Wandrd’s PRVKE series of backpacks has been a popular choice for photographers seeking a modern bag with urban styling. The new Wandrd PRVKE 21 V4 retains the signature roll-top silhouette and modular approach, but introduces subtle yet valuable improvements to comfort, access and layout.

Wandrd PRVKE 21 V4 at a glance:

• $319 / £281 (Photography Bundle)
• 21-25L volume
• Essential Camera Cube included
• Durable tarpaulin and ballistic nylon construction
• Laptop and tablet sleeves
• wandrd.com

For instance, the expandable roll-top now includes a zipped opening for faster access to the upper section, and the reworked shoulder straps and back panel make the pack more comfortable to wear for long treks. At 1.3kg, the pack feels robust without being too heavy and the updated styling, including colour-matched fabric and lining, gives it a more polished look than its predecessors.

Inside the main compartment, the Essential Camera Cube that’s included in the Photography Bundle offers enough room for a full-frame mirrorless or DSLR with three to four lenses, including a 70-200mm f/2.8. The side opening, now larger than before, allows quick access to this cube, which is especially useful when you want to change lens on the move. You can also unzip the main clamshell for full access when packing or unloading.

Wandrd PRVKE 21 V4 key features:

• Weather-resistant: PVC-coated tarpaulin and DWR-treated zips shrug off rain and dirt
• Modular Design: Includes Essential Camera Cube and accessory straps
• Secure Storage: Hidden pockets for AirTags, passports and valuables
• Colour Options: Available in eight colours including (my favourite) Rhone Burgundy
• Easy Access: Top, side and rear openings make gear easy to grab on the go

Elsewhere, the storage is impressively versatile. There’s a dedicated laptop sleeve, an internal tablet sleeve, a discreet AirTag pocket and memory card organisers in the side flap. On the exterior, a water bottle/tripod pocket with a strap and a large flat front pocket add extra carry options, while smart tote-style handles help when grabbing the bag off a shelf – although they get a little in the way when accessing the roll-top zip.

The PRVKE 21 V4 is made from lightweight yet strong P900D tarpaulin and N840D junior ballistic nylon, while reverse-coil YKK zips and DWR coatings help it stay weather-resistant. This plus the metal hooks on the accessory straps and roll-top closure add to the durable, premium feel.

On the move, the pack hugs the body securely, aided by curved shoulder straps and a flexible sternum strap. There’s no waist-belt included, but you can add one for £30. The backpack is stylish enough for city wear, while also proving tough and capable for travel or light hikes.

Pro or Essential Camera Cube bundle?

Wandrd offers the PRVKE 21 V4 by itself £206 (£234) and in two bundles. The Photography Bundle reviewed here includes the Essential Camera Cube and straps, ideal for most users. For those with bulkier gear, the Pro Photography Bundle (£312 / £54)) swaps in a larger Camera Cube, offering more room for longer lenses or extra accessories.

Wandrd PRVKE 21 V4: Our Verdict

The Wandrd PRVKE 21 V4 Photography Bundle successfully refines an already good design. Its excellent access, solid protection and thoughtful features make it one of the best daypacks available for photographers who want to carry a modest amount of kit in style. The included Essential Camera Cube and straps offer good value, while the option to use the bag with or without the Cube adds extra versatility, making it just as useful for everyday carry as it is for photo missions.

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Sitting below the 25L and 45L models, the Peak Design Outdoor Backpack 18L is the smallest backpack in the company’s Outdoor series. It’s aimed at photographers and outdoor enthusiasts who want a comfortable, low-profile bag for single-day trips or light loads. It doesn’t accept camera kit directly, requiring a Peak Design Camera Cube (or two), which costs extra.

Peak Design Outdoor Backpack 18L at a glance:

• $190 / £169.99 backpack only
• £206.98 with the SMedium Camera Cube
• Modular design
• Capacity 18L
• Rear-opening design
• External Dimensions: 47.6 x 27.5 x 15.5 cm
• Weight: 1Kg / 2.1lbs
• peakdesign.com

Like the 25L version, the 18L is made from Peak Design’s Terra Shell 210D Ripstop Nylon, which is weather-resistant, 100% recycled, Bluesign-approved and PFAS-free. The fabric feels tough yet light, and while the bag doesn’t ship with a rain cover (Rain Fly), one is available separately for £29.99 if you need the extra protection.

The 18L version of the backpack keeps things simpler than the 25L and 45L bags, with a fixed-capacity design and a large rear panel zip for main compartment access – there’s no roll-top or front pouch. It fits one SMedium Cube, which can be clipped in place, and there’s room above it for an X-Small Cube if you want to expand your camera kit. Alternatively, there’s room for a couple of XXS Ultralight Packing Cubes above the Medium Camera Cube.

This gives room to carry a full-frame mirrorless camera with a standard zoom plus two or three additional lenses, depending on their size. There’s also a sleeve for a hydration pouch or up to a 13-inch laptop, although as with the 25L, mixing water bladders with camera gear isn’t recommended.

Peak Design Outdoor Backpack 18L key features:

• Camera Cubes: One Peak Design Smedium and one X-Small Camera Cube can fit inside the bag.
• Vest-style straps: Distribute weight across more of your body while providing quick-access pockets and Capture Camera Clip mounting points.
• Rear-panel access: The main compartment is accessed via a large zip-around rear opening.
• Hydration/Laptop Pouch: There’s an internal pocket that can house a hydration pouch or a 13-inch laptop.
• Colour choice: Available in Black and Eclipse (burgundy).

Two deep, stretchy side pockets can hold a tripod or water bottle, and the front of the bag has Cord Hook attachment points for strapping on extra gear such as trekking poles or a jacket. These cords and loops also work with Peak Design’s Ultralight packing cubes for extra modular storage.

Peak Design has used similar vest-style shoulder straps to the larger Outdoor Backpacks. These distribute weight evenly and their quick-access pockets are handy for things like your phone or wallet. Both also have mounting points for Peak Design’s Capture camera clip. An optional padded waist belt can be added for extra support, but will set you back £44.99.

The frameless build means the 18L feels flexible and close-fitting, and at just 1kg, it’s easy to carry all day.

Peak Design Outdoor Backpack 18L – Our Verdict

The Peak Design Outdoor Backpack 18L is a comfortable, adaptable daypack that bridges the gap between an everyday backpack and a technical outdoor bag. While it lacks the expandable roll-top and larger capacity of the 25L version, its lighter weight, vest-style straps and simpler design make it a great choice for single-day hikes, travel or commuting – especially if you want to carry a modest camera kit alongside your essentials. As with the rest of the range, Camera Cubes are an extra cost, but they make the bag’s modular approach work seamlessly.

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It used to be ground-breaking to include 32-bit Floating Point recording in your mic system, but now everyone is doing it – and some for the second time. Only 18 months after the release of its Mic 2, DJI has introduced an updated, and in some ways fundamentally different, version of its wireless mic set. The DJI Mic 3 brings a new design and a collection of new features that include the ability to send audio to multiple cameras at the same time – but which leaves out one feature that many will feel too important to sacrifice.

DJI Mic 3 at a glance

• $329 / £259 DJI Mic 3 Combi kit (RX + 2TX, charging case and cables)
• $219 / £169 Extra RX and TX kit
• Wireless mic set
• Up to four TX units
• Can transmit audio to eight cameras
• 32-bit float internal recording
• 28 hours of use per charge
• dji.com

At $329 / £259 for the basic kit (2 transmitters and 1 receiver), and $219 / £169 for an additional transmitter/receiver pair, the DJI Mic 3 comes in at a moderately higher price than its predecessor, and sits very much in the top bracket of this style of wireless mic. Let’s see if it’s worth the money.

DJI Mic 3 Major Features

• Distortion avoidance: Adaptive Gain control helps to automatically eliminate peaks for those whose cameras can’t record in 32-bit float
• Transmit and record: Transmitters can record internally while also sending audio to the receiver, and you can chose ‘edited’ or ‘raw’ on each
• Two-level noise cancellation: Pick between Basic and Strong settings according to intensity of background distractions

Features

Like most wireless mic outfits, the DJI Mic 3 base kit comprises a receiver that sits on the camera and a pair of microphone/transmitters that are designed to be attached to the people we are recording. The kit also includes a USB-C or Lightning adapter for the receiver, so it can record directly to a phone/tablet or a computer. This is all packed into a hard case that not only protects the kit but which also charges it from an internal battery.

The hard case fits into a soft bag that contains all the cables for charging and connecting, and a pair of wind shields needed for the microphones. If you use a Sony camera that can accept audio through the hotshoe, there is also an optional hotshoe adapter that means you don’t need to cable the receiver to the camera, but which only handles 24-bit recordings.

One of the big attractions of this new wireless mic set is that it allows us to not only record up to four people at the same time – via additional mic/transmitters (TX units) – but we can also send audio to more than one camera at a time. In fact we can send audio from four TX units to eight receivers (RX units), so eight cameras can be recording the same person/people speaking, and they will all receive the same audio from all the active microphones.

This is quite a step up, and will obviously make it easier to sync audio in multi-cam set-ups – because no syncing will be needed so long as all the video clips are lined up properly. Of course you won’t be needing eight cameras on most shoots, but having two cameras for a single interviewee is very common, and three or four isn’t unreasonable when recording both interviewer and interviewee. It’s a pretty neat feature, especially on an accessible set like this.

Another new feature that aims to make synching audio easier is Time Code. With Time Code active we can send a Time Code signal to the camera and to the mic/transmitters, which is especially useful as each transmitter is capable of internal recording. If Time Code has been recorded it’s much easier to line-up those internal recordings, whether we are recording solely to the receiver or to the camera as well.

One of the nice things about the internal recording is that it can be done using either 24-bit or 32-bit Float, so you don’t have to use a camera capable of recording in 32-bit. Most cameras will record only up to 24-bit, so will miss out on the full potential of the DJI Mic 3’s abilities – but internal recording to the transmitter unit gets around that problem. We have 32GB of internal memory in each transmitter too, so there is plenty of space.

Other new features include three Voice Tone Presets to complement different pitched speakers, two strengths of noise cancellation, and Adaptive Gain Control which mixes recording from two levels to prevent clipping, and which can also automatically adjust levels when two people are using the same mic – so they come out at the same volume.

A Bluetooth feature in each transmitter also means we can connect them directly to a phone for recording, without needing a receiver at all. DJI includes a set of clip-on windshields, and you can also buy additional ones in a variety of colours, so you can match them to your subject’s clothing.

Design and handling

It’s great that we get all this in such a small and convenient package, and that the kit looks nice to go with it. I’m not a fan of seeing microphones in recordings though, and these little transmitters are quite hard to hide. The company has made sure the logos are prominent, even on the magnets used when you hide the transmitter under your clothes. While the TX units weigh only 16g all the weight is concentrated in a small, thick area, so the transmitter pulls collars, bulges under t-shirts and makes itself difficult to conceal.

A key issue here is that there is no option to connect a Lavalier microphone to these transmitters, so the TX units are likely to be in-shot. The earlier DJI Mic 2 does have Lav mic options, but I’m told that was left off this model to keep the TX units as small as possible. While some love to show off what mic they are using, for many others who prefer to record with no distractions, this will be a complete turn off.

DJI has given us a headphone socket on the RX unit so we can monitor audio even when recording internally and not to a camera, as well as a USB-C port so we can power the device from an external battery pack should be need to.

The menus and settings for the whole kit are directed from the rear screen of the receiver unit and navigated by touch, a back button and a scrolling/pressing dial. Navigation of the system is greatly assisted by experience of previous models, or a good long sit down with the manual.

I made the mistake of thinking I could pick it up and work it out, which proved a frustrating strategy. Lots of practice and regular use will be the answer to finding your way around the very many options via such a small screen. Running eight receivers and four transmitters from it though will be like playing a xylophone through a letterbox.

In use and audio quality

Straight out of the box, and even without going into the menu system, you will get very good audio quality from this kit. Wade into the menu and your life will become more complicated, but time and patience will be rewarded with access to the DJI Mic 3’s new features. The difference between the voice tones is subtle but effective, and I found the new Adaptive Gain Control pretty good at controlling moderate peaks that would otherwise have been distorted – it isn’t a magic wand, but it really does help. 

The new two-level noise cancelling is also worth investigating. I found the Basic setting good for removing less intrusive sounds and for moderating louder ones, while the Strong setting can eliminate a lot of louder background noise but inevitably at the expense of resolution in the speaker’s voice. In extreme conditions the strong setting will help bury the background to make the voice stand out more, it’s just a question of how much voice distortion you are prepared to put up with. It’s pretty good though.

The range is listed as 400m, so I was surprised to find the signal unreliable after just 20m with a moving camera and a static subject, and with a body in the way after only 10m. With the camera still and the subject moving range is a great deal better, but with a body in the way we can be interrupted at 20m. It can pass through interior walls okay, but not with distance as well. DJI engineers acknowledged my findings and tell me they are working to solve the issue.

Battery life though is much more impressive, with 8 hours for the transmitters and 10 hours for the receiver – and we can recharge 2.4x in the case. The case takes just 2 hours to charge, and a five minute charge of TX or RX units gets you an extra 2 hours of use.

