Panasonic full-frame mirrorless cameras have been through quite a downsizing regime since the Lumix S system was first launched back in 2019. The diminutive but perfectly capable Panasonic Lumix S9 is currently the smallest of the group, the lack of a viewfinder helping to enable a particularly svelte and slender build. Naturally, that advantage is lost if you mount a big clunky lens on your slimline, lightweight body.

To keep everything in well-matched proportion, Panasonic has already released a couple of desirable lightweight full-frame lenses, ideally suited to the Lumix S9. The Panasonic Lumix S 18-40mm f/4.5-6.3 launched as the world’s smallest and lightest zoom lens, complete with an intriguing zoom range that packed big viewing angles into its small build. Then there’s the Panasonic Lumix S 40mm f/2 prime lens, neatly bridging the gap between 35mm and 50mm optics and proving itself to be very versatile.

The new Panasonic Lumix S 20mm f/2.5 that I’m reviewing here is virtually identical to the 18-40mm zoom and 40mm prime in size and weight, giving an appealing symmetry and synergy to the trio. As a compact yet wide-angle prime lens, the 20mm is geared to walkabout, street and travel photography, landscapes, cityscapes and architectural interiors, and maybe even a bit of stargazing. It’s also pretty ideal for taking selfies, vlogging and video content creation. Who said that prime lenses lacked versatility? All in all, the S 20mm aims to be one of the best L-mount lenses and best lenses for the Lumix S9, and certainly one of the most lightweight and affordable.

Panasonic Lumix S 20mm f/2.5: Specifications

Panasonic Lumix S 20mm f/2.5: Price

The Panasonic Lumix S 20mm f/2.5 comes with a price tag of $499 / £429 / AU$TBA. That makes it a bit pricier than the Panasonic Lumix S 40mm f/2 at $399 / £349 / AU$699 but less expensive than the Panasonic Lumix S 18-40mm f/4.5-6.3 at $548 / £519 / AU$899.

For further price comparisons, the faster and more sophisticated Sigma 20mm f/2 DG DN | C unsurprisingly costs more at $769 / £589 / AU$1,200, whereas the ultra-thin (half-inch) but relatively basic Viltrox AF 28mm f/4.5 pancake lens is super-cheap at $99 / £90 / AU$149. I’d say that the Lumix S 20mm is fairly priced but not bite-your-hand-off value for money.

Panasonic Lumix S 20mm f/2.5: Design & Handling

Available in either black or silver, the Panasonic Lumix S 20mm f/2.5 is seriously lightweight. When I picked up the retail box I thought it was empty. Lifting the lid was the only thing that convinced me there was actually a lens enclosed. It’s really small too. Talking in numbers, it measures 69x41mm / 2.6x1.6in and weighs just 142g / 5oz. Both the size and weight are virtually identical to those of the S 18-40mm zoom and S 40mm prime.

I know what you’re thinking. Okay, I don’t, but I’m guessing it’s something along the lines of flimsy lightweight lenses being cut to the bone and having plastic mounting plates. Well, think again. The Panasonic is a tough little cookie, with a dust, splash and freeze-resistant design. Not only does it include weather-seals and a metal mounting plate, it even has a keep-clean fluorine coating on its little front element and some advanced handling finery.

It almost goes without saying but the Panasonic is an autofocus lens, employing the usual stepping motor to drive the requisite elements. It’s a fully internal system, so the front element neither extends nor rotates during focusing. That’s a bonus for handling, especially if you’re using a rotation-specific filter like an ND-grad or circular polarizer. However, the angle of view might be a bit too wide for effective use of a polarizer, as you tend to get an uneven strength of effect across the frame.

Focusing is typically quick and extremely quiet, ideal for both stills and videography. Further video credentials are that the lens is designed to suppress focus breathing, so the field of view doesn’t change when you alter the focus setting. For manual focusing, there’s a control ring with a nicely ridged and grippy surface.

The image below shows how well proportioned the lens is, in relation to the Lumix S9 body. Another small measurement, as written on the side of the barrel, is that the minimum focus distance is a mere 0.18m or 0.59ft, as measured from the image sensor in the camera body. Suffice it to say that there’s some serious close-up potential. That’s great as far as I’m concerned, as I love getting in really close with an ultra-wide-angle lens, to exaggerate the perspective effect. It also puts selfies and vlogging firmly on the agenda, as there’s no problem shooting yourself from arm’s length.

I’ve seen all too many ‘compact’ lenses that use downsizing as an excuse to strip out important features. There’s none of that here, and I’m glad that Panasonic resisted the temptation to do away with an AF/MF focus mode switch. One of my pet hates is having to rummage around in camera menus to make the change, when a simple switch on the lens makes it so much quicker and easier. It’s present and correct in this lens.

As well as the AF/MF switch, there’s also the bonus of a customizable function button. This really is something unexpected on such a small lens but it’s completely in keeping with the design of the companion 40mm, ensuring further similarities in handling characteristics. It’s neat being able to swap between the two lenses without any adjustment to your creative flow. I like that it’s placed on the diagonal, making it easy to get at in both landscape and portrait orientation shooting.

I’d usually use the function button for autofocus-hold/lock but an interesting alternative is Panasonic’s ‘crop zoom’ facility. This enables you to apply a crop factor on the fly, gaining a longer ‘effective’ focal length, albeit with a loss in megapixel count. It’s similar to using the APS-C crop mode featured in many full-frame cameras, although the amount of crop on offer depends on the specific Panasonic camera body.

As I mentioned earlier, the lens has a sturdy metal rather than plastic mounting plate. It comes complete with a weather-seal gasket to guard against the ingress of dust and moisture through the joint between lens and camera body. And as I’d expect nowadays, the electronic data contacts are gold-plated.

Panasonic Lumix S 20mm f/2.5: Performance

Just how much can you squeeze into a really small lens? Quite a lot as it turns out, because the S 20mm has a properly wide field of view. Swap from a typical 24-70mm standard zoom to this lens and the difference is more than obvious as soon as you put your eye to the camera’s viewfinder (not the Lumix S9 actually has one). This makes the lens something of a vlogger’s delight, for which the vari-angle screen of the S9 comes in very handy, with its front-facing facility. The bottom line is that you can capture yourself at arm’s length while shoehorning a lot of the background into the frame, to set the scene. That said, the lens doesn’t go as wide as the same-sized S 18-40mm zoom.

Sharpness is excellent in the central region of the frame but drops off towards the edges and corners when shooting wide-open at f/2.5. Edge-sharpness doesn’t really come on song until you stop down as far as f/8. With the sibling S 40mm lens, I found that I only had to stop down to f/4 for much-improved edge-sharpness. Even so, I’d say that the S 20mm delivers perfectly adequate edge-sharpness at f/4 and f/5.6, even if it’s not entirely great. Sharpness across the entire frame is impressive at f/8 and f/11. Overall, levels of sharpness are very good, considering that the lens crams so much viewing width into such a small and lightweight package.

A bonus for shooting architectural interiors and starry skies is that the f/2.5 aperture can pull in a fair amount of light. Okay, it’s not as fast as many prime lenses but the 20mm is still a little faster than a ‘trinity’ f/2.8 zoom lens. And for reasonably well lit interiors, you can shoot at middling aperture settings for a greater depth of field, and still not need to push your camera’s ISO setting very far, as demonstrated in the image below.

Autofocus proved quick and consistently accurate throughout my testing period. I was impressed by the lens’s sharpness, clarity and color rendition, but there is one sizeable fly in the ointment. Make that two flies… Ghosting and flare. The front optical element is quite small and it’s recessed from the front of the lens barrel. On top of that, there’s a ridged sloping surface that acts as a lens hood of sorts. With that in mind, I wasn’t expecting the lens to be as susceptible to ghosting and flare as it turned out to be.

Panasonic doesn’t supply a hood with the lens, nor does it sell one as an optional extra. You can get around the problem by shielding the lens from stray light with a spare hand, but I reckon you’d be well advised to buy an after-market hood that screws into the 62mm filter attachment thread. Shooting against the light with no hood mounted on this lens can often give rise to the kind of result shown below.

Panasonic Lumix S 20mm f/2.5: Sample Images

The following gallery of sample shots was taken at the East Somerset Railway in the South West of England. It’s a delightful historic railway that’s run as a charity by a friendly bunch of volunteers, and is well worth a visit. Weather conditions were very pleasant on a sunny, late summer morning. The collection of photos was taken outdoors and inside the station buildings and nearby engine shed.

Panasonic Lumix S 20mm f/2.5: 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 in the central region is superb, even wide open. We'd expect a marked reduction in sharpness as you move out towards the corners of frame, as this is inevitable when shooting our large, flat test chart at such a close distance. However, sharpness drops off particularly steeply with the Panasonic 20mm, especially at larger apertures - you'll need to stop down to f/8 to get decent sharpness across the entire image frame.

Fringing:

Fringing is very well controlled at all apertures and across the whole frame - it won't be visible in general shooting.

Distortion: -5.52

The lens produces significant barrel distortion, but this is corrected automatically by firmware.

Panasonic Lumix S 20mm f/2.5: Verdict

I’m mostly impressed with the Panasonic Lumix S 20mm f/2.5. For me, the main attraction is that it shoehorns a generously wide viewing perspective into a compact and incredibly lightweight build. The combination is all I could wish for when picking a prime lens for walkabout, street and travel photography. And while it’s superlatively lightweight, the Panasonic doesn’t skimp on features and build quality. Handling extras include an AF/MF focus mode switch and customizable function button, while the construction includes a metal mounting plate and multiple weather-seals.

Although lacking any zoom facility, it’s a very versatile lens, catering to landscape and cityscape photography, architectural interiors, selfies, vlogging and much more besides. I’d give it full marks for sterling performance wrapped up in a diminutive and travel-friendly construction, but I’ve knocked the rating down a bit because edge/corner-sharpness is a little lacking at wide apertures, and the lens is very susceptible to ghosting and flare. Stop down a little and shield it with a spare hand against oncoming light, or buy an aftermarket hood, and you’re good to go.

Alternatives

Digital photo frames have evolved greatly over the years. On early devices, you had to transfer a bunch of images onto a memory card to plug into the back. Later models enabled you to do everything over Wi-Fi, uploading images remotely from a companion smartphone app. Displays have improved over time too, with small desk-based models giving way to bigger displays taking pride of place on the mantelpiece.

But even now, the majority of current digital photo frames suffer from two main drawbacks. Firstly, there's no disguising the fact that you're looking at a glowing, electric screen. Secondly, being electronic devices, they need to be plugged into a power outlet. So while many frames can be wall-mounted, there will be an unsightly cable trailing from the frame to the nearest mains socket.

Swiss company InkPoster aims to change all that with its range of 'ePaper' frames that use an E Ink display that emits no light of its own, but semi-permanently 'charges' embedded electronic pigments to reflect light instead, resulting in a much more natural-looking display that is hard to distinguish from a professionally printed artwork.

In addition to this reflective display, the other chief advantage of E Ink is that electricity is only used when the display changes; once set, it will continue to show the same image without drawing any electrical charge, so an artwork can be displayed indefinitely. It's a bit like the displays used in e-readers such as the Amazon Kindle, only much, much larger and in vibrant color.

But as with any new technology, these large E Ink displays are currently very expensive, and this is reflected in the prices of InkPoster's art frames (more than simple digital photo frames; they come with access to a large library of paintings, posters, and photographs). The question is: are they worth it, and do they deserve a place among the best digital photo frames that money can buy?

InkPoster Tela 28.5": Specifications

InkPoster Tela 28.5": Price

I hope you're sitting down. The InkPoster Tela 28.5" is a high-end frame with a high-end price, retailing for US$2,399 / £2,399 / AU$5,150. There is also a larger Tela 40.5" that goes for $3,900 / £3,900.

Other InkPoster models are the lower-resolution Affresco, which comes in 13.3" (£$650 / £650 / AU$1,099) and 31.5" ($1,750 / £1,750 / AU$3,750) sizes. Or if you're feeling really flush, there's the Duna 40.5" at $6,000 / £6,000, which basically has the same size and specs as the 40.5" Tela, encased in a plush all-metal frame.

The Tela's price puts even the MorningBlues T2 30" art frame in the shade, which has a list price of $1,499 / £1,499 (but is often discounted), though that's a far more commonplace LED-based screen rather than the E Ink display here. I've also tested the $500 Aura Ink, another e-ink display, though this one is a much more compact 13.3" and is more comparable to the smaller InkPoster Affresco model.

Whichever way you look at it, the entire InkPoster range is made up of expensive high-end products, largely because the underlying E Ink tech is in its infancy. While it's the Tela 28.5" I'm looking at here, you may find the Affresco models a little more affordable, so you'll find the pricing across the range below.

InkPoster Tela 28.5": Design & Handling

Many of the digital photo frames I've reviewed can be described as minimalist, typically encasing the display within a deep art-paper-like mount finished off with a contrasting black frame, and InkPoster follows this design ethos, but takes things to a whole new level. That black frame is really slim, that white mount is really deep, but most telling of all, there are no buttons, touch bars, or any other controls on the device whatsoever. It and it really does look and feel like a genuine artwork.

I'll admit that when I first removed it from its from its box to power it up for the first time, it took a while to figure out where to plug in its USB-C charging cable. I eventually discovered it hidden under a subtle panel on the underside of the frame that pops open with a push to reveal the socket, charging light, and on/off switch.

The InkPoster Tela is designed to be wall-mounted, but weighing in at 16.5lb [7.5kg], a regular picture hook won't do it, and the frame comes supplied with a sturdy mounting kit to secure the artwork to all manner of surfaces.

With no controls on the frame itself, everything is controlled through the companion InkPoster app, which has a huge selection of built-in artworks, ranging from classic poster art, renowned masterpieces, and beautifully shot photographs, all optimized to make the most of the e-ink display. It also enables you to upload your own photographs and set up slideshows to automatically cycle through your chosen images.

InkPoster Tela 28.5": Performance

Once charged up, you can put the supplied USB-C charger away for a year or so, as the built-in battery should keep it going for up to 12 months with normal usage. The frame only draws any real power from the built-in 25,000 mAh battery when changing the displayed image. It also links to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, which use negligible power.

