He meant it in good humor. He was also completely right. In every conceivable way, this was an unforced, preventable error.

It’s worth explaining why a reader spotted this so quickly. Camera enthusiasts love to talk about dual card slots. So much so that it’s become a bit of a running joke. When we write about an inexpensive novelty camera, we can reliably expect at least one reader to jokingly ask, “Does it have two card slots?” That meme even extends beyond digital; I can recall articles about film cameras where someone posted, “But does it have two film slots?”

Mitchell Clark

The joke works because the fixation seems excessive. I spent a night with data recovery software reconsidering that.

I had become complacent, which is usually when disaster strikes.

At DPReview, we’ve been shooting digital cameras for over two decades, and we’ve rarely had a memory card fail on us. I could count the number of failures I’ve personally experienced on one hand and have several fingers left over. I’ve used cards from every major manufacturer, and they’ve been consistently reliable. Intellectually, I know card failures can happen, but in my experience, they’ve happened so rarely that it was easy to ignore the risk.

In a nutshell, my choice to use a single card was proportionate to the perceived risk.

I blocked out a full day to shoot with the lens before it had to go back to Sony and had even traveled to find subjects that would be interesting to photograph with a fisheye: a ghost town in the Rocky Mountains and a new airport terminal with interesting architecture.

Dale Baskin

The total time between capturing the final image and inserting the card into my computer was only about three hours, during which the card never left the camera. But I got a sinking feeling the moment a “card not readable” error popped up on my screen. When I put it back into the camera, the a7 V told me the card needed to be formatted. Not good.

Hours later, in the middle of the night, with multiple data recovery tools in the rearview mirror, I gave up.

Fortunately, I have a habit of offloading photos and backing them up at the end of each day of shooting, so I had a few photos taken with the lens from the previous week. That’s what ran in the gallery.

Do I use two cards when working for a client or shooting a wedding? Every. Single. Time. After all, the job and your professional reputation are on the line. But it’s easy to think of shooting sample galleries for DPReview as part of daily life. We’re constantly toting around cameras and lenses, shooting whenever the opportunity arises. It’s often continuous rather than scheduled, and it’s easy to stop treating it as a job.

Richard Butler

At the risk of sounding alarmist, I’m not suggesting that everyone needs to shoot with two cards. Are we flirting with disaster when we use one card? In most cases, I don’t think so. It’s still rare that one fails, and unless you’re doing something mission-critical, it’s probably safer to say that you’re flirting with disappointment, frustration, and possibly sorrow. For most of us, most of the time, a single card is an acceptable risk.

The question worth asking when evaluating risk isn’t whether you’re shooting professionally. It’s whether the day is one you could shoot again. A walk around the neighborhood can be repeated. A day you blocked out, traveled for, and can’t redo because the lens has to go back tomorrow is not.

Dual card slots exist for a reason, and my recent experience is a good reminder of that. During a discussion with the team, Richard Butler pointed out that this isn’t a free option. Extra cards aren’t cheap, and managing two per body for a small amount of extra insurance isn’t a trivial cost. That’s a fair objection. But this experience has tested my personal risk tolerance, and going forward, my best practice will be to have two cards in the camera when shooting a sample gallery, if that option is available.

Have you lost photos from a memory card? If so, tell me about it in the comments.

Apple has announced its long-awaited take on the folding smartphone form-factor, and it’s called the iPhone Duo*. It features a “passport” style design, which is relatively short and wide, giving the interior screen an aspect ratio that’s better for watching video, viewing photos, and running apps side-by-side.

Like the iPhone Air, Apple says it’s managed to fit everything it needs to into the phone by putting “critical components” in the camera plateau. Of course, the protrusion also houses the Duo’s camera system, which, appropriately, features two cameras. The main camera features a 26mm equiv. lens and an F1.6 aperture – no adjustable aperture here – as well as a 48MP stabilized sensor. While the company doesn’t typically share sensor size info, the specs are an exact match for the iPhone Air’s Type 1/1.56 (48mm²) main camera, which would make it a substantial step down from the larger sensor used in the Pro phones.

Apple also says it’s using the same 48MP ultra-wide camera as the iPhone 18 Pro, which is almost certainly the same model found in the iPhone 17 Pro, featuring a Type 1/2.55 (23.5mm²) sensor.

Apple

Like Google before it, Apple is using the folding form factor to enhance the camera experience. It has a mode that lets you halfway fold the phone, so it will sit up on a surface with the cameras pointing outwards. The phone will then analyze the scene, taking pictures when it recognizes that everyone’s posing. The company says this makes it easier to take group shots and selfies without having to worry about a timer. There’s also a mode that will play cartoons on the front screen, aimed to make kids smile as you’re taking pictures of them.

