Cameras and Photography Explained

I’ve mentioned supply chain issues in the past. Now they may be intersecting with a new problem. Let’s dive in.

One source who should know tells me that the primary supply chain issue right now is image sensors. Getting new ones not only into production but at the quantity the market might demand is apparently really tough right now. The Sony A1 II supply, for instance, is probably choking on image sensor scarcity at the moment (other low supply parts might be impacting shipments, as well). 

What apparently is happening is that when you find that you need more image sensors than you projected (and originally ordered), getting additional production on fab just isn’t going to be a simple phone call asking for more. 

You might have noticed that the final CIPA shipment numbers for 2024 exceeded the original projections back at the start of the year. Those projections are made from the conglomerated individual manufacturers production forecasts. And those original 2024 projections could be characterized as “another year like 2023.”

If you look at the monthly shipment numbers, though, you’ll see that 2024 started “hotter” than 2023 in January, then 2024 mostly mimicked 2023 until September, at which point 2024 suddenly showed growth that didn’t happen the previous year. I’ll bet some of that was image sensor orders finally catching up. The overall ILC bodies trended about 10% higher for the year. Thus, if you said to the fab you needed 100 image sensors at the start of last year, you found you needed 110. Overall, the Japanese makers needed about 600,000 more image sensors in 2024 than they did in 2023. That by itself takes up a lot of fab time and wafers.

Now let’s say you want to introduce a new camera with a new image sensor. Squeezing 10% more existing sensors out of the production lines is one thing, but now you want another 2%, but from sensors that have never been done before (or are special in that they are stacked and require more and better production time)? 

Let’s take Nikon for example. They have basically six image sensors (20mp DX, three variations of 24mp FX, two 45mp FX). Of those, four are basically older image sensors (20mp DX, two 24mp FX, one 45mp FX) and two are “special” and newer (24mp FX partial stacked and 45mp FX stacked). Everyone keeps asking when Nikon will drop a new >45mp FX sensor, a >20mp DX sensor, or another “special” sensor (e.g. stacked). Historically, their last two “new” sensors were in 2020 (Z9) and 2024 (Z6III). So age-wise we get:

• 10 years old — 24mp FX (Z5, Z6, Z6II, Zf, the latter one with minor changes)
• 8 years old — 20mp DX (all DX Z’s)
• 7 years old — 45mp FX (Z7, Z7II)
• 4 years old — 45mp stacked FX (Z8, Z9)
• 1 year old — 24mp partial stacked FX (Z6III)

If you look at the other makers, you see similar patterns. Sony’s “newest” image sensors are 2021 (2) and 2023. Getting new sensor tech on fab is slowing down and large sensor fab utilization apparently remains at 100% (or more), so new image sensors are coming more slowly now.  

So image sensors are a big part of the supply chain issues that the camera companies are struggling with.

What’s the new problem that intersects? Little or no demand for the same image sensors. Oops ;~). 

Recently I've seen three different photography sites complaining that they didn’t get any affiliate commissions for newly announced cameras, because no one clicked on the link and ordered one. 

We’ve had six cameras introduced so far this year, only two of which have new image sensors. Three of the older sensor cameras that were just introduced have little demand, and were part of those affiliate link failures I just mentioned. Another is a new body for an old inside (it’s an OM-3 on the outside, OM-1 II on the inside). So how does the market continue to grow? By selling more bodies with the same image sensor? I don’t think so.

It’s not that you can’t create a “better” camera with an “older” image sensor. The Sony A1 II and Nikon Z50II are good examples of re-invigorating a model without needing a new sensor. The Fujifilm X-M5 is a “different” camera than Fujifilm has done in the past with the same image sensor. But in general, it feels to me that a number of companies are not quite getting things right. The biggest part of their long-term success will be upgrading, not new customers buying older sensor products. 

It doesn’t help that CMOS image sensors have pretty much climbed the hill. We’ve been stuck on the top of a plateau for a while now with dynamic range (DR). As I like to put it: “in most circumstances, current cameras record the randomness of photons accurately.” Moreover, the real challenge in DR that hasn’t been breeched is saturation, not noise floor, which is where everyone's misplaced attention has been. 