The ePaper display is built around a Sharp IGZO panel. Unlike regular LED or LCD panels, this doesn't emit light, but is a purely reflective technology. There is no backlight, and the display is entirely lit by ambient lighting. Turn the lights off, and you won't see anything at all. This gives a far more natural viewing experience than we're used to with the vast majority of digital frames, where you're essentially looking at a computer monitor display. Even auto-dimming frames often struggle to successfully match a room's ambient lighting, looking too bright at night or not bright enough during the day.

Changing the image takes several seconds, with the screen flickering and flashing as it builds up the image with layers of color, a bit like a printing process. Bold, bright images work best, and there is a huge library of all sorts of genres to download to the frame that have been optimized for the display. The frame can display images in portrait or landscape format, though it doesn't 'know' which orientation it's in, so it's up to you to upload suitable images.

Obviously, with several seconds and a lot of flashing and flickering between image changes, this frame does not support video. It takes a good 30 seconds for the new image to settle, as you can see in the video clip below.

Everything is controlled via the InkPoster app, which is pretty straightforward to use. Once you've linked to your frame via Bluetooth and connected it to your WiFi network, you're presented with thousands of artworks. You can choose from a number of collated 'Collections', including classic Swiss advertising posters from yesteryear (fittingly, as InkPoster is based in Switzerland), vintage European railway posters, Japanese woodblock art, Impressionists, pre-Raphaelite art, among others.

You can also search the vast number of downloadable artworks by artist, genre, subject, or whatever else takes your fancy. If you're a cat lover, you'll find dozens of photographs, paintings, and posters of your feline friends, for example. Tapping a heart icon adds a picture to your favorites to make finding it again easier, and once you've decided on your chosen artwork, a button uploads it to the frame.

You can also select your own photographs from your phone's library. The frame has a 3:4 (or 4:3 in landscape orientation) aspect ratio, which is the same as most smartphones, but you can crop images to best fill the frame in whichever orientation you're going to mount it, and make basic edits to brightness, contrast, and saturation. Images are then stored in your 'private' library in the app, which you can upload to the frame as you would any of the other supplied artwork. It's not as sophisticated as some other digital photo frame apps when it comes to managing photographs, but it does integrate well into the way other art is handled.

As well as uploading artworks individually as and when the mood takes you, you can also set up slideshows to automatically cycle through selected art at a duration of your choosing, from anything from a minute apart to a whole month before displaying the next image. You do only get 15 images per slideshow, and there's only one for portrait and one for landscape orientation.

The more frequently you change the artwork, the more frequently you'll have to recharge. After my initial experimentation, I settled on changing it daily, with the changeover happening overnight.

InkPoster Tela 28.5": Verdict

This is an exceptional digital frame that displays natural-looking images that really do look as if they have been professionally printed and mounted into a stylish art frame, which can be hung wherever you like, without the need to be in close proximity to a mains outlet (or having an ugly cable trailing to one).

The oversized display wouldn't look out of place in a gallery, and in addition to the ability to upload your own images, you get access to a vast library of thousands of pieces of artwork optimized for E Ink tech. It's probably not the best option if all you want to do is display casual snaps of the kids, but it's very well suited to professionally taken images, so I can see this in photographers' studios, as well as well-to-do residences and upmarket establishments.

But there are no two ways about it: it is an extremely expensive device, costing several times as much as most digital photo frames on the market. I'm sure the technology will become more affordable over time, but in the meantime, you'll need very deep pockets.

Alternatives

Canon has given the popular R8 a retro-inspired makeover – and fixed some of the complaints about the entry-level full-frame camera at the same time. The Canon EOS R8 Mark II brings the same well-loved sensor and processor as the original, but adds in-body stabilization and overhauls the ergonomics.

Inspired by the 1985 film SLR T80, the Canon EOS R8 Mark II takes on a design with sharper angles without sacrificing the actual feel of the camera, keeping a good-sized grip and even adding the must-requested joystick.

I shot some portraits and wildlife with the Canon EOS R8 Mark II to see if Canon has found the ideal balance between features, ergonomics, and price.

Canon EOS R8 Mark II: Key specs

Canon EOS R8 Mark II: Price

The Canon EOS R8 Mark II is expected to list for $1,899 body-only and $2099 with the 24-50mm f/4.5-6.3 IS STM lens in the US. In the UK, the body lists for £1,729 and the kit for £2,119.

That’s notably higher than the original R8’s list price, which started at $1,499 / £1,699. In the US, that price later rose to $1,649 after tariff increases.

Despite being higher than the earlier generation, the R8 Mark II is Canon’s most affordable full-frame mirrorless with IBIS, and among competitors, the price still fares fairly well. The Nikon Z5 II comes in at a similar price point at $1,846 / £1,599. While the Sony A7C II comes in at $2,498 / £1,999, Sony has kept older models around with IBIS, like the A7 III, which is $1,998 / £1,499 retail.

Another worthwhile note? Canon plans on keeping the original R8 around for a bit as a budget alternative.

Canon EOS R8 Mark II: Design

The Canon EOS R8 Mark II is Canon’s first retro-inspired mirrorless camera, but where most retro bodies find inspiration from 1970s-era cameras, Canon is taking a dramatically different approach. The R8 Mark II is inspired by the Canon T80, a film SLR that was introduced in 1985 and discontinued less than two years later.

Taking inspiration from the mid-1980s, the R8 Mark II doesn’t scream retro but rather has a more subtle nod to the old camera, with a more angular pentaprism and a more angular cut.

While I was surprised at Canon’s first choice of a retro camera, what I love about the R8 Mark II is that despite the slight retro nod, the body still does what Canon does best – and that’s to create a very comfortable grip.

Retro cameras tend to have small and, in some, even nonexistent grips, but the R8 Mark II still has a very healthy grip that still managed well even with a 100-400mm lens mounted on the front.

I’m a petite person, and my hands wrap nicely around the grip without my pinky falling off the bottom. The R8 Mark III will have an optional extension grip that will leave more room for larger hands.

But the Mark II also fixes one of the biggest ergonomic oversights of the original and adds a joystick. While it’s not uncommon for entry-level models to do without, once you’ve used an autofocus joystick, it’s hard to go back to the old, clunky method of adjusting with the menu arrow keys.

That joystick is joined by a handful of key shortcut buttons and a nice tilt-enabled touchscreen. The screen uses a hinge at the side, which allows the screen to fully face forward for vlogging and selfies, along with being angled for high and low-angle shots.

The electronic viewfinder also juts out a bit from the body, and I love that my nose didn’t feel squashed up against the screen.

At the top of the camera, the R8 Mark II has two control dials, one placed horizontally and paired with an on/off switch, and the other arranged vertically within easy reach of the index finger. The top is completed with a classic mode dial (sorry, no retro dials here), an Fn button, a dedicated record button, and, of course, the shutter release.

There’s just a single SD card slot on the R8 Mark II, which is on the grip side and separate from the battery compartment at the bottom. (That battery door, by the way, is far enough away not to be blocked by a tripod quick release plate.)

On the opposite side of the grip, the R8 Mark II has ports for mic, headphones, a cable release, micro HDMI out, and USB-C.

Despite all of these changes, the R8 Mark II remains relatively lightweight. The camera weighs 546g / 19.26 oz once fully loaded with a battery and memory card. That is a little bit more than the 461g / 16.26 of the first generation, but I think that added IBIS system is well worth the slight increase in weight.

The Mark II also carries dust and weather seals, with the same level of sealing as the original.

Overall, while I think some may be disappointed that the retro take is subtle, the Canon ergonomics that fans already know and love are still in play here – and it even gains the joystick over the predecessor.

Canon EOS R8 Mark II: Performance

The Canon EOS R8 Mark II carries the same 24.2MP full-frame sensor and Digic X processor as the original-generation camera. That leaves the second generation with similar image quality to the original, outside of enhancements like fewer blurry shots thanks to the new in-body stabilization.

The lack of a sensor upgrade may disappoint some, but the 24.2MP resolution on a full-frame camera remains very capable. The resolution is still similar to similarly priced competitors such as the Nikon Z5 II and Panasonic Lumix S5 II, though options like the Sony A7C II sit at 33MP. Detail may not be as impressive as Canon’s pricier bodies, but the R8 Mark II strikes an excellent balance between detail and noise for the price point.

Dynamic range also fit right in with what I expected. I was able to recover quite a bit of detail in the shadows on RAW files from backlit, underexposed shots of birds.

Like the sensor, the Dual Pixel II autofocus system matches much of the specs of the original, except the Mark II sees a low-light boost, rated down to -7.5 compared to the -6.5 from the original.

The autofocus overall locked on quickly and managed to keep up with moving subjects. The R8 Mark II managed to freeze birds in midflight, though it dropped some frames. What made the autofocus all the more impressive was the fact that I was using a more affordable telephoto – the 100-400mm f/5.6-8 IS USM.

Subject detection locked onto human eyes well. Animal detection did well on uncluttered backgrounds, but the animal eye AF sometimes struggled to find the eye of some birds and also struggled when shooting with a few stray branches in the way, locking on to tree branches instead of the bird more than I would have liked.

Like the original, the R8 Mark II can shoot at 40 fps with the electronic shutter (but just 6 fps with the mechanical shutter). Even more impressively, those high-speed bursts didn’t come with a long wait to process shots, and I was able to photograph birds without waiting for the camera to catch up. Canon says the buffer improved 30 percent for RAW files over the previous version and 58 percent in JPEG, and it’s a noticeable, welcome improvement.

While the sensor and autofocus may be a match with the original, the new in-body stabilization is impressive. Working with a telephoto that shoots at only f/8 at 400mm inside shadowy branches was a good test for the camera’s image stabilization. I shot this photo at just 1/60th of a second at 400mm:

While I don’t mind that Canon kept the same sensor – at least at this price point – one of the annoyances from the original R8 that isn’t fixed on the update is the battery life. The R8 Mark II carries the same 220-shot (370 in power-saving) rating for battery life while using the viewfinder. Those specs tend to be conservative estimates – I shot more than 350 shots and still have plenty of battery remaining. But for long shoots and travel, picking up a spare battery will be a must.

Canon EOS R8 Mark II: Image Samples

Early Verdict

The Canon EOS R8 Mark II keeps the solid image quality of the first generation – while fixing all but one of our complaints. The camera now has in-body stabilization, a key move to keep up with competing options. A joystick creates fantastic ergonomics, while the memory card door is no longer in an awkward spot blocked by tripod plates.

The only complaint from the original Canon didn’t fix? It has the same battery life – so many users are going to want to factor in the cost of a backup battery.

The Canon EOS R8 Mark II delivers an excellent balance between performance and price. The autofocus and burst speed are excellent – though the animal eye AF doesn’t do as well at picking up a bird in a mess of branches as I would have liked.

The Canon EOS R8 Mark II is an ergonomically lovely camera that packs in a lot of tech for the price point.

Alternatives

The compact camera is back with a vengeance – but Fujifilm’s new option redefines “compact” entirely. Weighing just 41g – less than 2 oz – the Fujifilm Instax Mini Pal 2 is a tiny retro camera that fits in the palm of my hand yet comes jam-packed with retro viewfinders and controls.

Looking absolutely nothing like the original Instax Pal, about the only thing that the Pal 2 has in common with the original is that it's tiny – and it doesn’t print out Instax without buying a separate printer.

The Instax Pal 2 feels like a cross between the popular Instax Mini Evo and the Kodak Charmera. I tried out the Pal 2 – and I think this tiny cam may be a fit among fans of retro digicams.

Specs

Price

The Instax Pal 2 retails for $169.95 / £144.99 / CA$219.95 / AU$249.

That makes the Pal 2 one of Instax’s more affordable digital options, coming in under the price of options like the Instax LiPlay+ and the Instax Mini Evo.

But, that does put the camera above the price of keychain cameras like the Kodak Charmera – and the Pal 2’s small size is inevitably going to draw a lot of comparisons to the viral keychain camera.

Design

I hate to admit this, but I may have gone into total fangirl mode when I opened a shipping box to find the Instax Mini Pal 2 inside. This camera is tiny; it’s retro and, frankly, it’s adorable.

The second generation of Instax’s Pal series looks nothing like the bubble-shaped original. Instead, the Pal 2 feels like a cross between a retro compact camera and a keychain camera. Weighing just 41 g – that’s less than 1.5 oz – the Pal 2 is small enough to disappear into the palm of my hand.

Despite the tiny size, Fujifilm has managed to cram an abundance of controls and features, including an actual optical viewfinder at the back. As much as I love having a real optical viewfinder, the viewfinder isn’t entirely accurate, catching more on the edges of the frame than what’s shown in the viewfinder.

The top of the camera is oozing with retro goodness. On the right-hand side, there’s a toggle that feels reminiscent of a film wind lever that switches between different Instax framing options, or enters the burst mode to create short photo animations.

On the opposite side, there’s a rotating dial that switches through different film simulations and a button on top of that for accessing the menu options.

Sandwiched between the lever and control wheel is a small LCD screen. By default, this screen displays the film simulation mode, but the screen does have a live view mode in the menu. Placing the screen at the top rather than the back allowed me to shoot with the camera like a waist-level finder when I didn’t want to use the viewfinder. That, to me, is one of the best design features – that the Pal 2 has not one but two shooting styles, and both feel very retro.

At the bottom of the camera, there’s a small toggle, this pops out a USB, so the Pal 2 plugs directly into a smartphone or computer as if it's a thumb drive, no cord needed, and can plug directly into a USB-C block for recharging.

The Pal 2 doesn’t come with a keychain loop like the original, but there’s a small slot for looping in a wrist strap – and one is included in the box.

All of those features are wrapped up in a classic silver-and-black design reminiscent of retro cameras – and other Instax cameras like the Mini Evo.

Naturally, as a tiny camera, the memory card slot is the microSD sort – but there’s enough memory built in for about 100 photos, and considering no cord is needed for a quick smartphone transfer, that’s more than enough for most.

The battery life will last almost until the internal memory fills up. I shot around 70 photos with the red battery life indicator popping up towards the end. That’s not fantastic, but the Pal 2 is a budget cam, and there’s a built-in charger, so it’s easy to charge.

