I’ve been testing bird feeder cameras since they first hit the market in early 2020, but as a wildlife photographer, bird box cameras have been in my arsenal for over a decade.

The market has moved enthusiastically towards AI bird identification and apps that let you keep tabs on the local birds through your phone. And the big brands that dominate today’s best bird box cameras and feeder guides have mostly abandoned wires in favor of all-in-one plastic gadgets that gamify wildlife watching.

But I’ll be honest; I’d like to revisit a time when watching birds didn't require a strong Wi-Fi signal or an app update every few weeks. Cue the Green Feathers cable-connection bird-box camera starter pack. This includes a physical cable to transmit nesting action directly to a TV or monitor, and in the case of the kit I’m testing, a nest box.

It's a system you can set up quickly in theory, but you'll need some level of patience to work out how to wire your box to the house and potentially feed and waterproof cables. The well-crafted wooden nestbox is designed to frame the camera, paired with an RCA-to-HDMI adapter to send the signal (or the direct AV connections if your TV, like mine, is old enough to have these). You can also buy this camera without a box for a more modest price, and fit it to your own house, making it a versatile buy.

Older analog cameras often locked users out of modern HD televisions unless they bought expensive extra splitters. By packaging this universal adapter directly into the kit, I can see Green Feathers bridging the gap for less tech-savvy users, traditional nature lovers, or photographers who want a Wi-Fi-free birding window.

There are obvious compromises to this simpler system, of course; the lower 700 TV Lines resolution will be disappointing to HD lovers, and without smartphone connectivity, you can only watch the box in real time. But I’ve been very keen to discover if this hardwired classic can still hold its own against the modern smart tech dominating, or if it feels too archaic for modern users and modern screens.

Green Feathers TV connectable camera: Specifications

Green Feathers TV connectable camera: Price

The Green Feathers cable-connected camera is at the DIY, affordable end of the bird camera market, and it's refreshing to find a product without any smart features to bump the price up. The company is based in the UK, and prices start from £55 (approx. $73) for just the camera and a 20m power cable. You can buy cables up to 50 meters at £84 (~$112), or go for a full kit with a sturdy bird box included (£99/$132). Green Feathers sent me this cable-connection bird-box camera starter pack for testing.

It’s a fairly budget-friendly buy compared to unbranded, standalone Wi-Fi cameras on Amazon that often require you to source your own nesting box and separate adapters. Near £100 isn't pocket change for an analog TV setup, but I think the handmade, 21mm thick sustainable wooden box and a dedicated HDMI converter sweeten the deal. I'll go into the design and build quality in more detail below, but both are worthy of the retail price.

This kit is much cheaper than app-driven alternatives like Green Feathers’ own 3rd Gen Wi-Fi camera bundle, which is closer to £150. It also avoids the premium smart tech tax of trendy AI options like the Birdfy Nest Duo or Birdbuddy ecosystems that can exceed $250/£200.

Features-wise, you have to get comfortable with what you're getting for the low price tag – a very basic 700 TV lines analog resolution with a 512 x 582 pixel count and no phone alerts or storage. If you want a reliable, lag-free live stream of nesting birds wired straight to your TV without faffing around with apps and Wi-Fi signals, though, the value is very reasonable.

Green Feathers TV connectable camera: Design & Handling

The Green Feathers' TV connection bird box camera looks almost identical, with a blue square around the lens instead of green (matching the box's labels).

If you’re getting used to modern Wi-Fi and smartphone app setups, opening up and setting up the Green Feathers TV-connectable camera might feel like stepping back in time. Its design and wired cabling immediately took me back to my university days (as a wildlife photographer) and a simpler, far more traditional era of wildlife surveillance.

The core bit of kit in the box is a compact metal cube measuring 44 x 44 x 33mm. I tested this as part of a complete setup with the Green Feathers bird box, but the camera is sold as a standalone unit you can use with an existing wooden nest box or even a hedgehog house.

Physically, the camera unit looks almost identical to its Wi-Fi-enabled alternative, with the same pinch-sized metal box, bar a subtle visual distinction. Where the Wi-Fi model features a green square accent frame around the lens, this TV-connectable version has a blue one.

What I found less straightforward was working out where all the power and video cables should go. A thick power and video cable emerges directly from the top of the casing, no problem. The rest of the bundled cabling setup felt thick and well-made, with the HDMI converter box and heavy-duty AV lines well-labelled and colored. The only component that’s a bit cheap by comparison is the indoor transformer plug and its power lead. Though practically speaking, since this section is set to be indoors by a television, it’s not a dealbreaker.

This camera demands more patience than modern smart setups during physical installation. Choosing a site for your bird box isn't just about finding a sheltered, enticing spot for garden birds; you also have to factor in how on earth you’re going to route a long physical cable (the length is up to you at the point of purchase) back into your house to reach the television.

Getting the wiring sorted took a good hour or more of trial and error as I scouted out a sensible path that wouldn't be disturbed, less a trail across the garden for my dog to untangle, etc. I eventually managed to feed the wire through the same exterior wall opening used by our home internet router, threading it from the outside in.

It’s a far more involved, traditional process than popping a wireless smart camera onto a wall plate, but this approach has the benefit of being both satisfying and simple (once the cables are tucked away and connected to your TV's HDMI port). You get an immediate and direct physical feed on the big screen every time you switch on your television. And as there’s no app to set up or talk about, the handling largely, neatly, ends there.

Green Feathers TV connectable camera: Performance

Note: As I'm testing this system outside the UK's bird-nesting window, the sample TV screen images show the interior perspective, depth of field, and image clarity inside the timber nest box. It’s also not possible to take direct shots from the camera, as it’s a live feed only.

Using the Green Feathers TV-connectable camera delivers an immediate advantage over its Wi-Fi sibling: visual stability. Though hugely helpful for keeping an eye on boxes that might be remote (or just peeking at activity when you’re away from home), with wireless wildlife cams, you’re relying on good signal strength. Here, the video feed travels over a direct physical cable straight to your television’s HDMI port, meaning the connection is solid and immune to home Wi-Fi drops (which happen a lot since I changed providers). The moment you switch the TV to the designated HDMI channel, the feed is just there, live and available.

When reviewing the image quality of this camera, I first wanted to be mindful that I was viewing the picture on a much bigger screen (50-inch) than my smartphone. And with the daylight feed on a modern LCD, the optical performance looked surprisingly strong. I also found that the manual focus ring helped here. Though I had no birds to monitor, I found that the image resolves fine micro-details across the interior pretty crisply. Looking at the screen, the grooves of wood grain and rough saw marks on the back panel were clearly visible.

Color accuracy and white balance were also good when viewing the feed. The natural pine box looked rich and warm without being saturated, which bodes well for colorful feathers. Dynamic range was more predictably mixed. The sharp contrast between the wooden interior and the daylight piercing through the entrance hole and floor seams results in noticeable highlight clipping. But the camera balances shadow detail across the lower corners so that the dark floor space is visible without becoming too noisy.

When light levels drop inside the box (mainly at night), the built-in infrared night vision is activated. On-screen, the monochrome IR feed looked evenly illuminated. The invisible IR LEDs cast a soft light across the box without any major hot spots directly under the lens. And because these LEDs emit no visible red glow, the TV feed can run indefinitely to monitor nocturnal roosting activity without disturbing the birds.

Of course, because you’re viewing a raw live feed rather than with an accompanying smart app on your phone, you can't record or grab instant snapshots at the touch of a button. What you see on the screen really is strictly real-time viewing.

Despite this (or maybe because of it), there’s something deeply satisfying about the TV-connectable setup. It’s powered continuously by mains electricity, so I don’t have to measure the battery or solar performance like I often would with bird feeder cameras. I found I had a permanent (clear enough) window into my nest box whenever I wanted it, without waiting for a signal buffer or battery recharge.

Green Feathers TV connectable camera: Verdict

I’ve been rethinking my use of tech (mainly my smartphone) recently, so testing the Green Feathers TV-Connectable Camera came at a fortuitous time. I found its old-school simplicity delightful, though I know many won’t get on with the wiring and planning required. But in a time when wildlife camera tech is about app notifications and AI, this system strips away all the noise to give you a direct, uninterrupted connection to your living room TV via HDMI.

Routing the long physical cable from my garden wall, through the router port, and into the TV was definitely a project that took an afternoon of trial and error. Though once I did get those wires channelled away, I didn’t have to think much more about them. And now, if I toggle over to the HDMI channel, I can view an uncompressed 1080p live stream that doesn’t suffer from buffering.

The optical quality inside the box isn’t bad given the camera’s low specs, and being able to manually adjust the focus ring means you should be able to get a decently sharp picture in different-sized boxes or houses. Yes, you lose out on smartphone convenience here, but without a battery to recharge or subscription costs to worry about, I think there’s still a clear market for this affordable bird camera. It’s a dedicated, zero-latency wildlife monitoring device that traditionalists and tech-averse nature lovers will get a lot from, without spending a lot.

Alternatives

Check out our full guides to the best bird feeder cameras, and to the best birdbox cameras

ON1 Photo RAW does a little bit of everything. Actually, it does quite a lot of everything. It’s a pretty competent photo organizer offering live folder browsing as a catalog option for more advanced searches – though it’s a bit confusing having both side by side – and it uses AI tools extensively, including within the organizer, where it can automatically generate keywords for your photos.

It’s also a pretty decent RAW processor, offering local adjustments, a choice of profiles, AI noise reduction, lens and perspective corrections, tone and color adjustments, and many of the RAW adjustments you get in Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw. You can create AI subject and background masks, sky masks, luminosity masks, new depth masks and more. And I'm still only on the Develop panel!

The real jewel in the crown is ON1 Photo RAW’s Effects module, where you can browse and apply a wide range of striking and inspirational preset effects or mix and match around 50 individual filters to make your own. Keep in mind that this is all part of a non-destructive workflow, so you can rework or replace effects at any time, including things like borders, textures and blur effects.

ON1 Photo RAW can also carry out sky replacements using a large selection of replacement skies organized into categories, and there’s also a dedicated Portrait mode with AI-powered tools for enhancing skin tones, face shape, eyes, lips, teeth and more. As if that’s not enough, you can create Photoshop-style layered images with masks and blend modes, and even though this does mean the creation of a new file, it’s still within ON1 Photo RAW’s non-destructive workflow.

In fact, the list of things this program can do is so long, it’s embarrassing. This alone surely makes it one of the best photo editing software applications on the market. I’m here to determine whether it’s a case of quantity over quality or quantity and quality. Let’s find out…

ON1 Photo RAW 2026: Specifications

ON1 Photo RAW 2026: Price

The regular edition of ON1 Photo RAW 2026 costs $99/£92.86 (about AU$141), while the MAX edition costs $199/£157.87 (around AU$283). At the time of writing, it was being sold at half price or thereabouts, though that may have changed by the time you read this.

Even at retail price, ON1 Photo RAW 2026 is less than half the cost of one year on the Adobe Photography Plan, and even the MAX edition, with its Lightroom- and Photoshop-compatible ON1 Resize AI, ON1 NoNoise AI, ON1 Portrait AI and ON1 Effects plug-ins and its remarkable Restore AI tool, is cheaper than the Adobe alternative, and with the added benefit of a perpetual license.

ON1 also sells subscription packages including both programs, additional content and cloud storage. You don’t have to choose this option, but options are not always easy to navigate on the ON1 site, so you might need to do a little digging. Given what it can do, ON1 Photo RAW 2026’s pricing is extremely competitive, even without discounting.

ON1 Photo RAW: Design & Handling

In a bid to make the ON1 Photo RAW experience simpler, ON1 has added a Home screen, which is displayed when you first launch the program. There are buttons for opening photos, browsing folders or importing from a device, and sections showing recent folders and albums, recent edits and a learning hub. Is it useful to new users? Perhaps.

You can also swap straight to the regular Browse view, which has tabs for Browse, My Catalogs and Presets. What’s the difference between Browse and Catalogs? You can browse folders and create albums in both, but with catalogued folders you can create Smart Albums and drill down through the dates your photos were taken on.

To edit a photo, you just double-click on it, and this is where the tools in the right sidebar come into play (also ON1’s selection of presets in the left sidebar). The Develop tab is where you fix up your RAW files and make general adjustments. The Local tab is for local adjustments and masking. The Effects tab is for viewing and adjusting the filters used by ON1 presets. While the Sky and Portrait tabs are for dedicated sky-replacement and portrait-enhancement workspaces.

It’s all logical enough, once you figure it out. A key distinction is that the Develop tab is for regular image adjustments, while the Effects tab is for ON1 Photo RAW’s effects filters. There is a lot of crossover in the tools, and you can apply both at the same time.

The masking options can be powerful but confusing. There’s a set of AI masking tools at the top of the right sidebar and a Mask button in the left tool panel that displays masking controls on a top bar, but these are regular non-AI masks.

You can use masks in the Local tab for overall image adjustments, but you can also create masks for individual filters in the Effects tab and for layers when you’re working on composite images. Yes, it’s a powerful set of masking options, but you need to keep your wits about you. ON1 Photo RAW 2026 crams a lot of functionality into an interface that’s very well managed overall but can sometimes feel crowded and confusing.

ON1 Photo RAW 2026: Performance

ON1’s RAW processing is not bad. I wouldn’t put it on a par with Capture One or DxO PhotoLab 9, but it’s not hard to extract decent image quality from your RAW files, especially with ON1’s NoNoise AI and Tack Sharp AI processes.

Two things really stand out in ON1 Photo RAW 2026. The first is its catalog of preset effects. These are easy to browse; they’re previewed directly on the image you’re working on and they can be applied with a single click. Once that’s done, you can inspect the filters and settings used in the right sidebar and modify as necessary.

ON1 Photo RAW’s effects make an interesting comparison with the DxO Nik Collection, as they cover the same range of effects but within a single module rather than spread across several plug-ins.

The new Restore AI process deserves a special mention, too. It’s available only in the MAX edition, and it does appear to use cloud-based processing, but the results are outstanding. It’s in a completely different league to the rather weak photo restore tool in Photoshop Elements 2026, for example.

Restored images are upscaled to 4K UHD resolution, even from lower-resolution scans; creases and spots are removed as if by magic, detail is restored very convincingly and the face recovery is amazing. Sometimes the likeness isn’t quite right, mostly when the original is small or blurred, but you can adjust the strength of the restoration for each face to help recover a proper likeness.

The results from ON1 Photo RAW 2026 are not always great without a little more work, and some of the presets are just way over the top for sharpening, saturation and ‘hyper-reality’, but at other times the preset effects can transform your images or give you ideas you might never have had. The range of effects and the scope offered by this program are pretty extraordinary.

ON1 Photo RAW 2026: Verdict

ON1 Photo RAW does so much that you might be wondering what the catch is. It's true that not all of the processes are best-in-class. DxO’s AI noise reduction is better, Lightroom and Capture One are slicker and faster at RAW processing, and while ON1’s masking tools are effective, they can also be pretty confusing. The standout features here are the creative effects and presets on offer, the easy image browsing and the fully non-destructive workflow. You can even create virtual copies to try out different effects on the same image.

The regular ON1 Photo RAW 2026 version is the best value, but if you have a lot of old photos you want to restore or you want to use ON1’s tools as plug-ins for Lightroom or Photoshop, the MAX edition is the one to go for.

Alternatives

Huawei was one of the first out of the gates to push the smartphone as a genuine photography tool. The Huawei P20 Pro and P30 Pro were particularly compelling, and the company has continued producing ambitious camera phones even as international restrictions have made them increasingly difficult to recommend outside China.

The Huawei Pura 90s Pro Max is the return to the global stage for Huawei flagships, which, in recent years, have rarely launched outside China. Why the international model has gained an additional “s” remains something of a mystery, but the important differences are the global version of its EMUI 16 software and international network support, including 5G.

The Pro Max is the largest and most camera-focused model in the Pura 90s range. Its headline feature is a 200MP periscope telephoto camera with a large 1/1.28-inch sensor, but it also includes a 50MP main camera with a physical variable aperture and a 40MP ultra-wide camera.

With specs like that, Huawei is clearly targeting photographers who might be browsing our guides to the best camera phones or the best Android phones for photography. However, it enters a market now packed with impressive alternatives from Oppo, Xiaomi, Vivo, Samsung, Google, and Apple, several of which offer equally ambitious camera hardware without Huawei’s software complications.

Specifications

Design

The Huawei Pura 90s Pro Max looks gorgeous. The Orange Ocean version I tested blends blue at the top into a rich orange across the lower portion of the rear panel. Huawei says the same transition continues around the aluminum frame, although it mostly just looks gold to me; however, it is still very pretty and complements the finish nicely. It is not a phone for anyone hoping to go unnoticed. The ombré effect is bright and eye-catching. More restrained buyers can choose Blush Gold or Graphite Black.

The phone feels suitably premium in the hand. At 230.5g, it is weighty without feeling excessively heavy, although it remains amongst the larger flagship phones, sitting around the same weight as a Vivo X300 Ultra or Oppo Find X9 Ultra. The outer frame is smooth but not particularly slippery, and the gently tapered edges prevent it from digging into my palm during longer periods of use.

Huawei has also returned to a completely flat screen, which I much prefer for photography, reviewing images and video (and just in general). Curved displays should be consigned to a footnote of phone design. The display itself is excellent. The 6.9-inch LTPO OLED panel is sharp, bright, and richly saturated, with strong viewing angles. Its adaptive refresh rate ranges from 1Hz to 120Hz, which keeps motion smooth while allowing the phone to reduce power consumption when the screen is static.

The front uses Huawei’s Anti-Reflection and Scratch-Resistant Kunlun Glass. Huawei claims this reduces reflections by up to 70%, increases scratch resistance by 16 times, and improves drop resistance by 25 times compared with conventional glass. The phone also carries both IP68 and IP69 ratings. I don’t tend to throw my review units around or drown them, but from sliding in and out of bags and pockets, getting splashed and bumping up against my keys quite a few times, it's still looking good as new.

The P90s’ camera island remains one of the most unusual designs on any phone. I’m not sure how I feel; I don’t love it, but I certainly do not hate it. The rounded triangular arrangement spreads the three lenses across the upper-left corner rather than collecting them into a huge central circle or a small squircle like almost every other phone. It is noticeably different from almost everything else available, and I respect that.

That positioning has one practical advantage: my fingers rarely wandered over the lenses while I was holding the phone. I cannot say the same for several devices with large, centrally positioned camera modules. The bump itself is significant, although Huawei has softened its effect with a sloping outer edge. There is some minor table wobble, but it is less severe than on phones where several individual camera rings are clustered along one side *cough* Samsung. Because Huawei’s module occupies more of the phone’s width, it distributes the weight a little more evenly.

Box contents likely vary by region. Huawei included a charger, USB-C cable, and transparent case in my review unit.

Camera Performance

The Pura 90s Pro Max has three rear cameras. The main camera uses a 50MP, 1/1.28-inch RYYB sensor behind a 24mm-equivalent lens. Its standout feature is a 10-step physical aperture that moves between f/1.4 and f/4.0, with optical stabilization also included.

Beside it is the headline 200MP telephoto. This uses another big 1/1.28-inch RYYB sensor, but places it behind an 89mm-equivalent f/2.6 periscope lens. That provides approximately 4x optical zoom. Although interestingly, Huawei offers a 10x crop as the default “optical” zoom in the camera app, which defies the usual optical crop of twice the standard focal length, which shows how confident Huawei is in its zoom. Finally, there is computationally enhanced zoom for 20x and beyond.

The third camera is a 40MP, 13mm-equivalent ultra-wide with autofocus. Huawei also adds a dedicated True-to-Colour Camera 2.0 sensor to gather additional color information and produce more accurate white balances and skin tones, similar to what we have seen from Oppo and others on recent models.

At their optical focal lengths, all three cameras are very good. The main and telephoto cameras are the clear standouts, but the ultra-wide also produces very nice images, and doesn’t feel like the usual afterthought.

With the Pura 90s Pro Max its just remarkably easy to get good photos. In its standard photo mode, point it toward a scene, and I know I will reliably get a well-balanced, usable image. Exposure is consistently good, white balance is usually effective, and skies in particular retain a realistic blue.

However, while Huawei’s processing does an excellent job of giving photographs immediate impact, it can become overenthusiastic. Images are slightly over-reliant on sharpening, even at the cameras’ native focal lengths. This makes photographs look crisp and detailed at normal viewing sizes, but zooming in reveals fine textures taking on a slightly squiggly, processed appearance. It is not bad, and most people will never notice it. However, it prevents images from looking quite as natural or photographic as those from the best modes available on Oppo and Xiaomi phones with their Leica and Hasselblad input.

HDR is similarly aggressive. The Pura 90s Pro Max is exceptionally good at preserving highlights and pulling detail from shadows, but the result can be a photograph in which almost all the highlights are borderline too bright. I could not find a way to disable HDR capture in the standard camera mode, which is an odd quirk. HDR has its place, particularly in strongly backlit scenes, but I do not necessarily want every photograph to look that way. Editing afterward can tone down some of that effect, but I would prefer more control at the point of capture.

Color consistency across the three cameras is good, but not perfect. Each lens can produce a slightly different white balance, which becomes noticeable when shooting a sequence intended to sit together. The differences are not dramatic, but they make matching photographs more work than it should be. Below you can see the color and contrast become a little moodier between the 1x and 4x cameras, with the 4x not quite capturing the warmth of the day as well.

The 200MP telephoto is enormously capable. At its native 4x focal length, it captures excellent detail with attractive compression and dependable exposure. Results beyond the optical range are also impressive. Huawei’s high-resolution sensor gives the processing system plenty of data to work with, so photographs at 8x and 10x remain incredibly usable and up to optical quality.

However, some limitations appear once I examined the files a little more closely. At approximately 240mm equivalent and beyond, I occasionally saw odd blurring around the edges of subjects, along with small processing artifacts in areas of complicated texture. These effects become more obvious as the light falls and the phone has less genuine image information to work with.

Huawei’s 20x output can look remarkable at first glance, but it should not be confused with optical zoom. It remains a crop enhanced by significant computational reconstruction. It works well for a record shot or social-media post, but pinch in, and there are a lot of smoothed textures and digitally sharpened outlines.

Macro performance is excellent. Both the ultra-wide and telephoto cameras can focus at close distances, giving me a choice between an exaggerated wide-angle perspective and a tighter telephoto composition. The telephoto macro is particularly impressive. I could photograph extremely fine details without placing the phone directly on top of the subject, and in one image of a bee, individual grains of pollen were visible among the hairs on its body. This is one of the best macro cameras I have used on a phone.

The main camera’s variable aperture is another welcome feature, although it's not the game-changer that it could be. On a sensor this small, changing from f/1.4 to f/4 does not transform depth of field in the way it would on a mirrorless camera, but it can help control exposure and extend shutter speeds for more creative long exposures. I would love to see Huawei push the concept further. A smaller minimum aperture, combined with more direct manual control, could make the feature even more valuable for light trails or moving-water effects.

The camera application itself is straightforward, but it has several unnecessary frustrations. There is no direct 20x shortcut, nor are there convenient buttons for intermediate focal lengths such as 1.5x or 2x. Most rival applications let me tap or cycle through their zoom icons to reveal additional options, while Huawei makes me use the imprecise zoom slider.

Pro mode offers manual exposure control, but creative customization is limited. The main color options are essentially Standard, Vivid, and Bright. Oppo’s Hasselblad Master Mode and Xiaomi’s Leica profiles offer much more control over the character of an image, including less-processed output and customizable recipes.

Video quality is good in the standard mode, and the phone can record up to 4K at 60fps from every rear camera and the front camera. Footage is clean, detailed, and easy to capture, while the stabilization makes longer telephoto clips much more practical than I expected.

Unfortunately, the more advanced options fall behind rival flagships. There is no Log capture or LUT support, manual controls are limited, and Huawei’s Advanced Image Stabilization restricts recording to 2.7K. Subject tracking is more limited still, topping out at 1080p. That is difficult to overlook when phones from Apple, Samsung, Vivo, Oppo, and Xiaomi are offering Log profiles, 4K120 recording, advanced codecs, LUT previews, and support for external storage.

Phone Performance

My global Pura 90s Pro Max uses Huawei’s Kirin processor, paired with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. The international model also restores 5G connectivity, something that had been missing from several previous Huawei flagships sold outside China.

In ordinary use, I had few complaints. The phone feels quick when browsing, switching between applications, streaming video, and navigating the camera interface. I did not encounter meaningful hangs or slowdowns, and it handled on-device photo and video editing without any obvious difficulty.

However, Geekbench 6 figures show that Huawei remains considerably behind the latest Qualcomm-powered flagships. Devices using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 deliver more than twice Huawei’s multi-core result. Those benchmark differences do not make the Pura feel slow in normal use, but they matter for demanding games and heavy use.

The more significant issue is EMUI 16. Huawei’s interface is clean, responsive, and generally easy to use, but the global phone does not include Google Mobile Services. That means there is no native Google Play Store, Google Wallet, Android Auto, or properly integrated Gemini. Huawei offers alternatives through AppGallery, Huawei Wallet, Celia, Petal Maps, and Huawei Cloud, and many of those applications are perfectly competent.

The problem is that much of my digital life is tied to Google. My files are in Google Drive, I sign into countless services with my Google account, and I use Google’s applications across several other devices. Replacing one app is manageable, but replacing an entire connected ecosystem is considerably harder.

There are third-party methods for installing many Google applications, including containerized services and manually installed APK files. These can work surprisingly well, but they remain workarounds. They do not provide the same deep system integration, and applications that rely closely on Google Play Services, device certification, payment security, or background synchronization may behave unpredictably.

The global model also has a confusingly restricted set of AI editing tools. Huawei promotes AI De-glare, AI Move, AI object removal, and other generative features in some markets, but the global version is missing these options. That leaves the global Huawei well behind Google, Samsung, Oppo, and several other brands for AI-assisted photo editing, despite the strength of the cameras producing those photographs.

Battery life is excellent. My review unit comfortably lasted around a day and a half with a mixture of photography, video recording, browsing, and general use. Huawei officially rates the battery at 6,000mAh outside the European Union, while the EU version has a 5,270mAh rated capacity. Charging is very fast. The phone supports up to 100W wired charging and up to 80W wireless charging with compatible chargers.

Final Verdict

The Huawei Pura 90s Pro Max is a hard phone to assess. It has built an excellent camera system and wrapped everything in one of the most distinctive designs around. It is comfortable to hold, the display is excellent, battery life is strong, and ordinary performance is smooth.

The cameras are capable of producing outstanding images, particularly at their native focal lengths. I also enjoyed how little effort was needed to get a successful photograph. Exposure, color, and white balance are usually dependable without intervention. However, the processing can look too sharp and too HDR-heavy, while Huawei provides fewer tools than its competitors for dialing that processing back. Its video hardware is impressive, but the lack of Log recording, LUT support, and full-resolution stabilization makes it a less convincing choice for serious video makers.

Then there is Google. Many applications can be made to work, but I never stopped noticing what was missing. The limited AI editing tools on my global unit were also missed. For photographers willing to accept those compromises, the Pura 90s Pro Max is a remarkable imaging device. For everyone else, other Android and Apple phones offer more complete all-round experiences.

Alternatives

Camera glasses with AI features have been getting a lot of press lately, and not all of it positive. While these clever devices have exploded in popularity, driven in large part by the Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 Smart Glasses, concerns have been raised over privacy issues and the potential for non-consensual recording.

As such, it was with mixed feelings that I unboxed the Rokid AI Glasses Style, the more lightweight and affordable counterpart to the Rokid Glasses, lacking the display technology of their bigger brother. Equipped with a 12MP sensor capable of capturing stills and video, these glasses also benefit from an AI assistant you can talk to in real time via the built-in mics and speakers.

They look the part – but are they capable of capturing decent-enough imagery to be considered among the best camera glasses? I took the Rokid AI Glasses Style out for a test to find out.

Rokid AI Glasses Style: Specifications

Rokid AI Glasses Style: Price & availability

The Rokid AI glasses can be bought directly from the manufacturer’s website, at time of writing for a starting price of $349 (roughly £262 / AU$500). That’s a little cheaper than the Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2s, which start at $379, but a lot more expensive than the previous gen of Ray-Ban Meta Gen 1s, which are currently sitting at around $225.

So, it’s about the standard market price for a pair of flashy camera glasses with AI features. If you just want the camera bit, don’t care about AI features and aren’t too fussed on image and video quality, then you have many, many cheaper options, such as the Oho Sunshine Camera Glasses, or any number of anonymous products on Amazon.

Rokid AI Glasses Style: Design & handling

If you’ve been admiring the style of the Meta Ray Ban glasses, then you might well find the Rokid pair to be hauntingly familiar. They’re sleek, black and fairly anonymous-looking. The right arm features a function button that can be used to quickly capture photos and videos, and a touchpad that can be used to control things like music playback. I found the shutter button to be well-situated and more enjoyable to use than having to talk to the glasses or fiddle with the app – you tap it to take a photo, and long press to start/stop recording video.

Audio playback comes via two small speakers on the arms, and there is a four-mic setup for picking up your own voice as well as video sound. These are what you use to communicate with your AI assistant. I’ll talk more about this process in the next section, but as far as mic-pickup goes, I found them to be consistently pretty reliable, able to consistently pick up me saying ‘Hi Rokid’ in all but the quietest of voices.

The glasses are fairly sizeable, and I found them to be perfectly comfortable to wear for long periods, with no uncomfortable pinching or squeezing. The shaded lenses can be swapped out to clear or prescription lenses if you prefer. Charging is straightforward via the supplied magnetic charger, and the glasses come with a standard protective case – you do have the option to fork out $99 for a charging case.

The camera module is situated beside the left eye. On the other side is the recording light, and I have to say that this is one of my big issues with the Rokid AI Glasses Style. The recording light is a small, dim, white LED, a dot that is hard to see when you’re indoors, and in full daylight is all but invisible (you can see it close-up at the end of the video clip featured below).

Frankly, this is not good enough. If the light is supposed to clearly notify others that they’re being recorded, then there’s no reason for it to be so small and dim, nor for it to be white rather than red, a color that has been near-universally understood to mean ‘recording in progress’ since the days of camcorders.

Rokid’s AI claims the glasses will refuse to record when the light is covered – but in my testing, this didn’t actually appear to be true. The speakers play a warning to uncover the light, but the recording continues. As such, this tokenistic gesture makes me deeply sceptical that Rokid are particularly bothered by issues of privacy or transparency.

The light is on the other side of the glasses, so it isn’t going to interfere with the camera. I think it should be ten times brighter. Red, flashing and unmissable. And frankly, if you care about camera glasses as a technology, you should be calling for this too – because the tech is never going to shake its reputation for irresponsible use when manufacturers make irresponsible use so easy.

Rokid AI Glasses Style: Performance

AI features work via the Hi Rokid app, available for iOS and Android. The Android version is a little temperamental and prone to crashing – and it took me several attempts to establish the initial connection. Judging by the ‘made for iPhone’ slogan proudly touted on the box, I suspect the iOS experience might be smoother.

The Rokid Glasses Style’s AI assistant apparently uses a combination of both OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. I’m not entirely sure how this works in practice (though the voice replying to you often changes), but using the assistant is fun, if intermittently janky.

