Photography News

Stay current with what's happening across the photography industry — new camera and lens releases, company news, photographer stories, legal developments, and the broader trends shaping how we make and consume images. This is the pulse of the photography world, updated regularly by the Fstoppers team.

Sony Announces the FE 100-400mm f/5.6-8 OSS, a 654 g Super-Telephoto Zoom for $849.99

Sony has introduced the Sony FE 100-400mm f/5.6-8 OSS, a super-telephoto zoom for 35mm full frame Alpha E-mount cameras. The headline figure is weight: the lens covers the full 100-400mm range at approximately 654 g, which places it well below the size and mass of the professional-tier telephoto zooms that have defined this focal range for Sony shooters. The tradeoff is aperture.

A Camera Trap Rediscovered a Bird Lost to Science for 140 Years

A motion-activated camera captured the first confirmed images of a black-naped pheasant-pigeon since 1882. The rare ground-dwelling bird, known locally as Auwo, was photographed on Fergusson Island in Papua New Guinea only two days before the expedition was scheduled to end.

 

Popular ASMR Creators Say YouTube Wiped Their Channels With No Warning

YouTube has terminated several established ASMR channels after determining that they linked viewers to material prohibited under its nudity and sexual-content policies. The enforcement action has alarmed creators who say they received little or no warning before losing channels that served as both long-running archives and major sources of income.

 

Apple Now Lets You Lease a Mac or iPad Instead of Buying It

Apple has launched a leasing program that lets you pay monthly for a Mac, iPad, iPhone, or Apple Watch and return or swap the device when the term ends. The program is backed by Klarna, runs only in the United States for now, and replaces the decade-old iPhone Upgrade Program.

 

Fab’ Launches a Gorgeous New Handmade Leather Camera Strap

Fab’ are one of Canada’s top camera strap manufacturers. They have a wide range of leather and rope camera straps and harnesses, and everything is made by hand in Montreal. They’ve built up an extremely good reputation for making the highest-quality straps, yet they refuse to rest on their laurels.

 

Researchers Warn AI Animal Videos Are Harming Real Wildlife Science and Perception

A growing wave of AI-generated animal videos is spreading across social media, and researchers say these fabricated clips are quietly reshaping how the public understands real wildlife. The concern is not just that the videos are fake, but that they present impossible or invented behavior as if it were documented fact.

 

A Camera Trap Just Caught One of India's Rarest Cats

Two camera traps in Madhya Pradesh's Kuno National Park caught a lean, long-legged wildcat with black-tufted ears moving at night. The animal was a caracal, one of the least-seen wild cats in India, recorded in the same landscape where the country's cheetah reintroduction project is running.

 

What the Squarespace Subscription Price Increase Means for Photographers

For most of us, a portfolio website is a clean, deliberate space where we curate our perspective and control the sequence of our imagery without the platform getting in the way. Yet it also has to work hard behind the scenes. It houses the blog where we track our evolving creative ideas, and it serves as the primary lead-generation engine that connects our work with actual clients.

Storm Chasers Are Flying Drones Straight Into Tornadoes, and the View Is Unreal

A small crew of storm chasers is doing something that sounds impossible: flying camera drones straight into active tornadoes. The OTUS Project — short for Observations of Tornadoes by UAV Systems — has now pulled off more than a dozen successful intercepts, and this June it live-streamed a drone punching into an EF3 for the first time. 

An AI Studio Made Its Own Odyssey and Timed It to Nolan's Opening

Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey opens today, shot entirely on IMAX 70mm for a reported $250 million. Three days before it reached theaters, an AI studio announced an Odyssey of its own: 135 minutes long, made largely by one person over three months, for a budget in the mid five figures. 

New York City Wants Landlords to Admit When Listing Photos Are AI

New York City wants landlords and brokers to tell you when the photos in a rental listing have been generated or retouched by AI. It arrived as one of 23 proposals in Mayor Zohran Mamdani's Rental Ripoff Report, and if it becomes a real rule, the people shooting those listings are the ones who will have to draw the line. 

Do Photographers Have the Right to Sell Every Image They've Taken?

A photographer was hired to shoot a musician for a magazine. Months later, she started selling prints from that session. The musician says she never agreed to any of that — and now a court is going to settle a question photographers normally settle with a piece of paper: who owns an editorial photograph once the shoot is over? 

George Lucas Says AI Is 'the Future' of Filmmaking and There's Nothing You Can Do About It

One of cinema's most influential creators just planted his flag firmly on the pro-AI side. In a wide-ranging interview tied to the opening of his Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, George Lucas said artificial intelligence is "the future" of moviemaking and that fighting it is pointless: "There's nothing you can do about it. That's progress, it's the future." 

The FAA May Turn a Lot More of the US Into a No-Drone Zone

The FAA has proposed a rule that would let power plants, dams, refineries, and other "critical infrastructure" sites ask to have the airspace above them closed to drones. By the agency's own estimate, roughly 125,000 facilities could qualify to ask. Almost no one has said anything about it — 578 public comments as of July 13 — and the window closes August 5. 