Performance

The Pal 2 is built for style and size rather than high-end specs. The sensor is a small 1/3.06-inch type. But I was surprised to find that the Pal 2 can shoot at 10MP, which gives it an edge over (much, much) cheaper tiny cameras like the Kodak Charmera.

The Pal 2 is a camera that feels purpose-built for the retro camera trend. The camera feels like it would fit right in with the trend of buying up early 2000s compact cameras. The image quality isn’t going to beat out a modern smartphone, not by a long shot, and it’s not going to beat out compacts with larger sensors. I would put the photo quality above the Kodak Charmera, but not as good as the Camp Snap CS-Pro.

While the camera does just hit that two-digit megapixel count, images still feel very much like a low-fi camera. Look too close, and the images feel more like oil paintings than photographs. But, the size is still sufficient for things like sharing on Instagram – where photos get downsized to 1080 pixels anyways.

The resolution is also more than enough for prints from the new Instax Wide 2, announced on the same day – but the small sensor and 10MP resolution isn’t meant to print out oversized wall hangings.

The small sensor suffers in low light conditions, creating noticeable grain and muddled details much faster than cameras with even a 1/2.3-inch sensor.

The lens is a 28mm equivalent that’s not too wide but not too close and should adapt well to basic street and landscape shots to portraits.

The camera shoots in programmed auto, with an exposure compensation option tucked into the menu. I was relieved to see the option to adjust the exposure somewhat, as the camera’s tiny sensor has a limited dynamic range.

The Pal 2 has a tendency to overexpose, particularly outdoors. Frames that include both bright sun and shadowy patches will end up with overexposed highlights without any user intervention, but that exposure control rescued many of my shots.

Naturally, as a camera coming for Fujifilm, there are several built-in film simulations. There are six profiles built in, but the Instax Pal app can swap to another set of six filters. Along with a standard color profile (which Instax dubs “Pure"), there’s a black-and-white mode, one for built-in lens flares, a soft mode with diffusion, a muted tones option, and a cool color profile. That was plenty of options to play with, though I did miss the double exposure mode found on the Instax Mini Evo.

The camera can also shoot with a film frame added, resizing and fitting a classic digital border around for frameless, Mini, Square, and Wide Instax formats. I didn’t use this feature much, as those frames are easy to add in the Instax Pal app later on, so I found myself wishing I could control exposure compensation with the top lever instead.

The Pal 2 also has a “burst mode” but unlike a typical burst setting, this mode creates short animations.

Speed adds to the Pal 2’s retro feel – which is to say that the camera is a bit slow. There’s a noticeable shutter lag between pressing the shutter and when the photo is taken, so there’s an extra challenge for photographing moving subjects like pets and kids.

Like the original, the Instax Pal 2 is one of the few cameras that carry the Instax name – but doesn’t actually have a printer built in. The Instax Pal 2, however, can connect directly to an Instax printer (or hybrid Instax camera) without a smartphone and print directly from the camera.

I tried the Pal 2 with the new Instax Link Wide 2, which is a good fit for the camera’s wide aspect ratio. The resolution is plenty for printing on Instax Wide, and using real film for those prints levels up the retro charm more than the camera’s built-in presets.

Verdict

The Instax Pal 2 is low on tech and high on retro charm. This is hands-down the cutest little retro camera that I’ve ever used.

But beyond the fact that it's tiny enough to nearly disappear in the palm of my hand, I loved the dual viewfinder options with the classic optical viewfinder and the top-placed screen that feels like a waist-level viewfinder. Add in the toggle and dials, and this tiny camera is just oozing with classic vibes.

Built-in film looks add to the charm, and the built-in port means easy smartphone transfers without packing a cord.

The Pal 2, however, is more of a camera for nostalgia than pixel peeping. The small sensor is a challenge in mixed lighting, and details tend to look more like muddled paintings pretty quickly. The camera is definitely one for getting the look of an older digicam rather than the look of a modern camera.

There’s some shutter lag to contend with and a few other minor annoyances, like the optical viewfinder not being quite accurate. I also wish the exposure compensation was built into a physical control rather than the menu. It’s also one of the few Instax cameras that doesn’t actually print on instant film – you need to buy a separate printer for that.

Alternatives

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Instant film portable photo printers allow photographers to have their digital files and get real instant film too. The Fujifilm Instax Link Wide 2 brings oversized instant film into the mix – all with seamless connectivity and simple USB-C charging.

I tried the Instax Link Wide 2 with photos of every sort from smartphone snapshots to pro mirrorless photos – and found the portable printer has a near-perfect blend between charm and quality.

Specs

Price

The Instax Link Wide 2 retails for about $180 / CA$240 – that’s surprisingly less than the original was going for in the US just ahead of the update’s launch, as the original was selling for about $235. But, as a larger format printer, the Link Wide 2 is understandably a bit higher priced than the Link Mini+ and Link Mini 3.

Film is going to need to be factored into the cost as well. In the US, a pack sells for between $23 - $29, which is about $1.15 - $1.45 each image. In the UK, a 20-pack of Instax Wide sells for about £19, making each print about £0.95 each.

Design

The Link Wide 2 feels about the size of a desktop external hard drive, or for a more retro comparison, a bit larger than a portable CD player. While larger than the Mini series printer, the photo printer doesn’t feel too obtrusively sized, thanks in part to a very simple design.

The front has an eye-catching textured pattern and an Instax logo that lights up when powered on (or charging). One side has two buttons – a power-on and an Fn button for checking the battery level – the other has a simple USB-C port for recharging.

The back opens up to install the film cartridge. Installation is simple – just match the yellow on the printer to the yellow on the film pack.

Prints spit out of the top.

But, it’s been nearly five years since the original Wide Link came out, and there’s one key usability upgrade to the design – rather than the ols Mico-USB, the Link Wide 2 uses the wildly available USB-C cord for charging.

Performance

Devices that rely on a Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connection tend to be prone to connectivity issues – but I had no issues at all getting the Link Wide 2 connected to my phone. The printer connected to the app on the first try, and the app walked me through the simple connection steps without needing an instruction manual.

I’ve owned and loved a handful of Link Mini-sized printers, but after trying the Link Wide 2, I’m going to have a hard time going back to the smaller prints. The Link Wide 2 spits out images that are about twice as big as the Mini film type. Instax wide is about 62mm by 99mm – or 86mm by 108mm if you include that classic white border.

I used images from several different cameras to test out the Link Wide 2, including the new Instax Pal 2, iPhone shots, and images from mirrorless cameras.

Prints are sharper than I had expected. The prints are just the right size to get enough detail while still keeping the classic instant film format.

Colors hit an excellent balance between being true to the original image and having a bit of film-like color – after all, what’s the point of printing on instant film if you don’t want a bit of that retro charm? Part of that color prowess is the ability to swap between two quality modes. Instax Natural is going to have more of that imperfect instant film look, while Rich mode gets a bit closer to the colors and contrast of the digital version.

I did run across an occasional faint line on the bottom of the images. When working with instant film, this usually hints at an error in the rollers that break loose the chemical packets to develop the film. Positioning the printer upright rather than flat with the cartridge side down improved these lines a bit, but I did still get an occasional line on the bottom of the print. These lines didn’t appear in every image, but tended to be most noticeable in lighter colored images.

Many of the features that are new to the Instax Link Wide 2 are app-based updates. One such feature is the new Photo Mixer. This is a mode that automatically assembles a collage for you, including cutting out some images – which I suspect is AI-based. The collages can be remixed up to five times, and those edits can also be tweaked.

Like the earlier Link Wide, the app also allows for adding a QR code so prints can double as a photographer’s business card. Those QR codes can also save locations, messages, and sound clips.

The printer can also print without an app from two supported cameras – the newly announced Instax Pal 2, or the Fujifilm X-T30 III. Firmware took away the Instax direct printing option on a handful of cameras, which is disappointing, so other Fujifilm cameras will have to wirelessly send to a smartphone, then print from there.

Verdict

The Instax Link Wide 2 turns digital photos into real, oversized instant film. The print quality has the ideal balance between preserving the color and sharpness of the original while still having a bit of real film charm to it.

I love the oversized Wide format, which is about twice as wide as Instax Mini.

The app experience is seamless, with the printer connecting on the first try and automatically connecting on subsequent prints. I did miss the widespread camera-to-printer compatibility that Fujifilm previously had. The Wide, for now, only connects app-free with the X-T30 III and Pal 2. Other cameras need to send to a smartphone first for printing, which is a bit disappointing as someone shooting with a previous-generation Fujifilm mirrorless.

My biggest complaint is that the prints occasionally pick up a stray line or two on the bottom of the image – likely a roller issue.

The Link Wide 2, while convenient and charmingly retro, is also a pricier way to get prints than ordering 4x6s from a photo lab, as film packs cost about $29 / £19 for 20 prints.

Alternatives

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A borescope is an essential bit of kit for those who work in the automotive, plumbing or construction industries. It allows you to peer into tight spaces with a camera probe, so you can identify the problem and a possible fix without opening everything up. There are plenty of options on the market, ranging from sub-£50 devices that are geared towards hobbyists to ones that come in at over £100 for professionals. The new Rove RS2 sits firmly on the premium end of the scale.

If you haven't heard of Rove before, it's because it's a new entrant to the professional tools sector. The company is best known for making dash cams for the consumer market and the RS2 is its first foray into borescopes. And it's targeting mechanics, plumbers, HVAC technicians, electricians, home inspectors and serious DIY users with the device’s extensive features.

But how does it stack up against existing products on the market like the Depstech DS500 or the Bosch UniversalInspect? Is it worth its premium price tag? And does it deserve a spot on the list of the best borescopes? I’ve been testing the device to find out.

Rove RS2: Price and availability

The Rove RS2 only launched in May 2026 so its availability remains limited. It’s currently retailing exclusively on Amazon US with an RRP of $159.99. This puts it at the premium end of the market; similar two-way articulating borescopes generally sit around the $120 to $140 mark.

At first glance, it’s hard to justify buying the device based on price alone. Afterall, borescopes with very similar specifications from more established brand Depstech costs significantly less. Take the Depstech DS650. Its specs are broadly identical to the Rove RS2 but it’s $30 cheaper.

However, several of Rove RS2’s features aren’t found on similarly priced models. The camera angle of view is up to 90 degrees on the Rove RS2, for example, whereas this is just 70 or 80 degrees on competitor models. It also offers up to 4x digital zoom with autofocus, while most models offer just 2x digital zoom. And then there’s the ultra-slim probe, which, at 6.2mm, is small enough to fit into standard plug holes. There are devices that tick off the Rove RS2’s features individually but none that covers all of them.

Rove RS2: Specification

Rove RS2: Build & handling

The Rove RS2 is similar to other borescopes on the market so it won’t feel alien to use if you’re replacing an existing device. For new users like me, it’s intuitive enough that you don’t need to refer to the user manual. Unlike cheaper alternatives, this is an all-in-one device where the articulating probe is attached to the display. That means there’s no need to connect it to your phone or download an app to use it, which is helpful if you’re at a work site where things can easily get dirty or if there’s limited wifi connectivity.

The main body houses the 4.3″ IPS LCD display plus a compact control panel on the handle with buttons that you can easily operate using one hand. These let you adjust the focus and lighting as well as record videos and take photos. Sitting between the buttons is a wheel for controlling the probe articulation. The wheel is accessible on both the front and the back of the handle. On one side of the main body there’s also a USB C charging port, a slot for microSD card and a hard reset button should the device malfunction. The 2600 mAh rechargeable battery, providing up to 4 hours of power, is behind a screwed-in panel in the handle.

Protecting the display is a hard black plastic casing that has been reinforced for drops, dust and general wear and tear. It feels sturdy but it would have been nice to have a rubber coating on the handle for improved grip and on the rest of the casing to reduce noticeable scratches. The Rove RS2 does come with a cushioned carry case so you can keep it with other tools without worrying too much about accidental damage.

What really distinguishes this device from its competitors is the probe. At 6.2mm, it’s among the slimmest available - most others are upwards of 7mm - which means you can insert it into plug sockets, with the mains switched off, of course. At the probe head is a camera that's surrounded by a cluster of six LED lights. Immediately behind the camera head is about an inch of nylon braiding that protects the probe while allowing it to be flexible enough for articulation. The rest of the probe is a semi-rigid gooseneck that makes it easier to insert the camera into crevices. At 1.6m, it's long enough for most exploratory situations.

The probe is two-way articulating, which means you don’t need to remove and reinsert it for a better view in many situations - just adjust the articulation. Rove expects the probe to withstand upwards of 8,000 bends with correct usage. You should double-check the degree of articulation if this is a key feature for you. On my device, the articulation was up to 180 degrees but it seems Rove has since updated its devices to 210 degrees.

In terms of accessories, Rove includes a 32GB microSD card that comes installed in the ready-charged device so you can use it straight out of the box. There’s also a spare probe cap, two lens cleaning cloths and a USB C cable that can be used to charge the device to transfer data from the microSD card to a laptop. There are no hooks or magnets though so this device can only be used for visual inspections.

Rove RS2: Performance

There’s a lot to love about the Rove RS2. In particular, it was helpful to be able to adjust the brightness of the lights to get the right contrast depending on whether the camera was pointed at a smooth, reflective surface or in total darkness. It’s also possible to digitally manipulate the image on the device. I could, for example, play around with the zoom and the orientation of the image to get the best view. And despite the slightly clunky feel of the handheld display, I was able to operate it using just one hand with minimal effort, which was necessary when adjusting the probe for a better view.

However, there were some limitations in the image quality. In some testing scenarios, the visuals on the display were extremely grainy. Initially I thought it was just an issue with the display but after checking the saved images and videos, it seems to be an ISO problem where the camera just isn’t coping well with the low light conditions. The video setting offered slightly clearer visuals than even the display for diagnostics but smaller issues might be obscured by the graininess. Some of this can be mitigated by adjusting the positioning of the probe or the lighting, but it can be frustrating to do if you’re not already a pro.

There are two other things that might be worth bearing in mind. The first is that the device weighs over 500g, which is near the heavier end of the spectrum. You could reasonably control it using one hand, but the extra weight might put you off from doing so for long periods of time. Also worth noting that the probe articulation becomes harder to adjust when the gooseneck is slightly bent so you’ll struggle to reach the full articulation promised.