I took the glasses around London’s Kew Gardens, asking them to identify plants, objects, buildings and sculptures. I achieved about a 60% success rate, with the remaining 40% consisting of a range of error messages – ‘server busy’, ‘connection unstable’, ‘service error’. Thinking times also varied wildly. It’s diverting enough, but in my view, a bit too unstable to really slot into one’s life in a useful way.

More interesting is the camera module. It uses a 12MP Sony IMX681 sensor, which is the same resolution as the sensor in Meta’s glasses – in fact, I can’t fully confirm this, but I think it might well be the exact same sensor. As such, images are similarly bright and vibrant, with pleasingly natural-looking colors and a decent level of detail.

Like many images taken on these kinds of sensors, they look fantastic on a phone screen, and okay on a monitor. Images are captured in the camera’s native 3:4 aspect ratio – you also have the option of cropped 9:16 portrait or 4:3 landscape, the latter in 3K rather than 4K. Also, I do appreciate the automatic horizon calibration, as someone who naturally tilts their head quite a bit.

Video-wise, it’s a similar story – footage looks decent enough, especially on a small screen, but isn’t about to give proper vlogging cameras any sleepless nights. It shoots by default in 2.5K 30p in a 3:4 aspect ratio, and once again you have a few different aspect ratio options if you wish. It does wobble quite a bit when walking – some stabilisation wouldn’t have gone amiss – and outdoors, the audio is pretty susceptible to wind noise, so bear that in mind if you wish to record speech.

Also, Rokid claims that the 210 mAh battery will give you up to 12 hours ‘typical’ use, but I’m not sure about that – the first couple of hours of messing about in Kew Gardens knocked about 40% off my unit’s battery indicator.

Rokid AI Glasses Style: Sample images

This gallery of sample shots was taken around London’s Kew Gardens on an extremely sunny and bright day with minimal cloud cover, including both exteriors and interiors.

Rokid AI Glasses Style: Video

Above is a compilation of a few short clips captured with the Rokid AI Glasses Style using the camera's native 2.5K 30fps 3:4 mode.

Rokid AI Glasses Style: Verdict

Fundamentally, if you want a decent pair of camera glasses with AI smarts – here it is. In pure imaging terms, the Rokid AI Glasses Style don’t bring anything new to the table, with a 12MP sensor that produces images that look much like everything else. The combination of ChatGPT and Gemini powering the AI smarts certainly creates a different user experience to Meta’s AI, but also one that feels a little byzantine and unstable.

I’d feel a lot more comfortable recommending the Rokid AI Glasses Style if the privacy features weren’t so lacklustre. I’m aware this is pretty much the standard for camera glasses, but I don’t have to like it, and I don’t have to like the implications of it.

My wishlist for a future update to these glasses would be pretty straightforward. In addition to a clearer recording light, I’d love a smoother app experience on Android, and perhaps seeing some of those AI smarts put to work on features like stabilisation or noise reduction. Until then, I can only call these what they are – a perfectly adequate and fairly unexciting pair of camera glasses.

Rokid AI Glasses Style: Alternatives

When I first started making videos for a living back in the late 80s, my video production team used two long, smooth pieces of wood as tracks for the wheeled ‘dolly’ that was attached to the base of our chunky video camera’s tripod. This enabled us to add smooth camera moves to shots, such as dollying forward towards an actor, or tracking (crabbing) left or right to add a bit of motion and life to a static scene. When not in use, we kept the two wooden tracks in a plastic body bag (I’m not sure where my video unit got that from!).

Fast forward to the 21st century, and I’ve just tested a descendant of my primitive 80s camera tracking system - the Andoer L4 Pro. This device is a small, battery-powered camera slider (or as it says in the manual - an ‘autodolly’) that can dolly, track, or pan the attached camera or smartphone - as long as you find a smooth, flat surface for it to drive on. Lots more about that limitation in the Performance section of this review.

Andoer produces a wide range of photographic equipment, from green screen backdrops to LEDs and soft boxes. They also produce a large range of affordable compact digital cameras, as well as larger camera dolly rail-based set-ups. Interestingly, I discovered that the Andoer L4 Pro is identical to a Neewer branded three-wheeled tracker - more on that in the Price section.

The Andoer L4 Pro isn’t the first electronic camera mover that I’ve tested for Digital Camera World. Back in 2022, I tested the Joby Swing - an electronic smartphone slider. The tripod-mounted Swing was very limited in the speed and distance that it could move the camera, whereas thanks to its three rubber-clad wheels, the Andoer L4 Pro can keep on tracking until it runs out of a surface (such as the end of a park bench!).

Some would argue that in the age of the camera gimbal a camera slider is a relatively inferior solution to making smooth moves. A gimbal enables you to pan, track and dolly your camera manually - adding motion to your footage. You can pop a gimbal on its mini tripod and use its AI tracker to tilt and pan the camera to follow your every move, or use its joystick to perform a smooth pan. So, why and when would you use a slider instead of a gimbal? Is a slider worth buying. The short answer is a firm ‘yes’, but I’ll clarify and unpack that answer later in this review.

Check out our guide to the best camera sliders.

Andoer L4 Pro: Specifications

Andoer L4 Pro: Price

The Andoer L4 Pro retails at £75.29 on the UK Amazon Store. You can see the Andoer L4 Pro. In the USA, this model is most easily found being sold under the Neewer brand for $73.89 on the Amazon US Store – but this doesn’t include a ball-head. The Neewer branded version of the tracker is also available on the UK Amazon store for £78.99.

On the UK Andoer store the Andoer L4 Pro is pictured wearing an Andoer branded ball-head camera mount, though the version that I tested didn’t include this rather useful ball-head accessory. I could pick up a compatible 1/4” thread ball head from Andoer for under a tenner. To attach my iPhone 17 Pro to the Andoer L4 Pro I used a Joby-branded smartphone holder that I already owned.

The Andoer L4 Pro won’t blow your budget, and even if you already own a gimbal, it could still come in handy when you want to capture a quick pan, tracking shot or dolly move without the faff of unpacking and setting up a large stabiliser. It could also be a useful tool for stock videographers, enabling them to add movement, life and energy to otherwise static scenes, such as landscapes where there is little action within the frame.

Andoer L4 Pro: Design & Handling

The Andoer L4 Pro autodolly is a compact, three-wheeled device that fits comfortably in the hand when folded. It also takes up very little space in a kit bag, which is a big plus for me as I prefer to travel light.

The specifications state that the autodolly is made from “high-quality plastic”, although it also contains several metal components. Its two folding legs (with wheels attached) are metal and are connected to a metal bracket that secures them to the rectangular plastic body. At the opposite end is a third wheel, which is the only motor-driven wheel. As it rotates, it propels the autodolly along on all three wheels. The metal components make the L4 Pro feel satisfyingly solid and heavy, though it still weighs in under 300g.

By adjusting the angle of the two hinged rear wheel legs, you can make the dolly travel in a straight line for a tracking or “crab” move, or follow a curved path to create a pan. The legs can be adjusted in increments to produce a tighter or wider curve, resulting in a faster or slower pan. Helpfully, each hinge is marked with a small protractor graphic, making it easy to set both legs to the same angle and achieve a smooth tracking move, pan or even a full rotation. Each of the three wheels has a rubber ‘tyre’ that enables them to have traction on a variety of surfaces.

On one side of the rectangular body you’ll find the on/off switch and a USB-C port for charging the internal battery. On the opposite side are two plastic buttons. One, helpfully labelled “Speed”, lets you cycle through three settings. The selected speed is indicated by one green light for 1.4cm/s, two lights for 2.4cm/s and three lights for 3.0cm/s. I’ll discuss speed in more detail in the Performance section, as there are ways to make the attached camera travel faster. There’s also a button that enables you to make the motorized wheel rotate the opposite way, so this lets you change the direction of travel. The motorized wheel does make a little whirr which can be picked up by a smartphone’s mic, but on the whole the whirr is negligible, as you’ll hear from see my supporting video.

Speaking of cameras, the top of the L4 Pro features both 1/4-inch and 3/8-inch mounting threads. The device also comes with a circular mounting attachment, so it was a simple matter to screw a smartphone holder onto it and clip my iPhone 17 Pro into place. You can also attach a compact or mirrorless camera to the Andoer L4 Pro, but as my colleague Chris George says in the best camera sliders buying guide - “While it’s definitely best suited to smaller cameras – it won’t take a C500 cine camera with a 70-200mm lens – you’ll still be able to get a mirrorless camera on it with a 50mm lens onboard if the need arises.”

The Andoer L4 Pro’s orange wheels and mounting attachment are remarkably similar in colour to the iPhone 17 Pro’s Cosmic Orange finish, making it an especially attractive accessory for owners of that model. The complementary colour scheme is entirely coincidental, however, as the L4 Pro has been on the market for several years.

Oh, one last design point to mention is the inclusion of a remote control unit. This small plastic unit is designed to let you toggle between the L4 Pro’s three speeds and change its direction from a distance of up to 6m. I confess that although the light on the remote showed that the battery was active, I couldn’t get it to control the L4, which did make testing it a bit trickier as you’ll see in the Performance section (and in the supporting video).

Andoer L4 Pro: Performance

Above: watch my video showing the Andoer L4 Pro in action in the City of London

To test the Andoer L4 Pro, I popped it and my iPhone 17 Pro into my McKinnon 8L Camera Sling bag and headed into the city to capture some photogenic clips. I occasionally shoot editorial-style footage to sell on stock video sites such as Storyblocks.com, so I was keen to see whether the L4 Pro was fast enough to add sufficient movement to my clips. A slight pan or tracking move is a great way to bring extra life to a shot, especially when there isn’t much movement happening within the frame. I only earn around $50-60 per month from my stock video clips but that’s a regular passive income from clips I’ve uploaded over the years.

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting too much from this autodolly, although its maximum speed of 3cm/s is at least a little faster than the snail-like 1cm/s pace of the Joby Swing slider. But the more I used it, the more impressed I became with it.

As you’ll see in this section’s supporting video (above), my first test location was a scenic city park. This immediately presented a challenge: finding a surface that was sufficiently flat and smooth for the L4 Pro’s small, rubber-clad wheels to move freely.

I placed the L4 Pro on a park bench, adjusted the two hinged legs so that their wheels ran parallel with the motorized wheel, and flipped the power switch to On. I couldn’t get the supplied remote control to communicate with the L4 Pro, but it was a simple matter to press the direction button on the L4 Pro itself to set it in motion, having first started recording on the dolly-mounted iPhone 17 Pro.

When the L4 was travelling in a straight line, I didn’t notice much difference between the first and third speed settings, so I generally left it at its maximum speed of 3cm/s, as indicated by three green lights. I then walked into shot and admired the Art Deco building in the distance while the autodolly carried my iPhone through a tracking move.

Because I was looking towards the building, I was slightly concerned that the autodolly might roll off the end of the bench behind me and fall to the ground, so I kept each take relatively short. One of the L4 Pro’s wheels also had a tendency to drop into the gaps between the bench’s wooden slats, causing a small bump in the footage. This resulted in a few retakes and, as you’ll see in the supporting video, the camera movement in my first test clip was subtle because of the distance between the autodolly and the subject.

As I discovered when using the Joby Swing, camera movement becomes more noticeable when you place an object close to the lens. A nearby foreground object appears to move across the frame more quickly than subjects in the distance, creating a stronger sense of motion.

By positioning a bollard between myself and the iPhone 17 Pro mounted on the Andoer L4 Pro, I was able to capture a much more noticeable tracking effect. I then angled the two hinged legs slightly so that the device travelled in a gentle curve. This enabled me to track past a foreground railing and reveal the Art Deco building in the background with a more cinematic camera move, as you can see in the supporting video.

This is the kind of movement I couldn’t easily capture while filming myself with a gimbal. A gimbal can pan and tilt to follow me as I walk through the frame, but when mounted on mini tripod legs it remains in a fixed position. The Andoer L4 Pro, by contrast, physically travels across the ground, enabling a different and more dynamic type of tracking shot.

My third test location was the Barbican Centre, with its towering Brutalist architecture. Unfortunately, it wasn’t especially friendly terrain for the Andoer L4 Pro’s small rubber wheels, as almost every available surface was heavily textured. The floors were covered in chunky tiles, while the broad tops of the walkway walls were clad in rough, pebble-dashed concrete.

After some wandering, I eventually found a flat metal air-duct cover that was smooth enough for the L4 Pro’s small rubber wheels to traverse. I tilted my Joby smartphone mount upwards, switched the iPhone 17 Pro to its ultra-wide camera and angled the adjustable wheels to create a tight curve. This enabled me to capture a dramatic, low-angle circular move past the Barbican’s tall towers, while long plant stems swept more quickly through the foreground and enhanced the sense of motion.

While wandering through London, I enjoyed being able to quickly pull out the Andoer L4 Pro whenever I spotted an opportunity to add movement to a short stock video clip. I particularly enjoyed using it at the top of the Sky Garden, which offers panoramic views across London. By angling the L4 Pro’s two unmotorized wheels closer together, I made the device travel in a tight, fast circle. With the smartphone mount tilted upwards, this enabled me to capture dramatic and slightly dizzying low-angle footage of the building’s curved glass roof. I must thank fellow photographer Shaughn Malcom for filming me setting up and using the Andoer L4 Pro for this review’s supping video

Finally, I found myself on the banks of the Thames, where I wanted to capture tracking shots that followed the movement of passing boats — an ideal subject for stock video. However, as the Andoer L4 Pro trundled across the rough, gritty surface I had placed it on, I could see in the iPhone’s viewfinder that the footage looked rather bumpy. To my surprise, however, the recorded footage played back remarkably smoothly. This was thanks to the iPhone 17 Pro’s combination of electronic stabilisation and sensor-shift optical image stabilisation, which physically moves the sensor to compensate for camera shake. This gave me the freedom to use the L4 Pro on surfaces that weren’t perfectly smooth, greatly increasing the number of locations in which it could be used. Check out the supporting video to see the results for yourself.

Andoer L4 Pro: Verdict

I initially approached the task of reviewing the Andoer L4 Pro as something of a chore, as I couldn’t see how it would add much to my smartphone footage. However, within half an hour of testing, I began to appreciate its potential for bringing stock-footage subjects to life. It works particularly well when you compose a shot with objects in the foreground, as these move more noticeably across the frame and create a stronger sense of motion.

I can also recommend the Andoer L4 Pro to smartphone filmmakers who want to add a gentle tracking or panning movement to a shot. On the downside, it is dependent on a reasonably smooth surface if you want to produce a smooth track, dolly move or pan. Even so, I was pleasantly surprised by how well I could use it on slightly uneven surfaces, with the iPhone 17 Pro’s stabilisation ironing out the resulting bumps and wobbles during my test.

For smartphone filmmakers, the Andoer L4 Pro could prove to be a handy and affordable accessory - and it looks particularly smart when paired with the similarly coloured Cosmic Orange iPhone 17 Pro. In fact, it is such an eye-catching little device that two people stopped to chat to me while I was testing it, so hello to you chaps if you’re reading this!

Alternatives

While the broader smart-nature market has spent the last few years focusing on chunky bird feeder cameras that record outdoor garden visits, a distinct branch of wildlife tech remains dedicated to the nesting season. When I was starting out in wildlife photography, capturing the moments inside an enclosed habitat like a nest box meant running physical cables to a monitor or recorder. Today, the best bird box cameras include high-definition, wireless nest boxes you can view remotely.

I was keen to review the Green Feathers WiFi Bird Box Camera (3rd Gen), as I've watched the brand from afar for many years as a nature nerd. Green Feathers is UK-based and has spent over a decade creating dedicated habitat surveillance options. This tiny bird box camera is specifically designed to capture bird habitats and looks nothing like the recycled indoor security cams you get in some bird feeders. It’s an upgrade to the 2nd Gen model and now links to the free Green Feathers mobile app.

In the past, I’ve struggled with oversized cameras that crowd out nesting spaces. The camera itself is a 44 x 44 x 33 mm metal cube that mounts to the ceiling of a bird box, leaving plenty of room for the feathered subjects inside. On-paper specs don’t always explain much, but here they include 1080p (Full HD) resolution, a wide-angle 2.8mm lens with a 103-degree field of view, and a built-in microphone. There are also four invisible infrared LEDs for night vision without disrupting the birds' sleep.

As mentioned, the camera is designed to be used in combination with the official Green Feathers app to send you real-time motion detection alerts, taking it a step closer to the AI-powered options from the likes of Birdfy. Are most nature-lovers really better served by an all-in-onesetup like the Birdfy Nest Duo, or does this tiny camera provide greater versatility and value? Sadly, I’ve missed the thick of spring – and UK nesting season – but I'll still be testing the camera thoroughly over several weeks to bring you the verdict.

Green Feathers WiFi bird box camera: Specifications

Green Feathers WiFi bird box camera: Price

The Green Feathers WiFi HD camera comes in at the more premium price point end of the nesting market, at around £149 (approx. $195) on its own and currently £184 (approx. $240) for a starter pack that includes Green Feathers’ well-built nesting box, ten-meter power extension cable, and a daytime LED lamp to boost the light on dark days. This is the bundle I'll be using and reviewing.

Unlike cheap and cheerful generic indoor smart cams that users try to retrofit outdoors, this camera is a specialized option. It’s ultra-compact, and its IP54-rated housing is designed to survive tight, humid nesting environments without overheating. There aren’t any ongoing subscription fees either, which I love, keeping the long-term running costs at zero.

If I compare this WiFi HD camera bundle to its closest competitors – the dual-camera Birdfy Nest Duo springs to mind – this device strikes an interesting balance. It trades off advanced features like AI species recognition for a stripped-back focus on reliability.

What you get is a great 1080p digital stream, and I think it's a very fairly priced intermediate option for wildlife enthusiasts who want modern phone integration but still want a more traditional-looking setup.

Green Feathers WiFi bird box camera: Design & Handling

The foundation of the system is the Green Feathers Wi-Fi camera, a delightfully small (green) 44 x 44 x 33mm cube. While I tested this as part of the Starter Pack, it's worth making clear that the camera is sold as a standalone unit that you can easily retrofit into an existing wooden nest box or a hedgehog house – Green Feathers sell these too – if you already have one set up in your garden or designated wildlife area.

Despite its pinch-sized footprint, the camera’s physical details are cleverly thought through for life inside an animal habitat. Underneath the body is a microSD slot, which Green Feathers helps you to protect with the inclusion of a thick, heavy-duty sticker cover. It’s a simple way to keep bird debris and feathers from mucking up your storage over time.

The centrally-positioned camera lens on the front comes with a protective rubber cap for transit and installation, which easily pops off and stows away once you're ready to set up. Attached to either side of the camera is a robust metal bracket that arches forward and back on a smooth rotating mechanism. This has one central screw hole, so mounting it into any wooden structure requires just one easy fixing point. It looks almost identical to Green Feathers' TV connection bird box camera, but with a green square around the lens instead of blue.

On top of the camera you’ll find a top-mounted Wi-Fi antenna (which to me does feel a little flimsy but is unlikely to be disturbed inside the box) and a thick power cable. Because this is a mains-powered setup, you'll need to route the trailing lead out of your box. Green Feathers includes a 10-meter power extension cable in the starter pack, giving you plenty of slack to reach a shed or even an indoor plug socket, but this is very different to the Nest Duo that runs off a rechargeable battery and can be topped up with solar.

Buying the camera solo is one option, but opting for the WiFi Bird Box HD Camera Starter Pack only adds around 20% to the cost, and I think it’s worth it as you get a purpose-built, complete housing right out of the box. The bundled bird box is a super sturdy piece of woodwork. With a solid timber thickness of over 2cm and a generous height of 47cm, it feels substantial and provides ample head height between the top-mounted lens and the nest floor.

To look at, I actually prefer it to the sleeker, molded look of the bamboo Birdfy Nest Duo. Although heavier, its traditional construction feels more naturalistic when mounted against a tree trunk or garden shed. The only minor trade-off is the entrance hole. It comes as a standard 32mm opening, meaning you don't get the interchangeable size plates that bird boxes like the Nest Duo include to target specific species.

Getting the camera installed inside the Starter Pack box is fairly straightforward, though it requires minor DIY. I started by removing the top two front panels with a standard screwdriver to open up the space. Inside, at the top-back, there’s a pre-drilled central hole; I simply needed to align the camera bracket and push the included screw through the exterior wood to lock the unit in place.

The cavernous interior layout makes it easy to get your hands inside to tilt and fine-tune the downward camera angle toward the nest floor. My advice is to make sure you're totally happy with your framing before reattaching the wooden front panels. You’ll also need to thread the trailing power lead out through the specially designed air ventilation slots positioned just under the roofline, but the fit is neat – something another nestbox might not have.

Before closing everything up, it’s best to pair the camera with your smartphone while you still have clear sight of the printed QR code label on the power cable. This code triggers a step-by-step walkthrough of instructions in the free Green Feathers app to pair the camera to your Wi-Fi network. I’d guess that from unboxing and hunting down screwdrivers to reading the manual (which is laid out brilliantly and simply) and getting the unit fully wired up, the whole assembly process took me around 45 minutes.

When it comes to mounting the completed bird box kit to a wall or tree, Green Feathers has supplied two long metal fixing plates and screws. Compared to the heavy-duty wall plate included with the Birdfy Nest Duo, these brackets feel a little less substantial – especially considering the weight of the thick timber box. But while they lack chunkiness, they seem more versatile, and can be configured in three different orientations, giving you plenty of flexibility to secure the box regardless of your chosen tree or wall layout.

Once you’re mounted, day-to-day operation is handled by the basic (in a good way) Green Feathers app. I found it refreshingly clear and straightforward to navigate, with the device shown on the home screen, and one tap needed to bring up the live feed. This is also clean, with highly responsive ‘buttons’ for instantly grabbing a snapshot, triggering a manual video recording, or changing settings like motion and sound detection. Pushed notifications stack on your phone if allowed, making the live feed feel practical and stress-free to monitor throughout the day.

Green Feathers WiFi bird box camera: Performance

Above: Sample clips from the Green Feathers HD bird box camera
Note: As I'm testing this system outside of the UK's bird nesting window, the clips and images demonstrate the perspective, focal depth, and image clarity inside the timber nest box. Sadly, there were no live subjects.

I’ve had the Green Feathers WiFi Bird Box HD Camera Starter Pack set up in my garden for several weeks now. Sadly, testing this out of nesting season means I’m still waiting for my first feathered residents to move in, but putting the hardware through its paces has still given me a clear picture of how this system would perform in terms of image quality and everyday usability.

One quick win for me is the responsiveness of the Wi-Fi connection and live feed. With some smart wildlife cameras I’ve tested, opening a live view often feels like a test of patience as you stare at a buffering wheel and wait for the screen to load. Here, tapping into the Green Feathers app brought up the stream almost instantly, making it quick and painless to check in on the box throughout the day.

I positioned the box at the end of my garden too, and found little drop in Wi-Fi signal (something you can monitor as a percentage on the feed itself). While you can zoom in considerably to the live feed from the app by pinching the screen, images are only saved at the wide view.

The camera has a 1080p HD resolution; not massive by modern standards. But the image quality inside the box has impressed me more than I was expecting, particularly when it comes to fine detail. The camera’s fixed focus is dialed in well for the tight interior dimensions of the box, and when I look closely at the test footage, I can see the ridges of the wood grain, saw marks, and specks of dust on the nursery floor are resolved crisply.

If I imagine the box filled with baby birds and nest material, I think the feathers would be equally finely resolved. However, it's worth pointing out that the feed quality peaks and drops depending on your WiFi signal, and there's an indication of the KB/s in the corner of the live feed.

The depth of field covers nearly the entire cavity, keeping a sharp focus from the mid-ground floor right up to the back panel, which bodes well for keeping both adult birds and tiny hatchlings sharply in focus wherever they settle. I wasn't able to fully analyse how good the 15fps video rate was for capturing the motion of birds in and out of the nest.

I think that the color rendering is another high point. Unlike the heavily processed, neon-green bias common in outdoor trail cameras or cheap webcams that have been adapted for bird feeders, the white balance here feels neutral and true to life. The natural pine grain presents rich, warm amber tones without looking artificially cooked or oversaturated.

One downside is the dynamic range when bright daylight streams into the box. There’s a strong contrast between the dark interior and the light piercing through the entrance hole, and ventilation seams cause some highlight clipping, blowing out those small entry points into bright white patches. However, I think the camera still balances interior shadows well, preserving detail in the upper corners without letting them collapse into digital noise.

The wide-angle lens does have some visible barrel distortion – giving the square interior a slight tunnel perspective – but for a tight nest-box environment, this wide field of view is a necessary choice to ensure you don't miss action that’s happening near the walls.

When the light levels drop, at night or on dull days, the camera automatically switches to its invisible infrared night vision mode, and I found that the built-in IR LEDs cast a soft, even flood of light. Based on my sample images, if a parent bird or nesting chick were to sit directly beneath the lens, I reckon their feathers would keep their contrast rather than blowing out heavily.

With the monochrome infrared footage, I noticed that the fine wood-grain details on the walls softened slightly into a smooth, speckled grey. But the camera's fixed-focus kept the central floor crisp. As the IR LEDs operate completely invisibly without emitting a red glow, you can keep a close eye on nocturnal birdy activity without startling or disturbing the birds in the dark.

Because this is a mains-powered setup, with a long power extension lead rather than a battery-and-solar hybrid, there’s no anxiety of a camera running out of battery mid-brood. I enjoyed not having to worry about disturbing a nest to retrieve a battery pack or hoping for enough sunny days to keep a solar reservoir topped up. Once the camera is plugged in, power is a non-issue for the season.

Of course, there’s no AI species recognition or nesting-phase categorisation found on high-end competitors like the Birdfy Nest Duo. The Green Feathers system focuses on getting the core essentials right, and will send notifications for movement and noise promptly on your phone.

The notifications came too often when nothing was entering or leaving the box, but as mentioned in the handling section, the stream was always smooth and reliable. The Green Feathers app just works. And if you're happy to forego smart AI fluff in favor of sharp, naturalistic 1080p footage, I’d say it delivers a brilliantly clear view into the hidden world of a nest box.

Green Feathers WiFi bird box camera: Verdict

After testing the Green Feathers WiFi Bird Box HD Camera Starter Pack and mentally comparing it to what I see as its main (AI-heavy) competitor, the Birdfy Nest Duo, I have to say that I personally found it far more fun to use overall.

As a lapsed wildlife photographer by training, I'm used to manually ID-ing birds and constructing funky contraptions to photograph flighty wildlife. By doing without smart species recognition and automated nesting timelines, the Green Feathers system gives you a less cluttered bird box experience, and one that I think traditionalists – folks with a bit more basic bird knowledge – might enjoy more.

There were still a few downsides of the kit, and the one that did annoy me was how often alerts triggered, when the wind rustled the entrance hole or created dappled light inside of it. I couldn't find a way to dial in the sensitivity settings to avoid nuisance triggers, but you can turn them off entirely from the app.

Rather than using battery packs and solar power, the HD camera has a trailing mains power lead that you need to work out what to do with. While routing a cable to an outdoor (or indoor, if your setup allows) socket might annoy some users, I didn't mind it, especially as it means you don't have to check on the battery again.

You can buy optional cloud storage from the Green Feathers app, but I reckon a microSD will suit most users. The company quotes that a 64GB microSD card gives you around 32 hours of local recording, and you can set the card to overwrite once it's full, seeing as it's not easy to get inside the box once birds are nesting.

Ultimately, this Green Feathers setup is going to give you a fuss-free but reliable video stream that you can easily download and then share with others. For me, it strikes a great balance between modern connectivity and common-sense usability. Whether you use Green Feathers' own bird box or your own, the small-sized kit is a superb, stress-free bird box camera.

Alternatives

Check out our guides to the best bird feeder cameras, and to the best bird box cameras

Adobe Photoshop Elements 2026 is the latest version of Adobe’s novice-friendly photo editor. It comes with Quick, Guided and Advanced modes to help beginners get started easily and learn more about editing at their own pace, together with a low-cost single license fee payment rather than an ongoing subscription.

Note, though, that Adobe has now imposed a 3-year license term – at the end of that period you will have to upgrade to a newer version. However, Photoshop Elements 2026 is available on its own or can be bought with Adobe Premiere Elements where it becomes better value thanks to a cost-saving bundle.

Major new features in Photoshop Elements 2026 include generative AI, both for full image generation and for generating new backgrounds, an AI photo restore feature and an enhanced Remove tool which can now select and remove people in backgrounds.

Photoshop Elements is regularly considered one of the best photo editing software choices, at least for beginners. Otherwise, Photoshop Elements 2026 will be instantly familiar to anyone who has used this software before. The new features are add-ons and the user experience is otherwise much the same. One question will be whether the new features justify upgrading; another will be whether Photoshop Elements 2026 is genuinely keeping up with the modern world or just trying to look like it is.

Adobe Photoshop Elements 2026: Specifications

Adobe Photoshop Elements 2026: Price

Photoshop Elements 2026 costs $99.99 / £86.99 / AU$160, or $79.99 £70.99 / AU$127.99 if you’re upgrading from a previous version. Alternatively, you can buy the Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements 2026 bundle for $149.99 / £130.49 / AU$241.99 (upgrade price $119.99 / £107.78 / AU$193.99) or $119.99 / £94.69 / AUS193.99 if you qualify for a Students & Teachers discount.

It’s certainly a lot cheaper than getting Adobe’s subscription-based Photography Plan, even when you take into account Elements’ 3-year subscription limitation. However, it’s also much older and more basic software that doesn’t really compare with Adobe’s modern subscription software for features, cloud storage and workflow fluency.

What about non-Adobe products? On1 Photo RAW is a much more capable and powerful tool for photographers and is available subscription-free too, though it lacks the projects and assets of Elements 2026. Canva Affinity is rather more technical, but as powerful as Photoshop and currently free. Photoshop Elements 2026 is decent value, but only if you definitely want its project-based approach and ready-made assets, and don’t care too much about its technical limitations.

Adobe Photoshop Elements 2026: Design & Handling

Both Premiere Elements 2026 and Premiere Elements 2026 share the same Organizer app for managing, tagging and searching your files. You will need to switch to Detail view to see whether images are landscape or portrait format, and while you can double-click a JPEG to see a full-size preview, if you try that with a RAW file you’ll just get a blank screen. It seems the Organizer does not generate previews from RAW files.

When you open a RAW file from the Organizer, Photoshop Elements 2026 launches a (very) cut-down version of Adobe Camera Raw. You can adjust tones and colors but not much more, and it’s far more basic than the regular Adobe Camera Raw. In fact, this ACR implementation is simply to make your RAW files editable in the main editor.

There’s another thing to watch out for here, though. This version of ACR can output 16-bit files but the Elements Editor can’t do much with them. For guided edits, layers in the Advanced mode and other editing operations, you’ll need to switch the files down to 8-bit – which feels like a really old-fashioned limitation.

Now that’s out of the way, let’s talk about the editing modes. Quick mode is great for beginners because it comes with a range of Quick Actions for common tasks like dehazing a landscape, colorizing a black-and-white photo or applying a general smart fix. You can also carry out manual adjustments, apply a range of special effects and add textures and frames.