DJI Mic 3: Our Verdict

This is a great mic set, but there are a few caveats. No Lav mic option will be difficult to swallow for some, especially as the TX units drag clothes down with their concentrated weight, and because they are hard to conceal. The lack of range won’t be an issue for those using them indoors in a room and in normal interview situations, but might be for outdoor shoots where the subject needs to be some distance from the camera.

It is also complicated to get the best from the mics by going through the menu system. This is a very fully-featured system, and DJI has packed an enormous number of extremely useful options into it, but it’s no quick job learning how to control everything. It’s worth the effort, but expect it to take some time if you are starting from scratch.

Great audio quality though, and a whole pile of excellent options.

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Another year, another new Pixel phone, this time, the Pixel 10 Pro range is looking better than ever, and should easily make it onto the list of the best camera phones for photography, but how does the 10 Pro perform, and did Google fix the issues I had with the previous model? The 10 Pro and 10 Pro XL offer the exact same camera setup, meaning the choice between them is down to what size phone you prefer.  

At a glance

• 50MP f/1.68 wide, 1/1.3inch, OIS, 24mm equiv. 
• 48MP f/1.7 ultra-wide with AF, 1/2.55inch, 12mm equiv. 
• 48MP f/2.8, 5x telephoto, 1/2.55inch, OIS, 110mm equiv. (up to 100x Pro Res Zoom)
• 42MP f/2.2 selfie with AF 
• 6.3inch, 1-120Hz screen, 3300nits peak brightness 
• 4K video front/rear (8K powered by Video boost upscaling) 
• 4870mAh (30W charging, 15W wireless) 
• 152.8 x 72 x 8.5mm, 207g (IP68)

Features 

There’s a triple camera setup on the rear of the phone, with an ultra-wide angle, wide-angle, and 5x telephoto cameras. The 1x lens offers 2x “optical quality” zoom, whilst the 5x lens offers a 10x “optical quality” zoom, as seen on the previous model, and I was impressed by the results, even finding it a match for a phone with a true 10x optical lens. The way this is presented in the camera app gives a seamless user experience, with 0.5x, 1x, 2x, 5x, and 10x options on screen, almost as though you have 5 different cameras.

With 48-50MP sensors on the main cameras, it’s worth noting that these output 12MP images on default settings due to pixel binning. The 42MP selfie camera outputs 10.5MP images, again due to pixel binning.  

This zoom feature uses Google’s hybrid Super Resolution zoom multi-shot technology, which Google have been offering for many years now, and as long as you don’t use too much zoom, then the results have been impressive. The 10 Pro and 10 Pro XL cameras now offer up to 100x zoom now, using “Pro Res Zoom” with AI helping improve the detail in the photo.

In addition to all the great AI and computational photography features found on last year’s phone, you also get some new ones. The new features include a Camera Coach, designed to help you get better shots. Some of my favourite shooting modes that were also available on last years phone include Action Pan, Long exposure, Add me, Portrait, Night sight and Panorama. A lot of these features, particularly the long exposure mode (and Night sight) are impressive as they can be used handheld without the need of a tripod.

Handling and Design 

Even though the phone is small, for a flagship, the phone is seriously thick, and whilst a similar thickness to the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra (at 8.5mm), it’s when you add on the huge protruding camera bump, you have one seriously chunky phone, at roughly 1.1cm thick. I don’t really understand why it’s not thinner, especially as other brands are able to produce flagship phones that are thin. The Samsung Galaxy S25 looks miniscule in comparison.

There’s a sim card tray that can be found at the top – although depending on your region – this may be missing, with US versions switching to eSim only. The stereo speakers are impressively loud for a smaller phone. 

The 10 Pro gives you a 6.3inch screen, and this has been updated slightly, with a brighter peak brightness this year (at 3300 peak, rather than 3000 peak on the 9 Pro). This is also one of the main differences between the 10 Pro and 10 Pro XL, screen size, battery size, and overall dimensions and weight. If you want the best possible camera system in a Pixel phone, you don’t have to compromise when you choose a smaller phone.  

Camera app… 

The camera app can seem both simpler, and at times more complex, for example, if you’re used to having a small number of shooting modes (with more hidden in another menu), then you may feel that the Pixel has too many modes. However, if you’re used to there being more modes available (even when hidden) then you may find this camera app looks fairly basic at first glance.  

Either way, I got used to the app quickly, with built-in explanations when you first use a feature, and more settings available when needed. The toggle between photo and video modes is a nice touch, and once in the video mode you can find all the different video shooting modes.  

You can very quickly access the camera app, even when the phone is locked, by double-pressing the power button on the side of the phone.  

It’s all fairly standard stuff, with the photo mode offering action pan, long exposure, add me, portrait, photo, night sight and panorama. Night sight will automatically activate in most modes as needed, when a dark enough scene is detected. 

Video mode offers pan, blur, standard video mode, night sight, slow motion, and time lapse. Additional options for video include a speed enhancement option, audio zoom, and video format options. If you do want a flat video mode, switching on Video boost will enable this (but with other limitations and issues which I’ll cover later).  

When you do go looking for advanced photo options you might find some of this fairly limited, with only two aspect ratio options available (16:9 and 4:3 – where is 1:1 etc?). However, there are options for shooting at 50MP, shooting RAW, and setting manual settings including the shutter speed and ISO etc (bottom right).  

There are a number of AI editing features available in playback, with many available without an internet connection. There are also tools that require an internet connection to work, and gives you some of the more advanced features, including generative fill etc. 

Performance

In good lighting, the Pixel 10 Pro is capable of taking some extremely pleasing looking images, with great colour reproduction without being too saturated. There are times when the auto white balance can be a little too cold, but this can be adjusted when needed.

Pixel 10 Pro · f/1.7 · 1/1009s · 2.02mm · ISO47

The cameras give consistent results, whether you use the ultra-wide, the wide, or the telephoto, and the 2x and 10x options also give impressive results. The 5x telephoto camera is a periscope design, but one that isn’t optimised for macro or close-up photography. This is unfortunate as I’ve seen extremely impressive results from other brands that do offer this.

Using the zoom, once you get to a certain level of zoom “Pro Res Zoom” steps in and uses generative AI tools to add detail to the image. This can work really well at times for some subjects, but look artificial at other times.

Pixel 10 Pro · f/1.68 · 1/100s · 6.9mm · ISO97

Close-ups can be taken with the main camera, or you can use the ultra-wide-angle camera thanks to this having auto-focus. Results are good enough, but don’t match some other phones.

Night photography, remains a major strength in this phone, and the mode will automatically activate when lighting levels are low. It can be used with any camera, whether that’s the ultra-wide, wide-angle or telephoto camera, and results are quite impressive, although images can look soft when viewed at full size. Results will vary depending on a number of factors, with worse results in darker conditions, as expected.

Put it on a solid surface such as a wall, a beanbag, or a tripod with phone adapter, and the astrophotography features become incredibly impressive offering exposures in the minutes rather than seconds.  

Pixel 10 Pro · f/1.68 · 1/1923s · 6.9mm · ISO286

Portraits – 1x and 2x options are available, but not 5x. In comparison Samsung phones (depending on the model) give you 1x, 2x, and 3x options (and 5x option on the S24/S25 Ultra models). The lens is there, why not give the option to use it? 

Pixel 10 Pro · f/2.2 · 1/54s · 2.713mm · ISO77

The selfie camera gives good results, with the portrait mode giving a pleasingly blurred background.

Video – Video Boost is literally the worst thing I’ve ever used. I hate it with a passion. What were Google thinking when they created this awful system? Nobody really needs 8K video, but if you do, then the way it’s implemented on Pixel phones has got to be the worst way possible.  

If you want 8K video, here’s the process: switch on Video Boost, record 4K video, make sure your video is backed up to the cloud (you have to sign in to enable this), wait till Google processes your video, and then WAIT for an 8K video file to download to your phone. You MUST have enough space on your Google account, don’t worry though, you can pay Google more money to upgrade it. I’m still waiting for the on-phone processing promised when the 9 Pro was announced last year: The Google Pixel 9 Pro does NOT record 8K video (despite what Google say).

It’s almost as though this feature was simply made to sell your more Google storage. Accidentally leave video boost switched on and you get a Full HD video (processed with stabilisation) along with a 4K video that is unprocessed and lacking stabilisation. Outside of this issue, video recorded using the phone looks good and stabilisation does a good job of keeping it steady.

Value for money 

The Pixel 10 Pro offers a lot of cameras for the price, however, the inclusion of 128GB storage, rather than a larger amount is disappointing for the price. If you regularly record 4K video, then this is likely to run out fast.

Compared to the Pixel 9 Pro, there’s slightly improved battery life, slightly improved screen, and improved speakers, as well as Bluetooth v6.0, and it’s slightly heavier. If you already have the 9 Pro, there’s little reason to upgrade to this model. So if you want to save money, then the 9 Pro is available for roughly $350 less if you shop around.

Alternatives include the Samsung Galaxy S25 a whole $200 cheaper, and the iPhone 16 Pro which is priced at the same price as the Pixel 10 Pro. What you’ll notice here is that Android phones are normally priced lower than iPhones, here Google think this shouldn’t apply to them. I would disagree, and think Google should offer more storage, or a lower price point. 

Verdict 

Google’s Pixel phones have always been about making high-end / advanced photography features accessible whether you’ve got photography skills or not, and in this regard, the 10 Pro continues with this tradition. The new Camera Coach being even more beginner friendly, and it’s similar (but different) to Samsung’s “Shot suggestion” feature. The good news here is that you don’t have to use it if you don’t want to.

Pixel 10 Pro · f/1.68 · 1/405s · 6.9mm · ISO18

The same issues I had with the 9 Pro and 9 Pro XL still apply to the new 10 Pro, namely, macro performance doesn’t match the competition, and 8K video is only offered as an AI/cloud based feature, where you have to wait for your video to be processed before you have access to the 8K footage (while you’re waiting, you only get access to Full HD processed, or unprocessed 4K footage). This can be extremely frustrating if you accidentally leave ‘Video Boost’ switched on. Why not simply offer real 8K video recording like everyone else?

Ignoring these issues, and ignoring the paltry 128GB storage on offer, the Pixel 10 Pro is a lovely phone, but one that feels like poor value for money compared to the 9 Pro which is considerably cheaper. This is where the 10 Pro, even though it’s an excellent phone, doesn’t really do enough to justify the higher price. Other brands offer 8K video, cheaper prices, more storage, and if you shop around and go outside the mainstream models, you’ll also find better macro performance. When the Pixel 10 Pro price drops, or you find a great deal now, it’s worth buying, but otherwise I’m sure you’ll be just as happy with the previous model.

Like the 9 Pro and 9 Pro XL before it, the 10 Pro does an impressive job of delivering great results from all the cameras, plus 2x and 10x images, which makes it feel like you’ve got five cameras on the back of the phone, rather than three. The 10 Pro gives you images that are genuinely pleasing.

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Of the four APS-C EOS R models, the EOS R7 is the most advanced, boasting a higher resolution 32.5MP sensor, faster shooting, a larger viewfinder and in-body image stabilisation.

At a glance:

• New $1,499 / £1,349 body-only
• New $1,949 / £1,799 with RF-S 18-150mm f/3.5-6.3 IS STM zoom
• Used $1,349 (renewed) / £1,049 (like new used condition)
• 32.5MP APS-C sensor
• ISO 100-51,200 (extended)
• 30fps shooting
• 4K 60p video
• 2.36m-dot EVF
• 3in, 1.62m-dot vari-angle LCD

As the numbering suggests, Canon sees it as a successor to the EOS 7D Mark II APS-C DSLR, which means it’s one of the most ambitious APS-C mirrorless cameras made, going head-to-head with the likes of the Fujifilm X-T4 and Sony A6600.

The Fujifilm X-T5, however, raised the bar for APS-C sensor resolution with 40 megapixels, so the EOS R7 is no longer the highest resolution camera in this class. But still, it is one of the best Canon mirrorless cameras and becomes more appealing as the RF-S lens range continues to grow. With more lenses (or via adaptors) the R7 could also be among the best cameras for action and sports photography.

The EOS R7 is available for $1,500 / £1,350 body-only or $1,950 / £1,800 with RF-S 18-150mm f/3.5-6.3 IS STM zoom, its usual ‘kit’ lens.

Features

Canon built the EOS R7 around an updated version of the 32.5MP sensor from the EOS 90D DSLR and mirrorless EOS M6 Mark II. In concert with the Digic X processor, this offers a standard ISO range of 100-32,000 that’s extendable to ISO 51,200. The R7 can shoot at 15 frames per second using the mechanical shutter – half as fast again as the EOS 90D – or 30fps using the silent electronic shutter.

Autofocus employs Canon’s Dual Pixel CMOS AF II, with each pixel split into two to enable on-sensor phase detection. There are 651/5915 selectable focus points covering the entire image area, which are claimed to work in extremely low light equating to -5EV. The EOS R7 also inherits the intelligent subject detection and tracking system from the flagship EOS R3, capable of recognising humans, animals or vehicles.

High-speed shooting

• 30fps with the electronic shutter, up to 126 JPG, 42 raw images
• 15fps with mechanical shutter, up to 224 JPEG or 51 raw images

Shutter speeds go as fast as 1/8000s using the mechanical shutter, and up to 1/16,000s using the electronic shutter.