Rove RS2: Overall verdict

For a new entrant to the borescope market, the Rove RS2 ticks off a lot of features that will suit professionals and serious hobbyists. It’s intuitive to use and requires virtually no setup so you can hit the ground running even if it’s your first time picking up a borescope. However, while the price point places this device firmly on the premium end of the market, I’m not sure the price is entirely justified - especially if you’re just an occasional user.

A big let down for me was the graininess of the imaging, which affected both the live display and photos captured using the device. The video resolution was better but it’s more hassle to constantly transfer the recording to a laptop for viewing. It also lacks magnet and hook attachments, which means you can only use the device for diagnostics. It’s not an issue for every trade but it’s certainly a useful feature to have.

For me, the only reason you should pick the Rove RS2 over competitor brands is for the ultra-slim probe. Otherwise you could buy something very similar for quite a lot less money. That said, if you spot a good deal then it’s certainly still worth considering.

Alternatives

With the launch of the Insta360 Luna Pro – a seemingly high-end product name – the company has actually filled the gap beneath its Luna Ultra, to offer both a single-camera and a dual-camera variant of its new pocket gimbal camera.

This kind of lightweight, wand-held camera – with stabilizing technology reminiscent of a tiny Steadicam – was pioneered by DJI with its Osmo Pocket series, and both companies have recently delivered two models in the category. The difference is that, for Insta360, this is a first. The DJI Osmo Pocket 4 and Pocket 4P have generational improvements, while Insta360 has started from scratch.

Given that blank slate, Insta360 has made some different choices when it comes to build, value for money, and the surprising (but welcome) remote control system. Does that make it the best proposition? That's what I'm testing...

Price

The Insta360 Luna Pro is launching at $599.99 / £469 / AU$809 for the Standard Version. This is the model I tested, and is supplied with a goos-quality zip case, a rubber protector for the gimbal, a wrist strap, and a USB-C cable. That puts it at $170 / £180 less than the Insta360 Luna Ultra – putting a very specific price on the additional optics (curiously, a higher one in the UK).

Specs

Build & handling

The Luna Pro feels a lot like the Luna Ultra, but without the extra-wide WALL-E like 'head'. The Ultra hasn't been out long, so there is a decent chance you won't have held one in your hand either, but it's worth knowing that the Pro and Ultra share the same core mechanics.

Both versions share the detachable touchscreen remote control (even though a lot of A.I. summaries inaccurately suggest that this is an optional upgrade).

Personally I feel like the Luna series devices have a pleasing weight to the grip's body, and perhaps it is even better on the Pro because, with a single camera at the top, the balance is closer to perfect.

The 90-degree flick of the 2-inch touchscreen to activate the camera – acting like a power switch – is a brilliantly natural maneuver, albeit first seen on the DJI Osmo Pocket 3.

Where Insta360 have definitely pushed things ahead (in my view) is their arrangement of the other controls. By creating a dedicated zoom switch, separate from the thumbstick, you don't need to switch the main camera controls from one to another using an unnatural touchscreen control, as you do on the DJI alternatives (both Pocket 3 and Pocket 4 series have the same flaw).

The entire control array is detachable. That is the screen/switch, two buttons at the bottom of the screen, thumbstick, zoom controller and record button. Obviously that has some risk in terms of dirt and dust, but a gimbal camera is far from invulnerable anyway, so it doesn't seem an unacceptable risk (as I discovered, the control section will let you know if it is having trouble communicating with the rest of the camera, and let you know how to clean it!)

Like its sibling, the camera has a detachable base that extends the controller and has a tiny fold-out tripod which, despite being made of paperclip-like materials, is actually very useful a lot of the time. In the middle of that is a standard tripod thread, too, so it's just a handy backup.

Not in the standard bundle, but an option, is an extended battery that can attach here instead (and, thoughtfully, Insta360 put the tripod and thread in that, too).

The device also boasts a microphone in the detachable remote, and 47GB of built-in storage (should you forget your MicroSD card, for which there is also a rubber-sealed slot on the right-hand side as you look from the operator's side.

Performance

While the Luna Pro does indeed lack a second camera, so also drops 12x telephoto (3x and some digital help, since you ask), virtually nothing else is missing.

The closest focusing distance is 9cm (3 inches), meaning that if you have vlogging in mind you won't have to hold the camera too far away from you (that's good as some newer action cameras with larger image sensors do have issues here).

The Luna Pro still boasts the abilities of the Ultra when it comes to video; 8K30 video, or 4K120, and shoots in SDR, Dolby Vision HDR, and its own I-Log for editing. It also panorama photo mode, slow-mo mode and 'PureVideo' – Insta360's night mode.

There is still enough telephoto fun, digitally, for 3x zoom at three different speeds, and 4x coming with a software update I've yet to test. You do need to pop the settings out to change tracking speeds fast, medium and slow are the only choices, it's not touch-sensitive, but you can't have everything.

I did find that, in some situations, the camera overheated when recording extended 8K – a problem it shares with its premium sibling.

Overall Verdict

First impressions of the Luna Pro are very good, and if you have no need for the longer tele camera, then this is a choice that could save you a good deal of money.

Personally I'd do my best to find the extra cash, though, because I always see the advantage in optical zoom. I found (when testing the Luna Ultra) that I had a lot of use for the telephoto camera because it created a natural softening of the background and – since there are several ways to record sound wirelessly – that didn't' come at the expense of audio quality.

More casual users, though, more interested in finding a replacement for a DJI Osmo Pocket or equivalent, could do a lot worse than this.

Alternatives

Svbony is a Chinese company with a name that stems from its original intention, ‘Specialized Vision Bring Our New Yearning’. Maybe that loses a little in translation, but the outfit has been going since 2009, making astronomical telescopes and cameras, binoculars, spotting scopes, and optical accessories. Svbony has racked up more than 100,000 customers in over 100 markets along the way, so it’s definitely a global player with some star quality, especially when it comes to viewing the night sky.

The SV28Plus HD spotting scope that I’m reviewing here is advertised as being ideal for birdwatching, wildlife observation, target sports, camping, scenery and moon gazing, all of which is typical spotting scope territory. The ‘Plus’ is an upgraded version of a popular entry-level scope that adds new coatings, a detachable eyepiece, an improved mobile phone mount and retains the original’s tabletop tripod accessory and carrying bag. You’re potentially getting a lot for very little outlay, so long as it all works. It’s never going to be one of the best spotting scopes, but it’s certainly one of the most affordable.

Svbony SV28Plus HD: Specifications

Svbony SV28Plus HD: Price

The Svbony SV28Plus HD Spotting Scope typically costs around $62 / £82 / AU$109 in the USA, UK, and Australia, respectively, but it’s often discounted, so it can pay to shop around. How does that stack up against the competition? Most of the spotting scopes that we’ve reviewed start at around $359 / £459 / AU$699 for the Bushnell 20-60x65 Prime and $369 / £299 / AU$399 for the Celestron Hummingbird 9-27x56 ED Micro.

Prices can go up fast and far, with top-quality items like the Zeiss Conquest Gavia 85 costing $1,999 / £1,399 / AU$3,955, and there’s the Leica APO-Televid 65 / 25-50x WW ASPH eyepiece at $3,199 / £2,425 / AU$4,990. Taking the whole price range into consideration, the cost of the Svbony makes it pretty irresistible if you just want to dip your toe into spotting scope waters (and yes, it’s waterproof).

Svbony SV28Plus HD: Design & Handling

The first factor in the design that you come to, at least if you’re starting at the back, is the eyepiece. There are typically two choices when selecting a spotting scope: some have a straight eyepiece and others have a 45-degree angled eyepiece. I personally favor the 45-degree variety, and most other people seem to as well, as it tends to make for a more comfortable and natural viewing position. That’s a tick in the first box on my wish list for the Svbony.

Next up, I like that the Svbony has a generous magnification range of 25x through to 75x and everything in between, akin to a powerful 3x ultra-telephoto zoom range. For one thing, it gives plenty of versatility for viewing different kinds of subjects at varying distances. For another, when subjects like birds and small animals are difficult to locate through a scope, you can start with minimum magnification to get your bearings, then zoom in. Magnification is adjusted via a grippy, rubberized control ring on the circumference of the eyepiece.

There are actually two adjustments on the eyepiece. Whereas the magnification ring is fairly central, the second, at the rear, adjusts the eye relief. It’s basically a twist-action rubber eyecup that starts off fitting flush with the rear optical element and can be moved further back on a sliding scale. Not just a comfort consideration, it also helps to tailor the scope to people who do or don’t wear glasses.

I’ve talked mostly about the eyepiece so far, but I’m not done yet. An upgrade over the previous edition of the scope is that you can unscrew the eyepiece and remove it altogether. Why would you want to? Well, for one thing, it has a standard 1.25-inch thread, so you can easily swap it out for one with a different magnification or for specialist applications like astronomy, or maybe even fit a compatible camera.

Moving on from the eyepiece, there’s a forward-facing control knob extending from the top of the barrel for adjusting the focus setting. It needs to be precise, yet covers a fairly generous range from a minimum focus distance of 8m / 26ft to infinity (and beyond?). To enable sufficient precision and wide-ranging adjustment, the focus knob works through five full 360-degree rotations from its shortest to longest settings.

Although relatively inexpensive to buy, the Svbony is advertised as being fog-proof and waterproof, the latter with an IP65 rating. Those ‘Ingress Protection’ numbers mean that the scope scores a maximum of 6 for resistance to the ingress of dust. However, it only scores 5 out of a maximum of 9 for water resistance, so it should be waterproof against rain and low-pressure jets, but not against high-pressure power washers, and it can’t be continuously submerged in water.

Optical highlights include a Porro BaK4 prism, which means that the optical prism is made from high-quality Barium Crown glass and has good light transmittance to enable a bright, clear view. That’s also helped by the relatively large 70mm objective diameter of the front element. The scope is FMC (Fully Multi-Coated), another upgrade in the new ‘Plus’ version being that the lens coatings have changed from green to A5 wine red. The claim is that the red coloring can more effectively reduce glare when working against the light, helping to improve clarity and color rendition.

To further help reduce ghosting and flare, the objective element and its new coatings can be effectively shielded from angular light by an extended sunshade, or what I’d call a ‘hood’ in lens terminology. It’s easy to use; you simply pull it forward if and when needed.

A quick look at the underside of the scope reveals a tripod mounting plate. The rectangular plate has a textured rubber surface to enhance grip and a metal socket with a standard 1/4-inch thread, universally used for attaching cameras and other optical devices to tripods.

Svbony SV28Plus HD: Performance

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much in the way of optical quality, considering the rock-bottom selling price of this scope. I was pleasantly surprised that it delivers a reasonably sharp, crisp, and bright viewing image, with fairly accurate color rendition. Birds, wildlife, sporting targets and pretty much any other subject you can think of appear well detailed even in dull, shadowy conditions as well as under bright sunlight. And for the latter, the coatings and extended sunshade work well to maintain clarity and contrast.

Both the magnification adjustment ring and focus knob work fairly smoothly. However, the scope lacks separate coarse and fine focus control knobs, so a lot of twisting can be required of the single focus control if you need to go from near to far, or vice versa.

The mini-tripod that’s supplied as part of the kit is comparatively disappointing. It looks and feels fairly flimsy, and its short, fixed height won’t be of much practical use out in the field. It’s actually described as a ‘tabletop tripod ’, which I guess is okay if you happen to have a table close at hand. On the plus side, the tripod has a tilt and pan head, although only the tilt mechanism can be locked in place.

The mobile phone mount is another part of the kit that’s been upgraded in the ‘Plus’ edition. I’ve seen some bad feedback regarding the earlier version, so I was hoping the new one would be good. Those hopes were unfounded, as it turned out. The mount is fiddly to use, and while its spring-loaded clamp grips the phone firmly enough, it relies on a simple plastic cup that slips over the eyepiece to hold it to the scope. It’s certainly not securely fixed in place, and I nearly suffered my phone falling off the scope twice. I lost faith in the phone mount after that and didn’t risk using it again.

Other push-fit items that are more likely to stay in place when you want them to are the front and rear lens caps. They’re non-essential parts of the kit, but I’m glad to see them included, considering the down-market price, as I’m a bit precious about my glassware no matter how much or how little I’m paying for it.

The performance of the ‘free’ carrying bag is pretty much on par with the rest of the extras. It just about does the job, but it looks and feels a bit flimsy, from the material it’s made from to the zipper that runs along its top side.

Svbony SV28Plus HD: Verdict

The Svbony SV28Plus HD is amazingly cheap to buy for a spotting scope, especially one that has Porro BaK4 prism optics, a generous magnification range, adjustable eye relief, and an interchangeable eyepiece. As a spotting scope, it simply works, and works pretty well. It delivers a reasonably sharp, bright, clear viewing image, and the magnification and focusing controls work well enough.

It lacks the luxury build, fancy features and quality design of up-market spotting scopes but, for casual and occasional use, I think it serves really well. The little extras are less impressive, namely the tabletop tripod, carrying bag and especially the mobile phone mount. All things considered, however, I reckon it’s an absolute steal at the price.

Alternatives

With the exception of Adobe Photoshop, Nik Collection is perhaps the oldest photo-editing tool on the market. And yet, thanks to DxO's constant development, it remains right at the forefront of creative photographic techniques, embracing analog effects, contemporary photographic styles and effects, and some of the best black and white editing tools you can get.

You can use the Nik Collection plug-ins from within Adobe Lightroom Classic, Photoshop, Photoshop Elements and Affinity. However, each plug-in will also work as a standalone application, so you can use them as external editors for programs like Capture One, which don't support Photoshop-style plug-ins.

So just how good is the Nik Collection, how do its plug-ins stack up today, and does it still deserve to be considered among the best photo editing software applications on the market?

DxO Nik Collection 9: System requirements

Compatible host applications for plug-in: DxO PhotoLab 8 and DxO PhotoLab 9, Adobe Photoshop 2025, 2026, Adobe Photoshop Elements 2025 and Adobe Photoshop Elements 2026, Adobe Lightroom Classic 2025, 2026, Serif Affinity Photo 1 and 2, and Affinity by Canva (NB: Nik HDR Efex merge feature and Nik Collection Switch to mode are not compatible with Affinity).

