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With Sony offering over 70 E-mount lenses, it’s unusual for the company to release something that’s a first in its lineup. And yet today it’s doing so: the new FE 8-14mm F3.5 Fisheye G is the company’s first standalone fisheye lens for E-mount, one that it says is the most compact of its kind.

At 8mm, the lens creates a circular fisheye image, the kind popularized in ’90s skateboarding videos. At 14mm, the image fills the frame. Both capture a 180° field of view, but the zoom lets you choose which way you want it presented. You can also turn distortion compensation off to switch from equisolid rendering, where the center of the image is larger, with the edges being compressed, to equidistant rendering where the center looks smaller and the image looks more “even” overall. This is mostly a JPEG setting, as, if you shoot Raw, you can change whether you’re using distortion correction in post.

Sony

The lens is made up of 16 elements in 13 groups, with three aspheric elements, four extra-low dispersion (ED) elements and one aspheric ED lens, with the company promising minimal chromatic aberration across the frame. It has a 7-blade aperture, and can focus as close as 0.15m (5.9″) throughout its focal range. Focusing is handled by a pair of linear motors, which, when paired with a high-end camera, can track subjects at 120fps.

Physically, the lens is surprisingly small for a full-frame option. It weighs 314g (11.1oz), which is substantially less than the 476g RF 7-14mm F2.8-3.5 L Fisheye STM that Canon recently released (though that is a touch faster and wider at its wide end). The Sony has a diameter of 63mm, and is 83mm (3.3″) long. It also zooms internally, meaning it’ll stay that length. Its lens hood is removable, though, depending on your focal length, you’ll have to take it off to avoid it appearing in the frame. It’s also sealed for dust and moisture resistance, and has a flourine coating on its front element to repel dirt and oil.

Despite its small size, Sony hasn’t skimped on features. The lens has an aperture ring, which can be clicked or declicked, a customizable button, zoom lock switch (which can hold the lens in circular fisheye and diagonal fisheye for both APS-C and full-frame) and a rear filter holder. It also has an AF/MF/FH switch, the latter of which locks your focus after you set it manually, which Sony says will be handy if you’re shooting astro or VR content.

Sony

Sony clearly sees this lens not just as a photography tool, but one for video and VR as well. The company says it has minimal focus breathing and that you can use a pair of them for VR capture, or a trio for recording 360° footage. When shooting flat (aka standard) video, though, there is one small downside: in 16:9, you won’t get the full circle, though you can avoid that if you have one of the few cameras Sony makes capable of shooting 3:2 open gate.

The Sony FE 8-14mm F3.5 Fisheye G will launch in October, and will retail for $1599.

Sample gallery

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. We attempted data recovery without success and are working with Sony to arrange additional time with the lens to capture more samples.

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. 

Sony

Sony FE 8-14mm F3.5 Fisheye G

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Sony FE 8-14mm F3.5 Fisheye G specifications

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Sigma has announced the 20-60mm F2.8-4 DG Contemporary, a full-frame zoom lens that goes from quite wide to approaching telephoto. For full-frame shooters who wish their kit lens was just a bit more capable, or for anyone looking for a compact but relatively versatile option, it could be a great pick… as long as the company that makes your camera has decided to allow Sigma to use its mount.

One of the big appeals of the lens is its size. It weights 385g (13.6oz), and is 88mm (3.5″) long at its shortest (though it will extend as you zoom in). It also takes 67mm filters, helping you keep your photography kit relatively small. Sigma says it’s dust and splash resistant, too, and that the front element has a water and oil-repellent coating. It is, however, relatively sparse on controls; you get the zoom ring and a manual focus ring: that’s pretty much it.

Sigma

The lens is made up of 15 elements in 13 groups, with three aspheric lenses and three SLD elements. It can focus on objects as close as 15.8cm at 28mm, providing a maximum reproduction of 0.43x, though at the long end that goes down to a still-respectable 0.34x.

