Cameras

Arriving sometime in April 2025 for around $45, the InstantSnap features a fun design resembling a photo that just popped out of a Polaroid camera. Inside its white frame is a transparent viewfinder with framing guides, but there’s no screen, and images and videos are saved to a microSD card.

The successor to our favorite instant camera for retro fans is available in six new colors, up from three, and starts at $119.99. Other improvements include a built-in tripod, while autofocus upgrades, a better light meter position, and an improved ranging sensor should result in sharper photos. I’ll be sharing my thoughts after I test the camera soon, so stay tuned.

Instead of hiding an Apple AirTag in a lens cap which isn’t always attached to your camera, Elevation Lab’s new $19.99 TagVault stashes one inside of a carbon fiber composite tripod plate.

That’s according to PetaPixel, which during a tour of Sigma’s Japanese HQ, was told that making the Sigma BF’s aluminum housing requires seven hours of milling by two machines. That amounts to a production output of about nine cameras per day.

A new firmware update for the Osmo Pocket 3 is available through the DJI Mimo mobile ap. The update introduces a few notable new features including a 10-bit D-Log M color option for webcam mode and focus breathing compensation to eliminate jarring field of view changes when the camera’s focus changes.

Launching in late February for $1,099.95, the Nikon Coolpix P1100 brings a few upgrades to the now-discontinued P1000 released in 2018. It’s got the same 24-3000mm lens offering 125x optical zoom, but adds USB-C (to comply with EU laws) and updated Bluetooth.

Although it was overshadowed by the launch of the Hero 13 Black last September, GoPro hasn’t forgotten about its smaller and cheaper $179 Hero action cam. A software update available today is introducing a new 4K 4:3 video setting that uses the sensor’s full height and width. The Hero is also getting GoPro’s SuperView Digital Lens option which converts 4:3 videos to 16:9 by stretching the sides of the video to create a wider effect.

Turns out Google’s photo manager wasn’t able to flip photos from left-to-right — until now. The editing feature has just been added, found within the Crop tools, which cover photo rotation too. For now at least, it’s Android only.

After celebrating the 100th anniversary of its first 35mm prototype camera in 2014, Leica is now celebrating the 100th anniversary of the mass-produced version, the Leica I, with a bunch of wildly expensive merchandise.

Despite the popularity of shooting on smartphones, today Panasonic announced four new professional camcorders.

I appreciated Professor Hany Farid’s comments about AI photo manipulation in this recent episode of WBUR’s On Point. He addressed Pixel camera lead Isaac Reynolds — the segment’s first guest — and Google’s hypothesis about helping people create memories, not photos. I also contributed a few thoughts to the conversation, including the word “boogers.” Take a listen.

The Slow Mo Guys shared a new perspective on the complex inner workings of an Omega Speedmaster mechanical watch using a couple of Phantom slow motion cameras upgraded with microscope lenses.

I was about to complain about the lack of cameras at Nikon’s CES booth when I came across this display. It’s a modified Z9 inside a special thermal blanket, and it will accompany astronauts to the moon as part of the Artemis III mission. The big, simplified buttons will be easier to press with massive gloves on. Super cool!

The company behind Reolink is launching the Camovue Talon Pro Trail Cam sometime before the end of March. It can identify 12 animal species — including wild boar, deer (bucks and does), mountain lions, elk, ducks, weasels, cattle, goats, turkeys, raccoons, and foxes — and send alerts over 4G. It’ll last for two months on 10 AA batteries or much longer when paired with a rechargeable battery pack and solar panel.