The Prime Day deals have landed, and there are some surprisingly good sales to be had on the best action cameras and 360 cameras. I'm Pete, senior reviews editor here at Tom's Guide, and I've tested every major action and 360 camera launched for the last few years.

Normally, we see the best deals on this kind of gear later in the year around Black Friday, but the Prime Day discounts are genuinely really good. That's right, Prime Day is rivaling Black Friday this year!

My favorite deal so far is on the GoPro MAX2, which is currently just $299 at Amazon. That's $200 off the MSRP, which is a crazy deal. This is GoPro's latest 360 camera, and it's now massively undercutting its rivals from Insta360 and DJI.

Vloggers, now is the time to invest in an upgrade! The DJI Osmo Pocket 3 — a YouTuber's staple — is currently over $120 off at Amazon. This is the quickest and easiest way to get professional looking footage for social and YouTube.

Without further ado, here are all my favorite Prime Day action camera deals. I've only added deals I would recommend. While there are lots of deals out there that might look good (ahem, Hero13 Black, ahem), they're not actually good value so aren't included.

Quick list

• GoPro LIT Hero: was $269 now $179 @ Amazon
• DJI Osmo Action 4: was $299 now $179 @ Amazon
• Insta360 X3: was $299 now $229 @ Amazon
• DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro: was $339 now $288 @ Amazon
• GoPro MAX2: was $499 now $299 @ Amazon
• DJI Osmo 360: was $467 now $257 @ Amazon
• Insta360 X4 Air: was $439 now $324 @ Amazon
• DJI Osmo Pocket 3: was $499 now $378 @ Amazon
• Insta360 X5: was $549 now $434 @ Amazon

DJI deals

GoPro deals

Insta360 deals

U.K. deals

We're tracking all the best Prime Day deals

When I'm not writing 10,000 words a week, I can usually be found playing video games, at a concert, planning my next tattoo... or out on a walk with a camera in hand. I've loved photography for as long as I can remember, and I'm very lucky that I get to bring my love of photography to my job.

As a reviews writer at Tom's Guide, I test the best mirrorless cameras, and last year alone, I reviewed nearly 30 cameras! And I'm showing no signs of stopping this year. For the last two weeks, I've been putting the Canon EOS R6 Mark III through its paces, and now that I've finished testing it, I can confirm that it's a phenomenal mid-range shooter.

Once I'd finished testing the EOS R6 Mark III, I took a look at how many photos I'd taken on it — and there were 6,569 stills for me to sift through. Many of them were throwaways or part of burst sequences (of which I only edited and finalized a few). I've been thoroughly impressed and delighted with the photos I've taken, so I thought I'd share my favorites with you. So please, enjoy!

Wildlife

Some of my favorite subjects to photograph are animals and birds, and the Canon EOS R6 Mark III is adept at wildlife photography. What I love about the EOS R6 Mark III is its rapid autofocus system featuring no fewer than a whopping 6,097 selectable points. In my testing, I found the EOS R6 Mark III was quick to lock onto the subjects I was photographing. It didn't falter even once.

All the images in the gallery above were captured with the AF set to Auto, and the camera was quick to recognize the subjects as birds, so it switched to Animal Detection.

When I wanted to capture birds in flight or in action, I took full advantage of the camera's 40fps sequential shooting or high-speed drive. The EOS R6 Mark III is capable of capturing 330 JPEGs and 150 RAW images with its electronic shutter. 40fps drive ensures you never miss a moment of action, and 0.5 seconds of pre-burst capture records 20 frames when you half-press the shutter button.

As soon as I spotted the two pairs of moorhens fighting with each other, I pointed the camera in their direction, and it locked onto them. I then fired off a burst (while 'Kung Fu Fighting' by Carl Douglas played in my head) and captured hundreds of images of the birds attacking one another with their feet and beaks. You can see a few of the sequential images in the gallery above.

Portraits

Alongside being a fast camera, the Canon EOS R6 Mark III is great for portraits, whether those are taken indoors or outdoors. The 32.5MP CMOS sensor captures plenty of detail, and there's enough room for making tight crops in post-production. Human subject detection and tracking is fantastic, and if the camera can't detect any eyes, it automatically and seamlessly switches to face and body detection, so the EOS R6 Mark III is very reliable.