The primary thing that new image sensors seem to be concentrating on is speed. Speed helps both with quantity of pixels the sensor can have, as well as things like removing the physical shutter and lowering costs (e.g. Z8, Z9). But advancements in speed are essentially driven by a form of Moore’s Law, so it’s tough to really break a new sensor out in a way that others can’t also do. Another aspect of this is that dedicated camera image sensors have traditionally been done on old, larger process fabs where you can't get "easy" speed benefits by using smaller process size. Unfortunately, fabs that can do small process are the ones that are most utilized at the moment, to the point where at the current "best" processes you have maybe four customers locking up all of production. (None of those are camera makers.)

Meanwhile, we just keep getting “more” piled into the bodies themselves via menus. I got a headache staring at the details for the just-announced Panasonic S1RII's video capabilities: over 60 different settings, which produces six different crops, has compression interdependencies, and varies in bit rate. Plus there’s some other footnotes you need to apply to fully understand a setting! 

I really have to ask how many people need 60 different FullHD, 4K, 6K, and 8K settings. How many can even keep track of what all of them do and how they differ? Are all these settings actually used by someone? Is that what we really want camera makers to concentrate on: adding more and more choices? 

Yes, I’m sure there’s some customer somewhere that will appreciate all that choice. It isn’t me, and I’m pretty sophisticated as a user. My number one request of Nikon—I predominately use Z8’s and Z9’s for my work—is to provide a truly useful save/restore settings function, not to give me another video option. A settings system where I can name my camera settings files (birding, wildlife, football, ice hockey, portrait, etc.) and restore them with a single command (or better yet, button press, e.g. Cycle saved settings). 

Which brings us to the thing that’s really holding the camera industry back: they think they’re designing hardware, not software. If you think about what a modern mirrorless camera is, it is data coming from an image sensor processed by a SoC (System on Chip), coupled with some form of interface where the customer tells the SoC what to do with that data. “Processing” and “Interface” are software tasks, not hardware ones (though they may involve some hardware). 

So while the Tokyo camera makers all wait for new image sensors and more production of them, they’re really staring at the wrong problem. They’re failing at software, not hardware. 

You can think about that this way: if I told you that you had to use the existing Sony Exmor 24mp sensor (or any other currently existing image sensor) and design the perfect camera using it, what would happen? It doesn’t matter what you think “perfect” is; such a camera would produce excellent images that print really well to 19” on the long axis (because that’s where 24mp sensor state-of-the-art is). In other words, it’s not the image sensor that’s holding anything back. 

A lot of people have poo-pooed Sigma’s recently announced bf camera. I don’t. Sigma is tackling exactly what I just asked in the last paragraph. Good on them. I see some design decisions in the bf that I agree with and many I don’t, but at least it’s not just another DSLR-like 24mp camera with as many features as we can cram into it. It’s a camera company challenging what “perfect” might actually be. 

Likewise, I’ve found I tend to like Leica’s current modern UI (DLux-8, Q3, etc.). I’m not menu diving with these cameras, I’m pretty directly making the settings changes I need to make, and only those. 

Need another example to understand my point? Look no further than the Nikon Z9. When I first was given a pre-release unit to take to Africa and test, what I found was that the Z9 was a really good camera, better than anything Nikon had done in mirrorless to date and mostly equalling or bettering what Canon and Sony were doing at the time. Then we got firmware 2.x. Then 3.x. Then 4.x. Then 5.x. Each time the already excellent camera became better. Why? Because the software was refined and added to. Amazingly, the Z9 still hasn't caught up to what Nikon knows how to do (content authentication, HEIF, Pixel shift shooting, etc.). Whether that means we get firmware 6.x or a Z9II with mostly software changes—I'd bet on an EVF upgrade, but not much else on the hardware side—doesn't particularly matter. 

While many of you sit and wait for the latest and greatest hardware to finally arrive at your dealer, I'm personally waiting for the Japanese camera companies to get better at software. Way better. Because that's really what's needed to break out of the current volume doldrums and attract both new and upgrading customers. 

Today's headline is a baseball metaphor because I know the Japanese understand baseball. I'm going to use the company I know best for my examples, but don't read too much into that: I can write essentially the same article about Canon, Fujifilm, OMDS, Panasonic, and Sony. This is a cultural problem, not a corporate one. It's time to shift the culture.

