Cameras and Photography Explained

Get ready for new controversy. 

We’ve had several big changes in how lenses are designed in the digital era, and more are coming. The two biggest differences in 21st century lenses have been improvements in computer modeling during the design process coupled with using in-camera “corrections” to “fix” aspects that aren’t addressed by the optical design itself. 

“Corrections” and “fix” are in quotes in the previous paragraph because the current form for these is simply some brute force simplified math. For instance, vignetting isn’t measured precisely and then corrected via similar precise pixel-by-pixel data shifts. Instead, virtually all the vignetting corrections are a set of circles containing a pre-ordained amount of data shift, which may or may not exactly match what the lens is doing. 

Here’s what’s going to happen next: AI lens corrections.

Large language model AI is about pattern matching. Optical design generates plenty of patterns. We’re going to see AI correction calculated during the computerized design process, and then a way of applying those very specific corrections downstream when the image is actually created. 

Already we have some neural signal processing happening in smartphones that does something similar, mostly with so called “telephoto zoom” created from cropping. But what I’m talking about will go further, and essentially pattern-correct the lens aspects that the computerized optical design let slide (typically in order to optimize something else). 

This isn’t as simple as it at first sounds (e.g. just apply a correction). Lenses focus at different distances, have adjustable apertures, and may even mechanically zoom, all of which changes the underlying optical patterns and correction needs. Thus, say a 24-70mm f/2.8 lens might need 24, 35, 50, 70mm, close focus, medium focus, distance focus, and fast aperture to slow aperture “adjustment files” at a minimum. Still, that’s doable today with current technology, someone just has to implement it.

Which brings us to the controversy that will ensue. 

A perfectly corrected lens wil almost certainly be rejected by some as being “too clinical.” Sure, but the data being collected in the raw file will be more optimal, so I’m for it. Take it a step further, though: not only can you create a near perfect optical correction this way, you can create presets that render differently. Get ready for Lens Picture Controls (LPC). Want classic edge sharpness falloff with vignette? Use the Vintage LPC. 

You thought photographers argued about whose color presets are better, wait until we start arguing about whose lens presets are better.

It’s been a tough year so far, with a number of unexpected external issues causing me to fall behind my original schedule, including a family emergency that has me bouncing back and forth across the country. I’ve had far less office time this year than expected, so getting big projects done in a timely fashion has been difficult.

Here are my new estimated launch times for projects you know about (I have additional projects you don’t know about, but I’ll let them be a surprise when they appear):

• Update to the existing Zf book: soon; should be the next project shipped
• Nikon ZR for still photography book and ZR review: summer
• Update to Nikon Z9 book: late summer, early fall
• New byThom Web site: summer (this project is well on its way; but everything is being been rewritten, and I mean everything)
• New zsystemuser Web site: late fall
• byThom MAX launch: January 1, 2027 (material has been and continues to be generated for this, so it should be fully stocked when it launches)

Things I have managed to get done so far this year include (a) teaching a pair of two-week workshops in Africa in new locations, (b) relaunching filmbodies.com (including creating a new free book for Nikon film SLR users and rewriting everything that was on that site), (c) completed basic lab testing for 12 new lens reviews and one camera review, (d) wrote another book (not on photography), (e) prototyped and designed for the future Web sites and updates, (f) created a number of items for byThom MAX, plus (g) the usual keeping you up to date on the photography news that’s relevant as well as posting useful new articles on the three active sites.

It’s not that I haven’t been busy. Just the opposite. It’s that many of the projects I’m working on require distraction-free, concentrated time in order to complete, which has been rare in the last few months. The good news is that I can now see things getting better over the next few months, which may allow me to hit the schedule I outline above.

So bear with me.

LEDE ON

It seems that the camera producers are all claiming that they’ve “secured” memory and some other critical part supplies for the year. I noted that in at least one case they also talked about increased pricing, though. Meanwhile, CaptureOne doesn’t have a parts issue, but they’ve now announced that their pricing will go up 6%. Frankly, in times of inflation I expect everyone pushes their pricing as much as they think they can get away with.

The problem I see coming is that all these cost increases that are happening—don’t forget cards, SSDs, and hard drives—eventually will have people giving up something, with subscriptions being one of the first to go. Particularly subscriptions that don’t add anything to the product over time (I’m looking at you Nikon NX MobileAir).