Autofocusing is handled by a linear motor, making for a responsive shooting experience even at higher framerates*.

Sigma

Arguably, the biggest downside of this lens has nothing to do with Sigma. The 20-60mm F2.8-4 DG Contemporary will be available for L-mount and Sony E-mount, but, as we’ve come to expect, not for Nikon Z or Canon RF, despite the fact that it’d make a great pairing for budget cameras like the EOS R8 and Nikon Z5II. Of course, anyone outside of those systems now have an excellent step-up option from their relatively slow kit-lenses, one that doesn’t ask them to sacrifice size or versatility for light-gathering ability. 

First impressions:

This first thing you notice about the 20-60mm is how compact it is, to the point that I had to look for the letters ‘DG’ to confirm to myself that it was designed to cover full-frame.

Despite going significantly wider than a conventional 24-70mm, and without losing much at the long end, it’s a usefully small and light option.

As such, it probably shouldn’t be a surprise to find that the lens drops away from its F2.8 maximum aperture almost immediately. Mounted on a Panasonic body, that reports aperture value with an unusual level of precision, the lens drops to F2.9 before you’ve zoomed as far as 21mm, so it’s worth thinking of this lens as closer to being an F4 than an F2.8 zoom.

The other factor contributing to the lens’s small size is its use of digital distortion corrections as part of its design. On L-mount bodies these are typically applied automatically, but third-party lens makers can’t force E-mount bodies to Auto apply them, so it’s essential that you engage them if you’re shooting on Sony.

Aperture progression

This is a pretty standard approach for lenses in Sigma’s more cost-sensitive ‘Contemporary’ series, and it’s worth recognizing that this lens wouldn’t be possible at this size, weight or price if geometric distortion was handled using glass elements.

In use, we’ve been pretty impressed with the results and extremely impressed with the flexibility of an ultra-wide to standard zoom. I’d be inclinded look at this lens as a replacement for the basic kit lens on any system that Sigma’s been allowed to make it for (E and L-mount, so far).

The ultrawide 20mm setting also makes the lens a handy option for video, as does its gimbal-friendly size and weight. It extends a fair amount on zooming but it’s light enough that this shift in its center of gravity shouldn’t be too much for a good gimbal to handle.

Both E and L-mounts have 20-something zooms available already, but this is smaller and more ambitious than the Panasonic 20-60mm F3.5-5.6 and much smaller and lighter than the Sony 20-70mm F4. Its extra range over the Tamron 20-40mm F2.8 is likely to be more valuable as an everyday lens than the extra stop of brightness that the Tamron offers for much of its range.

The lens will retail for $849, and will be available starting October 6.

* – Though Sony limits continuous autofocus on third party lenses to 15fps, so the motor’s responsiveness won’t help beyond that. That’s not an issue on L-mount, though.

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Sigma is finally releasing its 85mm F1.2 DG Art for E and L-mount, after announcing that the lens was in development early this year. This is the company’s third F1.2 prime, following 35mm and 50mm options, and provides a classic focal length for portraiture.

The lens has 17 elements in 12 groups, with two SLD elements and three aspheric lenses. It has 13 aperture blades, which is a few more than we’d typically expect. It can focus as close as 84cm (33″), for a maximum reproduction of 0.11x.

Sigma

Sigma says the lens is the “smallest and lightest in its class.” It weighs 905g (31.9oz), which is around 24% lighter than Canon’s 85mm F1.2 for RF, and 22% less than Nikon’s Z 85mm F1.2 S. (Of course, this lens doesn’t directly compete with those options, as it’s not available on those mounts.) The E-mount version is around 122mm long – the L-mount version is 2mm shorter – and both have an 87mm diameter. It can accept 82mm filters, and is “dust- and splash-resistant.”

Despite its focus on being relatively light, the lens still feels premium, and has all the features we’d expect of a high-end prime. It has an aperture ring, which can be clicked or declicked, a switch that locks it into or out of ‘A’ mode for aperture (which hands over control to the camera body) and a customizable button, duplicated in the portrait and landscape shooting orientations.

