The ColorChecker Turns 50: The 24 Squares That Outlived Almost Everything Around Them
A small card of 24 painted squares turns 50 this year. It is still made, still sold, and still sitting in the front pocket of a lot of camera bags, because it answers a question that cameras have never learned to answer on their own: what color is this, actually?
Happy birthday to the ColorChecker. Here is what it does, why the design has barely moved since 1976, and where the thing has ended up in five decades of use.
Why You Aren’t Getting Useful Feedback on Your Photography
I recently wrote about why we should stop accepting standard "constructive criticism" on our photos. Instead, solicit feedback that actually helps you grow as a photographer. But most of us don’t know how to ask for anything better. We never learned how to ask. So how do you get more meaningful input on your work? Ask for a critique.
Seven Harsh Truths About Photography Nobody Warns You About
Everything creative takes longer than you plan, your photos will get worse before they get better, and you will miss shots that were never yours to keep. These are the uncomfortable facts most people skip when they hand out photography advice, and accepting them early saves years of frustration.
Sigma's 85mm f/1.2 Undercuts Sony's G Master by a Wide Margin
Sony sells a 50mm f/1.2 but has held off on an 85mm f/1.2 for its full frame mirrorless system, and now a third party has stepped in with autofocus and a price that undercuts Sony's own 85mm f/1.4 G Master II. The Sigma 85mm f/1.2 DG DN Art lands as the first autofocus 85mm f/1.2 for Sony E and the first 85mm f/1.2 ever for L-mount.
Plan Your Next Landscape Trip in Minutes, Not Days
Autumn brings shorter crowds, softer light, and sunrise times you can actually reach without setting three alarms. The hard part is knowing where to point the camera in the first place, especially when time is short.
Why the Expensive Film Shot Still Wins, Against All Logic
A single medium format film shot cost about 470 times what the same scene cost on a digital camera. That kind of math should end the film-versus-digital debate outright, and yet the photos taken on film still mean more to the person who shot them. This is the tension every hybrid shooter runs into once digital quality stops being the question.
The First Photographs on Every Continent: Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa, Australia, and Antarctica
The earliest surviving camera photograph of any continent is a grainy rooftop view that Nicéphore Niépce recorded in the Burgundy countryside in 1826 or 1827, and burning it onto a sheet of pewter took at least many hours of daylight and possibly several days. Every other landmass had to wait. As the daguerreotype spread out of Paris after 1839, cameras reached North America within weeks, then Africa, Asia, and South America, then Australia, and finally, roughly sixty years later, the ice of Antarctica.
Reviewing The Peak Design Travel Tripod
Today, I wanted to take a break from discussing the cameras that capture our images and look at one of the tools used to make those images better. Let’s have a look at the Peak Design Travel Tripod.
When it comes to camera-related products, it seems as though Peak Design’s company ethos is right there in the title. The products they produce seem engineered to solve common problems in a unique and elegant way.
Open Gate or 40 Megapixels: Picking Between the X-M5 and X-E5
The Fujifilm X-M5 and X-E5 look like siblings, but the price gap between them runs about $1,000 and the experience of shooting each one splits along lines you might not expect. Deciding between an $800 body and one that often sells closer to $1,800 forces a question every buyer eventually faces: how much are premium build and resolution actually worth to you?
Shooting and Processing Black-and-White Film Off-Grid in Scotland
Shooting film is one thing. Developing and scanning it yourself, hundreds of miles from home, inside a van with blackout blinds and a couple of red lights, is a different level of commitment.
Photoshop's New Edge Tool Costs 20 Credits Every Time You Click It
Photoshop's beta build now includes a Refine Edge feature that cleans up the messy fringing left behind when you cut a subject out of one background and drop them onto another. Every click costs 20 generative credits, so the value depends on whether the result beats what you can do by hand.
Why 28mm Beats 35mm for Honest Street Photography
Forced to sell every camera and lens and shoot a single focal length forever, plenty of street shooters would reach for 35mm because it handles almost anything. There's a strong case that the wider 28mm produces more interesting pictures, and the reasoning has less to do with sharpness and more to do with truth.
The $1,999 iPhone Duo Is Apple's First Foldable, and It Has Some Clever Camera Tricks
Apple has introduced the iPhone Duo, its first foldable iPhone, pairing a 5.4 in outer display with a 7.6 in folding inner display. Beyond the new form factor, the phone includes dual 48 MP rear cameras, 4K video recording at up to 120 fps, an A20 Pro processor, new photography features that take advantage of the second display, and an updated version of iOS designed around multitasking.
The iPhone Duo starts at $1,999 with 256 GB of storage. Preorders begin October 16, 2026, with availability starting October 23, 2026.
Inside the Mexican Suitcase: The Spanish Civil War Negatives Lost for 68 Years
In December 2007, three small cardboard boxes reached the International Center of Photography in New York holding 126 rolls of 35mm film and roughly 4,500 negatives that had been missing since 1939. Inside was a visual record centered on the Spanish Civil War as seen by Robert Capa, Gerda Taro, and David "Chim" Seymour, three young photographers who helped invent modern war reporting before all three of them were killed on assignment.
Apple Gives Photographers More Control With the iPhone 18 Pro
Apple has announced the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, introducing a new 48 MP Fusion Main camera with variable aperture, expanded manual camera controls, new image-authenticity features, and additional photo and video tools. The phones also introduce the A20 Pro chip, a redesigned thermal system, longer battery life, and iOS 27 with Apple Intelligence and Siri AI.
Useful Camera and Tech Accessories and Tools You Can 3D Print Yourself
Whether you do photography as a hobby or professionally, there are a lot of tools and accessories that make what we do easier, more convenient, or even more foolproof. Sometimes even the simplest tools can be instrumental in how we achieve our shots or, on the other hand, something equally important: how we take care of our camera gear. Whatever these tools are and no matter how simple, we often need to buy them from a physical store or an online source that will take a couple of days to ship.
Sigma's 85mm f/1.2: Beautiful Bokeh, One Real Weakness
Sigma just released an 85mm f/1.2 DG Art for L-mount and Sony E-mount, and it lands at £1,299 in the UK or $1,599 in the US. That price sits well under Canon's and Nikon's mirrorless 85mm f/1.2 options, and the Sigma is smaller and lighter than both.
Can One 350-Gram Zoom Really Be Your Only Travel Lens?
Packing a single lens for a long trip means giving up options you might miss, and the Sigma 20-60mm f/2.8-4 makes that gamble easier to justify. The range covers wide landscapes, tight architecture, and portraits without a bag full of glass.
SIRUI Announces Saturn V2 Full-Frame Anamorphic Series with 90-Degree Rotation
SIRUI has officially announced the launch of the Saturn V2 Full Frame Anamorphic Lens Series, representing a significant update to its popular Saturn anamorphic system. Aimed at modern filmmakers and hybrid content creators, the new generation introduces a unique 90-degree rotating optical mechanism, allowing users to seamlessly transition between traditional horizontal cinematography and vertical shooting formats without needing to swap lenses or rebuild their camera rigs.
The Automatic Halo Fix in Photoshop, Tested on Real Hair
Photoshop's beta 27.11 introduces Enhance Edge, an AI feature that promises to erase the halos that show up when you drop a masked subject onto a contrasting background. Hair cutouts have frustrated retouchers for decades, and any tool that claims to solve them deserves a hard look before you trust it on real work.