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News

Sony’s Month

Sony awoke from their product slumber with a bang, announcing the now 67mp A7RVI along with a 100-400mm f/4.5GM OSS lens. If that wasn’t enough, the Xperia 1VIII smartphone also came along for the ride. It didn’t hurt that a lot more FE lenses showed up at the Beijing photography show, including a prototype of the Sigma 85mm f/1.2, or that the first major firmware update for the popular A7V showed up. It was a busy month for Sony users, and the news provoked fandom responses.

Let’s start with the big lens. The new fixed aperture 100-400mm looks like a real winner. Only a third of a stop slower than f/4, this US$4300 lens is a solid focal length for both sports and wildlife, and my sports photography friend Patrick Racey Murphy seems to like it a lot. Yes, it’s in a different price range than the competitor’s 100-400s, but the difference between f/5.6 and f/4.5 is meaningful to a lot of users, both for low light work as well as for background separation. Nikon’s got their work cut out for them, as the aging Nikkor 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 VR S isn’t as sharp at 400mm or as full featured as this new Sony.

Most of the talk this month was A7RVI worship. A new stacked image sensor coupled with attention to getting dual gain results (at least with mechanical shutter) makes for a lot of the excitement. At 67mp (technically 66.8) it’s the most pixels in a full frame sensor, yet the early results show the new sensor more than holds its own while making some clear rolling shutter gains. 30 fps blackout free bursts aren’t exactly what you might expect on a pixel pusher, though the A7RVI is not quite a sports camera due to some lingering roll in all-electronic shutter.

New to the A7RVI are a bigger battery, 32-bit float audio, illuminated buttons, and a dual USB-C arrangement. The grip is also a bit different due to the larger battery. While the EVF is still 9.44m dot, it gets a brighter OLED panel that can provide HDR viewing in a near P3 space.

Overall, it looks like Sony addressed many of the primary complaints about the A7R. They may have even fixed my primary complaint about the preceeding model with that dual gain use while operating under mechanical shutter. The Mark VI seems like a solid update that will win new buyers, though it has risen US$600 in price from the original V to US$4499. 

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News

Canon's Month

“Hey, we’ve got a new camera and new lens, too” said Canon on the same day as Sony fanned heat from their supporters. Surprising to some, Canon’s new offerings didn’t quite get the same rabid response as did Sony’s.

That’s probably because the new US$2500 R6 V is basically the current R6 III in Nikon ZR form. In other words, designed for “advanced creatives.” The R6 V did have one significant fan on day one, though: the fan built into the camera to keep it cool while recording video. That’s fine, but Canon now has to explain why their ZR needs a fan while Nikon’s doesn’t. 

Personally, I find it difficult to believe that there is enough market for the Canon R6 V, Nikon ZR, and Sony ZV-E1—let alone the FX’s—to all thrive. Moreover, I don’t think any of the three hit the nail quite on the head; each has liabilities and missing features that the others don’t, an indication that no one really yet knows exactly how their small full frame slinger should be configured. 

Along with the camera, Canon launched a new 20-50mm f/4L IS USM PZ lens (US$1400). 

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News

Nikon's Month

Nikon didn’t launch any new products while I was out of town, but there were two announcements from them of note. 

The first was Nikon’s full fiscal year results, which produced quite a bit of the usual “Nikon is dying” response from the amateur inexperts. While most of the Nikon businesses either hit or were close to their forecast revenue, the issue that triggered the naysaying was the higher-than-expected loss. Nikon Imaging actually sold more cameras and lenses than originally expected, but a lot of the volume was lower priced Z50II and Z5II models, plus the write-off associated with the “sale" of Mark Roberts (now in bankruptcy) didn’t help the bottom line for the group. Considering Nikon didn’t launch a new camera in the last half of their fiscal year, the results seem fairly strong to me.

The Nikon weaknesses are three: (1) Nikon Precision seems to have no way to take advantage of the semiconductor boom and keeps missing targets due to write-downs and delays; (2) the new Components and Manufacturing businesses aren’t showing the expected sales and profit growth that was promised; and (3) free cash flow has been negative for four straight years now, and in a time where interest rates are no longer zero in Japan that has longer term implications if the problem is not fixed. Still, I’d simply characterize Nikon’s results as weak this year, and not close to fatal. We’ve seen this play before, and the protagonist survives just fine.

