“I can handhold down to 1/30th of a second just fine,” they say, as if that settles the argument. After testing roughly a hundred cameras over the years since mirrorless became mainstream, I can tell you that people who think IBIS is a useless technology because they can hold a camera relatively still are missing the point.

The “I can handhold fine” crowd isn’t wrong about their abilities. Experienced photographers absolutely can get sharp images at 1/30th or even 1/15th with good technique. But IBIS isn’t about replacing basic camera handling skills. It’s about expanding what’s possible when you’re shooting, especially in challenging conditions, using long lenses, or working in situations where a tripod or gimbal isn’t practical.

At a Glance

In-Body Image Stabilization does far more than help you handhold at slightly slower shutter speeds. It transforms telephoto photography by making tripods optional, enabling handheld video that looks gimbal-smooth, allowing lower ISOs for cleaner images, and using creative techniques that would be impossible otherwise.

While IBIS specifications from manufacturers can be misleading and hard to verify in real-world use, the practical benefits of shooting with a camera with IBIS are obvious to anyone who has moved from a camera without IBIS to one with IBIS.

That’s not to say cameras without IBIS are bad per se. I tested the Canon R8 a few years ago, and it’s a great camera, even though it doesn’t have IBIS.

What IBIS Actually Is and How It Works

Before I talk about the practical uses of IBIS (and why so many comments drive me insane), let’s look at what IBIS does and how it works.

In-Body Image Stabilization moves your camera’s sensor to counteract camera shake. When you press the shutter, tiny gyroscopes detect camera movement in multiple directions. The sensor shifts in the opposite direction to compensate. This happens incredibly fast–thousands of adjustments per second.

In practice, it’s a tiny version of what a gimbal does, though a gimbal uses rotating arms to dampen the movement of the camera instead of just moving the sensor.

Sc

Most modern IBIS systems are 5-axis, meaning they correct for five types of movement: pitch (tilting up and down), yaw (panning left and right), roll (rotation), and two types of shift (horizontal and vertical movement).

Optical stabilization in lenses works differently. It moves lens elements instead of the sensor. Both approaches solve the issue that human hands aren’t perfectly steady and that photographers are often moving during shooting.

The key difference is that IBIS stabilizes every lens you mount on the camera, while optical stabilization only works in lenses that have it built in. Lenses that have optical stabilization combine that with the IBIS system for even better motion compensation.

Why IBIS is Measured in Stops

Image stabilization is measured in f-stops (or just “stops”) because it’s connected to the measurement of light entering the camera, used in ISO, aperture, and shutter speeds. It’s a measurement of how much you can lower the shutter speed or ISO in order to get the same shot with non-IBIS cameras.

For example, if you’re photographing a scene where you could shoot at 1/250th to get a sharp image, a five-stop IBIS stabilization system would theoretically allow you to shoot at 1/8th of a second with the same results.

IBIS stop performance should be taken with a grain of salt, as there’s not a practical way for photographers to measure IBIS claims between different systems and different bodies.

The Biggest Benefit of IBIS: Less Noise

To me, the most important benefit of IBIS is the one most overlooked in forum comments. Being able to shoot at lower ISO is more important in most situations than being able to shoot at slower shutter speeds, though both are directly connected.

If an IBIS system gives you three stops of stabilization, you can use a shutter speed three stops slower, which means you can also use an ISO three stops lower.

As a practical example, if a scene would normally require ISO 6400 to get a proper exposure, you can capture at ISO 800 instead at the same shutter speed that would require ISO 6400. This is especially useful for cameras with high-resolution sensors, as the more pixels on a sensor, the more noise relative to a lower-resolution sensor in the same scene.

Cleaner files also make editing easier, since a properly exposed image has more dynamic range to deal with. Images shot at lower ISO give you more room to adjust highlights and shadows without clipping your exposure.

IBIS and Telephoto Photography (And Videography)

There’s a rule of thumb that a shutter speed of one over the shutter speed to have no motion blur. A 600mm lens would need to be shot at 1/600th of a second to not have motion blur. IBIS completely changes this math. I’ve been able to handhold a 400mm lens and gotten sharp images at 1/100th of a second or even slower.

Several years ago, I was on safari in Botswana, and as the light was fading, we came across a pair of leopards in a tree. I was able to shoot the Sony 100-400mm GM at 400mm at way less than 1/400th of a second, and still crank down the ISO for less noise. I didn’t take a tripod with me, and there were no instances in which I wish I had.

We also slept out on the salt flats at night, and I was able to take a self-portrait under nothing but the moonlight just by leaving my camera on a timer while it sat on my camping bed.

Video Without a Gimbal is Possible

Handheld video is another area where IBIS really helps. I’ve shot plenty of run-and-gun footage without using a gimbal to make sharp footage. Tilts, pans, and changes in yaw are all stabilized, and I only use a gimbal for shots where I have to move quickly in several directions, or want to use the gimbal’s tracking to keep the camera pointed at the subject, no matter how I move the camera.

Combining IBIS and optical stabilization is particularly effective. On a trip to Brazil, I shot river otters and jaguars from a moving, bouncing boat, which resulted in very smooth footage.

In video work, IBIS is more effective with wider lenses. Telephoto lenses will have micro jitter since the field of view is so narrow, but it’s still possible to shoot video without a tripod, even at long focal lengths.

The cameras that do this best tend to be the ones designed with video in mind. Panasonic’s cameras, with their combination of 5-axis IBIS and electronic stabilization, work particularly well. Sony’s more recent bodies have strong IBIS systems for video. Canon’s R-series cameras with lens IS coordination produce smooth footage.

The key is knowing the limitations. IBIS doesn’t replace a gimbal for smooth tracking shots or when you’re using longer lenses for video. But it does eliminate theneed for a gimbal in a lot of situations where you would have needed one before.

Why IBIS Specs Are Misleading and Hard to Test

Manufacturers love to throw around numbers. You’ll hear about 7.5 stops of IBIS or even eight stops when including optical stabilization systems. These figures are difficult for photographers to verify. There are testing protocols from the standards bodies, but the performance of IBIS systems includes how steady you are, what focal length you’re shooting, and the resolution of your sensor.

This doesn’t mean the specifications are useless, but you can’t just compare numbers between cameras and assume the one with the higher rating will perform better in your specific use case. Real-world testing matters more than spec sheets.’

When IBIS Doesn’t Matter

To be fair, there are plenty of situations where IBIS provides no benefit at all.

Sports and action photography at high shutter speeds doesn’t need stabilization. If you’re shooting at 1/3000th of a second to freeze motion, camera shake isn’t your problem. The fast shutter speed already eliminates any blur from handholding.

Studio work on a tripod makes IBIS irrelevant. When your camera is locked down on a stable platform, sensor-based stabilization isn’t doing anything useful. In fact, some photographers turn IBIS off when shooting on a tripod to avoid any potential interference, though modern systems are generally smart enough to detect when they’re on a stable surface and disable IBIS automatically.

Bright daylight shooting with fast shutter speeds doesn’t benefit from stabilization either. If you’re shooting daylight landscapes with plenty of light, you’re probably using shutter speeds fast enough that camera shake isn’t an issue.

The reality is that IBIS is a tool for specific situations, not a universal feature that improves every image. Understanding when it matters and, more particularly, when it doesn’t helps you make better decisions about what gear you need.

The photographers who say IBIS isunnecessary are often the ones who haven’t actually used a camera with IBIS, or don’t use it correctly. If you largely shoot landscapes out in bright daylight, you easily think IBIS isn’t worth having, because in that instance IBIS isn’t doing anything.

Likewise, if you’re satisfied with the look of your images at sunset while handholding a 1/10th of a second, and aren’t thinking about the noise benefits of IBIS, there’s no way to tell what IBIS has added to the shots.

Once you’ve shot in low light with a long lens and gotten sharp images that would have been impossible without stabilization, the value becomes obvious.

IBIS isn’t about replacing good technique or good camera handling. It’s about expanding what’s possible creatively. Despite what comments say, it’s not a crutch. It’s a tool that you can use to shoot in conditions and with gear combinations that otherwise wouldn’t give you the results you want.

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People renting gear are, by definition, not owners of that gear, and it’s impossible to tell what pieces are being used to evaluate equipment (or play with something new) and what pieces are supplements for studio tools. Enthusiasts often rent gear for an important trip or to pick up a job on their way to being a full-time pro. Pros meanwhile pick up gear to test new technology. 

But it’s still interesting to look at the year-end summary of gear loans for a snapshot-style look at the photo and video market in 2025. LensRentals’ Zach Sutton compiled and shared the list, and his blog post provides more granular details on lighting gear, memory cards, and other accessories. You can read his thoughts about it on the LensRentals blog.

Most Rented Photo and Video Gear of 2025

LensRentals’ first stats are my favorite, it’s the overall top-twenty products by number of rentals. This is a fun list, but it might not be the clearest picture of the overall state of the market. Since this doesn’t break products down by groups, it’s going to be skewed in a few ways. First, I’d suspect lenses have more rentals than cameras do, simply because someone with a camera can rent several lenses, while someone with several lenses is less likely to rent a camera to go with them. 

Here is the top rented gear, by the numbers.

1. Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8L IS 
2. Canon RF 28-70mm f/2L 
3. Sony NP-FZ100 Battery 
4. Canon EOS R6 Mark II 
5. Canon RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS 
6. Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L II 
7. Sony FE 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS II 
8. Sony FE 24-70mm f/2.8 GM II 
9. Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS III 
10. Sony FX3 (Body Only) 
11. Sony 160GB CFexpress Type A TOUGH Memory Card
12. Sony Alpha a7 IV
13. Canon EOS R5
14. Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1L IS USM
15. Sony Alpha a7S III
16. Canon 5D Mark IV
17. Canon RF 50mm f/1.2L
18. Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8L IS
19. Sony Alpha a7 III
20. Canon LP-E6NH Battery

With the inclusion of memory cards as well as batteries in this list, there’s clearly some bundling going on. The Sony 160 GB CFExpress Type A card is used in Sony’s newer cameras, and it shows up in the 11th spot. 

If renters are going to get a loan of a new Sony camera, especially a video-oriented body, they’re going to need cards to go with it to maximize performance. Since video tends to use a lot of storage, it’s reasonable to expect a lot of cards to go out with Sony cameras. 

The same is true of batteries, and both Sony’s and Canon’s batteries are in the top twenty. Sony has four bodies in the top 20, and Canon has two, so it makes sense that Sony’s battery is in the number 3 spot, and Canon is in the number 20 spot. Since batteries and memory cards are tied to cameras, I mentally tend to remove them from these lists. 

Looking at the cameras in the list, I’m shocked to see the Canon 5D Mark IV here, while there is not a Nikon camera to be found. The person renting the 5D Mark IV in the 16th slot is the same as renting the EF-Mount 24-70mm f.2.8 in the sixth position. 

Canon has eight lenses in the top 20, and Sony has only two. 

Both Sony and Canon have zooms in the “trinity” of lenses in the list (Canon has just one prime), nd they’re all 2.8 or faster. These are perfect lenses to rent for someone without a lot of f/2.8 glass already. 

Canon has more camera renters, so they need more lenses, and Sony has more lens renters, so they need more cameras. Or the people renting Sony are just trying the system out. It’s hard to tell. 

Top Camera Rentals for 2025

While the last list is a fun exercise, here’s where things get interesting. 

1. Canon EOS R6 Mark II 
2. Sony FX3 (Body Only) 
3. Sony Alpha a7 IV 
4. Canon EOS R5 
5. Sony Alpha a7S III 
6. Canon 5D Mark IV 
7. Sony Alpha a7 III 
8. Canon EOS R5 Mark II 
9. Sony FX6 Full-Frame Cinema Camera 
10. GoPro HERO13 Black 
11. Canon EOS R6
12. Sony Alpha a7R V
13. Sony FX30 (Body Only)
14. Sony Cyber-Shot RX100 VII
15. Sony FX3 Full-Frame Cinema Camera
16. DJI Osmo Pocket 3 Gimbal
17. Nikon Z8
18. Canon EOS C70 Cinema Camera (RF)
19. Canon EOS R5 C Mirrorless Cinema Camera
20. Canon EOS R7

This was a surprisingly top-heavy year for Canon and Sony, with no Fujifilm products showing up in the top twenty places and only one Nikon, coming in in 18th place with the Nikon Z8. The mix of gear in the rental list is fascinating, as it includes several cameras that were current at the beginning of the year, and then were replaced with newer models.

There’s also a lot of cinema cameras showing up, I suspect because when hybrid shooters get a big video gig, they’ll often rent a more video-centric camera. Alternatively, video houses could be picking up a B-camera or a backup a-cam for jobs. 

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s look at a breakdown by brand. 

Canon 

Canon has eight cameras in the top 20. One is a DSLR (that surprising 5D Mark IV), five “hybrid” cameras, and two “cine” cameras. 

The oldest camera in the list is obviously the 5D Mark IV, followed by the EOS R5 and R6, both released together in 2020. The R6 II was the current R6 model until October of 2025, when the R6 III came out. Otherwise, I suspect the Mark II would have beaten out the R6 Mark II, as the Canon R5 Mark II was in the list at the number four slot. 

I’m very surprised that the R5 had more rentals than the R5 II, since both were released before this year. The lower price of R5 rentals may have driven that data point. I’m also surprised to see the EOS R7 on this list, but not the R3 or R1. I’d have thought the higher-end models would be rented more than the R7, simply because they’re so expensive. 