Sigma

Its autofocus is handled by dual linear motors, and the company says it’s designed to have minimal focus breathing for video shooters. 

As my colleague Richard Butler pointed out when this lens was first announced, its release means that all four major full-frame mirrorless systems now have an autofocusing 85mm F1.2 option; the lenses previously available for E and L-mount only went down to F1.4 (though relative newcomer SongRaw has announced its own 85mm F1.2 for Sony and Nikon systems, but it doesn’t seem to be widely available yet).

While Nikon and Canon’s 85mm F1.2s retail for $2999 and $3099, respectively, Sigma’s comes in at substantially less. It costs $1599, and will be available starting October 6.

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Nikon will be releasing a new firmware update for its video-focused ZR, which seems to correct some of the complaints videographers have had with the camera, including the more mature Log3G10 curve only being available when shooting in Raw, the relatively heavy-handed noise reduction and focus peaking not always being available. The company is also promising a big update for next year that will unlock open-gate recording, a first for its mirrorless cameras.

Nikon says firmware version 2.00 will make Log3G10 available when recording in H.265. Previously, you could use Log3G10 – a Red-developed Log curve that we found to be more sophisticated – in the R3D NE Raw format, which takes up substantially more space and requires more post-processing. You could shoot Log in H.265, but only using Nikon’s NLog. 

The company says it’s also adding an option that lets you select the level of High ISO noise reduction when recording H.265 in Log, “enabling image rendering tailored to the creator’s intent and the tone of the work.” When we reviewed the camera, we found that the ZR was clearly applying more noise reduction in the shadows than the Z6III with which it shares a sensor. This problem was also famously highlighted by YouTuber and cinematographer Philip Bloom, who cited it as a major issue with the camera. It’s good to see that Nikon’s taking that feedback and giving users more control over the effect.

Finally, the firmware will let you use focus peaking when recording in R3D NE, a feature that was bizarrely missing from the camera since its launch last year. The ZR supported focus peaking in its other Raw recording modes, just not the one that was introduced with the camera.

The company also says its goal is to add additional requested features to the ZR next year via a firmware update, including adding an open gate mode and a desqueeze assist mode for shooting with anamorphic lenses.

Many of the changes coming in V2.00 were already being promised by company representatives earlier this year, though there are still a few things they brought up that aren’t included in the upcoming updates Nikon’s announcing today. There’s no mention of a further compressed mode of R3D NE, like the one that exists for N-Raw, which uses half the bitrate. Arguably, this has become even more important since this summer, as the cost of SSDs and storage media has continued to rise thanks to AI. (It’s also a bit of an odd exclusion, given that R3D NE appears to be heavily based on N-Raw.) 

I’m also not quite sure Nikon is delivering on its promise of general improvements to H.265 recording, based on what’s in its press release. Control over noise reduction is a great first step, but there are still a few odd issues to have on such a video-focused camera, including the bitrate being substantially lower in the first few seconds of footage, and the camera not providing an accurate report of how much record time it has left.

Still, it’s great to see that Nikon is solving some of the community’s biggest issues with the ZR, and promising to make it even more powerful in the next few years. The update may be a bit overdue, but if it’s done right it’ll have been worth the wait. Nikon also says it’s updating the Red Control and Red Control Pro apps to support remotely controlling the ZR, and says it will “continue to enhance its products through firmware updates that address user needs, while also contributing to the development of imaging culture in the field of cinema.”

The firmware update is due out at some point this year.

Nikon is announcing a series of nine T1.9 cinema lenses, following up on a teaser from this time last year and another (slightly more detailed) one in April. The company is still keeping plenty of aspects about the line under wraps, though. There’s no word on pricing, when they’ll be available or what focal lengths will be included, with one exception.