Nikon’s other announcement was developmental, as in “we’re working on a 120-300mm f/2.8 TC VR S lens.” Uh, thanks Nikon, but we already knew that. We did get a few photos of the new lens, though, and they reveal that Nikon learned nothing from my criticism of the placement of the controls on the 400mm f/2.8 TC VR S. The Fn buttons are nowhere near where my hand will be, among other things. Meanwhile, for some reason everyone is betting this new top line lens will sell for US$8000. I’d say that’s tremendously optimistic. It’s more likely a US$10,000 lens, particularly given the inflationary market we’re currently in (sensing a theme, yet?).

Do I want one? Not exactly. At 120-300mm plus 420mm via TC and effective 610mm via DX crop on the 45mp cameras, it just barely qualifies for my wildlife use, yet it looks to be almost as big as the 400mm f/2.8 I currently use. On the other hand, if I do more sports in 2027 than I did in 2026, maybe I’d be more interested. 

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News

Fujifilm's Month

If Nikon was relatively quiet, Fujifilm was mostly silent. While management did talk about possible lenses to the press—I think Fujifilm is starting to feel the Chinese lens threat—nothing much else got said. The fiscal year results were good (an 18% increase in revenue from the digital side, though that pales against the 26.2% increase on the InStax side). 

It strikes me that Fujifilm is at a critical juncture now. They’ve built a small user base that seems loyal. They’ve made very good products at the high compact (X100VI and GFX100RF), APS-C (X-E5 and X-T50 added to the bigger lineup), and medium format (GFX100II). As a Fujiflm user would I be looking to upgrade anything? And as someone outside the brand, can they make something that would get me in? 

I see Fujifilm’s main problem as still lagging in autofocus. But fixing that isn’t enough, I think. Fujifilm needs to get X-Pro and X-H users to upgrade now, and that’s going to be tougher given the competition’s advancements.

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News

Panasonic's Month

Panasonic took a small idea and made it larger. Literally. The modest-sized LX100 is now replaced by a larger-sized L10. The good news is all the S1II-sourced goodies (autofocus, video, etc.). The bad news is that I think Panasonic might not have gotten the UX quite right (I’ll hold final judgment on that until I can test one; I still have to post my Ricoh GRIV review first). It certainly looks as if I’d be using the customization features on the camera to get it to operate the way I want it to. 

My first impression is that it presents as a very simple camera externally, only to send the user into customizations to get it operationally optimized. The fact that subject detection doesn’t fall back to general autofocus when no subject is detected isn’t user friendly and also seems wrong for a “simple” camera. Couple that with the body size increase on a m4/3 sensor camera that was properly sized before, and I’m not sure what to make of things from press releases and quick glances. At least we have an on/off lever instead of a button. At US$1500, the L10 is in a rich crowd, though each of the competitors has a completely different take.

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Wrapping Up

And in other news

The Chinese lens parade continued throughout the month.

▶︎ 7Artisan’s 135mm f/1.8. The budget Plena is here, with FE and L mounts coming. I’d be surprised if it seriously matched a Plena, though.

▶︎ Thypoch’s 24-50mm f/2.8. An autofocus zoom from an unlikely source takes on the Sony.

▶︎ BrightinStar had a big month. An autofocus 12mm f/2.8 for the FE mount, plus some additional manual focus lenses.

▶︎ Laowa produced a zoom fisheye. The 4.5-10mm f/2.8 is small, but that’s partly because it only covers the APS-C sensor.

A major family emergency has arisen that requires my attention, plus I’ve got some client obligations this month, so I’ve decided to take May off from posting. I’ll be back in early June with, I’m sure, a lot of thoughts and new information. Maybe even with the redesigned site, though that will depend upon how distracted I get by the family situation. 

The good news is that things are moving slowly in the photo industry right now, so I doubt I’ll miss any major announcements.

As many of you know, I take periodic one-month breaks from the Internet every year, so this isn’t a new thing, and I almost come back energized. So enjoy the spring flowers, follow my advice on zsysteruser about getting to know your lenses better, and we’ll both have more to talk about when I get back.

When you're on the press list at NAB Show, your email InBox piles up an impressive number of press releases and interview offers (currently over 100, so I’m going to stop counting). This year, by my math, about 70% of that first batch had the abbreviation AI somewhere in the headline or lede paragraph. PR-fluff-wording also abounds ("...turns post-production into a strategic lever..."). 

In alphabetical order, here are the new offerings that I believe have some implication to my readership. Note that I will update the following list if I find new things to report (updated or added items start with a red triangle).

