Our team at Photography Life wants to wish you a wonderful holiday season, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year! I hope you’re able to spend time with family and friends this week. These last few days, I’ve been editing landscape photos from a hike that I did earlier this month, where I not only took photos but also filmed a video that will be published on our YouTube channel next year. Lots of new and exciting things are coming to Photography Life in 2024, and we’ll be sharing more info with you soon!
For now, here’s the news from last week in the photography world.
Recent Announcements
- TTArtisan 10mm f/2 for APS-C: It’s an all-manual lens, but at $174, this is one of the most affordable ways to achieve an ultra-wide perspective on APS-C cameras. It weighs about 0.75 pounds (340 grams) and fits Nikon Z, Sony E, Fuji X, M4/3, and Canon RF mounts.
- Panasonic Reorganizes: With videography continuing to grow in popularity, Panasonic is transferring their professional AV business to their company Panasonic Entertainment & Communication. This should consolidate all their audio/video resources under the same umbrella and strengthen their imaging business, where they expect “high growth” in the coming years.
- Adobe Terminates Figma Acquisition: Adobe just paid Figma $1 billion to terminate a planned $20 billion acquisition of the competing graphic design company. The acquisition attempt ran into a number of issues with anti-competition regulations, especially in the UK.
The Rumor Mill
More potential Nikon Z6 III specifications
New Nikon Z6 III rumors reported by Nikon Rumors suggest the upcoming camera could have dual EXPEED 7 processors, 6K/30p and 4K/120p N-log video, a similar autofocus system to the Z9, and an improved cooling design. Previous rumors suggested a 24.5 megapixel camera. It’s so early that you should take these rumors with a grain of salt, however!
Canon EOS R3 Mark II in 2025?
Canon’s high-end EOS R3 primarily gained headlines because of its autofocus system that detects the photographer’s eye and where the photographer is looking. However, it’s also been a bit of a sleeper hit among sports and wildlife photographers who don’t need more than 24 megapixels. There are no details yet about an EOS R3 Mark II’s potential specifications.
Canon RF 35mm f/1.2 “Confirmed” for 2024
Canon Rumors is reporting that the long-awaited RF 35mm f/1.2 will arrive in the first half of 2024. They don’t have any additional specifications, but the article states that they’re “as sure about this as [they] are about anything” and that it will be an f/1.2 lens rather than f/1.4.
Good Deals and New Sales
Most of this year’s holiday sales are coming to a close, including top deals on cameras and lenses that are scheduled to expire December 31st. That includes:
Nikon
- Nikon Z8 (was $4000, now $3700)
- Nikon Z5 (was $1400, now $1000)
- Nikon D850 (was $3000, now $2500)
- Nikon Z 14-30mm f/4 S (was $1350, now $1150)
- Nikon Z 17-28mm f/2.8 (was $1200, now $1000)
- Nikon Z 24-70mm f/2.8 S (was $2400, now $2100)
- Nikon Z 28-75mm f/2.8 (was $1200, now $900)
- Nikon Z 70-200mm f/2.8 S (was $2700, now $2400)
- Nikon Z 400mm f/4.5 S (was $3250, now $3000)
- Nikon AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8E VR (was $2100, now $1600)
- Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8E (was $2350, now $1900)
- Nikon AF-S 200-500mm f/5.6E (was $1400, now $1060)
- Nikon AF-S 500mm f/5.6E PF (was $3600, now $3300)
Sony
- Sony a7R V (was $3900, now $3500)
- Sony a7 II with kit lens (was $1600, now $1000)
- Sony 20mm f/1.8 G (was $900, now $800)
- Sony 24mm f/1.4 GM (was $1400, now $1300)
- Sony 90mm f/2.8 Macro (was $1100, now $1000)
Fuji
- Fujifilm GFX 100S (was $5,999, now $4,399)
- Fujifilm GFX 50S II (was $3,999, now $2,999)
- Fujifilm X-H2S (was $2,499, now $2,299)
- Fujifilm X-H2 (was $1,999, now $1,849)
- Fujifilm X-S10 (was $999, now $899)
Zeiss
Other Pages of Interest
NASA managed to send a 15-second video clip 19 million miles through space, traveling from the Psyche mission’s spacecraft back to Earth. The high-definition video shows a cat named Taters playing with a laser; appropriately, the video was beamed toward us with lasers, too. See the video and read more here.
In more space news, the Hubble Telescope just captured a beautiful interstellar Christmas tree. The image, taken in infrared light, depicts the stellar cluster NGC 2264, also known as the Christmas Tree Cluster. The stars are within the Milky Way galaxy “just” 2500 lightyears from Earth.
For some terrestrial inspiration this week, the International Landscape Photographer of the Year competition has just released its results for 2023. You can see many of the winning images here.
Photo Theme Challenge, Week #29
Last week’s theme was distance, and you can see the results in this thread. Thank you to everyone for your submissions! This week’s theme is best of 2023, and you can submit your results in this thread by Friday, December 29!
Week #28 Results
First is a very interesting photo by Navroz H. Dabdi depicting Jupiter, four of its moons, and our own moon all in the same image:
Next is a compelling image of a field fading into the distance, taken by rjbfoto:
Finally, I was partial to the gentle fog and soft, three-dimensional quality of this photo by bourdett:
Thank you to everyone who submitted their photos to this week’s challenge! There are a lot more great photos that you can see in the original thread.
And don’t forget that this week, the challenge is “Best of 2023” – I’ll be sharing more photos than normal next week as we wrap up the year in style.
Finally, as I take a bit of time off for the holidays, Photography Life’s weekly lens reviews will resume Tuesday, January 2nd.