An Influencer Filmed a Stranger's Skirt for Clout. It Just Cost Him $20,000

A man with more than 100,000 Instagram followers who filmed himself lifting a stranger into the air outside a nightclub, exposing her underwear on camera, has been ordered to pay $20,000 for posting the footage without her consent. A B.C. tribunal decided the clips counted as intimate images even though the man said he was just chasing views.

 

Is the Huawei Pura 90s Pro Max the Ultimate Telephoto Flagship? Here is What We Know

For years, telephoto performance on smartphones has felt like a compromise, often forcing photographers to choose between reach and image quality. With the global launch of the Huawei Pura 90s Pro Max, Huawei is looking to shift that narrative and establish a new standard for mobile photography by bringing some of the latest imaging tech to the smartphone.  

Why Getty Just Abandoned Its $3.7 Billion Merger With Shutterstock

Getty Images has killed its $3.7 billion merger with Shutterstock, refusing a condition set by UK regulators that would have forced Shutterstock to sell off its entire editorial photography business. The deal had already cleared US antitrust review with no strings attached, which makes the UK objection the single reason two of the biggest names in stock photography will stay separate.

'Missed the Mark': Meta Retreats on Instagram AI Photo Grab

Meta has removed the feature in its new Muse Image tool that let anyone generate AI images from your public Instagram photos, just three days after switching it on. The company said the feature "missed the mark" and is no longer available. 

 

A Fast, High-End Nikon Camera Is Reportedly Weeks Away

Nikon is reportedly close to launching a fast, high-end, professional APS-C camera, with an announcement expected in the next couple of months. The most talked-about spec is a 45-megapixel stacked sensor in a body built for speed. 

Meta Just Made Your Public Instagram Photos Fair Game for AI

Meta's new AI image generator lets anyone pull photos from a public Instagram account and feed them into AI creations, without asking the account owner or telling them afterward. The feature is switched on by default for public profiles. 

 

Update: Per 9 to 5 Mac, Meta has removed the feature after swift backlash.

650 Freelance Photographers Are Fighting the WSJ Over an AI Contract

Roughly 650 freelance photographers who work for The Wall Street Journal have refused to sign a new contract they say could funnel their images into AI training. The fight centers on two changes: who owns the photos you shoot on assignment, and the paper's new right to license those photos to third parties without asking you first. 

Hasselblad Names Seven New Masters in Its 2026 Photography Competition

Seven photographers have been named Hasselblad Masters for 2026, chosen out of 70 finalists that the competition pulled from a pool exceeding 108,000 submissions sent in from 160 countries and regions. The seven categories this year were Landscape, Architecture, Portrait, Art, Street, Wildlife, and Project//21, with one winner in each. 

Adobe Is Buying One of the Last Good Things in Photo Editing

Adobe announced on June 25 that it has agreed to acquire Topaz Labs, the Dallas company whose denoising, sharpening, and upscaling tools quietly became part of how a huge number of photographers finish their work. Neither side put a number on the deal. Closing is targeted for the back half of 2026, assuming regulators sign off.

Canon Announces the RF 20-50mm f/4 L IS USM PZ, a Power Zoom for the EOS R6 V Era

Alongside the EOS R6 V camera body, Canon today announced the RF 20-50mm f/4 L IS USM PZ, the first L-series lens from Canon to include built-in power zoom without requiring an external accessory. The lens is aimed at video shooters and hybrid creators working on gimbals, sliders, and handheld setups, and serves as the native companion to the video-focused EOS R6 V. 

Panasonic Jumps Into the Compact Camera Game With the LUMIX L10

Panasonic has announced the LUMIX L10, a new fixed-lens compact camera built around a Four Thirds sensor and a Leica-branded zoom. The release marks the 25th anniversary of the LUMIX line, and Panasonic is launching the camera in three finishes: Black, Silver, and a limited Titanium Gold Special Edition. 

Freewell Launches a Very Slim Variable ND/CPL Filter Kit

My first impression when pulling Freewell's latest filter kit offering out of its packaging was how small and light it was. Filter kits tend to be bulky and take up lots of space, often housed in boxes that take up valuable space in camera bags too. They can be a nuisance to lug around. Not this kit. I immediately liked it. 

Why Gerald Undone Is Walking Away From a Decade of Camera Reviews

YouTube has a burnout problem, and Gerald Undone just went public with his. After more than a decade of lab-style camera reviews, Undone announced he's stepping away from the format entirely. The conversation about why is more honest than most creators ever get on camera. 

7Artisans Announces 35mm f/2.8 LTM Lens

There’s something surprisingly novel about making a new lens for a system that predates the governments of many modern countries. The Leica Thread Mount (LTM, also known as the M39 mount), born in the early 20th century wasn’t designed for firmware updates, autofocus motors, or clinical perfection. It was designed for walking. For looking.