▶︎ Atomos acquires Flanders Scientific. This represents an extension of Atomos into post production, as Flanders makes reference monitor systems. The goal here is providing known color monitoring from on-camera (capture) to monitoring (wireless review) to grading suites (post production). The Flanders name will remain as a sub-brand, but this also means that these high-end monitors will now get a world-wide distribution system.

▶︎ Blackmagic Design Resolves to Steal Lightroom Users. A bit surprisingly, Blackmagic Design's DaVinci Resolve 21 launches with a new still photography tool set, including organizing, rating, raw processing (Canon, Fuji, Nikon, and Sony), and even tethering options (Canon and Sony). I use the words “bit surprisingly" in the previous sentence because DaVinci Resolve was already the ultimate everything-but-the-kitchen-sink software program. Now Resolve has the kitchen sink, too. Since this was a beta announcement prior to NAB Show, there's still some lack of clarity as to exactly what will be in the free version of Resolve versus the paid version (US$300 one time fee) when it releases. 

The big plus with these new still abilities is that it allows Resolve's extensive and Hollywood-tested color grading and node management (when something is applied in the processing chain) to still photos. The big minus is that, to take full advantage of that, you'll be learning an entirely new post processing skill set. Hollywood (plus Bollywood and all the other woods) will almost certainly embrace this, as it means that you can now match the still photos taken on set to the color, tonality, and processing of a final film using the same set of tools and workflow. Coupled with the products Blackmagic Design is making that enable cloud and group work, this brings more users into shared processing for pools of images and videos.

One final bit: DaVinci Resolve doesn't just run on Mac and Windows machines, it runs on Linux, as well. This new version will quickly become the most sophisticated Linux still processing available. 

▶︎ Canon detecting photons. It’s not really an option for those of you reading this site—though some well-financed wildlife endeavors such as the BBC will certainly be interested—but Canon has introduced a new box-type camera, the MS-510. This 1” sensor camera needs only 0.0006 lux to capture a full-color image. To put that in perspective, that’s -7.4EV at ISO 100 (a nightime landscape with almost no moon). It’s just a 3.2mp camera, though, and requires an external power supply. It will capture FullHD at up to 60fps, though, which is why I mentioned the BBC. At US$22,800 just for the camera—you’d still need one of Canon’s broadcast-style lenses in the B4 mount and a power source—it very well may worth it to add to the BBC crews’ gear for some not-seen-at-this-level-before footage in the deep, dark jungles of the world.

I’ve written for a long time that I believe that photon-detecting cameras—as opposed to the photo-accumulating ones we currently use—are coming, and Canon has been plumbing this technology for awhile. The MS-510 now is starting to put it in very usable form for some niche markets. Canon uses SPAD (Single-Photon Avalanche Diode) in their designs, and as you might guess, the real issue raised with photon detection is internal bandwidth within the sensor to acquire each photon and move that data to where it can be used. When Dr. Fossum at Dartmouth first described his own photon-detection invention, the Quanta Image Sensor, he envisioned hundreds of millions of individual detectors running at as much as 1000 times a second in order to build a structure of when and where a photon came from.

You might be surprised to find that single photon detection dates back into the 1960’s. The problem has not been that you can’t detect a photon, it’s that if you want to deal with more than one as we do in photography and video and create a visible file, you quickly generate huge data sets. Canon has now shown that they can handle FullHD at 60fps, so we’re now over the threshold at which photon detection becomes useful. The issue now is bringing costs, processing, and power requirements down.

▶︎ DJI Launches Osmo Pocket 4. The Pocket 3 is something I've been using extensively as I prepare to go MAX, so I'm intimately familiar with what it can do (and it can do a lot). The new version at first doesn't seem to be different, as it uses the same image sensor. However now you can produce 4K/240P with it, there's a new 10-bit D-Log, it has 107GB of internal storage, has a bit more battery life, and adds two new buttons in landscape mode (2x/4x crop, and a customizable button). While these things seem like subtle changes, for some they will make big differences. Plus, there's been a price reduction with the new model. There’s bad news, though. At the moment, it’s unclear whether DJI will get permission to sell the Pocket 4 in the US. 

Rumor has it that a Pocket 4 Pro is next, to be introduced in a month or so, and which features optical zoom via a second lens/sensor, much like smartphones do. The wide angle view is still derived from a 1” sensor, and a 3x lens alongside the wide angle one likely goes to a smaller sensor.