Video recording

4K 30p recording is available for video that’s oversampled from 7K, in 4:2:0 8-bit or 4:2:2 10-bit colour (HDR PQ or C-LOG3), and with no 30-minute time limit. There’s also a 1.8x 4K crop mode that can go up to 60fps, Full HD recording at up to 120fps, and a 4K time-lapse option. Vertical recording is supported for social media use. 4K Fine (IPB) is recorded at 120Mbps, or 170Mbps with C-Log or HDR PQ on, going up to 340Mbps (4K crop, 60p). People, animals and vehicle detection and tracking auto-focus is available while recording video.

Microphone and headphone sockets are built-in, with Canon Log 3 also onboard for easier post-processing. A switch on top selects between stills and video modes, with separate settings retained for each. Canon has also used the same new hot shoe as on the EOS R3, which includes a digital audio interface and can supply power to connected devices.

More key features

• Handling: The compact body boasts a large, comfortable handgrip and a good array of physical controls
• In-body Stabilisation: 5-axis in-body stabilisation promises up to 8 stops of shake suppression, along with automatic horizon correction (which has been only previously been available on Pentax cameras)
• Dual card slots: Canon has included dual UHS-II SD card slots, allowing you to back up files to both while shooting
• Lenses: You can fit RF and RF-S lenses directly, and EF and EF-S DSLR lenses via the Canon Mount Adapter EF-EOS R. However, EF-M lenses can’t be used
• Battery: The R7 uses the same LP-E6N battery as many other Canon cameras, and gives up to 770 shots (using the LCD)
• Custom modes: The mode dial offers 3 custom modes, where you can save photo and video settings

Build and handling

A rich feature set has been squeezed into a body that’s smaller and lighter than the EOS 850D DSLR, yet it boasts a large, comfortable handgrip and a good array of external controls. It employs two electronic dials for changing exposure settings, with the rear dial unusually placed around the focus area selection joystick. My initial impression is that this arrangement works well enough, although it’s not obviously better than the horizontal rear dial on other EOS R bodies.

Canon has kept the top plate uncluttered, with the mode dial and power switch joined by movie, IS and Fn buttons; the latter gives quick access to a range of secondary settings. On the front, a switch around the depth-of-field preview button selects between auto and manual focus, which is handy given that many of Canon’s more affordable RF lenses lack AF/MF switches; including RF-S optics.

Weather sealing

For viewing, you get a 2.36m-dot electronic viewfinder and a 3in, 1.62m-dot vari-angle touchscreen. Power is provided by Canon’s familiar LP-E6N battery, which promises 500 shots per charge using the viewfinder, and 770 with the LCD. Canon is promising a similar level of weather sealing to the EOS 90D, but disappointingly, neither of the RF-S lenses are similarly protected.

The menus and controls follow the same layout and design as Canon’s other cameras, and the menus and buttons will be immediately recognisable to anyone who’s used a recent Canon EOS camera – except for the rear command dial / scroll wheel. This surrounds a joystick controller, and seems an unnecessary design flare that adds little to the user experience. It can take a while to get used to this rear command wheel / dial, and we’d have much preferred a standard rear dial, and perhaps a third wheel.

Viewfinder and screen

The rear screen gives a clear, bright view of the scene and menus, although at slightly under 3 inches, it isn’t the largest around. The resolution of 1.62m dots helps make up for this. And you can turn and tilt the screen to your heart’s desire, which aids viewing of the screen even outdoors in bright sunlight. Naturally, it’s ideal for vlogging and selfies.

What about the EVF?

The electronic viewfinder is acceptable in that it does a good job of showing you what’s going on, but with a resolution of 2.36m dots and an average size (1.15x / 0.72x), it is nothing special: disappointing when compared to higher resolution EVFs found on other cameras such as the Fujifilm X-T4/X-T5. Dioptre adjustment can be found on the left, and there’s an eye-detection sensor so the camera will automatically switch between the rear screen and EVF when needed.

You can toggle the view, and a dual-axis electronic level and histogram can be viewed on the screen (and EVF). What’s shown on screen in the menus can be customised, and the Info button will toggle through the displays. A variety of grids can be selected, with all the usual options such as the “rule of thirds”. There’s an optical viewfinder simulation mode designed to give you a natural view of the scene, without additional processing; the opposite of “what you see is what you get”, which has become the norm on mirrorless cameras.

You also get the choice of a power saving mode, or a smoother display, with a faster refresh rate of 120fps. I found the standard, 60fps power saving mode, perfectly adequate.

Native RF-S lenses

Alongside the EOS R7 (and R10) Canon introduced two RF-mount lenses designed for the APS-C format. Firstly, the RF-S 18-45mm f/4.5-6.3 IS STM is a compact, collapsible design that offers a 29-72mm equivalent zoom range. It is sold in a kit with the EOS R10 or on its own for $329 / £305. Meanwhile the RF-S 18-150mm f/3.5-6.3 IS STM costs around $539 / £494 and offers a 29-240mm equivalent range – this is the usual ‘kit’ lens for the EOS R7. Both lenses include optical stabilisation and stepper motors for autofocus.

It has to be said that these lenses are the most disappointing part of Canon’s APS-C RF system so far. The 18-45mm may be small and light, but its focal-length range and aperture is uninspiring to say the least, especially as the firm offers an equally compact 15-45mm f/3.5-6.3 in EF-M mount. The 18-150mm looks like it should be a nice travel lens, and could make a fine match with the EOS R10. But like the 18-45mm, its 29mm equivalent wide end looks out of touch in a world where competing cameras come equipped with 24mm equivalent zooms, especially as there’s no RF-S ultrawide zoom.

Use full-frame lenses

Since the EOS R7/ EOS R10 were launched, only one more native RF-S lens has arrived – the $379 / £386 Canon RF-S 55-210mm f/5-7.1 IS STM telephoto zoom. It’s a shame that in buying a high-speed, high-performance compact camera, one is compelled to use full-frame lenses in order to have a good choice of lenses.

None of these lenses really comes close to matching the ambition of the EOS R7, so let’s hope Canon comes up with some more interesting RF-S offerings soon. For EOS R7 owners to really get the most from the camera, I’d like to see something along the lines of 15-50mm f/2.8 and 15-80mm f/4 zooms, with weather sealing and premium optics. It would also make sense for Canon to make RF-mount versions of its EF-M lenses, which could give it a shortcut to a nice APS-C line-up.

Mount adapters for the EOS R7

If you’re coming from a Canon EOS DSLR, then you’ll find there’s a range of EF-RF mount adapters available, and EF lenses perform well on the camera, albeit without the size advantage of native RF mount lenses.

Autofocus

The EOS R7 offers an impressive 5,915 AF points (manually selectable), with 100% coverage both vertically and horizontally, and 651 AF areas when on automatic selection. The camera has human, animal or vehicle tracking, and recognises dogs, cats and birds for itself. Vehicles will detect cars or motorbikes, but doesn’t mention trains or planes. Human detection will automatically detect eyes, face, heads and bodies.

Focus works in low-light down to -5EV, and an AF assist beam can be switched on/off if needed. The camera has a dedicated section for the auto-focus options, with multiple cases (4) as well as auto. The cases can be customised to preference. You can use the touch-screen to touch and drag the AF point if needed, but this can be switched off in the menus. Manual focus peaking options can be customised letting you set the peaking colour.

You can also shoot at up to 15fps with continuous AF using the mechanical shutter, or up to 30fps with the electronic shutter.

Focus performance was particularly impressive when set to tracking, with the camera successfully tracking and focusing on subjects, including humans. Fast moving subjects rarely seemed to phase the camera with shot after shot correctly focused on the subject’s face.

Performance and image quality

Dynamic range on default settings gives acceptable results in most situations, but there are times when the camera can produce images with blown highlights in JPEGs, and it can be difficult to recover these even from the raw files.

Once you switch to the HDR (multi-shot mode) or HEIF images, you suddenly realise how much dynamic range is missing from the image. If you’re used to shooting with a smartphone where every image is taken in HDR, you’ll quickly wish for more dynamic range. You can of course shoot in raw for additional dynamic range, or use the previously mentioned HDR or HEIF modes.

The HEIF file format

The camera supports HEIF images, and to shoot these, you need to switch on the HDR PQ mode, which lets you shoot a HEIF file (and raw file if raw is switched on). In-camera you can then convert this to a JPEG image, with increased dynamic range over a standard JPEG image. However, there is very little support for HEIF (.HIF) files even with the latest version of Adobe Photoshop (v23.4.1).

The shutter sound is relatively quiet, similar to other mirrorless systems I had to hand, and quieter than a full-frame Sony A7 III. Using the electronic shutter and silent option you can shoot completely silently, and this can be switched on/off in the menus.

Metering

Metering generally performs very well, with the camera giving well exposed images, which tend to give a brighter image than other brands, as is the normal case when using Canon cameras. If you’re used to Canon cameras this will be perfectly normal, but if you’re used to other camera, you can easily alter this with a turn of exposure compensation, or by using Highlight Tone Priority settings.

Auto white balance (AWB) is exceptional, with the camera producing extremely pleasing colours in a wide variety of shooting scenarios. If you wanted to be a little fussy, then you might find colours a little too neutral (rather than warm that many find pleasing) but again, this is entirely subjective, and can easily be adjusted by tweaking the “Picture Style” settings. Auto White Balance also gives the option of ‘Ambience’ priority or ‘White priority’, which will be useful for white background product shots.

In-body image stabilisation performed admirably, with the camera producing sharp photos time after time. On default settings the camera would increase the ISO speed rather than let the shutter speed drop too low, helping keep images sharp.

ISO and noise

Noise performance is particularly well controlled considering the sensor is both smaller than most other APS-C cameras (with a 1.6x crop rather than 1.5x crop), as well as a higher resolution than most other APS-C sensors. As a result, the Canon EOS R7 has some of the smallest pixels of any APS-C camera currently available, barring the Fujifilm X-T5.

The camera gives good JPEG results up to ISO 12,800, with few concerns about noise until going above this; ISO 25,600 and above are particularly noise filled. As you’d expect, using ISO 32,000 and ISO 51,200 is to be avoided.

Video

The amount of scene included in the video (the crop factor) depends on what resolution and frame rate options you go for. This also has a knock-on effect on the quality of the image, as only 4K 30fps uses a 7K image downsampled to 4K, and switching to a higher frame rate results in a cropped image. Focus performance during video recording is good, with the camera quickly and accurately focusing on the subject.

* Canon EOS R7 4K Fine 25p Sample video with 18-150mm lens at 54mm, handheld panning, with IS+DIS switched on (standard, not enhanced), IS on (DIS off), and IS switched off.

Editing the video files is a pain-free process, with video recorded at roughly 120mbps (4K Fine, 25p, IPB). You can also save custom video modes to three different custom modes found on the mode dial.

4K Fine (IPB) is recorded at 120Mbps, or 170Mbps with C-Log or HDR PQ on, going up to 340Mbps (4K crop, 60p). People, animals and vehicle detection and tracking auto-focus is available while recording video. Full HD high-speed video can be recorded at speeds up to 120fps, so for those looking for 240fps video, you’ll need to look elsewhere.

Value for money

The Canon EOS R7 is good value for money. Rivals from other brands do challenge how much: for example, compared to the cheaper Fujifilm X-T3, which offers a higher resolution electronic viewfinder and CINE video recording, although lacks IBIS (in-body image stabilisation). Another alternative is the Fujifilm X-T4, which does offer IBIS. The Fujifilm X-S10 is also another very competitively priced option, but while it does have IBIS, has no weather-sealing.

The other benefit the Fujifilm X-System, Sony E-Mount, and Micro Four Thirds systems have going for them is the vast array of lenses available, in comparison to Canon’s three RF-S lenses. Of course, you can use RF (full-frame) lenses on the EOS R7, however, this defeats the purpose of using a smaller camera system. In comparison, with the Fujifilm X-system and Micro Four Thirds system all lenses have been designed to be the optimal size for the system.

Compared to the Canon EOS 90D, the EOS R7 offers quicker continuous shooting 15/30fps vs 10fps, is smaller and lighter, with significantly more focus points, as well as more advanced focus, but cannot match the 1300-shot battery life of the EOS 90D, with 770 shot battery life (LCD) or 500 shot battery life (EVF).

In comparison to the Canon EOS 7D Mark II – which Canon replaced with the EOS R7 – the R7 again offers faster continuous shooting (15/30fps vs 10fps), a higher-resolution sensor, 4K video, built-in Wi-Fi, a touchscreen and tilting screen, as well as more advanced focus (5915 AF points vs 65). It’s clear that we’ve come a long way since the 7D Mark II was released in 2014!

Verdict

The Canon EOS R7 out-specs all of Canon’s APS-C DSLRs, plus its older EOS M-series mirrorless models. It does this in a lightweight body that handles very nicely, despite its small size. With high-speed shooting, advanced AF tracking, and good battery life, it would make for a great all-round camera, as long as you don’t mind the lack of lens choices, or are happy with using full-frame lenses on the camera.

The Canon EOS R7 does a great job of giving high-speed performance and generally high image quality. However, with the EOS R7, you’re left with the choice of just three APS-C lenses, in comparison to over 40 X-Mount lenses for the Fujifilm X system, over 22 E-Mount (APS-C) lenses for the Sony system, and over 100 Micro Four Thirds lenses for Micro Four Thirds cameras.