Swing and a Miss

Let's start with the most recent Swing-and-a-Miss. That would be the Nikon Coolpix P1100. You know those times when the staff finishes a product as shouts "nailed it!" Well, Nikon's staff finished the project and said whispered "mailed it!” (As in “mailed it in.”)

What was the R&D budget for the P1100, 100 yen? Notes from management to staff said (1) replace serial port with USB-C; (2) do something that says "birds" in the menus. Mailed it!

Let me be frank (okay, let me be thom ;~): the lens in the P1000 (and now in the P1100) was for the most part wasted in that camera. I personally prefer the P950 in terms of function and handling. 3000mm equivalent is really tough to handle hand-held, and the snap-back-for-tracking feature is too slow to be functional, particularly when combined with the sluggish autofocus performance. Still, for static subjects you can manage to locate at 3000mm, the lens pretty much does a solid Nikkor telephoto job. In a word, excellent. This just once again proves that Nikon knows optics as well as anyone. Too bad they sometimes fail to prove they know cameras all that well.

I really don't have a lot of issue with the image sensor, either, even though it's a small one (1/2.3"). I've spent enough time with the camera to know that I can massage a lot out of the raw files if I get everything else right. Heck, even the simplified functions and menus are livable. 

Where the P1000 (and now P1100) fall down is in making 3000mm useful. Focus performance and finding/following the subject, to be specific. And nothing was done to improve that in the new model. Worse still, there's not a single thing that the marketing department can do to regenerate any interest in this camera, as there's not even a bit of new product grizzle for them to chew on. That said, Nikon Marketing took a big swing at it with the press release (title: "Reach for the Stars") but in the end this launch was a total miss. Zero new interest at dealers on a product most people had forgotten about for good reasons.

So let's dream about the perfect swing for a moment. Simply put EXPEED7 and phase detect on sensor into the package that already exists. As Nikon just showed with the Z50II and Zf, even with older, slower image sensors this makes a substantial and important difference (plus there was a far better "birds" to add to the camera ;~). Personally, I would have done that with the P950 instead, but Nikon is trying to claim the supersuperzoom crown, so sure, P1000 it is.

Staring at Pitches

Nikon truly left the compact market—and by that I mean the highly capable compact—just prior to launching the Z System. The Nikon J5 was arguably one of the better compacts Nikon had produced. Nikon management apparently looked at the waning Nikon 1 sales as a product failure, not the management failure it actually was. 

Beyond just staring at the obvious problem and not doing anything different for seven years, management also mostly misread the market, believing that the need for a shirt pocket compact no longer existed. Another stare at a perfectly good pitch and doing nothing. 

The J5 was a perfectly fine 20mp compact when it appeared in 2015. Its image quality level would still be relevant today, what with the EXPEED improvements it would have received. But Nikon had already stopped making new lenses for the Nikon 1 line, and that was apparent to anyone paying attention. Moreover, Nikon never really got the Nikon 1 lens set right in the first place: they took a couple of practice swings and then stood in the box doing not much of anything as the pitches passed them by.

The Z30 now pretty much takes the place of the J5, though at a bit of a size penalty. So it's clear that Nikon management understands that there might be something to swing at, but they still keep hesitating with their actual swing and claim they're swinging at a different pitch (apparently they see only a "creator" on the mound). I suspect a Z30II is coming, what that PC button being important to that pitcher. But we still have issues of not seeing the full pitch dynamics and then not swinging fully. Plus we're back in the no action realm in the lens bullpen, so even if Nikon gets the camera (swing) right, they still might not manage to win the game.

Lack of Team Play

I've written now for more than three decades that Nikon's number one problem is that they don't interact with their customers. They seem to think of themselves as just a bunch of engineers doing business-to-business things with other engineers. Hmm. The last reported financial numbers say something entirely different: 46% of their sales and 540% of their profit comes from just camera and lens consumers. 

We camera buyers should feel like we're part of the team. Do you feel like part of the team? Getting Nikon Japan to recognize anything with their cameras that needs changing because of the way we use it is like looking for a dentist using only road signs in upper Mongolia. I'll give you a recent example: with the Z50II I finally helped get Nikon to make Focus point display > AF-C in-focus display default to On. This was after spending time trying to convince them that AF-C in-focus display should actually be built in (it's not the default on the Z9, Z8, Z6III, or Zf, where we finally got a function to even turn it on). 