Guided mode is designed to walk you through a range of editing tasks manually. There are lots of these guided edits, all arranged into categories. They cover basic topics like cropping, resizing and object removal, through to more complex tasks like landscape improvement with dehazing and sky replacement. Some of the results from these guided edits can be quite crude, so you may need to touch them up with tools provided in the guided edit panel, or switch to the Advanced mode and do it there.

The blue sky replacement in the Perfect Landscape process is a good example. The sky can merge awkwardly with the foreground – it’s nowhere near as good as Photoshop’s equivalent – in the guided edit, but if you swap to the Advanced mode you’ll see the guided edit has created masked adjustment layers for the sky and the foreground that you may be able to improve on with some manual tweaks.

The advanced mode is like a mini-Photoshop in its layout, but with a really cut-down set of tools. You can only create a handful of different adjustment layer types, and there’s no curves adjustment or B&W conversion adjustment, for example. Incidentally, if the adjustment layer button is unresponsive, it’s because you’ve opened a RAW file as a 16-bit image and you’ll need to convert it to 8-bit.

You can apply a nice range of artistic effects, though, together with Photoshop-style filters and graphics, which include frame styles. These are confusing, though. You might drag one onto your photo thinking it will automatically frame it, but instead it creates a new layer group that’s not even the same size as your current photo and prompts you to choose a photo from your hard drive. There are many instances where Photoshop Elements 2026 feels like it’s been rather thrown together without a lot of thought or explanation, and this is one of them.

Adobe Photoshop Elements 2026: Performance

The new generative AI features in Elements 2026 work well, using Adobe’s regular Firefly engine, presumably. Other AI features are a little less impressive. The AI photo restore cleans up some dust and scratches but appears to do little else, in stark contrast to ON1’s Restore AI, for example. You can colorize old photos too, but that’s a separate process.

The enhanced remove tool can indeed identify people in the background of your shots, but not necessarily all of them, so you may need to mask out any extras manually. It replaces them with surrounding detail which doesn’t always line up well.

The Depth Blur feature can work very well. It doesn’t have the same speed, fluidity and control of the Lightroom Lens Blur tool, but it’s not bad. The motion effects aren’t so good, though. They’re designed to animate parts of your still photos, but the selection tools are crude and the results variable.

The main performance limitation for photographers is the weak RAW support and 8-bit editing environment. If you shoot RAW, this is not the program for you. If you only shoot JPEGs, Photoshop Elements 2026 is a stronger proposition.

Adobe Photoshop Elements 2026: Verdict

Adobe Photoshop Elements feels like an old photo-editing platform being kept alive by some headline-grabbing new features every time the annual upgrade comes around. It’s perhaps fine for ‘memory keepers’, school projects or anyone who just wants to mess about with photos, but it’s not a good tool for photographers.

Its basic RAW conversions and lack of support for 16-bit editing severely limit the results you can achieve, and are not helped by pretty basic tools even in Advanced mode. Really, this is not a program designed for photographers where the image is the end result, but for people who want to do things with their photos and aren’t really that bothered about finessing their quality.

Alternatives

Most of the best digital photo frames are exactly and only that: digital photo frames. But every so often we come across something like the Google Nest Hub or, in this instance, the myFirst Frame Clario, which supercharges the photo display experience and adds in smart home features such as video calling and calendar interaction.

The Frame Clario is a family hub designed to connect generations through photos, comments, birthday reminders, and video calls. The goal of the frame is to make daily sharing and communication simple for everyone. Having tested it for several weeks, I can testify that myFirst has created a fine-tuned, well-engineered device that is as easy to use for adults as it is for children.

For the purposes of this review, I have focused testing first on its photo display capabilities and second on its video-calling feature. And as it's designed for the whole family, I've drawn in my young children to get first-hand thoughts from the frame's primary target demographic.

Specifications

Price

The Frame Clario costs $89.99 / £89.89 / AU$149.00 and is therefore priced almost identically to the similar, although more well-known, Google Nest Hub. Compared to 7-inch digital photo frames, it sits at a very premium price point, but considering most of those offer zero smart features, you can see what you're paying the extra money for.

If you're not concerned about video calling or interacting with your calendar, then a traditional-featured digital photo frame is a much better bet. You'll be able to get a much larger and higher-resolution display for less money with the Aeezo Portrait, taking pride of place as our favorite budget option in our guide to the best digital photo frames.

Design & Handling

The most obvious thing about the myFirst Frame Clario is that it looks nothing like a traditional photo frame. At 1.30 inches deep and with large rounded corners, it looks more like a mini-monitor or a smart hub than a device to beautifully "frame" your photos. If you're looking for a frame that will blend in with your other photo frames on the mantelpiece or side table, you'll need to look elsewhere.

The display is also much smaller than traditional digital frames, featuring a 7-inch IPS touch display rather than a much more standard 10- or 11-inch screen. The resolution is also lower than I was expecting, maxing out at 1024 x 600 px. These specs mirror the Google Nest Hub exactly. I think 1920 x 1080 px should be the minimum on a device like this, especially when you're wanting to avoid any "low-res" blurring of your photos and videos.

More positively, the build is sturdy and lightweight, utilizing high-quality matte polymers that are designed to resist fingerprints and withstand the hands-on nature of a device meant for children. Despite my children using it to navigate menus, type comments, and interact with photos, the device was weighty enough to remain in place most of the time. And even when it didn't, its robust build quality meant it didn't suffer any damages.

One of the defining design features of the Frame Clario is the dedicated Magic Button located on the top of the frame. This large, friendly physical button provides a tactile way for children to instantly trigger actions like starting a slideshow or making a video call. Other essentials, like the 2MP camera, built-in speaker, and dual noise-canceling microphones, are integrated into the front and side panels to facilitate clear, face-to-face communication.

At the rear, I was pleased to find a USB-C charging port rather than USB-A. That means I can make use of any USB-C cable I have laying around for my plethora of other devices. I would also love to have seen an additional USB port or two for charging other devices that's probably too much to expect at this price point.

Performance

Getting the Frame Clario set up was as easy as it could be, especially given the familiarity of the interface, which is almost identical to iOS pre-Liquid Glass. After connecting to my WiFi, dialing in a few settings, and pairing it with the myFirst Circle app, I was ready to give the features a try.

I began with photos and was able to quickly post one to my group of pre-approved contacts, with a notification popping up immediately on the Frame Clario. Photos can be shared with different 'circles', including family, besties, friends, and acquaintances, with each category containing a pre-defined set of people. The parents are completely in control of these 'safe lists', so children can only interact with the family or friends that you've approved.

Interacting with photos centres around adding an emoji or typing a short comment using the built-in keyboard. Accessing this functionality felt a little clunky and unintuitive compared to a modern social media platform. I think work could be done to better position the social elements and thereby improve engagement with them. My children struggled a little with this, and the long tap for emojis was a little tricky for my youngest child. I also felt that the 16-character limit on ShoutOut comments was rather restrictive.

With the rudimentary photo functionality taken care of, I moved on to setting up a video call with one of my pre-approved contacts. Each person that you want to video call also requires the myFirst Circle app, so you'll need to get your family members and friends on board before you can connect with them.

As expected, the image quality could be better. Despite only being a 7-inch display, the 1024 x 600 pixel resolution wasn't quite sufficient to eliminate a slight pixelation and blurriness, especially around text. Pushing it up to Full HD (1920 x 1080 px) would be a great step in elevating the experience of viewing media as well as taking part in video calls.

The Frame Clario is also capable of playing music (via the microSD card) or built-in soundscapes such as Forest Stream and Fireside Calm. These could be used as white noise to help children get to sleep at night or as ambient noise while relaxing. It's even possible to create your own soundscapes by choosing a blend of elements such as Bird, Cafe, and Footsteps. That was really fun for my children to play with, but there hasn't been much interest in it beyond the initial excitement.

In general, the Frame Clario is a relatively well-set-up hub for interacting with family and friends through photos, video calling, and music. I wouldn't say it's the most streamlined of experiences, though, and more work could be done on the social elements. That said, it's not a bad attempt at replicating the Google Nest Hub experience, but for families with young children.

Verdict

The myFirst Frame Clario sets itself apart from traditional digital frames by being a kid-friendly smart hub. You could think of it as a Google Nest Hub but for children. The device is built well and even has a playful and fun aesthetic which will appeal to families. With that in mind, the Frame Clario excels in providing safe list functionality so children are only able to interact with preapproved family members and friends.

Unfortunately, its technical specifications leave room for improvement, particularly regarding its 7-inch, 1024 x 600 px display. Most of us will have better definition on our smartphones, and the lack of resolution is noticeable during video calls and photo viewing.

The setup is straightforward, but the restrictive character limits are a problem, and clunky emoji menus can feel unintuitive. Ultimately, if you are looking for a high-resolution digital photo frame for your mantel, you should look elsewhere, but if you need a sturdy, secure family portal, the Frame Clario is a commendable, albeit lower-res, contender.

Alternatives

The Megadap M2RF makes a tantalizing promise: to enable manual focus Leica M lenses, designed for rangefinders with their magical rendering, to be used on Canon RF cameras with full support for Dual Pixel Autofocus – including eye tracking and subject detection.

Well, it's tantalizing and it's also true: the Megadap M2RF transforms Leica's gorgeous rangefinder glass into autofocus EOS R optics. Something for which, as a Canon shooter, I'm doubly grateful, given how closed the RF mount is to full-frame AF lenses from other manufacturers.

I had a blast using ultra-refined M-mount lenses to capture images with their unique character on my Canon EOS R5, though there are definitely a few asterisks that potential buyers should be aware of.

Megadap M2RF: Price & availability

The Megadap M2RF adapter is available for pre-order now, priced $399 / £429 (Australian pricing to follow).

For comparison, Megadap currently produces two other cross-mount autofocus adapters: the Megadap ETZ21 Pro+ (Sony E to Nikon Z) for $249 / £259 and Megadap EFTZ21 (Canon EF to Nikon Z) for $299 / 299.

Megadap M2RF: Build & handling

The build quality on the Megadap M2RF is first class. This isn't one of those flimsy adapters you get on eBay; it's a reassuringly heavy, substantially constructed device, beautifully machined and with thick, solid gold-plated contacts.

It has a custom coreless motor, with dual-hall (using two magnetic sensors) and optical sensing, using an electronic helicoid driver system for steady and precise control of the attached lens.

All the controls are likewise exquisitely made, from the aperture switch to the AF / MF selection button to the lens release. This feels every inch a premium product, befitting the luxury Leica glass that will be mounted to it.

As I'll explain in the Performance section below, the aperture switch is used to select the aperture from the preset positions that sync with your camera's aperture setting.

The AF / MF button gives you a one-touch toggle between auto and manual focus (whereupon M2RF retracts back to infinity). You can also double-tap the button in manual mode to engage manual macro mode, which fully extends the lens to its maximum focus position.

As a bonus, because the adapter extends the lens by up to 4.5mm beyond its original position, this reduces the 0.7m standard minimum focus distance of M lenses – enabling you to get close-up shots without accessories like extension tubes, unlocking new creative opportunities.

I also want to shout out the front and back caps, which are so often an afterthought from third-party manufacturers. These are handsome-looking transparent caps, bearing the Megadap logo, and like the rest of the unit feel very premium.

Even so, while it's an impressively robust product, there is one key limitation to the lenses you can mount to the Megadap: how much they weigh.

While every make of M-mount glass is supported, whether it's made by Leica, Voigtländer, Zeiss or anyone else, it only plays nicely with lenses that are 500g or less – which means that bigger, heavier M glass won't be well suited, as they put too much strain on the mount and motor.

And of course, if you're feeling brave, you can double-stack almost any other vintage lens (such as M42 glass) via an M-mount adapter and then attach that to the M2RF for even more creative possibilities.

Megadap M2RF: Performance

I primarily tested the Megadap M2RF with the Leica Summilux-M 50mm f/1.4 Classic and Leica Summicron-M 28mm f/2 Asph. Overall, it delivers pretty astonishing performance for specific genres of photography – or, perhaps more accurately, for a specific pace of photography.

For portraiture, still life, landscape, travel, street and everyday shooting – in other words, shooting at a fairly soft pace or with a gently moving subject – it's absolutely brilliant.

For example, the autofocus keeps up with people absolutely wonderfully during a portrait session. The eye tracking is particularly impressive, and it's also steady and reliable for head and full-body tracking when your subject moves around. Using the Megadap for the first time is really quite a magical experience.

However, other genres and paces of photography are definitely not well suited to what the Megadap does. If you're hoping to shoot fast action like sports or wildlife, that's not what this adapter is for. Nor are most forms of video, where multi-axis movement overwhelms the device.

More than just the capabilities of the device itself, though, it's important to understand that there is a lot expected of the user that may surprise someone expecting a plug-and-play, fully automatic experience.

The Megadap M2RF is a "push-pull" adapter that uses a helical drive to move the lens forward and backward in order to shift the plane of focus. As such, you must remember to turn the focus ring of your adapted lens to infinity or performance will be substantially impeded.

It's definitely something that takes some getting used to – and especially if you're somebody who whips your camera in and out of a bag, you need to be mindful of knocking the focus ring too far.

In addition, when mounting the lens, you need to synchronize its aperture value to your camera's by setting it to a specific aperture value – f/1.4, f/2, f/2.8 or f/4 – corresponding to the values on the aperture switch on the side of the adapter.

Again, if you don't do this then the performance will be significantly degraded. Getting your muscle memory used to these steps each time you use the adapter or switch lenses is crucial, otherwise you'll likely experience hunting or complete focus failure.

Obviously different lenses are going to have different focal length and aperture combinations, which is a further point to factor in.

The adapter comes with four factory presets (Leica Summilux-M 50mm f/1.4 Asph, Leica Summicron-M 35mm f/2 Asph, Zeiss Biogon T* 25mm f/2.8 ZM and Voigtländer 50mm f/1.2 Nokton Aspherical II), but it can be customized for any four lenses via the Megadap M2RF Custom Tool.

While it's brilliant to be able to add your own lens data (which is then helpfully written to your EXIF), it's fair to say that Megadap's expertise is in optics and not software. The Custom Tool is certainly usable, but it's a bit clunky and doesn't have the same premium feel as the M2RF itself.

Megadap M2RF: Samples

Megadap M2RF: Verdict

I've always been skeptical about cross-system adapters, but I was pretty blown away by the Megadap M2RF… once I'd mastered its setup intricacies! Setting infinity focus and syncing the aperture before shooting is an extra step when mounting a lens, but once it becomes part of your muscle memory you can enjoy seamless shooting.

I love the magical rendering of Leica's M lenses, but rangefinder focus gets harder as my eyes get worse with age. So it's nothing short of liberating to be able to use them on an RF-mount camera – and the ability to make use of Canon's Dual Pixel AF and algorithmic subject detection is a truly transformative experience.

It's obviously important to be aware of the Megadap's limitations. While it offers fairly fast focus that can keep up with gently moving genres, it's not designed for fast action – which limits its usefulness for wildlife, sports and video. But then, I don't believe anyone is really interested in adapting M lenses for any of those.

The Megadap M2RF is ideally suited for the intended purposes of M glass, like portraiture or street photography. It replicates rangefinder results on your RF camera but supercharges them with the power of Canon's autofocus. If you've ever wanted to add a touch of class to your EOS R camera, this might be the best way to do it!

You might also like…

Take a look at the best Leica M lenses to adapt and, if you get a taste for the finer things, check out the best Leica cameras.

The Leica Summicron-M 28mm f/2 ASPH. is now in its third generation, and this latest version brings one of the M system’s most versatile focal lengths firmly into the modern era.

Combining a fast f/2 aperture, a compact aspherical design, an integrated hood, and a new 0.4m close-focusing distance, it promises classic Leica handling with greater flexibility than ever before. I tested it on the new Leica M EV1 to see whether this £4,700 / $6,000 lens can justify its considerable price.

Leica 28mm Summicron-M f/2 ASPH. Specifications

Mount: Leica M-mount
Lens design: 9 Elements in 6 Groups
Maximum aperture: f/2
Minimum aperture: f/16
Angle of view: 74°
Minimum focusing distance: 1.3' / 40 cm
Filter size: 46 mm
Dimensions: 2.3 x L: 2.2" / ø: 58 x L: 55 mm
Weight: 9.7 oz / 275 g

Leica 28mm Summicron-M f/2 ASPH. key features

The Leica Summicron-M 28mm f/2 ASPH., model 11618, represents the third generation of Leica’s fast 28mm lens for the M system. It takes the traditional qualities associated with an M lens – compact dimensions, mechanical controls, premium construction and a clear focus on photographic simplicity – and updates them for the latest generation of digital Leica cameras.

Its 28mm focal length makes it an extremely versatile option for documentary, travel, street, and environmental portrait photography. It is wide enough to include plenty of context within the frame, but it does not immediately introduce the more extreme perspective effects associated with wider focal lengths. For photographers who like to work with a single lens, 28mm can cover a surprisingly broad range of subjects.

The fast f/2 maximum aperture adds another layer of versatility. It allows the lens to be used comfortably in lower light while also providing some control over depth of field, particularly when working near the new 0.4m minimum focusing distance. A 28mm lens will never produce the same dramatic subject separation as a fast 50mm or 75mm optic, but the combination of f/2 and close focusing makes it possible to isolate details while still retaining a sense of the surrounding environment.

Aspherical elements are used to help maintain strong image quality while keeping the lens compact. This is one of the core appeals of Leica’s modern M lenses: they deliver impressive optical performance without turning the camera into a large or cumbersome system.

The biggest practical development is the extension of the focusing range from the traditional 0.7m limit down to 0.4m. The lens remains mechanically coupled to the rangefinder between infinity and 0.7m, while focusing between 0.7m and 0.4m requires Live View or an electronic viewfinder.

This model also features the built-in retractable hood that is becoming increasingly common across Leica’s newer close-focus lenses. I particularly like its implementation on the 28mm Summicron-M. It keeps the overall package neat, removes the need to carry a separate hood, and feels entirely in keeping with the compact philosophy of the M system.

Leica 28mm Summicron-M f/2 ASPH. Build and handling

The Leica Summicron-M 28mm f/2 ASPH. is built to an outstanding standard, exactly as you would expect from Leica. Its metal construction feels substantial without making the lens unnecessarily heavy, and every control has the precision required from a fully manual lens at this level.

Mounted on a Leica M camera, it creates a wonderfully compact and well-balanced package. The 28mm Summicron-M feels reassuringly solid in the hand, yet it is small enough to carry for an entire day without becoming a burden. That compactness is an important part of the lens’s appeal, especially when compared with fast 28mm lenses designed for larger autofocus mirrorless systems.

The built-in hood is one of my favourite aspects of the design. It slides smoothly into position when required and retracts neatly when it is not needed. There are no separate accessories to attach, remove, or potentially lose, and the hood does not disrupt the clean silhouette of the lens.

The manual focusing action is beautifully smooth and offers enough resistance to make precise adjustments without feeling slow. Leica has also incorporated a noticeable stopping point when the lens reaches 0.7m. From there, you deliberately push the focusing mechanism further to enter the extended close-focus range between 0.7m and 0.4m.

I found this particularly encouraging in use. You can clearly feel the transition when the camera is held to your eye, so there is never any confusion about whether you have moved beyond the range that can be focused through a traditional optical rangefinder. It is a small mechanical detail, but one that makes the expanded focusing range feel intuitive rather than awkward.

The aperture ring is equally impressive. It is incredibly responsive, with positive clicks that are easy to feel when the camera is held to your eye. This makes it straightforward to make quick exposure adjustments without lowering the camera or checking the position of the aperture markings.

I tested the lens on the new Leica M EV1, and I have to say that the combination works incredibly well. The compact dimensions of the lens suit the body perfectly, while the electronic viewfinder lets you make full use of the close-focus range without changing how you operate the camera.

On a Leica M11-P or another optical rangefinder-equipped M camera, reaching the close-focus range means switching to Live View and relying on the rear LCD screen. That can interrupt the otherwise fluid experience of shooting through the optical finder. The M EV1 eliminates this slightly strange operational change.

With the EVF held to your eye, you can continue focusing smoothly from infinity all the way down to 0.4m. Focus magnification and electronic focusing aids also make it much easier to confirm critical focus, particularly when working at f/2 or f/2.8.

Leica 28mm Summicron-M f/2 ASPH. Performance

The images produced by the Leica Summicron-M 28mm f/2 ASPH. are fantastic. At its maximum aperture, the lens delivers a lovely combination of detail and character. Images remain sharp, but they do not feel overly harsh or sterile, and there is a pleasing transition between areas that are in and out of focus.

Shooting at f/2 also gives the lens a distinct visual quality. There is enough separation to draw attention to a subject when working at shorter distances, but the 28mm field of view continues to provide context around it. This makes the lens particularly effective for environmental portraits, close documentary details and low-light street photography.

As the aperture is stopped down, the rendering becomes progressively more controlled and clinical. Between f/4 and f/8, the lens produces the kind of crisp, detailed and highly consistent results that make it suitable for landscapes, architecture, travel and general documentary work.

I normally tend to photograph between f/4 and f/8, particularly when using wide-angle lenses. However, while testing the 28mm Summicron-M on the Leica M EV1, I found myself shooting much more frequently at f/2 and f/2.8.

That was largely because the EVF made it easier to hit critical focus. Rather than relying entirely on rangefinder alignment or moving to the rear screen when entering the close-focus range, I could keep the camera to my eye and confirm exactly where focus was falling. This made me far more confident about using the lens wide open.

The ability to focus down to 0.4m also changes the way the lens can be used. Previous versions of the 28mm Summicron-M were already excellent documentary lenses, but the shorter minimum focusing distance opens up opportunities for photographing smaller details, food, objects and more intimate moments.

It does not transform the lens into a macro optic, but it brings a useful new dimension to a focal length that is often associated primarily with wider scenes. You can move closer, fill more of the frame and take greater advantage of the f/2 aperture without needing to change lenses.

The 28mm Summicron-M also feels extremely consistent throughout its aperture range. At wider settings, it offers a little more atmosphere and character, while smaller apertures produce cleaner, more technically precise results. This gives photographers a meaningful creative choice rather than simply encouraging them to stop down for better quality.

As expected from a modern Leica aspherical lens, the overall rendering is refined and controlled. Detail is excellent, contrast is strong without feeling excessive, and images have the clarity required to make the most of high-resolution M cameras.

Sample images: Leica 28mm Summicron-M f/2 ASPH. 

Leica 28mm Summicron-M f/2 ASPH. lab results

We run a range of lab tests under controlled conditions, using the Imatest Master testing suite. Photos of test charts are taken across the range of apertures and zooms (where available), then analyzed for sharpness, distortion and chromatic aberrations.

We use Imatest SFR (spatial frequency response) charts and analysis software to plot lens resolution at the center of the image frame, corners and mid-point distances, across the range of aperture settings and, with zoom lenses, at four different focal lengths. The tests also measure distortion and color fringing (chromatic aberration).

Sharpness:

Sharpness is excellent in the center of frame, even wide open at f/2. Move out towards the corners and sharpness quickly drops off, however, though at least there's no further reduction in sharpness when you reach the extreme corners of frame.

Fringing:

There's a little fringing visible in the corners of frame at mid-to-narrow apertures, and wide open you might spot some aberrations in the mid-frame, but it's nothing distracting.

Distortion: -0.33

The lens produces just a hint of barrel distortion, but it's impressively minimal for a wide lens.

Leica 28mm Summicron-M f/2 ASPH. Verdict

The Leica Summicron-M 28mm f/2 ASPH. is an extremely versatile lens and one that is capable of producing outstanding images. Its compact construction, fast maximum aperture, and expanded focusing range combine to make this third-generation model the most practically capable version Leica has produced.

The built-in hood is a welcome improvement, the aperture and focusing controls feel exceptional, and the noticeable transition at 0.7m makes the close-focus mechanism easy to understand through touch alone. These details show how Leica has modernised the lens without losing the mechanical simplicity that defines the M system.

Its partnership with the Leica M EV1 is particularly convincing. The electronic viewfinder allows the lens’s extended focusing range to feel like a natural part of the shooting experience rather than an additional feature that requires a change in technique.

On an optical rangefinder body, the need to move to the rear LCD once you pass 0.7m can still feel a little awkward. On the M EV1, however, you simply continue focusing with the camera held to your eye. That makes the 28mm Summicron-M feel more complete and encourages greater use of both its close-focus capabilities and wider apertures.

There is, of course, no escaping the price. At $6,000 / £4,700, the Leica Summicron-M 28mm f/2 ASPH. represents a considerable investment. That is a lot of money, no matter how you look at it, and there are significantly more affordable 28mm alternatives available for the M system.

However, as I often say with Leica lenses, this is not necessarily something you buy with the intention of replacing it in a few years. It is a lens that could remain in your camera bag for the rest of your photographic career. Viewed across decades of use, that initial cost may become easier to justify.

The 28mm Summicron-M produces the kind of outstanding images that it should at this price, while its build quality and mechanical operation feel designed to last. The cost must still be seriously considered, particularly when comparing it with other options on the market, but there is no questioning the quality or capability on offer.

For photographers who want one of the finest compact 28mm lenses available, particularly those using the Leica M EV1 or another EVF-equipped M camera, the third-generation Summicron-M 28mm f/2 ASPH. is an exceptional choice.

If you enjoyed this, you might also like our best Leica M lenses guide, Leica Q3 review, Leica M EV1 reivew, and see the best Leica cameras.

One of the best manufacturers of camera bags and accessories, along with the likes of Manfrotto and Tenba, Peak Design started life in a similar way, with a man on a mission. In this case, it was Peter Dering, who toured the world back in 2010 with a large camera kit and a disappointing way of carting it around. He promptly quit his job, designed his own way of carrying a camera, launched it on Kickstarter and hasn’t looked back. Peak Design has gone from strength to strength in the following years, following the same crowdfunding principles, so they can create products on their own terms with no interference from investors.

With a diverse product range, Peak Design makes and sells camera bags and straps, general travel luggage, outdoor gear, phone cases, wallets and even mounting systems for attaching gadgets to cars and motorcycles. Then there are tripods, including the groundbreaking Peak Design Travel Tripod (Aluminum) and Peak Design Travel Tripod (Carbon Fiber). I’ve recently been particularly impressed with the new and improved Peak Design Pro Tripod range.

Getting back to camera straps, one of the best on the market is the Peak Design Slide Lite, to which my colleague awarded a perfect 5/5 rating in his review. I personally wasn’t so completely won over, as I found the large overlapping loops of wide strap and chunky buckles a bit of a hindrance. There’s no such problem with the more minimalist Peak Design Form Rope, which is available as a basic ‘Neck’ version and three alternative lengths of Crossbody options, all of them aiming to be among the best camera straps on the market.

Peak Design Form Rope: Specifications

Peak Design Form Rope: Price

The Peak Design Form Rope comes in three alternative Crossbody – Short, Standard and Long Crossbody editions, all of them listing at $50 / £45 / AU$100. That might sound a bit on the pricey side for a camera strap, but each edition is actually a comprehensive kit of parts. The more basic Form Rope Neck edition costs a little less at £45 / £40 / AU$90. For further price comparison, the popular Peak Design Slide Lite is more costly at around $70 / £60 / AU$135.

Peak Design Form Rope: Design & Handling

How do you like to wear your camera? Going back to basics, the whole concept of ‘wearing’ a camera might seem strange to the uninitiated, but most photographers that I know wear their cameras around their necks. Indeed, a neck strap is generally included in the box of bits when you buy a camera, although just like with ‘kit lenses’, they’re not always of the best quality and generally lack any innovative extras or clever design flourishes.

I’m also not a fan of own-brand camera straps that have the make and model emblazoned in large print along them, which I often think loosely translates as ‘mug me right now’. The Peak Design Form Rope is very much the opposite, which it kind of needs to be if it’s going to tempt you to upgrade from your basic ‘free’ camera strap.

The picture on the front of the retail box shown above tells it like it is – it’s a crossbody camera strap. But there’s more. Flip the box around and you get visual pointers to alternative ways that you can wear your camera using the Form Rope and its accessories. The most basic ‘Neck’ edition comes in one length of strap (78.5cm / 30.9in) with two anchors, a microfiber pouch and two oval split rings. The Crossbody editions come in short (103.5cm / 40.75in), standard (118.5cm / 46.65in) and long (134cm / 52.75in) editions. In each case, the ‘rope’ itself is 10mm / 0.39in in diameter.

Each of the three editions of the Crossbody Form Rope doubles up on anchors, so you get four rather than the two that are supplied with the Neck edition. The extras enable you to make the most of how you attach the rope to your camera and other accessories, and how you wear them. One thing that’s held in common is the rope itself, and it’s not just any old rope. Instead of rough and ready rope that can feel quite abrasive, the specialist basket-woven, nylon/poly rope was specifically designed to combine the strength, padding and stretch needed for a comfortable camera-carrying experience.

Color options include black, ocean, and kelp. I went for the last of these, and I like the way that the colorway extends to the anchors as well as the rope. The anchors themselves are made from glass-reinforced nylon and are the latest V5 edition of Peak Design’s low-profile design of quick-release connectors. Not only quick and easy to connect to the rope, the anchors each have a mighty individual payload rating of 90+kg / 200+lb. The attachment cord might look like a weak link, but it’s really not, and I like the three-layer design so that in the unlikely event of the cord getting damaged or worn, there are clearly visible yellow and red warning signs.

I had no problem threading the anchor cords through the attachment rings on my cameras, but some camera bodies and other accessories might have eyelets that are simply too small to accommodate the cord. That potential problem is neatly solved by each of the kits including a pair of split rings with specially shaped covers and a little tool for making it easy to attach the split rings to your camera’s eyelets.

Most cameras have ‘proper’ strap attachment rings, so it’s simply a case of threading the cord through, looping it over the anchor, and you’re ready to roll. I really like the quick-release system. The circular anchors are very secure but quick and easy to remove from the rope, with a press-and-slide mechanism. The system has been widely adopted by many manufacturers, because it simply works and works simply.

The only occasional criticism that I’ve heard is that if you’re using them with the strap removed, for example on a tripod in a stiff breeze, the anchors can knock against the side of the camera and the noise can be recorded by the camera’s microphone when you’re shooting video. I’ve not encountered that particular problem myself.

Again, I like that the color scheme is maintained between the rope and the anchors, so the whole kit looks entirely consistent. The image below shows how the connection looks when the rope is attached to an anchor. As I’ve mentioned, the quick-release action is simply a case of pressing the circular anchor downwards and sliding it towards the center of the receptacle.

Whether with or without split rings, you don’t actually have to attach anchors to your camera’s strap rings or eyelets at all. Another option is to attach an anchor to the tripod socket on the base of the camera. A screw-in plate and additional anchor are supplied for just this purpose, as shown below. It also gives a useful extra option if you want to use one rope with two different cameras.

The screw-in plate can also be used on other accessories that have a standard 1/4in threaded socket, as well as lenses that have the same kind of mounting thread on a tripod mounting collar. For a secure connection, the screw has a hex head, and there’s a companion hex key that’s also provided as part of the kit.