Limited lens choice

If you’re a Canon EOS RF system user who wants a slightly smaller camera body, high-speed shooting, and wants to use full-frame lenses with a 1.6x crop, then the Canon EOS R7 could make for an excellent second camera body. If you’re coming to the system with no existing lenses, then make sure you’re happy with the lenses on offer from Canon, as the choice really is limited, unless you use full-frame lenses.

The rear command wheel is another interesting decision, where a standard, normal command wheel would have done the job and been much less awkward to use.

It didn’t take us too long to get used to the command wheel, but with a standard rear dial, we could have picked up the camera and used it straight away, with nothing new to get the hang of. The joystick being in the centre of this dial is also another design annoyance that was avoidable.

The screen looks great, but the electronic viewfinder (EVF) feels a little like an afterthought compared to the resolution and magnification on offer in other cameras such as the Fujifilm X-T3/X-T4/X-T5. It’s not a massive issue as the EVF still looks good, and gives accurate colour and exposure information. Image quality is very good, but the best results will need the use a full-frame RF lens or EF lenses with an adapter. It’s a real shame that the only RF-S lenses are zoom lenses designed to be compact, rather than designed for optimum image quality.

In summary

In our time with the Canon EOS R7, the camera performed almost flawlessly, with great results possible; the only issue being the lack of lens choice.

Whether you’re looking for a camera for stills or video, the high-speed and high-quality output of the R7 certainly makes for an appealing camera. However, without additional dedicated lenses it could easily feel limiting.

Find more great Canon cameras in our guide to the best Canon mirrorless cameras.

Related reading:

• Canon EOS R5 review
• Canon EOS R6 Mark II review
• Canon EOS R10 full review

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The post Canon EOS R7 Full Review – quality with quirks appeared first on Amateur Photographer.

Vivo V60 at a glance:

• 50MP f/1.9, 23mm equivalent, PDAF, OIS main camera
• 50MP f/2.73 73mm equivalent PDAF, OIS periscope 3x telephoto camera 
• 8MP f/2.0 15mm equivalent,120˚ FOV ultra-wide camera
• 50MP f/2.2 21mm equivalent AF, selfie camera 
• 4K 60p rear, (4K 30p front)
• 6.77” screen 5000nits (peak), 120Hz, AMOLED 
• 6500mAh battery, 90W wired flash charge
• 163.2×76.7×7.5mm, 192g, IP68 & IP69

Vivo is an up-and-coming Chinese brand available mostly in Asian, Middle-eastern and European markets, offering Zeiss co-engineered lenses in its smartphones. The Vivo V60, the latest midrange smartphone in their repertoire, now features three cameras – although at the cost of resolution for the ultra-wide unit, and comes only six months after the Vivo V50 was released. Other improvements include a new 10x telephoto stage portrait option, a bigger battery, and a brighter screen.

We review smartphones from the perspective of choosing a smartphone for its photography and camera performance, so we’ll be starting by looking at what the VivoV60 offers in terms of the cameras and what features are included for photography and video.

Vivo V60 – Features

The main difference for photography, a new 50MP periscope telephoto unit (3x), with 3x optical and a 10-100x digital zoom, with an f2.7 aperture and 73mm equivalent field of view. This is the same telephoto Sony IMX882 sensor that you find in the flagship X200FE. However, to achieve this otherwise useful telephoto unit, Vivo sacrificed the resolution of the ultra-wide camera (0.6x) to only 8MP, down from the previous 50MP.

But don’t forget that often when you see 50MP, that doesn’t mean you are actually taking photos at that resolution. With pixel binning technology, you take images at 12MP from a 50MP sensor. This method couples neighbouring pixels together, to make the snsor more sensitive to light and take better images at night and low light. So, unless you shoot in High resolution mode (found under More tab) you are shooting at 12MP from the 50MP sensors too. And in reality, you will find yourself wanting to zoom in on things more often rather than wishing for an ultra-wide view. That said 8MP is a fairly low.

Both 50MP main (1x) and telephoto (3x) cameras have PDAF (Phase detection autofocus) and benefit from OIS (Optical Image Stabilisation). This helps counter blurred images caused by shaky hands and improves low-light performance, as it helps you create sharper images at longer shutter speeds at night.

Video is available for the main 1x and 3x telephoto cameras at 4K60p and for the selfie camera at 4K30p resolution. It has a bigger battery size at 6500mAh and supports 90W wired fast charging and reverse charging too. The V60 runs on Android 15 and Vivo promises 4 years of androoid software updates.

Vivo V60 – Build and Handling

The V60 is a larger-bodied device with a 6.77” curved AMOLED screen, which has a 1500nits global and 5000nits peak brightness. I’ve found it easy to see even in very bright sunlight. The borders look a little thick, but at least they stay the same width all around. 

It is also quite slim at only 7.53mm, despite housing a large battery. The front and back is made of glass, with metallic-coloured, but plastic edges. It has a high water and dust resistance rating at IP68 and IP69 and employs a Schott Xensation Core glass to further protect the screen. Vivo also supplies the V60 with a screen protector already applied, a soft silicon case and a 90W charger.

I tested the iridescent Summer Blue colour way that looks a bit like mother-of-pearl. A unique and beautiful finish, a shame that the supplied case is not see-through to show it off. You can also choose from a Berry Purple, Ocean Blue, Desert Gold, and Mist Gray version.

Vivo V60 – Photo app

By default, the regular photo mode opens with the usual Night, Portrait, and  Video modes alongside a Micro movie option, which is essentially a recording and editing suite with built-in video filters. You can edit and return to record a short clip to add to your footage easily.
You can enable a quick launch option in the settings, and open the camera by double pressing the lower volume button, and take a quick photo by pressing it for the third time. I found that setting this to Snapshot mode gives a super quick street photo camera setup, as it can take up to 20 images in burst. I especially liked that you can customise the main menu and remove or add modes that you use the most.

Some new features in portrait mode include two new focal lengths for the Zeiss Portrait lens kit, an 85mm and a 100mm option, ideal for shoulder-length portraits or close-ups of the face. In Aura light, your flash unit doubles up as a continuous light with adjustable colour temperature and brightness. There are portrait filter options that leverage this and create popular portrait lighting looks such as Rembrandt or Butterfly lighting.

The new 10x Stage mode automatically recognises stage scenes using AI and adjusts parameters for more optimal image capture at concerts and performances. Other AI features include magic erase, move, expander, enhance and four seasons portrait (for more info about these see check out the X200FE review). Swiping up from the bottom a film camera mode opens with various filters and borders to choose from. Whereas under the more tab you’ll find a High-res option to shoot at the sensor’s full resolution and a Pro and RAW mode amongst others.

To my surprise, there’s a dedicated underwater photography mode here, which wasn’t included in the flagship X200FE. The V60 has a high IP68&IP69 dust and water resistance rating, just like the X200FE which suggests you can immerse it up to 1.5m depth in fresh water for 30 minutes. It offers a water eject option after using this mode, which will play a piece of music at full volume to dispel any water. Make sure that the charging port is properly dried out before you connect your phone. This all sounds interesting, but in reality phone manufacturers don’t cover water damage even if they advertise their phones as immersible or include underwater photography modes. So if you want to use your phone underwater, I still recommend you get a proper case for it. 

Vivo V60 – Image quality and performance

Colours are well matched between the three lenses, but upon close scrutiny, you can see some oversharpening, especially from the telephoto lens results. The 0.6x is the weakest performer, but it can be a nice to have when you need a wider field of view.

With the telephoto camera, results are generally good and usable up until the 10x zoom; above this, the AI sharpening kicks in and can create some unrealistic results depending on your subject, as you will see. As for the 100x option, it is more of a marketing gimmick than a real tool in most cases.

vivo V60 · f/2.65 · 1/323s · 13.85mm · ISO71

Where the V60 excels, in my opinion, is portrait photography. You get a very comprehensive portrait mode with Zeiss portrait lens options, five focal lengths available to shoot anything between environmental, half-length, or traditional and close-up portraits. Furthermore, you can choose between various bokeh shape options and colour filters, not to mention the aura light filters.

vivo V60 · f/5.6 · 1/100s · 13.85mm · ISO161

The Selfie camera has the same bokeh effects available as the main portrait mode, as well as various beauty and makeup options. Below, the Biotar bokeh option was selected at f/0.95. Pushing the bokeh slider to this strongest setting, the background appears very out of focus; although the effect looks unrealistic. It detected edges relatively well, but you may need to reposition yourself to get a more even look. Just above my shoulder, and around my fly-away hairs, the separation is not as good as the bokeh was set to the strongest. But as soon as I opted for the f/1.4 or higher option, this wasn’t so noticeable.

vivo V60 · f/0.95 · 1/50s · 3.09mm · ISO79

As the 0.6x ultrawide lens has a fixed focus you won’t get close enough to your subject to take good close-ups. For macro photography, the 1x main (23mm equivalent) and the 3x telephoto (73mm equivalent) cameras will be the ones you want to use; they are brighter, have higher resolution, and also benefit from autofocus and image stabilisation. Using the portrait mode to adjust how much the background appears out of focus can help elevate your images as well.

vivo V60 · f/1.88 · 1/2817s · 5.56mm · ISO50

In Night mode images are more detailed compared to using the regular photo mode at night. The main 1x lens (23mm equivalent) delivers the best results here, given that it is also the brightest. The ultrawide 0.6x lens (16mm equivalent) on the other hand noticeably lags behind, with images appearing soft and lacking detail. The periscope telephoto lens between 2-10x zoom yields the best results.

vivo V60 · f/1.9 · 1/5s · 5.56mm · ISO5714

Vivo V60 – Value for money

The V50’s price at launch was around €600/512GB so I am expecting to see a similar price range for the V60 version. If you are looking for something slightly cheaper take a look at the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE. Or if you are willing to spend a bit more the Google Pixel 9a can be a good option at $496/£359 for 128GB or $599/£449 for 256GB version, although there is no telephoto camera, just digital/hybrid zoom.

Vivo V60 – Verdict

The Vivo V60 is a well-rounded midrange smartphone that delivers excels in portrait photography and also has a solid telephoto performance. Its versatile Zeiss-enhanced camera system stands out, whereas the bright AMOLED display, and impressive battery life make it an attractive choice. Its slim build, premium finish, and strong IP ratings add to its appeal. However, the drop in ultra-wide resolution and some aggressive AI sharpening at higher zoom levels limit its versatility for certain shooting scenarios. For mobile photographers who prioritise portraits and telephoto reach over ultra-wide quality, the V60 is a strong contender in its price range.

Vivo V60 – Full Specifications

The post Vivo V60 review – Zeiss cameras shine, but ultrawide takes a hit appeared first on Amateur Photographer.

With proper cameras getting more and more expensive and cost of living getting higher, a real market has emerged for budget cameras.

This helps explain why the original Camp Snap proved to be something of a modest hit. A simple point-and-shoot that lacks a screen, it captures stills that you can’t see until you download them onto the computer. It has proven to be a welcome antidote to the constant digital noise of modern life, with its ultra-cheap price tag only sweetening the deal.

Now, Camp Snap is hoping to repeat the trick, but this time for video. The C-S8 is another throwback – whereas the previous camera was modelled on disposable film cameras, this one recreates the look and feel of a classic Super 8mm movie camera. Once again, you can’t see your clips until you download them, and once again, it’s a camera that’s very much aimed at the fun and affordable end of image-making. If you want technical perfection, you’re in the wrong place.

So, it looks like kitschy looks and grainy footage are back on the menu, boys. Let’s see how the CS-8 stacks up.

Camp Snap CS-8 Key Features

• 1/2.7-inch sensor
• Fixed focus 19mm equivalent f/2 lens
• Electronic viewfinder
• No screen / screen-free
• USB type-C
• Rechargeable battery (600mAh, non-removable)
• 8x digital zoom
• 4GB MicroSD card included (upgradeable to 128GB)
• 5 image filters
• $199 / £149, or $149 / £112 for pre-orders

Camp Snap CS-8: Build & Handling

The thing that will immediately strike you upon unboxing the CS-8 is, well, that this is a big ol’ hunk of plastic, isn’t it? With a rectangular body that’s approaching the size of a VHS tape and a chunky handle sticking out the bottom, the CS-8 is not the kind of camera you stick in a pocket. This makes sense in a way, given the old Super 8 cameras it’s modelled on, but on the other hand, it’s hard not to notice that this is much more bulk than such a tiny sensor really warrants.

It also means that the CS-8 is not a camera for those who like to blend in. Quite the reverse. I can tell you this from first-hand experience – if you walk the length of Edinburgh’s Royal Mile or a similarly busy street wielding this thing, you will get stares. You will get comments. You will get approached by people politely asking what on earth you’re holding.

Handling is straightforward. You have dials on the side to change aspect ratios and digital filters. For the former, you have the choice of 4:3, 16:9 widescreen, 1:1 square, and 9:16 vertical for Reels and TikToks. For the latter, you get: Standard, Vintage 1 (soft colours), Vintage 2 (warmer), Analog (a scuzzier look with artificial grain, at 18fps rather than 30fps) and B&W (black and white). 