There are a few in-camera filters to play with too, such as Vivid, Warm, Cool, and Monochrome, to name a few. The black and white color profile is adept at capturing dramatic portraits. I took a couple of photos of my colleagues in the Monochrome filter, as you can see above. Also, thanks to up to 8.5-stops of in-body image stabilization (IBIS), you can confidently shoot at slow shutter speeds when lighting isn't adequate.

The portraits I captured outdoors turned out just as lovely, even when the lighting was unpredictable and uncontrollable (unlike in a controlled studio environment). I adore the photos of my partner in the gallery above. The colors have come out beautifully, and I love the different shades of gray in the first slide.

Landscapes

The Canon EOS R6 Mark III is truly a jack of all trades, and if you pair it with a wide-angle lens, like the Canon RF 14mm f/1.4 L VCM, you've got a winning combination for landscape photography. You can capture a lot of the scene, as I did in the photos above.

Another feature that makes the EOS R6 Mark III an outstanding landscape snapper is its excellent dynamic range. The camera excels at retaining both shadow and highlight detail. This gives you more wiggle room in post-production as you can lift the shadows to reveal detail, and recover highlights by pulling them down. The result is a balanced image where highlights don't appear blown out, and dark areas remain noise-free.

The EOS R6 Mark III is fully weather-sealed too, and it's protected against dust and moisture, so you can shoot confidently in changing environmental conditions. As someone who lives in the U.K., where it can start raining out of nowhere, you have no idea what a boon this is.

Details

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a massive fan of macro photography, but I've enjoyed capturing close-ups with the Canon EOS R6 Mark III. Well, the photos in the gallery above aren't exactly macros or close close-ups, but they're shots I've used to test the camera's ability to capture the finer details.

Thanks to the camera's 32.5MP CMOS full-frame sensor, the images are packed with detail, intricate textures, crisp edges, and fine gradations. As I mentioned earlier, you can crop a fair amount too to really highlight your subject — as I did with the photos of the bees on the flowers. The soft pastel shades of the flowers look gorgeous, too.

To sum up...

There's a lot more I can say about the camera, which is what my full, in-depth Canon EOS R6 Mark III review is there for, of course. For $2,799 at Adorama / £2,799 at London Camera Exchange, you're getting a camera that pulls out all the stops. 7K Open Gate video, CFExpress Type-B support, a 32.5MP sensor for beautiful photos, advanced autofocus, 8.5-stops of IBIS, and Canon's vaunted color science — all of these come together to deliver a powerful mid-range package.

Testing the EOS R6 Mark III has been a lot of fun, and if you're on the hunt for a camera that doesn't compromise on image quality and doesn't break the bank, few are better than this. Have you tried the EOS R6 Mark III yet, or would you like to? Let me know what you think in the comments below!

More from Tom's Guide

• I’ve taken over 6,000 photos on the Canon EOS R6 Mark III — and this feature-packed camera is nothing short of a mid-range masterpiece
• I tested the Canon EOS R5 Mark II to photograph wildlife — and this one feature has changed how I take photos forever
• ‘Few wildlife cameras come close to this’: why the OM System OM-1 Mark II is perfect for photographing birds in flight and other animals

Canon is no stranger to making some of the best mirrorless cameras out there, and the EOS R6 Mark III is one of the finest mid-range shooters you can buy today. Sitting comfortably between enthusiast and pro-grade cameras, it improves on its predecessor by introducing a 32.5MP sensor, 7K Open Gate video, and CFExpress Type-B support. It retains 40fps burst shooting for wildlife and sports photographers, but brings with it more advanced tracking which powers its excellent autofocus system.

On paper, the EOS R6 Mark III sounds like a standout choice for practically any genre of photography. In practice, it’s even more impressive. It’s responsive, dependable, and it delivers sharp, vibrant images. And even though the price has crept up and the camera’s overheating limitations may be frustrating for some, these shortcomings do little to overshadow what is otherwise a well-rounded camera in its class.

To find out whether you should buy it, and how I got on during the two weeks I spent with it, read my full Canon EOS R6 Mark III review.

Canon EOS R6 Mark III review: Specs

Canon EOS R6 Mark III review: Price & availability

The Canon EOS R6 Mark III, as its name suggests, is the third iteration of the EOS R6 and the third model in the lineup — and there’s a fourth, if you count the Canon EOS R6 V. The EOS R6 Mark III succeeds the three-year-old EOS R6 Mark II and is a little pricier than its predecessor ($300 precisely).