On the cine front, only one is truly a cine body, the C70. The R5 C is a variant of the R5 designed for cine use, but not in a typical cine body. As we’ll see in a moment, Sony has more cinema cameras, but that may be because Canon cameras are notable for their video features. 

Sony 

Sony has nine cameras in this list: four hybrid bodies, one compact body, and four cinema cameras. 

I’m most intrigued, though not completely shocked, by the  Cyber-Shot RX100 VII being in this list. The RX100 VII is one of the best compact cameras of all time. I preferred the RX100 VI, but the RX100 VII is the last of Sony’s compact bodies that is not designed for “vlogging.” The ZV-series bodies are the RX series, but with features primarily for video creators. 

With the video-centric nature of the ZV cameras, the RX100 VII is the perfect choice for someone travelling. It fits in a pocket, has better image quality than a smartphone, and is more flexible to boot, with both photo and video features. 

The most sophisticated Sony in the list is the a7R V, good for both portrait shoots and video. It was also the first of Sony’s full-frame cameras to have AI-based autofocus. 

The a7S III is Sony’s most recent video-specific hybrid body, with the then-current a7 IV in the third position, and the a7 III surprisingly at number seven. 

On the cine front, Sony has a very strong showing, with a number two position for the FX3, a ninth slot for the more pricey and more powerful FX6.

Strangely, the list has the FX3 listed twice, once as “Full-Frame Cinema Camera” and once as “Body Only.” I’ve reached out to LensRentals about this, but I suspect that they have two configurations, one as a kit and one as just the body. If that is the case, then the FX3 is probably the most rented camera for 2025. (We will update this when we get their reply.)

DJI and GoPro

I’m particularly surprised to see GoPro on the list of most rented cameras, and well ahead of the Nikon Z8. Still, I assume these were rented by people going on vacation or needing an action camera for a shoot not big enough to warrant buying one. 

The DJI Osmo Pocket 3 makes more sense to me, since retail inventory was constrained for a while, and again, this is probably a case of people needing one for a single shoot. But it’s still surprising to see no camera from Fujifilm or Panasonic on this list. With the number of cinema cameras on this list, I’d have thought at least one Panasonic would cut. 

Lenses

The lens lineup is only slightly less surprising than the camera lineup. 

1. Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8L IS 
2. Canon RF 28-70mm f/2L 
3. Canon RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS 
4. Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II 
5. Sony FE 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS II 
6. Sony FE 24-70mm f/2.8 GM II 
7.  Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS III 
8. Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1L IS USM 
9. Canon RF 50mm f/1.2L 
10. Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8L IS 
11. Canon RF 24-105mm f/2.8L IS USM Z
12. Sony FE 24-70mm f/2.8 GM
13. Sony FE 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS
14. Sony FE 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 GM OSS
15. Sony FE 16-35mm f/2.8 GM II
16. Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS
17. Canon RF 24-105mm f/4L IS
18. Sony FE 28-70mm f/2 GM
19. Canon RF 85mm f/1.2L
20. Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 DG DN II Art for Sony E

This is a lot of Canon and Sony glass. There are 11 Canon lenses in the list, eight Sony lenses, and one Sigma lens for the Sony E-Mount. 

Many of the lenses on the list are very expensive, so seeing them on the top rental list makes sense. The Sony FE 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS II is more than $3,000. The top lens, the Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8L IS, is relatively inexpensive (at $1,000, it’s inexpensive only compared to some others on this list) but is a popular lens. 

To see only two manufacturer mounts on this list, and no lenses for any other company, feels nearly unbelievable, though it lines up with the top camera rentals. It shows what a massive shift there has been in the camera market since Sony launched the full-frame mirrorless market more than a decade ago. 

Since Canon hasn’t opened up its lens mount to third parties like Tamron and Sigma, seeing a lot of rentals might mean there aren’t many alternatives for Canon shooters. 

There are only two prime lenses on this list, and while zoom lenses are the most versatile, primes tend to be more expensive, so I’d have expected more primes to show up.

What Does This All Mean

A rental list does not equal the most popular gear, mostly. Many times, people rent the things they’re looking to buy, but often they’re renting things they don’t need for everyday shooting. Some of the cameras and lenses on this list might be on it because people are shooting other systems and trying out the alternatives. 

Nikon’s bodies are priced incredibly affordably, so there’s a chance that there is only one body on this list because people find the system affordable enough to purchase, but it does not explain the complete lack of glass. 

That said, this is definitely a good indication of at least interest in products, if not a direct statement on market demand. With so many cameras and lenses dominated by Canon and Sony, it’s clear that the camera market does not look like it did in the era of DSLRs. It also shows that an upstart player can upend a market in a decade. 

I rank this list somewhere between a curiosity and a definitive statement about the state of the camera market. 

LensRentals also calculates market share, though this is based on revenue, not rentals, so it is heavily skewed toward expensive gear. Canon and Sony’s cameras are, as I mentioned, higher priced than Nikon and Fujifilm, so naturally they rank higher, though they are significantly higher than the other brands. Combining Sony and Canon’s market share comes out to 48.13% in 2025, up from 42.73% in 2023, while all other brands have dropped. 

The full year-end review is on the LensRental blog, which includes a list of the most rented accessories. Unsurprisingly, memory cards are the top rented items when all types are combined, though there are some surprises in the list. 

We’re expecting many camera launches in 2026 from all the manufacturers, especially the higher-end cameras from all three of the main players. It will be interesting to see if the market shifts noticeably. 

Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8L IS USM

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Canon RF 28-70mm f/2L USM

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Canon EOS R6 Mark II

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Canon RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

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Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM

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Sony FX3

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Sony A7 IV

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Canon EOS R5

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Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1 L IS USM

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Sony A7S III

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Canon 5D Mark IV

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Canon RF 50mm f/1.2L USM

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Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8L IS USM

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Sony A7 III

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We found almost no mediocre products this year, which made picking these winners more difficult than in years with a slower rollout of products. A few of my personal favorite lenses got cut, for example, simply because there were so many showstoppers.

While in previous years the camera companies looked to be cramming as many photo and video features as possible into their hybrid bodies, it’s starting to look like we will see more specialized bodies going forward, at least based on what we saw in 2025. There were cameras positioned for the stills photographer, and cameras aimed at the video crowd. Maybe it’s the growing demand for video content that’s driving this change.

Rather than pick the most expensive products, which tend to have good performance just because of their prices, we chose winners based on how they perform for the target customer, but we also looked to see if the candidates would help a photographer or videographer creatively grow, thanks to the products.

While these are our picks for the best cameras and lenses, there were still dozens of products this year that are perfect for all types of photographers and videographers. It’s truly a great time to be a creator, and we’re hoping 2026 gets even better.

And with that, here is the 2025 Imaging Resource Editor’s Choice for Best Cameras and Lenses

Cameras

Canon EOS R6 Mark III

The Canon EOS R6 Mark II is the most interesting camera we reviewed this year, by far.

It is one of the most video-centric mirrorless cameras currently available, and it’s a monster for both photography and videography. A significant upgrade over the R6 Mark II, the R6 Mark III can capture at 40fps with an electronic shutter and uses Canon’s excellent  Dual Pixel CMOS AF II subject detection autofocus.

The reason that this is our pick for Best Camera of 2025 isn’t the still photography frame rate or AF or the nice balance of resolution and low-light abilities of the 32-megapixel sensor; we picked it for its amazing video capabilities. The R6 MK III is such a good camera for video that every other camera released this year is being compared to it.

The standout feature is 7K Open Gate RAW internal recording, pro-level capabilities squeezed into a hybrid body. It also records full DCI 4K, Long GOP, and has C-Log and C-Log 3 profiles. It can also shoot 180fps Full HD, and 120fps 4K UHD or DCI. In short, this is a video beast that is also a still photography superstar.

The Canon R6 Mark III shares most of the features of the cine-style C50, but is a much more compelling offering. Phonomeal still photography features means users will have the best of both worlds, something that hybrid camreas are suppsed to be all about.

If you only shoot stills, this camera is overkill, but for mixed-use shooters, this is a knockout.

Canon EOS R6 Mark III

What We Think

The Canon EOS R6 Mark III is a full-frame mirrorless camera featuring a 33-megapixel sensor derived from the Cinema EOS C50. It uses Dual Pixel CMOS AF II with subject detection for autofocus, shoots at 40fps with an electronic shutter and 12fps with a mechanical shutter, and includes 6.5-stop in-body image stabilization. Video capabilities include 7K oversampled 4K recording, C-Log 2 and C-Log 3 profiles, and open gate recording options. The camera uses the LP-E6P battery and includes full-size HDMI, USB-C, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth connectivity.

Reasons to Buy

• Flagship-level autofocus system borrowed from the Canon R1 provides exceptional subject tracking and recognition across multiple subject types.
• Comprehensive video features, including 7K oversampling, C-Log profiles, and open gate recording, rival dedicated cinema cameras.
• 40fps electronic shutter with pre-capture function ensures capturing decisive moments in fast-action scenarios.

Reasons to Avoid

• Overheating can occur during extended video recording sessions, though workarounds exist.
• Lacks an in-body cooling fan found in the Cinema EOS C50, limiting sustained recording times.
• Higher price point compared to previous R6 iterations may be prohibitive for entry-level users.

Specifications

• Sensor: 33-megapixel full-frame CMOS
• Autofocus: Dual Pixel CMOS AF II with subject detection
• Continuous Shooting: 40fps electronic shutter, 12fps mechanical shutter
• Video: 7K oversampled 4K, C-Log 2/3, open gate recording

• Image Stabilization: 6.5-stop in-body image stabilization
• Viewfinder: High-resolution OLED EVF

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Nikon Z5 II

The Nikon Z5 II quickly became one of my favorite cameras when I tested it. It’s one of the most affordable cameras in its class, coming in around $1,600. For someone getting into photography who wants a great camera that’s powerful, yet priced like an entry-level camera, this is the one.

Specs are excellent. It has a 24-megapixel BSI sensor and uses the EXPEED 7 processor also found on its more powerful siblings. The sensor size and construction make this camera perfect for low-light scenes. I shot test around and after the sun set, and the images surprised me because of the lack of noise.

Subject detection AF (nine subject types) worked well, and in our tests, it had a great hit rate. It can capture in electronic shutter at up to 30 frames per second (in JPEG) and has pre-release capture, excellent for wildlife and sports.

Video specs are excellent as well, with the ability to capture 10-bit N-RAW internally, the only camera we know of in this price range that can shoot internal RAW.

As with Canon, Nikon’s first mirrorless cameras were not on par with its DSLR offerings, which is completely understandable for first-generation devices. With the Z5 II, Nikon has rounded out the lineup, and its cameras are now powerhouses.

The body is also smaller than the Z7 or Z8, but it doesn’t compromise much to squeeze this tech into a body that’s the perfect size for travel.

It might seem strange to rank a camera as “best” partially due to price, but in this case, the price-to-performance ratio is off the charts. We don’t think customers understand how impessive it is that Nikon is turning out cameras comparable to the competition for a fraction of the price. At around $1600 you’d be hard pressed to find a more rounded set of features, and it’s a perfect entry point to Nikon’s now-powerful mirrorless camea lineup.

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Nikon Z5 II

Bottom Line

 

 

What We Think

The Nikon Z5 II is a full-frame mirrorless camera with a 24.3-megapixel CMOS sensor and the EXPEED 6 processor. It supports 4K UHD recording up to 60 fps (with a 1.7× crop) and Full HD at 120 fps. The camera includes 5-axis in-body image stabilization, a 273-point hybrid autofocus system with subject detection, and dual UHS-II SD card slots. It features a 2.36-million-dot EVF, 3.2-inch tilting touchscreen, weather-sealed magnesium alloy body, and USB-C power delivery. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for wireless transfer and tethering.

Reasons to Buy

• Excellent autofocus with subject detection for people, animals, vehicles, and airplanes
• Outstanding low-light performance with usable images up to ISO 12,800
• Compact and lightweight body ideal for travel
• 5-stop in-body image stabilization
• Dual card slots (CFexpress Type B/XQD and SD UHS-II)
• Clean 4K video with 10-bit N-Log recording
• Flip-out LCD perfect for vlogging and self-recording
• Excellent battery life and menu system
• Pro-level features at an accessible price point

Reasons to Avoid

• Electronic shutter limited to 10 fps (5 fps mechanical)
• Video features don’t match the Z6 III for serious videographers
• 24-megapixel resolution is lower than that of some competitors ‘

Specifications

• Sensor: 24.5MP Full-Frame BSI CMOS
• Processor: EXPEED 7
• Video Resolution: 4K 60p
• Continuous Shooting: 30 fps (electronic)

• Stabilization: 7.5-stop VR
• Viewfinder: 3.69m-Dot OLED EVF
• LCD: 3.2″ 2.1m-Dot vari-angle touchscreen
• Battery Life: Approx. 360 shots (CIPA)

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Sony a7 V

The Sony a7 V is the last camera announced in 2025. It replaces the long-running a7 IV as Sony’s “basic” camera. The a7 V has a 33-megapixel sensor that’s “partially stacked” and is part of a brand new design for Sony where sensor and processor are combined for faster operation. I expect to see several Sony cameras with this new sensor system design in 2026.