It shouldn't be that hard. Serious, core, influential Nikon users know exactly what does/doesn't work or needs fixing. That's because we're part of the team: we're actually on the field playing the game. Management seems to be up in the Owner's Box sipping sake and swapping investment suggestions.

Here's my wish: let me put together a group of nine players (pro users), bring them to Japan, and have them spend a day telling everyone at Nikon exactly where the problems really are. What we'd buy and what we'll ignore. How we actually play the game and why we're still missing some critical gear. 

My local Philadelphia Eagles just won the Super Bowl. You don't get that far without a "team." Apparently the night prior to the game, they had a special team meeting. It wasn't the usual meeting with the coaches telling the players what they can/can't/should/shouldn't do. Instead, each of the veteran players got up and shared their views. By the time all the speechifying and rallying was done—apparently left tackle Jordan Mailata picked up the podium, shook it, and just yelled "One More!"—the reports are that the coaches and players actually left that meeting feeling more together as a team than ever, and you saw that in the first half of the game if you watched it.

When was the last time you saw a photographer and a camera company 100% on the same page like that?

Okay, so what did we learn from CP+? Given that it was the first major photography trade show of the year and on home court, it's worth spending a bit of time to try to comprehend what is and isn't going on. This year's CP+ had about 50,000 on-site visitors, over 300,000 online visitors, and featured well over a hundred exhibitors.

Camera Slowdown

Introductions: 3 meaningful (OM-3, S1RII, V1), 2 not-so-much (bf, P1100)

The slowdown in significant camera introductions continues, and even when we do get a new camera, it's often immediately met with a "we apologize for not being to produce enough to meet demand." I keep getting told that this is a supply chain problem coupled with caution by Tokyo, but I'm getting a little skeptical of that explanation without any supporting detail. We've already got far too many politicians, executives, and just-generally-rich dudes running around claiming things without presenting a shred of evidence. I'm looking for the camera company that can stand up and say what's really happening.

Sigma is the closest thing we have to that. Their disclosure that they can only make nine (!) of their new bf cameras a day is the way things should work. That's probably about 2500 cameras a year when all is said and done. They simply have limited machines that can carve that aluminum block into a camera shell, and they aren't fast. I suppose they could add more machines, but Sigma's acknowledgment that they aren't pursuing that course at the moment tells us everything we need to know: the bf (and fp) cameras are a hobby business for them; not integral to their growth and profitability. On the other hand, Sigma isn't openly discussing what's happening on the lens side of their business, where it appears that their hands may be being tied by Canon and Nikon.

Fujifilm, Nikon, and Sony all have pending cameras to launch. The fact that they didn't announce them on home turf where they'd get a lot of attention tells me that whatever is slowing the product development cycles isn't done yet. In Fujifilm's case, they'll wait until the upcoming Fujikina (next month). In Nikon's case, I'm pretty sure their next announcement is a few days either side of their year-end financial results report in early June. Sony's next camera announcement seems to have slipped twice, so I'm not sure when it will hit.

Unfortunately, new cameras tend to be made of unobtainium even when announced. The Canon Powershot V1 carries that to several degrees: not available outside of Asia; not available immediately; and probably in short supply when it does ship. 

Firmware Not Quite Here Yet

Nikon was once again demonstrating things in their booth that actual camera owners can't get. Everyone remembers the Z9 that meowed when it took images (installable shutter sounds). Now we have the Zf playing Pong via the autofocus system. More interesting was that the Zf's in the Nikon booth had firmware that understood the new Flexible Picture Controls and connected to Nikon Imaging Cloud. I'm sure we'll get that at some point, but for now it's missing in action, and what we did get was new Z6III and Z8 firmware that have video feature updates centered around the new power zoom lens. Neither firmware for those cameras has Flexible Picture Control support nor connects to Nikon Imaging Cloud.

To me it feels like Nikon is getting out of sync with itself. It's unable to bring all cameras up to speed with Nikon Imaging Cloud, Flexible Picture Controls, and power zoom features. The this-camera-has-it-but-this-one-doesn't problem is now out of hand. The Zf in the booth, for instance, had Cycle AF-area mode as a configuration choice (Z6III still doesn't have it and needs it more).

Of course, I'm happy that Nikon is out of sync with itself. If they suddenly dropped Z50II, Zf, Z6III, Z8, and Z9 firmware updates that rationalized and equalized the feature sets, I'd be spending a lot of time updating books. 