DxO Nik Collection 9: Price

Nik Collection 9 costs $179.99 / £149.99 (about AU$257) for a new licence, while existing Nik Collection 7/8 owners can upgrade for $99.99 / £79.99 (about AU$143). It’s not especially cheap, especially considering you might not get full use out of all the plug-ins, but the creative tools, controls and presets in Analog Efex, Color Efex and Silver Efex are so good that you could argue they carry the whole suite on their own.

The upgrade price for existing users is fair, too, given that this is a substantial upgrade, but given that the Nik Collection plug-ins are not dependent on updates for new cameras and lenses, say (that’s handled by your host software), even older versions may offer all the creative inspiration you need right now.

DxO Nik Collection 9: Interface and usability

What I would call the ‘core’ plug-ins – Analog Efex, Color Efex and Silver Efex – adopt the same interface setup, so it’s easy to swap between them. You have preset effects and individual filters in the left sidebar and a filter ‘stack’ in the right sidebar. This shows all the filters and settings applied by the current preset – and you can edit these at will – or the settings for any filters you select and apply manually. It’s a straightforward system used almost universally by effects software.

Each of the filters you apply can have its own masks, or local adjustments, and in Nik Collection 9 these include AI masks alongside DxO’s regular non-AI control point, control line and control polygon masks. Wisely, I think, DxO has kept the AI masking options simple, with basic object selection and area selection options, and no attempt at subject recognition. This makes the new AI masking both powerful enough and simple enough to be genuinely useful.

HDR Efex hasn’t seen any major changes for some time, and while the craze for HDR might have faded somewhat (thank goodness), it still does a good job. As usual for HDR applications, it invents some tools and adjustments you won’t see in regular photo editors, but it doesn’t take too long to work out what everything does.

Viveza is a bit of an oddity. It’s set up for detailed global and local color adjustments, but that’s pretty much all it does. It’s the kind of thing you might do in your host software instead, or Color Efex – indeed, three of Viveza’s core adjustments are now included in Color Efex’s list of filters. Viveza is easy enough to use but hardly seems to do enough to justify its inclusion as a separate plug-in.

Dfine is distinctly disappointing too. Superficially, it looks like a powerful little plug-in that can analyze the noise profile of the image you’re working on and apply a tailored noise reduction process both globally and locally. However, it only works on already-processed images, so it’s trying to fix a problem too late. It can’t reconstruct lost detail either, in the way that today’s AI raw denoising tools can, so it does feel like a relic of a different age.

Sharpener is interesting for its ability to tailor the sharpening level for different output devices. You can sharpen for screen output, though with today’s website content management systems and social channels, you don’t have a lot of control over the sizes images are displayed at. This could be useful for prints, though curiously it doesn’t display image size sliders by default.

DxO Nik Collection 9: Performance

There are two aspects to any software application’s performance – its speed and responsiveness and the quality of the results. Speedwise, I found it OK but not instantaneous. Analog Efex presets took a couple of seconds to apply, for example, and this was on a 32GB M2 Max Mac Studio. Some of these processes are complex, though, so you can’t expect too much.

The results, at least from Analog Efex, Color Efex and Silver Efex, are stellar. Analog Efex recreates the look and feel of old analog processes and cameras brilliantly – it’s way better, in my opinion, than DxO’s rather dour FilmPack application. It’s a shame the new Halation filter in Nik Collection 9 didn’t appear here rather than Color Efex, since halation is really an analog effect.

Color Efex offers a huge range of more contemporary photo effects, from film simulations (modern and vintage) through graduated filters, tonal contrast enhancement, and so much more. It’s a shame that the new Glass filter in Analog Efex wasn’t used here because it’s a graphic style that might suit Color Efex’s approach better. There’s also some crossover – Color Efex’s Old Photo filter is really good, and Analog Efex doesn’t have anything quite like it. There are some filters you might never use (Duplex? Color Styliser? Indian Summer?), but overall there’s so much in Color Efex that you might never exhaust its potential.

This has been magnified massively by another new feature in Nik Collection 9 – blend modes. Each filter can be assigned a blend mode (not just ‘Normal’ now), which completely changes the way it interacts with the image. For example, the paper textures in Analog Efex take on a whole new life with different blend modes.

Silver Efex, meanwhile, continues to shine as perhaps the best tool there is for black and white photography fans. It can reveal depth and tonality in black and white images that’s hard to replicate in other software. It also uses sliders and adjustments that seem to speak directly to darkroom photographers and how they think, with dedicated film types and grain patterns. It would be nice if there was some kind of blur/bokeh tool and a wider choice of border styles, though.

DxO Nik Collection 9: Verdict

The Nik Collection does feel like a plug-in suite of two halves. Analog Efex, Color Efex and Silver Efex are the creative center, and offer presets, filters and inspiration that’s hard to find anywhere else. HDR Efex is a good tool for an image style that’s perhaps gone out of fashion, and Viveza, Dfine and Sharpener definitely feel past their sell-by dates. Would I buy the Nik Collection for Analog Efex, Color Efex and Silver Efex alone? Yes, I probably would.

Alternatives

If the OM System M.Zuiko 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 III seems familiar, that's because we've seen it at least three times before (there was the original lens, a mark II and a mark II "R" before this one).

It's always tempting to overlook a kit lens, but in the case of the OM System M.Zuiko 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 III that would be a mistake. You see unlike most kit lenses, this one is weather sealed – which is both a breath of fresh air and a case of OM putting its money where its mouth is.

After all, every camera in its lineup boasts weather sealing – including the new and technically entry-level OM System PEN. But what good is a sealed camera if the lens that comes with it isn't sealed as well?

In addition to IPX1 certification, the OM System M.Zuiko 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 III also boasts a new look and refined operation – eschewing the cumbersome lock switch for an elegant and satisfying twist-and-click mechanism.

Yes, the optical formula is the same – but this lens is a far better performer than most give it credit for. If you're thinking of picking up the latest PEN, or you just want a compact and budget-friendly weatherproof lens to complement an existing OM camera, this deserves your attention.

OM System M.Zuiko 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 III: Specifications

OM System M.Zuiko 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 III: Specifications

OM System M.Zuiko 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 III: Price & availability

The OM System M.Zuiko 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 III carries a standalone price of $350 / £349 / AU$479. However, it's really designed to be bought with a camera – where it effectively only costs $100 / £100 / AU$300.

If you pick up the lens in a kit with the OM System PEN, it will cost $1,099 / £949 / AU$1,799.

OM also makes another lens with the same focal length and aperture range, but with a non-weather sealed pancake design and a motorized zoom – the OM System M.Zuiko 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 EZ, which is priced $349 / £329 / AU$429.

OM System M.Zuiko 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 III: Build & handling

First of all, in case you've ended up here while searching for OM's other 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 lens, this is a very different proposition to the electronic zoom pancake lens!

The OM System M.Zuiko 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 EZ is a much smaller optic, thanks to its collapsible pancake design, and also boasts a motorized zoom – which can be handy for remote shooting as it enables you to zoom in and out. However, it's not a weather-sealed lens.

This new OM System M.Zuiko 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 III is a much larger lens, though it still collapses to palm-size when not in operation. It is, as noted, IPX1 certified to dust and splash resistance, but the zoom is not motorized – meaning you have to manually 'telescope' the barrel, upon which the lens extends about an inch.

Unlike older versions of the lens, which had a lock switch that had to be disengaged during the twist-and-deploy motion, the mark III has a more elegant click mechanism that simply locks and unlocks as you turn the barrel.

Generally this lens was a joy to use and shoot with – the only downside is that, because you have to extend it in order to start shooting, I was occasionally a step slow off the mark because I'm used to just turning the camera on and stabbing the shutter. You get used to it, but it still trips me up occasionally!

OM System M.Zuiko 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 III: Performance

I primarily tested the OM System M.Zuiko 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 III with the OM System PEN, though I also tried it out with the OM System OM-3 and Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II.

While the form has certainly changed, the function hasn't. This lens has the same optical formula as its previous iterations – and, as I expect our lab results to bear out as soon as we can read OM's latest RAW format, its optical performance is also essentially identical.

I certainly didn't experience any huge difference from the earlier versions I've used in years past – but that's not the end of the world. While most people sleep on kit lenses (and, for some reason, this lens in particular), it's a surprisingly pleasing performer.

It performs best, as you'd might expect, at its widest focal length – and honestly, at 14mm f/4 is has a brilliant amount of bite. Sharpness does drop the longer you go, but this is compensated by the correspondingly ascending apertures. Honestly, I'm happy with the performance of this lens anywhere it lands in its zoom range.

The first sample image below is a great example of what the OM System M.Zuiko 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 III can do; the details of the dayglo gnome and the hairy leaves at his feet alike are piercingly sharp.

Focusing is impressive in all respects, too. Autofocus is nice and snappy, the ability to focus as close as 0.13m comes in very useful for an everyday lens, and the fact that it supports focus stacking makes it a very versatile performer for anyone looking to get creative.

OM System M.Zuiko 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 III: Sample images

There are dozens more sample images in my OM System PEN review, but here's a selection of shots I took with the OM System M.Zuiko 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 III in various conditions and situations, indoors and outdoors, using a variety of settings, filters and profiles.

OM System M.Zuiko 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 III: Lab tests

We've put the OM System M.Zuiko 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 III through our battery of lab tests, but we are currently unable to analyze the results (until we can process OM's newest RAW format).

I will update this review as soon as we've completed the lab analysis.

Until then, given that this lens has the same optical formula as the previous iterations, you can expect almost identical performance.

OM System M.Zuiko 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 III: Early verdict

While I need to wait until we can process our lab tests before I can officially assign a score to this lens, I'm familiar enough with its predecessors (with which it shares the same optical formula) and happy enough with the thousands of frames I've shot to say that the OM System M.Zuiko 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 III performs well.

In real-world use I'm impressed with its sharpness, particularly wide and wide open at 14mm f/3.5 where it gives satisfying levels of crispness and crunch – dial it down to f/5.6 and you get pretty much all the bite you could possibly want.

However, I don't think sheer sharpness alone is really the metric by which this lens should be judged. It's a lens that costs you $100 / £100 / AU$300 if you buy it with a camera or $350 / £349 / AU$479 when bought on its own – for that price, the fact that it's impressively sharp and weather sealed is pretty dang amazing.

After thousands of shots on multiple camera bodies, I can safely conclude that I would be delighted to use this lens as my daily driver – which is its intended purpose. Yes, when I'm setting out to shoot something intentionally, I'll snap on a dedicated lens – like the M.Zuiko 45mm or 75mm f/1.8 for portraiture.

But as an everyday companion for my everyday carry camera, the the OM System M.Zuiko 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 III does everything I could possibly ask of it – and does it well. It is the perfect lens to pair with the OM System PEN, but honestly I think it's an even better partner for the slightly chunkier OM-5 family.

The equivalent 28-84mm focal range is perfect for everyday shooting, with enviable close focusing, fast and faithful autofocus, and even support for in-camera focus stacking. If you want a cheap, compact, capable lens that shoots whatever you want, whatever the weather, you just found it.

In my heart of hearts, I knew that the OM System PEN wasn't going to be a named successor to the Olympus PEN-F. But while it doesn't carry the "F", this new PEN is absolutely a spiritual successor to the PEN-F. And in every way possible – perhaps including its looks – it's a better camera.

I know that OM System can be a tough sell for some people, so let's quickly take an objective look at what the OM System PEN offers for the price.

For just $999 / £849 you get a camera that's weather-sealed, has in-body image stabilization (IBIS) and an electronic viewfinder (EVF), is loaded with pro features like 30fps Pro Capture, has computational photography tools like simulated ND filters (Live ND) and 80MP High Res Shot, has algorithmic autofocus (including astrophotography) and packs a stack of film-inspired picture profiles.

On top of all that, the OM System PEN is one of the best-looking retro cameras on the market. Seriously, aside from a sensor size prejudice, what's not to like about it?

Okay, there are a couple of things – like the 8-bit video, though honestly this is a stills-first camera to its core – but overall this is a frankly obscene amount of firepower in a camera that's sublimely small and effortlessly cool.

Take a look at my quick guided tour of the camera:

OM System PEN: Specifications

OM System PEN: Price & availability

The OM System PEN will be available in both silver and black in late September / early October with a price tag of $999 / £849 / AU$1,499 body only.

It will also be available in a bundle with the new, weather-sealed OM System M.Zuiko 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 III kit lens (a 28-84mm equivalent) for $1,099 / £949 / AU$1,799.

In the US and Australia, a double-lens kit that adds the M.Zuiko 40-150mm f/4.0-5.6 R lens (80-300mm equivalent) will also be available for $1,299 / AU$2,099.

For reference, Fujifilm's cheapest body with weather sealing, IBIS and an EVF is the Fujifilm X-T5 at $1,999 / £1,699, while Canon's cheapest is the Canon EOS R7 at $1,649 / £1,449. (Call me churlish, but I'm discounting the Panasonic Lumix G97 due to its primitive contrast-based AF system.)

OM System PEN: Build & handling

The OM System PEN is almost identical in size to the PEN-F, with handling that's very familiar all-round – from the rangefinder-like positioning of the EVF on the left shoulder to the presence of the Profile Control switch on the front.

While it doesn't boast the same premium heft and construction as the PEN-F (as in, don't expect a single block of milled aluminum), in the hand it drives much as the F did – only this time you have the benefit of IPX1-certified weather sealing and operation in environments from 32°F / 0° to 104°F / 40°C.

Another big upgrade from the PEN-F is the presence of a dedicated memory card door on the side of the body – rather than stowing the card in the battery compartment, which these days is a mark of entry-level cameras.

Another upgrade for many, and something that has been adopted from the Olympus PEN E-P7 (a brilliant 2021 camera that was only released in Europe), is the repositioning of the power switch to the right-hand side of the top plate.

This makes it possible to turn on and operate the camera one-handed, for quickfire street shooting – or, as my friend Emily from Micro Four Nerds calls it – "Festival Mode". I personally never use a camera this way, but I know how important it is for a lot of photographers.

Also making its way across from the E-P7 is the aforementioned Profile Control switch, rather than the full Creative Dial from the PEN-F.