Its body is available for $2,799 at Adorama / £2,799 at London Camera Exchange. There are two kits available too: one with the RF 24-105mm f/4-7.1 IS STM lens for $3,149 / £3,149, and another with the RF 24-105mm F4L IS USM lens for $4,049 / £3,899.

Given this price and the camera’s features, the EOS R6 Mark III finds itself competing against the likes of the Sony A7 V ($2,899) and the Fujifilm X-H2S ($2,499), with both cameras boasting fast high-speed drives: 30fps and 40fps respectively.

Canon EOS R6 Mark III review: Design

If you put the Canon EOS R6 Mark III next to its predecessor, you’d hardly be able to differentiate between the two. The EOS R6 Mark III features an almost identical physical body design, sculpted grip, and control layout. But if something ain’t broke, don’t fix it, and the EOS R6 Mark III is wonderful to handle.

Its protruding grip is spacious enough to wrap your fingers around and even use the camera one-handed comfortably — if you’ve got medium-sized hands like I do, at least. Dimensions remain fairly identical too, with the EOS R6 Mark III measuring 5.44 x 3.87 x 3.48 inches and weighs 1.54lbs with battery and memory cards. It doesn’t feel bulky or too heavy to carry around my neck or in my backpack.

The camera’s overall handling will naturally be affected by the lens you’re using. I tested the Canon RF 28-70mm F2L USM and the Canon RF 14mm F1.4L VCM lenses with it, and the former on its own weighs nearly 3.2lbs. The kit, then, weighs approximately 4.7lbs which sounds like a lot, but thanks to great weight distribution and the EOS R6 Mark III’s sculpted grip, I didn’t find it too unwieldy to handle.

Viewfinder

The EOS R6 Mark III’s 0.5-inch OLED electronic viewfinder (EVF) is spacious and comfortable to look through, and it’s plenty bright too. It has a resolution of approximately 3.69 million dots so you get a sharp, detailed and life-like representation of the scene you’re capturing, and this, in turn, helps you accurately frame and capture your subject.

This is the same resolution as the Sony A7 V and the Panasonic Lumix G9II ($1,899), but it’s a little lower than the similarly priced OM System OM-1 Mark II’s 5.76 million dots ($2,399). If you want a higher-res EVF, you’ll have to splurge on the likes of the Sony A1 II ($6,499) or the Sony A7R VI ($4,499), both of which pack 9.44 million dots each in their EVFs.

One thing I love about the EOS R6 Mark III’s viewfinder is its 120Hz refresh rate — which is the same as the OM System OM-1 Mark II and the pricier Canon EOS R5 Mark II ($4,299). The fast refresh rate ensures subjects you’re tracking remain free of motion blur, and the camera delivers smooth and realistic motion — great for fast-paced wildlife or sports photography.

It’s important to note that the EOS R6 Mark III doesn’t feature blackout-free shooting. That means in the EVF you get short bits of black screens between shots. They’re hardly noticeable by the naked eye, especially when shooting at 40fps, although this will obviously be an issue for sports or wildlife photographers, but those people should be looking at a high speed blackout-free camera like the Sony A1 II or A7R VI instead. Or, if you can sacrifice sensor real estate, the OM System OM-1 Mark II.

Monitor

The EOS R6 Mark III’s rear panel houses the 3-inch TFT LCD touchscreen which has a resolution of approximately 1.6 million dots. This is the same resolution as that on the OM System OM-1 Mark II and the Fujifilm X-H2S. It’s a little lower than on the Sony A7 V (2.09M) and the Canon EOS R5 Mark II (2.1M), but it’s still bright enough that I haven’t had trouble reading the screen even in direct sunlight.

In my testing, I found the EOS R6 Mark III’s touchscreen highly responsive as all of my taps and swipes were registered instantly. The vari-angle mechanism also meant that I could shoot at awkward angles with ease, like when I wanted to take a low-angle photo of a duck loafing on the ground, or of birds flying right overhead.

Ports

Canon hasn’t spared any expense when it comes to the EOS R6 Mark III’s ports, and the camera features better connectivity when compared to its predecessor. You’ll find the battery compartment on the bottom plate, and this houses an upgraded LP-E6P battery pack. Located next to this is a standard tripod mount thread.