Peak Design Form Rope: Performance

One of my concerns about the Peak Design Form Rope was that it would be uncomfortable to wear with heavier camera and lens combinations, at least compared with relatively wide flat straps. I needn’t have worried, however, as I found the specially woven rope wonderfully comfy, even with heavy loads. Speaking of which, the rope is very lightweight, ranging from 42.5g / 1.5oz to 68g / 2.4oz depending on length, yet has a huge payload rating of 82kg / 180lb (90+kg / 200+lb for the anchors).

You’re somewhat spoilt for choice when it comes to how to wear your camera, but I started with my Crossbody – Standard kit by wearing it as a basic neck strap. I found that the length of the rope was ideal for this, and that the camera rested at the same height that I normally set when using an adjustable strap.

Taking my cue from the product name, I next tried the Crossbody – Standard edition by wearing it messenger-style, across my body. Again, the length was spot on for my preferences. If you’re not of the same opinion, short and long versions are also available.

Another option is to secure the rope to a single anchor on one side of your camera, and use another of the four supplied anchors in the accessory loop that’s fixed around the rope. I say ‘fixed', but it’s perfectly sized so that you can easily move it along the rope to adjust the overall length, without it sliding up and down of its own accord. You could also use the loop separately, for attaching other accessories via one of the additional supplied anchors.

A twist on the attachment method shown above is to leave the camera’s strap rings out of the equation altogether and to use the tripod mounting socket as the sole attachment point, as shown below. This can also work well with telephoto lenses that have a 1/4in threaded socket on a tripod mounting collar, and a variety of other accessories.

Peak Design Form Rope: Verdict

I’m a fussy customer when it comes to camera straps, and the ones that are supplied with cameras rarely satisfy my cravings. I usually go for fairly wide, flat straps with a bit of padding, so that they’re comfortable for long periods of time, for example when I’m shooting weddings, sporting events, wildlife, or just pounding city streets. My initial concern was that the Peak Design Form Rope would be relatively uncomfortable and tend to cut into my neck or shoulder, but I actually found it to be as comfortable and practical as it is stylish, and I do think it’s very stylish.

Plus points are that the Crossbody editions can be worn in a whole variety of ways, around the neck, over the shoulder, or crossbody, complete with an equally generous range of attachment options for your camera and/or other accessories. The quick-release anchors work blissfully well, and all the components of the kit are robust and durable yet beautifully finished, in an attractive range of color options. Sure, it’s relatively expensive for a camera strap, but your camera is worth it, and so are you.

Alternatives

I’ve been using tripods for about 50 years but just when I thought I knew them inside out, something new has taken me by surprise. Based in Shenzhen, China, Heipi isn’t a company that’s really been on my radar but they’re now celebrating their 7^th anniversary. The brand is the brainchild of an engineer who’s also a passionate wildlife photographer. Combining these two facets of his skills set, he launched his first tripod launch in 2019, and the company made a big splash three years later with a 3-in-1 travel tripod, based on a Kickstarter campaign that raised a million dollars in a mere 30 days, from 3,000 backers.

The new Heipi 3-in-1 Travel Tripod W28S that I’m reviewing here is the company’s new, updated and upgraded flagship tripod kit, joining the other tripods, tripod heads, clamps, mounts, magic arms and accessories already in the Heipi catalog. Innovative, cleverly designed and nicely built with impressive attention to detail, the W28S aims to be one of the best travel tripods on the market, or perhaps I should say that it aims to be two of the best travel tripods plus a selfie stick, all rolled into one travel-friendly package.

Heipi 3-in-1 Travel Tripod W28S: Specifications

Heipi 3-in-1 Travel Tripod W28S: Price

What price a pair of travel tripods plus a selfie stick and a low-profile ball head, all bundled into a single product and wrapped up in a stylish travel bag? The Heipi 3-in-1 Travel Tripod W28S lists at $399 / £349 / AU$649, which is very reasonable for just one carbon fiber tripod (the smaller one in the dual-tripod design is actually aluminum), especially considering that it’s such a comprehensive kit with such a rich feature set.

A comparably compact carbon tripod is available in the space-saving shape of the Peak Design Travel Tripod carbon fiber, which costs $599 / £599 / AU$1,169, and the newer Peak Design Pro Tripod which is even pricier at $900 / £800 / AU$1,500. On the face of it, the Heipi looks a proper bargain.

Heipi 3-in-1 Travel Tripod W28S: Design & Handling

The 2-in-1 or even 3-in-1 design, depending on which way you look at it, isn’t the only crafty concept behind the Heipi’s build. When I said I thought it was reminiscent of the Peak Design Travel Tripod carbon fiber, it’s not just because both are made from carbon fiber, but because they both have a similar space-saving design element.

For a while now, the travel tripod trend has been to have swing-up legs, which save space if you fully extend the center column and then invert the legs so that the feet encompass the head. It takes a bit off the stowage height but makes setup and takedown more of a time-consuming chore. Like the Peak Design, the Heipi doesn’t have swing-up legs but does have center column that uses the space between the legs, but in a different way. The Peak Design has a triangular section center column and specially shaped legs that wrap around it, thus filling the gaps.

The Heipi doesn’t really have a center column as such. Instead of a central column that sits between the tripod legs, it has three triangular profile blades (for want of a better term), that take up the spaces between the legs, but on the outside. The net results is pretty much the same, in that all of the available space is used and nothing goes to waste in the pursuit of compactness.

From an operational perspective, the 3-pillar column works like any other center column, in that you can loosen a locking mechanism (this time a rotary dial at the top) and extend the column upwards. Just pay attention to the warning line at the bottom of each mini tripod leg, indicating the maximum safe extension height. Go beyond this and you can pull the center column out altogether and transform it into a mini tripod, complete with adjustable leg angle locks and a 1/4-inch threaded socket on each leg for attaching a accessories or a magic arm (Heipi can sell you one of those as well).

Not just for doubling up on tripods, removing the 3-pillar column has the advantage that you can invert it and slide it back in to the main tripod again, from underneath. This enables shooting right down to ground level, with the usual caveat that the camera is inverted. More on low-level shooting later but for now, I’ll reiterate that while the main tripod has carbon fiber legs, those of the 3-pillar column / mini tripod are made from aluminum.

Some like to twist, others prefer to flip. Again like the Peak Design travel tripod, the Heipi has slim profile flip locks which take up very little space and only stick out from the legs by a tiny amount, thanks to the way they’re shaped. A key difference is that they’re quite stiff to operate and it’s a real struggle to grasp them all in one hand and open them with a single gesture. You’re more likely to settle on working them one by one, which can take a while as there are no less than 12 of them altogether.

An upgrade to Heipi’s original flip lock design is that the new and improved version gives a stronger locking force with uniform pressure applied around the entire circumference of the leg sections. The new locks are also easier to detach for cleaning and maintenance. The leg sections themselves start with a reasonably sizeable 26mm diameter at the top, working downwards in 3mm increments to a relatively spindly 14mm at the bottom. The bottom sections do look and feel a little flimsy but that’s the price you usually pay for space-saving 5-section legs, compared with 3-section or 4-section legs. To be fair, I’ve seen thinner bottom leg sections on some up-market travel tripods.

Most tripods have three separate locking angles for each leg, which can help if you’re working around obstacles or setting up on tricky terrain. Many of them use spring-loaded locking mechanisms that you either pull out or press in. The Heipi adopts a mix and match approach, with locks that pull out for the main tripod and push in for the mini tripod. It makes sense as you can’t have anything that sticks out in the mini tripod legs, or they wouldn’t be able to slide all the way into the platform on the main tripod.

Many tripods feature a weight hook, which is useful for hanging ballast and reducing the risk of them swaying in a breeze. The Heipi has a variation on the theme in that it has a loop of weight rope instead. That’s all well and good if you’ve got a carabiner or some other method of attaching a weight but is arguably less convenient than just having a simple hook to hang something on. Naturally, the normal practice of fixing a weight hook on the bottom of a tripod’s center column wouldn’t work with the Heipi’s 3-pillar design.

Switching from top to bottom, the feet are formed from removable rubber pads. Unscrewing the feet reveals 30mm metal spikes which you can again unscrew and invert, so that they stick out from the bottom of the foot instead of from the top. This effectively transforms the feet from pads to spikes, the latter giving a firmer footing on loose ground.

The metal hooks have eyelets in them for inserting a tool and twisting them around to unscrew them from the top or bottom of the feet and reinsert them in the other.

Enough talk of legs, let’s move onto the head. It’s a rather clever one, after all. It can attach directly to either the main legs or small legs but in the normal configuration of the tripod, it’ll fit to the small legs which are then inserted into the main legs to form the 3-pillar column. Naturally, the only thing you can’t do is to attach the head to both sets of legs at the same time, as you only get one head in the kit and not two, unless you buy a second one separately. That said, pretty much any tripod head should be compatible with the kit, so long as it has a standard 3/8in threaded socket and its mounting disk fits within the 60mm diameter of the center column locking ring.

The low-profile ball head looks right at home when fitted to either tripod, as well as to the smaller when used in center column mode. In case you’re wondering, the platform of the main tripod has a spring-loaded, retractable mounting screw that neatly moves out of the way when the 3-pillar column is inserted.

The lock/release mechanism for the Arca type quick-release plate relies on twisting the upper section of the head. A protrusion on either side helps to enable a firm grip but there’s no additional security lock to avoid accidental release. The camera platform of the head also features a bubble level, to aid accurate leveling.

The underside of the QR plate reveals the attachment screw for the camera. It can be tightened or released with a hex key (supplied) or a coin, but there’s no D-ring for fastening it or undoing it with just a finger and thumb.

Another hidden gem of the design is that the ball head features a pull-out smartphone mount. Like other elements of the tripod, it’s spring-loaded for convenience. One thing that’s less convenient about it is that if you have even a thin cover on the back of your phone, you might need to remove it as there’s only a narrow gap to push it through. Even so, it adds credibility to the Heipi’s claim of working as a selfie stick.

The main ball action of the head relies on a single twist-clamp lever for loosening and locking it. The usual cutout in the ball socket enables 90-degree rotation of the camera for portrait orientation shooting, in the absence of an L-bracket. Slight negative points are that there’s no independent friction adjuster to tailor the action to alternative lightweight and heavy camera combos, and the locking lever needs to be fairly precisely positioned. You might well find that you need to pull it out, slip it over its splines and re-engage it again to avoid it fouling on other parts of the head.

One thing that I always like to see, and that’s present and correct in the Heipi ball head, is a separate pan-only lock. Not only does it have one, but it comes complete with a 360-degree scale marked in 5-degree increments. What’s more, a secondary screw with a hex head enables you to swap between smooth panning and high-precision 10-degree click steps. It’s a bit like using the aperture control ring on a lens that has a click/de-click switch.

One of my pet hates is instruction leaflets for all manner of gadgets, that have such tiny print that you can’t actually read them. I’m happy that the guide supplied with the Heipi is not only entirely legible, but includes color photos of various parts, functions and facilities, enabling a better understanding of the various features and facilities on offer.

The tools supplied with the tripod comprise hex keys in three different sizes, as shown below. That’s really all you need for any operational or maintenance task.

Everything wraps up safe and sound in a weather-proofed bag that’s supplied with the tripod. It’s a snug fit, so there’s no wasted space and the carrying size is as small as possible. It also has an adjustable, detachable shoulder strap that fastens to loops at either end of the bag with Velco strips.

Heipi 3-in-1 Travel Tripod W28S: Performance

I like my tripods to be big and small in equal measure. I want them to be tall enough at their maximum height for comfortable shooting (and I’m 6ft 5in), but nice and small when folded down so that they’re compact travelling companions. The Heipi serves mostly well on both counts. The maximum operating height with the 3-pillar center column fully extended is a fairly modest 152cm / 59.8in, but that’s still taller than a number of travel tripods that I can think of. Meanwhile, the folded height of just 45cm / 17.7in enables it to stow away in tight spaces, as does the 7.5cm / 3.0in diameter, courtesy of the space-saving leg/3-pillar column design.

A key performance benefit is the whole ‘dual tripods’ thing. The main tripod works well as a regular, go-to tripod for all sorts of shooting scenarios, while the mini tripod is great for tabletop use, ultra-low-level shooting (without inverting the center column) and for selfie stick action. In its regular configuration as one complete tripod with a 3-pillar center column, the Heipi has a hefty payload rating of 20kg / 44lb. That seems a bit ‘optimistic’ to my mind, given the relatively thin bottom leg sections, but I’m never likely to put that much load on it anyway.

The maximum height of a tripod is one consideration, but the minimum shooting height can be equally important from a creative perspective. Both of the main and mini tripods that make up the kit can shoot very close to the ground, with a minimum operating height of just 6cm / 2.4in. That’s thanks to the adjustable locking leg angles and the removable nature of the center column / mini tripod. However, I found that the mini tripod was quite prone to unwanted flexing and sagging when the legs were splayed to wider operating angles.

The head (or heads if you buy and use an extra one) can attach to both the main and mini tripods. The platform in the main tripod features a large bubble level to aid with leveling, and it’s a lot more useful than the miniscule bubble levels featured in some tripods. Correctly leveling the legs ensures that panning will also be on the level, rather than the camera going on the slant during the panning process. That’s an important consideration when shooting video, or a sequence of stills to stitch into a panorama.

The only slight issue with the large bubble level is that you have to raise the 3-pillar column a little to get a really clear view of it. Back on the plus side, both platforms in the main and mini tripods feature a grub screw for firmly locking the head in place. This can be very useful as it effectively guards against the head coming unscrewed on its main mounting screw if and when you’re panning in an anti-clockwise direction.

I’ve saved arguably the most crucial performance factor until last, and that’s the rigidity of the tripod and its resistance to unwanted flexing and vibrations. I’ve touched on this for the small mini tripod, which is made from aluminum, but the main carbon fiber legs have their own story to tell. And that story is that they’re made from a mix of T700 high-tensile fibers and T400 impact-resistant fibers, designed to enhance stability and weight loss. However, there’s no getting away from the fact that 5-section legs result in spindly bottom sections and I found that at or near its maximum operating height, the tripod was a little prone to flexing and vibration. However, it’s still more sturdy and rigid than many travel tripods on the market.

Heipi 3-in-1 Travel Tripod W28S: Verdict

There’s a lot to love about the Heipe 3-in-1 Travel Tripod W28S, and top of the list is that there’s not a lot of it. I like that it folds down nice and small, making it an ideal travel companion for the journey, which is mainly what travel tripods are all about. Thanks to the 5-section legs, it reaches a decent if modest maximum operating height, in conjunction with the 3-pillar extending center column, which itself is what sets the Heipe apart from the crowd of its 3-legged cronies. I’m so impressed that you can remove the center column and use it as a whole other mini tripod or selfie stick, that I’m frankly amazed the design isn’t featured far and wide in other tripods.

I’m not going to give the Heipe a completely glowing report, however. Little niggles include spindly bottom leg sections that impair rigidity at or near maximum operating height. Those 5-section legs also equate to a lot of flip locks to contend with, each of which is surprisingly stiff and unyielding. The Heipe also doesn’t conveniently convert into a monopod, although that’s certainly not unusual amongst travel tripods rather than full-sized sticks. All in all, this tripod, or perhaps collection of tripods, is a crafty design that’s very well implemented, and very good value at the price.

Alternatives

As a regular reviewer for Digital Camera World, I tend to test gadgets such as smartphone and mirrorless camera gimbals, wireless microphones, webcams, and continuous LED light sources like the Neewer FS60B. LEDs are among my favorite products to review, as they give me an excuse to leave the office, hire a model, and demonstrate the different looks that a portable continuous light can add to both stills and video. After all, a well-lit model portrait makes for a far more appealing review image than a shot of me staring into a webcam!

The FS60B is a 60W LED light from Chinese manufacturer Neewer. As well as manufacturing continuous LEDs, Neewer produces a wide range of kit including on-camera flashes, teleprompters, and V-mount batteries.

LED stands for light-emitting diode, so the light is produced by an array of small beads rather than a traditional bulb. Having grown up using old-school bulb lights during my career, I much prefer LEDs. There are no bulbs to keep replacing, and as they tend to run cooler than traditional lamps, you don’t have to wait around for the light to cool down before you can pack it away (though I did feel the heat on one occasion with this particular LED, as I’ll explain in the performance section).

The Neewer FS60B is a bi-color light, which means it contains a mix of 'warm' and 'cool LEDs that can be blended to produce color temperatures ranging from a warm 2700K to a cooler 6500K. This gives you the flexibility to mimic the glow of a sunset or add fill light that matches a cooler midday key light.

In addition to bi-color lights, Neewer also makes RGB lights, such as the flat-panel PL60C. These use a broader mix of colored LEDs to produce thousands of creative hues. Bi-color lights such as the FS60B are less versatile when it comes to producing color effects, but they tend to emit a brighter output because more of their similarly colored diodes can be illuminated at the same time.

Both the Neewer PL60C and the Neewer FS60B are 60W lights that are among the best LED lights for filmmaking and vlogging, but the latter is much lighter and smaller, so it will suit 'run and gun' photographers/videographers who need to fit a powerful yet portable light source in their kit bag.

Neewer FS60B: Specifications

Neewer FS60B: Price

The Neewer FS60B 60W Compact Pocket Bi-Color LED Light officially retails at $119.99 (around £100). Given the portability offered by its pocket-sized build and its astonishingly powerful 34,300 lux output (with supplied reflector attached), this is a small price to pay for such a portable and powerful LED.

The FS60B ships with a 20V DC power supply that you can plug into the mains. However, if, like me, you want to shoot in a location without access to a mains socket (such as a city street), then you’ll need to provide a portable power source such as the Neewer PS099E V-mount battery, which will add $179.99 to the price. You can link the battery to the FS60B via a USB-C cable, which is what I did when testing the light on location. The FS60B is also compatible with the Neewer PH99E Battery Grip, which attaches to the FS60B’s 1/4-inch threads – though that costs as much as the FS60B itself!

If you need a bi-color LED that ships with a supplied chargeable battery, then check out the Godox ML80Bi (see Alternatives section below). However, at $299, the Godox LED does cost a lot more than the Neewer FS60B, though you don’t have the inconvenience of having a separate battery attached to the LED via a USB-C cable.

Neewer FS60B: Design & Handling

My first impression on opening the Neewer FS60B’s box was, "where’s the light!?" For a second or two, I thought that someone must have pinched it while the package was in transit. Then I realized that a thin, silver-colored rectangular plastic unit inside the packaging was actually the LED itself. It was much slimmer than the usual box-shaped LEDs that I test (such as the Godox ML80Bi). The FS60B was also very light – weighing in at just under 0.66lb (300g).

Neewer describes the FS60B as a "pocket" light, and at 5.9x3.5x1.3in (15x8.9x3.3cm), it did indeed fit into the pocket of my shorts – I’m writing this during a heatwave! However, it isn’t the most comfortable pocket-dwelling gadget, as two chunky plastic control knobs protrude from the rear.

These two knobs let you adjust lighting properties such as brightness and color temperature, as we’ll explore in the Performance section. They also double as buttons. Press the brightness control on the left, for example, and you can jump through the intensity range in 20% increments from 0 to 100, rather than turning the dial manually. The right-hand knob can be pressed to cycle through settings when using the light’s animated effects, such as the frequency of a simulated lightning flash, for example.

On the opposite side of the unit is a slightly raised circular metal housing containing the LEDs. This section needs to be made from metal because the LEDs can generate a considerable amount of heat (see Performance section). Surrounding the LEDs is a circular plastic grille through which you can see the unit’s essential cooling fan.

Set into the metal housing around the LEDs are three Neewer Mini Mount slots, enabling you to attach compatible accessories, including the reflector supplied with the light. Standard Bowens-mount modifiers can also be fitted, although this requires Neewer’s optional CHB1 Mini-to-Bowens adapter.

Neewer FS60B: Performance

Because the Neewer FS60B provides a continuous light source, I decided to hire a model and film some footage of her using my iPhone 17 Pro in the atmospheric (but gloomy) corridors of London’s Barbican Centre. The LED’s powerful 34,300 lux output was more than bright enough to capture footage free from high-ISO artifacts, and it also added drama to the clips by casting a strong shadow of the model on the location’s textured concrete walls.

As I also planned to shoot portraits with my iPhone, I used the FS60B as a key light (and sometimes a fill light, depending on available light sources). By positioning the LED to one side of my model, I was able to create a more sculpted, three-dimensional illumination in much the same way as I would with a DSLR’s external flash – but with the advantage of seeing the lighting effect on the model before pressing the shutter. I found it easy to use the FS60B’s two knobs/buttons to adjust brightness and choose a color temperature that complemented the warm interior available light in the location.

Before meeting Maddy, my model, I sat down on the location’s carpeted floor to check my kit. The FS60B was resting face down on my leg while I used the Neewer Studio app on my iPhone 17 Pro to switch on the LEDs. I soon felt their heat against my bare skin, as I was wearing shorts for this heatwave test shoot! I was surprised by just how hot the LEDs felt, as I hadn’t noticed much heat from other continuous lights that I’ve tested. Then again, I’d never placed one directly against my skin before. Lesson learned.

As the shoot was taking place on location, I didn’t want to rely on the kit’s supplied mains adapter to power the light, as this would limit me to staying close to wall-mounted power sockets. Instead, I carried a Neewer PS099E V-mount battery in my backpack, along with the longest USB-C cable I could find. The cable connecting the battery to the LED was only a couple of feet long, so I decided against bringing a standard (and tall) lighting stand along for the ride. I didn’t want the chunky PS099E battery dangling by its cable from a light mounted on a tall stand.

Instead, I packed a small Joby GorillaPod, whose flexible legs can be used as a miniature tripod or wrapped around a railing. The Barbican has plenty of raised surfaces where I could position the light securely and rest the battery nearby, without putting pressure on the power cable.

The Neewer FS60B has 1/4-inch threads on both its base and side, so I was able to mount it on the GorillaPod with ease. As the LED weighs less than 0.66lb (300g), it remained stable despite the GorillaPod’s relatively short legs. Check out the supporting video to see the FS60B in action.

The FS60B ships with a small reflector that attaches to its Neewer Mini Mount slots with a push and a twist, boosting the light’s output to an impressive 34,300 lux. As this more-focused beam could cast harsh shadows on my model, I attached the supplied rubber diffuser to the front of the reflector to soften the light.

The LED’s Neewer Mini Mount slots also enabled me to attach a larger Neewer lantern softbox. This created a broad yet powerful studio-style light source that worked particularly well for some of my model portraits, as you’ll see from the portraits accompanying this review.

As well as providing continuous illumination, the Neewer FS60B can produce intermittent lighting patterns at color temperatures ranging from 2700K to 6500K. Its 12 lighting presets include effects such as flashes of lightning and a flickering broken bulb.

As I had both a model and a long, dark, suitably spooky corridor at my disposal, I used the control knobs and Mode button to select the Broken Bulb effect. The FS60B was powerful enough to illuminate my model from a distance (see video), while also revealing plenty of detail in the surrounding architecture. Each time the simulated bulb flickered out, the corridor was momentarily plunged into gloomy shadow, making this preset particularly effective for adding drama and atmosphere to my mini-thriller sequence.

On a previous test shoot with the Neewer PS099E V-mount battery as a power source, I ran out of power in one hour. This was because I was testing the much more power-hungry Godox ML150Bi, which is a 150W light compared to the FS60B's 60W. As a result, I had plenty of juice left in the battery after filming and shooting portraits for the first hour of the shoot.

I used this extra power to set up a shoot in a nearby alley adjacent to the Barbican Centre. Despite strong sun overhead, the alley was in shadow, so the FS60B became a key light. Given the GorillaPod’s short legs, I illuminated Maddy from a low angle. This added a mix of dramatic highlights and shadows to her face that suited the grungy urban alley. The low-angle light from the floor-mounted FS60B created a mean and moody look that suited my model’s dramatic location and streetwise look.

I did take the light along to a more conventional model shoot, and it was very useful when I could shoot the model with the light at head height. However, due to the short cable between the light and the battery, I often had to shoot from a low angle, and the resulting shadows didn’t flatter my other model’s face, emphasizing features such as eye bags.

Neewer FS60B: Verdict

I thoroughly enjoyed using the Neewer FS60B on my urban model test shoot. Its compact size meant that I could travel light, while its 60W output and supplied reflector provided enough power to capture clean video footage in relatively gloomy interiors without excessive high-ISO noise. The animated effects, such as Broken Bulb, also helped me capture an atmospheric mini-thriller sequence, which made the test shoot even more enjoyable. The FS60B also worked well as a powerful, dramatic key light in shady outdoor alleys, enabling me to capture some suitably edgy street portraits.

Its main drawback is the lack of a built-in rechargeable battery. An internal battery would have made it easier to mount the light on a tall stand and position it at a more flattering side angle. Because the FS60B was connected to a V-mount battery by a relatively short USB-C cable, I often had to find a raised surface that could support both the light and its power source (or pop the light and its mini tripod on the floor).

I enjoyed shooting from lower angles, as this added drama to my portraits, but for illuminating more conventional lifestyle images, I would have preferred the flexibility to position the light higher, without being constrained by a battery attached via a cable. I appreciate that you could power the FS60B from the mains using its supplied power unit, which has a cable long enough for you to mount the light at head height on a stand. However, I like to shoot on location, so I had to use a battery-powered solution.

Alternatives

If the traditional trail camera market is about reliability and value, then the best cellular trail cameras are a race of remote tech and convenience. Over the past couple of seasons, wireless scouting seems to have become more commonplace and less of a luxury novelty. And I’ll admit, while I love the dopamine hit of a new animal sighting coming through my phone, I’m not a fan of paying for the subscription costs that come with most cellular options.

The Browning Defender Pro Scout Solar is a flagship product in Browning’s 2026 cellular lineup, replacing the Pro Scout Max series and including a plug-in solar-charging option. With 46MP images, full HD 1080p videos with sound, and a 100-foot image detection range, the camera most closely rivals premium cell-cams like the Spypoint Flex-M Solar and Tactacam Reveal series.

To me, it exists to solve the two common trail cam headaches: burning through lots of AA batteries and wasting hours making field trips to check the camera and its storage (something I’ve done a lot of while testing the best trail cameras without cellular capabilities).

Unlike units with a solar panel fixed rigidly to the top of the camera housing (which is streamlined but forces you to choose between hiding your camera in thick shade or placing it in direct, obvious sunlight), the Defender’s plug-in solar panel can be mounted separately. The Pro Scout Solar also has an auto-detecting dual-carrier network that flips between AT&T and Verizon towers natively, depending on your location. I’m in the UK and can confirm the cellular option works internationally, outside of the US.

With this trail cam, Browning is pitching a true set-and-forget tool. I’m taking this into the woods to see if its design, performance and wireless on-demand video streaming deliver, or if I get fed up with the ongoing monthly app subscription tax and app faffing.

Browning Defender Pro Scout Solar: Specifications

Browning Defender Pro Scout Solar: Price

The Browning Defender Pro Scout Max sits in the mid-priced area of the cellular trail camera market, and I’d say it has a few advanced features traditionally reserved for the most expensive models. At around $150/£170, it comes with a solar panel battery pack, fully invisible infrared LEDs, and 46-megapixel still images.

The downside for me is the ongoing subscription prices you need to pay to transmit your media – really, this is the whole point of getting a cellular camera in the first place. Browning’s data plans range from basic tracking packages that start at roughly $5/£4 a month, which allow basic thumbnail downloads.

If you want to access and download video clips, you’ll need The International Unlimited Plan at €14.99 (approx. $16.50) monthly, but it only allows 12 video downloads per month. The name unlimited suggests otherwise to me. On the plus side, you can start and stop subscriptions when you want if your usage changes.

Compared to entry-level cell cams like the Spypoint Link-Micro – which is cheaper upfront but only transmits low-resolution photos – the Defender can deliver on-demand HD photo and video uploads straight to your smartphone. However, I’m still not sure that the service feels streamlined enough to justify its monthly network fees.

Browning Defender Pro Scout Solar: Design & Handling

The Browning Defender Pro Scout Solar is noticeably bigger than non-cellular options like the Strike Force Pro X 1080. It might feel more chunky and substantial in your hand, but given that you don’t often carry a trail camera around, bar mounting or maintenance, it isn’t an issue. Browning calls the camera weatherproof, though there’s no specific waterproof rating. All of the important buttons and storage are hidden behind a very secure flap, and the only real point of moisture entry is the solar panel cable.

Screwing onto the very top of the unit is the high-gain 4G cellular antenna. Unlike some antennas that pivot or swing on an adjustable knuckle, this plastic one is fixed straight up. It screws in tightly and feels secure, so I wasn’t worried about passing wildlife or falling branches knocking it loose.

As its name suggests, the Pro Scout Solar comes with a micro-solar panel battery pack, and getting the full system rigged up in the woods requires a tiny bit more coordination than a standard trail cam. Both parts of the unit have their own dedicated, strong nylon straps that tie around the back of the hardware.

Although I first thought this setup was going to be more fiddly than having a fully integrated panel, the advantage here over fixed, all-in-one solar cameras is placement versatility. The solar panel plugs directly into the bottom of the main camera via a flexible power cable, meaning you could potentially position the camo camera lower down in the brush and run the lead higher up a trunk to strap the solar array in sunlight.

The woodland spot I chose had regular spells of dappled sunlight through the day, so I chose to mount it underneath the main camera. What’s especially helpful is a button on the solar panel that allows you to test whether the panel is working. Once I’d picked my tree and wound the tough straps around both parts, I found that they would easily hold the weight against the bark without sagging or drooping.

The camera sadly doesn’t have a built-in plate to angle the camera down, which means you have to get your angle just right by other means. I wedged a small twig between the camera and the tree trunk at the back so it was pointing down more effectively toward the woodland path.

Speaking of getting the composition right, this is harder to do on the Pro Scout Solar because it doesn’t have a color LCD screen – or indeed, a screen that will show you the scene at all. Because this is a cellular unit meant to be managed remotely, Browning gives you a small, text-based LCD configuration screen paired with a set of responsive buttons that light up when touched – a massive help if you’re trying to check settings in the dark or low light.

The on-board menu layout is very simple to navigate, but you can go without touching it at all if you’d rather use Browning’s phone app. You can download the Strike Force Wireless app on an iPhone or Android, scan the QR code inside the camera door, and it will automatically connect to the strongest available network. I had the cellular link active and syncing to my phone in about five minutes, once I’d figured out what I needed to do. If you’re less averse to reading the included paper manual than I am, you might set up even faster.

Being a cellular-solar hybrid does bring a couple of handling quirks you'll need to watch out for. The bottom-plugging power cable requires careful routing; it’s a good idea to make sure the cord hangs with a neat drip-loop so rainwater runs away from the connection point rather than pooling around the seal.

Generally speaking, though, I found the Browning Defender Pro Scout Solar solidly made, easy to use (partly because there are few settings to choose from), and easy to handle. Some may prefer an in-built solar panel to avoid having to trail a cable, but I prefer the versatility of being able to position the panel where it’s likely to get the strongest light.