Just like old Super 8 cameras, you have to hold down the trigger to record, meaning you’re realistically going to be creating quite short clips. I found this fine once I got used to it, though it makes misfires very easy, and means once you offload your footage, the first thing you’ll probably have to do is delete a load of one-second junk clips (there’s no delete function in the camera itself).

The CS-8 also has a digital zoom, activated via buttons on the right-hand side – a placement I found irritating, given that I was using my right hand to hold down the trigger. To zoom while using the viewfinder, I had to reach over with my left hand and fumble for the buttons. Lefties will be happy, at least.

Just like the Camp Snap photography camera, there is no LCD screen, meaning you won’t be able to see your footage until you download it onto your computer. Composition is via a decent-enough electronic viewfinder. Also, in a touch that is silly but I nonetheless appreciated, battery and storage levels are indicated via analogue dials on the sides of the camera. Cute.

Camp Snap CS-8: Performance & Video Quality

Let’s be real – this is not a camera you’re going to use for serious video projects. It’s a camera for parties, it’s a camera for fun. It’s a camera for taking on a trip with your friends, passing between each other to mess about with, then cutting together a silly video of your holiday once you get home. So, that’s what I did:

Everyone found the camera extremely funny to look at, and we had a lot of fun playing with it. The lack of the screen meant we were never crowding around to peer at what we’d just shot. It was simple enough that everyone could use it, and the battery comfortably lasted us a week.

On reviewing our footage, there were certainly things I didn’t care for. There’s no stabilisation to speak of, so a lot of your footage is going to be wobbly. The digital zoom is also pretty horrible, making your images unpleasantly soupy and indistinct, and details quickly becoming muddy in a way that entirely defeats the purpose of zooming in on them. Zooming in also compounds the aforementioned wobble problem, and overall it’s best avoided. Maybe that’s why they put the buttons on the wrong side. The mic, meanwhile, is fine for anyone standing within a few metres of the camera, but anyone further away sounds like they’re transmitting from a submarine.

For our holiday video, I kept the settings the same for consistency – VTG1 filter and 4:3 aspect ratio. The footage has a pleasant colouring, though details are often muddy, particularly when the camera moves. Part of me wished I’d used the ANA filter for 18fps and really leaned into the retro vibe; 30fps has an inescapably YouTube look to it. But then I would have had to deal with the ostentatious digital artefacts designed to simulate film grain.

Below, you can see a quick comparison of the different filter and aspect ratio settings:

Camp Snap CS-8: Value for Money

I thought the original Camp Snap camera was priced really well at around $65 / £68. A perfect little impulse purchase, just the right pitch for a camera that’s a bit of fun. Whereas at an RRP of $199 / £149, or $149 / £112 for pre-orders, the CS-8 is a bit more of an ask. It’s still certainly cheap by camera standards, but I think it’ll attract fewer impulse buyers. 

I certainly would have taken a cheaper version of this camera that shot the same footage but wasn’t quite so obsessed with looking and acting like a Super 8 – a camera that I have zero nostalgia for. This is anecdotal, but everyone my age grew up using the kinds of disposables that the original Camp Snap was aping. Comparatively few ever laid hands on a Super 8. You do wonder who this is really for.

Camp Snap CS-8: Verdict

And yet, despite everything, I find myself charmed. The Camp Snap CS-8 is a big, silly camera that has gone a little overboard on the retro kitsch, but it also undoubtedly delivers a fun time making pictures. Just like the previous Camp Snap, it prevents you from worrying about the technical details of your images, or the quality of what you’ve shot before, and keeps you in the moment. You point, you shoot. Everything else is a problem for later.

My friends and I enjoyed our time with the CS-8, and I would consider taking it on our next trip, too. The footage we produced, as you’ve seen, was not particularly cinematic, but that’s very much not the point. There are some aspects that I think are too compromised, most notably the digital zoom, but overall the CS-8 hits the mark it’s aiming for.

For more options, check out our guides to the best cameras for vlogging and the best cameras under $200.

The post Camp Snap CS-8 Review – you point, you shoot appeared first on Amateur Photographer.

There’s a popular saying circulating on social media these days, and it’s ‘if you know, you know’ (or IYKYK for short). It’s a saying well-placed for Ricoh’s GR system. Even in photography, there are a handful of rare occurrences where there seems to be universal understanding, and one of these examples is that the Ricoh’s GR II and GR III cameras punched well above their weight, making them some of the best compact cameras around. Lauded by a cult following of street and travel photographers, the GR III was launched seven years ago, but has remained in demand, so much so that the price tag has actually risen over the years – how many cameras can you say that about?

Ricoh GR IV at a glance:

• $1499 / £1199
• 25.7MP APS-C BSI-CMOS sensor
• 28mm equivalent f/2.8 lens
• ISO 100-204800 (standard)
• 4fps continuous shooting
• 3in, 1.04m-dot fixed touchscreen LCD
• Full HD 60p video recording

Fast-forward to 2025 and Ricoh’s latest GR IV has finally broken cover. Just as the Ricoh GR III was a refinement of the GR II, the GR IV stays true to this heritage, and is best described as an evolution of its predecessor rather than a drastic revolution. This shouldn’t be a surprise to existing GR users as, after all, there is an element of ‘if it ain’t broke’ to the GR range.

However, technology has moved on dramatically over the last seven years. So what is new in the GR IV, is there enough to justify an upgrade, and does this camera offer enough to win over street and travel photographers?

Features

To look at the GR IV at first glance, there really isn’t that much change from the GR III. There’s the same fixed 28mm equivalent focal length lens with an aperture from f/2.8 to f/16, albeit with a slightly different lens construction. Remember though that with the GRIII, Ricoh also offered the GR IIIx variant, which delivers a 40mm equivalent focal length.

One figure that’s sure to jump out, though, is the resolution. Although the GR IV utilises a new APS-C sensor, the resolution increase is incremental – up to 25.7MP from the GR III’s 24MP. That’s not a big jump, but it does return a max file size of 6192×4128 pixels – more than enough to create A3 prints, or to crop in on frames for use on social media without overly compromising on image quality.

Internally, however, there are bigger updates. First up, while the GR III offered 3-axis stabilisation, this is now upgraded on the GR IV to a 5-axis in-body image stabilisation (IBIS) system. In the field, this works impressively well and will come in handy when users are capturing frames in low-light conditions where shutter speeds will be longer.

In another internal change, the GR IV features a substantial 53GB of internal storage, a massive jump from the GR III’s paltry 2GB. This is a huge quality-of-life improvement, as it means you’ll always have a backup storage option, even if you forget to bring a memory card. And, talking of cards, it’s important to note that the new model switches to a microSD card slot instead of the full-size SD slot found on previous GR iterations. This has probably been done to create space for the larger battery that’s found on the GR IV, which will go some way to combating a common groan from GR II and GR III users.

Of course, while a new battery will increase capacity, there is a limit to what Ricoh can do here. The dimensions of the camera are more-or-less the same, and to keep it pocket-friendly, the battery is never going to be able to match the same capacity as a full-frame mirrorless camera. However, users do have the USB-C port to fall back on, where they can simply plug in a powerbank and charge on the go, and this will extend your day out with the camera.

Creative imagery can be captured via the Image Control options, which is Ricoh’s name for picture styles or art filters. With choices including Vivid, four Monotone variants, Negative Film and even and HDR Tone selection, there is plenty to allow photographers to be creative in-camera.

Built-in lens

The lens’s focal length of 18.3mm is equivalent to 28mm in full-frame terms. It’s tried-and-tested and versatile, as it’s the same focal length used on the previous GR cameras. As before, there is an option to employ an in-camera crop feature, which changes the effective focal length to either 35mm or 50mm, but at the expense of resolution. I find 28mm to be a decent sweet spot for this genre of compact camera and would rarely use the crop feature, unless perhaps I was switching from some travel shots to more portraiture work.

The f/2.8 maximum aperture is still a huge boon for the GR system. Delivering rapid shutter speeds in low-light conditions (which street photographers will often have to contend with), the fast aperture also delivers a shallow depth-of-field to throw the background out of focus. When shooting smaller subjects, photographers can engage a Macro mode, which enables users to fill the frame with small subjects and focus up to just 6cm away.

Shutter speeds can be slowed down via the built-in ND filter which, like the GR III, offers two stops of attenuation. On a bright sunny day, that won’t affect the image drastically. But in the city, where tall buildings create shade, it can be enough to introduce blur and movement into your frame, opening up new creative options. This feature benefits hugely from the new IBIS system, which will enable you to hand-hold the camera and keep the frame free from shake while still capturing motion.

Ricoh GR IV – six key points

• Premium image quality: Don’t get caught up in the megapixel numbers, this sensor serves up excellent image quality.
• Super storage: A massive 53GB of internal storage is a game-changer and to fit that amount of back-up storage in such a small body is a huge win for Ricoh
• Redesigned lens: With a seven-element, five-group construction, the updated lens keeps the 28mm focal length seen on previous GR iterations, but has been optically tweaked
• Sure and steady: Changing up from a three-axis to five-axis IBIS system enables the GR IV to offer up to six stops of shake compensation, which will come in handy when shooting in low light.
• Rapid start-up: Street photography is about fleeting moments and the start-up time of the GR IV is just 0.6sec, so you shouldn’t miss any frames.
• Top-up on the go: The sole connector port is USB-C, for data transfer or recharging the battery, including from a powerbank

Build and Handling

When it comes to handling, the GR IV is a very easy camera to pick up and use. This camera is designed for one-handed shooting – you should be able to tap the screen and adjust the dials with just one hand. The ergonomics are excellent; tipping the scales at just 262g, the grip is decent and a wrist strap is supplied. But I would probably invest in a wider wrist strap for long-term comfort and security.

Almost all the dials and buttons are set to the right of the LCD. The shutter button is large and easy to find, so you won’t be fumbling around when trying to take a photo. However, the d-pad is a lot smaller than you’d find on a typically sized mirrorless body. The exposure mode dial has a locking button to prevent accidental changes, which you have to press down before it will twist round.

Two control dials at the front and back are used for changing exposure settings. There are also +/- buttons under your thumb to control Exposure Compensation, so this can be altered quickly on the fly. These buttons were found on the GR II but dropped on the GR III – it’s good to seem them back.

A function button on the left side of the body has a double action. It enables you to switch between Micro SD card / Internal memory, while also helping switch between stills and video mode, with either a long or short press of the button.

Recharge time on the new battery is impressive; I went from ‘battery icon flashing red’ to full in just over 50 minutes via a fast charge plug, and the GR IV carries over the USB-C port from the GR III, making it easy to connect to a powerbank. The battery catch mechanism is okay, but not overly robust and there’s no doubt the Micro SD card slot makes changing memory cards more of a fiddly job.

While talking about protection, as an existing GR user, I tend to slip the camera into a thin wallet to offer a layer of protection to the LCD. It doesn’t have to be much, but, as users may well tend to keep the GR IV in their pockets where car keys can live, it’s well worth taking this step to preserve the condition of the body as much as you can.

Screen

The 3-inch touch-sensitive LCD is still fixed and not tilting, but it feels more premium than the GR III version. It’s rare these days to find cameras without a tilting or vari-angle LCD, but this is the compromise of such a small body. Personally, I may have taken a bump in the size of the camera to accommodate a tilting hinge, but after a few hours you retune into using a fixed LCD. Some will also bemoan the lack of an EVF, but personally, I’m happy to work with the LCD, and 3-inches of screen is generous given the small footprint of the body.

The screen displays plenty of information, and its brightness can be customised via the Menu section. It also features an Auto Dim option to save power after a few seconds of inactivity. But best practice with this camera is to get your shot and then turn the camera off to save battery, so it’s rare that the Auto Dim feature will kick in. Visually, the LCD is pleasant to use in different lighting conditions and when you review an image, it’s easy to zoom in to check your focus is on point.

Autofocus

The hybrid phase/contrast detection autofocus system has definitely benefited from some hard work by Ricoh’s R&D crew. It’s faster and more accurate than the GR III’s system and this in turn gives you the confidence to rely on it. GR cameras include a Snap focusing function, which can be set for different distances, but I preferred to work with Single-point AF and lean on the Face Detection technology when including people in my frame.

RICOH GR IV · f/3.2 · 1/800s · 18.3mm · ISO400

When set to Macro mode, the AF takes a little bit of a hit, and there were a couple of occasions when it would hunt for focus, but this was rare. Manual focus on the GR IV is done by employing the Macro mode and using the -/+ button to change the distance. But given how good the AF system is on the GR IV, I didn’t use the manual focus much at all.

RICOH GR IV · f/2.8 · 1/1600s · 18.3mm · ISO400

With that touch-sensitive LCD, you can tap to select a focus point, which is an incredibly quick way of establishing focus. While the GR IV offers Face/Eye Detection, there is no Subject Detection feature, but how important an omission is this? In my view, not so much, as this camera is a tool for street and travel photography. I don’t think the ability to select Subject Detection for trains or animals is going to be a dealbreaker for any potential buyer, even if the price does stray into territory where rivals offer subject detection.

Image quality

Images can be saved in JPEG or DNG raw file format and there’s an option to record both file types at once. This is useful as if you employ an Image Control profile (such as black & white), the JPEG will save in this profile, while the raw file will serve as a backup copy in case you don’t like the effect and wish to process the image differently.