Apple says durability was a big focus for the phone, and that the inner folding display is “designed to withstand the wear of everyday use.” Its frame is made from titanium, with the back glass getting Apple’s Ceramic Shield coating that makes it relatively resistant to shattering from drops. The glass covering the outer 5.4″ display uses the scratch-resistant Ceramic Shield 2 coating. The phone has an IP68 water and dust resistance rating, a rarity among folding phones (though Google’s Pixel Fold series has had it since last year).

According to Apple, the Duo has the “largest display for an iPhone” ever, with its interior screen measuring 7.6″ It features a “nano-texture” surface, similar to what Apple’s been providing on its iPads and Macs, that Apple says will minimize the risk of scratches (a common concern with foldables, which typically have a plastic screen protector that can be marked with a fingernail), and the visibility of the crease. Both of the phones’ screens have a 1:1.4 aspect ratio, and are capable of reaching 3000 nits peak brightness outdoors, and 1600 nits when viewing HDR content. Support for using them with the USB-C version of the Apple Pencil stylus will be coming in a later firmware update.

Apple

The phone does away with the FaceID authentication system that’s been ubiquitous on Apple’s phones for the past few years. The phone instead features a fingerprint reader integrated into the power button. The phone also foregoes the customizable “Action” button, but keeps the touch-sensitive “Camera Control” button, which lets you launch the camera and control various settings, like zoom. However, the camera app doesn’t feature the manual control mode debuted on the iPhone 18 Pro, nor does it have the Reference Image content authenticity mode, ProRes Raw recording, Apple Log 2, and a host of other video features that Apple reserves for its pro phones.

The iPhone Duo uses the same A20 Pro system on a chip as the iPhone 18 Pro, which Apple says will provide an up to 35% performance uplift compared to the standard iPhone 17 Pro. It also features Apple’s new, in-house “C2” chip for cellular and wireless connectivity. To that matter, the phone is e-SIM only, world wide; that’s been the case for the company’s US models for a while, but international models have typically come with a slot. However, Apple says it needed as much room for the battery as possible.

Apple

Thankfully, the phone retains Apple’s MagSafe wireless charging system, which it can use to charge at up to 25W. It also has a 10Gbps USB-C port on the bottom. (Though Apple says you can use the phone in any orientation, so who’s to say it’s not the top or the side?) The compnay claims the phone has “all day battery,” though per usual doesn’t provide specific capacity figures. It does, however, say it can do 31 hours of video playback with the inner screen, and 44 hours with the outer screen, putting it a touch behind the 18 Pro Max, which can do 45 hours.

Apple says the iPhone Duo is its thinnest phone ever when unfolded, coming in at just 5.2mm thick. Of course, it takes up a bit more room when folded, at 11.3mm. It’s also relatively hefty at 254g (~9oz).

As is often the case, Apple’s first crack at the form factor is launching into a relatively mature market. Samsung is up to its eighth generation of foldables, which first debuted in 2019. Earlier this year, the company announced the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, which features a triple-camera setup, alongside the dual-camera Galaxy Z Fold 8, which features a “passport” form factor that’s a bit wider and substantially shorter. Likewise, Google recently announced its fourth foldable, the Pixel 11 Pro Fold, which features three cameras. Companies like Xiaomi and Oppo also have several options, and have experimented with exotic form factors, such as tri-folds.

Apple

The phone will be available in black and silver. It starts at $1999 for a model with 256GB of storage, and the company says pre-orders start on October 16th, with the phone becoming available on the 23rd.

* – Nerdy fact: Microsoft already used this name for a foldable in 2020.

Apple has announced the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max at its annual fall keynote. Although the company started the event with AI features, the standout change in the new models’ camera system is the adjustable aperture.

Apple is pitching the new aperture system as a way to get more “creative control” while taking images and videos. Contrary to the rumors, the adjustable aperture is available on both sizes of the iPhone Pro. The company says it comprises six laser-cut blades, each thinner than a human hair.

Like the 17 Pro models, the 18 Pro and Pro Max feature a 48MP main camera with a 24mm equiv. lens. The ultrawide and telephoto cameras are also unchanged from their predecessors, both of which use 48MP Type 1/2.55 (23.5mm²) sensors.

Apple

The main camera is the only one that features the new adjustable aperture system, which can go from F1.48 to F4 (the 17 Pro’s main camera had a fixed F1.78 aperture), allowing for four adjustments. Apple is also finally adding “Pro Controls,” which allows users to manually control aperture, white balance and shutter speed, something people have been asking Apple to add for years. Additionally, its Photography Styles option now supports control over grain.

For video features, the camera supports 4K time-lapses, and you can now use cinematic mode (which adds fake background blur) at up to 4K/60.