Browning Defender Pro Scout Solar: Performance

Above: Sample clips from the Browning Defender Pro Scout Max Solar

I had the Browning Defender Pro Scout Max Solar deployed in the woods for a few weeks before writing this review, which gave me enough time to test its cellular connectivity and solar battery. And to capture a whole array of classic British woodland creatures. For me, a trail camera's worth is entirely won or lost on its field reliability, and testing this hybrid system has highlighted exactly where its high-tech scouting excels and where it hits a few classic trade-offs.

The specs sheet for the Browning Defender Pro Scout Solar lists a 0.25-second photo-trigger speed and a 0.35-second recovery time. In the past, I’ve found that by the time a camera wakes up and triggers, fast-moving animals have already cleared the frame, leaving you either with a collection of blank field shots or tails.

The Pro Scout Solar mostly delivers on its speed promises. In image mode, I’d set the camera to take three shots once motion had been detected. The detection circuit was fast enough to capture hares moving across the scene, usually caught halfway across rather than at the start of their motion, with the last shots sometimes empty.

It seems that when a target breaches the detection zone, the camera can trigger fast enough to capture moving wildlife dead-center. The rapid recovery time then allowed the camera to reset and snap a follow-up image in a fraction of a second. I enjoyed getting a frame-by-frame of how a deer or badger was moving through the woodland, rather than a single, isolated image.

During the day, the camera captures images using a quoted 46MP resolution setting, though there’s definitely some digital interpolation to reach this number. When you look closely at the fine details of a frame – like the background foliage or the forest floor – individual leaf edges and fine textures are blended into a slightly soft, painterly texture rather than showing true, tack-sharp, high-megapixel resolution. That said, the camera does a practical job on the wildlife. In one shot of a roe deer wandering past, you can see the texture of its coat and the shape of its small antlers clearly.

The shutter speed is mostly fast enough to freeze movement in adequate light, but some motion blur occurred on overcast spells or very early mornings. I’m not sold on the white balance, however, which leans into a noticeably yellowish-green cast. In bright light, the woodland foliage looked a bit cooked compared to what you’d see with the naked eye under a natural canopy. I also noticed some sharpening halos and compression noise in the deep, dark background shadows. But I’m being a picky reviewer here, and I don’t think the average user would notice or mind. After all, you’re not likely to be printing these images.

When darkness falls, both image and video modes switch over to the camera’s 6 no-glow LED lights. Here, the background branches and forest floor dissolved heavily into a uniform, speckled gray texture. But the camera does better with exposure control and handling overexposure. With my captures of a roaming badger, the bright white facial stripes of the badger were distinct and not blown out at all. The badger's stocky body was also frozen fairly well by the night shutter, with only a tiny hint of softness on its moving legs.

The LED light (nearly invisible to humans and animals) is concentrated heavily across the center of the frame, meaning the illumination falls off sharply at the corners. This means anything skirting the perimeter of the frame will likely be lost to the shadows. There is also a subtle layer of digital noise across the mid-tone grays, which I think is, again, quite par for the course when a sensor boosts its gain to see in the dark.

Because this is a cellular unit, it’s also important to review the Strike Force Wireless app. I went to check the camera much more than a standard user would because I was testing it, and the time from my walking past the camera to getting a notification about a sighting or video motion capture on my phone was just three to four minutes every time. That’s some speedy syncing between the cellular connection and the app.

The app layout is user-friendly, grouping your media neatly by day so you can scroll through and download or delete files at will. You can also control the camera, tweak the main settings, clear the SD card, or set it to overwrite older files when storage runs out. The only minor sting for me is that, with the subscription tier I chose, I was only able to download low-resolution images remotely. Upgrading to full-res or HD video downloads costs several times more, but the low-res previews were at least quick and easy to fetch.

And how about the solar power element? The real peace of mind with a solar-cellular unit is knowing you can leave the area undisturbed without a battery dying mid-season. The external plug-in solar panel kept the internal reservoir topped up throughout my testing, dropping to 95% power in two weeks with about 5 sightings a day and full-resolution captures (that’s around 40 weeks of power in total).

Because it relies on the sun, you do have to manage your settings sensibly if you want to leave the unit unmanned for longer. The camera records and transmits 1080p HD video with (surprisingly clear) audio on demand, but if you set the Strike Force Wireless app to constantly fetch heavy video clips during a stretch of overcast weather, the battery drainage could outpace the solar panel's ability to recover. If you take the time to position the solar panel cleanly and set your transmission intervals sensibly, though, there’s so much convenience and simplicity in getting wireless updates without setting foot near your location for months.

Browning Defender Pro Scout Solar: Verdict

I’ve spent two weeks using the Browning Defender Pro Scout Solar in my local woodland, and I was amazed at what I found there. It’s a top-marks hardware package, but it has a service plan that’s hard to score. The design of the trail cam means I wouldn’t worry about battery drain if I left it in the wild for several seasons, even with the camera firing off multiple daily captures. The rugged camouflage casing feels pretty indestructible, and I’m sure that the heavy-duty latch clips would keep out even heavy rain.

Performance-wise, my experience is that the camera delivers on its trigger speeds but stumbles on resolution. It’s incredibly useful to see wildlife caught centrally in the frame rather than as a collection of empty background shots, and the night exposure control on high-contrast subjects like badgers is great. It’s still frustrating to have a quoted 46MP sensor that clearly relies on heavy digital interpolation. Without a color LCD screen, it’s hard to check your framing in the field, but I guess that’s where the Browning app comes in.

I’d recommend the Defender Pro Scout Solar if you’re managing a remote property, want the instant gratification of getting near-instant notification alerts on your phone, and don’t mind paying a premium to download footage from the SD card. In the Browning Wireless app, the media gallery is clean, the remote settings changes work quickly, and the cabled solar panel is basic but effective.

If you want a tool that doesn’t lock its best features behind a paywall, the ongoing subscription is a bit much. Calling a plan unlimited when it restricts you to just 12 video downloads a month, for example, feels mean for a mid-priced camera.

If you’re on a budget or plan on checking your camera frequently anyway, you might be better served by saving your cash and opting for a traditional local-storage unit like the Browning Strike Force HD Pro X1080, or looking at a Spypoint Flex-M Solar, which offers a free basic photo transmission tier. Overall, I think the Browning Defender Pro Scout Solar is a fast, rugged, and reliable cellular hybrid that’s mainly held back by the price of its data plans.

Alternatives

Check out our full guides to the best trail cameras, and also the best cellular trail cameras

Smart telescopes like the Seestar S30 Pro have changed astrophotography and, arguably, urban astronomy. The Seestar S30 Pro Total Solar Eclipse Edition takes that same compact, automated imaging concept and packages it for one of the biggest astronomical events of the decade — continental Europe’s first total solar eclipse since 1999.

This is not a ground-up redesign for the August 12 event. Internally, it’s very close to the standard Seestar S30 Pro, combining a 30mm apochromatic refractor, motorized mount, dual cameras and image-processing software into a compact unit controlled entirely from a smartphone. Within minutes of powering on, it can align itself to the sky, slew to a specified target and begin stacking exposures to reveal galaxies, nebulae, star clusters and, of course, the sun and moon.

What changes here is the presentation. The Eclipse Edition adds a black-and-gold finish, a diamond-ring eclipse graphic, limited-edition numbering, themed packaging and a new magnetic solar filter. That makes it particularly appealing to eclipse chasers and collectors who want a travel-friendly telescope that easily fits in a camera backpack that’s ready for solar observing out of the box.

Specifications

Price

The standard Seestar S30 Pro is priced at US$699/£649/AU$1,000, while the Total Solar Eclipse Edition costs US$799/£719/AU$1,150. That makes this limited model US$100/UK£70/AU$150 more expensive. The Seestar S30 Pro includes a more basic solar filter, but is the teardrop-shaped solar filter provided with the Total Solar Eclipse Edition worth the extra money? It’s not — a third-party, 3D-printed solar filter made with Baader AstroSolar film is available for around US$32/UK£27/AU$52 and is of better quality. What you’re paying for with the Total Solar Eclipse Edition is a new black-and-gold finish, a numbered edition, eclipse-themed packaging, a custom app experience and an all-round collectible appeal. This is less a standard upgrade path and more a special-edition purchase for eclipse season.

For deep-sky imagers, its EQ mode — which compensates for the Earth’s rotation — is an option, though that does require the purchase of the Seestar TH10 Fluid Tripod Head (costing US$79) (or any equatorial wedge).

Design & Handling

At first glance, the Seestar S30 Pro Total Solar Eclipse Edition looks far more distinctive than the standard white model. While the regular Seestar S30 Pro has a clean, Apple-like appearance, this limited-edition’s black finish feels more appropriate for astronomical equipment. Many users will prefer the darker color, particularly on a device intended for night-sky and solar work.

The eclipse decoration is tastefully executed. The body features an image of an eclipsed sun at second contact — the “diamond ring” moment — with “Total Solar Eclipse Edition” written underneath in gold. There is also gold S30 Pro branding on the narrow side, while the Seestar name and logo are picked out in gold on the reverse. ZWO has extended the theme to bespoke packaging, so it feels like a complete commemorative edition rather than a standard model with a sticker applied.

Each device also comes with limited-edition numbering and a commemorative plaque, reinforcing the sense that this is aimed at collectors as well as users. There is also a device-locked themed app experience, with eclipse-specific visuals and connection animations. None of this changes image quality, but it does make the edition feel more special.

The practical design advantage is the official solar filter. It is teardrop-shaped, supplied in its own small case and attaches magnetically to the front of the telescope. It’s exactly the kind of accessory eclipse travelers need: compact, quick to fit and properly integrated.

The telescope itself remains highly portable. At 3.6 lbs (1.65kg), it’s small enough to fit in a camera backpack alongside a mirrorless body and a couple of lenses. The included tabletop tripod is solid, though users working from a backyard, balcony or crowded eclipse-viewing location will likely prefer to mount it on a full-size photographic tripod for better height and positioning.

Performance

For night-sky imaging, performance is essentially that of the standard Seestar S30 Pro. After powering on and connecting through the smartphone app, the telescope automatically plate-solves the sky, determines its position, slews to a selected object, focuses and begins capturing short exposures. These are stacked in real time, gradually improving detail and reducing noise as the total integration time increases. The 8.3MP Sony IMX585 telephoto sensor gives more scope for cropping and post-processing than the original 2MP Seestar S30, while the Sony IMX586 wide-angle camera supports alignment and wide-field imaging modes.

The Total Solar Eclipse Edition’s real focus, however, is solar imaging. With the magnetic solar filter attached, the Seestar can locate and track the sun through the app, then capture still photos, video or timelapse sequences. A still photo is the quickest way to record sunspots and is saved directly to a smartphone. Timelapse mode is especially useful for eclipse work, with selectable intervals of 1-60 seconds, making it possible to document the changing partial phases with minimal intervention.

For crisp solar results, though, technique matters. The Seestar’s autofocus needs a high-contrast feature to lock accurately, so the best approach is to tap directly on a prominent sunspot and perform autofocus there. That should be possible on Aug. 12. Focusing on the edge of the solar disk is tempting, but it can leave the center slightly soft. Manually increasing gain can also help the system lock focus more confidently.

The supplied solar filter is convenient and well integrated, but it is not the sharpest option available. It produces an orange view of the sun, and filters of this kind are generally not as fast as white-light filters. In practice, that can mean slower exposures and a little softness compared with a good white-light filter. We placed a homemade solar filter made with Baader AstroSolar film, which gave a noticeable improvement in the sharpness of both sunspots and the solar limb.

The best workflow is not necessarily a series of still images of the sun, which would mean staring at a smartphone during the precious seconds of totality (when, of course, the solar filter must come off). Switching to video mode and capturing around 10-15 seconds of footage gives better material for post-processing. Video is saved to the Seestar’s internal memory and can be accessed by connecting a computer to the USB-C port, with ZWO’s ASI Studio software used to include, extract and stack the best frames to produce a cleaner, sharper final image.

For the 2026 total solar eclipse, the appeal is obvious. Eclipse photography is stressful because the critical phases happen quickly, particularly second contact, totality and third contact. A small automated telescope that can track the sun — perhaps while the photographer manages a separate camera and long lens — may be extremely useful. It will not replace a carefully planned high-resolution eclipse rig, but it makes a lot of sense as a guided, compact solar imaging companion. Just remember to remove the solar filter at second contact!

Functionality

If you plan to capture images of the partial phases of the solar eclipse — whether you’re going to be in the path of totality or not — get in place well ahead of first contact. That’s because the Seestar S30 Pro can take a little time to find the sun. In our tests, it immediately slewed away from the sun twice before giving up, then asked us to perform a calibration — a laborious process in which the entire telescope must be turned about 40 times before its sensors get a grip on where it is. However, once it was locked on to the sun, it stayed there.

The Seestar app is central to the entire experience. It acts as the controller, sky atlas and imaging interface, handling alignment, target selection, focusing, capture and processing. The telescope has very few physical controls, so anyone buying into the Seestar system needs to be comfortable with full smartphone operation.

For deep-sky imaging, the app offers the familiar automated workflow: select an object, allow the telescope to slew, and watch the stacked image build on screen. FITS export is available for users who want to process deep-sky images in software such as Siril, PixInsight, DeepSkyStacker or Photoshop. That gives the Seestar S30 Pro more longevity for users who start with one-button imaging but later want more control over the final result.

As with all app-dependent devices, there is a long-term caveat. Without the app, the telescope cannot meaningfully operate, so this is not the kind of optical instrument likely to be passed down for generations in the same way as a traditional refractor. It’s best thought of as a compact, capable and collectible imaging appliance for the solar eclipse and beyond.

Verdict

The Seestar S30 Pro Total Solar Eclipse Edition is best understood as a limited, eclipse-ready version of the standard Seestar S30 Pro. It does not bring a major optical or sensor upgrade, so anyone expecting a fundamentally different telescope will be disappointed. Its strengths are portability, automation, solar-readiness and its eclipse-themed presentation.

For eclipse chasers, the appeal is strong. Critically, it’s small enough to travel with, simple enough to operate quickly, and capable of tracking the sun while capturing stills, video or timelapse sequences. For collectors, the numbered black-and-gold finish gives it an appeal the standard white model does not have. For general astrophotographers, the decision is less clear. The standard Seestar S30 Pro plus a third-party Baader film solar filter may be the better-value route, especially if sharp solar detail matters more than collectability. The supplied magnetic filter is convenient, but not the last word in solar sharpness.

Alternatives

See our complete guide to the best smart telescopes

Over the past few years, I’ve noticed the wildlife surveillance market splitting – between more expensive app-driven cellular models and cheaper, unbranded basic ones. As some trail camera users push back against monthly data plans or just don’t need them, there’s still room for the best trail cameras without cellular coverage and ongoing fees.

The Browning Strike Force HD Pro X1080 lands here: an unplugged, reliable option for users who either want to position close to home or don’t mind hiking out to pull their SD card and review footage. Of course, the on-board storage approach works best if you’ve got smaller patches of land to survey, more time to fetch the camera, or a smaller budget.

Browning is a brand with a long reputation for making rugged and reliable trail cameras – in fact, it was one of the first brands I used a decade ago. The Strike Force HD Pro X1080 isn't a completely new design, but an evolutionary replacement for the older Strike Force HD Pro X. This line bridges the gap between their entry-level text-only cameras and bigger, higher-resolution units. It has 1080P Full HD video with sound, a 24MP sensor, low-glow night illumination, a built-in color screen for reviewing footage, and one of the fastest trigger speeds on the market.

I was eager to take this game and motion-activated camera out into the woods to see if its blazing 0.18-second trigger speed lives up to the hype for capturing wildlife, or if you're better off saving your money and sticking with an older, simpler model.

Browning Strike Force HD Pro X1080: Specifications

Browning Strike Force HD Pro X1080: Price

With an RRP of $149/£159, the Browning Strike Force HD Pro X1080 is at the higher end of traditional, non-cellular trail cameras. The market is flooded with far more entry-level Amazon game cameras under $50/£45 now, but this is a model that I feel confidently offers a better design and build quality to justify the extra investment.

The rugged construction has some tropical-grade weatherproof seals designed to lock out moisture from rain and deep-wood exposure, and the internal hardware is meant to be very efficient on batteries, quoted at squeezing up to a year of field life from a single set of six AA batteries (I haven’t tested it that long to say for sure). Being a trail camera that relies on SD card storage, there are zero subscription costs here.

If I compare the price with mid-to-high-tier rivals like the Bushnell Core series or Spypoint's non-cellular range, the Browning has a good price-to-performance advantage thanks to its industry-leading 0.18-second photo trigger speed. If you’re a land manager or wildlife photographer, I’d say the Strike Force HD Pro X1080 is a cost-effective and reliable tool for tracking.

Browning Strike Force HD Pro X1080: Design & Handling

The Browning Strike Force Pro X 1080 comes packaged in a pretty compact, neatly organised box. In fact, the first thing I noticed was just how small but sturdy it felt in my hand. One of the most important things in a trail cam is to blend in – a hard task given the varied landscapes you could deploy one in – and this product is especially well suited to woodland. The chassis is covered in a busy, textured camouflage pattern that does a brilliant job of vanishing against tree bark.

Given that you’ll be leaving a trail camera outside for weeks or months, hardiness against the weather is also vital. Browning doesn’t publish an official IP waterproofing rating for the Strike Force Pro X 1080, suggesting that maybe it just hasn’t been officially tested. But the exterior has reassuring rubber seals, with a primary side clip that snaps shut with a deeply satisfying mechanical click. For some reason, I had total confidence that it could survive a torrential downpour and a misty morning without fogging up the lens internals or damaging the SD card.

With the front unclipped, the camera has a few simple features and buttons. The forward-facing 1.5-inch color LCD screen – while not large or detailed enough to view your footage closely – is just about passable for setting up a composition or reviewing clips without removing the SD card.

As far as controls go, you’ll find an on-off toggle, an M button to bring up the menu, a 4-way navigation keypad and a button to eject the battery cassette, which pops out at the bottom of the unit. I found these buttons responsive, and I like that they light up when touched, making it easy to navigate if you set up or review the unit after dark. The menu itself is simple to toggle through on-screen, too. I was able to set up the camera to my liking in just a few minutes without needing to look at the paper manual in the box.

I’d decided to trudge to my local woodland to mount the camera, hoping to review it regularly for wildlife sightings while walking my dog. The camera and strap were easy to carry in a small shoulder bag, and I found mounting the camera very straightforward. The included nylon tree strap is incredibly long – so long that I found myself wrapping it around a narrower trunk multiple times – but the webbing is so strong that it kept the camera locked rigidly in position. After a few nights of unseasonably strong winds overnight, when I returned to the camera a few days later, it was still solidly in place.

The Browning Strike Force Pro X 1080 comes packaged in a pretty compact, neatly organised box. In fact, the first thing I noticed was just how small but sturdy it felt in my hand. One of the most important things in a trail cam is to blend in – a hard task given the varied landscapes you could deploy one in – and this product is especially well suited to woodland. The chassis is covered in a busy, textured camouflage pattern that does a brilliant job of vanishing against tree bark.

Given that you’ll be leaving a trail camera outside for weeks or months, hardiness against the weather is also vital. Browning doesn’t publish an official IP waterproofing rating for the Strike Force Pro X 1080, suggesting that maybe it just hasn’t been officially tested.

But the exterior has reassuring rubber seals, with a primary side clip that snaps shut with a deeply satisfying mechanical click. For some reason, I had total confidence that it could survive a torrential downpour and a misty morning without fogging up the lens internals or damaging the SD card.

With the front unclipped, the camera has a few simple features and buttons. The forward-facing 1.5-inch color LCD screen – while not large or detailed enough to view your footage closely – is just about passable for setting up a composition or reviewing clips without removing the SD card. As far as controls go, you’ll find an on-off toggle, an M button to bring up the menu, a 4-way navigation keypad and a button to eject the battery cassette, which pops out at the bottom of the unit.

I found these buttons responsive, and I like that they light up when touched, making it easy to navigate if you set up or review the unit after dark. The menu itself is simple to toggle through on-screen, too. I was able to set up the camera to my liking in just a few minutes without needing to look at the paper manual in the box.

I’d decided to trudge to my local woodland to mount the camera, hoping to review it regularly for wildlife sightings while walking my dog. The camera and strap were easy to carry in a small shoulder bag, and I found mounting the camera very straightforward.

The included nylon tree strap is incredibly long – so long that I found myself wrapping it around a narrower trunk multiple times – but the webbing is so strong that it kept the camera locked rigidly in position. After a few nights of unseasonably strong overnight winds, when I returned to the camera a few days later, it was still solidly in place.

What’s thoughtful in the design is that Browning has incorporated an adjustable steel tree bracket into the back of the case. With traditional trail cameras, I’ve been used to playing a frustrating game of balance, sometimes forcing bits of twig and stick behind the housing to angle the lens in just the right way down towards a footpath or trail.

This solid steel pivot gives you about 30 degrees of leeway, so you can adjust the downward tilt to frame the exact area of ground you want before walking away and leaving the camera to do its monitoring.

One design element does let down the seamless experience, and that’s the battery compartment. Browning claims this to be an exceptionally efficient camera (I say claims because I haven’t got to the performance section yet!), running on six AA batteries rather than the eight standard cells demanded by its competitors. But I found popping them in and swapping them out to be very fiddly.

Pressing the recessed eject button releases the internal drawer, but it doesn't bring the batteries out enough to change them, so you really have to yank them. I used this unit in the height of a hot British summer, but I think if you were trying to service the camera on a cold winter’s day with numb fingers, you’d have to apply some effort to pry the batteries loose. It's a minor complaint in an otherwise highly rugged tracking tool that seems to favor quick, hassle-free field deployment over unnecessary buttons.

Browning Strike Force HD Pro X1080: Performance

Above: Sample clips from the Browning Strike Force HD Pro X1080

I strapped the Browning Strike Force HD Pro X1080 to a tree in my local English woodland for two weeks. Being a non-cellular option, I reviewed the captured media every few days, as the location was near home, and I swapped between stills and video clips regularly. I set both media types to their highest quality setting, so I could fully assess where this traditional model wins and whether any areas are affected by its reasonable price.

At a quoted 0.18-second photo trigger speed, the Strike Force HD Pro X1080 sits among the fastest trigger speeds available on the current trail camera market. Looking closely at the captured images, these specs do seem to translate to real-world performance. In one of my favourite daylight frames, a hare was captured mid-bound, frozen in the air quite neatly. But that was in bright sunlight, and on darker days or at dawn, you get more ghostly motion blur when a fast animal speeds across the lens. The rapid response of the camera is critical for tracking fast-moving wildlife; I’ve tested older, slower cameras that often capture an empty frame or the trailing edge of a tail.

The camera captures 24MP stills, though this resolution is achieved via digital software interpolation rather than a native high-megapixel sensor. It’s worth noting, though, that I couldn’t see half the detail or quality compared to test images from one of Browning’s 48MP models.

In most of my test shots, the subject was easily identifiable, even though the background of a busy woodland meant sometimes having to look more closely. In one clip of an owl landing, for example, I had to watch the clip on a laptop screen to be able to make out the species from the leaves behind. The camera also struggles significantly with harsh, high-contrast lighting.

On sunny afternoons, any spots where direct sunlight pierced through were almost blown out. The overall white balance was okay, as far as trail cams go, with a noticeably warm, yellow-green cast that might be signature to Browning cams. The summer woods did look more artificially vibrant than they appeared to me when walking through.

When the Strike Force Pro X 1080 transitions to night mode, it delivers pretty good videos and has a longer flash and detection range compared to its predecessor. My after-dark captures of a bumbling badger – a subject easy to overexpose because of its white-black markings – had a balanced look. The camera's auto-exposure prevented the badger's lighter fur from blowing out and kept its stocky shape recognisable with some softness around the shuffling legs. In another night capture where a badger was foraging along the far edge of the frame, the animal was almost lost to the deep shadows due to the sharp light fall-off at the perimeter.

You have the option to print image info onto your images and clips. While helpful for monitoring the time and temperature of sightings, my experience is that the temperature gauge was often a few degrees out. In other words, don’t rely on the bottom data strip if you're trying to track highly precise patterns, but for pure wildlife identification, the hardware remains effective.

Browning Strike Force HD Pro X1080: Verdict

After a month overall in the field, the Browning Strike Force HD Pro X1080 proves that you don't need a cellular subscription or a solar setup to get serious wildlife tracking done. It is a straightforward, exceptionally quick camera that prioritises catching fast-moving targets over expensive tech. Its six-battery efficiency means you can still leave it out for months without worrying about a dead unit, but of course, you won’t be able to review footage until you go and manually pick up your SD card.

Performance-wise, the Strike won't win awards for its image quality. The tendency to blow out highlights in direct sunlight and the soft background interpolation mean it has some clear technical limitations. But this isn’t unique to the Strike Force HD Pro X1080, and if anything, it works exceptionally well as a general record of sightings. As a pure scouting tool, its ability to capture animals of varying speeds, shapes, and colors is still impressive.

If you want a rugged, reliable trail cam that works instantly out of the box and you don’t need the convenience of a remote cellular connection, the Strike Force HD Pro X1080 offers a good balance of value and performance for both beginner and advanced users.

Alternatives

Check out our full guides to the best bird feeder cameras and the bird box cameras.

Say ‘Manfrotto’ and the word ‘tripod’ almost inevitably follows. The company has made some of my all-time favorite tripods and tripod heads, and goes all the way back to the 1960s when the Italian photojournalist Lino Manfrotto started selling light stands. In more recent times, the company has gone large on camera backpacks, bags, and roller cases, with several product lines becoming available. The latest of these is the ‘Uncover’ collection, which so far features a pair of backpacks and a pair of messenger / sling bags.

The idea behind all four Uncover bags and backpacks is that they can adapt to your needs on a day-to-day or even minute-by-minute basis. That’s thanks to two crucial design elements. Firstly, they all have a removable camera insert, which you can fill with a camera, lenses, and other photo accessories, or ditch altogether so that you can use the outers as general-purpose backpacks and bags. Secondly, they all have a roll-top facility, so they can expand to carry more stuff, or shrink to smaller sizes to suit the journey and the load.

Focusing on the messenger bags, there’s the smaller Uncover Messenger / Sling 7L and the larger Uncover Messenger 12L. The 7L has a capacity range of 7.5L to 9.5L, and includes a small camera insert that can accommodate a camera body and one or two lenses. The 12L has a larger 10.5L to 14.5L capacity and a bigger camera insert that can hold a camera body with up to three lenses or a mini drone. Both aim to be among the best messenger bags for photographers on the market.

Manfrotto Uncover Messenger / Sling: Specifications

Manfrotto Uncover Messenger / Sling: Price

There’s no shortage of manufacturers making photo-friendly messenger bags these days. Big names that spring to mind include Billingham, Lowepro, Vanguard, Tenba, and Peak Design, to name but a few, and of course Manfrotto. The price range kicks off from bargain-basement buys to luxury bags at premium prices.

The new Manfrotto bags occupy the middle ground, with the smaller Uncover Messenger / Sling 7L costing $139 / £99 / AU$199 and the larger Uncover Messenger 12L priced at $179 / £129 / AU$269. But more than just camera bags, these are bags for life, adapting to varying needs with or without carrying a camera, potentially making them good value for money, as you’ll get maximum use out of them.

Manfrotto Uncover Messenger / Sling: Design & Handling

There are some clever design touches sprinkled throughout these messenger bags, more so with the larger 12L one than the smaller 7L version, but I’ll start at the top with something they both have in common. That’s the expandable roll-top section, which enables the bags to grow to meet your needs when you have more stuff to carry.

The roll-top concept is a neat idea but one thing I’ve found less ‘neat’ about them in the past is that they can tend to look a bit messy when rolled up for compactness. There’s no hint of that here. Instead of rolling up, the expanding section simply folds over and is held in place by hidden magnets. It’s an elegant solution that gives a more elegant look to the bags.

Another potential problem area is the placement of the shoulder strap. If it’s ideally positioned for when the bag is compacted, it’s often less than ideal when it’s expanded. Again, Manfrotto has come up with a clever solution in that the bags feature two pairs of strap attachment loops, while the strap itself has spring-loaded metal catches at each end. The upshot is that you can quickly and easily snap the strap onto whichever pair of loops fit the bill.

The modern, stylish look of the bags extend to the straps, which I’d describe as being made from seatbelt-like material, wrapped in a padded outer. They’re as good as they look, with a generous range of adjustability and being very comfortable to wear. They’re also quite resistant to unwantedly slipping off your shoulder, so you can safely wear the bags as shoulder bags as well as in cross-body messenger style.

One thing I always like to see is a grab handle, so I can conveniently pick up the bag with one hand as an alternative to hanging it off a shoulder. The larger version comes complete with a long rope-style grab handle on the back (in addition to the front grab handle) which is comfortable and dependable, and there’s also a small loop just above it. There’s also a flat pass-through strap just below, for securely attaching the bag to the handle of a luggage trolley. The scaled-down 7L bag has neither the rear grab handle nor the trolley pass-through – just the small upper loop.

Getting back to things featured in both bags, the ‘FlexGrid’ front panel is made from tough, dual-laminated Cordura with laser-cut holes. Another neat idea, this enables you to hang all sorts of bits, bobs and accessories off the front of the bag, simply by attaching them or tying them to the FlexGrid.

There’s an additional slim pocket on side of the 12L bag, and a larger expandable pocket on the other side. The latter is big enough to take a drinks bottle or other similarly sized extra, putting it within easy reach and without taking up precious room inside the main compartment of the bag. However, both of these are omitted in the 7L bag, which has no side pockets at all.

I personally find a slim rear pocket very useful in any shoulder/messenger bag and this is very much present and correct in both of the 7L and 12L Uncover bags. It’s great for keeping paperwork, travel documents and other thin stuff in a self-contained area, out of harm’s way.

A quick look underneath the 12L bag reveals a pair of adjustable straps with fasteners. You could use these for attaching a wide variety of things, like a short umbrella, but in a photographic context, I’d use them for attaching a travel tripod. Again, you don’t get this facility with the 7L bag, which is strapless underneath.

It’s not really a problem but you can’t actually get into the main zippered compartment of the bags without first lifting up the expanding section to its full height. The quick-action folding design with magnetic attraction again comes to the fore. Once opened, the camera insert can seem a little buried away, far down inside the compartment.

As I mentioned earlier, one of the things I like most about the Uncover design is that you can remove the camera insert altogether when you’re not carrying your camera, and use the entire main compartment for daily or travel essentials. The removable camera insert itself has a fully zippered top flap and a carrying handle, enabling it to work as a camera bag of sorts in its own right.

The camera insert comes complete with adjustable dividers that you can fold and bend into the ideal configuration for your kit, as well as placing them in the best locations thanks to Velcro strip fasteners. Folding one or two of the dividers can work well if you have thin lenses or other accessories and don’t mind double-stacking them.

The 12L bag comes with three dividers in total, that have differing designs. The two darker grey dividers are just crying out to be folded into specialist shapes, and even the light grey ‘flat’ one can be folded over to make an elongated cube, as shown above.

Carrying a bag around with an expensive camera kit inside it can be a nerve-wracking experience. To give a little peace of mind, both bags feature a small hidden pocket, designed to hold an AirTag or similar tracking device.

