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Cameras and Photography

Digital cameras changed photography, and now smartphones are changing digital cameras. There’s never been more interesting ways to take a picture or record a video, and there’s also never been more ways to view those images. We’re focused on finding the most interesting innovations happening in all parts of photography.

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You’ve heard of “what is a photo?” Now it’s time for “what is a selfie?”

The question is being raised by a new exhibition called “Art of the Selfie” at the National Museum Cardiff. It will display, among other works, Vincent van Gogh’s famous “Portrait of the Artist” as a way of asking the question “is a self-portrait the original selfie?” Maybe it’s time for a new t-shirt.


The Xiaomi 14 Ultra photography kit is a beaut.

I’m busy testing the Xiaomi 14 Ultra’s camera but please take a minute to appreciate this gorgeous photography accessory kit. It updates last year’s version with a beefier battery that can power the phone. Just feast your eyes on that gorgeous two-stage shutter button!

One thing I’m noticing so far? It’s heavier than the previous version. That’s not so hot.


Xiaomi 14 Ultra with photography kit.

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Photo by Allison Johnson / The Verge
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Who among us can’t relate to being in “cloud storage hell”?

Charlie Warzel has written a piece at The Atlantic that will likely resonate with many of you. He’s got years worth of photos and videos spread between Apple’s iCloud Photo Library and Google Photos and now feels indefinitely beholden to these services as a result.

In my case, you can add Lightroom to the mix. What’s the endgame in these situations? Do we just keep paying a handful of companies forever? I don’t have a great answer.


Leica’s $6,995 camera is doing the most.

Becca Farsace explains how 8K video, impressive heft, and an HDMI port are just a few of the notable features of the new SL3.


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Did today’s update improve your Samsung Galaxy S24’s camera?

Inquiring minds would like to know. Officially, there’s a new “vividness” option, and “image quality and sharpness optimization code has been applied” as well.

Unofficially, SamMobile says it “improves text clarity while using high zoom ranges,” improves “the exposure of dark parts of a scene while capturing images indoors,” helps with backlit photos, improves colors and exposure in various photo modes, and more.


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People have very strong opinions about Fujfilm’s latest camera.

The Fujifilm X100VI is here, and as our own comment section and any number of Reddit threads can demonstrate, there are a lot of takes on this camera. Is it overhyped or a worthy upgrade? Are those film simulations good enough to choose Fujifilm over competing cameras from Sony or Nikon?

Here’s Becca’s quick rundown on what’s new with the X100VI, and stay tuned for our full review in the coming weeks.


Jay-Z, Instagram Dad.

Some things are universal.


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GoPro is working on a ‘tech-enabled’ helmet.

ICYMI, in January 2024, GoPro announced plans to acquire Forcite — an Australian company that makes tech-enabled motorcycle helmets. Those helmets include features like communications, digital imaging, navigation, and safety alerts.

GoPro is aiming to close the acquisition by the end of this quarter and is expected to launch its first smart helmet in 2025, said Christopher Clark, GoPro’s VP of corporate communications, during a Q4 earnings call.


GoPro will launch new cameras starting at $199 this year.

GoPro will launch multiple cameras this year, the company announced during its Q4 earning call. The new cameras will start at $199 and go all the way up to $599. It’s possible the $599 camera could be the new GoPro Max, which founder and CEO Nick Woodman confirmed the company was working on last year.


GoPro launches Premium Plus subscription and a desktop version of its mobile app.

After announcing it late last year, GoPro launched the $99.99 Premium Plus subscription ahead of its Q4 earnings call today. For twice as much as the original GoPro Subscription (now called GoPro Premium) it offers additional benefits like 500GB of cloud storage for any camera and built-in Hypersmooth Pro stabilization.

GoPro also launched a macOS version of its mobile app, Quik, that’s free to subscribers on all tiers. It’ll be available for Windows as well later this year.


Desktop version of Quik app
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The real photo was the friends we made along the way.

I joined my pals Chris Niccolls, Jordan Drake, and Jaron Schneider on this week’s PetaPixel Podcast to talk about some of our favorite subjects: computational photography, Sony camera menu systems, and whether or not photos are real. Check it out for a delightful chat with some of the very best photography nerds I know.


Halide sums up the stereoscopic photography of the Vision Pro.

Portrait mode images aren’t 3D — iPhones use depth mapping to determine where everything is in space, then they use machine learning to apply simulated bokeh (that is, the blur that optical lenses give you when focusing on a subject).

iPhone camera app maker Halide explains how the Vision Pro’s “spatial” photos, which use the Vision Pro’s “stereoscopic 3D camera system,” aren’t that.


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PSA: Wear fake fingers to make real photos look AI generated.