Here’s what Nikon has said: the lenses will be branded as the “Nikkor Z Cinema T1.9 VV ” series, and one the nine lenses will be a 50mm. (While there’s no word on what the other options will be, the relatively fast T1.9 figure suggests they’ll all be primes.) The company also says it’ll be the “first Nikkor lens series to feature an image circle large enough to cover the V-Raptor [X] VV sensor,” which has a 46.3mm diagonal, versus standard full-frame’s 43mm.

The company also says the lenses will feature “a highly precise autofocus mechanism,” though that was hinted at in the teaser by the presence of an AF/MF switch. It also seems safe to assume they’ll be fitted with the Z-mount, given both the name and the fact that many more standard cinema mounts like PL don’t support autofocus. 

It’s hard to guess when we’ll get the next drop of information about these lenses. This is one of several cinema and video related announcements this month, which are likely tied to the International Broadcasting Convention happening in Amsterdam this week. And while there’s a National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show happening in New York in October, the main event is scheduled for next April.

Here’s a refreshing bit of news: there’s at least one camera company out there whose products are getting appreciably cheaper. Today, cinema company Blackmagic Design announced that it’s slashing the prices of its full-frame Cinema Camera 6K and Pyxis 6K models by over $1000, something it says it can do after “securing better pricing on parts.”

Neither camera is particularly new: the Cinema Camera was announced in 2023, and the Pyxis in 2024. So it’s not surprising that Blackmagic is able to make them for less than it initially was. What I wouldn’t typically expect is the company passing those savings on to its customers, given our age of prices rising due to AI-driven chip scarcity and inflation. 

It’s also not a situation where Blackmagic raised prices due to tariffs in the US, and is lowering them back down now that they’re gone. It did raise prices – the Cinema Camera 6K launched for $2595 – but the new prices are well below what the cameras were originally announced at.

Realistically, I realize most of our audience won’t be interested in dedicated cinema cameras in an age when the best hybrid mirrorless models excel in both video and stills, no matter how inexpensive they are. But I’d like to think this is a sign that things might be changing in the camera world. While it may be too much to hope that we’ll see new models that are cheaper than their predecessors, or similar price reductions for existing cameras – I suspect the bigger, more established companies are already getting parts for as cheaply as they can, and Blackmagic is just moving up towards that level of economy of scale – perhaps we’ll at least see some cameras that aren’t substantially more expensive than their predecessors.

GoPro’s merger with Starman Optical doesn’t mean the company will stop making action cameras, according to a letter from the action cam company’s CEO, Nick Woodman. Earlier this week he said the company planned to address “important areas of national security related to cameras, optics and AI infrastructure,” but now tells the GoPro community that he expects the merger to “make GoPro a stronger, more capable camera company than ever before.”

If you missed the merger announcement earlier this week, that statement may seem unnecessary; of course GoPro would keep making cameras, that’s the main thing it does. But its consumer-facing business didn’t get much attention in its merger announcement, with the company talking more about expanding into “AI data center, government, defense and aerospace markets.” It did promise to “continue to fully support its existing consumer products and its subscription and cloud platform,” but the word “existing” made some (myself included) wonder how much work it’d put into future consumer cameras.

In his new letter, Woodman says the company’s “improved financial strength” after the merger, planned for later this year, pending regulatory approval, will put the company in “a much better position to innovate, invent and advance the future of consumer and professional content creation.” He also says that Starman is passionate about the GoPro brand, too.

“We plan to bring you more innovative cameras, smarter accessories, and more powerful software and services designed to make capturing, editing and sharing your experiences easier and more exciting than ever,” he says later in the letter.

Personally, I’m glad to hear this, as I think GoPro is an important competitor in the action camera space, even if it’s struggled to keep up with the pace set by other companies like DJI and Insta360 in recent years. Of course, there’s a storied history of companies and executives making promises about what things will be like post-merger, with the reality ending up very different. But for now, it sounds like GoPro plans to continue working on cameras alongside bringing manufacturing of optics and transceivers to the US and breaking into the defense market.  