Meanwhile, the rumors were that firmware updates for the Canon R1 and R5 Mark II would show up for CP+. They did not.

Lenses, Lenses, Lenses

Introductions: 10 mainstream, about two dozen others

I was happy to see Nikon, Sigma, and Sony all introduce two new lenses each in the days prior to the show. Each continues to round out their extensive lineups in their own unique way, extending each line into new options. We all love options, though we get confused by them ;~). 

I was less happy to see over 20 additional primes hit the market, and so many of them manual focus. I'll give Laowa props for continuing to introduce more interesting, not-done-before lenses, but 7Artisans and Viltrox seem stuck on "we can't find a prime spec between 20 and 100mm we don't want to produce." I will say this, though: note that the L-mount is getting traction in some of those Chinese optic vendors. The only reason I can think that would be the case is that there's a Chinese L-mount camera coming (DJI already is an official L-mount supporter).

But the bigger disappointment at CP+ was the continued "announce but don't disclose" problem we now have coming out of Asia. You'll note on my sansmirror.com CP+ page that there's a lot of non-linked items. That's because "yes we announced it, here's our press release and you can see a prototype over in that case," but no actual specific information other than focal length and aperture is provided. Size, weight, filter size, optical design, price, and actual release date now seem to be optional for lens announcements. To me, that shows an insecurity from the lens companies; they believe they need announcements now so that they look more credible. Sorry, it's making you look less credible ;~).

Then we have Zeiss, which seems to have no idea what it's doing. The world doesn't need a 50mm f/1.4 ML and 85mm f/1.4 ML Otus manual focus lens, even at greatly reduced prices (from previous Otus lenses). Sonyrumors was exasperated when no one used their "buy now" links for the new lenses, which sort of proves my point. Why they left the market in 2019 and have now returned is 100% unclear (I'll have more to say about that soon). I'm sure Cosina's happy (they're the actual manufacturer), but is anyone else?

Positive Vibes

In general, the mood in Tokyo at the moment seems to be upbeat. Sales were up in 2024 and higher than the initial forecast (more on that below). Though economic clouds are building on the horizon—tariffs, recession, et.al.—the Japanese and Chinese companies seem positive about the future of photography. 

Everyone was pointing to one or another gain they made in the past year, plus highlighting things they were extremely proud of. The expo was generally upbeat and busy. 

CP+ and others do a lot of surveying of participants, so I thought I'd share a few snippets from all those surveys:

• 65.4% of those at the event and online say that they "take photos as a hobby." The professional and professional adjacent responses hit 15.7%.
• 45.4% of those at the event and online say that they "rarely take videos." If my memory serves me, this is down from the last time CP+ asked that question.
• The "most used camera" is now mirrorless (at 52.7%) followed by DSLR (at 23.5%). Smartphones are in third at 17.9%.
• 56.2% view photos "mainly on smartphone/tablet". Gee, I wonder how they get there? ;~)

Meanwhile, CIPA uses CP+ to publish their annual report and future outlook. Total camera shipments in 2024 went up 10%, with mirrorless up 16.1% and DSLRs down 14.4%. Here's the kicker: China shipments were up 24.5%, while Europe lagged at a 3.1% increase. Americas was in between at up 7.3%.

To me, the eyebrow raiser was that lenses were only up 7% overall, which means that the attachment rate—lenses sold per camera—went down. I have to wonder if the Chinese are eroding lens sales now, as Japan-based CIPA doesn't count non-member shipments. 

So what is CIPA predicting for 2025? This:

• Overall camera shipments will be up 1.1%.
• Interchangeable lens camera shipments will be up 1%.
• Lens shipments will be up 2.9%.

Which probably makes you wonder what CIPA predicted for 2024 back at CP+ 2023:

• Overall camera shipments down 4% (actual: up 10%).
• Overall interchangeable lens camera shipments down 1.8% (actual: up 10.2%).
• Overall lens shipments down 0.7% (actual: up 7%).

So, last year the camera companies—who all contribute their views to the yearly CIPA forecast—were pessimistic and then that turned out to be wrong. That, by the way, is one of the reasons why there was a lot of out-of-stock happening in 2024, particularly early in the year: the CIPA estimates are based upon Japanese companies actual production forecasts. At the time of last year's CP+, everyone had scaled back their production estimates. Given that the companies are mostly pessimistic again this year, if demand continues as in 2024, we're going to have more shortages. 