Apple also touched on image authenticity, a hot-button topic in the age of AI. We’ve seen other phone manufacturers, like Google, implement C2PA content credentials in their cameras, letting you verify that a photograph hasn’t been altered since it was taken. Now, Apple is following suit, characteristically introducing its own system called Apple Reference Image.

Apple

The company says it’s made possible by a new sensor in the main camera that “can sign every pixel it sees.” Photos taken in the “Reference mode” will capture “signed sensor data that Private Cloud Compute develops into an unalterable reference image.” Oddly, the Apple Reference Image authenticity feature is not available in China, and won’t be available in the EU to start.

The company also says it’s adding support for the SynthID standard, which adds an invisible watermark to images created or edited using AI.

The iPhone 18 Pro features an A20 Pro system on a chip, which has a 6-core CPU with 2 “super” cores and 4 efficiency cores. It also features a 7-core GPU that Apple says is 40% faster than the previous generation. It should offer double the AI processing capacity as a result of double the neural cores. Apple also says it’s doubled the battery life, despite the battery being smaller. It supports faster wired charging, letting you charge it to 50% in 15 minutes.

Apple

Apple is offering the Pro in four color options this year, where it’s traditionally been three. It will be available in black, silver, “Glacier” blue, and “Burgundy.” Last year, some people were upset that there wasn’t a black option, so this will likely be a welcome addition to the lineup.

The iPhone 18 Pro will cost $1199 for the 256GB version, while the Pro Max comes in at $1299. Both the 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max are $100 more than their predecessors.

Last month, we asked who your biggest photography inspirations were. From family and friends to distant colleagues, you expressed a wide array of people you follow to build the courage and excitement for taking that next great photo. Related, our Features Editor, Abby Ferguson, wrote about her strategies for overcoming a creative drought through innovative photo projects.

When I’m in an inspiration void, as cliché as it may sound, the first thing I grab is an extra-sized cup of coffee. If that doesn’t do it and the opportunity presents itself, I’ll take a good long walk outside during a thunderstorm or blizzard (it’s like a cold shower that snaps you out of your morning stupor – just more adventurous and unpredictable).

I think one of the problems we run into when we look for inspiration is that it can feel forced. We want it to go so well that we end up overplanning and causing a creative drought where there may not have been one at all. The importance of planning the next shot to make it great has even been called into question by several community members in our What’s in your bag? spotlight series.

So, with that said…

What do you do when your photography inspiration runs dry?

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!

In a somewhat cryptic statement, Ricoh has said it is ending production of all current Pentax K-series DSLRs. However, it also says it will “continue to pursue the shooting style that is unique to SLR cameras.”

Ricoh says: “we will leverage the K-mount legacy that was built over more than half a century, to develop a new series of digital SLR cameras based on an entirely new concept,” but warns “it will take time for these products to come to life.”

It says it will provide updates as development continues.

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Alongside the new PEN camera, OM System has announced an upgrade to its 14-42mm (28-84mm equiv.) F3.5-5.6 standard zoom lens for Micro Four Thirds. Beyond being one of the kit options for the PEN, The M.Zuiko Digital 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 III is more protected from the elements than its predecessor, and can focus closer.

Like the II, the III is made up of eight elements in seven groups, with three aspherical lenses. However, that doesn’t mean it’ll perform exactly the same. OM System says it can now focus as close as 0.13m (5.1″) at the wide end, down from the 0.25m (9.8″) on its predecessor. This helps you get a little tighter, reproducing objects at up to 0.26x, where the previous lens maxed out at 0.19x. However, this minimum focusing distance does extend a bit as you zoom in, going up to 0.3m (11.8″) when you get to 42mm for 0.19x reproduction.

OM System

OM System also says it’s improved the weather resistance of the lens, with it now being IPX1 rated when paired with a dust and splash proof camera. While that’s the lowest tier of IP rating, only requiring a device to survive dripping water for 10 minutes, it’ll still provide a bit of peace of mind for anyone hoping to use it as a travel lens (though if you expect to encounter rain, it might be worth picking up the sold-separately lens hood to keep the front element clear).

The company also says that it’ll focus faster, and support the computational in-body focus stacking features found on many OM System cameras.

These changes have resulted in a lens that’s a touch heavier than its 112g (4oz) predecessor, as it now weighs 125g (4.4oz). It’s also slightly larger, with a 60mm diameter and being 51mm long. This also equates to it taking larger filters; 46mm rather than 37mm. However, it’s still quite a small lens for what it is, made smaller by its retracting design.

The OM System 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 III will be available in late October and retail for $350 standalone. However, we suspect it’ll be more popular as a kit lens for the new PEN, where you can get it for a $100 premium over the body-only price.

You can see several shots taken with the lens in our sample gallery for the OM System PEN.

OM System

OM System M. Zuiko Digital 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 III

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