Two Action Cameras, $260 Apart: Which One Earns It

A 1-inch, 50-megapixel sensor, 8K open gate, and slow motion running past 900 frames per second sit on one side. A smaller sensor, a faster lens, and a $260 lower price sit on the other. That gap is the whole story, and deciding which camera wins depends less on the spec sheet than you'd expect.

OM System Revives the Legendary PEN Camera With an EVF, Weather Sealing, and 30 fps Shooting

OM Digital Solutions has announced the OM SYSTEM PEN, a new Micro Four Thirds interchangeable-lens camera built around a 20.4-megapixel Live MOS sensor, TruePic IX processor, 5-axis in-body image stabilization, and a compact rangefinder-style body. It is the first PEN-series camera released under the OM System brand, as well as the first model in the series to combine an electronic viewfinder with a dustproof and IPX1-rated splashproof design.

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Show us the work YOU wanted to do

Welcome to the September installment of the Critique the Community! This month's critique theme is going to be "Passion Project," and we want to see your best photographs that come from a personal project.

The Last DSLR Maker Just Discontinued Its Whole Lineup

Ricoh is ending production of its current Pentax K-series digital SLRs and starting work on a brand-new line built on what it calls an entirely new concept. The move retires the existing lineup while the company tries to reinvent what a DSLR can be.

From 20mm to 60mm: I Test Sigma’s New Full Frame Compact All-Rounder

Sigma is adding an interesting new option to its full frame mirrorless standard zoom lineup: a lens that combines a 20mm wide angle starting point with a compact, lightweight design. The idea was to create a versatile zoom that can stay on the camera most of the time, reducing the need to carry multiple lenses or constantly stop to change them. That makes it particularly appealing for travel, hiking, street photography, and anyone who wants to keep their camera setup as light and mobile as possible.

The Best Value Lens for Every Camera Mount You Can Buy Now

Every camera mount has one lens that makes the rest of the lineup look overpriced. It is rarely the flashiest piece of glass in the catalog, and it is almost never the one the marketing pushes hardest. What follows is the single best value in each major mount you can still buy new today, one pick apiece, from Canon RF through Leica M and the two medium format systems to the three DSLR mounts that refuse to die.

Finding a New Perspective With the Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG DN OS Sports Lens

Certain pieces of photographic equipment make you rethink the way you photograph, and for me, the Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG DN OS Sports lens was one of those lenses. I should probably start by admitting that wildlife photography isn't really my usual territory. I'm primarily a landscape photographer, and most of my photographic life has involved looking for dramatic mountains, interesting light, and compositions that don't move. Wildlife, or should I say in this instance local wildlife, by comparison, has always seemed like a rather different discipline. But spending time with Sigma's 150-600mm changed that.

Three Anchor Points to Kill Aperture Overthinking

Aperture stalls you in the field because you treat it as a math problem with dozens of correct answers. The same setting looks different across cameras, lenses, and shooting distances, so memorizing what each value produces is a losing bet.

The Cheapest Autofocus 85mm You Can Buy, Tested Against a G Master

Put two portrait shots side by side, one taken with an $1,800 Sony lens and one taken with a $99 lens, and most people can't call which is which at a glance. That gap between price and image quality is worth understanding before you spend money on your next portrait lens.

The Funnest Drone to Fly, With One Big Image-Quality Catch

A 360 camera bolted to a 249 g drone changes how you fly, because you stop fighting the camera and the flight path at the same time. That single shift is what makes the Antigravity A1 worth a serious look, and it explains why one creator kept reaching for it long after the video was supposed to be finished.

Creating a Mobile Photography Studio Across America

This September, we are turning our Toyota Tacoma into a mobile photography studio, building a custom set into the truck bed, and driving it 7,500 miles across the United States, photographing that same set against dramatically changing landscapes along the way.

Sigma's New 85mm f/1.2 Art Combines a Huge Aperture With a 905 g Body

Sigma has announced the Sigma 85mm F1.2 DG | Art, a new large-aperture portrait prime for full frame mirrorless cameras. The lens will be offered in L-Mount and Sony E-mount versions, with a planned launch on October 6, 2026, at a suggested retail price of $1,599.

Joseph Petzval Calculated the First Fast Portrait Lens in 1840 and Watched Someone Else Get Rich

By May 1840, a mathematics professor in Vienna had finished a lens before a single piece of glass had been ground for it. Petzval worked the design out on paper, with a squad of army computers grinding through the arithmetic under his direction, and the result gathered roughly 20 times more light than the lens sitting on the front of a typical daguerreotype camera. A few portrait studios were open by then, working with mirror cameras and bromine chemistry. The industry that followed ran on Petzval's design for the next 40 years.

A Tale of Two Coasts: Night Photography Made Easy From Cape Cod to Cambria

Night photography along the coast: it's evocative, eternal, calming—and surprisingly easy. While many of us enjoy hiking miles into the wilderness, you can create alluring night photos just steps from the car, right at the water's edge. Lighthouses, moonlit water washing over tide pools, and historic piers: the coast offers more night photography subjects than you might expect. Cape Cod or Cambria, the coastlines are already calling you.

A Full-Frame Kit You'll Actually Carry All Day

Fifteen years of hauling heavy DSLRs around the world can leave you wishing for something you can carry all day without noticing the weight. A small full frame body paired with a compact prime now delivers most of what those older bricks did, and that shift changes what serious travel photography can look like.

Shooting Iceland's Highlands With a Telephoto Instead of a Drone

Most Iceland landscape work you scroll past now was made from the air, with wide drone panoramas that flatten an entire river system into a single graphic. Shooting the same terrain from the ground with a very long lens flips that habit and forces a different kind of seeing.

Your Landscape Kit Is Already a Wildlife Kit

The camera in your bag right now, the one built for sweeping vistas, might already be a capable wildlife machine. Landscape and wildlife shooting used to demand two completely separate kits, but that line has blurred to the point where the same body and a long zoom can do both jobs well.

Why Your Photos Look Cluttered (and the One Skill That Fixes It)

Two photos of the same subject, shot by the same person with nearly identical gear, can read completely differently: one holds your eye instantly, and the other leaves you scanning corners for something to land on. That gap comes down to a single skill, and once you name it, you start seeing it everywhere in your own work.

DJI Launches the Osmo 360 II: Flagship 360-Degree Camera With a New 1-Inch HDR Sensor and User-Replaceable Lens

DJI has officially introduced the Osmo 360 II at IFA 2026, marking a significant advancement in panoramic imaging technology. According to DJI, the Osmo 360 II was developed based on the company’s extensive product background: distortion control in aerial photography, stabilization from the Ronin handheld gimbal systems, and color science from successive generations of Osmo Action cameras. 

10 Technologies Photographers Inherited From the Military

The zoom ring on a modern 70-200mm traces back to a viewfinder accessory the US Army Signal Corps clipped onto its 35mm combat movie cameras. Frank Back, the Austrian-born engineer who designed it, spent the war improving cameras and lenses for the Signal Corps and then turned the same optical trick into the first zoom lens that caught on. That kind of lineage runs through more of a modern kit than most people expect, and it runs shorter and less often than the retellings suggest.