Lomography recently launched the Fisheye No. 2 Graffiti, a redesigned version of its long-running Fisheye No. 2 camera that pairs a 170° fisheye lens with a graffiti-styled 35mm body. It sits below the brand’s LomoApparat in price, and Lomography says it packs bulb mode, multiple-exposure capability and a built-in flash into a compact, beginner-friendly body.

The Graffiti edition shares its core optics and feature set with the standard Fisheye No. 2 but distinguishes itself with its graphic design. It still is a point-and-shoot camera with a fixed F8 aperture and 1/100 sec shutter speed. There are also no ISO settings. Its bulb mode allows for long exposures, and multiple-exposure support lets photographers play with layered images in camera for unexpected results. 

Lomography

Lomography describes the lens as producing heavy vignetting and spherical distortion, characteristics that the brand frames as exciting features rather than flaws. The camera focuses as close as 10cm, which opens up the opportunity for exaggerated wide-angle close-up shots. The beginner-friendly features and its relatively affordable price make it an ideal option for experimental shooters looking for an easy entry into analog fisheye photography.

This isn’t the most affordable camera Lomography has launched this year, either. The brand recently added a $35 half-frame camera that gives photographers twice the frames on a single roll of film. These build on a broader industry trend of releasing beginner-friendly film cameras, a pattern Kosmo Foto’s Stephen Dowling recently argued is good for the medium.

The Fisheye No. 2 Graffiti is available now for $69 through the Lomography shop.

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Fujifilm has announced the Fujinon XF 400mm F4.5 R LM OIS WR, a new super-telephoto prime lens for its APS-C X-mount system. The company says the lens delivers exceptional sharpness in a relatively compact package aimed at wildlife and sports photographers.

The XF 400mm F4.5 is positioned as a sister lens to the previously released XF 500mm F5.6 R LM OIS WR. Alongside the XF 200mm F2 R LM OIS WR, which Fujifilm sees as a set, the three lenses cover full-frame-equivalent focal lengths from roughly 305mm to 762mm.

Fujifilm

The new 400mm F4.5 provides a 609mm equivalent focal length on X-mount cameras. It is also compatible with Fujifilm’s 1.4x and 2.0x teleconverters, providing equivalent focal lengths of 852mm and 1219mm, respectively. It offers 5.5 stops of optical image stabilization and is weather resistant with 20 sealed points, two must-have features for most wildlife and sports photographers. 

Fujifilm says the 400mm lens shares a nearly identical optical design to the 500mm, with some slight changes to the rear group. It features 21 elements in 14 groups, which include 4 ED and 2 super ED elements. According to Fujifilm, its engineering team in Japan says the 400mm is sharper than the 500mm. It is also slightly lighter than its 500mm sibling, weighing 1245g (2.7 lbs). It measures 239.5mm (9.4′) long with a 104.5mm (4.1′) diameter. The lens is compatible with 95mm filters.

Fujifilm

The XF 400mm F4.5 uses a linear motor for autofocus, which Fujifilm says results in silent operation. It can focus as close as 2.7m (9′) and offers a maximum magnification of 0.16. There is a focus limiter switch to prevent it from focusing closer than 5m away, resulting in faster autofocus when photographing distant subjects. Near the front of the barrel, a Focus Control button works in tandem with a Focus Select switch, allowing photographers to choose whether the button activates autofocus, locks AF, or recalls a preset focus distance. 

The XF 400mm F4.5 R LM OIS WR will be available sometime in mid-September for $3200. That’s a $200 premium over the XF 500 mm’s launch price, but that lens now retails for $3599 due to tariff-related price increases.

Fujifilm

Fujifilm XF 400mm F4.5 R LM OIS WR

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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 (in conjunction with this review); we do so in good faith, so please don’t abuse it.

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

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

Leica

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

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

Leica

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

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

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

Manufacturer Samples

Leica

Leica Summicron-M 66 F2

Specifications

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

DJI

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

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

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

DJI

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

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

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

DJI

DJI Osmo 360 II