The autofocus in the a7 IV was starting to feel outdated thanks to Sony’s AI subject-detection AF system, but the a7 V feels as fast to lock on as the a1 II, or a9 III. While many of Sony’s cameras now have AI-driven subject detection, the addition to the a7 line alone will make the upgrade worth it for many a7 IV users.

The a7 V shoots completely blackout-free at 30fps electronic or 10 fps mechanical, and that’s combined with my favorite feature in cameras, pre-release shooting. The a7 V can capture up to one full second of images before you fully depress the shutter. Sony uses the CFexpress Type A card format, which gives the a7 V the ability to use the similarly-sized SD card as well in each of its two slots. Unlike some competitors, the 30fps shooting can be done when saving as RAW, not just JPEG.

Sony’s put dual USB-C ports in the a7 V to complement the full-size HDMI, giving it the ability to take power over one USB port while using the other for connectivity.

Video capabilities are good, though they don’t feel on par with the still-photograph capabilities, which is the main reason this wasn’t our top pick for Best Camera. It captures 4K from 7K oversampled footage, and has LOG, but doesn’t have internal RAW recording, and doesn’t capture 6K footage or Open Gate.

We think that the a7 V will find a home not only with enthusiast photographers, but will end up being a primary or backup camera for wedding, news, and sports photographers.

Hasselblad X2D II 100C

It’s not often that a medium-format camera makes it to an Editor’s Choice award. Most medium format systems are slow, cumbersome, and heavy.

I’ve been shooting Hasselblad’s X-series since the first model arrived, and each one has been successively better, albeit with its own particular weaknesses in focusing and operational speed. The huge sensor creates a huge amount of data, and Hasselblad’s processing has always been a bottleneck.

Testing the X2D II 100C was a joy. The new AF system has more than 400 AF points and uses LiDAR to assist with focus, and whille using the camera isn’t the same as using full-frame camera, it’s closer than ever.

We’re not sure why LiDAR is found in the iPhone and in this camera, but other manufacturers haven’t added it to full-frame and APS-C cameras. Even the best AF systems could benefit from more focus data.

It’s not as fast as mirrorless cameras, but it’s fast enough for operation outside the typical portrait photography workflow. I took it to a No Kings protest, and could see myself relying on this as my sole camera if I still did photojournalism work.

Hasselblad tossed out the video workflow for this newest iteration, which does not feel like an omission as much as a choice based on the type of shooters of this camera. What it includes instead is 15-plus stops of dynamic range, 10 stops of image stabilization (claimed), and an internal 1TB drive, another thing we’d like to see on more cameras. So many shoots are ruined when a photographer leaves their memory cards at home that I’ve been waiting to see this come to cameras for years.

The X2D has a true HDR workflow, from the sensor to the HDR-capable touchscreen. Menus are some of our favorites in any system; the other camera companies could learn a thing or two from Hasselblad.

Lenses

Sony FE 50-150mm f/2 GM s

The Nikon FE 50-150mm f/2 GM is a unique lens, and just from the name, it doesn’t feel like it would be a standout lens, but it was one of my favorite lenses in our tests this year.

The focal length seems strange, but it’s perfect for portraits, photojournalism, and relatively close sports. I shot several protest marches with the 50-150mm, as well as lacrosse matches, and some close portraits.

The f/2 aperture really makes this lens stand out, particularly because it’s a full stop faster than f/2, so it’s a great light gatherer, and the aperture makes for beautiful “bokeh.” The motors are perfectly silent, and the focus was spectacular when shooting sports.

It’s not a lens that will appeal to all shooters, but for the target users, it’s one of the best lenses on the market.

Watch Our Hands-On Review Video

Sony FE 50-150mm f/2 GM s

What We Think

The Sony FE 50-150mm f/2 GM is a telephoto zoom lens with a constant f/2 maximum aperture throughout its range. It uses 21 elements in 15 groups, including XA, Super ED, aspherical, and ED elements, with an 11-blade circular aperture. The lens features four XD Linear Motors for autofocus, internal zoom design, and weighs 1,340g. It has an 82mm filter thread, focuses down to 0.4m with 0.28x magnification, and includes dust and moisture-resistant sealing. The lens does not have optical image stabilization.

Reasons to Buy

• World’s first 150mm telephoto zoom with constant f/2 aperture provides full-stop advantage over f/2.8 competitors throughout range.
• Replaces multiple prime lenses while maintaining G Master optical quality with exceptional sharpness and smooth bokeh.
• Internal zoom design maintains consistent length and center of gravity, making it ideal for gimbal work and handheld shooting.

Reasons to Avoid

• Premium $3,900 price point makes it one of Sony’s most expensive lenses after super-telephoto exotics.
• Does not support teleconverters, limiting maximum reach extension options.
• At 1,340g (2.95 lbs), it’s heavier than traditional f/2.8 zooms, though lighter than carrying multiple primes.

Specifications

• Focal Length: 50-150mm
• Maximum Aperture: f/2 (constant)
• Minimum Aperture: f/22
• Lens Construction: 21 elements in 15 groups (XA, Super ED, aspherical, ED elements)

• Aperture Blades: 11 (circular)
• Minimum Focus Distance: 1.3 feet (0.4m)

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Sigma 300-600mm f/4 DG OS | Sports

When we tested the Sigma 300-600mm f/4 DG OS Sports for E-Mount, I said that it’s “a lens Sony should have made.” By that I mean that this lens beats out Sony’s 200-600mm lens’ variable f/5.6-6.3 by 1.5 stops at the telephoto lens. The result is a fantastic range with vastly better light gathering than Sony’s 200-600mm and a background defocus that looks much better than that on the Sony lens. 

It’s also a well-designed lens that would look right at home on the sidelines of a professional sporting event. It’s large without being ungainly, and feels built like a tank thanks to the magnesium chassis. Even at nearly nine pounds, it can be handheld (until your shoulders start to hurt) because its weight is well balanced. The ARCA-SWISS tripod mount makes a great carrying handle and makes tripod mounting easy. 

There’s a drop-in filter space at the camera-end of the lens, which is needed because the front lens is too massive for filters to be easy to use. 

The one drawback with this lens is that the framerate is limited to 15 frames per second on the Sony platform. This is apparently a Sony-imposed limitation and doesn’t apply to the L-Mount version. 

Watch Our Hands-On Review Video

Sigma 300-600mm f/4 DG OS Sports

What We Think

The Sigma 300-600mm f/4 DG OS Sports is an ultra-telephoto zoom with a constant f/4 aperture using 28 elements in 21 groups, including 6 FLD and 1 SLD elements. It features a High-response Linear Actuator for autofocus, OS2 stabilization rated at 5.5 stops at 600mm, and 13 rounded aperture blades. The lens has a 1.6-inch (40.5mm) rear drop-in filter holder, focuses from 9.2 feet (280cm) at the wide end to 14.8 feet (450cm) at the telephoto end, and weighs 8.8 lbs (3,985g). Construction includes magnesium alloy with thermal insulation coating and measures 6.6 inches (167mm) in diameter by 18.4 inches (467.9mm) in length.

Reasons to Buy

• Delivers prime-level optical performance throughout the entire 300-600mm range at constant f/4 aperture, unprecedented for zoom lenses.
• Priced at $6,000, costs approximately half of competing 600mm f/4 prime lenses while offering zoom versatility.
• High-response Linear Actuator (HLA) provides fast, precise autofocus combined with 5.5 stops of optical stabilization.

Reasons to Avoid

• Substantial size at 167mm diameter and 467.9mm length requires significant carrying commitment.
• Weight of 3,985g (8.79 lbs) makes it challenging for extended handheld shooting without support.
• Not available for Canon RF mount, limiting accessibility for Canon shooters.

Specifications

• Focal Length: 300-600mm
• Maximum Aperture: f/4 (constant)
• Minimum Aperture: f/22
• Lens Construction: 28 elements in 21 groups (6 FLD, 1 SLD)

• Aperture Blades: 13 (rounded)
• Minimum Focus Distance: 280cm (W) – 450cm (T)

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Nikon Z 35mm f/1.2 S

In a year of great lens offerings, this was one of my favorites. The Nikon Z 35mm f/1.2 S feels like the 35mm lens Nikon has been building toward since the launch of the Z system. A 35mm lens is one of the staples, but Nikon took this classic length and found a way to make a better 35mm in a market with a lot of good options. 

The f/1.2 aperture isn’t just about shooting in lower light, though this is an excellent low-light performer. The super-wide aperture creates amazing background defocus thanks to the 11-blade aperture design. It’s hard to appreciate how much difference there is between a typical f/2.8 and an f/1.2 without trying an f/1.2. And thanks to the STM motors, this lens focuses incredibly quickly. 

The optical creaminess comes with a tradeoff. This is a long and heavy piece of glass. What makes this an Editor’s Choice, though, is that the performance justifies the size and the price. If you look at the $2600 price tag and think “that’s outrageous,” then you’re not incorrect. For the average shooter, this lens is overkill. 

But if you’re a wedding or event photographer, a photojournalist working on editorial assignments, or a fine-art photographer, this lens is easily one of the best Nikon has ever made.

Watch Our Hands-On Review Video

Nikon NIKKOR Z 35mm f/1.2 S Lens

What We Think

The Nikon Z 35mm f/1.2 S is a wide-angle prime lens with an f/1.2 maximum aperture using 17 elements in 15 groups, including 3 ED elements, one aspherical ED element, and three aspherical elements. It features a Multi-Focus System with two high-precision STM autofocus motors working in tandem for precise focusing, and 11 rounded aperture blades. The lens weighs 2.33 lbs (1,060g), measures 3.5 x 5.9 inches (90mm x 150mm), has an 82mm filter thread, and focuses down to 0.95 feet (0.29m) for 1:4.6 (0.2x) maximum magnification. It includes Meso Amorphous Coat, Nano Crystal Coat, and ARNEO Coat coatings with dust and drip-resistant sealing.

Reasons to Buy

• Delivers exceptional sharpness even wide open at f/1.2 with excellent performance across the entire frame at all apertures.
• Beautiful rendering with soft, smooth bokeh characteristics and no onion rings or soap-bubble effects in out-of-focus areas.
• Fast, accurate autofocus with dual STM motors provides reliable tracking and precise focus even at razor-thin depth of field.

Reasons to Avoid

• Substantial weight at 2.33 lbs (1,060g) and 5.9-inch (150mm) length make it challenging for extended handheld shooting.
• Premium pricing at $2,800 positions it significantly above Nikon’s f/1.4 ($630) and f/1.8 ($600) alternatives.
• Autofocus speed is somewhat slower than Nikon’s f/1.8 version, requiring 0.66 seconds from infinity to minimum focus distance.

Specifications

• Autofocus Motor Type: Dual STM Motors
• Image Stabilization: No
• Lens Mount Compatibility: Nikon X Z Mount
• Weather Sealing: Yes

• Lens Construction: 17 elements in 15 groups (3 ED, one aspherical ED, three aspherical)
• Aperture Blades: 11 (rounded)

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Sony FE 100mm F2.8 Macro GM OSS

This is my favorite lens in this Editor’s Choice guide, but it’s not a lens everyone will love as much as I do. Macro photography is specialized, and there are dozens of mediocre macro lenses on the market. Some aren’t even macro; even though they have macro in their names, they’re just close-up lenses. 

A true macro lens magnifies at least 1:1 lifesize, and this lens is 1.4x lifesize, and can be combined with Sony’s teleconverters to increase the magnification. The autofocus speed is amazing. It’s capable of tracking flying insects without any problems. It’s also a great portrait lens, although it’s not as fast as Sony’s 135mm GM.  Still, it does double duty, which makes it an even better choice.

If you shoot macro, I think this is the best lens ever made. 

Watch Our Hands-On Review

Sony FE 100mm f/2.8 Macro GM OSS

What We Think

The Sony FE 100mm f/2.8 Macro GM OSS offers 1.4-times magnification for close-up subjects. Optical SteadyShot stabilization supports handheld shooting. The floating-focus system maintains detail during close-range adjustments.

Reasons to Buy

• 1.4× magnification extends macro capability beyond 1×
• OSS provides useful stability in low-light or handheld macro
• Excellent frame-wide sharpness and contrast
• Smooth focus transitions for close-up video work

 

Reasons to Avoid

• On the heavier side for Sony macro options
• Focus breathing is visible at some distances

Specifications

• Magnification: 1.4 times
• Minimum Focus Distance: 0.25 meters
• Stabilization: Optical SteadyShot
• Weight: 715 grams

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Canon RF 85mm f/1.4 L VCM 

The 85mm f/1.4 L VCM is an interesting lens in the RF lineup. 85mm is a great focal length for portraits, and Canon has an RF 85mm f/1.2, which at $3000 is on the pricy side for many Canon shooters. This 85mm f/1.4 is around half the price, and the image quality is excellent. We found it hard to find anything wrong with the image quality compared to the f/1.2. The f/1.4 aperture is just a half stop narrower than f/1.2, so there’s very little light gathering loss, and while the background on the more expensive 85mm is softer, I don’t see enough difference for the average Canon shooter. Not only is it less expensive, but it’s also lighter and smaller. 

Canon RF 85mm f/1.4 L VCM

What We Think

The Canon RF 85mm f/1.4 L VCM is a portrait prime with an f/1.4 maximum aperture using 14 elements in 10 groups, including 1 UD and 1 GMo aspherical element. It features Voice Coil Motor autofocus, 11 circular aperture blades, and weighs 636g. The lens measures 76.5mm x 99.3mm, has a 67mm filter thread, focuses down to 0.74m for 0.12x magnification, and includes Air Sphere ASC coating with fluorine front coating. It has dust and splash-resistant L-series sealing and does not include optical image stabilization.

