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The Digital Photography Review Newsletter
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Thursday, October 29, 2020

Welcome to the 834th DPReview Newsletter

The nights are drawing in (this is sunset season in the Pacific Northwest, when the sky is clear enough) and we're marking 34 weeks of working from home, which makes this... March 240th, I think? Nothing has gone quite to plan for anyone in 2020, but despite the circumstances it's still business (almost) as usual at DPReview.

We just published our in-depth review of the new Sony a7C, and we've been out shooting with one of the nicest wideangle zooms out there - the Nikon Z 14-24mm F2.8 S. Meanwhile, Carey has revisited an old favorite Olympus zoom, and, perhaps appropriately, Roger Cicala shares his thoughts on why real-world shooting can be much more useful than poring over test charts.

Thanks for reading!

Barney


Sony a7C review: Compact size, big sensor image quality

Sony's a7C is among the smallest full-frame mirrorless cameras you can buy, and in terms of core capability, not much has been sacrificed for the sake of compactness. It makes a great travel camera but isn't as refine as the best of its rivals.

See how the Sony a7C stacks up against its competition

Field review: The Olympus M.Zuiko 12-100mm F4 IS Pro goes to Oz

Find out how the Olympus M.Zuiko 12-100mm F4 Pro does as a travel companion on a trip to Oz. We didn't find many wizards or scarecrows, but we did see plenty of lizards and landscape scenes along the Australian coast.

Read more about Carey's experience with the 12-100mm

Nikon Z 14-24mm F2.8 S sample gallery

The Nikon Z 14-24mm F2.8 S completes the 'holy trinity' of traditional F2.8 zooms for Z-mount. It's more practical than its AF-S predecessor, but is the higher price reflected in its performance? Take a look at our sample gallery to find out.

Check out samples from the Nikon Z 14-24mm F2.8 S

Roger Cicala: why I don't use an MTF bench to test my own lenses

Lens geek and founder of Lensrentals Roger Cicala explains why even with a world-class testing lab at his disposal he doesn't use it to assess his own personal lenses.

Read Roger's latest opinion piece

News updates
Published Wednesday, October 28, 2020 9:59:00 PM GMT

Does a photograph being color or black and white impact how we view it in the context of history? A new quiz/experiment aims to find out.

Published Wednesday, October 28, 2020 8:19:00 PM GMT

Firmware version 4.00 for the X-T3 triples autofocus speed and doubles performance, bringing it almost in line with the autofocus performance of the newer X-T4.

Published Wednesday, October 28, 2020 3:16:00 PM GMT

Ace Noguera recorded the shutter sounds of numerous vintage cameras and produced a satisfying video of his project. What photographer doesn’t love the sound of a good shutter click?

Published Wednesday, October 28, 2020 2:00:00 PM GMT

Insta360 has released the ONE X2, a second-generation 5.7K 360-degree pocket camera with new and improved specifications and features.

Published Wednesday, October 28, 2020 1:00:00 PM GMT

Canon recently announced an EOS R6 firmware update to address overheating issues. Does firmware 1.1.1 improve the camera's video performance? Quite a bit, it turns out.

Published Wednesday, October 28, 2020 12:00:00 PM GMT

Find out how the Olympus M.Zuiko 12-100mm F4 Pro does as a travel companion on a trip to Oz. We didn't find many wizards or scarecrows, but we did see plenty of lizards and landscape scenes along the Australian coast.

Published Tuesday, October 27, 2020 11:30:00 PM GMT

The new gimbal can hold most full-frame mirrorless cameras with mid-sized lenses and some smaller DSLRs with mid-sized lenses.

Published Tuesday, October 27, 2020 6:35:00 PM GMT

The latest study follows Wang's previous work, including a camera that can record at 70 trillion frames per second.

Published Tuesday, October 27, 2020 4:23:00 PM GMT

Ricoh Imaging's new APS-C DSLR will feature a 26MP CMOS sensor, 5-axis IBIS, dual SD card slots and is set for a late-February 2021 release.

Published Tuesday, October 27, 2020 2:55:00 PM GMT

Sony's a7C is among the smallest full-frame mirrorless cameras you can buy, and in terms of core capability, not much has been sacrificed for the sake of compactness. It makes a great travel camera but isn't as refine as the best of its rivals.