All other ports are located on the camera’s left-hand edge, and they’re protected by dust- and water-resistant covers. The biggest upgrade, in terms of connectivity, is the presence of a full-size HDMI Type-A port on the EOS R6 Mark III (versus Micro HDMI Type-D on the EOS R6 Mark II). Next to the HDMI port is a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 for charging, data transfer, and 4K/60fps UVC live-streaming functionality (a first for an EOS body). And as this is a hybrid stills and video camera, there are two 3.5mm jacks for a mic as well as headphones, and a 2.5mm remote control terminal.

Two memory card slots are located on the EOS R6 Mark III’s right-hand edge. While the EOS R6 Mark II featured dual UHS-II SD card slots, its successor has one SD/SDHC/SDXC UHS-II card slot and one CFExpress Type-B slot, supporting up to 8TB. The latter is there to match the camera’s higher resolution, accommodate 7K RAW files, and sustain the 40fps drive.

Weather-sealing

The EOS R6 Mark III features virtually identical weather-sealing to the EOS R6 Mark II — which means it’s resistant against sand, dust, moisture and rain. You should be able to use the camera in challenging conditions comfortably. I’ve tested it in light rain and haven’t had to worry about water getting inside or damaging the monitor.

Canon EOS R6 Mark III review: Controls

As I alluded to earlier, the Canon EOS R6 Mark III’s control layout is fairly similar to that of its predecessor’s. Though it’s cheaper, I’ve found the EOS R6 Mark III as easy to use (and get to grips with) as the pricier EOS R5 Mark II. All the buttons and dials are well-placed and within easy reach. There’s also a Lock switch located between the On and Off button which prevents accidental settings changes.

Many of the EOS R6 Mark III’s buttons are customizable via the settings menu. For those who photograph different genres, there are three Custom Shooting Modes — C1, C2 and C3 — located on the mode dial. You can tailor settings, such as autofocus modes, button layouts, and exposure parameters, and save entire custom setups to these.

I also like how thoughtfully-placed the customizable buttons are. For instance, the Rate button located in the top-left corner of the rear panel can be fully customized, and I found it easy to press with my left thumb. There’s a Multi-Function (M-Fn) button near the shutter button on the top plate which I customized to swap between drive modes.

The EOS R6 Mark III’s menu system is, as per, a joy to use. I’ve always enjoyed how well-designed Canon’s color-coded menus are, with everything easily understandable even by those who may be picking up a Canon for the first time.

Canon EOS R6 Mark III review: Autofocus

The EOS R6 Mark III utilizes Canon’s Dual Pixel CMOS AF II autofocus system to detect and lock on to humans, animals/birds, and vehicles. The EOS R6 Mark III features no fewer than 6,097 selectable points, which is a hell of a lot more than the Sony A7 V’s 759 points and the Fujifilm X-H2S’s 425 points.

Regardless of the subject I was photographing, I found the EOS R6 Mark III quick to focus. Similar to the Sony A1 II and Canon EOS R5 Mark II, the EOS R6 Mark III features Auto subject-detection, so when that’s selected, the camera automatically switches between human, animal and vehicle detection.

I found this extremely useful when going from photographing birds at the park to my partner, and then randomly jumping to a bicycle. Not once did the EOS R6 Mark III fail to detect the subject. If you want the camera to do even more thinking for you, you can toggle AI Focus, which is an intelligent autofocus setting that automatically changes between One Shot (for still subjects) and Servo (for tracking motion). This is handy for when you’re photographing birds and they suddenly fly away, as an example.

The photos in the gallery above were taken with the EOS R6 Mark III’s autofocus set to human detection. I love that the camera automatically switches between Eye, Face, Head and Body detection, thanks to its deep learning AF system. It searches for the eyes first and if it can’t find one, it seamlessly switches to finding other body parts. I appreciated not having to swap between these detection settings every time.

Indoors, in a photo studio with bright lights, the camera was quick to lock onto my colleague’s eyes, as you can see in the first slide. Outdoors, I was impressed by the EOS R6 Mark III detecting and locking onto the person holding the umbrella, even though you can’t see their face and their body is obscured by the bridge’s railings. Similarly, it was quick to focus on my partner, too.