This is a simple flip switch that enables you to access the picture profiles menu while shooting, giving you access to the Color and Mono profiles, along with Color Profile Control and general recipe settings. (The Creative Dial offered dedicated positions for Color, Mono, Art (Filters) and CRT – the Color Creator / Profile menu.)

The battery compartment at the bottom contains a brand new battery design for OM, the squat (almost square) BLS-7. CIPA rates the battery as good for 410 shots (or 80-130 minutes of video), but I've got well over 600 shots out of a battery before recharging.

OM System PEN: Performance

The OM System PEN embodies everything that I've always loved about the PEN family, dating all the way back to the original E-P1 in 2009 (which was Olympus' first ever mirrorless camera).

It's a quick, nimble camera with agile autofocus that enables you to react instantly to the world around you. Paired with the compact new M.Zuiko 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 III kit lens, it's a weather-sealed and near-pocketable marvel – making this a truly take-anywhere, shoot anything, whatever the weather setup.

True to the PEN ethos, "as simple as pen and paper", this camera can be used as a straight-up point-and-shoot; stick it in auto or semi-auto and it's a fire-and-forget snapper that gives you great results. But the more you investigate the many magic tricks up its sleeves, the more you realize what a creative powerhouse this thing really is.

Like Fujifilm cameras, the OM System PEN is loaded with film-inspired picture profiles and a slew of Art Filters. So, if you want to level up your images, you can enable a profile or filter and effectively "pre-produce" your image – giving you gorgeous JPEGs, straight out of camera, with no need to tinker in post production.

Want to jazz things up even more? You can fine-tune these profiles or dive into the Color Creator to customize the presets or make your own photo recipes.

You can even upload and share these using the OI.Share app (which, for my money, is the best companion camera app on the market if for no other reason that it actually works – and is brilliant for transferring files and remote shooting).

Want to get even more creative? Use the CP button to unlock a suite of computational photography features, including Live ND – a software-powered set of neutral density filters, enabling you to shoot long-exposure movement shots without the need for physical lens filters.

Or how about High Res Shot mode, which enables you to capture 80MP RAW images for those moments when you want hyper texture and detail – but without being bogged down by the everyday bulk of a medium format camera.

Experiment with in-camera focus stacking, shoot a spot of astrophotography with Starry Sky Autofocus, try light painting with Live Composite, shoot fast action like a professional with 30fps Pro Capture (which records the 12 frames before you fully press the shutter, so you never miss the magic moment)…

There is so much creative potential packed into the OM System PEN that you will become a more versatile and more adventurous photographer almost by osmosis.

But there are, of course, some limitations. The biggest one, as is ever the case with OM System and Olympus cameras, is the resolution; while Panasonic has graduated to 25MP sensors, OM is still using trusty 20MP affairs (for reference, this is the same one found in the OM-5 Mark II).

Personally, this makes no odds to me. As I've said before, ad nauseum, this is more than enough resolution for anything shy of larger physical prints; I have magazine covers and double-page spreads shot on 20MP and even 16MP OM / Olympus sensors. And if you do need the extra pixels for printing, High Res Shot gives you 80 million of them.

Really, though, the biggest limitation comes in terms of video; given that this camera uses the OM-5 Mark II sensor, you can only shoot 8-bit video. And while the OM System PEN adds the subject detection AF (for humans and animals) that was sorely missing from the OM-5, it only works for stills – not video.

In short, this isn't a vlogging camera; it's a pretty pure photography camera. If you want to shoot a bit of video for social media, or you need to snag a bit of B-roll, it's ideal – but moving pictures are absolutely secondary to still images. But make no mistake, those still images are stunning.

OM System PEN: Sample images

OM System PEN: Lab tests

While we've put the OM System PEN through our battery of lab tests, we are currently unable to process the results (until we can adequately de-crunch OM's newest RAW format).

I will update this review as soon as we've completed the lab analysis.

Until then, given that it uses the same sensor, you can probably expect the same ballpark performance as the OM System OM-5 Mark II's lab results.

OM System PEN: Verdict

I've been waiting half a decade for this camera; it's the first new member of the PEN family since the E-P7 launched way back in 2021 (which, incidentally, was also the first camera released after OM System splintered off from Olympus).

Some will opine that the OM System PEN isn't a PEN-F II. And I hear that, because few people wanted a PEN-F II more than me. But I'll be absolutely honest – this camera pretty much is a PEN-F II in everything but name.

The image quality is better. The stabilization is better. The autofocus is leagues better. The video, while limited, is also way better. It's IPX1 weather-sealed. And it's stuffed to the gills with clever computational features.

Heck, it's arguably better looking, too – though I'm sure plenty of people will pick a fight with me over that one.

Truthfully? There is now precisely zero reason for me to pick up my PEN-F. This new PEN does everything the F could, just bigger, better, more.

In terms of function, this camera feels a lot like the OM-5 Mark II – though I'd argue that the PEN is actually better thanks to the addition of the Profile Control switch and especially subject detection autofocus (which was the only real weakness of the OM-5, though it does boasts slightly better sealing).

However, as much as I'm inclined to compare it to other OM offerings, my biggest takeaway is actually how the OM System PEN compares to the Panasonic Lumix L10. And I should preface this by saying that I love shooting with the L10.

But the PEN is smaller and lighter. It's weather-sealed. It has IBIS. It's got dual exposure dials. In other words, it ticks all the boxes that the L10 missed – and of course, you can also change the lenses. Sure, the L10 absolutely annihilates it for video, but let's be real – nobody is buying the Lumix primarily for video, and the same is true of the PEN.

I would argue that anyone considering the L10 would be better off (quite literally, where cash is concerned) opting for the PEN. Not only does it offer acres more creative capacity, you'll also struggle to outgrow it – unlike the Lumix, which will leave you wanting the moment you fancy trying macro or telephoto photography.

The OM System PEN is the best bang-for-buck body on the market (not to mention one of, if not the, best-looking) and without a doubt the best everyday carry camera available for photography purists.

Sony has made just about every conventional lens you could ask for at this point, so perhaps it was inevitable that things were going to get a little more niche.

The Sony FE 8-14mm F3.5 Fisheye G is Sony’s first fisheye lens for its full-frame E-mount system, and rather than starting with a straightforward prime, Sony has gone straight for a zoom capable of switching between circular and diagonal fisheye perspectives.

At 8mm, the lens offers a 180-degree field of view with the familiar circular fisheye image, and zoom up to 14mm, and the image gradually expands until it fills the whole frame. It's definitely more flexible than the typical fisheye prime, but it's still a unique perspective and is going to complement rather than replace any of the best Sony lenses already in your bag.

Specifications

Price

The Sony FE 8-14mm F3.5 Fisheye G is set to cost $1,599 / £1,499 / €1,700 at launch.

Calling $1,599 cheap would clearly be stretching things, but I actually think Sony pitching this as part of the G series is a smart move, rather than being transformed into a G Master lens with a corresponding price tag. Fisheyes are maybe a lens that comes out more occasionally for most photographers, so perhaps not worth dedicating a large portion of a lens budget to.

If you do only want to dip a toe in extreme wide-angle, there are plenty of much, much cheaper fisheyes from third-party manufacturers. The Laowa 8-15mm f/2.8 FF Zoom Fisheye lens offers a nearly like-for-like focal length (albeit without autofocus) for around $700, or 7Artisans will sell you a fixed 7.5mm f/2 Fisheye lens for about $150.

Sony’s advantage is that this is considerably more sophisticated than most of those alternatives, particularly thanks to its autofocus, internal zoom, and flexible focal range, but you'll pay for those advancements.

Design & Handling

The first thing that struck me when the Sony 8-14mm arrived was just how impressively small it is. I knew the dimensions beforehand (314g and 82.8mm long), but I was still shocked when I actually pulled it out of the box. Mounted on the Sony A7 V, it looks petite.

Fortunately, Sony hasn't achieved that by stripping everything useful from the barrel. This has the usual reassuring G-series build quality with dust and moisture resistance. Alongside the zoom ring, there is an aperture ring that can be de-clicked for video, a manual focus ring, a zoom lock switch, a customizable button and a focus-mode switch.

The lens also uses an internal zoom, which is particularly welcome for videographers, as nothing changes externally as you move between 8mm and 14mm, which makes balancing the lens on a gimbal considerably easier.

My only irritation with the design is the lens hood. At 8mm (up until around 11mm), it has to be removed entirely because otherwise it would encroach on the circular image. That is understandable because, well, physics, but repeatedly taking the hood on and off becomes a little frustrating. You could leave it off permanently, but I would be reluctant to, as that large curved front element looks extremely vulnerable without anything protecting it.

That bulbous front element also rules out conventional screw-in filters, so Sony has included a rear filter holder instead. I’m glad it is there, although anyone already invested heavily in conventional circular filters may find themselves having to buy a few more accessories.

Performance

A fisheye lens is always a unique one to review, as it really comes down a lot to how much you like the fisheye look. Fisheyes also can't really be so easily judged by the same metrics as other lenses – distortion is basically the entire point.

At 8mm, the Sony produces the full circular fisheye effect, surrounded by the characteristic black border around the image area. As you zoom through the range, the image circle expands until it fills the frame, hitting the corners at around 13-14mm. Basically, there is still an obvious fisheye look through most of the zoom range, although the effect becomes progressively less dramatic toward the long end.

Optically, I was pleasantly surprised. Sharpness in the center is very good, but what impressed me most was how well detail holds together toward the edges. Given how aggressively the lens is bending the scene, I expected considerably more of a drop-off.

At 8mm, zooming right into images reveals slightly less crisp detail than I saw at 14mm around the edges, especially wide open, but in real-world viewing I don't think most people would notice. Fringing and chromatic aberration are also remarkably well controlled for something this wide, although there is a telltale blue ring around the outside of the circle, but this can be tackled in post if you don't like the look.

One thing to note: at 14mm, the lens is a diagonal fisheye by design. This lens does not have the flat rendering of a conventional rectilinear 14mm prime. So there is still noticeable distortion toward the corners. Lightroom can pull some of this back, although not completely.

Autofocus is excellent. It feels every bit as quick and reliable as any other recent Sony G lens I have used, and it had no issue tracking human subjects in my testing. Sony also says it can keep up with 120fps stills shooting and 240p video autofocus on compatible cameras.

The 0.15m minimum focusing distance also lets you get extremely close. Whether you actually want an extreme fisheye close-up is another question entirely, but if it works for you creatively, then it's possible.

My only minor disappointment is when it comes to video. While I can't fault the autofocus speed or the image quality, video cropping does spoil the perfect circular fisheye look.

Slow to embrace open gate, most Sony cameras use a 16:9 crop for video, which cuts off the edges of the image circle at 8mm – and that's without any electronic image stabilization on.

If you do need Sony's Active or Dynamic Active stabilization – for example, shooting sports like skateboarding, which this lens is perfect for – then it cuts into the circular image much further. You still get a unique look, but I wish I could preserve that perfect circular image.

Note: If you are looking for our usual lab testing results, unfortunately, we are unable to test fisheye lenses, as it's impossible to frame our testing chart with a 180º field of view!

Verdict

Sony's first-party full-frame lineup has been sorely missing a fisheye, but it has finally delivered one, and I think it was worth the wait. The Sony FE 8-14mm f/3.5 Fisheye G is surprisingly small, reassuringly well built, quick to focus, and optically much better than I expected from such an extreme design.

The real advantage, though, is the zoom. Being able to move from a circular fisheye at 8mm to a full-frame perspective at 14mm gives it considerably more creative flexibility than a fixed fisheye prime. I found that made it much easier to experiment with different compositions, and it was just a lot of fun to shoot with.

Although there is no getting around the fact that this remains a niche optic. At $1,599, it is a significant investment for something many photographers may only pull out occasionally, and there are far cheaper ways to experiment with fisheye photography. But I am glad Sony resisted the temptation to turn this into an even more expensive G Master.

For photographers, filmmakers, and content creators who genuinely want/need these extreme perspectives, the FE 8-14mm f/3.5 Fisheye G is a compact and impressively polished addition to Sony's lineup.

Alternatives

Spypoint's Flex-S-Dark isn't the only trail camera on the market to combine a cellular connection and a solar panel built into the case, though the brand was certainly an early pioneer of the design.

And it makes sense – the appeal of the best cellular trail cameras is being able to leave them in a remote location and have clips and images sent to your phone from afar. But that's no good if your batteries keep dying, so a solar panel is there to top up the power – again to stop you having to keep checking and maintaining the camera.

The Flex-S-Dark is the successor to the original Flex-S, and keeps the core chassis, dual-SIM cellular connectivity and built-in solar tech of the original model – but upgrades the unit by adding invisible No-Glow LEDs for nighttime shots and the ability to trigger the camera on-demand from the app, rather than waiting for the next scheduled sync interval.

These improvements make it a real all-rounder, and the Flex-S-Dark sits at the top of Spypoint's flagship trail cam lineup. Its specs also position it at the premium end of the cellular market: 40MP stills, FullHD video with sound and a fast 0.3-second trigger speed.

To me, its main selling point is total hands-off maintenance. The solar panel (in theory) feeds an internal lithium battery to power the camera indefinitely without blowing through batteries, while a pre-installed SIM automatically latches onto whichever mobile network signal is strongest in your local area.

Still, it faces stiff competition from the recently reviewed Browning Defender Pro Scout Max Solar (46MP stills and smoother 30fps FullHD video) and the Tactacam Reveal SK (with a slower 0.5s trigger speed). But while Browning relies on a separate solar panel unit wired to the camera, Spypoint is pitching the Flex-S-Dark as a cable-free, cellular option.

But does it really offer a seamless solar setup and smartphone integration? And is that enough to offset the trade-offs in image specs?

As is usual for my trail camera reviews, I left the Flex-S-Dark camped out in a local UK woodland for several weeks to see how it fared capturing the badgers, foxes, deer and squirrels of the habitat – night and day.

Spypoint Flex-S-Dark: Specifications

Spypoint Flex-S-Dark: Price

The Spypoint Flex-S-Dark is near the top of the cellular trail cam market at about $190 / £220 / AU$550, depending on where and when you shop.