RICOH GR IV · f/2.8 · 1/1000s · 18.3mm · ISO400

I’m impressed with both the overall image quality and the amount of tonal data in the DNG files. Shadows can be boosted and skies rescued in software such as Lightroom. Because the raw files are DNG rather than some type of proprietary format, there’s no need to wait for Lightroom updates, unlike with other new cameras.

RICOH GR IV · f/7.1 · 1/500s · 18.3mm · ISO640

JPEGs straight out of camera (when the Image Control is set to standard) produce true, natural colours without any over-saturation. Noise is well-controlled and the GR IV has a higher native ISO ceiling than its predecessor (ISO 204,800 vs 102,400). However, it’s unlikely you’d use the ISO pushed right to the limit.

RICOH GR IV · f/2.8 · 1/1000s · 18.3mm · ISO400

The fixed lens is incredibly sharp, even with the aperture at f/2.8. Because of this, I suspect many will fall into the habit of keeping the aperture set wide open.

Ricoh GR IV: Our Verdict

The GR IV, like the GR models before it, is a go-anywhere camera. One to pop into your pocket and take out every day. The control system is well laid-out and, even if you haven’t used a GR camera before, you’ll be able to get up and running in no time. And this is the essence of the GR IV; a camera with decent features, but not overwhelmed with things that will slow you down. In truth, this ‘less is more’ approach will help you live in the moment, capture fleeting scenes and focus on the art of picture-taking.

RICOH GR IV · f/8 · 1/5s · 18.3mm · ISO200

In my opinion, the GR IV is a more efficient camera than the GR III, with a quicker start-up, a faster autofocus system, enhanced IBIS and (albeit marginally) higher resolution. Although it offers Full HD video, this is not a camera for making movies – instead, it’s an excellent option for the times when you don’t want to be loaded down with a heavier body and lens combo. The compact, black design offers a high degree of discretion and to most people, it could well look like you’re taking a snap with a smartphone, when in reality you’re making the most of that APS-C sensor that returns excellent image quality.

There are two (maybe three) key areas where some potential buyers might feel a little disappointed. First up, after seven years, I think we were all expecting a bigger hike in resolution. But the fact that the camera returns such good image quality will quell this niggle. Secondly, it’s very rare these days to find a camera with a fixed LCD. While this does keep the size of the body down, there is part of me that would have accepted a slightly larger form factor if it had meant Ricoh adding a tilting screen, especially for candid street shots taking from the hip. Oh, and finally, it would be great if we saw a monochrome version of the Ricoh GR sometime this year (or next).

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Ricoh GR IV full specifications

The post Ricoh GR IV review – the ultimate street snapper camera? appeared first on Amateur Photographer.

The Olympus PEN E-P7 is one of OM-Systems more stylish Olympus cameras, and offers something for those who love classic styling, as well as high image quality. Joshua Waller reviews this camera to find out how it performs.

Olympus PEN E-P7: At a glance

• $800* / £640 body only, £830 with 14-42mm lens
• 20.3MP Four Thirds Live MOS Sensor
• ISO 100 – ISO25600 (extended)
• Up to 15fps with electronic shutter
• 3inch 1037K-dot, tilting touchscreen
• 4K UHD 30,25,24fps video recording
• 5-axis in-body stabilisation

* difficult to source in the US at the time of publication.

The Olympus PEN E-P7 was the first Micro Four Thirds camera from OM Digital Solutions back in 2021. While not quite the update to the PEN F people were waiting for, it inherited the colour control dial from that model, and many features that make it a good step up from the Olympus PEN “Lite” series.

The E-P7 offers a 20mp Four Thirds sensor, 4K video recording, a wealth of manual and advanced shooting modes, a tilting 3inch touchscreen that can also be used as a selfie screen, plus a new colour/monochrome profile switch on the front. All in a compact and relatively light weight camera body, weighing in at 337g body only.

Olympus PEN E-P7 Features

The Olympus PEN E-P7 features a 20.3MP Four Thirds “Live MOS” sensor, as found in the more premium Olympus PEN-F, and the OM-D E-M10 IV. The camera offers an ISO range from ISO100 (Low) up to ISO25600.

Like other OM-System cameras, in-body image stabilisation (IBIS) comes as standard, a feature that moves the sensor along 5-axis to combat camera shake at slow shutter speeds, giving up to 4.5 stops of compensation. This means you can get a sharp shot in low-light, while previously you’d have to boost your ISO speed, or use a brighter lens. This also works for all lenses attached to the camera, even legacy or manual focus lenses.

Using the Micro Four Thirds lens mount, which has been around since 2008, there is the widest choice of lenses available for any mirrorless camera system, with lenses available from Olympus, Panasonic, Sigma, Tamron, Samyang, and many more. And that’s without the need of an adapter. Of course, if you do want to use a lens with a different lens mount, then you’ll find a vast array of adapters available.

Beginners will find the Olympus PEN E-P7 easy to use, as you can simply leave the camera in the Auto modes and use it as a point and shoot, with easy to use on-screen controls. Venture beyond this and you’ll find that the camera features full manual controls, as well as a variety of advanced shooting modes not found on many other cameras.

Advanced Photo Mode – The advanced photo mode has a range of useful features, along with an introduction letting you know what each mode does, making it easier to use. Of these the Live Composite and Live Bulb modes remain impressive, letting you see your exposure develop in real time on the screen as you take the photograph. Fans of light-painting will find the Olympus (and Panasonic) Live composite features simply game-changing if never experienced before.

Despite this being almost an “entry-level” model in the Olympus range, you can create exposures up to 30 minutes – once you’ve extended the 8min limit in the menus. There is also HDR, multiple exposure, Keystone correction, AE and Focus bracketing available.

The camera offers 8.7fps continuous shooting when using the mechanical shutter, and up to 15fps when using the electronic shutter with fixed focus, at the full 20MP resolution. This drops down to 5fps when using the camera’s image stabilisation system, or when using continuous AF.

The maximum shutter speed available using the mechanical shutter is 1/4000s, but switch on the silent shooting mode shown with a tiny heart symbol next to the drive mode, and you can shoot at shutter speeds up to 1/16,000s. This is great for shooting with a bright lens in sunny conditions, or working discreetly. The Olympus PEN E-P5 and PEN-F both offer mechanical shutter speeds up to 1/8000s.

As you would expect, the E-P7 has built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, letting you connect it to your smartphone or tablet, and remotely control it as well as transfer images. The Olympus IO. Share app works well, and connecting is made easier with first time setup using “Easy setup” and scanning a QR code displayed on the camera’s screen. There are also quick links to the camera’s manual should you need it.

Olympus Art filters are available with 16 different filters to choose from, each one has additional presets and options that can be customised, including a range of effects that can be applied on top of the art filter, including soft focus, pin hole, white vignette, frames, blur, and shade.

One of the newer Art Filters is an Instant Film filter, and there are other film effects including Grainy Film I and II. You’ll find that the monochrome art filters let you add a Yellow, Orange, Red or Green filter, like you would when shooting with a black and white film camera.

In addition to this is a new front colour/monochrome profile switch, giving access to four monochrome profiles, as well as four colour profiles.

The monochrome profiles let you customise the colour filter with greater control than the Art Filters, as well as adjust the vignette with both dark and bright shading options (and every step in between), as well as the highlight, midtone, and shadow tone (+/-7 steps). You can adjust the Highlight and Shadow control in other shooting modes, however these profiles give you slightly quicker access to the settings, and with 4 different profiles available you can customise each to your personal taste.

Outside of the main filter settings, the super control panel contains two additional settings available when in this Mono filter, with options to add a Film Grain effect (Off, Low, Medium and High), as well as tone options including Sepia, Blue/Purple/Green tone.

The colour profile lets you customise the colour saturation for all or individual colours, using an intuitive colour wheel, which can easily be adjusted using the front and rear command dials, or even the touchscreen if you’ve got small enough fingers. You’ll also find vignetting options, and highlight and shadow control, as per the monochrome mode.

As with the Art Filters, you can shoot JPEG and raw, so that if you don’t like any of the effects created you can always return to the raw file and re-process the image to restore the original.

Focal Points

• USB charging – the BLS-50 battery is shared with other Olympus cameras, rated for 360 shots per charge, and can be charged in camera.
• Metal dials – the top dials are all made from knurled metal and with dual command dials you can easily change settings
• Flash – a tiny built-in flash pops up from the left, and has a rating of 7.6 GN (at ISO200)
• Mono/Colour Profile switch – The new front mono/colour profile switch gives you quick access to four mono profiles and four colour profiles that you can customise
• Shortcut button –- There’s a top shortcut button that brings up the onscreen menu tailored to each shooting mode
• Custom buttons – you can customise the video recording button, and on the back the AEL/AFL button

Olympus PEN E-P7 Build and Handling

If you’re used to an Olympus PEN or OM-D camera with a metal body such as the E-P5, PEN-F, EM-5 II, or EM-1 series, then you may be disappointed upon picking up the E-P7, as the camera body is mostly made of plastic.

Build quality could be better, for example, if you squeeze the camera a little too hard then there is a noticeable creak, and you can see the bottom around the battery compartment flex, so I’d probably recommend you avoid squeezing it.

However, one area that does feel very good to the hand is the top controls, dials, and switches. The metal mode dial feels reassuringly solid, and it’s unlikely that you’ll accidentally turn it. There are two command dials, which makes changing the shutter and aperture speeds easy should you be in manual mode, and the on/off switch is also solid, neatly placed where your thumb can easily reach it, with a quality feel when used.

Whilst the camera does give front and rear command dials, giving great control over camera settings, the buttons on the back can seem a little small. The 4-way controller can also take a while to get used to, and I found I accidentally hit the wrong button at times.

Other areas of the camera are also made of metal where needed, for example the hinge mechanism for the tilting screen, the pop-up flash, the lens mount, and the tripod socket, which is also a good distance from the battery compartment.

Disappointingly, there are areas where I’d like there to be more grip; the thumb grip on the rear is made from a tough, hard plastic that’s also rather smooth. There’s a faux leather covering on the camera on most surfaces that your hands meet, and a raised area on the front of the camera gives a good grip point.

The BLS-50 Lithium-ion battery is charged in-camera, with the provided Micro-USB cable and USB charger, or you can plug the USB cable into a computer. There is no dedicated battery charger, but these can be picked up relatively cheaply. Backwards compatibility is something worth mentioning, as the E-P7 will accept the same battery as the original Olympus PEN E-P1 from 2009.

Some parts of the camera’s graphical user interface are extremely user friendly. For example, switch into the Advanced Photo, Art, Video, or Scene modes, and you’ll be presented with the different shooting options and what they do, and you can easily select from these using the touchscreen. Once in the mode selected, you can then use the touchscreen to go back to the selection screen with an on-screen button that is found in the bottom left corner.

In most modes there is also a super control panel where you can quickly access camera settings by pressing the OK button, or top shortcut button – but if you must enter the cameras menus, then you can easily get lost or struggle to find settings, as there is no colour coding.

For example, I wanted to adjust the microphone settings to switch on a wind filter, and instead of this being an option that I could easily find (most cameras list this separately somewhere), it was inside the mic options, which includes (On, on with wind filter, and off).

Olympus PEN E-P7 Screen

The 3.0inch 1037k dot tilting touchscreen looks good, with a gapless design, and great colour reproduction, but the design isn’t as svelte or as flush to the camera body as some models, such as the Fujifilm X100V, or Olympus PEN E-P5. You’ll find plenty of detail available on the screen when shooting, including a dual-axis spirit level, and this can be toggled through using the INFO button.

Whilst the camera’s screen can be tilted down enough to become a forward facing “selfie” screen, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this camera as particularly suited to vlogging as any tripod, monopod or selfie stick is going to block your view of the screen.

Olympus PEN E-P7 Autofocus

The camera has 121 AF points and uses a contrast-detection AF system. Focus is relatively quick and rapid, locking onto subjects quickly. You’ll also benefit from face and eye-detection AF, something that Olympus cameras have featured since the Olympus OM-D E-M5 released in 2012, so it’s no surprise that this works extremely well. Unfortunately, this hasn’t been updated to include animal face detection.

There are options for Single AF, Continuous AF, Manual Focus, Single-AF with MF, as well as C-AF with AF tracking. You can enable an enlarged view, with up to 14x magnification available, as well as focus peaking to assist with manual focus. To use continuous AF when using continuous shooting, you’ll need to select the Low shooting speed option.

Olympus PEN E-P7 Performance

With the 14-42mm pancake zoom lens, you have to wait a little longer for the camera to switch on while the lens extends from its collapsed position. However, with a standard lens, the switch on time is quick, and the camera responds quickly to any changes made to settings.

You can use the touchscreen to set the focus point, or use it to take photos as soon as you touch an area of the screen – or you can switch these features off. The focus point can be set to a fairly wide area of the screen, but surprisingly the camera doesn’t let you set the focus point to the edges or corners of the frame, despite the camera using contrast detection focus.

The shutter sound is quite noticeable, and it’s definitely not one of the quietest cameras available. However, this can be resolved by switching to the electronic shutter.