Animal/bird detection works just as well if not better. The EOS R6 Mark III quickly locked onto the swan in the first slide in the gallery above, and I could see on the monitor that it was focusing on the eyes — even though they aren’t that obvious. In the second shot, even though the moorhen chick was far away and small, the EOS R6 Mark III didn’t struggle to find it, and likewise, it was adept at focusing on the group of ducklings huddled together in the third shot.

I’ve enjoyed using the EOS R6 Mark III’s focus joystick too, as the omission of which I always miss when testing cameras like the Leica Q3 43 ($7,380). I’ve used it extensively to quickly reset focus points, and even used it to focus on a specific subject in a crowded area, like in the photo of the pigeon drinking water (above).

Canon EOS R6 Mark III review: Stabilization

Depending on the lens you use with it, the Canon EOS R6 Mark III is capable of delivering up to 8.5-stops of in-body image stabilization (IBIS). This means that you can shoot at slow shutter speeds handheld and in low-light conditions without worrying about blur from camera shake.

The RF 28-70mm F2L USM lens I tested doesn’t feature any stabilization (bizarre, I know) so for the two photos above, I relied entirely on the EOS R6 Mark III’s IBIS. The first image was shot at 1 second and the second at 2 seconds. As you can see, the first shot is clear and stable while the second has been impacted by camera shake — and I expected that, given the weight of the lens. But this is great as it shows the camera’s stabilization works excellently.

I then took a few photos at varying shutter speeds with the RF 14mm F1.4L VCM which, again, doesn’t feature an image stabilizer. But because the lens is much lighter than the RF 28-70mm F2L USM, my hands didn’t feel as unstable and I was able to shoot at even slower shutter speeds. The image above was captured at 4 seconds!

Canon EOS R6 Mark III review: Image quality

I’m yet to test a mirrorless camera from Canon that doesn’t produce stunning images. The EOS R6 Mark III is an imaging powerhouse, packing a 32.5MP full frame CMOS sensor. Boasting Canon’s vaunted color science, color reproduction is faithful and true to life, and different shades and hues look beautiful. You can see a few sample images in the gallery above. All the colors are well-balanced with none appearing oversaturated or light on contrast.

While the EOS R6 Mark III doesn’t feature a sensor as high-res as, say, the Canon EOS R5 Mark II with its 45MP Stacked CMOS or the Sony A7R VI with its 66.8MP Stacked CMOS, you still get enough resolution to create crops.

The first image in the gallery above is an extreme crop of the second, and the third of the fourth. That’s as far as I could crop in without losing detail. In the portrait of the pigeon, you can still make out its individual neck feathers, and you can still see the different skin texture in the photo of my partner.

Like many other cameras from Fujifilm and Sony, the EOS R6 Mark III comes with built-in picture styles and filters, such as Vivid, Monochrome, Cool, Warm, and so on. In the gallery above, the first photo was taken with Vivid, the second with Cool, and the third and fourth in Monochrome.

I love how the greens pop and look bright in the first shot, and the green water in the second shot appears muted and cinematic. Meanwhile, the shadows look deep and highlights look bright (but not too bright) in the grayscale images, making the Monochrome filter great for portraits.

High-speed drive

The EOS R6 Mark III utilizes Canon’s DIGIC X processor for 40fps sequential shooting with the electronic shutter, and the camera captures 330 JPEGs and 150 RAW images in this mode. Having 40fps drive at your disposal means you can capture every single moment of action, which makes the EOS R6 Mark III a strong choice for wildlife and sports. If you want an even higher drive, the OM System OM-1 Mark II boasts 120fps blackout-free sequential shooting, but you’d be sacrificing resolution for that.

I found 40fps to be more than sufficient for capturing birds in action, as you can see in the gallery above. With the camera set to High-speed Continuous Shooting+ via the Drive quick menu, I was able to photograph the pigeon landing on the stump, and the crow frantically hopping about with a berry in its mouth. The electronic shutter also has a shutter speed of 30s to 1/16,000s, giving you plenty of speed to capture blur-free images.

Thanks to the 40fps burst and best-in-class autofocus, I was able to capture a series of photos featuring two pairs of moorhens fighting with each other, and you can see four shots of that in the gallery above. I was limited by the RF 28-70mm F2L USM’s longest focal length which prevented me from getting really close-up shots, so imagine what you could do with a telephoto lens, like the RF 200-800mm F6.3-9 IS USM ($2,249).