However, we're now in a different economic environment. The likelihood of a trade war and a recession have been raised dramatically, and neither of those would be good for camera and lens sales. Here in the US, most people don't realize that the government is the largest employer, and if you fire even 5% of the government staffing plus remove a similar number of illegal immigrants, that is a huge economic drag on the economy, large enough to be felt by everyone. Most macroeconomic models are now flashing red.

Curiously, big business CEOs seem to be quietly backing what's happening in the US, mostly because they believe that their regulatory constrictions will be loosened. However, the real problem is going to be consumer demand. With fewer consumers (even illegal migrants consume basic things) and fewer people working, demand will absolutely go down. The Fed just reversed their projection of GDP growth in the first quarter of 2025 to a decline, which is a clear sign that the demand curve may already be down.

So while the vibes were briefly positive in Yokohama last week, the reality is that camera makers have a lot to contend with this coming year, at least here in the US, and by extension, Europe (the two together are about half of the camera market). Their go-to response will be to micromanage where products go, which likely means China and the home market get more units, plus large potential markets such as India will look more inviting. 

We'll see how it plays out. I will say that predicting anything for the coming year is a giant game of uncertainty. Let's hope that next year's CP+ will be another one of positivity, but that's not my current bet.

This is the week where the biggest announcements centered around the big Japanese consumer photography show, CP+, will get made. I've had a page up on sansmirror detailing the announcements so far, and it will continue to update it as each new announcement is made, but we're also getting a few products that don't fall into the mirrorless category, so I'll cover them here.

February 19th. The big non-mirrorless news so far is the curiously low-key announcement of the Canon Powershot V1. Yes, that camera is only going to be available in Asia (at least for awhile), but even in Asia the announcement was relatively low key. 

The irony is that the V1 is a power shot directly at the Sony vlogging machine (ZV-1F, ZV-E10, maybe even FX30). Clearly, Canon is feeling that they need to throw everything into their competition with Sony now. The V1 has a brand new dual-pixel 22mp image sensor that's virtually equal to the m4/3 size in area (225mm²), but without the 4:3 aspect ratio. 4K/30P is downsampled, 4K/60P is done from a pixel-to-pixel 1.4x crop. Canon Log3 is supported, with 10-bit capture.

As you'd expect from a vlogging-style camera, it relies upon a fully articulating 1.04m dot Rear LCD touchscreen (no EVF) and has both headphone and mic sockets, as well as an audio connector built into the hot shoe. Interestingly, the V1 also has a built-in cooling fan so that it can be a continuous vlogger (or streamer, as UAV/UAC is built in). While the V1 is designed to be handled like a vlogger, it is capable of 18.7mp (5750 x 3840) stills at up to 15 fps mechanical shutter, 30 fps electronic. 

Up front we have a retractable-for-transport 16-50mm (equivalent) f/2.8-4.5 5EV stabilized lens that can focus to 2" (0.05m) backed by a 3EV ND filter. Overall, the V1 is about the same size as the old M100/M200 type cameras and weighs 426g. Price is under US$1000. But the camera will only be available initially in China, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. And that apparently won't happen until April. I'm told that the V1 will eventually be announced worldwide, though.

Also ironically, Nikon had something similar in mind back in 2016 when they announced and then unannounced the DL18-50 (though that was with a 1" image sensor). Nikon didn't believe me when I said a true wide angle compact would sell. Apparently now that the camera companies are listening to "influencers", going wide with the zoom turns out to be almost necessary. If the V1 sells in quantity, I'll consider myself vindicated. Again. 

I still have to wonder, though, if the camera makers are mostly missing the point. These days I do vlogging chores with a DJI Osmo Pocket 3 because it is designed to purpose really well, and the smartphone connection works fast and reliably. A 30 fps still camera with a reasonably big sensor in a (large) pocketable camera is interesting, but as far as I can tell, the V1 isn't truly optimized for still use, so it's not going to dislodge others easily. (Disclosure: I have reviews of the Leica D-Lux8 and Fujifilm X100VI coming soon, but I'm still trying to clear a lot of other things off my plate first. 11 lens reviews. Another book. Web site designs. Remodel the office. Oh my.)