The following is a dramatic retelling:

Prosecutor: That’s you in this surveillance image, correct?

Ne’er-do-well: That’s a deepfake, count the digits.

Judge: Case dismissed.


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The 1,000-year photo.

The aptly named “Millennium Camera” is a functional art piece that intends to capture how the landscape in Tuscon, Arizona changes over the next 1,000 years via an extremely long-exposure image.

The experimental pinhole camera set up by University of Arizona research associate Jonathan Keats aims to encourage people to imagine what the future will hold.

Keats says:

“Most people have a pretty bleak outlook on what lies ahead. It’s easy to imagine that people in 1,000 years could see a version of Tucson that is far worse than what we see today, but the fact that we can imagine it is not a bad thing. It’s actually a good thing, because if we can imagine that, then we can also imagine what else might happen, and therefore it might motivate us to take action to shape our future.”


A photograph of the Millennium Camera, peering across the desert landscape toward the Star Pass neighborhood West of Tumamoc Hill in Tucson, Arizona.
A snapshot for the long-distant future — the Millennium Camera will capture an image of the Tuscon landscape for ten centuries.
Image: Chris Richards / University of Arizona College of Fine Arts.
This 1912 photo of a woman charging an electric car is top of Hacker News.

If I’m not mistaken, the car is a Columbia Electric Victoria Phaeton — where “Victoria Phaeton” refers to the entire body design. Originally it was used for horse-drawn carriages, before early electric car makers like Fritchle, Columbia, and Baker adopted it too.

According to a charming old Columbia brochure (pdf), it might have had a couple dozen battery cells powering it to a top speed of 15 miles per hour, atop 30-inch wheels fitted with 3-inch tires. The Drive took a 113-year-old model for a spin in 2021!


The photo was reportedly part of a marketing campaign by General Electric, which made the charging station in the photo.
The photo was reportedly part of a marketing campaign by General Electric, which made the charging station in the photo.
Photo: miSci - Museum of Innovation and Science
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Check out these stunning drone shots of Iceland's latest eruption.

The volcano in Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula erupted on Monday following weeks of intense earthquakes, forming an almost 2.5-mile lava-spewing fissure.

Tourists have been asked to avoid the area — these videos taken on a DJI Mavic 3 Pro are a much safer way to enjoy the sights instead. The nearby Blue Lagoon geothermal hot spot (sorry) was closed last month and the local town of Grindavik has been evacuated.


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The Sony Alpha 9 III is coming in February.

Nikkei Asia reported that Sony’s fast new camera is coming to the US on February 21st, which is consistent with estimated deliveries for pre-orders.

The A9 III’s selling point is its global shutter that enables uncropped 120fps 4K video. The A9 also captures 120 frames before the shutter is pressed (with optional shutter sound for emphasis). It’s also expected to get in-camera authenticity to weed its shots out from AI fakes.


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🎶It’s the most bokeh-full time of the year...🎶

Bokeh is that blurred background you get in photos and it really shines with out-of-focus Christmas lights. I love messing with quirky camera techniques, so here are some cool ways to jazz up your bokeh:


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Lego Polaroid vs. real Polaroid.

Here’s my video TL;DR on the new Lego Ideas Polaroid OneStep set and how it compares to the real thing! And here’s my exclusive story about how Lego designs such a set.


DJI’s 2021-announced 8K professional camera is finally shipping.

The Ronin 4D-8K combo rig comes kitted with a Zenmuse X9-8K gimble camera on a vertically-stabilized main body (4-axis stabilization), a LIDAR range finder, DJI’s 17-28mm lens, 1TB SSD, monitor, battery, and all the mounts and grips for $12,838. that’s more than the originally announced $11,499 price, but DJI says the 8K comes with a RAW license key, unlike the 6K version.


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DJI’s Ronin 4D-8K combo is not for consumers or prosumers.
Image: DJI
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Pixelmator Pro is now ready for your HDR photos.

Version 3.5 of the Mac image editing app adds support for HDR photos. Reminder: this is the good kind of HDR, not the over-processed stuff. iPhones — and soon lots of Android phones — capture more highlight information than a typical SDR image, resulting in more lifelike rendering on an HDR display. Pixelmator is the latest editing app to let you play with that extra data.


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It’s time for the annual MKBHD Blind Smartphone Camera Test.

Marques Brownlee is once again crowdsourcing opinions on photos. You can head to the voting site where, in three categories (standard, low-light, and portrait mode), you’ll see the same photo taken by 20 different smartphones and judge which one you prefer in side-by-side comparisons.

Last year’s results revealed some notable differences in how different phones process the same situation — we’ll find out soon how far apart they are now.