Reasons to Buy

• Extremely sharp throughout the entire frame, even wide open at f/1.4, with faster autofocus than the heavier f/1.2 version.
• Much more portable at 636g versus 1,195g for f/1.2 makes it practical for all-day shooting and travel.
• Perfect size and weight balance for hybrid shooters, matching other VCM primes with a 67mm filter thread for quick swaps.

Reasons to Avoid

• No image stabilization, unlike the RF 85mm f/2 Macro, which requires body IBIS or higher shutter speeds.
• The aperture ring is only fully functional in photo mode on the newest bodies (R1, R5 Mark II).
• RF 135mm f/1.8 L remains sharper at close distances for pixel-peepers, and f/1.2 still produces creamier bokeh.

Specifications

• Focal Length: 85mm
• Maximum Aperture: f/1.4
• Minimum Aperture: f/16
• Lens Construction: 14 elements in 10 groups (1 UD, 1 GMo aspherical)

• Aperture Blades: 11 (circular)
• Minimum Focus Distance: 29 inches (0.74m)

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Tamron 16-30mm f/2.8 Di III VXD G2

I spent two weeks testing this lens in Australia, and it barely left my camera. The only time I swapped it out was to shoot wildlife. The closest competitor to the 16-30mm f/2.8 Di III VXD G2 is Sony’s 16-36mm f/2.8 GM II, which is more than twice the price of the Tamron. Optically, the Sony GM lens is superior, but not in significant ways for most photographers. The Tamron lens is sharp, the color rendition is excellent, and the body is durable but very small and light. 

I’ve recommended this lens, combined with the Sony a7 IV (before the a7 V was released), as a great wide-angle to keep gear costs down.  It’s even affordable enough that for the same price as the a7 IV and the Sony 16-35mm, a photographer could get this lens and the a7R V. 

Watch Our Hands-On Review Video

Tamron 16-30mm F2.8 Di III VXD G2

What We Think

The Tamron 16-30mm F2.8 Di III VXD G2 is a compact wide-angle zoom lens designed specifically for Sony E-mount mirrorless cameras. This second-generation lens features improved optics, faster autofocus, and weather sealing, making it an excellent choice for landscape, architecture, travel, and street photography. The 16-30mm focal range covers ultra-wide to natural wide-angle perspectives with a constant f/2.8 aperture throughout.

Reasons to Buy

• Excellent sharpness across the focal range
• Fast and silent VXD autofocus motor
• Weather-sealed build with USB-C port for firmware updates –
• Minimal distortion at 30mm
• Outstanding value at $929 vs. $2,498 for Sony 16-35mm GM2 – Compact and lightweight for travel – Constant f/2.8 aperture

Reasons to Avoid

• No aperture ring on the lens barrel
• Some lens flare when shooting directly into the sun
• More flare than the Sony 16-35mm GM2 in backlit situations

Specifications

• Focal Length: : 16-30mm
• Maximum Aperture: /2.8 (constant throughout zoom range)
• Minimum Aperture: f/16
• Lens Construction: 16 elements in 12 groups
• Aperture Blades: 9 (circular diaphragm stays nearly circular up to two stops down)
• Minimum Focus Distance: 0.19m (7.5 inches) at 16mm, 0.3m (11.8 inches) at 30mm
• Autofocus Motor: VXD (Voice-coil eXtreme-torque Drive) linear motor
• Weather Sealing: : Yes, with moisture-resistant construction
• Lens Mount: Sony E-mount and Nikon Z-mount
• Weight: 440g (15.5 ounces)
• Length: 101.8mm (4 inches)
• Diameter: 74.8mm

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The post Imaging Resource 2025 Editor’s Choice – Best Cameras and Lenses of 2025 appeared first on Imaging Resource.

On the 23rd, the FCC added not only DJI to its list of “Covered Devices” but, as a surprise to the drone community, banned all Chinese-made drones. The Covered Devices include specific companies that the government security agencies say run domestic spying laws afoul, and so cannot be sold in the United States.  

The ban doesn’t outlaw the use of existing drones, and the inventory of drones still in the country isn’t affected. But without new models coming into the country, supplies of legal drones are going to dwindle rapidly.

I suspect companies using drones for their services (wedding photographers, real estate agents, home inspectors, etc.) are going to purchase what’s left in the country pretty quickly. 

The ability to keep using and selling the drones in the U.S points out the hypocrisy of this decision, and I’ll get to that in a moment.

It’s not just the “hobbyist” markets that will be affected, but also crucial uses by rescue teams and firefighters, infrastructure inspection, research, and more. While the discussion has been around DJI’s drones in particular, suddenly, on December 23rd, all Chinese-made drones were added, with little warning, to the covered list as well. 

RIP drone use. 

Here, at the conclusion of the government’s efforts to ban DJI, it’s easy to forget the shaky grounds on which the ban was implemented, and that the process seems either woefully incompetent at best or, at worst, a punitive witch hunt to remove DJI drones despite a complete lack of evidence about its nefarious intent. 

So let’s travel back to the start of DJI’s woes to ask ourselves…what the hell happened? 

DJI has been rushing to get models out the door, offering large sales on its drones, gimbals, and camera systems.

DJI In The Crosshairs

In 2017, the U.S Army banned the use of DJI drones, covered in this document from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that suggested DJI drones might [emphasis added] pose a security risk. I say might because no evidence was provided that there had ever been any secure or sensitive data transmitted to the Chinese government, or any data at all. 

Read the whole document if you’d like to see a masterpiece of innuendo and logical fallacies. 

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement division of the DHS released a report called “DJI Likely Providing Critical Infrastructure and Law Enforcement Data to Chinese Government.” I think the use of “likely” in this is important; this guidance was written despite no evidence to support it.

The document says that the Special Agent in Charge of the Intelligence Program (SIP)  in Los Angeles assessed with “moderate confidence [emphasis added] that Chinese-based company DJI Science and Technology is providing U.S. critical infrastructure and law enforcement data to the Chinese government.”

It states that this was “ based on information derived from open source reporting and a reliable source within the unmanned aerial systems (UAS) industry, with first and secondhand access. 

Conveniently, they cite open source reporting as proof, but confusingly, they do not provide that reporting. And since the nature of “open source” is that there is no one author, they can say it exists without having to have any details about who wrote the report. A report they did not attach.

The rest of the evidence comes from one “reliable” source, and it should be noted that “secondhand” access means “hearsay.”

Another “proof”  that DJI is participating in widespread espionage is that they were marketing products to “companies in the critical infrastructure and law enforcement sectors…” and “at least ten large companies and organizations in the railroad, utility, media, farming, education, and federal law enforcement sectors have already purchased and begun using DJI UAS. The most frequent uses include mapping land, inspecting infrastructure, conducting surveillance, and monitoring hazardous materials. They also cite the hobbyist consumer and professional use, in other words, us. 

So, the government is convinced that DJI is spying because DJI is marketing its drones to the exact customers that would benefit from those drones. The government points out that they’re even going so far as to take out booths at trade shows that include businesses that potentially benefit from the use of drones.

I guess if DJI had gone after solely the poet or bakery owner markets, they’d have gotten away with it. 

This document uses the word “likely” eight times. It also uses “low confidence” twice, “moderate confidence” twice, and “high confidence” four times. At no time does it use the phrase “definitely.”

A few more comical things caught my eye in this document. The first is from this list of what DJI collects.

“GPS imagery and locations, register facial recognition data.”Much of the information collected includes proprietary and sensitive critical infrastructure data, such as detailed imagery of power control panels, security measures for critical infrastructure sites, or materials used in bridge construction.”

I find it interesting that a big risk is that DJI drones gather information on “materials used in bridge construction.”

Want to know what they’re making a bridge out of? Watch them build it. Bridges are built, by definition, where there are people and traffic. If you want to know what materials they’re using, sit there and watch. Or ask a construction worker. They’re happy to tell you what their job entails.

But if you don’t have the time, I can tell you. It’s mostly steel, concrete, and asphalt. Please don’t tell the government, I don’t want them to know I’m sharing critical bridge-making information with you. 

And the final bit of evidence is that DJI confirmed that the company would turn over information about users based in China if a request were made by the Chinese government. It also says it would respect the laws of the countries in which the drones are used when it comes to data privacy and information provided to local authorities.

Our government also points out that DJI’s Terms of Service says, “Please note that if you conduct your flight in certain countries, your flight data might be monitored and provided to the government authorities according to local regulatory laws.”

In other words, DJI is letting customers know that if governments in a country where the drones are operated require access by law, they have to give the information to them. 

In other words, DJI’s transparency told people it would obey the laws of the countries in which it operates. Very suspicious.

They also said that in China and probably Hong Kong, they would have to give the government flight data if required. 

So we’re limiting the use of DJI in the U.S. because in China, they would be required to do so. 

I keep intending to write “and now turning away from that document,” but I keep being reminded how absurd it is.

In 2017, it attests, DJI started to offer drones with infrared scanners called NDVI that farmers can use to figure out nitrogen levels of their cops. A “large, family-owned wine producer in California” purchased drones to use this scanner, and “soon afterward, Chinese companies began purchasing vineyards in the same area. According to the [single source they had], “it appeared the companies were able to use DJI data to their own benefit and profit. 

Or, maybe it’s that vineyards are only in specific areas where wine-producing grapes are grown, and if you want to buy a vineyard, that’s where you go. 

But I guess it’s more logical that the Chinese government stole the information about nitrogen levels in grape harvests and used it to figure out where in the country to buy vineyards.

One thing DJI was accused of does seem accurate; DHS said that DJI had been “dumping” products to kill off competition. Dumping is the act of selling products below their manufacturing costs in order to generate market share. 

I remember the early days of drones, and DJI’s pricing was extremely aggressive. A lot of companies engage in dumping to kill off competitors, and Chinese companies are often accused of dumping products.

But there were also a lot of companies making unpolished and poor quality drones, and it’s hard to say which competitors were killed because of pricing and which were dead due ot poor quality control. 

I’m not qualified to say there’s no reason to be concerned about DJI, or that it’s out of the realm of possibility that they have, in fact, sent data to China. What I’m qualified to say is that the original complaints about DJI came with no evidence, no specific instances of infrastructure spying, and no proof of who the single source the government was quoting might be. 

DJI drones can be put into Local Data Mode in the DJI FlyPilot app and Restricted Network Mode, which allows downloading of maps to DJI drones, but then the drone is shut off from all other network-accessing tasks. But does this mode really restrict data breaches? 

If the U.S. Government is convinced that DJI is a cover for a Chinese espionage ring, mustn’t there be a way to test this? An independent audit?

Shop for DJI Products Now – Once They’re Gone, They’re Gone

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The Many Independent Audits of DJI. 

In 2017, the same year that the DHS issued its memo about DJI, the company submitted that DJI FlightHub had passed the SOC2 audit from the Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Flighthub is the company’s cloud-based fleet management tool. 

While it sounds like it’s a financial audit, the SOC2 certification “…ensures your business or application is handling customer data securely and in a manner that protects your organization and the privacy of your customers. 

In 2018, DJI’s overall data practices were evaluated by the independent firm Kivu. According to the DJI press release about these tests, “Kivu independently bought DJI drones as well as iOS and Android devices in the United States, and downloaded the DJI GO 4 mobile apps. Kivu set up systems to capture all data transmitted through iOS and Android devices running DJI GO 4, and reviewed source code, application data, server addresses, and data generated during operation.”

DJI passed this audit as well.

In 2019, the United States Department of the Interior released a report detailing the Office of Aviation Services’ multi-year-long process to ensure drones used for government purposes could safely protect data. Its work began in 2014, and in 2015, the OAS determined that DJI drones could not protect sensitive data. 

The OAS planned to work instead with drone-maker 3D Robotics, but it closed due to market competition (from DJI). The OAS noted that “UAS (drones) from U.S.-based companies were up to 10x less capable aircraft for the same price or 10x more costly than similarly capable DJI aircraft.”

The same report details that in 2017, the OAS and Department of Defense (DOD) began implementing a test plan to find a way to create solutions to meet the security needs of governmental flights of drones. 

That same year, DJI approached the OAS with an offer to “collaborate on the development, testing, and potential fielding of a customer-focused enterprise solution that would meet the interior’s…” data safety requirements. 

The 53-page report is not a lot of fun to read. Still, it details page by page how the government and DJI developed a certification program to fly DJI M600 and Mavic Pro drones, along with custom software and firmware from DJI to ensure data safety further. 

While one governmental agency was recommending discontinuing the use of DJI products, the Department of the Interior and the Department of Defense were working on safely expanding their use through the development of  “Government Edition” models with advanced protections in place. 

DJI also passed the Idaho National Laboratory cybersecurity audit on the Government Edition Matrice 600 Pro and Mavic Pro 2 GE drones and “found no major areas of concern related to data leakage, thereby supporting that the multi-layered mitigations DOI has in place are in fact working as designed to meet their published security requirements.

But these auditing programs only certified the government version of the drones. Surely the Local Data Mode must be leaking data?

Not according to the FTI Security Audit completed by the consulting firm in 2020, which DJI says investigated the source code for DJI applications, and also reviewed DJI’s hardware. The link to this study has 404’d, and as we can’t find an additional source, this claim has to be taken skeptically. However, cybersecurity blogs at the time mention this study as well.