The main compartment of both bags also features a tablet sleeve with its own secure closure. Only the size differs, the 12L bag accommodating an 11-inch tablet and the 7L bag being able to hold an 8.5-inch tablet, like an iPad mini. However, a major drawback for some prospective buyers is that neither of the bags features a laptop sleeve.

Last but not least, there’s a mesh pocket that runs full width along the inside front of the main compartment. It’s zippered and offers a dedicated area for keeping small but sensitive or precious items.

Manfrotto Uncover Messenger / Sling: Performance

There’s always a feel-good factor in having a bag that you like the look of, and I think the Manfrotto Uncover bags do look attractive. However, they’re only available in a single black/grey colorway option, which might not be to everyone’s taste. From a performance perspective, a more vital aspect is that the bags are robust, resilient, and give good protection to whatever you're carrying inside them. That’s especially true for carrying camera kit.

Toughness is ensured by Manfrotto’s custom ‘TriTex’ three-layer fabric, from which the bags are constructed. The material is designed to be highly durable and water-resistant, and the bags also feature weather-sealed YKK zippers. The net result is that you don’t need an additional slip-over weather-proof cover, as supplied with many bags, which can take up space and be a chore to use.

An upside of the ‘bag within a bag’ design is that camera kit gets double the protective padding in its dedicated insert. However it also means that kit isn’t quite as immediately accessible and that precious room is used up by basically stowing one bag inside another one.

I was a little disappointed that even with the larger 12L bag, I packed my Nikon Z6III camera with mounted Z 24-70mm f/4 S lens in its retracted state, along with a second similarly sized lens, and pretty much all of the space in the camera insert was used up, as shown in the image above. Sure, you could squeeze in a few more items if you had a more compact camera and smaller lenses but let’s face it, the Z6III and its retractable kit lens isn’t exactly a big camera.

I don’t have one of those super-small ‘travel tripods’ with swing-up legs, which would be an ideal fit for attaching to the 12L bag, courtesy of the adjustable bottom straps. Even so, my not overly large Manfrotto 190go! Tripod doesn’t look entirely out of place. Either way, the 7L omits the tripod straps.

Manfrotto Uncover Messenger / Sling: Verdict

I’m all for versatility and adaptability. I like that the roll-top design of the Manfrotto Uncover Messenger / Sling bags enables them to grow and shrink on demand, accommodating different amounts of daily paraphernalia. I also like that the camera inserts, which are a bit like camera bags in their own right, are easily removable in just a few seconds. The bags, therefore, convert from photo bags to regular, general-use bags on the fly. Further plus points are that the bags are very durable, attractively styled, and comfortable to carry.

It’s not all great news. The ‘bag within a bag’ design eats into the available space, and even the larger 12L version has relatively little room for photo gear in its camera insert. Naturally, the 7L bag has even less. The 7L bag also lacks side pockets, a rear grab handle, a baggage trolley pass-through, and tripod tethers. Unless you’re desperate for the smallest bag you can get away with, the 12L has a lot more to offer. Even so, I feel that the fairly small amount of camera kit that it can carry is a limiting factor.

Alternatives

Photographing the partial phases of a solar eclipse with a smartphone is traditionally rather basic – you clumsily hold the lens of a pair of solar eclipse glasses over the smartphone’s lens, then snap away. However, with modern multi-camera phones sometimes switching lenses at exactly the wrong moment, everything can get a bit too DIY. The K&F Concept ND1,000,000 Phone Solar Lens Filter is designed to solve all of that by delivering a clip-on solar filter that covers all smartphone lenses without any fuss.

It’s important to note that the K&F Concept ND1,000,000 Phone Solar Lens Filter is not a certified safe solar filter, but merely an ND1,000,000 filter. However, while it should not be used to visually look at the sun, it reduces the sun’s brightness enough for photography and is perfectly safe for a smartphone.

Rather than using a fragile piece of solar film taped over the camera, this kit combines a 58mm or 67mm ND1,000,000 filter screwed onto a plastic smartphone mount. It’s basically a clip-on solar photography filter for phones, aimed at eclipse chasers who want a straightforward way to record the partial phases – the changing crescent sun – of any solar eclipse.

A much more limiting imaging platform than K&F’s standalone ND1,000,000 filter – which uses the same optical idea and performed well on a manual camera – I am reviewing the K&F Concept ND1,000,000 Phone Solar Lens Filter as a practical phone accessory rather than a specialist astronomical filter, but it's nevertheless one of the best solar filters if you're a dedicated smartphone shooter.

K&F Concept ND1,000,000 Phone Solar Lens Filter: Specifications

K&F Concept ND1,000,000 Phone Solar Lens Filter: Price

The K&F Concept ND1,000,000 Phone Solar Lens Filter comes in two sizes – 58mm ($35 / £27) and 67mm ($40 / £30). The 58mm version works fine for an iPhone, which bunches lenses in one corner, while the 67mm is aimed at Android (including Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel) phones, which can have a strip of lenses less suited to a circular filter. Given the tiny savings, the 67mm version is the one to choose if you plan to share the filter while observing a solar eclipse with a group.

At this price, the K&F Concept ND1,000,000 Phone Solar Lens Filter sits in a useful space. It’s more polished and durable than taping eclipse glasses or loose solar film (such as Baader AstroSolar Safety Film) over a phone camera, but much cheaper and more portable than building a dedicated eclipse-photography kit around a mirrorless camera, a telephoto lens, and a solar filter.

However, value depends on expectations. If all you want is a simple souvenir image of the crescent sun during a partial eclipse, the asking price is reasonable. If you are expecting crisp sunspots, a large solar disc, and publication-quality results, the money is better spent on a standalone filter for a proper camera setup.

K&F Concept ND1,000,000 Phone Solar Lens Filter: Design & Handling

The design is straightforward. The filter, packed separately, screws into a plastic press-on clip mount, which clamps onto the phone and positions the glass over the camera lens. That simplicity is the product’s biggest strength, but there are a few caveats. A smartphone may have wide, ultra-wide, and telephoto sensors, and the camera app may switch between them automatically as you zoom.

Before eclipse day, it’s best to know which lens your phone uses and to make sure the filter fully covers that lens. However, if you buy the 67mm version of the K&F Concept ND1,000,000 Phone Solar Lens Filter, it’s likely going to be able to cover all of the lenses on your phone.

I was able to leave a phone case on both iPhone and Android smartphones when I tested the K&F Concept ND1,000,000 Phone Solar Lens Filter, though thick, rugged cases may need to come off. That is worth knowing in advance, because removing a case while an eclipse is underway is exactly the kind of avoidable faff that leads to missed shots.

Safety when imaging the sun is essential. The K&F Concept ND1,000,000 Phone Solar Lens Filter is for filtered smartphone photography through the phone screen, not for direct visual observation. It is not a substitute for certified solar eclipse glasses, and it should not be used for looking directly at the sun.

K&F Concept ND1,000,000 Phone Solar Lens Filter: Performance

Optically, this filter is closely related to K&F’s standalone ND1,000,000 filter, which performs well on a manual camera. In that form, mounted on a telephoto lens, the filter produced pleasing solar images with visible sunspots, solid contrast, and a neutral-to-slightly-warm yellowish-white sun that was easy to adjust in post-processing.

On a smartphone, the experience is more limited. I tried using the K&F Phone Solar Lens Filter handheld, and it worked in the most basic sense: the sun was filtered, visible, and I was able to take an image. However, the resulting images were very simple. The solar disc was small, framing was fiddly, and the overall image quality was governed far more by the phone’s camera system than by the filter. In short, it was blurry and not worth having.

The K&F Concept ND1,000,000 Phone Solar Lens Filter can reduce light and allow a phone to capture the sun, but it cannot give a smartphone the reach of a 400mm lens or the manual control of a mirrorless camera. Handheld shots are fine for proving you were there, or for sharing a quick image of a partial eclipse, but they should not be judged against dedicated eclipse photography.

Cue a tripod. Once the phone was stable in a clamp on a tripod, it was much easier to zoom in on the sun, refine framing, and avoid accidental movement. It still took practice, and it was hot work. The sun drifts through the frame, the clip can be nudged during handling, and some phones become awkward when digital zoom and automatic lens switching get involved.

The only sensible approach is to test the entire setup days before the eclipse, and absolutely not during first contact, but it’s not complicated. After 10 minutes of experimenting, I had images that were as good as I was going to get.

Shooting in Raw is technically worthwhile if your phone supports it – just for added flexibility in adjusting exposure, contrast, color temperature, and sharpening later on in post-processing – but that kind of user is not the market for the K&F Concept ND1,000,000 Phone Solar Lens Filter. My shots featured a reasonably sharp solar limb, but no sunspots or any surface detail.

It would definitely work for the partial phases of a solar eclipse, and with your phone already on a tripod, you’ll be ready for totality if you’re in the path (which is in Greenland, Iceland, and northern Spain on August 12, 2026) – just remember to remove the K&F Concept ND1,000,000 Phone Solar Lens Filter when it gets dark. And turn off your flash…

K&F Concept ND1,000,000 Phone Solar Lens Filter: Verdict

The K&F Concept ND1,000,000 Phone Solar Lens Filter with Press-on Mount Kit is best understood as a souvenir-shot accessory. It’s ideal for people who do not own, and do not want to buy, a manual camera, but want souvenir shots of a solar eclipse, which almost everyone does once it’s underway. It’s compact, affordable, and much more elegant than improvising with tape and eclipse glasses, though the biggest difference you can make is a tripod, which will vastly improve images.

Learn how your phone handles zoom and lens switching before the eclipse begins, don’t expect a perfect shot, and the K&F Concept ND1,000,000 Phone Solar Lens Filter is a practical and well-priced eclipse accessory for casual smartphone users.

Alternatives

Think Manfrotto and you’re probably thinking tripods, ranging from budget-friendly sticks right up to top-flight professional options. However, the Italian outfit has been operating since the 1960s, so it’s no surprise that it’s diversified along the way. There are light stands and accessories, which is also no surprise as the photojournalist Lino Manfrotto originally started the business by selling light stands. More recently, Manfrotto has designed and manufactured a wide range of camera bags, backpacks, and roller cases. The latest and arguably greatest of these are from the new ‘Uncover’ collection.

Typical of Manfrotto, there’s some snazzy Italian design flair and quality construction behind the Uncover range of backpacks and messenger / sling bags. The backpack that I’m majoring on here is the Manfrotto Uncover Backpack 30L, while also checking out the smaller 24L version. Both are very similar in terms of design, features, and construction; it’s just that one’s bigger than the other. That filters down to the camera inserts themselves.

The camera compartment of the 30L is designed to accommodate a mirrorless camera body or compact DSLR, along with three to five lenses, or a small drone kit. The 24L can take a compact camera body and up to three lenses, or a small drone. Both also serve as a daypack for your daily essentials, with an expanding roll-top design, and you can convert them to full-sized, general-purpose backpacks by quickly and easily removing the camera inserts. All in all, they aim to be among the best backpacks for photographers.

Manfrotto Uncover Backpack: Specifications

Manfrotto Uncover Backpack: Price

The Uncover Backpack 24L launched with a price of $300 / £229 / AU$429, while its bigger sibling, the Uncover Backpack 30L, came in at $330 / £239 / AU$439, so there’s not much difference between the two in terms of cost.

For the sake of comparison, one of the biggest names in the camera backpack market is Lowepro, and the Lowepro ProTactic BP 350 AW III (one of my favorite camera backpacks) costs around $300 / £211 / AU$530, which is pretty similar in most world regions but rather pricier in Australia.

Manfrotto Uncover Backpack: Design & Handling

When you want to pack a camera kit and all the stuff you need for a day out into one backpack, you can soon find yourself running out of space. On the other hand, you don’t want to be lugging around a backpack that’s bigger than you need it to be. The Manfrotto Uncover grows or shrinks to order, accommodating larger or smaller collections of kit and caboodle for any particular journey. That’s thanks to a roll-top design, enabling you to unclasp the top section and roll it out to a greater height.

The height range on offer equates to 40.5-62cm / 15.9-24.4in for the 24L, and 44-64.5cm / 17.3-25.4in for the 30L. In terms of capacity, the range is 20.5L to 28.5L for the smaller backpack and 25L to 33L for the larger one. In practice, the amount of extension feels considerable, allowing you to pack quite a bit of extra stuff when you need to, and to save space with a smaller backpack when you don’t.

It’s only natural to think of any backpack as something you wear on your back, but I do like a grab handle to be featured in the design. This makes it easy to pick up the bag with one hand and move it around when the need arises. Sure enough, the Manfrotto features a rope-style strap at the top of its back, underneath which there’s also a handy small loop.

For longer journeys that involve airports and other travel terminals, a luggage trolley can help take the strain. The backpack can conveniently attach to the handles of these trolleys, thanks to a trolley pass-through which doubles as a padded back panel for when you’re actually wearing the backpack.

Like the back panel, the shoulder straps are generously padded to enhance comfort. They’re also durable, the backpack in general being based on Manfrotto’s custom ‘TriTex’ three-layer fabric, which is designed to be highly durable and water-resistant, along with weather-sealed YKK zippers and a PU-coated base, thus avoiding the need for an additional slip-over weatherproof cover. Getting back to the shoulder straps, I like that they have a big range of adjustment and that both feature a handy attachment loop.

When the going gets tough, and you’re trekking across rough terrain or generally making life difficult for yourself, you can find that backpacks tend to slide around, and the straps can slip off your shoulders. To help avoid this particular problem, the Manfrotto has a chest strap, which makes the backpack feel more secure, as well as keeping the shoulder straps in place. Like the shoulder straps, it has a wide range of adjustment and this time features an elasticated section to enhance comfort. However, unlike many camera backpacks, there’s no waist strap for keeping it in place, for example, when you’re climbing over obstacles. Ideally, I’d have liked a removable waist strap to be included, giving the option of using it or not, as needs dictate.

I’ve often seen webbing and attachment loops featured extensively on backpacks and think they’re a great idea. It’s really useful to be able to add extra pouches and various paraphernalia, fastening them securely to the outside of the bag. Manfrotto’s take on it for the Uncover range is to construct the front panel from ‘FlexGrid’, made from dual-laminated Cordura with laser-cut holes. This gives the option of attaching carabiners, tools, accessories, and pretty much anything else you can tie on or attach to it.

There’s a slim pocket featured on one side of the bag. The reason that it’s so slim is that it’s actually integrated into a larger zippered flap that enables access through the side of the backpack, right through to the camera compartment. As has become popular in many camera backpacks of late, the side flap gives the advantage that you can grab your camera with attached lens in double-quick time, without having to open the whole backpack and dig it out.

The side pocket on the other side of the backpack has relatively generous dimensions, expanding to accommodate the likes of a drinks bottle or tripod. Again, it’s opened and closed with a weather-sealed YKK zipper, just like all the other zippers featured around the bag.

The main compartment of the backpack that holds the camera insert opens from the rear. I like this arrangement, as it means that I don’t need to lay the rear of the backpack (that I’m subsequently going to wear against my back) on mucky ground to get at my camera kit. What I’m less keen on is that this sort of design often demands that you rotate the shoulder straps around to the front of the backpack before you can open the zipper. There’s no need for that here, as the shoulder straps don’t interfere with the path of the zipper track.

Opening the rear zipper also reveals the upper compartment with its mesh lid, as shown in the image above. Undoing an additional zipper gives access to this compartment, typically used for daily essentials. As I’d expect, you can also get into the upper compartment through a zipper on the top of the outer shell. Manfrotto’s ‘SmartLift’ system enables you to adjust the placement of the floor of the upper compartment, in conjunction with altering the roll-top height, as well as converting it into a full-height backpack with the camera insert removed.

The camera insert is quickly and easily removed, its lid slotting in and out of a receptacle built into the backpack. I’ve removed the insert for the image shown below, and you’ll notice that the lid folds over and has a zipper to close it, coming complete with a carrying handle. As such, it serves as a camera bag of sorts in its own right.

Whether fitted in the backpack or in standalone mode, the camera insert is supplied with a number of adjustable dividers, using the time-honored method of Velcro strip fasteners to keep them in place. They’re smartly designed and well-made.

The organizer section is built into the inside of the main flap of the backpack, utilizing its full height. As such, it offers a fairly generous amount of space but only has three sub-sections. These comprise a full-width pocket at the bottom, and a pocket that’s divided into two halves up top, opened with a single zipper. It works okay, but I think it could have been better with dedicated pockets for the likes of a wallet, smartphone, key fob, pen, and so on.

Manfrotto Uncover Backpack: Performance

As I said at the outset, I’m majoring on the larger 30L edition of the Manfrotto Uncover Backpack, and that’s the one that’s featured in all of my individual product images. Performance is very good in terms of robustness, durability, and weather-resistance. The backpack is also comfortable to wear, with nicely padded contact areas for the back and shoulders. However, a waist strap would have given extra stability, but is omitted in the design. On the upside, another performance plus point is that it’s quick and easy to get to your camera kit when you need it in a hurry.

My only real disappointment, considering that I was using the larger version of the backpack, is that I filled pretty much the whole camera insert with relatively little kit. As you’ll see above, I’ve managed to pack my Nikon Z6 III camera with a mounted Z 24-70mm f/4 S lens in its retracted state, along with three other similarly sized lenses. There’s a bit of space left over for spare batteries and another small accessory, but that’s pretty much it. If I needed to carry bigger lenses or more of them, I’d have to use lens wraps or pop them into pouches, and eat into the general daypack compartment.

There are times when I definitely want to just grab my camera with its mounted lens in a hurry, before a photo opportunity passes me by. I like that the Manfrotto has a zippered side access flap, which enables me to get hold of my camera with minimum fuss and bother, and maximum speed.

Increasingly, photographers and people in general need to carry laptops and tablets with them, whether they’re at work, rest, or play. The smaller 24L version of the backpack has an integral sleeve that can hold a laptop of up to 14-inch size, whereas the 30L can accommodate up to a 16-inch laptop. Both versions also have an additional tablet sleeve.

Unlike laptops and tablets, a tripod is a more camera-specific accessory. Again, the backpack accommodates, this time with the larger of the two side pockets. You can simply pop the tripod in feet-first, and there’s a hidden strap that you can pull out of a receptacle near the top of the backpack to secure the tripod in place.

Manfrotto Uncover Backpack: Verdict

I don’t think there’s any such thing as the perfect camera backpack. There’s always room for improvement, but more importantly, a lot of how ‘good’ a bag is comes down to personal requirements and taste. I like the expandable roll-top design of the Manfrotto, and that it can so easily convert between a split camera backpack / daypack and a full general-purpose backpack. However, I feel the versatility comes at the expense of the camera insert being relatively small, even in the larger 30L version of the backpack.

In other areas, I like the speedy side-access flap for grabbing my camera in a hurry, and the full-height rear zipper that gives easy access to everything else. The quality of the bag is also excellent, both in terms of its construction materials and how they’re put together. All in all, it’s an excellent backpack that serves its purpose very well, but I’d like a few extra dedicated accessory pockets, a better organizer section, and a waist strap, the last of these preferably being removable.

Alternatives

The ultra-wide zoom doesn’t just cover wide perspectives – the category also tends to be “ultra” pricey, not to mention oversized. But the new Tamron 12-20mm f/2.8, available in full-frame E-Mount and Z-Mount, slides into the category with not just a competitive third-party price but a lightweight design.

Beyond offering a tantalizingly more affordable ultra-wide zoom, Tamron's lens also marks a new era for the brand. The Tamron 12-20mm f/2.8 is its full name, dropping the usual “Di III VXD G2” jumble of letters at the end. (Tamron tells me the designation for APS-C and stabilization will remain, but this lens doesn’t fall in either category.)

The lens also features a new design that’s somehow full of sleek, clean lines yet packed with extra controls. I spent a week with the Tamron 12-20mm f/2.8 shooting the stars and landscapes – including getting photobombed by lightning bugs. This is how well the new optic holds up.

Tamron 12-20mm f/2.8 review: Specifications

Tamron 12-20mm f/2.8 review: Price

The Tamron 12-20mm f/2.8 retails for $1,699 / £1,449 / CA$2,299 for E-Mount and $1,799 / £1,529 / CA$2,399 for Nikon Z Mount.

While that’s still a four-figure price, it puts the lens at around half the cost of Sony’s 12-24mm f/2.8 GM and around $600-700 less than the Sony 12-24mm f/4 G and Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 S in the US.

Tamron 12-20mm f/2.8 review: Design and Handling

The Tamron 12-20mm f/2.8 doesn’t look like a typical Tamron, as the lens marks the beginning of a new look for the popular third-party optics maker. The design is all clean lines and shiny black surface that, outside of the wealth of different controls, gives the lens a streamlined, minimalistic feel.

When I first picked up the lens, I was surprised at how light it is, as it looks like it should be heavier. That’s due in part to the new finish that looks almost metallic, though Tamron sticks with plastic for the lighter profile.

The lens weighs 20.2 oz / 570g for the E-Mount variant and slightly more for the Z mount.

In comparison, Sony’s 12-24mm f/2.8 GM reaches farther, but comes in at a heavier 1.86 lb / 847g – and the Tamron is only five grams heavier than Sony’s 12-24mm f/4 G. Nikon’s native ultra-wide zoom is 14mm at the widest and still slightly heavier at 1.4 lbs / 650g.

While the design of the lens feels more minimal, the lens barrel actually houses a ton of controls. The first ring out from the mount is a control ring, which controls aperture on the Sony E-Mount version and can swap between aperture and exposure compensation on the Nikon Z Mount.

The Z Mount option has a control lock that prevents an accidental bump from throwing off the exposure settings, and both variants have a switch to click or declick the aperture or control ring.

That bank of control switches also includes a customizable lens function button, a custom switch, an auto-to-manual focus switch, a manual focus lock and a zoom lock.

That focus lock was excellent for shooting astrophotography and keeping the stars in focus between frames – though the number of switches meant I had to turn on a flashlight to make sure I flipped the right one.

After that bank of controls is the zoom ring, followed by the focus ring. Both rings have a slightly different grip pattern to them in order to help differentiate by feel.

Like most ultra-wide zooms with a bright aperture, the front of the Tamron 12-20mm f/2.8 has a curved piece of glass that prevents using the standard front filters. Sheet filters can be cut to size to fit the back of the lens instead.

The lens has a built-in petal-shaped hood and a nice oversized lens cap that still fits over the hood and curved front. The lens also includes a self-gripping lens wrap for added protection.

That lens design is completed with one of my favorite features: weather-sealing. Tamron says the lens has multiple seals through the controls, rings and mount, as well as fluorine coating on the front to help repel buildup.

There’s a USB-C port to support firmware updates and the Tamron Link accessory, but that port has the same waterproofing as the iPhone’s charging port.

Tamron 12-20mm f/2.8 review: Performance

The genre that I was most excited to try with the Tamron 12-20mm f/2.8 was astrophotography. I’m always looking for a wide view and a bright aperture when photographing the stars, and the 11-20mm range is excellent for this type of shot.

Astrophotography, of course, requires manual focus. Getting the stars locked in sharp took some patience (and focus peaking) hindered by the swarm of mosquitoes that comes with astrophotography in the summer.

The focus lock was very helpful, and I managed to get several star shots that I was happy with – and even a few lightning bugs.

Switching to autofocus, the lens didn’t seem to have any issues locking on to the usual suspects in front of an ultra-wide lens and had a few misses across the landscapes and perspective play the lens is built for.

The focus range is also aided by a minimum focus distance of 7.1” / 0.18m at the widest zoom position. That’s certainly not macro territory, but it is enough to exaggerate the perspective distortion of a 12mm lens by getting in really close to the subject.

The mix of ultra-wide perspective, bright f/2.8 aperture, and close focusing capabilities captured an impressive gallery of images across astrophotography and landscapes.

At the center, subjects are sharp without being overly sharp. Towards the edges, the sharpness can soften a bit. For astrophotography, the stars on the edges appeared slightly more smudged than the stars at the center. The focus was also very sensitive at f/2.8, so getting the stars locked in was a challenge.

On the flip side, while ultra-wides aren’t known for bokeh, get close to the subject and shoot at f/2.8 and there’s a bit of background blur to be had here. Bokeh is round with smooth edges and no evidence of soap bubbling.

There’s a light vignetting in some shots, particularly at 12mm, but nothing too troublesome.

Direct the lens towards the sun, and the optic can catch a bit of sun flare and an occasional arc of light, but ghosting spots are well-controlled. Step the aperture down, and the sun becomes a 12-point starburst.

I didn’t spot any colored fringing or chromatic aberration over the course of my week with the lens.

While full lab testing is needed to see how the optic directly compares with its competitors, I was overall happy with the Tamron 12-20mm f/2.8 – I just wished for a little more edge sharpness in some shots.

Tamron 12-20mm f/2.8 review: Early Verdict

The Tamron 12-20mm f/2.8 doesn’t reach quite as far as many competing ultra-wide zooms, but the lightweight design and more affordable price are well worth the trade. The lens has plenty of controls and an understated design, but most importantly it comes in an easily transportable weight for the category.

The 12-20mm offers some versatility while still hitting the ultra-wide perspective. Images are acceptably sharp at the center and only slightly smudged towards the edges. Vignetting is minor and I didn’t spot any aberration.

I did wish for a tad more sharpness on the edges – and getting the stars perfectly in focus was a challenge. The Tamron 12-20mm f/2.8 has just launched, so our forthcoming lab tests will offer a better overall picture of how the image quality compares to competing optics.

My early experience with the lens, however, has been overwhelmingly positive.

Alternatives

You may also like

Take a look at the best wide-angle lenses or the best Nikon Z lenses or the best Sony E lenses.

Founded in 2016, Emeet has produced a wide range of webcams, some of which have picked up awards for design. I reviewed the Emeet Pixy for Digital Camera World back in July 2025, giving it 5 stars - so it was no surprise to me that the Pixy won the Red Dot Design Award in 2026. The innovatively designed Pixy was a dual-lensed laptop-mounted webcam that could pan and tilt to keep you in the frame, even if you stood up from your laptop and walked about. I was therefore very keen to test out a more recent offering from Emeet - the SmartCam S600L.

The Pixy’s PTZ (Pan, Tilt, Zoom) key design innovation was the mini-gimbal that it was mounted on. The SmartCam S600L’s design innovation is that it combines a webcam with a ring light, enabling you to capture or stream better quality video than you can with your laptop’s built-in webcam.

The Emeet SmartCam S600L enables you to stream high-quality footage in 4K. For our recommendations on other 4K-capable laptop webcams, check out our buying guide.

Specifications

Price

The Emeet SmartCam S600L officially retails at $104.99 / £71.99. I use a 2023 15-inch MacBook Air with an M2 chip, and its built-in FaceTime HD camera produces 1080p footage that looks soft, lacks contrast, and can look a bit noisy in low light. I can’t afford to upgrade to a newer M4 MacBook Air with its 12MP Centre Stage camera, so an outlay of £72 for the Emeet SmartCam S600L is a much more attractive and affordable way to stream sharper-looking footage from an old MacBook! Check out my supporting video in the Performance section to see the difference between my MacBook’s camera and the Emeet SmartCam S600L.

Design and handling

It’s always interesting to handle an Emeet product, as they tend to be well-built and have innovative design features. The Emeet SmartCam S600L lacks the built-in gimbal and dual lenses of the award-winning Emeet Pixy, but it also lacks the Pixy’s higher price tag (which officially retails at nearly twice the price). The Emeet SmartCam S600L also boasts a feature the Pixy lacks: a built-in LED ring light. The ring of LEDs encircles the webcam’s lens, so when you look directly at the camera, it creates a subtle catchlight in your eyes (or less subtle if you wear glasses!) — adding a sparkle that helps bring your face to life on video calls.

Even though it is made of plastic, the Emeet SmartCam S600L doesn’t feel cheap and nasty. It has a solid build and feels surprisingly heavy for such a small device, weighing in at 124g on my kitchen scales. Fortunately, it was not too heavy to sit comfortably on the top of my MacBook Air’s display. It has an adjustable hinged clip that grips the top of the display. Rubber inlays on the inside of the hinged grip ensured that the SmartCam had a tight and secure grip on my MacBook’s thin screen. At the base of the grip is a 1/4” threaded hole, so you could pop the S600L on a tripod if you wanted to film yourself from an angle. If the tripod has an adjustable ball head, you could flip the camera at an angle and stream vertical footage instead of horizontal. So this tripod thread is a welcome design touch.

The Emeet SmartCam S600L has a single circular knob on its side. This also functions as a dial. Press the knob to turn on the LEDs, press it again to toggle between different colour temperatures, and rotate the knob to adjust brightness. The ball joint connecting the camera to its clip enables you to rotate the light through 360º. You can also tilt it by a 15º angle to fine-tune your position in the frame.

One useful and welcome design touch is the privacy switch. If you’re having a bad hair day and want to listen and talk in a Zoom meeting without being seen, then simply slide the switch to activate a built-in lens cap. The cap is a vivid orange, so it’s very clear when you’re using the SmartCam in privacy mode.

Performance

When I unboxed the S600L, I was a little concerned to see that the end of its cable had a large USB-A connector. My MacBook Air only has USB-C inputs, so I thought I’d have to hunt out my USB hub to get the camera to talk to my MacBook. Fortunately, I realised that I could remove the camera cable’s USB-A adaptor to reveal a USB-C plug. I popped this plug into my MacBook’s USB-C socket and the SmartCam S600L’s ring light began to display an animated pattern that cycled through all of the colours in the spectrum. This indicated that it was active and ready to stream/capture footage.

The ridged edges of the SmartCam’s single control knob enabled me to easily adjust the brightness of the LEDs mounted in the ring around the lens. This sounds like a useful option, but to be honest, I can’t imagine a scenario where I’d want to reduce the brightness of the LEDs, as they are only capable of a maximum 60 lux from a distance of half a meter. For the duration of my test, I kept the brightness to maximum. At the brighter end of my kitchen (it’s less messy than my home office to film a review), the side-angle key light from a window caused half of my face to appear in shadow. By activating the S600L’s LEDs, I was able to summon a fill light to make the lighting look a little bit more even. The LED lighting was more effective and noticeable when filming at the darker end of the kitchen, as you’ll see from my supporting video.

I was able to press the control knob to cycle through lighting presets - cool (6200K), warm (2600K), mixed (400K) and ambient. By default, the ambient lighting is a cold blue, but if you open the supporting Emeet Studio app, you can change the ambient preset to more creative colours such as Pink, Purple, Blue, Cyan, Yellow and Orange. I found the creative ambient colours to be less bright than the more subtle colour temperature presets, plus the cool 6200K preset best suited and complemented the similar lighting streaming in from my test location’s windows.

I started my test by recording a QuickTime sequence using my MacBook’s FaceTime HD camera and then recorded a sequence using the S600L. The S600L’s 4K footage was much sharper than my MacBook’s native camera, and there was a wider tonal range with stronger shadows and brighter highlights. The MacBook footage looked a little warm, whereas, thanks to a more accurate white balance reading, whites looked white in the S600L footage, creating cooler, more natural-looking skin tones.

The spec of the Emeet S600L indicates that it is fast to focus (in 0.2s), keeping you nice and sharp at all times. I tested this claim by placing my iPhone 17 close to the lens and then removing it. It did indeed keep the nearby iPhone looking nice and sharp and then quickly refocussed on my face when I removed the iPhone from the shot.