For that higher initial investment, you get a combination that fewer rivals can match: an integrated solar panel with a built-in rechargeable lithium battery and invisible, customizable no-glow dark LEDs.

The closest direct competitors are the Tactacam Reveal X-Pro and the Browning Defender Pro Scout Max Solar (a camera I tried and liked).

Browning’s solar setup offers a higher native image resolution, but comes with a much stricter, cap-heavy video transmission plan (something I really didn’t like). The Tactacam offers reliable cellular connectivity for slightly less money upfront, but lacks an integrated solar panel out of the box.

Some competitors require you to buy solar add-ons separately, but the built-in panel here handles daily charging automatically.

Spypoint also offers a free 100-photo per month plan, which I think makes ongoing costs more optional rather than mandatory if you have fewer triggers. Paid plans scale to $15 / £10 per month for unlimited photos (videos aren't mentioned), which is cheaper than rival Browning.

Spypoint Flex-S-Dark: Design & Handling

Older cellular trail cameras sometimes added bulk and size to house their radios, but the Spypoint Flex-S-Dark has a relatively compact footprint.

The main camera body actually sits slightly lower on a tree trunk than non-cellular units like the Bushnell Core S-4K, though its screw-on antenna at the side adds some extra vertical clearance (and is best removed when the camera is travelling to its location in your bag).

As trail cameras spend most of their lives strapped to trees and posts, not living in a camera bag, I don’t think a few extra grams or centimeters will bother most buyers – and the Flex-S-Dark is still low-profile and easy to tuck into cover.

The unit is clad in a utilitarian matte gray casing, a stark change to the traditional patterned camo print on many trail cams. Obviously, users aren’t all going to be using it in the same location as me.

Still, I found it far more noticeable to a passerby skirting the woodland footpath than other camo-printed models like the Browning Strike Force HD Pro X1080 – and that made me nervous to leave it alone.

To me, the unit feels reassuringly solid for life outside – and it doesn’t have any brittle plastics or rattly latches that I often notice on budget alternatives.

The defining physical feature is its roof-integrated solar panel. Unlike the Browning Defender Pro Scout Max Solar, which has a separate solar panel and runs a trailing wire up a trunk, the Flex-S-Dark builds the solar array into a top sloping face of the camera body.

It’s a clean, wire-free design that eliminates dangling cables that squirrels or weather could damage. You can also drop a tray of eight AA batteries or an optional LIT-22 lithium pack into the bottom compartment as a secondary backup, and this too feels solid.

There’s no button to eject the battery compartment, so it’s a case of yanking it out and back in again – a less smooth and satisfying experience. At the back of the cam, you’ll find a rubber-sealed 12V DC external power jack.

A flexible cellular antenna screw securely onto the side of the unit, and can be rotated and angled through 360° rather than being fixed in place. I found this flexibility practical in the field, allowing me to adjust its angle so it didn't get snagged on nearby branches.

Opening the heavy-duty latch reveals a departure from many traditional trail cam control panels. There’s no LCD screen for framing shots or navigating menus, which helps with keeping the overall size down.

Spypoint has stripped the layout down to a bare-bones interface: a power switch, a battery level indicator, a network signal meter, a format button for the microSD card and a physical Test button.

This minimalist layout meant I could prep in the field is thus: turn it on, wait for the LED bars to confirm cellular connection and format the card. But as ever, not having a screen means mounting the camera is a bit of a guessing game.

To check if the lens is pointed where you want it, you have to hit the Test button, wait for the photo to transmit to the Spypoint app on your phone, check the image and adjust the strap accordingly.

It’s not too much of a hassle during initial setup, as long as you have the Spypoint app set up and don’t leave it until you’re standing out in the rain like me. Once the camera is anchored with the included nylon strap (and excellent clamp), the unit does feel locked down and ready for long-term deployment.

Spypoint Flex-S-Dark: Performance

ABOVE: Sample clips from the Spypoint Flex-S-Dark trail camera

After woodland-testing the Spypoint Flex-S-Dark for several weeks, I’m left feeling both impressed and disappointed. The camera is mostly a reliable, well-connected scouting unit, but its video and stills performance fell short of my expectations.

The dual-SIM connectivity is the camera’s strongest asset. When I deployed it in a mixed woodland, I simply added it to the Spypoint app by adding in a serial code, and it picked up local UK networks without fuss.

The camera will automatically lock onto the strongest available signal without requiring manual configuration and let you know the status of the signal in the app.

There’s built-in GPS, too, which can plot exact camera placements onto an in-app map to help you keep track of camera deployments. Not something I needed, but I can imagine this being very helpful on larger estates and areas of land.

The headline roof-integrated solar panel needs some realistic expectations. When I had it mounted in my open garden with direct summer sunlight, the solar roof kept the internal battery sitting at 100% indefinitely.

Once it was tucked under woodland trees and a few days of overcast weather, the panel generated more than a trickle charge, but the battery status was still listed as High (and showing as full) after a week or so.

Being a cellular trail camera, the Flex-S-Dark required navigating via the Spypoint app.

This offers a really smooth and neat experience, with clear dropdown menus that make it simple to adjust sensor sensitivity, toggle capture modes, or even build weekly operational schedules to pause triggers during high-traffic human hours.

I liked being able to check the remote status tab of the camera from the app’s main screen; it instantly reports on signal strength, storage and levels for the internal solar battery and the backup AA tray.

What’s less pleasing is that setting changes made on your phone don't apply instantly, and updates are applied during the camera's next scheduled cellular transmission cycle.

Spypoint advertises a rapid 0.3-second trigger speed, a metric that applies to still photos. When set to record video, I felt like the camera suffers from a wake-up delay.

In several of my test videos, animals crossing the detection zone were already mostly out of the frame by the time the recording started – noticeably different to the Browning that caught subjects squarely in the center.

The Flex-S-Dark may well boast 40MP photo resolution and 1080p video capture, but like many trail cams, I think these numbers feel (and look) artificially inflated by sensor interpolation and heavy digital processing.

On captures where the woodland was in bright daylight, the scene suffered from highlight clipping and sunlit leaves becoming blown-out. And in flatter, evening light, the color saturation dropped off, giving mid-tones an unnatural yellow-green tint.

In the video footage, which I set to the maximum setting, artefacts are visible in the moving background vegetation, and the low 15fps frame rate created some motion smearing.

The Flex-S-Dark offers you the choice of two flash options: No-Glow for total stealth or Low-Glow, which can be detected but generally ranges further. Using the invisible No-Glow IR array, I was able to capture a foraging muntjac calm and unaware.

However, here the IR beam has a narrow hotspot in the center, rendering nearby foreground brambles as harsh, blown-out highlights. Subjects looked a bit soft and hazy unless they passed directly through the central sweet spot of the frame.

I don't think anyone would buy a trail camera for award-winning picture quality, but I was still left unsatisfied with the hit rate of my triggers – how often animals were blurred, cut off or hard to identify.

Spypoint Flex-S-Dark: Verdict

The Spypoint Flex-S-Dark definitely delivers on the promise of the best cellular trail cameras: easy, long-term deployment.

Its roof-integrated solar panel means no wires or cables to consider, and the multi-carrier connectivity and an intuitive companion app make remote monitoring simple. What takes the model further than competitors is also having those invisible No-Glow IR LEDs (or Low-Glow if you want them) and on-demand app triggers.

But while all this convenience is fantastic, I’m still underwhelmed by the overall image quality. My daylight captures often looked overexposed (where other cameras have handled the same high-contrast woodland scene well) and heavily processed.

And despite the unit's undetectable night flash, uneven illumination created some bright central hotspots that left surrounding areas hazy and prone to motion blur. Fast-moving subjects occasionally slipped past the frame, too.

I thought the camera's app was great – streamlined, responsive and easy to use. It also incorporates Spypoint's Buck Tracker AI species recognition, a feature that automatically scans and tags photos as they arrive.

North American users might appreciate the free antler-detection filter for quickly sorting deer; however, UK wildlife enthusiasts (like myself) will need a paid Insiders Club subscription to unlock tags for other animals or human activity filters.

If your priority is pure set-and-forget utility with long battery and simple app management, the Flex-S-Dark is a highly practical choice.

But for wildlife enthusiasts who want tack-sharp stills good enough to identify individual animals, fluid video clips, or wide dynamic range may find the overall image output underwhelming compared to class rivals.

Alternatives

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

The original Meeting Owl, and its successors, are iconic products for huddle meetings – able to be simply placed in the middle of a meeting room and provide a live AI video feed concentrating on the active speaker.

This can be connected to platforms like Google Meet and Zoom to deliver a more personal view from a room than having a ton of separate cameras all delivering postage-stamp sized images, mostly of people not talking.

The concept is based on a single lens at the top which is fish eye and sees 360-degrees around the room, while AI (and in this case an arrangement of 8 microphones) detects the active speaker and zooms in.

This new model brings more features, at a higher price. Is it worth the upgrade?

Meeting Owl 5 Pro: Price

Coming in at $2,599 / £2,399 this is significantly more expensive than the smaller, more portable Meeting Owl 3 ($999) – and quite a hike above the Meeting Owl 4+ ($1,999). That price premium buys features that will matter in some enterprise environments and large conference rooms, but perhaps not all.

Meeting Owl 5 Pro: Specs

Meeting Owl 5 Pro: Build and Handling

The Meeting Owl 5 Pro looks like what it is, a robust speaker with a fisheye camera at the top. The wide base is where much of its significant 2Kg heft sits, building confidence in the meeting room once you've plopped it in place.

The cute special feature, seen on other Owl conference cameras, is that – when it is in use – eyes "appear" from behind the all-round speaker grille which combine with the logo strip to give the stylistic impression of an owl. To reinforce this, the startup sound is a 'twit-twoo' owl noise.

The buttons at the base are mute, volume up and down, and a customisable button (it can be configured in the app), but by default cycles through different views.

The mute is made clear all the way around the device with a red light that sits between the speaker and base. The buttons (and owl face) are repeated opposite each other, so it ispossible for participants of a meeting either side to reach them easily and see the visual feedback.

It's not just a speaker, of course. It also conceals an array of eight microphones, which the system uses to detect the active participant, as well as to capture the sound and apply the on-board processing to deliver clear audio.

This all happens very simply, although I was a little surprised that the maximum volume of the speaker didn't impress as much as I'd hoped it would.

What the system did do very well, however, was detect when there was speech in the meeting room and turn down the speakers; it wasn't harsh or jarring but it was enough that the conversation in the room was always audible.

Meeting Owl 5 Pro: Performance

The video performance is notably better than the Meeting Owl 3, with the system clearly benefiting from a a more powerful image sensor.

The system also had no trouble detecting us in one of our meeting rooms which can comfortably accommodate 6 people, which was reassuring.

I used the settings menu to turn on and off the optional 'whole room panorama' effect at the bottom of the video, but regardless of the resolution we chose, the result still didn't seem to handle the admittedly mixed light in our meeting room. We have natural light from both sides and artificial light from above.

The quality beats everyone having to sit next to each other and face a laptop, but probably doesn't beat a dedicated PTZ camera, which would (I'd hope) be better able to handle the dynamic range and tone.

To my mind the resulting images were not sharp enough for 4K either, although it's fair to say that many conferencing platforms would reduce the video to 1080P anyway, and at least it has more detail to work with.

Meeting Owl 5 Pro: Overall verdict

The Meeting Owl does a fine job of identifying the participating speaker, and the video quality of the output stream, at a full 4K where available, is

On the downside, this is physically bigger and less portable than its brethren from the Meeting Owl range, as well as more expensive, so it's important to decide whether you actually want the boosted processing power and imaging. I'd absolutely make sure that your preferred conferencing platform is

If you're looking for a device you don't move too often, and has premium capabilities like daisy-chaining, then this seems a fine option. If you're more

Alternatives

I’ve reviewed over 40 wireless mic kits for Digital Camera World, from manufacturers including Hollyland, Godox, and DJI. The subject of this review – the X6Q Wireless Lavalier Microphone System – comes from Fulaim, a manufacturer I hadn’t encountered before. Like most of the products I review, Fulaim’s microphones are manufactured in China, but the company also has offices in Australia, London, and New York, and its products are available in more than 140 countries.

Unlike Godox, which produces microphones, lights, and a range of other accessories, Fulaim appears to have spent the last 12 years focusing solely on wireless microphone systems. That made me particularly interested in seeing how a product from a ‘new’ company – to me, at least – would perform, and whether it's worthy of a place in our wireless lavalier mic buying guide.

Fulaim X6Q Wireless Lavalier Microphone System: Specifications

Fulaim X6Q Wireless Lavalier Microphone System: Price

The Fulaim X6Q Wireless Lavalier Microphone System officially retails for around $105.90 / £99.99 / AU$150. As the kit ships with four wireless microphones, that works out to just $26.50 / £25 / AU$37.75 per mic, which is incredibly cheap.

The last four-mic wireless kit I tested was the Hollyland Lark Max 2 Combo, which sells for around $340 / £280 / AU$500. That works out to roughly $85 / £70 / $AU$125 per mic. The Hollyland kit earned five stars from me, whereas the Fulaim gets three and a half. That isn’t meant as a harsh criticism of the X6Q; rather, it illustrates that the old maxim ‘you get what you pay for’ applies here.

If you’re on a budget and need to record up to four people simultaneously, the Fulaim kit can certainly do the job, albeit with some limitations, as you’ll see later in this review.

Fulaim X6Q Wireless Lavalier Microphone System: Design & Handling

Some wireless microphone kits are remarkably compact, such as the appropriately named Boya Mini, with its pocket-sized charging case. The Fulaim X6Q kit ships in a much larger plastic carry case that also doubles as a charger. Simply plug the supplied USB-C cable into the case to simultaneously charge all four microphones plus the receiver. You can squeeze the Fulaim charging case into a jeans pocket, though it creates quite a bulge! The kit also ships with a silver branded drawstring bag, so most people will probably carry it inside a camera backpack or kitbag.

Opening the plastic charging case reveals the four microphones, each docked in its own dedicated charging compartment. The mics are small and rectangular and attach magnetically to a clip. You can use the clip to fasten a mic to a subject or presenter’s lapel, or use the magnet to attach it directly to a T-shirt. Each mic weighs a negligible 8 g [0.28 oz], so it won’t cause clothing to sag. Like the charging case, the plastic transmitters feature subtle Fulaim branding. Each microphone has a yellow button that lets you toggle between normal recording and AI noise reduction. A status light glows blue by default, turning green when AI processing is active.