In 2020, the notable cybersecurity firm Booz Allen Hamilton performed an audit on the Mavic Pro’s government version, and the Mavic 2 Enterprise Edition in conjunction, an audit performed with the firm PrecisionHawk.

This audit did find some “unmitigated risks” that applied to drones in general, not specifically to DJI. One such risk is an IP address connection to U.S.-based servers in the case of drones being flown here and in Germany. The first were connections to Google Maps, McAfee, and Amazon Web Services—all components of map loading. The German IP address was Akamai, the global data distribution company on which almost all websites run. Those IP address lookups could likely be spoofed, but they were normal, and multiple companies accessed those resources.

All other risks they deemed possible would “require either physical access to the drone, or, in the case of one issue, need an attacker to be within radio range of the drone.” The document does not indicate how an attacker would get access to the encrypted transmissions. 

In 2022, TÜV SÜD performed an audit. In a document from DJI called “tests against national cybersecurity and privacy protection standards,” it was reported that this security firm independently reviewed the DJI Mavic 3, Mini 2, and Air 2S drones and attested to their security features. 

Another FTI audit was performed in 2024, and the cloud-based FlightHUB 2 received ISO 27701 and 27001 certification that same year.

Congress to the…Rescue? 

In 2019, Congress passed the Secure and Trusted Communications Network Act, which requires that the FCC create a list of companies that pose an unacceptable risk to the United States domestic security. The FCC’s listing is called the “Covered List” as it’s the companies the FCC lists as being a possible danger. 

That list is updated regularly as part of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Under that act, companies like Huawei, ZTE, as well as some technology providers, surveillance gear manufacturers, and antivirus companies are prohibited from being sold in the United States.

In 2024, DJI was added to the list of companies to be part of the Covered List as part of the 2025 funding of the NDAA. However, part of including DJI  on that list was the congressional requirement that an appropriate government agency perform a security audit to see if DJI should be on the list or not. 

Despite a year between the NDAA passing and the implementation date of the NDAA, no audit was made. There is no indication that they had even entertained the idea of performing an audit.

After months of trying to get a government audio, in December, DJI made final appeals to the FBI, DOJ, and other bodies to complete the congressionally-mandated review. Unfortunately, none was forthcoming. 

In June, President Trump issued executive orders scaling up the domestic production of “trusted, American-manufactured” drones. He added that “building a strong and secure domestic drone market is vital to reducing reliance on foreign sources, strengthening critical supply chains, and ensuring that the benefits of this technology are delivered to the American people.”

I completely agree that there should be a vibrant domestic drone industry. I’m sure most customers would prefer to buy drones built in Kansas instead of China, but we can’t. 

The current domestic drone manufacturers, including Freefly Systems, Skydio, and Teal Drones, all make enterprise-class “reconnaissance” drones, not commercial or “hobbyist” drones. And these drones are very expensive as a result. The SKdyio X10 is about the size of a DJI Matrice, but instead of costing around $8000, it starts around $16,00

On December 23rd, the clock ran out on DJI and every other foreign-made drone as well. 

While President Trump discussed reducing the dependence on foreign drones, instead, imports of drones were outright banned, with no good domestic alternatives for the majority of users. 

Drone-centric companies like wedding videographers, travel companies, real estate videographers, home inspectors, and dozens of other categories are likely to go out of business. Those business owners are unlikely to feel that the executive order and the Covered List changes delivered any benefits to them. 

Also impacted will be search-and-rescue teams, fire departments, law enforcement departments, news crews, utility companies, and countless other agencies. 

Having to buy a $10,000 drone instead of a $1,000 drone will suddenly remove drones from the front lines of safety, research, and infrastructure. 

While I’m not an economist (I’m not even particularly good at managing my finances) it seems that if we wanted to reduce dependence on foreign drones without devastating the markets using them today, we would have been better served by implementing the security audits mandated by congress, providing incentives for domestic drone companies to ramp up, and given DJI and others the choice of making drone manufacturing facilities here, or having imports cut off. 

“New” Versus New

There has been confusion around the terminology used in the FCC Covered List implementation, which refers to the ban on “new” drones being imported into the United States. Some have suggested that existing models could still be imported to the U.S., as they’re not new models. 

The Covered List applies to “new” models, but it means drones that are not already present in the United States. Retailers may sell their inventories until they run out, but no more units are entering the country. DJI’s store is showing all products as out of stock.B&H still has many models in stock as of this writing, and Amazon does as well.

So we can still use the drones that are already present in this country.

But why? 

Shop for DJI Products Now – Once They’re Gone, They’re Gone

Visit the Amazon DJI Store

Visit the B&H DJI Store page

If DJI is a Risk, Why can we Still Use DJI Products?

The Consumer Product Safety Commission is the agency in charge of recalls on products due to defects or hazards to users. If the USCPSC finds that a dresser poses a risk of death, it requires a recall of the product—every affected unit. 

But in this case, we have governmental agencies claiming that DJI drones pose a clear and immediate threat to infrastructure, privacy, and government operations, but we’re allowed to go ahead and keep using them. 

If a product is dangerous enough to public safety that it can no longer be imported into the country, those units here should be grounded as well. If the units here are allowed to keep flying, it shows that the security concerns aren’t as dire as reported. 

It seems our government is protecting us from the outrageous security concerns of operating these drones by allowing them to fly until they wear out, perhaps decades from now.

Where Do We Go From Here?

It’s hard to say what the next steps are. The FCC says it could remove products from the Covered List if the proper governmental agencies perform the legally required security audits. But the President has indicated that he considers the domestic drone market in need of protection and issued an executive order to that effect. I’m not sure how those two things get reconciled. 

It would be safe to assume that for the foreseeable future, there will be no new imports of DJI or other foreign drones into the United States, and to plan accordingly. If your business or agency relies on drones, I’d suggest stockpiling replacement units.

The entire process of adding DJI to the Covered List has unfolded bizarrely, and there’s no telling what will happen next. DJI has said they’ll continue to lobby for a government audit and to be allowed to fly in the United States again, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. 

For now, it seems that when the current inventory of drones dries up, they’re gone for good. While domestic drone manufacturers may be willing to invest in the “consumer” category of drone, a desire to do something and the plans to do it are completely different. 

This is a cautionary tale that at any time, a technology or product we rely on can be made illegal and banned without a public comment, certification process, or alternative solutions. And that doesn’t benefit anyone. 

The post The U.S. Government Kills Drones – Everyone Suffers appeared first on Imaging Resource.

DxO PhotoLab is quietly at the forefront of this image editing war thanks to its precise editing tools and custom adjustment profiles based on hand testing more than 100,000 camera and lens combinations. 

DxO Photo Lab 9 Review, and Exclusive DxO Savings Using Code “ImagingResource” at checkout. Happy Holidays from DxO and Imaging Resource

See Below For Full Details or visit https://shop.dxo.com/en/

This article is sponsored by DxO.

DxO PhotoLab 9, The Raw Software You Didn’t Know You Needed

DxO Photolab 9 and the recent 9.2 update bring powerful AI-based masking and adjustments that work locally on your computer, without sending your data to the cloud. Photolab 9’s AI tools are more precise and more sophisticated than anything else on the market, and you don’t risk having your images used by the company that makes your photo editing software for their own profit.

And unlike subscription models, PhotoLab uses a perpetual license with a perpetual license. Buy once, use forever—unlike some of the better-known photo editing apps.

DxO Holiday Sales

From now until January 6, 2026, DxO is offering exclusive savings for Imaging readers using the discount code “ImagingResource” at checkout. With the purchase of one title, you can get 15% off, and with the purchase of 2 or more titles, you can get 20% off, with an additional 5% off titles from their lineup with the discount code. 

The discount applies to both new purchases and upgrades across their entire product range, including PhotoLab 9, PureRAW 5, Nik Collection 8, FilmPack 8, and ViewPoint 5. This makes it an ideal time to expand your photo editing tools if you’ve been considering multiple DxO products.

DxO’s full range of software is designed for the photographer who wants the absolute best in image editing, and this sale really allows you to up your photo editing game. 

Every purchase during the promotional period also includes free DxO Premium Support, which provides 24/7 access to their expert technical team via a dedicated ticket system with accelerated response times and personalized guidance. 

The duration of free support depends on your purchase amount: orders under $100 receive three months free, orders between $100 and $200 get six months free, and orders over $200 include a full year of Premium Support. This combination of significant discount and extended expert assistance really shows DxO’s commitment to customers. It doesn’t just sell software, but it supports its software and the photographers who use it. 

What Makes DxO PhotoLab Different From Other RAW Editors

Before diving into what’s new in version 9, let’s talk about what makes PhotoLab stand out from competitors. One of the biggest advantages of using DxO PhotoLab is that it’s built around the company’s legendary lab-tested camera and lens combinations. 

Shooting a Canon R6 III and the Canon RF 24-105 f/4? Or maybe the Nikon Z50 II and 16-50mm f/3.5-6.3 lens? How about the Sony a7R V and Sigma 200mm f/2? 

For each of these combinations (and 100,00 more), DxO has measured the characteristics (and shortcomings) of these specific setups by putting the camera and lens on their testing benches and measuring the actual image characteristics. No other software in the world has ever done this because no other company performs anywhere close to this level of product measurement and analysis. 

DxO PhotoLab 9 AI Masks: Intelligent Selection That Actually Works

The headline feature in PhotoLab 9 is the AI masking system, and for good reason. Unlike some AI tools where AI masking feels like a marketing gimmick, these masks solve real workflow problems.

You can create masks in three different ways. The hover-and-click method lets you select objects by clicking different parts of your image. Want to select just someone’s hair? Just click on their hair. How about adjusting only the body of an animal? Simply click on it. You can select people, faces, hair, clothing, animals, vehicles, and more. 

Quickly mask and adjust faces, hair, eyes or other small details with a single click. ©David Schloss

Simply hovering over the shirt results in a perfect mask of it.

And when you use an AI selection like “Hair” and make adjustments, those changes become contextually aware. That means you can copy that AI mask from a portrait and paste the mask onto any other portrait. PhotoLab automatically detects and adjusts the hair in the new image, regardless of the subject or pose. 

The contextual masks are not limited to a single copy and paste operation or even a single photoshoot. You can paste these AI masks onto any number of images, and you can set presets to apply them to any image in your library, at any time.

In other words, adjust one image using AI-masking and apply it to any number of images, at any time. It’s a massive time saver. 

PhotoLab also offers U Point technology, which predates AI masking but remains incredibly powerful for selective adjustments based on color and luminance values. The software includes proprietary tools like Smart Lighting for intelligent exposure correction and Clear View Plus for midtone contrast that doesn’t create harsh artifacts. 

Local Adjustments for DeepPRIME Denoising

PhotoLab has long been known for its “DeepPRIME” noise reduction, which preserves detail better than competitors. Version 9 makes DeepPRIME even better by allowing a local application of noise reduction settings.

Why does this matter? Different parts of your image have different amounts of noise. Shadows always contain more noise than highlights, but applying uniform noise reduction can soften areas that don’t need it. Now you can target DeepPRIME exactly where it’s needed and leave the rest of your images untouched. Like with other DeepPRIME features, processing happens on your computer rather than sending data to the cloud.

While you can perform sharpening to specific areas in any photo editing program, only DxO PhotoLab 9 takes lens data (from its lab testing) into account when sharpening. So if you’re shooting, say, a landscape with a lens that DxO’s tests show is soft at the corners, PhotoLab will provide lens corrections and also stronger sharpening at the corners. 

Support for iPhone Images

Apple’s iPhone can produce images with high resolution and incredible amounts of color control. PhotoLab 9 adds native support for Apple’s HEIC/HEIF and ProRAW formats. This matters more than it might seem. While iPhone computational photography can produce impressive JPEGs, working with RAW files gives you far more editing capabilities.

The software applies its DeepPRIME processing to iPhone images, cleaning up the noise that often plagues mobile sensors while maintaining edge sharpness.

Renaming Made Easier

The new batch renaming system uses metadata and EXIF information to generate filenames automatically. You can create naming presets based on camera model, date, lens used, or custom text. This streamlines organization, especially when processing large shoots where consistent file naming matters.

PhotoLab 9 also introduces improved file management. The new Favorites system provides quick access to frequently used folders or drives. Projects now support nesting, so you can organize related shoots hierarchically. Image stacking helps manage burst sequences or bracketed exposures.

DeepPRIME XD3 for Standard and Fujifilm X-Trans Sensors.

DeepPRIME XD3 is DxO’s name for the latest generation noise reduction, but up until PhotoLab 9.2, there has been no support for Fujifilm’s unique X-Trans sensors. X-Trans sensors use a non-standard color layout that many RAW converters struggle to process.

A bee and an ant on a flowering plant. This image has a lot of noise, before editing in PhotoLab 9. © David Schloss

A bee and an ant on a flowering plant. This image has a lot of noise, after editing in PhotoLab 9. © David Schloss

The new Fujifilm-specific DeepPRIME XD3 is every bit as good as the DeepPRIME XD3 noise reduction for standard sensors. 

This original photo has noise both in the faces and bodies of the dancers and in the backgrounds © Agathe Poupeney

This original photo has noise both in the faces and bodies of the dancers and in the backgrounds © Agathe Poupeney

Like all DxO processing, it happens locally on your computer rather than relying on cloud servers.