Similar to many other high-speed Canon cameras, the EOS R6 Mark III supports pre-burst capture up to 0.5 seconds, and unlike its predecessor, you don’t need to enable the RAW Burst mode to do so. The EOS R6 Mark III records 20 frames when you half-press the shutter button and these are saved to your memory card when the button is fully pressed — handy for never missing a split-second moment.

ISO performance

The EOS R6 Mark III boasts good high ISO performance. It has a base ISO of 100 and it tops out at 102,400, just like the Sony A1 II, the Sony A7R VI, and the Canon EOS R5 Mark II. To see how it fared, I put the EOS R6 Mark III through an extreme ISO test indoors.

Images come out as you’d expect at ISO6400 so I’ll shift focus to high ISO values instead. The images above were shot at 12,800: the first is a JPEG export of the CR3 RAW file, and the second is the straight-out-of-camera (SOOC) JPEG. As you can see, the EOS R6 Mark III’s in-camera noise reduction has done well to reduce the noise or grain in the SOOC JPEG. There’s no loss in sharpness either as the legends on the scale are still discernible.

I then upped the ISO to 25,600. There’s a lot of noise in the JPEG export of the CR3 file (first slide above) but once again, the camera has done well to smoothing it out in the SOOC JPEG (second slide above). The blue background does appear a bit grainy but it’s far from ruinous. Again, there’s no drop in sharpness. This was also the case with the EOS R5 Mark II and the A1 II.

Finally, ISO 51,200, which is the limit I’d recommend pushing the EOS R6 Mark II — as a last resort, that is. As you can see in the SOOC JPEG (second slide above), the plant in the background has lost the sharpness around its leaves and it doesn’t look as detailed anymore. It has a watercolor effect which we’ve seen on micro four-thirds cameras, like the OM System OM-1 Mark II.

Dynamic range

The EOS R6 Mark III offers up to 14+ stops of dynamic range at base ISO100, so in theory, you can make extensive adjustments in post without negatively impacting image quality. To test this, I took a couple of photos outdoors and lifted the shadows and reduced the highlights in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.

In the backlit photo of my partner above (the original of which you saw earlier), the camera’s done a great job of maintaining highlight detail while also exposing for the comparatively dim unlit face.

The EOS R6 Mark III keeps shadows relatively noise-free too. In the gallery above, I reduced the highlights and lifted the shadows and doing so revealed many leaves that I couldn’t see in the first unedited shot.

Canon EOS R6 Mark III review: Video

The Canon EOS R6 Mark III doesn’t skimp on video either. It’s a powerful hybrid camera capable of recording 7K/30fps Open Gate video where it utilizes its entire uncropped sensor and resolution, as well as 7K/60fps RAW video. The presence of a full-size port means you can shoot 7K RAW ProRes via HDMI too. Naturally, you can record 4K video at 120fps too. You can see a sample video, shot in 4K at 60fps, above. The video looks smooth and plenty of detail has been captured. The colors look lovely, too.

Alongside these resolutions and framerates, the EOS R6 Mark III is capable of recording in Canon Log 2 and Canon Log 3, where the latter captures a wide dynamic range of up to 13.3+ stops. C-Log is usually reserved for Canon’s Cinema lineup, so it’s good to see it on the EOS R6 Mark III as well as the EOS R5 Mark II mirrorless cameras too.

While the EOS R6 Mark III boasts solid video specs, it doesn’t feature a built-in cooling fan or system, so it can get very hot, and in turn, it doesn’t last very long. Canon says that the camera can record 7K/60fps RAW for only 23 minutes at 73°F / 23°C. This isn’t great news for hybrid shooters, but this is why the Canon EOS R6 V exists. The EOS R6 Mark III’s video-first sibling features an active cooling fan and airflow vents to prevent shutdowns caused by overheating (and it even packs the same 32.5MP sensor).

Canon EOS R6 Mark III review: Battery life

Like I said before, the Canon EOS R6 Mark III introduces and utilizes a new and upgraded LP-E6P battery pack. It’s also compatible with LP-E6NH and LP-E6N packs but not with the original LP-E6. The EOS R6 Mark III is CIPA-rated for 620 shots when using the LCD monitor or 390 shots when using the EVF.

Of course, CIPA-ratings are generally conservative as they’re determined using strict and usually single-shot testing parameters, so more often than not, your camera will last you longer in the field. In my testing, I took nearly 2,500 photos before charging the camera. Your mileage will heavily depend on your shooting settings and modes.