▶︎ Insta360 Is Going m4/3. Behind the scenes, Insta360 is showing off their new m4/3 camera, an EV-less camera that reminds me a lot of some of Samsung’s old APS-C lower-end offerings. Once again we get the 20mp sensor. Other known features are an articulated Rear LCD, front and rear Command dials, and a reasonable hand grip. But are they really going to try to call it a Z1? I’d think Nikon would have immense trademark issues with that.

▶︎ Glyph Introduces CFexpress Cards. Glyph Technologies has long been known for its higher end storage drives. Now, it’s entered the CFexpress market with 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB CFexpress Type B 4.0 cards. While these cards are all labeled with 3700MB/s read speeds, note that the 256GB has a sustained write speed is 550MB/s, the 512GB is 1100MB/s, and the 1TB is 2100MB/s. None of the cards I saw are labeled with the CFA’s certified testing logo, but Glyph is saying they’re all compatible with the Z8/Z9 (though they recommend at least the 512GB version). The initial pricing is relatively low (US$240 for 256GB) given the NAND pricing hikes recently. I’ve used a number of Glyph products over the years, and most have proven to be highly reliable. The exception is an 18TB hard drive that just likes to unmount and remount from time to time on macOS Tahoe.

▶︎ GoPro's Next Generation. While it looks somewhat like previous models—the small blocky brand shape identification is retained—GoPro's new Mission 1 series of cameras is pretty much all new. Starting with the larger 4:3 (Type 1) 50mp image sensor and backed by the new GP3 processor (5nm process, with 2x the speed plus a neural core), the net result is shallower depth of field, better low light capability, faster frame rates, less heat buildup, enhanced stabilization, and better battery life. 32-bit float for audio recording from the four built-in mics is also supported. The Rear LCD is 14% larger, the buttons easier to find, the cameras can take stills in raw mode, and there's even a clip-on "make it a compact camera with grip" option. Three models are being launched: 

1. The Mission 1 is the basic camera with a max of 8K/30P (at 16:9). Maximum 4K speed is 120fps.
2. The Mission 1 Pro provides 8K/60P, including Open Gate, and runs a max of 240fps in 4K. 
3. The Mission 1 ILS is the same as the Pro, except instead of the built-in lens, it features a (rather large looking for the box size) m4/3 lens mount. Sadly, there’s no autofocus support.

GoPro once again will launch with a ton of SKUs (e.g. Creator kit, filters, housings, wireless mic system, LED lighting, and more, but pricing on everything is up in the air until the product releases at the end of May or early June.

I believe it was with the launch of the Hero3—GoPro is now on Hero13 and this new system would be 14)—back in 2012 that I first wrote that GoPro needed to create a interchangeable lens mount version. The demand was there for a C-mount version, and has been ever since. I’m not sure why they’ve chosen m4/3—probably because of consumer availability over C- or B4-mounts—but that’s too big a mount for the camera size, I believe. And without autofocus support, I’m not sure what the real gain was in adapting m4/3. 

▶︎ Nikon Z Cinema Gets a Lens. It’s well known that Nikon will create a line of lenses specifically for the video side, called Nikkor Z Cinema. On Sunday Nikon launched a short teaser video that didn’t say anything (okay, we learned that they have Focus Lock and standard gearing, plus an A/M focus switch, and that there might be a total of nine lenses planned).

▶︎ Panasonic Gets a Lens. A compact 40mm f/2 L-mount lens that looks suspiciously like the Nikon 40mm f/2, but isn’t, as a couple of key specifications show up in the optical design. This is a lens that the Panasonic S9 has been looking for: small, light, competent.

▶︎ SanDisk’s New Cards. SanDisk announced new CFexpress 4.0 Type B and SD UHS-II cards. The new SanDisk Extreme Pro CFexpress cards are marked with 800 and 400 certified markings, and come in 128GB, 256GB, 400GB, 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB sizes. The SD Extreme Pro cards are either V60 or V90, and come in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, or 2TB sizes (the V60 version also comes in 64GB size). 

▶︎ Viltrox Adds EVO Lenses. Viltrox added autofocus 35mm f/1.8 and 55mm f/1.8 EVO lenses in multiple mounts (including Z-mount), joining the 85mm f/2 EVO to form a core trio. These lenses are priced at US$395. These new lenses form Viltrox seventh series of lenses, and slot between the Pro and the Air series in both performance and size/weight. Let's see, I think the primary Viltrox series now go LAB, PRO, EVO, and Air, in that declining order.