DxO PhotoLab 9 Smart Lighting and Clear View Plus

PhotoLab includes several proprietary processing tools that make it stand apart from competitors. 

Smart Lighting intelligently adjusts exposure and contrast, with separate modes for uniform scenes or portrait shots. Smart Lighting is perfect for scenes like birds in flight against a bright sky, where the details of the bird are washed out because of the brightness of the scene. 

The image on the left is the original, and the right is after Smart Lighting adjustments.

Clear View Plus helps remove the atmospheric haze that can make landscapes and other distant shots look slightly out of focus (and usually a bit blue cast). It adjusts the contrast and sharpness across an image to reduce the blurring effect of haze. 

On the left we see the atmospheric haze of the background, fixed with one click on the right.

PhotoLab 9 also includes creative tools like customizable vignetting, where you can position the center point anywhere in the frame, rather than being locked to the image center. The blur tool works the same way, creating graduated blur effects from any focal point.

DxO PhotoLab 9.2 Workflow Improvements

Version 9.2 added some user-requested features. Masks and submasks can now be reordered, making complex edits easier to manage. When you duplicate a mask, PhotoLab automatically adds sequential numbering, so you won’t end up with twelve layers all called “Mask.”

The new PhotoLibrary filters help you find specific images faster. You can instantly display only unedited images or all edited images. These filters work alongside the existing search system.

Windows users finally get persistent History that survives closing and reopening the software. This feature has been available on macOS, and its arrival on Windows means you can step back to any point in your editing workflow across multiple sessions.

Why You Should Buy DxO PhotoLab 9.

For photographers frustrated with subscription models and concerned about cloud-based AI training on their images, PhotoLab 9 is the perfect choice. The AI masking saves huge amounts of time, especially on large batches of photos. DeepPRIME noise reduction continues to set the standard for preserving detail while getting rid of noise. It’s also the only noise reduction tool that allows you to apply noise reduction just to specific parts of your photos.

The software is perfect for photographers who want the utmost in image quality, but don’t want to be tethered to their desk for long editing sessions. Wedding photographers processing hundreds of similar portraits or sports photographers with thousands of shots will appreciate the contextual masking. Landscape photographers gain sophisticated control over skies, foregrounds, and selective adjustments.

If your priority is getting the absolute best image quality from your RAW files while maintaining control over your data and wallet, PhotoLab 9 delivers. The combination of local processing, intelligent masking, and superior optical corrections makes this the perfect choice as your primary RAW editor.

Price and Availability of DxO PhotoLab 9

DxO PhotoLab 9 is available for $239.99 for a new license, with a holiday price of $203, a 15% discount. 

Upgrades from PhotoLab 7 or 8 is $119.99.  A 30-day trial is available. 

Buy two or more titles and get 20% off + another 5% off by using the discount code “ImagingResource” at checkout. 

Version 9.2 is available as a free update to owners of PhotoLab 9.

Key Specifications Table

The post DxO PhotoLab 9 AI-Powered RAW Editing That Actually Respects Photographers appeared first on Imaging Resource.

The Sony “a7” line has been the generalist camera since the Sony a7 was introduced in 2013. The new Sony a7 V is packed full of features, but influencers and some reviewers have chosen to focus on the lack of “open gate” video recording, and some have even said that Sony no longer listens to customers, it has “lost the plot,” and is doomed.

None of that is true.

 Comments sections, forum threads, and YouTube Shorts have been filled with anger about Sony’s decision not to include high-end video features like 6K recording, open gate, and internal RAW. But the more videos I watch, the more I’m convinced that much of this outrage is manufactured. It’s ragebait designed to trigger YouTube’s algorithms into promoting these videos.

This is a good example of how camera reviews, particularly those on social media, use negative takes to make the algorithm gods promote them, and that’s a disservice to potential customers.

Take the Canon R6 III as an example. That camera is heavily video-centric. It’s stacked with video features, but it has added very few tools or improvements for photographers, compared to the previous version. That doesn’t mean Canon has “lost the plot” as one creator said about Sony. It means they targeted that camera for video creators.

I’ve seen this happen over and over with camera reviews. No company is immune to the clash of haters and fanboys. The years after Sony got its stride in mirrorless cameras and before Nikon and Canon got into the market were incredibly brutal to Nikon and Canon in comments sections, and that really left a bad taste in my mouth.

But let’s talk about what’s really happening here.

What Is Open Gate and 6K

Open gate is an odd term that means that when recording video, it’s possible to capture in the full 16:9 aspect ratio by using data from the full width of the sensor, instead of just the 4:3 aspect ratio used to record footage normally. An open gate video will be wider than the standard video capture, requiring no cropping to deliver content for vertical uses. 

6K recoding, which the Sony camera also does not have, is a higher resolution format than 4K, which means you can crop footage by quite a bit and still have full 4K resolution left. To me, this is a bigger miss than open gate, because the camera is already recording 7K and then converting it to 4K

The Rage-Baiting Problem

Controversy drives clicks. Videos with titles suggesting Sony “failed” or “doesn’t listen to customers” get views. Thumbnails that suggest doom perform well in the algorithm. And suddenly, every channel needs to weigh in on why the A7V is a disaster.

The problem? Most of these creators don’t actually need Open Gate, and probably only a fraction of their audience knows what open gate is. Many of the loudest voices complaining about the “missing” features are shooting YouTube videos and shorts. While 16:9 is YouTube’s preferred aspect ratio, YouTube will resize the browser for 4:3 or any other resolution.

Another argument is that vertical video creators rely on the wider aspect ratio of 16:9 because 9:16 is the standard format for vertical videos. (9:16 is what you get when you turn a 16:9 image on its side).  But all of the platforms deliver vertical content in 1080. There’s plenty of headroom to crop a 4K video down to 1080 without losing any resolution.

Open gate isn’t a magical format. You can shoot a bit wider and crop, albeit losing a bit of data. People have been editing 4:3 content forever, long before open gate recording came to digital cameras. 

So, Is It A Problem for real, for real?

My Take on Open Gate in the A7 V

I review cameras for a living. I’m paid to find faults in products. I’ve been critical of Sony before when they’ve made decisions that have taken features away from its target customers. My review of the Sony RX1R III highly criticized Sony for removing the tilting screen, a feature that was on the RX1R II, and for not having IBIS, something a $5000 camera should have.

 Our Video Review of the Sony RX1R III

I want to be clear here. The Sony a7 V absolutely should have had open gate and 6K recording. Other cameras at this price have these features, and a major consideration in camera purchases is how it stacks up—even customers who will never use a feature check to see if competing cameras have it.

The biggest issue here is the price of the a7 V, it feels out of line with the video features and how Sony is branding the camera. Sony’s marketing says that this camera redefines “basic.” Well, sure, but “basic” is now $2,900. 

Open gate recording is very useful for many types of creators, but it’s not crucial for most customers of this category of camera. Sony’s A7 series has been pretty expensive for a “basic” camera for the last few versions, but those cameras had the best specs possible. When Sony released the APS-C a7000, it had the same AF system as the Sony a9.

It’s Sony’s most affordable camera. And that’s a problem here. Nikon and Canon both have cameras without video capabilities above 4K, and without open gate, but they’re less expensive than this camera. They’re lacking things that this camera has, but they’re relatively on par.

Sony’s also pointed to the video features in their press materials, and in photos like this, Sony is clearly appealing to a customer who is invested in video.

The Nikon Z5 II is $1,900 and is very similar on paper to the Sony in terms of video. It’s missing a lot of photo features that this Sony has, but it’s easy to give up some features for $1,000 less than Sony’s “basic” camera if your main content is video.

The problem is that the target audience for a “basic” camera will likely never use Open Gate recording, but for nearly $3,000, many customers will be above “basic”.

The  A7 V appears to have the ability to record in at least 6K and open gate, because it’s got Sony’s brand new processor. It records 7K video and downsamples that on the fly to 4K. I can’t imagine that recording open gate right off the sensor is less processor-intensive than converting 6K to 4K.

Final Thoughts

So the Sony a7 V coulda, woulda, shoulda have 6K recording and Open Gate. The lack of 6K is a bigger issue. With 6K recording a slightly wider framing, a shooter could easily crop to a 16:9 format with no image quality lost.

The A7V is an excellent camera for its intended market. The backlash we’re seeing is driven more by YouTube’s need for controversial content than by genuine customer disappointment. It’s entirely fair for a reviewer to call out features that they think are missing. But acting like its absence makes Sony a failure? That’s rage-baiting, not honest reviewing.

Before joining the chorus of criticism about any camera, ask yourself if you are the target customer. Do I actually need these features? Or am I just caught up in manufactured outrage?

Context matters. Understanding who a camera is designed for matters. And recognizing the difference between genuine criticism and clickbait matters most of all.

Check our Recent Sony Product Coverage

The post The Sony A7V Backlash on YouTube Is Missing the Point. Click-bait Criticism Hurts Everyone appeared first on Imaging Resource.

But both my cycling and bird photography have been limited by the remoteness of the cabin and the incredibly steep mountain trails. It’s hard to lug camera gear while trying to push your way up a hill on a heavy bike.

I’ve worked with the bike company Tern for a long time. They’ve sponsored bike events I’ve run, and I’ve reviewed the Tern Orox e-bike for my bike lifestyle site, bikehugger.com.

At some point, I realized I could combine the motor power of an e-bike to get me and my camera gear deeper into the woods without spooking the wildlife too much.

When it comes to photographing birds and other wildlife, there’s no such thing as being too quiet.

Normally, if I go birding while hiking, I bring my Sony a7R V and the Sony 400-800 f/6.3-f/8 G OSS lens, and also a large water bottle, binoculars, and a backpack with things like a first aid kit and a guidebook to birds.

LensRentals was nice enough to supply the gear for this article. 

Read our Review of the Sony a7R V

Nestled in the eastern foothills of the North Cascades, the Methow Valley shows in the foreground stretches from Mazama through Twisp, Winthrop, and onward to Pateros, Washington.

Even though I try to pack light, it’s still heavy enough gear for a day’s hike in the woods, so I often drive to a spot and hike in as far as I can without getting exhausted.

But with an ebike, I can get deep into the same woods, without damaging the trails and without breaking my back carrying a camera, gear, and a relatively long lens. I can even bring a folding chair if I want, so I can sit all day while I wait for the perfect shot.

Quiet Access to Habitat

The Tern Orox e-bike’s electric assist let me  move quietly along trails, backroads, and nature preserves without the noise of a car. This helps avoid startling birds before you see them.

When you’re on a bike, I feel like part of the woods. I hear the sounds of the forest, notice the breeze, and can stop quickly if I see something I want to photograph. I’m not just searching for birds, I’m getting exercise while I enjoy the sounds and sights of the woods. Even if I don’t see birds or animals, it’s a lot more fun to explore by bike then to see the same stretch of trail over and over.

The bike isn’t perfectly silent, though; there’s still a slight whine of the electric motor and crunching on the trails. It’s a bit more noise than I’d make hiking to a spot, so when I get where I want to shoot, I’ll often get off the bike a good distance away from where I’m headed and walk the last little bit.

Eco-Friendly

Being a birder goes hand-in-hand with conservation. Riding an ebike doesn’t damage trails the way that a four-wheeler would, or even a horse would.

There are no emissions when riding the Orox or any other ebike, and the carbon cost of using electricity is way lower than using a gas-powered vehicle of any kind. It helps lower your carbon footprint, especially if you often visit remote spots that would normally require driving.

Go Further, Explore More

Most ebikes you see on the streets aren’t meant to be ridden off-road. At most, they’re designed to handle packed gravel trails, and they struggle on dirt and when riding over roots. Bikes like the Orox are intended to be used off-road and off-trail.

For birding, you want a bike with a battery with a great range (because nothing’s worse than pushing an e-bike for miles). They need wide tires and a good cargo setup that can hold your gear. You’ll want some bungee cords, too, to help keep things secure when riding over the bumps.

I went birding by bike in the Methow Valley, exploring the Big Buck Recreation area. Big Buck is a nature reserve, and I had the place to myself because I rode in on the bike.

It felt great to get the shot and then ride home after a day of solitude in the woods, and some lunch by a stream.

Hauling Your Gear the ebike way

Tern set out to build the Orox as an electric cargo bike that works just as well on mountain trails and sandy paths as it does for daily errands. They succeeded, creating a bike that feels like a new standard for multi-terrain riding. See our section on buying bikes below for tips for ebike shopping.

See our Gear List below for the camera and lens I used. 

I brought my usual Sony kit, keeping the Sony a7R IV and 400–800mm lens in a Pelican case that fit perfectly in the panniers. The rear frame gave me a solid spot to organize gear or get ready for a shot. When I stopped riding, I used the rear stowage area as a workbench to put together the camera and lens.

LensRentals was nice enough to loan me the Pelican case, but I like it so much I’ll be picking one up.

The Sony a7R IV and the new 400-800mm lens make a perfect combination for bird photography.

The a7R IV’s 61MP sensor is high resolution, which means you can crop without losing detail. With the sensor resolution, I can easily crop an 800mm shot and still have 20 or 30 megapixel images. That’s like having a 1000mm lens.

That means you can crop into distant subjects without losing clarity. The a7R V has Sony’s AI autofocus, which includes both bird and animal eye AF. That gave me the ability to capture things from small songbirds to flying hawks while the camera tracked their tiny eyes.