For the purposes of comparison, we’ll use the 620-shot LCD CIPA-rating. This is slightly lower than the Sony A7R VI’s 670-shot, the Sony A7 V’s 750-shot, and the Fujifilm X-H2S’ 720-shot battery life. The EOS R6 Mark III upstages the OM System OM-1 Mark II, though, which is rated for 520 shots. But like I said, the EOS R6 Mark III has lasted me comfortably for a full day’s worth of shooting, so you should get by just fine.

As for video, while the EOS R6 Mark III is capable of shooting 7K/30fps RAW and Open Gate, it’s worth noting that it doesn’t feature an active built-in fan or cooling system, so it has a tendency to overheat, as it did in my testing after about 20 minutes. It’s disappointing that the EOS R6 Mark III doesn’t cope well once it gets too hot (sounds like me during a heatwave), but like I said, that’s one of the reasons why the EOS R6 V, the lineup’s video-first camera, exists.

Canon EOS R6 Mark III review: Verdict

Canon’s EOS R6 lineup hasn’t failed to impress us so far. The EOS R6 Mark III delivers a genuinely well-rounded shooting experience. It feels at home capturing wildlife, sports, landscapes, studio portraits, travel, what-have-you. The combination of a sharp 32.5MP CMOS sensor, class-leading autofocus and stabilization, and 40fps burst shooting make the EOS R6 Mark III a remarkable creative tool. Throw Canon’s beautiful color science, intuitive controls and ergonomics into the mix and you’ve got a camera that’s easy to enjoy.

There are a few caveats, though. While the camera boasts 7K video capabilities, videographers will likely run into the camera’s thermal limits sooner than they’d like. Some rivals offer longer battery lives too.

But these compromises feel relatively minor when weighed against everything the EOS R6 Mark III offers. For photographers seeking a fast, versatile and dependable camera, this is one of the strongest options available today — and a worthy successor to the EOS R6 Mark II.

I’m a sucker for a cheap compact camera, and on the surface, the Yashica Tank ticks all the boxes. It’s fun, cute and easy to use, so could it be the best cheap camera for you? It’s a good option for anyone who wants a portable camera for taking quick snaps with friends without breaking the bank on a camera like the viral Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark III. Of course, you shouldn’t expect image quality like an expensive compact: it has more of a Y2K vibe. It also has a 180º flip screen to easily take selfies, and the controls are simple.

But it feels a little flimsy due to the low price point, and the lack of optical zoom means that if you want to zoom in, you have to sacrifice image resolution. The switch at the top of the camera for video and photos only lets you playback one format at a time, which is annoying, and occasionally, the shutter response is delayed.

That said, I still had a lot of fun with this camera, so to find out more about it, keep reading my full Yashica Tank review.

Yashica Tank review: Specs

Yashica Tank review: Price & availability

The Yashica Tank is available for purchase directly from the Yashica online store for $101 / £75. It’s available in four different colors, including Pink Marshmallow, Sky Blue, Black and Brown.

The camera very much resembles the Kodak PIXPRO C1, which costs $99. This camera has the same tiny style, a 12MP sensor, and you can use built-in digital filters, like on the Yashica. But if you want something for a similar price with superior zoom capabilities, you should check out the Kodak PIXPRO FZ45 ($99). This camera has optical zoom and digital zoom, whereas the Tank only has digital zoom, which decreases the quality of the image when zoomed in.

If you’re looking for a hobby camera to throw in your bag for taking fun pictures with friends, the Tank is fine. But, if you want something that can actually take good photos, then you’d need to spend more money and look at a camera like the Lumix ZS99 ($499). The ZS99 has more resolution, a 30x optical zoom to get great zoomed-in shots, and is still compact enough to take with you everywhere.

Or if you need something for adventurous trips that can withstand a little roughhousing, then check out the rugged 16MP Pentax WG-1000 ($196). It can withstand water submersion and drops from height. With that said, the Tank is good for hobby photography with friends.

Yashica Tank review: Design

You can’t deny it, the Yashica Tank is incredibly cute. It’s a compact camera, so, as that moniker implies, it’s very small. In fact, it’s smaller than my iPhone 17, measuring just 3.9 x 2.2 x 0.1 inches. This meant I could throw it in my bag and shove it in my pocket without worrying about it taking up too much space. It weighs just 3.7 ounces, which is lighter than the Kodak PIXPRO C1 (5.2 ounces).