The review kit that I was loaned contained four black microphones, though you can choose four different-colored transmitters, giving each presenter their own distinctive mic. I prefer black because it looks more professional, but social media creators may appreciate being able to assign a different color to each person.

Inside the case, you’ll also find a larger and slightly heavier receiver, though at just 14 g [0.49 oz] it won’t get in the way or interfere with performance if you want to mount your smartphone on a gimbal, as I did during my first test. Attach the supplied USB-C adapter to the receiver, and it can plug directly into a compatible smartphone. It also has a shoe mount, so you can slide it onto a camera’s cold shoe and connect it using the supplied 3.5 mm cable.

The whole kit ships inside a cardboard box and, I must admit, I initially overlooked a separate compartment containing additional accessories such as the USB-C charging cable and four windshields. As a result, during my first location test, I had to rely on AI noise reduction to take the edge off the wind noise. Fortunately, I spotted the windshields before carrying out a second test. As you’ll see and hear in the supporting video in the next section, the physical windshields did a much better job of reducing wind noise than the AI-powered noise reduction.

Fulaim X6Q Wireless Lavalier Microphone System: Performance

After unboxing the Fulaim X6Q, I found it an easy matter to plug the supplied USB-C adapter into the kit’s receiver and connect it to my iPhone 17 Pro. I then slid one of the four mics out of its charging dock and clipped its magnetically attached spring clip to my shirt.

I could immediately see an audio waveform appearing on one of the receiver’s four channel displays, confirming that my voice was being transmitted wirelessly from the microphone to the receiver. There’s therefore very little in the way of a learning curve to climb before getting the X6Q up and running, especially if you’re a ‘plug-and-play’ smartphone content creator.

I made a quick test recording and was impressed by the clean, clear, and rich audio captured at the Fulaim X6Q’s 48 kHz sample rate and 24-bit depth. It was also good to discover that I could play back the audio I’d recorded without having to unplug the receiver from my iPhone. This makes it quick and easy to check that everything sounds as it should before making a ‘proper’ recording.

To test the Fulaim X6Q, I headed into the city with my iPhone 17 Pro mounted on a Hohem iSteady V3 Ultra gimbal. The gimbal’s AI-powered tracking sensor caused the iPhone to pan and tilt automatically as I moved around and talked to camera using the magnetically attached Fulaim microphone.

At 14 g [0.49 oz], the X6Q’s receiver was small and light enough not to interfere with the gimbal’s performance. However, to ensure that its USB-C plug connected securely to my iPhone, I had to remove the phone from its protective case.

The location was rather windy, and I hadn’t brought the supplied windshields with me for this first test, so I tapped the yellow button on my transmitter mic to toggle on AI-powered noise reduction. This immediately reduced the wind-induced rumble, though my voice did sound slightly electronically processed. The occasional rumble of wind was sometimes audible if it breached the threshold of the AI noise cancellation. I must add that I did a second wind noise test using the supplied windshields and they were more effective than relying on AI noise cancellation, as you can see in the support video below.

My next test was to see how the Fulaim X6Q performed over distance. The specifications claim that the transmitters have a range of up to 300 m [1,000 ft] from the receiver, which is much further than most people are ever likely to need.

I placed the gimbal-mounted iPhone 17 Pro on the ground and began walking away from it while talking. After around 10 steps, the signal started to drop out whenever my body blocked the line of sight between the transmitter on my chest and the receiver plugged into the iPhone.

Some wireless microphones, such as the excellent Saramonic BlinkMe, can continue to transmit a clean signal over a much greater distance after losing line of sight, but the Fulaim X6Q quickly begins to struggle when you turn your back on the receiver. In most situations, however, you’ll be facing the camera while talking to it. With a clear line of sight between transmitter and receiver, the X6Q transmitted my voice loud and clear even when I was so far away from the camera that my lip movements were no longer visible.

Given that this is a budget microphone kit, I wasn’t expecting it to perform as well as more expensive systems when line of sight was lost. I was also pleased to find a button on the receiver that lets you boost the gain and increase the recorded sound level. Nice touch!

For my final city location test, I hit the streets to try the kit’s AI-powered noise reduction. When dealing with a little wind noise, the feature worked reasonably well. However, when faced with noisy traffic at street level, the Fulaim X6Q really struggled. In its attempt to suppress the traffic noise, my processed voice became barely audible (as you’ll hear in the video), so you’ll need to be careful when recording in particularly noisy locations.

After testing the Fulaim X6Q, I met up with a model for a photoshoot. I then realized that I’d forgotten to remove and pack away the magnetically attached wireless mic clipped to my shirt. The clip was still there, but the microphone itself had disappeared.

This isn’t really a criticism of the mic’s magnetic design, as the strap of my camera backpack had probably knocked it off – and could have done the same to a microphone from any other kit. Fortunately, I’m usually a solo shooter and still had three microphones safely tucked away in the charging case. So, if you’re as clumsy with your kit as I can be, a four-mic system could prove a sensible investment simply because you have some spares!

When I returned home, I discovered the four supplied windshields hiding in the cardboard box that the Fulaim X6Q had shipped in. I clipped one onto a microphone with ease and headed into the park to compare its effectiveness with the AI noise reduction. The physical windshield proved much more effective at keeping wind noise at bay while also preserving the natural quality of my voice. It took a bit of effort to unclip the windshield from the microphone, but at least there’s no danger of it falling off!

Fulaim X6Q Wireless Lavalier Microphone System: Verdict

The Fulaim X6Q Wireless Lavalier Microphone System can perform really well if you respect its limitations. By maintaining a clear line of sight, using the supplied ‘dead cat’ windshield and avoiding recording next to a busy road junction, you can capture clean, clear and full-bodied audio.

I loved its ‘plug and play’ nature, which makes the X6Q very friendly to audio-recording novices, while the receiver’s display lets you see which microphones are active thanks to its animated audio waveform indicators.

Just don’t rely too heavily on the AI-powered noise cancellation. I’d recommend leaving AI processing switched off so that you capture a more natural-sounding version of your voice. You can then reduce unwanted background noise more effectively in post-production using tools in Adobe Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro.

Alternatives

The role of the Bridge camera used to be a more defined one. Sitting between the compact camera at one end of the digital camera spectrum and the interchangeable lens system camera at the other, it was positioned to combine elements of both.

Today, we’re firmly in the mirrorless camera generation, with the entry-level models providing a similar handling experience but with a generally larger sensor size; it is more of a challenge to see the benefits even the best bridge cameras can bring to the table.

That is before you look at the lens on the Kodak AZ653. The range is huge! There are spotting scopes which might struggle to provide the magnification of the 1560mm equivalent focal length. Mirrorless lenses might be a lot smaller and lighter than their DSLR counterparts, but an APS-C or full-frame-based lens with this kind of range would still be prohibitively cumbersome and expensive.

Therefore, while it may seem that the market for the AZ653 is a lot smaller than it might have been ten years ago, it should still appeal to photographers who want magnifying power on a budget or are considering a superzoom companion for a Safari trip.

Replacing the earlier AZ652, the new model has a very familiar specification; however, so the question is: has enough been changed, improved, or upgraded over the previous model? And can a camera with a tiny 1/2.3in sensor really be taken seriously for advanced photography assignments?

Kodak Pixpro AZ653: Specifications

Kodak Pixpro AZ653: Price

The Kodak Pixpro AZ653 is available in most regions, priced at $449 / £349 / AU$ 750. This positions it as a good alternative to many entry-level mirrorless cameras or smartphones, while providing the same focal range as multiple standard zoom lenses rolled into one.

Kodak Pixpro AZ653: Design & Handling

I’ve always had a soft spot for the design of a Bridge camera, and the AZ653 is no exception. It is like a miniature DSLR. I say that since it was ultimately the DSLR format that influenced the design of most cameras meant for high-end enthusiasts and professionals that came after them.

The Kodak features a pleasantly deep and sculpted handgrip, which allows a firm hold of the camera even if working single-handed. In fact, there are mirrorless cameras around today that are less comfortable to operate than the AZ653.

Despite it being a small camera body, it’s possible to fit all fingers of the right hand onto the grip, without the little finger left hanging. I did feel tempted to allow my little finger to slip under the camera to support it a little better; however, because it’s such a lightweight product, this wasn’t uncomfortable.

Other than the zoom range itself, a standout feature is the control ring around the lens barrel. This not only gives the camera a more professional look, it also allows tactile control of major camera settings, speeding up operation. It works well for the most part, not least because of how familiar it felt coming from an interchangeable lens system. Out of the box, the ring on my sample camera was set to control the aperture value; however, I didn’t find this especially useful, given the limited F-stop range available.

In the case of this camera’s biggest selling point – that mammoth 65x zoom – it made sense to have the ring control the zoom setting. The downside here is that, because the focal length range is so massive, it takes a long time to actually move through it from 24mm to 1560mm. The ring itself is quite stiff, while the electronic zoom mechanism is at times painfully slow to move the lens elements.

It also has a tendency to stop at intervals through the range, often necessitating a pause before resuming the turn of the control ring to kick-start the zoom once again. This really slows down operation, making the setup unsuitable for ultra-fast subjects.

Since the rotary zoom switch around the shutter button is connected to the same electronic zoom motor and works more quickly, there is sadly much less sense in using the physical ring as a zoom control.

The build quality might not win awards, but the AZ653 still feels well made. It’s reassuringly solid, and while it is quite plastic-y, this is in much the same way as many mirrorless camera bodies and lenses do these days, even the higher-end types. As far as sub-$500 cameras go, the AZ653 is decidedly premium in appearance and finish. I particularly like the rubber coating around the viewfinder, which makes it more comfortable when placed to the eye, and the rubberized material wrapped around the handgrip.

It is disappointing that there is no articulated LCD screen. The fixed monitor adds a dated look to the camera, especially since a flip or twist style screen is now seen as a standard feature of most mid-range cameras. To make matters worse, it’s also not touch-sensitive.

I get it, Kodak is trying to keep costs down, but using features like touch focus, touch shutter and even image and menu scrolling have become muscle memory for many photographers, all of whom will be frustrated by being stuck with the scroll wheel and rocker if they are anything like me.

On a more positive note, all of the buttons are well placed, as is the PASM-style mode dial on the top right of the camera.

Kodak Pixpro AZ653: Performance

Ok, so we have to be realistic when setting our expectations regarding the maximum possible quality. In good light, outdoors, the camera is able to produce some reasonably good images. While 20MP isn’t high-resolution by today’s standards, it’s more than enough for A4 prints and social media use. Kodak has also been wise to limit the pixel count on the tiny sensor. The photosites are small enough already, so cramming on 30MP or more just to satisfy the headlines would have likely pushed the image quality too far.

As it is, fine detail starts to suffer above ISO400, especially once the ambient light levels fall outdoors or when shooting in dimly-lit interiors. By ISO3200, files are pretty mushy, although more texture can be extracted from the Raw files than out-of-camera Jpegs, which are subjectively bad across the board, even at the lowest sensitivities.

The integrated zoom lens does actually perform impressively well. I liked the general levels of sharpness, which stayed consistent throughout the (admittedly limited) aperture range. The optics are sharpest in the center of the frame and resolution does fall off heading out towards the corners. There was also a noticeable decline at the longest reaches of the 65x zoom, with blurring of critical detail creeping in from about the top third of the focal range.

Chromatic aberration and distortion are fairly well controlled, as is corner vignetting. This is where the advantages of an integrated lens become clear; many long zooms designed for interchangeable mounts don’t speak so efficiently with the host camera’s digital contributions to aberration correction.

Video fares similarly well. The AZ653 understandably can’t compete with larger sensor cameras like the Canon EOS R5 Mark II, or Nikon Z8, which are now favored by many professional filmmakers over traditional video cameras.

There is the limited depth-of-field control to contend with, introduced by the small sensor, leaving shots with a lot of background detail you must be mindful of when composing your footage. There is also noticeable grain even at modest ISO settings.

You’re also limited to Full HD (1080p), with no provision for 4K. This is likely to bother hybrid content creators who want to capture both still images and B-roll for reels on Instagram and TikTok, particularly those searching for a do-everything camera to take with them on their travels.

The stuttery zoom and autofocus also become a problem when shooting video. On several occasions, the AZ653 lost focus altogether in the middle of a clip, and failed to find it again despite being outdoors in good light, with plenty of contrast to lock on to. Irritatingly, audio is disabled while zooming during recording, most likely to remove the noise created by the motor.

However, with no audio jack or accessory shoe to plug in an external mic, this basically renders the camera useless for video when the subject matter requires reframing mid-footage. There is a USB-C port, so technically you could plug in a wireless receiver such as the one provided with the DJI Mic Mini, but this would also make it impossible to hold the handgrip, located just in front.

Kodak Pixpro AZ653: Verdict

The Kodak Pixpro AZ653 is not a bad camera. As far as entry-level cameras go, it actually represents reasonable value. For less than $500, you’re getting a feature set big enough for most beginners, enough resolution for online use, a sharp lens with an incredibly versatile focal range, and a premium handling experience.

As long as you’re aware of the limitations of the small sensor area, and are willing to accept the poorer low-light performance in exchange for an ultra-lightweight build and form factor, the AZ653 will tick most of the boxes for a reliable travel companion.

That said, some fairly major compromises have clearly been made to keep the cost down. The LCD screen is disappointing, both in the preview quality and the lack of touch sensitivity and articulation. These can be seen as essential features in a camera made for 2026 audiences, and their omission is hard to ignore.

This is also not a camera I’d recommend you buy for video features. It is almost like video was included as a token rather than as an integrated part of the specification. It’s a shame as with provision for external accessories to be used, namely an external mic, the AZ653 would have been a near-perfect vlogging camera: small, discreet, and able to cover almost all subjects you might encounter in an average day.

As it is, the AZ653 seems like a bit of a relic of the 2010’s that has managed to live on well beyond its expected shelf life. However, if you can look past the obvious shortcomings, there is very limited competition for the balance of price and lens reach.

Alternatives