The S600L also had two built-in microphones, so I tested those too, of course. My MacBook’s built-in mics captured more bass in my voice, but they were also slightly muffled. The audio captured by the Emeet S600L was much sharper and clearer, but at the cost of sounding a bit too thin. Have a listen to my test video. The Emeet S600L’s audio also sounds a little quieter. I’ve tweaked the levels a bit, but I haven’t adjusted loudness or EQ, as I want to give you an accurate comparison between the S600L’s mics and my MacBook’s built-in ones.

Verdict

An affordable way to make my 2023 MacBook Air’s built-in webcam video footage look better would be to use my iPhone 17 as a Continuity Camera. This would enable me to stream much better-looking footage from the iPhone’s superior camera. However, using an iPhone for this purpose means popping it on a mini tripod and then removing it from the tripod if I needed to use it to take a call.

The advantage of the Emeet SmartCam S600L is that it’s a dedicated webcam. It takes seconds to clip it onto my laptop, and it sends a superior video feed through a wide range of applications such as Zoom for streaming or QuickTime for recording ‘talking to camera’ movies. The built-in ring light can be triggered with a tap, and its integrated design means that I don’t need to faff about trying to align a separate ring light with my webcam.

At a maximum of 60 lux (that’s around 60 candles), the ring light isn’t the most powerful LED available, but in bright conditions it will fill in harsh shadows on your face, and in darker locations it helps the Emeet SmartCam S600L’s 1/2” CMOS sensor reduce the presence of noise in your footage.

Alternatives

I am a proud owner of a Fujifilm X100VI. I even managed to get one of the limited-edition versions from the anniversary. It genuinely is a wonderful camera that’s easy to use and even easier to have with you. It scored ‘Best for Travel’ in our Fujifilm Camera Buying Guide, and it’s a well-deserved accolade. The fixed 23mm (35mm equivalent) lens does have an in-between feel that’s a great fit for street shots and travel, but neither wide enough for proper landscapes nor long enough for portraits. When I say equivalent, it’s because the X100VI uses an APS-C sensor, which has a 1.5X multiplier on focal lengths.

Of course I wanted to find some way to get wider and longer shots, without adding significant weight. Fortunately, Fujifilm does have a wide and tele adaptor lens for this system, but at a price. I do own these as there were no real alternatives at the time. It was inevitable that other makers would seek to add more competitive options. The big question, of course, is whether they match up to Fujifilm's version, or if that’s not the intention, do they offer something different and unique that I might prefer?

Here I'm looking at Viltrox’s recently launched versions of these screw-on lens adaptors. The WCL-X100VI and the TCL-X100VI, wide and tele respectively. These are significantly lower in price than the Fujifilm version, but is this because the adaptors don’t hit the mark on quality? Maybe I’d be better off saving up and getting the original?

Who are Viltrox even? Well, Viltrox are a well-established third-party lens manufacturer working across a range of camera systems: Fuji, Sony, Nikon, Canon and others. Initially they created manual focus lenses, but branched into autofocus lenses in more recent years. They have a range for the X-Series, and I’m particularly fond of the XF13mm f1.4, which is very sharp for astrophotography. You can check out our Viltrox AF 75mm f/1.8mm and AF 90mm f/2.2 review for more.

I’m happy with the pedigree that Viltrox has established, which gives me some hope for the quality of these as a potential alternative to the Fuji WCL-X100II and TCL-X100II. And with Viltrox's reputation for having lenses that sit well above their price point, it could be a win-win on price and performance.

Specifications

Price and Availability

The WCL-X100VI lists for $159, £159, €179, while the TCL-X100VI is $189, £179, €219, though Viltrox often has sales. Given that the Fujifilm versions are $399, £289, €319 and $399, £299, €339, respectively, I think this is a fantastic price point.

Even a not-so-genius like me can see that there’s a massive saving to be made should the lenses stack up. These adaptors have just been launched and are accessible from the Viltrox website or via their suppliers. Given the solid nature of the adaptors, and the amount of glass, I think the build quality exceeds the listed price. If price were the main concern, there are other options, including the Freewell Tele adapter at $149.99 and combined Wide and Macro adapter at $99.99-even cheaper if price is an issue.

Design

Viltrox definitely went out of their way to make these match the X100VI in colour, with both silver and black versions available. I have the silver versions, and they match the camera really well, along with being very similar to the Fujifilm versions. When testing without the lens caps on, I had to read the name on the adapters each time to make sure I’d pulled out the one I wanted to use for the shot while comparing. So yes, aesthetically, they’re quite similar to the originals. Both the WCL and TCL have a knurled ring, which is nice in hand, and distinguishes them from the Fujis’.

It’s having these originals to compare that really makes any potential issues stand out. The filter threads on the Viltrox also match those of the originals, meaning that if I had started with the Viltrox, I wouldn’t lose out if I went to the Fujifilm versions later. I have a lovely 67mm diffusion filter from K&F Concept that gives soft portraits with the TCL, for example.

The lens cap on the TCL is the central pinch-to-remove type that is now the default everywhere (and I am glad to see this). The rear caps and cap on the WCL are Viltrox-branded push-on rubber with the thread marked on them. Still not as cool as the screw-on rear caps from Artra Labs though. Realistically, both Fuji and Viltrox need something better for the back of the adapters, as these wear over time and become loose and easy to misplace.

The adapters screw on easily and are immediately recognised by the camera, showing a W or T icon on the camera screen. Viltrox says this is due to a combination of a magnetic mount and an integrated chip in the camera. This embeds metadata in the file so programs like Lightroom Classic can automatically apply the correct lens correction for that adapter. They also label the focal length correctly, so the TCL shows as 33mm, for example. Viltrox do warn that metal-on-metal screwing can cause issues, but I feel it would take a reasonable amount of force to cross-thread. Just be careful! There’s a small ring that unscrews from the front on the built-in lens to give access to the threads. Something else for me to lose.

Both lenses use 5 elements in 4 groups, whereas Fuji has 4 elements in 4 groups for the WCL and 4 elements in 3 groups for the TCL-this explains the roughly 50g difference between each brand’s version of the teleconverter. It’s an impressive reason for the additional weight. As with other Viltrox lenses, there’s a nano coating on the lenses to help retain sharpness, while minimising aberrations and chromatic dispersions. It’s not perfect, as there is a situation where flare is very visible-more shortly. The final note that I should make on the glass is that these don’t change the minimum aperture, so you have the option to shoot at f2.0 with either lens.

Performance

Getting these adapter lenses on and off was flawless, but keeping the caps despite making use of the cloth bags for each lens wasn’t. I couldn’t find them after my first use- I did eventually! I wanted to give these a test in some of my typical shooting situations, so I shot both outside and in studio.

I often shoot quick model sets with the TCL. I had a day-long shoot with Olga Solo, and as part of that I did some test shots to compare to the Fuji. When I A/B’d the shots together I was surprised by how similar they were. Initially, the auto white balance had the Viltrox looking warmer and with better contrast, but when I made them the same temperature and tint in Lightroom, they were hard to tell apart. There is maybe a small amount more vignetting on the Viltrox TCL, but it’s very subtle. Other brands, like Freewell, have significantly more darkening of the corners.

The TCL is wonderfully sharp with these studio shots, again directly comparable to the Fujifilm. Viltrox was definitely trying to match the look and has succeeded. The Viltrox TCL is a little heavier, but in practice you don’t notice the difference.

The Wide Converter lens is practically weightless, meaning I could forgo the tele for some travel elements; I could always use the digital zoom and lose some of the 40MP I have to save weight. Equally, that zoom with the TCL gives a nice 100mm equivalent view, back to the wide lens. When I compare the photos to the original wide converter, they’re very similar.

I used the Viltrox in a variety of situations, and the main issue I could find is that there’s a dramatic flare with the sun in the centre of the frame sometimes, as with this sunset shot in the woods. Even dropping or raising the camera helped significantly, but I haven’t seen anything like this before. It’s the only real negative I have with the lens.

When I tried this during the afternoon, aiming at the sun, it didn’t flare, so it may just have been a fluke related to the conditions in the woods. Flare isn’t strictly a bad thing, and as an avid user of Boris FX Optics, where I add flare, I can’t complain about it artistically. It’s where I can’t control it that I have an issue. Besides this, the lens performed flawlessly for me. At the beach, in the woods, even out camping. When compared to the Fuji, there was very little difference-often anything I thought I’d notice would turn out to be a slightly different white balance or a minor change in shutter speed.

Given that Viltrox only advertises these as conversion lenses for the X100 series, it’s not setting itself up for comparison directly. But I think they match the look and feel of the X100VI beautifully, as well as competing in optical quality-probably the key metric.

Sample Images

Verdict

I think the Viltrox TCL-X100VI and the WCL X100VI are an excellent addition to my X100VI kit. They’re optically great and easily compete with Fujifilm’s versions of these converters. I love the retro look and the additional knurled ring that adds a unique visual element. The lens caps are great, but I do think there needs to be a better rear cap system. I love that the styling sits perfectly with the camera, so much that I think it looks like it could just be part of the camera natively.

I find the weight to be more than acceptable, even with the TCL being heavier than other versions. They’re more than pocketable should I decide to go out with the camera around my neck-though I’d avoid jeans pockets for moisture.

My only concern is that flare, but I’m finding it hard to repeat, so it may have been a fluke. Perhaps a mix of the shadow and light, and maybe I hadn’t screwed the converter on far enough? Either way, these will come in the small messenger bag for my X100VI, along with a small flash, ready for everything from landscapes to portraits, as well as those travel shots.

I would not hesitate to recommend these converters to anyone, whether budget-driven or otherwise. Viltrox has come through again, showing that they are a force in the optics world.

Alternatives

I’ve mentioned alternatives throughout, but in summary there are three other alternatives:

• Fujifilm have their own converter lenses used for comparison in this review.
• The Freewell Tele adapter combines a Wide and Macro adapter. These do match the styling of the X100VI, but also offer a macro option. The converters have threads on them as well, so require a threading ring to connect them, which comes as part of the kit. The TCL has a strong vignette, and may be related to the fact that they don’t trigger the lens correction switch like Viltrox.
• Artra Labs have slightly longer tele at 60mm equivalent and 24mm equivalent versions. They advertise the 24 as a 16mm and the 60mm as the equivalent. This is entirely true, but at first glance I thought it was a much wider lens for the WCL. It does vignette significantly, though with a lot of barrel distortion.

Movavi Video Editor 2026 is a non-linear video editor [NLE] that enables you to quickly trim and reorder a sequence of video clips to tell a more succinct and entertaining story on your YouTube channel or social media feed. I started editing video back in the late 80s. Before the invention of NLE apps such as Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere Pro, I had to play unedited RAW footage from a videotape player and record the good bits onto a videotape recorder.

If I needed to swap the order of any clips, then I had to tape over edited footage with the new clips (which could mean starting the whole edit from scratch if the change occurred near the beginning of the programme). This meant that it took me far longer to edit a programme using a tape-to-tape linear edit suite than it does using today’s drag-and-drop digital non-linear apps. And if I needed to create a transition, such as a dissolve or wipe between two clips, then I needed to hire in an extra video player and a vision mixer.

If the younger 1980s version of me could have glimpsed an NLE such as Movavi Video Editor 2026, it would have blown my mind, especially as it enables one to swap the running order of clips in seconds and drag and drop in titles and transitions instantly. And as for the ability to use AI to make a title or graphic track the movement of a subject! Brain-melting stuff.

Movavi Video Editor 2026: System requirements

Movavi Video Editor 2026: Price

I found the pricing models for Movavi Video Editor 2026 to be a little confusing at first, but here are your options. For starters, you can subscribe to Movavi Video Editor 2026 on a monthly basis at $23.95 / £17.95 per month. A much cheaper option is to pay $69.95 / £53.95 per annum for the Movavi Video Editor Plus plan. With the subscription options, you’ll get any updates to the software.

If you’re not a fan of subscribing, then you can purchase Movavi Video Editor for a one-off payment of $99.95 / £89.95. However, this lifetime purchase version won’t receive any updated tools or effects. Oh, and if you want to access all the available effects packs, it’ll cost you an additional $139.95 / £80.95 per year (or $49.95 / £28.95 per month).

Given that you can subscribe to Adobe Premiere Pro for $22.99 / £21.98 per month, Movavi’s monthly subscription is a little cheaper, but the annual subscription is much better value for money, and you’ll get to enjoy any upgraded tools and effects. It’s worth noting that Movavi Video Editor 2026 is available for a free 7-day trial, so I’d certainly recommend taking it for a test drive (if you don’t mind being bombarded with emails offering tutorials!).

Movavi Video Editor 2026: Interface and usability

If you’ve used any non-linear video editing apps before, then you should be able to jump right in and start using Movavi Video Editor, as it hasn’t reinvented the wheel when it comes to interface design. The general interface is black and grey, with icons and text labels rendered in easy-to-read white. This makes the app resemble most other NLE apps such as Final Cut Pro.

The clean and neutrally coloured interface design enables you to focus on the art of editing your raw clips into a slick show. Along the bottom is the obligatory timeline, where you can drag and drop clips from the bin and then drag the cursor to trim their duration and rearrange their running order. Above the timeline is a collection of icons that enable you to summon tools such as the Blade, which cuts a clip into two with a click in the timeline.

You can view your programme as it takes shape in the main viewer, which can be expanded so that your programme fills the entire frame. On the far left is a toolbar that gives you access to a suite of extra post-production assets such as Audio (which includes music tracks), Text (animated banners and graphics), and Elements (which contains eye-catching stickers that are helpfully grouped into themes such as Gaming and tech or Family and kids).

Movavi Video Editor is packed full of assets, but many of these belong to effects packs that you need to subscribe to (see 'Price' section). Usefully, you can set the All items drop-down to Free, so only free effects are displayed. You can use paid effects for free in your project, but there’s little point in doing this as a Movavi watermark pops up in the middle of the screen in your exported edited footage. Fortunately, there are plenty of animated effects and assets for you to enjoy using without paying extra for an effects pack, as you’ll see from my supporting video tour of Movavi Video Editor.

Movavi’s most powerful and useful post-production tools can be found by clicking on the Tools icon. Here you’ll find tools such as Chroma Key and Stabilisation, plus a time-saving Scene Detection tool that takes a long, rambling clip and automatically cuts it into separate clips when it notices a change in the scene. We’ll look at some of the key tools in the Performance section (below).

Movavi Video Editor 2026: Performance

To test Movavi Video Editor 2026, I decided to create a ‘day in the life’ video of model Maryna Sedin. I had shot some raw footage of Maryna dragging her suitcase full of clothes to London's Barbican Centre for a photo shoot, where I also interviewed her about her modelling career.

It was a simple matter to swipe the cursor over clips in the bin to preview their content, drag in the thumbnails to trim a clip’s start and end point, and then drag it into the timeline. I was then able to drag clips around in the timeline to swap their running order until I was happy with the unfolding story. I added parallel clips on multiple video layers, which enabled me to add cutaways that illustrate what the subject is talking about (as well as hiding cuts to the interview footage on the main video layer).

Editing clips on the Movavi timeline was very intuitive, especially as I’ve been using apps such as Final Cut Pro for years. However, one small behavioural detail did bug me. In Final Cut Pro, you can click anywhere in the timeline, and the playhead will jump instantly to this point. You can then tap the space bar and play the footage from that selected point in the timeline. With Movavi, you need to click on the duration bar above the timeline to manually reposition the playhead. This slowed me down quite a lot as I was used to the click-anywhere-in-the-timeline option from Final Cut Pro.

That small shortcoming aside, I was very impressed with Movavi’s AI-powered features as they saved the day in relation to my edit’s audio quality. When I’d interviewed Maryna, I’d forgotten to turn on my wireless mic’s noise cancellation feature. As a result, we could hear unwanted background sounds such as a cleaner hoovering in the distance. Maryna’s voice also sounded echoey thanks to reverberation from the location’s concrete walls.

Fortunately, the Sound autocorrect tools panel had an AI-powered Recording Studio tool. One click on this tool’s icon, and the background noise disappeared from Maryna’s audio track, and her voice sounded much clearer too! This tool did a much better job than Final Cut Pro’s Voice Isolation tool when applied to the same footage.

Another even more impressive AI-powered Movavi tool is the Auto subtitles feature. A few years back, it would take me many hours to listen to footage and then manually type up the subject’s speech into text. It only took a few seconds for Movavi’s AI-powered Auto subtitles tool to generate accurate subtitles from Maryna’s interview and place them above the appropriate footage in the timeline. I could then fine-tune any mistakes (of which there were few) and change the look of the captions in the Subtitles settings panel.

You can even choose an option that highlights each word as it is spoken by the subject - karaoke style. Final Cut Pro can also transcribe speech to captions, but I found that it was not as accurate as Movavi Video Editor. A few years ago I charged hundreds as a freelance video editor to create subtitles for a programme. Thanks to AI, this task takes minutes, so those lucrative subtitling gigs are well and truly over!

Another very useful AI-powered tool comes in the shape of motion tracking. You can drop a graphic onto the timeline and then use AI to make it track the movement of a subject on the main video layer. If the video clip isn’t on the main video layer, then the AI motion tracking feature isn’t available. This took me a while to work out, as you can place clips on multiple video layers above the main track, but AI will only motion track objects on main layer clips.

Movavi Video Editor 2026: Verdict

Today’s generation of video editors is well-used to the convenience of editing video on a computer, and free apps such as iMovie make it an inexpensive task. However, in the crowded field of non-linear video editing apps, Movavi Video Editor 2026 stands out thanks to a combination of powerful post-production tools and an intuitively designed and easy-to-master interface.

You then have the option to pay an additional subscription to gain access to Movavi Effects if you want to expand your choice of graphics, transitions, and music tracks, but as you’ll see from my supporting video, the basic version of Movavi is generously packed full of sophisticated post-production tools that will enable you to create eye-catching videos. And while there are free feature-packed video editing apps available, such as the extremely impressive DaVinci Resolve 21, Movavi Video Editor is much easier to master.

Alternatives

The Leica SL3-P is the third full-frame mirrorless camera in the SL3 range – so what does it offer that its relatively recent siblings don't? In short, it tries to outperform both of them, with a set of specifications that make it the first can-shoot-anything camera that Leica has ever produced.

It comes with a new speed of AI-assisted autofocus and burst rate that puts it right up there in contention with the likes of Canon, Nikon, and Sony. It is also the most video-centric camera that Leica has ever produced – with 8K RAW open gate video shooting being the headline feature that outguns some of its better-known hybrid rivals.

In terms of resolution, it takes a middle ground between the existing Leica SL3 and SL3-S – offering a BSI sensor with a 44MP resolution (compared to the 60MP and 24MP of its siblings). It is a sensor that we believe has been used on the Panasonic S1R II, which offers a similar specification, but with some significant differences.

But what does this camera actually deliver? We have extensively field tested it and put it through our lab to find out…

Leica SL3-P: Specifications

Price

The Leica SL3-P is now on sale at $6,690 / £5,150 / AU$10,500 for the body on its own.

Three kit versions of the camera are also available with a choice of either one or two zooms from Leica's SL lens range:

• SL3-P with Vario-Elmarit-SL 28–70mm f/2.8 ASPH. - $7,790 / £6,100 / AU$12,600
• SL3-P with Vario-Elmarit-SL 24–70mm f/2.8 ASPH. - $8,390 / £6,480 / AU$13,500
• SL3-P with Vario-Elmarit-SL 24–70mm f/2.8 ASPH. and Vario-Elmarit-SL 70–200mm f/2.8 ASPH. - $10,995 / £8,560 / AU$17,600

It is not a cheap camera – but given its specification and the usual luxury price tags you expect from Leica, one of our team commented that it was not as expensive as she thought it would be. There are certainly hybrid mirrorless cameras from Japanese manufacturers that cost as much.

In terms of Leica's own range of full-frame mirrorless cameras, it is priced to sit in the middle. The lower-resolution SL3-S body costs $5,665 / £4,500 / AU$9,300 and the 60MP SL3 body is priced at $7,485 / £5,920 / AU$12,500 – compared to these, the SL3-P certainly looks like by far the best value for your money.

Leica SL3-P: Design & Handling

Curiously, the Leica SL3-P makes do without the iconic red dot Leica logo on its front – giving it a visual distinction from the SL3 and SL3-S, which, from the outside, look almost exactly the same as the new model.

The three all-metal bodies share the same size, weight, LCD screen, viewfinder, monochrome status panel, twin card slots, battery and more – so having this as a distinguishing mark for this new poster boy of the Leica range makes some sort of sense.

However, the "P" designation has historically been used for stealth, less-branded versions of existing models (such as the M11-P). However, the SL3-P is much more than a minor, cosmetic update of an existing model.

Sure, the minimalism continues on the camera itself. Only four of the buttons or dials on the SL3-P have any type of label to suggest their purpose - and that's the Play, Function, Power and Menu buttons on the rear. This, however, is exactly the same as found on the SL3 and SL3-S.

The simplicity, of course, means you are given the ability to customize practically every button and input to the way you want to use the camera – although these choices do run the risk that you will end up with your camera being harder to use rather than easier, if you don't know what you are doing (and harder to pass to someone else to use).

Leica has worked hard on the UX of the camera, however, and the menu system takes a subtle, monochrome approach to the layout which keeps everything looking impressively clean as you scroll through the options.

There are some clever implementations - such as being able to toggle quickly between video and photo options. Also, as you toggle between video settings, for instance, it gives you a headline number of options you have with that setting – so as you select 8K settings, the unavailable options simply aren't shown.

Again, this is a boon when you know what you are doing and what is available - but not necessarily helpful for the first-time user.

One thing I love is the big diopter control for the electronic viewfinder – its mechanical dial isn't fiddly to use in the way that eyesight adjustment is on other models, and you can even see where it is set (so you can quickly set it to where you need it if you lend your camera to someone else).

Another big plus point is the app. I get rather tired of camera apps that are not reliable and difficult to use. Leica has obviously spent a lot of time getting Fotos so that it looks good and works without any fuss.

I was impressed at the speed at which I was able to set up the SL3-P with the app, and download images that I had taken, and review the settings I had used

Leica SL3-P: Performance

I shot some 3,500 photos with the SL3-P. shooting in a range of different shooting scenarios, including street portraits, studio fashion, garden flowers, travel and motorsport. It gave me a thorough chance to put the camera through its paces.

I was impressed with the improvements to the autofocus system. With portraits and motorsports, in particular, providing strong proof that the AI detection options work well – with eyes being reliably in focus, and 150mph racing cars looking sharp in every frame.

There are only six AF detection modes to choose from, two each for people, cars and animals – so not as many options as with some rival cameras (there are no options for planes or insects, for instance).

I was also able to test out the camera's remarkable 40fps burst mode on the Nurburgring track. This worked well - but was perhaps overkill for the subject in hand, as the movement through the frame is not as great as the track speeds suggest.

Part of the issue here is with the buffer. The maximum frames it can shoot at 40fps which is just 70 RAW files - so just over 1.5 seconds' worth, which is not enough time for the vehicles to enter the frame and pass you. In this instance, a 15fps setting would have been more appropriate - but even then I would still have only got 70 frames before the buffer filled up.

The most impressive part of the camera is the quality of the images... It could be the color science, or a secret sauce created between the way the DNG RAW files are handled and the SL lenses – but the image looked much better straight out of camera than I would have expected. That's a quality that we should all be willing to invest more money in than most of us actually do.

Leica SL3-P: Sample photos

Leica SL3-P: Sample video

This review does not do a deep dive into the video performance of the SL3-P, but the video clips shows the performance and in particular shows the excellent stabization that the camera can provide when using heavy zoom lenses with it (the SL 24-90mm and 90-280mm).

It is worth noting that the SL3-P combines two seemingly incompatible features – open gate and weatherproofing.

The IP54 water protection rating is unusual for system cameras (of its rivals, only OM System offers this). But shooting 8K open gate means that the camera is more likely to overheat – and the standard solution for this would be big vents to help the cooling.

It is extremely impressive that we get both in the same camera. Leica quotes typical recording times at 25°C for 8K/30 fps as approximately 20 minutes (25mins for 6K/30 fps, and 30mins with 4K/30 fps).

Although Open Gate recording is impressive, it is limited to shooting at 24p – and if you want to shoot RAW open gate you need to use an external recorder. Nonetheless, the video specs are impressive for a manufacturer that has always been photo-first.

Leica SL3-P: Lab results

We compared the SL3-P to its older brother the Leica SL3-S, as well as to its cousin the Panasonic S1R II in our standard lab tests. Into the mix, we've also thrown in the popular Canon EOS R5 Mark II – which has a similar resolution and specification.

We test resolution using Imatest charts and software, and dynamic range and signal-to-noise ratio with DxO Analyzer.

Signal to Noise Ratio

ISO

Canon EOS R5 IILeica SL3-PPanasonic S1R IILeica SL3-S

Signal to Noise Ratio Data

Timestamp (ISO)	Canon EOS R5 II ()	Leica SL3-P ()	Panasonic S1R II ()	Leica SL3-S ()
1	41.46	44.64	43.48	46.75
2	38.03	42.08	39.59	43.47
3	36.5	39.06	36.94	41.24
4	34.29	36.17	33.8	38.6
5	31.05	33.63	31.3	35.6
6	27.51	30.66	28.26	32.84
7	24.01	28.38	26.57	30.11
8	21.39	25.37	23.3	27.61
9	17.89	22.21	20.18	24.64

Dynamic Range

ISO

Canon EOS R5 IILeica SL3-PPanasonic S1R IILeica SL3-S

Dynamic Range Data

Timestamp (ISO)	Canon EOS R5 II ()	Leica SL3-P ()	Panasonic S1R II ()	Leica SL3-S ()
1	12.3	12.82	12.54	12.49
2	12.31	12.82	12.25	12.4
3	12.01	12.46	12.23	12.47
4	12.12	12.46	12.25	12.47
5	11.16	12.07	11.78	12.48
6	9.95	11.26	10.91	12.29
7	8.95	10.62	10.47	11.71
8	7.98	9.76	9.49	10.88
9	7.01	8.95	8.8	10.06

Resolution

ISO

Canon EOS R5 IILeica SL3-PPanasonic S1R IILeica SL3-S

Resolution Data

Timestamp (ISO)	Canon EOS R5 II ()	Leica SL3-P ()	Panasonic S1R II ()	Leica SL3-S ()
1	39	34	40	28
2	39	34	40	28
3	39	34	40	28
4	39	34	40	28
5	39	34	40	28
6	38	34	40	28
7	38	32	38	28
8	35	30	35	26
9	32	28	33	26

The SL3-P performs better in terms of dynamic range and signal-to-noise ratio when compared to the other two 45MP cameras, but can not quite compete with the SL3-S with its larger-sized photo sites.

Despite the new Leica performing better than its cousin the Lumix S1R II in these two tests, the Panasonic does provide a higher resolution across the ISO range.

Verdict

There is a lot to like about the Leica SL3-P. Part of its appeal should be the way that Leica has not changed everything, but simply upgraded major internal components to bring us the latest and greatest member of the SL3 family.

I also salute the way in which Leica – a small player in the global mirrorless market – has successfully collaborated with other companies.

The L-mount Alliance means that there is a great range of lenses available for the camera – even if the SL range itself is relatively small. It also has obviously worked with Panasonic on the source of the sensor, to ensure that the camera can be produced profitably.

But there are smaller cooperations embedded in the camera to. It is Leica's latest C2PA camera – enabling you to add content credentials to your files so that you can prove they are not created with AI. It supports Frame.io for cloud collaboration on work projects – and offers in-body de-squeeze when used with Sirui anamorphic lenses.

What I particularly loved about the camera was the photos that it delivered. I think there are three ways to fall in love with a camera. The first is the specifications and looks. The second is in terms of the way it feels in your hands and its general ergonomics. The third is in terms of the results that it delivers. It is the last of these that is the most persuasive for picking the SL3-P.

Alternatives

Check out our full guide to the best full-frame mirrorless cameras

Sony’s RX lineup is all about packing serious imaging hardware into fixed-lens camera bodies. The RX1 line covers compact full-frame cameras, the RX100 series handles pocket-sized compacts, and the RX10 range has always been the all-purpose superzoom option. The Sony RX10 V continues that idea, arriving after a long wait from the RX10 IV, which launched back in 2017.

Sony’s tagline for this camera is “Reach Further, Carry Less,” and that sums up the RX10 V neatly. This is a camera for anyone who wants a huge zoom range without committing to an interchangeable-lens system. Wildlife, birding, travel, sports, train spotting, plane spotting, and general outdoor photography are all obvious targets. A 24-600mm equivalent f/2.4-4 lens in a single body is still the RX10’s main selling point, and there are very few cameras that can offer both that kind of reach with this level of speed, autofocus, and optical quality.

The RX10 V is not a complete ground-up rebuild. It keeps the same 20.1MP 1-inch Exmor RS sensor and the same Zeiss Vario 24-600mm lens as its predecessor. But Sony has updated the camera where it arguably matters most, with its BIONZ XR processor, a dedicated AI processing unit, improved subject recognition, a redesigned body, a better viewfinder, a higher-resolution screen, and a much more modern control layout.

For anyone browsing the best bridge cameras or best cameras for wildlife, the RX10 V immediately, on paper, looks like one of the most complete fixed-lens options around – but does it do enough to convince that one lens is all you need?

Specifications

Price

The Sony RX10 V will cost $ 2,299.99 at launch in the US, £2,200 in the UK, €2,500 in Europe, $2,899.99 in Canada and AU$3,499 in Australia, which is a fair old chunk of money more than the pre-discontinuation price of the RX10 IV, which cost just $1,699 / £1,500 / AU$1,699.

I'm sure the AI boom and various global conflicts affecting supply chains have had a hand in this increase, but considering the lens and sensor are the same as previously, a $600 premium for the processor and a facelift is quite a significant amount to pay. Although, admittedly, that processor unlocks a huge amount of new capability in terms of autofocus, speed, and video.

But to buy this, you really have to commit to the idea of a bridge camera. Personally, at this price, I couldn't just lock myself into one lens, and I think I would still rather go for an option like the APS-C Sony A6700 ($1,499 body only) with its full compatibility with all of Sony (and third-party) E-mount lenses. Paired with something like the Tamron 18-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di III-A VC VXD ($599) or Tamron 50-400mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD ($1,199) would give a kind of similar (with the 1.5x APS-C crop) focal range for around the same money, but would also allow me to grow and adapt my photography with more lenses if I chose.

While they are not in the same league in terms of quality and features, if you just want maximum reach, the Nikon Coolpix P1100 is currently under $1,150 and the Lumix FZ80D/FZ82D under $500.

Design & Handling

The RX10 V has been near totally redesigned, and I really like the new direction, even if I do think Sony has not gone quite far enough. There is a clear Alpha influence, particularly around the controls, but this still has the sloped top of a bridge camera alongside that girthy lens. It looks much more modern and appealing than the RX10 IV, but I think it still does not quite have the full cool appeal of Sony’s latest mirrorless bodies.

A 24-600mm f/2.4-4 zoom lens, a built-in EVF, a proper grip, a full control layout, and a larger battery are never going to disappear into something pocketable. This is still a bulky camera. But compared with many other bridge cameras, it looks a lot trendier, and the redesign is a substantial improvement over the previous generation.

