Drone Tutorials

Sony a7V Imminent, A number of Offers on Gear

December 1, 2025
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About half a yr in the past, I had the fantastic alternative to spend just a few weeks in South America with the distinctive photographer Magda Straková. Within the historically male-dominated world of wildlife pictures, her presence introduced a refreshing stability to our group. She stored recognizing fascinating topics in locations the place my eyes utterly ignored. Throughout that journey, Magda and I filmed the primary segments of an interview that we plan to proceed later this week. Its central theme might be “considering out of the field,” and also you’ll have the ability to watch it quickly.

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In each pictures and life, it pays to step off the overwhelmed path every now and then and check out one thing completely different. It doesn’t should be a dramatic change. On this case, as an alternative of reaching for an extended telephoto lens, I picked up a macro lens, and as an alternative of photographing the standard birds in daylight, I shot this frog within the Amazon rainforest below the glow of an LED lamp. NIKON Z 9 + TAMRON 90mm F2.8 F072 Z @ 90mm, ISO 800, 1/125, f/9.0

Latest Bulletins

  • BrightinStar MF 50mm f/0.95 II: It doesn’t get a lot brighter than this! The all-manual BrightinStar 50mm f/0.95 II options 10 lens parts in 9 teams, together with two ultra-low dispersion lenses and 4 ultra-high refractive index lenses. It is available in variations for Nikon Z, Canon RF, Sony E, and Leica L mounts. It has an all-aluminum design and weighs 757 grams / 1.66 kilos. The worth is compelling: for $370 on Amazon, it’s lots lower than the price of most f/0.95 glass.
  • Kodak Snapic A1 35mm Movie Digicam: I needed to verify my calendar to remind myself of the last decade – however it’s true, Kodak has launched a 35mm movie digital camera, and the worth of $99 can also be fairly retro. It’s hardly essentially the most superior 35mm digital camera ever made, sporting a set 25mm f/9.5 lens, a set 1/100-second publicity, and two-zone guide focus. It’s accessible at B&H Picture and Amazon.
  • Laowa 35mm f/2.8 Zero-D Tilt-Shift 0.5× Macro: A tilt-shift lens accessible for Sony E, Nikon Z, Canon RF, and Leica L (and in addition for XCD and Fuji GFX medium format with minimal tilting or shifting). This all-metal lens permits shifts of +/- 12mm and tilts of +/- 10°. It has a built-in Arca-Swiss tripod foot, and Laowa claims zero distortion. The lens has a excessive magnification of 0.5× for near-macro pictures. At $1249, it’s uncharacteristically expensive for Laowa, however possibly that’s an indication of higher-than-usual optical high quality. Out there for pre-order at B&H Picture or immediately at Laowa.
  • Viltrox 2.0x teleconverter for Nikon Z: This 2x teleconverter prices $280, in comparison with $650 for Nikon’s Z TC-2.0x. It options 9 parts in 5 teams and weighs 230 grams. There’s a USB-C port for firmware updates, and Viltrox says it’s appropriate with all lens options. Truthfully, I’m undecided I might wish to low cost out on a teleconverter after paying 1000’s of {dollars} for a supertelephoto. However Viltrox has been proving themselves lately, so possibly I’ll should eat my phrases. It’s accessible for pre-order at B&H.

The Rumor Mill

Viltrox 35mm f/1.2 LAB for Nikon Z ought to arrive in December

This long-awaited lens needs to be right here earlier than it. And this rumor is about as confirmed as will be – it comes from Viltrox’s personal “Ask Me Something” on Reddit in October, which already adopted months of teasers. The Sony E model of this lens prices $999 ($799 with the present Black Friday sale), so if the Nikon model is wherever near that, it might critically undercut the Nikon Z 35mm f/1.2 S. And whereas I might nonetheless predict the Nikon to carry out higher, the Sony model of the Viltrox has gotten nice evaluations.

Through Picture Rumors

Sony Germany teases a photograph of the a7 V

The rumored launch date of the Sony a7 V is only a couple days away on December 2nd, and now we have now a brand new picture of the digital camera to gasoline the hypothesis. From the picture, it seems to have the identical development because the a7R V or very comparable. The digital camera is anticipated to have a partially-stacked 33 MP sensor, 30 FPS with pre-capture, and an improved autofocus system. We’ll know earlier than lengthy how lots of the different rumored specs develop into true.

Through Sony Alpha Rumors

Good Offers and New Gross sales

It’s the largest weekend of the yr for pictures offers. Spencer already compiled a checklist of all of the cameras, lenses, and site-wide offers for photographers. In the present day I’ll carry you all the very best gross sales on different helpful devices and gizmos. Many of those gross sales finish at 11:59PM EST on December 1.

Tripods

CFexpress Sort B Playing cards

CFexpress Sort A Playing cards

UHS-II SD Playing cards

SSD Storage

Digicam Backpacks

Different Equipment

Different Pages of Curiosity

In Leica’s Leitz Public sale 47, a peculiar one-of-a-kind Leica simply offered for €6,500,000. It was the Leica M-A no.5000000, “Pope Francis” version with an identical Leica 50mm f/1.2 Noctilux-M. Leica has a convention of providing their round-number serial quantity cameras in editions meant for well-known people. Pope Francis donated his copy with the proceeds of this public sale going to charity. You possibly can learn extra about it and see the digital camera right here.

The 2025 Oceania Picture Contest has revealed its winners, displaying the fantastic thing about our planet as captured by photographers from Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands. The successful picture, taken by Miesa Grobbelaar, reveals a diver serving to to free a humpback whale whose tail had gotten entangled in a rusty chain. Different awarded images showcase bioluminescent fungus, the Aurora Australis, a diving penguin, and extra – have a look for some inspiration in the present day.

Have cameras improved that a lot in only a decade? Photographer Alan McFadyen thinks so. You may need seen his well-known picture from 2015 of a kingfisher completely diving into the water, a photograph that apparently took him 720,000 pictures and 6 years to seize the primary time. Now he says he was capable of recreate it in just some minutes with the advances of contemporary mirrorless cameras, in his case the Z9. You possibly can learn the story on Petapixel. It’s a reminder that we’re fairly spoiled for digital camera gear in the present day – though I nonetheless choose the unique model of his picture myself.

Picture Theme Problem, Week #131

Final week’s theme was isolation, and you may see the outcomes on this thread. Thanks to everybody in your submissions! This week’s theme is shadows, and you may submit your outcomes on this thread by Saturday, December 6, 2025!

Week #130 Outcomes

Let’s try among the pictures we acquired for the “isolation” theme, beginning with Frederic Dantzer’s picture:

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The deliberate use of destructive area accentuates the isolation of the chicken on the roof. Good work!

AndrewGusew’s picture:

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The moon is cleverly juxtaposed towards the complexity of an earthly construction, displaying its loneliness.

And Robert’s picture:

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Robert has proven the remoted nature of the fortunate remaining few timber within the wake of farmland conversion.

Thanks everybody for submitting their pictures within the problem, and we hope to see extra subsequent week within the shadows theme.

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