Even with an 800mm reach, the setup remains easy to handle and lighter than things like the Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG DN OS Sports, which we reviewed.

This combination gives bird and wildlife photographers the image quality, portability, and shooting options they need.

Not Just Birds

With my kit, I was able to photograph a chipmunk, a horse, and a turtle. You don’t have to worry about sneaking up on a turtle, but this one was laying eggs, so I gave it a lot of space. But this shows how versatile the kit is for all kinds of wildlife, not just birds.

How to Pick the Right ebike

If you’re looking to get into birding by bike, the best place to start is your local bike dealer. There are many brands online selling poorly made bikes that look good online but fall apart.

A local shop can help if you have mainteannce problems with the bike, and will help you get any spare parts should you need them. A shop may be more expensive than buying online, but you get the peace of mind of knowing someone will be able to fix the bike if you need.

Local bike shops are also struggling in the online economy, and any purchases help keep family-owned businesses alive.

I’ve been riding Tern for years, so I know their quality, but there are other great ebikes. Be sure to get a bike that’s designed to be a cargo bike. These bikes have paniers, very wide tires, racks to mount things to, and long-lasting batteries.

If you want to check out a Tern in person, you can find one of the local bike stories that carries them.

To be safe, you should half the distance the manufacturer claims when planning your rides. The listed miles per charge are often measured with a completely unloaded bike, and adding gear will reduce your range. Halving the distance gives you a nice buffer so you don’t get stuck in the woods.

If you want to take your ebike with you on a trip, be sure to get a good hitch-mounted rack. Your car will need the larger two-inch hitch mount to handle the weight of the bike. If you don’t have a hitch, your dealer can usually install one, but strangely, U-Haul can install hitches on most cars.

Sony A7R V

What We Think

This is the camera I use for my YouTube video studio work, and I use it to test most of the Sony-format lenses we review.

The a7R V has the best of Sony’s high-resolution technology, combining a 61-megapixel sensor with AI subject detection. The camera delivers exceptional image quality with improved noise performance over its predecessor, while the dedicated AI processing unit provides subject recognition that rivals Sony’s flagship sports cameras. I took this camera to shoot wildlife before the a9 III was launched, since the a7R V had better subject detection.

The enhanced 8-axis in-body stabilization system (most of Sony’s cameras have five stops of stabilization) compensates for the challenges of shooting with such high resolution. The camera also offers comprehensive video capabilities, including 8K recording and 4K oversampling, making it surprisingly versatile for my hybrid work despite its resolution focus.

Reasons to Buy

• The massive 61MP resolution provides unmatched detail and cropping flexibility for demanding applications
• The AI-powered subject recognition delivers flagship-level autofocus performance for wildlife and sports
• The 8-axis stabilization system is the most advanced available, crucial for handheld high-resolution work

Reasons to Avoid

• The enormous file sizes require substantial storage space and powerful processing hardware
• The premium pricing exceeds $3,500, making it accessible only to serious professionals
• The battery life decreases significantly when using full resolution with all stabilization features active

Specifications

• Sensor: 61MP full-frame Exmor R BSI CMOS
• Processor: BIONZ XR with dedicated AI processing unit
• Autofocus: 693-point phase detection with AI subject recognition
• Video: 8K 24p, 4K 60p, 10-bit 4:2:2 internal recording

• Image Stabilization: 8-axis in-body stabilization (8 stops)
• Viewfinder: 0.90” OLED EVF (9.44M dots, 120fps)
• LCD: 3.2” 4-axis multi-angle touchscreen (2.10M dots)
• Battery: NP-FZ100 (530 shots)
• Burst Rate: 10fps continuous with AF/AE
• Dynamic Range: ~15 stops
• Dimensions: 5.2 x 3.9 x 3.2″ (131 x 97 x 82mm)
• Weight: 1.6 lb (723g) with battery

Show more

• Shop at Amazon

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Let’s set politics aside for a moment and examine what tariffs are intended to do, and how the current wave is directly impacting every piece of gear we use.

A tariff is supposed to balance trade or protect local industries. If Canadian lumber floods the U.S. market at prices that undercut American producers, a tariff can level the playing field. That makes sense when there’s a domestic industry to protect. But in the case of cameras, there isn’t. No one is building cameras in Iowa or lenses in Michigan. Most photographic equipment is manufactured overseas, primarily in China, Vietnam, and Thailand.

Currently, goods from China face around a 34% tariff, with threats of further increases, although the tariff rates change monthly as the U.S. and China continue trade talks.

 Vietnam’s tariffs, originally a staggering 46%, have been negotiated down to 20%—still a significant burden. And because importers have to pay those fees, they simply pass them down the chain. By the time the gear hits the shelves, it’s people like you and me who are footing the bill.

Why Tariffs May Kill the Photography Market: The Price Problem

The ripple effect is noticeable. We’ve already seen companies like Fujifilm and Nikon raise prices, sometimes multiple times, since last spring, because they can’t predict what the final tariff rates will be. 

Even if tariffs are reduced in the future, history tells us that prices don’t always return to their original levels. Once the market becomes accustomed to higher numbers, manufacturers are unlikely to revert to pre-tariff levels.

We’re always looking for deals to bring to you in our Deals section, and nearly every piece of camera gear has had a price hike. Many cameras and lenses now have a price when on sale that’s a hundred dollars or more than previous discounts. In other words, the best price you can get now on a lot of gear is the worst price it would have been just a year ago. 

And that has real consequences. When Sony launched the RX1R III at around $5,000, many reviews (including my own) pointed out how high that price felt, especially when the camera dropped features compared to its predecessor. Without tariffs, it could have been $4,500 or even less. 

In Canada, the RX1R III retails for approximately $6,300 CAD, equivalent to around $4,550 USD. Even factoring in Canada’s own tariffs, you can see how pricing shifts wildly depending on trade policies. And for an interchangeable lens camera, that extra $500 could have easily been used to purchase a new lens for your kit.

The Demand Dilemma – A Tariff-Driven Return To Bad Times

Here’s where things get scarier: higher prices directly cut demand. Cameras and lenses aren’t bread and milk. You don’t need a new body or lens the moment it’s released. Enthusiasts will hold onto older gear longer, and professionals, already working on tight margins, may stretch their cameras beyond their typical upgrade cycle or raise their rates to compensate. Either way, fewer units get sold.

Leica recently canceled a string of events in the United States, citing “unforeseen circumstances.” This event was thought to have been to introduce a rumored M EV1 camera, a new product category for the company. 

This cancellation could certainly have been due to delays in production, but it also could be the result of tariffs. The problem is we’ll never know. 

We’ve seen fragile moments before in the industry. When the 2011 earthquake in Japan took out Sony’s imaging sensor plant, it caused delays and profit drops across the board because of reduced supply and the resulting increase in component costs.

Tariffs could have a similar effect, only this time, it’s not a natural disaster; it’s a financial earthquake. 

Sure, the booming creator economy might soften the blow. New YouTubers and TikTokers emerge every day, and many invest in cameras instead of relying on their phones. However, many will still go for cheaper camera options instead of the higher-end gear they might have 

The Bottom Line

Tariffs are going to make photography more expensive, period. The only real question is by how much. Maybe we’ll see a few price drops down the line if trade agreements improve, but chances are, the higher baseline is here to stay. That means fewer people buying new cameras, fewer product releases, and more of us wondering if the gear we have will need to last just a little longer than we planned.

For those of us who care about photography, this isn’t just an abstract economic debate. It’s something that could reshape the gear market for years to come. As I said, once prices go up, they rarely go back down. When the cost of goods eventually drops, companies usually keep retail prices the same or similar and use the increased revenue to offset losses incurred during the price hike. 

And while we’ll continue to find ways to create, no matter what, it’s hard not to feel that the industry we love is being dragged into a fight it didn’t ask for.

The post Tariffs May Decimate the Camera Industry appeared first on Imaging Resource.

Drones already at retailers are not subject to the ban. For drone users, this is the last chance to pick up drones for work, hobbies, or racing. Read our full coverage of the ban and its implications here.

Get DJI Products Before they’re gone

Visit the Amazon DJI Store
Visit the B&H DJI Store page

The FCC has also proposed adding more companies to the list of banned products, though they have not made it clear which companies might be on the list.

The issue, or at least the supposed issue, is that the U.S. government wants to eliminate spying on critical infrastructure. Huawei is another company on the list, with the suspicion being that Huawei phones have a backend that would allow the Chinese government to spy on users.

This is not the only hurdle DJI faces. DJI is subject to a review by the U.S. national security agencies by the end of the year, and if that is not completed, DJI will be automatically added to a list of companies that are prevented from getting certified to operate in the United States. Unfortunately for DJI, that review is not guaranteed. Without action, DJI will almost certainly be prohibited from selling drones in the United States permanently.

It’s also not the only hurdle faced by the drone industry. The Commerce Department, under the guidance of the Trump administration, is pushing to ban all Chinese-made drones and components.

As reported by Reuters: “The Commerce Department in January said it could also target for restrictions drone systems like onboard computers, communications and flight control systems, ground control stations, operating software and data storage.”

The result will be a complete and total ban on not only DJI drones, but also any other Chinese drones, parts, or technology.

The FCC has announced it is working on plans to remove previously authorized device certification, preventing the products currently available in the U.S. from being imported, sold, or even marketed. 

The government has provided no proof to indicate that DJI drones are engaged in spying. DJI also argues that they offer a local-data-only mode that disables all internet connectivity on demand, and they have offered independent auditors to review their equipment. Many in the drone community think the move is more about stifling competition than protecting infrastructure.

The argument about Chinese cell phones seems like a good one to me. After all, a phone is a self-contained device with full access to the internet, as well as access to your contacts, calendar, mail, browser history, and is complete with cameras and microphones. A cell phone is also carried around all day, giving it a wide range of spy-friendly targets.

Personally, I am much less convinced that DJI drones are being used to spy on things via the technology they use, though individuals have been caught flying drones near military installations.

The continued grounding of DJI’s drones means that emergency rescue operations will be curtailed, and creators will have to seek alternative drones. Unfortunately, DJI owns the majority of the drone market, leaving consumers with little choice in gear.

No matter your position on these governmental policies, a ban on all imported drones and components will decimate many industries and will have a significant impact on creators in travel, adventure sports, real estate, wildlife, and more.

Normally I’d call for some action, but in this case I’m not sure any can help. The FCC can pass regulations without congressional approval, as can the Commerce Department. With the current administration, there’s little to no chance that DJI will be saved, as it’s the current administration that is pursuing these changes.

Will DJI drones return to the shelves in the U.S.? It’s unlikely, and there is no telling yet how much of an effect this will have on the company. The U.S. is its biggest market, and few companies survive losing the biggest base of customers

Source: Drone Life , Reuters

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Invited to the facility along with just a few outlets, Canon offered us a deep look into their manufacturing processes, a look that no journalists have had before. Even the Canon USA product and project managers travelling with us hadn’t seen the production lines. 

If you’re imagining, as I did, rows of gleaming Terminator-style robots cranking out lenses without human interaction, you’d be wrong. Canon’s lens manufacturing is an incredibly hands-on process, a craftsman-centric approach to making the lenses that looks more like the shop of someone who lovingly restores vintage cars. Think Star Wars rather than Star Trek.

If you’re wondering like us why lenses like the Canon RF 100-300mm f/2.8 L IS USM are nearly impossible to find, we found out why.

The 100-300mm lens is backordered because the process of making them is laborious.. They’re assembled by hand, and the production team can only produce around nine of them a day and still maintain their quality standards.

Let that sink in for a moment. The $10,000 Canon 100-300mm lens has a production rate of under two hundred a month. 

Secrets from the Executives

We expected to see many PowerPoint presentations, which are a big part of meetings in Japan. But I was not expecting the openness from the most senior imaging executives when answering questions. Some of the answers were more frank than anything I’ve heard Canon say before.

In a sit-down interview with the most senior staff in the imaging divisions, I was allowed to ask any question I wanted, not just a pre-approved question. This is practically unheard of in the camera world; usually, the executives pre-vet the media questions. 

I started by asking if, being behind Sony in the mirrorless market, they’d seen any advantages in the delay. I wanted to know if there were things that they were able to bring to the R-series by taking time to catch up that benefited them when they entered the new mirrorless era. “Did that allow Canon to look farther down the road…to find an opportunity?”

“When we entered the full-frame mirrorless market,” said Mr. Manabu Kato, Chief Executive of IMG Business Unit 1, “it was in 2018. At that time, we were indeed behind Sony.” 

That might be the first time I’ve heard a Canon executive admit that they were caught unprepared.. Generally, Canon has talked about the strength of their DSLR system and their plans only to bring mirrorless to market when the time was right. 

Our lineup of cameras now stretches from the R1 to the R100,” he continued, “with more than 60 lenses. At this point, we don’t feel like we’re behind them.”

The most surprising answer came when I asked how they felt about stopping development on the EF lens mount, having been Canon’s standard for twenty years before the transition to mirrorless and the RF mount. 

“By evolving the EF mount into the RF mount, we gained advantages like large aperture, short back focus, and high-speed communication. Those opened up new worlds, so we saw it as a chance.”

“You learned what the EF mount could not do,” I asked, “and mirrorless gave you a chance to put all that into practice?”

Here’s the reply that surprised me. “Ultimately, we realized there were things the EF mount could no longer achieve. As we sowed those seeds, the mirrorless era arrived, and the opportunity became real.”