The biggest practical improvement is the control layout. Sony has moved the mode dial to a more familiar position on the right of the viewfinder, alongside dual command wheels, which makes the RX10 V feel much closer to the company’s recent Alpha cameras. The trade-off is that the top information screen from the RX10 IV is gone. I know some people love them, but I do not really mind. I have never found top screens all that useful on cameras with a good tilting rear display when you can just use the main screen for a top-down settings view.

Photo, movie, and S&Q modes are now separated using the sub dial around the mode dial, just like on recent Alpha bodies. I like this approach, as it gives each shooting mode its own menu setup.

The rear layout is also much better. There is now a joystick for selecting the focus point, which is an extremely welcome addition on a camera that is likely to be used for pinpointing birds, wildlife, insects, and other small subjects. Sony has also added an AF-ON button, which will please anyone who uses back button focusing. Alongside that, you get the familiar control wheel and rear record button. The result is a camera that feels much more in line with Sony’s modern cameras and will feel at home to anyone used to Sony’s Alpha range.

The screen has also improved. It is now a 3-inch, 3:2, 1.62m-dot display, up from the older 4:3 layout. It is sharp and bright enough to see outdoors in harsh sunlight. Sony has kept the same basic screen mechanism as the previous model, so it flips up, but it does not flip out to the side like some of Sony’s more creator-focused Alpha bodies. I think that is fine for this camera. Sony might talk about the RX10 V as a hybrid camera, but I don't really see it as a serious creator camera.

The electronic viewfinder is another welcome upgrade. It is now a 0.5-type, 3.686m-dot EVF with 60fps or 120fps refresh options, and in use, it is bright with camera settings easy to read around the edges. The EVF does protrude from the rear of the body quite noticeably, to the point where I could hold the camera by it. It doesn't look bad, but it's just a minor design quirk I noticed here more than on Sony’s thicker Alpha bodies.

Elsewhere, the RX10 V is dust- and moisture-resistant, uses Sony’s Z battery, includes micro-HDMI and USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 10Gbps, and supports 4K30p live streaming.

There is no built-in flash, but external flashes can sync up to 1/2000 sec thanks to the leaf shutter. The SD card also sits in the battery compartment, which is not my favourite, but it's fine.

Because Sony has retained the same lens as the RX10 IV, the barrel’s length, diameter, and overall extension are effectively unchanged from the previous model. It is still a substantial piece of glass, and the camera takes up far more space in use than its body might suggest. That is the unavoidable trade-off for fitting a 24-600mm equivalent f/2.4-4 zoom into a single fixed-lens camera. At full zoom, the RX10 V looks and feels every bit as large as the bridge camera it is.

When off, the camera retracts the lens slightly to make the camera a little more travelable, and powering it up extends the lens a couple of centimeters to the 24mm starting position. The lens then extends a considerable distance from the body as you zoom toward 600mm, making the camera noticeably more front-heavy at the long end.

I found the zoom smooth and well controlled. You can control the zoom very precisely by turning the lens barrel, or there is a zoom rocker around the shutter button, which is a faster way to jump through the focal range. There is also a manual focus control on the lens barrel for precise focusing.

Performance

The RX10 V uses the same 20.1MP 1-inch stacked sensor as before, and the same Zeiss Vario 24-600mm f/2.4-4 lens. That might sound disappointing at first, especially after such a long gap between models, but I do not think either part desperately needed replacing. The sensor still performs well, and the lens engineering remains one of the main reasons this camera can exist.

Image quality is excellent. I was impressed by the amount of detail the RX10 V could pull out of close-ups, especially when photographing birds and insects. Fine feather detail was clearly visible, and in macro-style shots, I could see the tiny hairs on a bee. For 20MP and a 600mm equivalent zoom lens, it is a very strong performance.

Anyone worried about depth of field from a 1-inch sensor should not be too concerned either. At these kinds of focal lengths, compression does a lot. You can still get excellent subject isolation and pleasing background blur, particularly when shooting at the longer end of the zoom.

The lens isn't the longest superzoom out there (the Nikon Coolpix P1100 has a ridiculous 24-3000mm equivalent zoom range), but having 24-600mm in a single camera means you can move from wide travel scenes to tight compositions without ever changing lenses. Optical stabilization is built in, and for stills, it performed very well; at 600mm, my photos were sharp and shake-free.

If you need to go beyond the 600mm optical limit of the lens, Sony has a few solutions.

Sony’s Clear Image Zoom is surprisingly good. It extends reach to around 2x, and full-size images still look good. If you pixel peep, there is some loss of fine detail and clarity, and I would not want to crop those files much further, but the results are very usable.

Digital zoom extends to 4x, and while there is a clear loss of fine detail, I found it useful for getting the final framing right straight out of camera if you don’t need absolute image quality.

Finally, Zoom Assist lets you quickly zoom out to find a subject, then return to the zoomed-in range. Anyone who has tried to track a small bird or aircraft at 600mm will immediately understand why that might be useful. You can also change the zoom speed, which is helpful depending on whether you are shooting stills, video, or trying to follow a moving subject.

Close focusing is not always a strength of a superzoom lens, but not so here. The RX10 V can focus as close as 3cm at the wide end and 72cm at the telephoto end, with close to half-size macro magnification at the long end. You are not going to capture microscopic details, but it is particularly useful for insects. I could fill the frame more while still staying far enough away not to scare the subject off.

The biggest upgrade that comes from the new processor is autofocus. The BIONZ XR processor and AI processing unit bring the RX10 V more up to date with Sony’s current Alpha cameras. The RX10 V can shoot at up to 30fps blackout-free with AF/AE calculations 60 times per second, while the mechanical shutter tops out at 10fps. The camera also has Sony's continuous speed boost for jumping between faster and slower bursts only when needed.

Autofocus is excellent overall. Sony has increased the AF points from 315 to 575, with 70.6% frame coverage, and there are new focus spot sizes plus custom focus sizing. Combined with the new joystick and AF-ON button, the whole focusing experience is far better than before.

I do just love how good Sony's autofocus is. It is incredibly fast, and subject recognition can be outstanding. The camera now recognizes a broader range of subjects, and there is an Auto subject recognition mode.

However, in my experience, the Auto mode was not perfect. Auto failed to pick up more birds and insects than I consider ideal; however, when I manually selected the relevant subject type, the RX10 V did a much, much better job. If you know what subject you're hunting, I would just not leave it to AI guesswork.

People, faces, and eyes were handled almost flawlessly, but I don’t really see that as the main goal of this camera. The RX10 V is most interesting as a wildlife and birding camera, and I found the AF very good, but not infallible.

Video is stronger than I expected. The RX10 V can shoot 4K60p with no crop, 4K120p with a crop, and 4K is oversampled from 5.2K; there is also Full HD up to 240p. It also includes S-Log3, S-Cinetone, LUT support, in-camera time lapses, a tally lamp, and 4K30p live streaming.

For video, there is no IBIS, but Sony combines optical stabilization with its electronic SteadyShot, and I was genuinely surprised by how well it did. Even at 600mm, handheld footage of birds and insects was usable, with only some sway. Heavier movements are not handled as gracefully, and any major body movement introduced too much shake, but slow handheld pans came out okay.

I still do not think this is a true hybrid camera in the way Sony tends to describe most of its new cameras. The non-fully articulating screen, no IBIS, and the fixed superzoom lens make it feel more like a stills-first camera, but with the right expectations, it can capture excellent footage.

Video Review

Verdict

A fixed-lens bridge camera with a 1-inch sensor is not the trendiest concept in 2026, but if the bridge camera market is to be revived, then the Sony RX10 V is exactly the sort of camera to do that. With a 24-600mm f/2.4-4 lens with fast autofocus, strong stabilization, 30fps shooting, and improved 4K video, it remains a very compelling proposition.

Pricing though might well be the sticking point. This is an expensive camera to be locked into just using one lens. That lens is an incredibly good, and incredibly useful do-all superzoom, but if at any point you think you might just want to slap a f/1.8 fifty-fifty on the front, then this is not for you. I think I'd still rather go for the freedom of a mirrorless camera and superzoom lens, even if it was a bit bulkier or at the cost of worse handling. If focal range is your one priority, there are much, much cheaper bridge cameras that'll give you more of that.

However, there isn’t much else I can find to moan about. I would have loved something that looked more like an A7 V with a fixed superzoom attached, but still, Sony has produced the best-looking bridge camera yet. Auto mode autofocus is a little unreliable, but single subject recognition is outstanding. And while video is much better than expected, I also do not think the RX10 V is a serious hybrid creator camera. However, as a wildlife, travel, sports, aviation, and general outdoor camera, the RX10 V is the best bridge camera I have ever used.

Alternatives

The Godox RS100Bi is a continuous LED (Light Emitting Diode) video light designed to illuminate your video or photography subjects while on location. Its compact design enables you to fit it easily into your camera backpack, and its built-in USB-C chargeable battery means that you don’t need to carry a chunky V-mount battery (as I had to when I tested the Godox ML150Bi).

Godox released a very similar-looking RS100R version at the same time as the RS100Bi. The key difference between the two lights is that the Godox RS100Bi emits light in degrees Kelvin (K), with a color temperature range of a very warm 2800K to a cooler 6500K. The RS100R is an RGB LED, so it has much more control over color. The RS100R can emit a wider range of CCT values than the RS100Bi, between 1800K and 10,000K. It can also mix RGB LED bulbs to produce a rainbow of creative colors. This extra color output means the RS100R has 14 animated video effects, whereas the color restrictions on the RS100Bi limit it to 11 animated effects.

So on paper, it would appear to be a no-brainer to buy the RS100R instead of the RS100Bi. But hold on a tick – it all depends on your needs as a videographer/photographer. If you need creative color output (beyond a typical CCT range), the RS100R should be the model for you. But if you need a brighter LED with a longer reach, then the RS100Bi will meet your requirements. I’ll delve into the key differences between the two models in the Design and Handling section so that you can make an informed choice between the RS100Bi and the RS100R, both of which aim to be among the best LED video lights.

Godox RS100Bi: Specifications

Godox RS100Bi: Price

The Godox RS100Bi retails for an official price of $229 / £209. It’s a fair bit cheaper than its sister light – the RS100R, which costs $319/£289. As well as being cheaper, the RS100Bi is much brighter than its more expensive sibling, with the RS100Bi emitting 28,600 lux compared to the 15,900 lux from the RS100R.

So if you need a portable LED with a long reach, then the RS100Bi offers good value for money. However, if you need a light capable of producing more creative colors, then the RS100R might be worth the extra cost. As an RGB light, the RS100R can produce a wider range of color temperatures, plus it can cast thousands of atmospheric colors on your subjects. This extra color control gives the RS100R more effective animated lightning effects, such as a red, yellow, and blue cop car effect – something that is absent on the cheaper RS100Bi model that I am testing for this review.

So, if you need more creative color control, can compromise on a weaker lux output, and have more money to spend, go for the RS100R. If you’re on a tighter budget, don’t need to produce colors beyond a 2800-6500 Kelvin range, and want a much brighter light source, then the RS100Bi is the model for you.

Godox RS100Bi: Design & Handling

The Godox RS100Bi looks virtually identical to its more expensive sibling, the RS100R. However, the RS100R uses a full-color LED array to produce an extensive range of RGB hues, whereas the RS100Bi is dedicated to bi-color (warm and cool) white light. This limits its CCT range to 2800-6500K, compared with the RS100R’s broader 1800-10,000K range, but enables the RS100Bi to deliver considerably more brightness. With the supplied lens reflector fitted, the RS100Bi produces up to 28,600 lux at 1m and 5600K, compared with the RS100R’s 15,900 lux under the same conditions.

Now that I’ve got the crucial difference between the RS100Bi and the RS100R out of the way, I’ll focus on my experience with testing the Godox RS100Bi for the rest of this review.

The RS100Bi is constructed of a black plastic material and is shaped like a chunky flashlight (or torch). It feels satisfyingly heavy at 1.95lb (886g), giving it the feeling of a well-constructed and professional piece of kit. Yet at under two pounds (one kilogram), it’s not too heavy to cart around in your camera backpack, and at just under 10 inches in length, it’ll fit easily into your backpack (or into one of the tripod/bottle holders on the side).

The RS100Bi ships with a few accessories. The most important one is the high-efficiency lens reflector. This slots onto the front of the LED with a click and a twist, massively boosting the output of the light’s LEDs. A USB-C charging cable enables you to charge up the RS100Bi’s internal battery. This battery is designed to operate for 52 minutes at full power, though I found that 50% power output was more than bright enough in my studio location. Talking of power, a really nice touch is that the little OLED display on the rear of the unit gives you a battery countdown, so you know how long the power should last during a shoot. I could have done with a runtime countdown when testing the Godox ML150Bi LED, as it ran out suddenly before I’d finished the shoot. The RS100Bi is compatible with 18-140W PD chargers (though a charger is not included).

The kit also ships with a little lighting stand mount. This screws into the RS100Bi’s 1/4-inch thread and then slots onto a standard light stand. You can adjust the angle of the mount with ease so the light points up or down at your subject. There’s also a cloth carry bag in the box. Thanks to the LED’s Godox S-mount compatibility, you can replace the supplied reflector with a wide range of Godox accessories, such as softboxes (not supplied).

The properties of the Godox RS100Bi are controlled by three buttons and a knob at the rear of the light. The knob also functions as an extra button. The settings or modes that you select are visible on a little OLED screen, so you can operate the light with ease using these features. You can also use the free Godox Light smartphone app to adjust lighting settings or trigger effects from a distance. I found the app was very useful as I could adjust the light while it was illuminating me from a distance, which makes it the perfect piece of kit for a self-shooter.

Godox RS100Bi: Performance

To test the Godox RS100Bi, I took it to a TV studio. I used the studio’s row of ceiling-mounted cyclorama lights to light the backdrop curtain, and used the RS100Bi as my key light, mounted on a lighting stand at approximately 26 feet (8m) away. When the RS100Bi was turned off, I was in silhouette, so I was easily able to demonstrate the difference that the RS100Bi’s output made during my test shoot. If you watch the supporting video that accompanies this review, then you’ll see the light in action!

The RS100Bi was easy to set up. I screwed the supplied mount into the 1/4-inch thread at the base of the light and slotted the bottom of the mount onto a standard light stand. I then adjusted the light stand’s height and tilted the mount so that the light would illuminate me when I was standing on a stage in the center of the studio.

I started the test by manually operating the RS100Bi using its rear panel controls. It was a simple matter to press the On switch, and (as with most Godox LEDs) I then had to rotate the main dial to turn on the light. This two-step button press/dial twist process ensures that the light doesn’t get turned on by accident on your way to a shoot, so you know that you’ll have plenty of battery power when you arrive on location. The little OLED screen makes it easy to see what setting you’re adjusting. Rotate the dial to toggle between CCT (Color Temperature) and DIM (brightness). Press the dial to select one of these options, then rotate it again to choose a specific color temperature or adjust the brightness. The brightness can be adjusted very smoothly and in fine increments of 0.1%. It was handy to refer to the runtime countdown on the display so that I knew I had enough battery power to conduct a thorough test shoot.

During my shoot, I used an iPhone 16 Pro to record my “talking to camera” pieces while being lit by the RS100Bi. I used an iPhone 17 to run the Godox Light app so that I could operate the LED remotely while standing in its illumination. I found it even easier to change the properties of the RS100Bi when using the app, as you’ll see from this review’s supporting video. I was able to trigger a variety of animated effects, such as Lightning, Broken Bulb, and Fire, with a tap and a few swipes on my iPhone’s display. You can also use the app to fine-tune the way the effects behave, such as making a Broken Bulb flicker more slowly.

The RS100Bi was so bright that at 100%, the highlights in the shot were blown out. I found that 50% was the perfect setting, even when the LED was shining at me from 26 feet away. This gave me the confidence that the RS100Bi would perform well (and for long enough) on a model shoot on location.

Godox RS100Bi: Verdict

If you need a portable LED that can illuminate a subject (such as a model) without the light appearing in the shot, then the RS100Bi will meet your needs. It’ll fit easily in your camera backpack and thanks to the 1/4-inch thread you can mount it on a mini tripod or use its supplied mount to attach it to a standard light stand. The handy runtime countdown on the OLED screen ensures that you know how long the light will shine on a specific setting, so you can adjust your settings on the fly to make sure the light doesn’t “die” before you finish the shoot.

The RS100Bi has a narrower CCT range than its more expensive RS100R sibling, and it lacks a couple of extra animated lighting effects, but the RS100Bi is cheaper and brighter, which should make it an attractive purchase.

Alternatives

Since I started reviewing gadgets for Digital Camera World, I’ve upped my photography game by hiring models instead of shooting friends and family. As well as looking good in photos, models don’t moan while I fumble around in my kit bag looking for a photography accessory. Another big improvement to my photography has been achieved by using continuous LED lighting.

Even a single LED makes a big difference. I can use an LED to fill in the harsh shadows caused by strong sunlight, or add a rim light that makes the model stand out from the background and makes their face look more three-dimensional. Most LEDs are relatively compact, but sometimes you might want to travel even lighter, and that’s where the Neewer Basics FL20 20W RGB Portable Photography Flashlight comes into play.

The Neewer Basics FL20 20W RGB Portable Photography Flashlight has a big name for such a compact lighting solution (so much so, I'll refer to it as the FL20 from now on). It’s basically a handheld flashlight (or torch, as we say in the UK) that fits into a small kit bag. Despite its diminutive stature, it can produce big results in the shape of a circular spotlight that’s broken up by various shapes, such as the slats of a window blind – perfect for adding a film noir vibe to your portraits.

Neewer is a China-based company that produces a wide range of lighting accessories (plus other photography and video-related gear), such as its PL60C panel studio light or its portable HB80C battery-powered location LED, but the FL20 is the cheapest and most compact Neewer LED that I’ve tested. Cheap it may be, but it may well be the one that I give a permanent place to in my camera kit bag, and is certainly a contender for being one of the best video lights when it comes to value.

Neewer Basics FL20 20W RGB Portable Photography Flashlight: Specifications

Neewer Basics FL20 20W RGB Portable Photography Flashlight: Price

The Neewer FL20 officially retails at $74.99. That might sound like a lot for a flashlight, but given the difference the FL20 can make to a portrait, it’s a worthwhile investment. However, checking prices online, I found it available for significantly less, making it an even more attractive purchase. This lower price is comparable to similar products, such as the SmallRig RF10C flashlight

Thanks to the kit’s 20 supplied gobo stencils, you can add a wide range of shapes and textures to boring studio backgrounds, and summon a wash of red, blue, yellow, and white light that changes the mood/atmosphere with the tap of a button. The Neewer FL20 could provide one of the cheapest ways to improve your portrait photography, especially when on location.

Neewer Basics FL20 20W RGB Portable Photography Flashlight: Design & Handling

Your first impression when handling the Neewer FL20 is that it has a quality build. For starters, its silver aviation-grade aluminum body feels cold to the touch. It's a reassuringly solid metal unit rather than a cheap plastic flashlight. The feeling of quality is reinforced by the weight. It’s just over a pound [0.5 kg], so it’s not going to be buffeted by the wind when on a mini tripod. This thing has heft!

The FL20 is marketed as an RGB light, but when I hear that term, I think of LEDs that can produce thousands of colors. At the front of the flashlight, you can clearly see the four large LED beads that produce the FL20’s four colors – Red, White, Yellow, and Blue. So the range of colors is very limited compared to many other RGB LEDs, though this limitation is a common property of flashlight LEDs such as the similarly specced SmallRig RF10C.

The front of the unit is where you slide on the rubber gobo mount. This mount has a slot that enables you to slide in one of the 20 textured circular gobo stencils to add creative shapes to the LED's output. You can then pull the front of the flashlight to extend its length by about an inch. This adjustment causes the light pattern to produce a wider or narrower circular spotlight shape.

The lower half of the FL20 has thin metal grooves that give a firm and secure grip on the flashlight. It has three 1/4” threads that you can use to mount it on a mini tripod. Two of these threads are on opposite sides of the cylinder, while the third sits at the base of the shaft. I used a side thread to attach the FL20 to my GorillaPod tripod.

Extending from the side of the FL20 is a button. Press and hold the button to turn on the light. Immediately, you hear what appears to be the whirring of a fan (though it's quiet enough to be negligible if you’re using the LED while capturing audio on location). Rotating the button turns on the flashlight, and tapping it cycles between the four LED beads in the flashlight’s head. You can then rotate the button (which has a nice textured grip) to adjust the brightness of the device, but I imagine most people will keep it set to maximum output, as it should last for three hours on that setting.

Neewer Basics FL20 20W RGB Portable Photography Flashlight: Performance

To test the Neewer FL20, I took it to the gloomy corridors of the Barbican Centre in London to add some color and texture to portraits of my model, Maddy. The FL20 ships with a cloth carry bag that has a drawstring to keep the LED safely stowed. However, you can’t fit the 20 plastic gobo stencils and the rubber snoot in the drawstring bag, so they have to be stored separately in a zipped mesh pouch in my go-to camera backpack – the Gomatic 25L Camera Backpack.

I was mindful of a previous shoot when I planned to test a similar device – the SmallRig RF10C flashlight – in the same location. I managed to lose the SmallRig’s rubber snoot shortly before the shoot, so I had to try to attach the stencils to the SmallRig by using the model’s hair band. That was a stressful shoot! Fortunately, there was no recurrence of this problem when using the Neewer FL20.

On a previous Barbican shoot, I was moved on by security personnel who objected to me using a tripod-mounted LED light wand. The beauty of the Neewer FL20 is that it’s much smaller, and when screwed by its 1/4” thread to a small Joby GorillaPod, I could attach it to railings or place it on surfaces without it drawing too much attention. The additional fact that I was using an iPhone 17 as my camera also helped me keep a lower profile, and my model shoot unfolded without any interruption.

I often shoot in the interior corridors of the Barbican Centre due to the texture and shapes of its amazing Brutalist architecture. These features make exciting backgrounds for my model photography. Many of the Barbican Centre’s concrete corridors are already lit creatively by blue and yellow LEDs, so they make great backdrops for model portraits.

The Neewer FL20 brought an extra level of lighting variety to the available light on location. I was able to summon a blue spotlight from the FL20 to contrast with a wash of yellow from the location’s LEDs. By adding various stencils to the FL20’s snoot, I was able to add extra shapes to the bland backgrounds just by using light, so I could create portraits that would stand out and showcase the location in a fresh way. Check out this review’s supporting video to see the model and the FL20 in action on location.

One niggle I have is the time it takes to slide a stencil into the rubber snoot’s grooved slot. It took me 30 seconds to get each stencil inserted and aligned, so when changing stencils, the model had to hang about patiently. I let Maddy choose which stencils she preferred, and we were both fans of the window pane look, as that helped add extra texture and color to the background. Other photographers will enjoy experimenting with different stencils to tell their own creative stories with light!

Neewer Basics FL20 20W RGB Portable Photography Flashlight: Verdict

To be brutally honest, I thought the Neewer FL20 would be a bit of a ‘toy’ during my pro model photo shoot. However, I loved using the FL20. It was compact enough to fit easily into my 25L backpack alongside other bits of kit, yet made such a huge difference to my portraits. By summoning four different colors at the tap of a button, I was able to change the mood of my portraits instantly.

I could also contrast or complement the creatively colorful lights in my indoor shooting location. The kit’s supplied gobo stencils added extra texture to my portrait photos, too, such as mimicking light streaming through an offscreen window – perfect for film noir-themed shoots. And the two threads on the body of the flashlight enabled me to pop it on a GorillaPod and attach it to railings or set it on a surface, so I could shoot my subject hands-free.

Alternatives

Looking for an exceptionally thin and light Windows laptop that doesn't compromise on performance? The Geekom GeekBook X14 Pro could be the answer. It weighs just 2.2lbs and is only 0.23 inches thick, yet even the base spec includes a versatile Intel Core Ultra 5 processor, a healthy 32GB of RAM and a 1 terabyte SSD. Keen photographers and creatives will also appreciate the high resolution OLED display that promises excellent image quality. Let's see if the GeekBook X14 Pro can live up to expectations…

Geekom GeekBook X14 Pro: Features

The X14 Pro comes in two configurations, though the only difference is the processor. The base config is based around an Intel Core Ultra 5 125H CPU which packs 14 cores and can run at up to 4.5 GHz. Opt for the top tier model and you get a powerful Core Ultra 9 185H CPU, which adds two additional cores while running at up to 5.1 GHz. Both configs include 32GB of RAM and a fast 1TB PCIe Gen4 SSD. Physical connectivity consists of two 40Gbps USB4 Type C ports with Power Delivery, along with an HDMI port and 3.5mm audio socket. And if that's not sufficient, Geekom also includes a USB-C dongle which adds an additional USB-C port, two further USB-A ports, another HDMI socket and even an RJ45 Ethernet port.

Sometimes thin and light laptops don't prioritize screen quality, but that's not the case here. The X14 Pro boasts a premium 14-inch OLED display running at a crisp 2880 x 1800 resolution. It also has an advertised 100% DCI P3 color space coverage - there are high-end standalone monitors that struggle to match that - while maximum brightness is a respectable 450 nits. Gamers will appreciate the 120Hz refresh rate, though the X14 Pro isn't designed to be a gaming powerhouse, as there's no dedicated graphics processor - the CPU takes care of that.

Despite its super-thin design, Geekom has managed to cram in a 72Wh battery, which it says is enough to power the laptop for up to 16 hours. When you're out of juice, the included (and surprisingly compact) gallium nitride charger provides 65 watts of charging power - enough to reach 80% charge in around 1 hour.

Geekom GeekBook X14 Pro: Specifications

Geekom GeekBook X14 Pro: Design & handling

As is often the case in the thin and light Windows notebook sector, Geekom has looked to Apple for design inspiration. Consequently the X14 Pro bears more than just a passing resemblance to a current MacBook Air, and it uses a similar CNC-machined magnesium alloy unibody chassis construction. The main deck of the laptop is surprisingly rigid with very little flex, considering its minimal thickness. Inevitably the wafer-thin screen feels flimsier, but that's unavoidable if you want ultimate thinness and lightness.

The trackpad is a useful size, very smooth and responsive. My only gripe is that for some reason only the right-hand third of the trackpad area is clickable, making it a pain to perform click and drag movements, such as when painting or erasing in Photoshop. The keyboard is backlit, with customisable brightness. Key travel will always be restricted on a device this thin, and the click action is slightly rubbery for my liking, but I was still able to type quickly and comfortably. Sound quality is best described as adequate. A chassis this thin leaves hardly any room for speakers, so audio is completely lacking in bass. Even so, music doesn't sound uncomfortably harsh, and there's always the 3.5mm headphone jack when you want better audio fidelity.

Geekom GeekBook X14 Pro: Performance

Our GeekBook X14 Pro review sample came equipped with the faster of the two available CPU options: Intel's Core Ultra 9 185H. In my benchmark testing this returned a healthy Geekbench CPU score of 12297, comfortably outpacing my existing laptop of choice: Lenovo's Yoga Slim 7 Aura. The X14 Pro also outpaced the Slim 7 Aura in Cinebench 2024, scoring 618, and its 1TB SSD is extremely rapid, being capable of a blistering 7004MB/s read speed, with write speeds not much slower.

This all translates to surprisingly potent performance for photo editing. Even when working with very high resolution raw files in Photoshop, the X14 Pro managed to stay snappy, adding filters with ease and showed no sign of slowing when the layer count reached double figures. For an even tougher test I broke out a 1.4GB, 852-megapixel stitched panorama TIFF file and attempted to enlarge it vertically by around 500 pixels using Generative Expand. This took an impressively rapid 27.5 seconds - compare that with the 45 seconds taken by the Slim 7 Aura laptop, which was already a respectable time relative to the 1 minute 23 seconds taken by my personal tower PC equipped with a 6-core AMD Ryzen 5 5600G (a much older CPU not designed with AI in mind). What's more, even with this respectable processing speed, the X14 Pro never got overly hot or noisy.

The twin 40Gbps USB4 ports are a very handy inclusion for when you want to import photos or videos, as with a USB4 Type-C card reader you could even max out the speed of a CFexpress 4.0 memory card. A modern NVMe portable SSD should also be able to run at its full speed when attached to one of the USB4 ports. It's a pity one of the two ports is used by the charger, but this is to be expected as Type-C chargers are now the norm.

Geekom GeekBook X14 Pro: Screen quality

A laptop that'll be used for image editing needs a reliable, color-accurate screen as well as decent processing power. Thankfully, the X14 Pro’s 14-inch OLED display doesn't disappoint. Its super-crisp 2880 x 1800 resolution is high enough to blend individual pixels into each other, while vibrancy and contrast are incredibly high by virtue of this being an OLED display, rather than LCD. The only issue I had was that the brightness on our test laptop was stuck and did not respond to the keyboard controls, despite the on-screen brightness slider appearing to go up and down in response to the relevant keys.

But to objectively assess the image quality of any display, you need a specialist device called a colorimeter; more commonly known as a monitor calibrator. Our Datacolor Spyder Pro is ideal for this job, so we can precisely assess just how good the X14 Pro’s screen really is.

Color Gamut

Geekom states that the Geekbook X14 Pro should display 100% of the wide-gamut DCI-P3 color space, and our testing revealed this bold claim to be completely accurate. 95% coverage of the even more demanding AdobeRGB color space is just as impressive.

Color accuracy

Right out of the box the X14 Pro manages an awesome color accuracy of Delta-E 0.48. And notice how every tested color patch is less than Delta-E 1? Many monitors and laptop screens are tuned for a cooler overall color balance, resulting in the cyan test patch being much less close to ideal color than the other patches. But that's not the case here: the X14 Pro is the most color-accurate laptop I've ever tested.

Screen uniformity

Color uniformity at 100% brightness is very good. However it becomes even better when brightness is reduced to a more comfortable 67%. Luminance (brightness) uniformity is also excellent, regardless of the overall screen brightness setting.

Brightness

Unlike the brightness uniformity test where Datacolor's calibration software raises and lowers the display brightness, measuring the screen's overall brightness relies on manual brightness adjustment. As mentioned above, this wasn't working with our sample laptop, hence all the brightness cd/m2 values in this chart are essentially identical.

Geekom GeekBook X14 Pro: Verdict

As tested with the faster of the two CPU options, the Geekom GeekBook X14 Pro costs $1,199. That makes it just $100 less expensive than a base 13-inch MacBook Air, but at that price the MacBook has half the RAM and half the storage of the X14 Pro. You'll also have to pay extra for a MacBook port dongle, whereas Geekom includes this for free with the X14 Pro. Geekom's pricing also compares well to other thin and light Windows laptops with equivalent CPU, RAM and storage specs.

Ultimately, no 13-inch laptop is an ideal tool for serious image or video editing - there simply isn't enough screen area for displaying multiple toolbars, palettes and a timeline, while also having a comfortably large preview pane. But if outright portability matters most to you, then the GeekBook X14 Pro is almost without compromise: it's got plenty of power, its screen is simply stunning, and it sips battery power. To manage all that in such an outrageously thin and light chassis is nothing short of incredible.