The camera has built-in 5-axis image stabilisation or IBIS (In-body Image Stabilisation) which promises to give up to 4.5 EV steps of image stabilisation. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite match the level of stabilisation as the Olympus OM-D E-M5 III and E-M1 III, which offer up to 6.5 – 7.5 EV steps (E-M5 III / E-M1 III respectively). It also doesn’t benefit from the High-res multi-shot modes that these cameras offer, so if you’re looking for higher resolution results, then you won’t find it on the E-P7.

Metering is extremely reliable, with little need for exposure compensation. You’ll also find the level of dynamic range captured in JPEG images is generally good, only struggling at times when your scene has high levels of contrast.

In the Advanced Photo Modes you can find an HDR mode if you wish to capture additional dynamic range, or you can also use the raw files for processing in programs like Photoshop, or in-camera with the built-in raw editor.

About raw editing, in most circumstances you shouldn’t need to edit raw images, as the camera produces excellent JPEG images straight from the camera, with both pleasing colour, and good levels of detail and sharpness, particularly when using a prime lens. If you’re not an expert in raw editing, then you can easily find yourself processing a raw image, and afterwards finding you prefer the original JPEG image produced by the camera.

Colour reproduction on the default “Natural” setting is pleasing with good levels of saturation, without being overpowering. Depending on your own personal tastes you may want to use the Vivid colour setting, or alternatively you can customise each Picture mode in the advanced menus, with options to adjust the sharpness, contrast, saturation, and gradation. Auto White Balance plays a big part in the camera producing good colour output, and can be trusted in most lighting conditions. You’ll even find the option to “Keep Warm Colour” which gives pleasing portraits and warmer results, but for improved product shots on a white background you can switch this off.

The built-in image stabilisation works very well, so much so that you barely need to think about it, letting you continue shooting even in lower light conditions that would normally require a tripod. This also gives you the benefit of being able to use lower ISO speeds.

The Olympus 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 EZ kit lens gives good results, and stopped down can give some very sharp images, although as expected sharpness does tend to drop off towards the corners of the frame, where optical distortion is being automatically corrected in camera. With the compact size of 23mm when collapsed, it makes the E-P7 a compact, go-anywhere camera, that easily fits into coat pockets.

Video Performance

The camera offers 4K UHD video recording at 30,25, or 24fps, and Full HD video recording at up to 60fps. With 5-axis in-body image stabilisation (IBIS) the camera can help you create good looking video footage even when recording handheld.

There are options for the microphone including on/off, or on with wind reduction, and the mic level can be adjusted (+/- 10). The microphone level is displayed on screen when recording, but there is no microphone socket.

Digital IS (Image Stabilisation) is on by default and part of the IS settings, so that you have options of M-IS 1 (IBIS and Digital), M-IS 2 (IBIS only), and IS Off.

In 4K mode you can adjust the frame rate, but not the bit rate, in Full HD you can adjust both with options of Super Fine, Fine, and Normal, however the camera does not tell you what the bit rate is.

Video quality is very good, with plenty of detail, and a useful image stabilisation system that produces steady video even when panning the camera handheld. The only thing to be aware of is wind noise. The focus system is also unlikely to match the best cameras out there for video due to the lack of phase detection AF.

Continuous autofocus was left switched on for this sample video, and at times the focus can be seen to wobble, but remains focused on the area of interest.

ISO and Noise

You’ll find an ISO range of ISO200 to ISO25600 available, with an additional LOW ISO speed of ISO100 available, albeit with a reduced dynamic range when using the lowest setting. Noise options let you choose between Off, Low, Standard, and High, with the default being Standard.

When shooting JPEG images, the default settings give good results, with usable images up to ISO3200 / ISO6400, however, there is quite strong noise reduction which reduces fine detail. For those looking for a little more detail, then the Low filter option is a good setting to use, albeit with a slight increase is noise visible in JPEG images.

Olympus PEN E-P7 Verdict

Available in silver and black, or silver and white, we found the white version not to our tastes, and combined with the plastic build quality, the camera didn’t particularly live up to our expectations for an Olympus PEN E-P camera, as both the Olympus PEN F and Olympus PEN E-P5 are of a more solid premium build quality.

One of the nearest competitors to the E-P7 is the 26MP Fujifilm X-E4, available for £759 body only, which feels like a more premium model, with a built-in electronic viewfinder, a flush LCD screen on the back, as well as metal top and bottom plates. Not that the X-E4 is the perfect camera, lacking a rear control dial, and IBIS. But put the two cameras side by side, and you’ll find the X-E4 feels like a £700-800 camera, whereas the E-P7 does not.

Despite pleasing image quality, and good controls, the camera is let down by build-quality that feels far more budget than premium, and when you can buy the Olympus OM-D E-M10 IV ($600 / £649 body only or $800 / £749 with 14-42mm lens), with built-in electronic viewfinder (EVF) for less than the E-P7, we’re left wondering who would buy the E-P7 at its current price? If the price drops over time, or there’s a great offer available, then the Olympus PEN E-P7 could make a good entry into the Micro Four Thirds world, particularly for those that don’t need or want an EVF.

Combined with the 14-42mm EZ pancake lens, the E-P7 is a compact, go-anywhere camera, that produces some great looking images, but the price is hard to swallow.

For more options, have a look at the best mirrorless cameras, or find more great Olympus cameras in our guide to the best Olympus cameras.

Olympus PEN E-P7 Full Specifications

The post Olympus PEN E-P7 review – good looks with images to match appeared first on Amateur Photographer.

When Sony launched its original Alpha 1 at the start of 2021, it offered an unprecedented combination of resolution and speed. This was a camera that could shoot 50MP images at 30 frames per second and record 8K 30p video. Then the firm transplanted these features, along with all its latest technologies, into a hugely upgraded body design borrowed from last year’s sports focused A9 III. The resultant Sony Alpha A1 II is, without doubt, the best Sony camera yet.

Sony Alpha A1 II at a glance:

• $6,998 / £6,300 body-only
• 50MP full-frame stacked-CMOS sensor
• 30 frames per second shooting
• 8K 30p, 4K 120p video recording
• 5-axis in-body stabilisation: 8.5-stop centre, 7.0-stop edge
• 9.44m-dot, 0.9x, 120fps OLED viewfinder
• 3.2in, 2.1m-dot 4-axis multi-angle LCD

When the original Sony Alpha 1 first appeared, it felt like a ground-breaking camera: the first of its type to work convincingly for any kind of shooting, in stills and video. But the market has moved on since then, and its successor has a couple of very impressive rivals in the Nikon Z8 and Canon EOS R5 Mark II. Both can do essentially all the same things, but for a lot less money than the $7,000 / £6,300 Sony wants for the A1 II.

Of course, the A1 II gains some new tricks of its own, although none that clearly sets it apart from its rivals. Sony has finally added an Auto mode for its subject detection system, plus a Pre-capture option for burst shooting. Both Canon and Nikon offer these features, too. So the question is, does the Sony A1 II jump back to the top of its class, or has it now been overtaken by its competitors?

Features

In terms of its core photographic features, the A1 II offers much the same as the A1 did. It’s built around the same 50MP full-frame stacked CMOS sensor which offers a sensitivity range of ISO 100-32,000 as standard, with extended ISO 50-102,400 options also available. The mechanical shutter maxes out at 1/8000sec, while the electronic shutter extends this even further to 1/32,000sec, and you get a very useful 1/400sec flash sync, too. That stacked sensor means you don’t have to worry too much about rolling shutter distortion.

For shooting bursts, you get 10 frames per second using the mechanical shutter and an impressive 30fps with the electronic shutter. Both come with continuous autofocus and subject tracking while shooting full-resolution raw. Sony promises a buffer of at least 80 frames for uncompressed raw and JPEGs together, rising to 240 frames with compressed raw.

When it comes to video, alongside the headline 8K recording at 30fps, you also get 4K 120fps with a 1.1x crop, and 4K at 60fps from the full sensor width. Along with Sony’s standard S-Log 3 and S-Cinetone options, the camera can store 16 LUTs for custom colour output. Subject detection AF is available during video recording.

Some may be disappointed that there’s no headline speed or resolution update over the A1 here. But this is typical of how Sony operates: it tends to use the same sensor for two generations of camera, with much the same core specs, and update everything else in between. And let’s be clear, these numbers are still entirely competitive with the Nikon Z8 and Canon EOS R5 Mark II.

However, what we do get on the A1 II are all the features Sony has introduced over the past four years. Foremost among these is the addition of Sony’s AI processor, which brings a significant boost to the camera’s autofocus capabilities. It also promises improved exposure, colour, and auto white balance.

In a long-overdue move, Sony has finally brought its subject detection system up to date, with a new Auto mode that recognises the subject type automatically, rather than needing it set in advance. Otherwise, the subject detection is the same as on the A9 III, being able to distinguish humans, animals, birds, cars, trains, airplanes, and insects on sight. Sony is promising a 30% – 50% improvement in subject detection performance over the original A1, thanks to the AI processor.

There are some other welcome updates to the autofocus, too. The system boasts 759 selectable focus points, with 92% frame coverage and the ability to operate in low light of -4 EV. New XS and XL focus area sizes are available, plus the option to set three custom focus areas with user-specified heights and widths.

The A1 II also gains Sony’s best-ever in-body image stabilisation. It’s rated for 8.5 stops of shake reduction in the centre of the image, and 7.0 stops at the edge, compared to 5 stops for the original A1. There are updates for video stabilisation too, with both Active Mode IS and Framing Stabiliser IS on board.

Sony has included various multi-shot modes, promising increased resolution or decreased noise. Unfortunately, these don’t produce composite files in-camera, but require processing on a computer in Sony’s Imaging Edge software. They’re probably best seen as niche options for special situations, and arguably exist more for marketing purposes than real-world use. 

More usefully, though, you don’t have to shoot huge 50MP files all the time. Instead, you can record both raw and JPEG files at reduced resolutions of 21MP or 12MP. You can also switch to a 21MP APS-C crop mode, which can be especially useful for sports and wildlife shooters.   

Pro-spec connectivity is built-in, including 2.4GHz / 5GHz Wi-Fi, Superspeed (10Gbps) USB 3.2, and 2.5Gbps wired LAN. Neither of its main competitors have an ethernet port built-in, which for pro sports shooters, may look like a clear advantage for the A1 II at first sight. But you can add one to the EOS R5 Mark II via a vertical grip, or with the Nikon Z8, simply plug an ethernet adapter into one of its two USB-C ports.

The A1 II does gain one small but welcome design update compared to the A9 III. Open the port covers, and you’ll find that the HDMI connector has swapped positions with Sony’s multi-connector socket. This is more convenient both for photographers plugging in a remote release, and videographers setting up a rig.

Sony Alpha A1 II: key features

• Viewfinder eyecup: While the camera comes fitted with a standard eyecup, a new, deeper, soft silicone option is also included in the box.
• Power: Sony’s standard FZ100 battery is notionally rated for 420 frames with the EVF and 520 with the LCD, but you can get many more shots than that when shooting bursts. It can be charged via USB-C, and a high quality USB-C dual battery charger comes as standard.
• Vertical grip: The A1 II is compatible with the same VG-C5 vertical grip that was introduced with the A9 III. It holds two batteries and boasts a full set of duplicate controls for vertical shooting.
• Connectors: On the side, there’s a comprehensive set of ports: microphone, headphone, USB-C, full-size HDMI, RJ 45 ethernet, Sony micro-USB multi-connector, and a PC flash sync socket.
• File storage: There are two card slots, each of which can accept either UHS-II SDs, or the faster CFexpress Type A media. The camera can’t record directly to SSD, though.
• Multi-interface shoe: Sony’s multi-interface (MI) hot shoe accepts both flash units, and Sony’s own microphones without needing a cable.

Build and Handling

To all intents and purposes, the Sony Alpha A1 II uses the same body design as the sports-focused Sony A9 III. This makes for a very similar control layout to the original A1, including all the same buttons and dials in the same places. But the new version also gains the various updates and refinements Sony has introduced in the meantime.

Most obviously, the body is wider and boasts a much-improved handgrip, with more space between the grip and mount. This means it handles much better with the large lenses that are likely to be used on this kind of camera.  It’s also much easier to use when you’re wearing gloves in cold weather. However, the flipside is that it no longer has such a clear size advantage over its competitors. At 136 x 97 x 83 mm and 743g, it’s essentially the same size as the Canon EOS R5 Mark II (however, the Nikon Z8 is noticeably bulkier).

Elsewhere, the exposure compensation dial is now unmarked and rotates freely, so it can be re-allocated to other settings. A separate switch beneath the exposure mode dial selects between still, video, and S&Q (slow and quick motion) shooting. There’s also a new C5 button on the front that’s set to engage speed boost during continuous shooting. You get a much more flexible 4-axis multi-angle screen, too.

No fewer than four electronic dials are onboard for changing exposure settings – that’s not even counting the aperture ring that’s found on most recent Sony lenses. There’s a conventional mode dial on top (which is unusual for a camera of this type), which has three custom positions alongside the familiar PASM modes. A switch underneath selects between stills, video, and quick/slow motion. On the top left, you get physical dials for selecting focus and drive modes, each with a locking button to prevent accidental operation.

A large AF-ON button is placed above the AF-area selector joystick, and you can customise it to activate tracking too, which I find really useful. Meanwhile the video button is tucked away next to the viewfinder. All the controls are highly customisable, so you should be able to get the camera working to suit your work.