That’s the first time I’ve ever heard Canon say they were developing the RF mount before mirrorless cameras. Likely, we would have seen DSLRs move to the RF mount even if mirrorless cameras had not become the norm.

When mirrorless took over from DSLR, the older SLR cameras were reaching the end of their practical development life. Autofocus was limited by the need to use a separate focusing module, but perhaps the EF mount was a bottleneck in their development, too. 

By the Numbers

Through many PowerPoint presentations, Canon laid out its strategy for camera and lens development. As expected, they talked about how dedicated they are to innovation and detailed all the development and manufacturing processes they have pioneered. 

They talked about one of Canon’s key strengths being the in-house development and manufacturing of all of the key components of the cameras. It’s not the first time I’ve heard a camera manufacturer talk about this advantage. Sony has often said that their ability to develop camera bodies, sensors, and lenses gave them the ability to sprint into the mirrorless market, and to create bodies that would take advantage of future lens technology and lenses that could unlock the potential of the cameras.

This in-house development, or lack of it, is something that really hurt Nikon’s mirrorless plans. It was buying the sensors from Sony and designing the processors in-house. Buying sensors from your competitors is an overall bad business strategy. 

The Slow Pace of Incremental Improvements

Canon has been producing SLR cameras since 1937, and while some of the improvements in gear happen rapidly, most changes are incremental. The switch to digital occurred relatively quickly in the scale of photographic history, but most of the time, camera and lens updates have minor changes, though there might be technologies in updates that were a decade in the making.

Many of the presentations talked about the improvements new technologies are able to bring to Canon’s products, but it was surprising to see how much work goes into these often minor improvements. 

Canon spends an enormous amount of R&D on technologies that improve the shooting experience, though some of these improvements may not even be noticeable to the average user. They result in better images, if only marginally better, though the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. 

In one of the meetings, lens engineers described a technology they invented called Subwavelength Structure Coating, also called SWC, and it’s used in conjunction with another Canon technology, Air Sphere Coating.

The goal with SWC and the Air Sphere Coating is to reduce flaring and ghosting in lenses. 

Canon coats SWC lenses with a series of nano-scale spikes that sit between the light and the lens surface. Canon says these nano spikes ease the path of the light from the air to the lens. You can think of this like slowly getting into a cold pool versus jumping in headfirst. 

But can you see the difference in practice? Yes? Maybe? Sometimes? Anything that makes an image better is good, but in most images, they showed us the improvements are subtle. 

So Why Bother?

Everything in photographic gear is either an incremental change and improvement or the result of many incremental improvements. Nano spikes on a lens might not radically change images, but Canon didn’t spend a decade on the technology to revolutionize photography. They made SWC to improve overall image quality over lenses without it. At some point, Canon will combine Subwavelength Structure and Air Coating with some new technology, and image quality will improve again. 

Chris Niccolls of PetaPixel and I were chatting between meetings about the improvements we were being shown. ‘I think I get it,’ I said. ‘Lenses are good-lenses with SWC are a little bit better,’ and I made the gesture where you hold one hand flat and then hold another just above it to show a slight improvement. 

I would do this multiple times on the factory tour. While I found this running joke amusing, it’s the point of what most R&D does. 

Canon also showed us IBIS versus IBIS combined with the Periphrial Coordinated Control system in their Optical Image Stabilized (OIS) lenses. Perirperal control works to reduce the distortion in the very corners of an image that IBIS itself can’t correct for. It’s a subtle difference. 

We were shown issues, and while the corners were better, I would not describe them as radically different. The effect is similar to using lens correction profiles to adjust for lens distortion. 

“IBIS is good,” I said, making the gesture, “but IBIS with Periphreal Coordinated Control is better.”

I repeated the gesture after seeing how Canon uses deep learning to make auto white balance more accurate, especially for the blue cast that a clear sky often causes. “Auto white balance is good, deep learning auto white balance is better.”

And then I made it again when they showed the benefits of AI-based sport detection over traditional AI-based subject reaction. “Autofocus is good, sport-based autofocus is better.”

See the pattern here? While it was a good running joke, it turned out to be more accurate than funny.

Each time Canon showed us some advance in technology, it seemed minor in its own context, but Canon’s been at this for more than eighty years, and these little changes add up. 

Take a lens with Periphreal Coordinated Control, put a SWC coating on it, and mount it to a camera with action-based AF and better white balance control, and now these little steps add up to a much more powerful system. 

Inside Canon’s Off-Limits Lens Factory

The next day, we got a deep dive look, complete with clean suits, through Canon’s lens factory. Canon has never offered a tour of their lens production before, and having been on lens and camera factory tours with other manufacturers, I was surprised by how much access they gave us. 

Japanese culture is known for having people who dedicate their lives to a single pursuit. A Tōkō master creates gleaming and polished swords. A Geijutsuka makes the most intricate pottery. And, it turns out, there are artisans of lens polishing and lens assembly. 

Canon introduced us to their “meisters”, their collection of employees who have been working for decades to hone the craft of lens construction and assembly. Other companies might have similar craftspeople, but they’ve never been made available to the press. 

Mitsuharu Umei is Canon’s lens polishing meister, and its lens assembly Meister is Kazuyo Otsuka. Both have worked in Canon’s lens production facilities for decades, and both are artisans.

We followed the path of a camera lens from glass to shipping container, starting with the polishing of the glass.

The Art of Making the Lens

In its marketing, Canon talks about the idea of monozukuri. “It can be literally translated as ‘making things’ or ‘crafting things’ (‘mono’ meaning thing, and ‘zukuri’ meaning the act of making),” Canon Europe’s website explains. “But it is so much more than that. Conceptually and culturally, it reflects-and respects- the soul and art of the maker. 

Mitusharu Umei is Canon’s meister lens crafter, and Umei-san hand-polishes lenses with unbelievable precision. He is the embodiment of monozukuri. 

For some lenses, the tolerances are fractions of a millimeter. Umei-san told us that for a large-diameter TV broadcast lens, if the lens were the size of Dodger’s Stadium, the tolerance would be less than the thickness of a piece of paper. Umei-san can polish lenses to this tolerance by hand.

We walked through rows of equipment used to polish glass, boxes with nozzles that spray abrasive or water to take a lens from raw and opaque glass to a final piece of optics. These lenses work their way through a series of steps, including hand-polishing the glass on diamond-coated spheres. 

Umei-san has been honing his craft at Canon for thirty-seven years. Put another way, I’m 55 and Umei-san has been learning the art of glass polishing since I was in college. He told us it might take a decade or more for an apprentice to develop the skills needed to make the lenses that require the most accuracy. 

He had us test our skills on a large polishing machine, and I made the mistake of going first. A rotating base holds the glass, while a disc the size of a small pizza has to be pressed onto that rotating glass. The task takes two hands and is like patting your head while rubbing your stomach. I am, it turns out, never going to be a master craftsman at Canon as I nearly spun the disc off the rotating base.

Not all Canon lenses are made by hand, though. Aspherical lenses are shaped like a bell and can’t be made by hand. Kit lenses and any lens element that requires a sophisticated molding or shaping process are done by robots. 

Send in the Robots – Sophisticated Lens Shapes 

One of the few machines we were not allowed to photograph makes these aspherical lenses in a totally automated process. A slab of glass is loaded onto a platform, which is then heated to the melting point, and then a machine presses it slowly as the glass cools. Through the window in the machine, we could see molten glass being forced into shape. 

These slugs of glass go through polishing processes and then move to assembly. Another machine, which we also could not photograph, looked the most like the type of machine that might assemble a human-killing robot in a sci-fi movie. Robot arms turn, lift, and lower these lenses into the metal housings, pressing them into place and finishing them in a process that moves them automatically from robot to robot. 

We couldn’t photograph these because they’re made in-house by Canon and have proprietary designs. Like a lot of the equipment at Canon, they look both futuristic and like something made by a mad scientist. Arms swing, automated quality assurance systems flash the results of the optical tests they make, but the boxes clearly look like they were made by hand instead of purchased off-the-shelf from somewhere. 

Master Assembly – Every Lens Touched by the Same Person

Canon’s lens assembly Meister is Kazuyo Otsuka. She works inside the clean rooms of the lens assembly facility, guiding the production of every super-telephoto lens Canon makes. 

Otsuka-san has been a craftsman on this line for nearly forty years, and she said she considers each lens she has helped make one of her babies. I’ve been reviewing Canon lenses for more than twenty years, so I’ve unknowingly used dozens of lenses she made by hand. 

I find it incredible to think that one person has had a hand in producing so many lenses, which ties all Canon shooters together. That wedding photographer with a 200mm lens? Otsuka-san. The birder with a 600mm? Otsuka-san. 

Much of the camera and lens assembly is done by hand, mostly by women. When I toured Sony’s camera body facility years ago, and Nikon’s years before that, the staff explained that women tend to be more dexterous than men, and tend to have smaller hands that are more suitable for tasks like tightening millimeter-wide screws.

These jobs are not the monotonous assembly lines you might think of; the lines are small, making each member of the team more of a craftsperson than a widget. The meticulous attention to detail is what makes the production capabilities so small. You can have a handcrafted production team, or you can have an automated assembly line.

The Terminator Factory

Until this point, we had seen mostly processes carried out by hand. In the glass polishing area, tools were sophisticated versions of traditional tools. Diamond polishers sit next to manually operated washing and lubrication bays. 

Not every lens can, or should be made by hand. Entry-level and enthusiast lenses are produced by robots, with the assistance of humans, instead of humans with the aid of robots. 

One of the manufacturing lines we watched takes the aspherical blanks created in the automated lens creation process we saw earlier and fits them into their lens bodies. This robotic system is used for kit lenses and lenses with custom aspherics. 

This area looks like the factories in the Terminator movies, but only slightly more so. The robotic assembly lines are created in-house by Canon. They look more like a mad scientist created them in a lab. They’re not gleaming white like a car production plant; they’re physical, mechanical tools that have been assembled, also by hand, for specific tasks. You can tell they were made in a machine room somewhere in the factory, not at the type of plants that make those killer robot dogs. 

Quality Assurance

The most amusing part of the tour came in the quality assurance section. Here, prototype lenses and cameras are shaken, dropped, flung into a simulated wall, and subjected to extreme heat and humidity as well as extreme cold. 

All of the QA tools are automated and repeatable. If you want to see how a camera survives a fall from a meter above the ground, you have to be able to repeat the text exactly. Seeing machines designed to drop a camera on its attached lens precisely makes me feel a bit better about the times I’ve dropped cameras. Clearly, I’m not the only one. 

Canon also tests its shipping containers using these precise automated tools. If that $10,000 hand-assembled lens breaks on the way to B&H, all the effort is lost, as is the revenue. Seeing a box dropped onto a corner felt particularly comical. 

Canon invited us into the hot and the cold chambers, and I can tell you nothing feels quite as bad as being in a room in the high 90s with 100% humidity while wearing a business suit, except then entering a cold room where the sweat instantly freezes. 

The Takeaways from the Canon Factory Tour

I’ve been fortunate enough to have taken several factory tours over the years. In each one, the executives have been immensely proud of their processes and their approaches to producing the highest quality photography and video tools. 

Most camera users I’ve talked to have no idea how much hands-on design and production go into their gear. 

Every company has its own gleaming robotic production lines. Sony’s image sensor production lines are nearly completely automated and housed in a sparkling white clean room where only the team that maintains the equipment can be seen walking around. I’m sure Canon’s sensor facilities are equally gleaming. 

Yet all of the companies have production lines like the ones for the 100-300mm lens, where people work precisely and efficiently to bring the product to life. 

I have no idea if the other companies have the artisan “meisters” like Canon, partially because no company has given us such unprecedented access. 

What’s clear is that Canon takes great pride in what they do. Every executive, every product manager, every factory worker expressed the happiness they get in moving technology forward. 

Sometimes there are leaps in technology, and sometimes there are nearly imperceptible advances. If Canon had not shown us the nanotechnology they developed for their lenses, I might never have known about it, as the benefits are so subtle. 

In Shinto, both a religion and a practice that nearly fifty percent of the Japanese practice, there is the concept of “tamashii,” the spirit that physical objects possess. The translation isn’t perfect, but it’s akin to a product having a soul. 

To Canon, its products have tamashi, and everyone we met proudly talks about their commitment to bringing products to life. 

It might not be readily apparent when you’re shooting portraits or capturing wildlife, but Canon believes they are bringing gear to life. Canon talks about their commitment to your gear being part of your photography or videography experience.

Since photographers consider their cameras to be part of their creative process, this makes sense. Canon makes its cameras and lenses with a purpose and a dedication to the art of image creation, just like you use that gear to bring your vision to life. 

When showing off prototypes of the R1 and the C50, the team also showed a mint condition T90, the camera that formed the design directions for decades of Canon’s camera development. They handled it with care and precision, wearing white gloves to keep from marring the surface. But they also handled it with cotton gloves out of respect for the camera and how it launched Canon’s position in camera development. 

The takeaway from the Canon tour is that the small improvements that each new technology offers are part of a larger goal of constantly improving. Some of these improvements come to life relatively quickly, and some of them take decades to bring to life. 

The handcrafted nature of Canon lenses and bodies is something that connects all Canon shooters. The improvement designed at the Utsunomiya plant, and Canon’s many other design and manufacturing facilities, are tied together, making clear its goal of bringing its sense of creativity to all of its users. 

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