Published Tuesday, October 27, 2020 1:43:00 PM GMT

For the 13th edition of AAP Magazine, 25 winners from 11 different countries were selected for their unconventional takes on shapes.

Published Monday, October 26, 2020 8:41:00 PM GMT

BCN Retail's latest numbers covering the Japanese domestic market show Canon is hot on the heels of Sony in terms of market share, while Nikon is averaging less than half the market share of both Canon and Sony.

Published Monday, October 26, 2020 7:18:00 PM GMT

Using infrared imaging, NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) has made a significant discovery of water molecules on the sunlit surface of the Moon. This discovery raises new questions and may provide critical support for future deep space exploration.

Published Monday, October 26, 2020 1:26:00 PM GMT

Three weeks ago B&H listed the Zeiss ZX1 as available to pre-order. While the option to pre-order has been removed, Nokishita is reporting the ZX1 will be available on October 29 for an MSRP of $6,000.

Published Monday, October 26, 2020 1:00:00 PM GMT

The Nikon Z 14-24mm F2.8 S completes the 'holy trinity' of traditional F2.8 zooms for Z-mount. It's more practical than its AF-S predecessor, but is the higher price reflected in its performance? Take a look at our sample gallery to find out.

Published Sunday, October 25, 2020 5:52:00 PM GMT

Self-proclaimed 'weird lens' guru, Mathieu Stern, has shared his latest video, wherein he shows imagery captured with two $20 projector lenses he adapted to fit his Sony mirrorless camera.

Published Sunday, October 25, 2020 1:00:00 PM GMT

Lens geek and founder of Lensrentals Roger Cicala explains why even with a world-class testing lab at his disposal he doesn't use it to assess his own personal lenses.

Published Saturday, October 24, 2020 7:00:00 AM GMT

What's the best entry-level full frame mirrorless camera? We compare the Nikon Z5 to the Canon EOS RP to find out.

Published Friday, October 23, 2020 8:22:00 PM GMT

Canon's ME20F-SH camera has been used frequently to record incredible footage since its release in 2015. The camera can record in light as low as 0.0005 lux, after all. For a mixed-reality documentary, Awavena, director of photography Greg Downing took the ME20F-SH into the Amazon and pushed the camera to its limits.

Published Friday, October 23, 2020 6:02:00 PM GMT

Repair site iFixit is hosting a live iPhone 12 teardown on its YouTube channel to see what tech Apple has managed to pack inside one of its latest smartphones.

Published Friday, October 23, 2020 2:22:00 PM GMT

The lens, which doesn't have a release date or price at this point, has autofocus, a customizable function button and a USB-C port for updating firmware.

Published Friday, October 23, 2020 2:00:00 PM GMT

Autel Robotics released its long-awaited EVO II series drone this summer after several delays. With multiple cameras to choose from, and options that include 8K and 6K video, can this drone give DJI a run for its money?

Published Friday, October 23, 2020 1:00:00 PM GMT

How does one elevate the pinhole camera from DIY beginner project to serious creative tool? With a little bit of technical know-how and a whole lot of trial-and-error.

Published Thursday, October 22, 2020 8:01:00 PM GMT

NASA creates amazing timelapse of the moment the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft touches down on the Bennu Asteroid to collect rock samples - lifting off just six seconds later.

Published Thursday, October 22, 2020 5:05:00 PM GMT

Fancy tea-filtered panoramics with the sprocket holes showing? If so, Lomography's new 35mm liquid-filled panoramic camera might be just what you're looking for.

Published Thursday, October 22, 2020 4:51:00 PM GMT

A new but already familiar range of batteries for Canon and Nikon cameras, and a fast double charger to go with them kicks off Manfrotto's first steps in the third-party energy market

Published Thursday, October 22, 2020 3:00:00 PM GMT

The manual camera app for iOS brings a redesigned interface with innovative new features including XDR Analysis, 'Coverage' capture mode, 'Instant Raw' and more than 40 other updates.

Published Thursday, October 22, 2020 2:00:00 PM GMT

Joe Biden's official campaign photographer Adam Schultz is a busy man. We spoke to him recently about what it means to shoot for a presidential campaign, how 2020 is different, and why he can't wait for the day we can take our masks off.

Published Thursday, October 22, 2020 1:00:00 PM GMT

With four new devices and six different camera modules used in various combinations, decoding which cameras are on which of Apple's new iPhone 12 series phones is a little confusing. So we broke it down for you.