One point worth considering, though, is that those AF and drive mode switches complicate using custom modes to switch quickly between camera setups. You always have to ensure those switches are set correctly, too. In contrast, on the EOS R5 Mark II in particular you can quickly change the entire camera setup by engaging a custom mode.

Sony’s menu system is still as huge and incomprehensible as always, with fully 64 pages of options. It also includes some horrible abbreviations that are impossible to parse (Cnt Sht Spd Bst Settings, anyone?). It’s in serious need of simplification and, as with all cameras, would benefit greatly from some kind of search function. It’s worth compiling options you may wish to change into the customisable My Menu. Thankfully this is an unusually straightforward process – just press the delete key when you have a menu option selected. 

Overall, though, the A1 II still just slightly lacks the sheer refinement that comes from Nikon and Canon’s decades of working with professional photographers. I tested it immediately after reviewing the EOS R5 Mark II, and it’s noticeable how many small quality-of-life design details favour that camera. For example, its lens release button is much larger, making it easier to swap lenses in a hurry, and Canon includes a dedicated button for rating images in playback. These are little things, but they do make your life easier.

Viewfinder and screen

The Sony Alpha A1 II, though, is indisputably class-leading with its viewfinder. Large and detailed, with a 9.4m-dot OLED panel and 0.9x magnification, it is also free of any blackout during continuous shooting. Sony now even includes a second eyecup in the box, which is much deeper and made of a soft silicone material to block stray light better. It’s a real improvement and I’d be inclined to use it all the time.

The A1 II also incorporates the same excellent screen design as the A9 III and A7R V. It’s a 3.2in, 2.1m-dot LCD that combines both tilting and side-hinged articulation mechanisms. This gives the best of both worlds – you can point the screen in almost any direction you like shooting at awkward angles, while still having it tilt up and down behind the camera for waist-level or overhead shooting.

Sony previews colour, exposure and depth-of-field by default, which means you get a very good idea of how your images are going to turn out. A comprehensive array of viewing aids is available, too. You can display a small live histogram and electronic levels, although annoyingly, not at the same time. But there’s no option to get the viewfinder to emulate an optical finder, which both Canon and Nikon offer.

Autofocus

With its stacked CMOS sensor and AI processor, it almost goes without saying that the Sony Alpha A1 II’s autofocus is exceptional. With static subjects, it focuses instantly, silently, and perfectly accurately, no matter where the subject is within the frame. With moving subjects, it’ll lock on and follow them reliably.

ILCE-1M2 · f/8 · 1/200s · 35mm · ISO200

Click on any sample image to see the full-resolution version

Sony’s subject recognition is as near-magical as ever, at least when using the pre-set subject modes. It understands people, animals, birds, insects, cars, trains and airplanes, and has no problem with keeping track of even small, erratic subject such as birds in flight. It doesn’t necessarily need Sony’s own lenses, either; I used the affordable Sigma 100-400mm F5-6.3 DG DN OS and still got a high hit-rate. But while this kind of autofocus felt ground-breaking on the original A1, now it almost seems unremarkable – the other cameras at this level have caught up, too.

While Sony’s new Auto option generally works well, in my experience it gave a surprising number of false positives. For example, it confidently drew subject detection boxes around such things as Tower Bridge or an oak tree. With the latter, I established that the camera thought it was an insect, which suggests the system has no sense of scale.    

ILCE-1M2 · f/6.3 · 1/2000s · 383.4mm · ISO8000

In a way, this is just quibbling; the camera still focused on the subject I wanted it to, and you can always turn subject detection off when you don’t need it. You can also disable certain subject types in Auto mode, which can help narrow down the camera’s attention onto the things you want to shoot. But then again, you don’t need to do this with Canon and Nikon’s subject detection systems, because they’re not so over-complicated in the first place and have simpler, more sensible options. 

Performance

As we’d expect from a top-of-the-line professional camera, the Sony Alpha A1 II performs superbly while shooting. It’s ready to shoot the moment you flick the power switch and responds instantly to all inputs. The mechanical shutter is nice and quiet, too, firing with just a soft, unobtrusive clunk. If you want the camera to operate completely silently, you can switch to the electronic shutter with minimal image-quality penalty.

ILCE-1M2 · f/8 · 1/80s · 44mm · ISO100

There’s nothing to complain about regarding battery life. Sony specifies 420 shots per charge using the viewfinder, but this is using the CIPA standard test, which is representative of taking single shots at a time. However, this is a camera where you’ll probably spend just as much time in burst mode. In this kind of mixed scenario with single frames and bursts, I got as many as 900 shots per charge. Replacement FZ100 batteries are easy to find and reasonably affordable, too.   

Continuous shooting performance is, of course, remarkable. Even if you use a UHS-II SD card, and shoot full-resolution raw and Fine JPEG files together, the camera will happily deliver bursts of over 100 frames at 30fps before pausing or slowing down. Switch to a CFexpress Type A card, and it’ll fire off about 150 frames at 30fps, before first throttling back to 15fps for another 50-odd frames, and then settling down to 10fps indefinitely (i.e. until you run out of card space, battery power, or motivation).

ILCE-1M2 · f/6.3 · 1/2000s · 400mm · ISO1250

Of course, few people want, or need to shoot this fast for this long. Aside from anything else, sorting through all the files is a nightmare. But at times, the capability can be genuinely useful.

I was lucky enough to get to shoot a Premier League football match between Manchester City and Nottingham Forest, courtesy of Sony UK. Here, the A1 II’s combination of speed and resolution allowed me to experiment with shooting wide – sometimes extremely wide – and cropping heavily after the event. You can see this in the example below.

This is a 100% crop showing Kevin de Bruyne scoring on a rare good night for the club during a spell of poor form. It’s not super-sharp, but let’s zoom out a bit and show more context…

This crop shows a rather wider view of the action, and actually looks decently sharp. But it’s still only 4MP. Let’s see what the full image looks like…

ILCE-1M2 · f/4 · 1/200s · 18mm · ISO1000

That’s right, this image was shot at 18mm to cover the entire pitch, using the Sony FE 16-35mm F4 ZA lens wide open at f/4. The 100% crop is a little blurry as the shutter speed is probably a bit too slow. Obviously this isn’t how you’d shoot sports most of the time, but it still illustrates the sensor’s huge cropping potential.

In the less glamorous surroundings of my local park, I was also able to record precise moments of action, such as with birds squabbling or touching down on water. In short, the A1 II helps you capture exactly the moment you want with relative ease, and with lots of leeway for cropping. For sports and wildlife photographers, this can be invaluable. Here’s another example, this time shot slightly more conventionally with the FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM II lens.

ILCE-1M2 · f/2.8 · 1/500s · 80mm · ISO800

To get the best performance, though, you need to shoot in Sony’s compressed raw format. However, this comes with a risk of posterization in very dark tones, so it’s better to use uncompressed raw whenever you might encounter extreme dynamic range, such as for landscapes.

Thankfully, you can set up custom modes so they record different raw file types, and even use different memory card slots. So you could have a sports/action mode sending compressed raws to CFexpress, and a studio/landscape mode that records uncompressed raw to SD when you don’t need the same speed.

ILCE-1M2 · f/2 · 1/13s · 34mm · ISO400

In-body image stabilisation is crucial with this kind of camera, as it helps you to get the most from that high-resolution sensor without having to worry too much about keeping shutter speeds high to counter camera shake. Here, the A1 II’s IBIS system is very capable indeed. Using the superb FE 28-70mm F2 GM lens, I was able to get consistently sharp images hand-held at shutter speeds in the vicinity of a second.

Given somewhere to rest my elbows, I could get entirely usable results with even longer exposure times around 2.5 seconds. This allows you to shoot such things as night-time cityscapes without necessarily needing a tripod.

ILCE-1M2 · f/5.6 · 1/0s · 55mm · ISO100

If you are prepared to carry around a tripod, you’ll find that Sony’s multi-shot modes work pretty well – technically at least. The 16-shot, 200MP pixel-shift mode delivers genuinely higher levels of detail, with minimal processing artefacts and the ability to suppress ghosting from objects that move between frames.

The problem, though, is that the files take up a massive amount of card space, and annoyingly, you have to manually identify each set for processing in Sony’s Imaging Edge Desktop software (unlike Fujifilm’s software, it’s not smart enough to find them for you within a folder of images). So while these modes can sometimes genuinely be useful in some studio still-life situations, but they’re impractical for most shooting.

ILCE-1M2 · f/11 · 1/80s · 400mm · ISO100

As with the A9 III, I was generally very impressed by Sony’s metering and white balance. On the whole, the camera does a great job of protecting highlight detail from blowing out and losing detail irretrievably. Likewise, the auto white balance system gives a reliable starting point for getting your colour right, with very few of the colour casts that used to bedevil older Sony models.

Sony’s default colour profile is tuned very much for accuracy rather than attractiveness. But it doesn’t quite have the punch and impact of some other brands’ colour modes. It’s pleasant enough, and the camera is capable of producing perfectly acceptable JPEG output, especially for portraits where overblown colour is a bad thing.

ILCE-1M2 · f/2 · 1/250s · 70mm · ISO200

Like other recent Sony cameras, there’s a set of ‘Creative Looks’ onboard, but they’re labelled only by incomprehensible two-letter abbreviations. Ironically the firm is quite happy to tell you what these all stand for in the Imaging Edge Desktop software, just not on the camera itself. They give some interesting alternative options to play with, but I don’t find them especially compelling.   

With the camera using essentially the same sensor as the original A1, image quality is unsurprisingly very similar. Which is to say, more than good enough for almost any purpose. That 50MP sensor is capable of delivering a huge amount of detail when paired with Sony’s G-master lenses – I mainly used the A1 II with the remarkable FE 28-70mm F2 GM that was announced alongside it, and the results were truly exceptional.

ILCE-1M2 · f/2 · 1/3s · 39mm · ISO100

High-ISO noise is also kept well under control, with the camera delivering entirely usable images up to ISO 25,600 at least, even without resorting to AI noise reduction in raw processing. This is complemented by substantial dynamic range, especially at lower ISO settings. Using Adobe Camera Raw, it’s possible to extract four or five stops of additional shadow detail without noise being a significant problem.

This isn’t quite the best image quality you’ll get from a full-frame camera – than honour still goes to 60MP models such as the A7R V – but it’s very close indeed.   

Sony Alpha A1 II: ISO and Noise

At low sensitivities, the A1 II’s 50MP sensor delivers exceptional levels of detail. This is maintained very well up to moderately high ISOs, with barely any visible loss of quality at ISO 1600. Go beyond ISO 3200 and shadow details starts to get crushed and disappear, but even so, I’d be happy shooting at up to ISO 25,600 as a matter of course.

ILCE-1M2 · f/6.3 · 1/640s · 400mm · ISO12800

The extended ISO 51,200 and 102,400 settings aren’t great when examined closely onscreen, but still deliver perfectly recognisable images when needed, especially with AI noise reduction applied in raw processing.

Below are 100% crops at various ISOs from our standard studio, shot in raw and processed using Adobe Camera Raw at default settings. Click on any thumbnail to see the full-size image.

Sony Alpha A1 II: Our Verdict

Let’s get one thing straight. There’s no doubt that the Alpha A1 II is the best camera Sony has ever made. It includes all the best bits of the A9 III but is much more versatile, thanks to its 50MP sensor. While its sibling is highly sports-focused and makes little sense for other purposes, the A1 is capable of handling pretty much anything you might ask of it. Whether you shoot sports, wildlife, portraits, weddings, landscapes or events, it’s got you covered.

In almost every practical respect, the A1 II is every bit as good as both the Nikon Z8 and Canon EOS R5 Mark II. Like those two cameras, it is capable of more than most photographers will normally require of it. No matter what you’re doing, chances are it shoots faster, focuses better, and delivers higher resolution and dynamic range than you need. There’s very little to choose between them, although the Canon arguably does have a killer feature, in the shape of eye control focus – at least for those who can get it to work reliably.

There are, perhaps, a few question marks around detail aspects of the A1 II’s usability. But they’re mostly quite minor, and can generally be overcome if you’re prepared to battle your way through the menus and fine-tune how the camera works. Sony’s new auto subject-recognition option returned more false positives than I expected, but it’s not a massive problem.

ILCE-1M2 · f/11 · 1/50s · 35mm · ISO100

It is, however, impossible to ignore the A1 II’s sky-high price relative to its rivals. At $7,000 / £6,300 versus $4,000 / £4,500 for the Canon EOS R5 Mark II, and $3,700 / £3,800 for a Z8, Sony ask a lot without really doing anything extra. You could argue that the A1 II should be compared to the Canon EOS R1 and Nikon Z9 instead, but that doesn’t really hold water – the sports-specialist A9 III goes head-to-head with those two models.

Of course, that price has to be weighed up against the cost of changing systems, and most users will likely be too heavily invested in lenses to consider it seriously. And the A1 II really can do pretty much anything – if you don’t get the shot, there’s no blaming the camera. For professional Sony shooters, it’s the obvious choice.

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Sony Alpha A1 II: Full specifications

The post Sony Alpha A1 II review: crazy good, crazy expensive appeared first on Amateur Photographer.