Despite the “Tank” name, the Yashica feels delicate. As you might expect from the cheaper price point of this camera and its light weight, it feels a little flimsy. While it doesn’t feel like it’s going to break on you, it feels more like a toy than a camera. The Pentax WG-1000, for example, feels a lot sturdier and more reliable.

The front of the camera sports a faux leather finish made from silicone, which is very comfortable to hold, especially when using it in the selfie position. The flash is located at the top right of the camera, just above the lens. The base of the camera also has a tripod mount next to the battery compartment.

I have the camera in the light pink color, which can be found on the website labeled under ‘Pink Marshmallow.’ This name should tell you all you need to know about this camera — it’s just for fun. The pink color reminds me of the compact camera I had when I was six years old… and the results are pretty similar too.

Ports

The Yashica Tank only has a USB-C port for charging and data transfer. It’s great to have this universal port as I was able to plug it in to charge anywhere. The camera uses a microSD card and has no internal storage.

Monitor

If you want to use the Tank for vlogging or taking selfies, the handy 3-inch LCD screen flips up at a 180º angle. It’s important to note, though, that it has a 360 x 640 resolution and is very pixelated, so you won’t get a good idea of what the image looks like until you download the files.

The monitor itself looks exactly like the screen of the Kodak PIXPRO C1 and moves in the same way. This LCD screen is very bright, and even on the lowest brightness setting, it was hurting my eyes in low-light settings.

Weather-sealing

The Tank has no official durability rating, so be careful not to drop it or get it wet. For added protection, the camera comes with a small cloth bag that covers the lens and screen, but it won’t do much in adverse conditions. For a weather-sealed option, you should try the Pentax WG-1000, which can withstand drops from a height and is waterproof.

Yashica Tank review: Controls

The Yashica Tank’s controls are very easy to get the hang of. Most of the controls can be found on the back, just to the left of the screen. At the top, you’ll find a dial to zoom in and out, and below this, a thumbrest when using the camera one-handed. You turn the flash on or set it to auto by pushing the joystick upwards. This joystick is also easy to use when navigating through the menu settings. Below this, you’ll find buttons for the display, menu, gallery and bin.

The menu is easy to use, and you can change color filters here, which is particularly handy when shooting. During setup, I made sure to go into the menu first and make sure all of my settings suited how I use the camera. For me, that meant lowering screen brightness to conserve battery, altering the aspect ratio, and setting stabilization and focus settings.

At the top of the camera, you’ll find the shutter button on the far right, the power button in the middle, and a switch on the left. This switch toggles the camera between video and stills modes. To record with this camera, you have to switch to the video mode and then use the shutter button to start and stop recording.

You can also only view the videos you take when the switch is on video, and you can only view the pictures when the switch is on photo, which was confusing at first, since I was wondering where all of my photos had disappeared to.

Yashica Tank review: Lens

The Yashica Tank has a fixed focal length of 4.05mm. This is best suited to landscapes, group photos, and street photography, rather than close-up, detailed shots. The aperture of the camera is fixed at f/1.8, meaning a fairly shallow depth of field. The wide aperture is beneficial for low light, though. In my testing, it worked well across most lighting settings, apart from very extreme bright areas — here, it would’ve been useful to have a variable or narrower aperture to reduce overexposure.

You don’t get any optical zoom on the camera; instead having to make do with 8x digital zoom. Digital zoom essentially crops into an image to digitally enlarge it. The small 12MP sensor doesn’t give you much resolution in the first place, but you quickly lose a lot of those pixels the more you zoom in, resulting is a low-res image.

If you want a camera with a better zoom function, I would recommend a compact camera with an optical zoom as it retains the camera’s full sensor resolution at longer focal lengths. I’d suggest the Lumix ZS99, which boasts a whopping 30x optical zoom.

Yashica Tank review: Image quality

The Yashica Tank has a 12MP 1/2.8-inch CMOS sensor, which is just a little lower than the Kodak PIXPRO C1 and its 13MP sensor. For a compact with better quality, the Kodak PIXPRO WPZ2 ($179) has a 16MP sensor. The Tank can use built-in software to upscale (interpolate) internally to 24MP or 36MP, although this isn’t as good as having more actual pixels to begin with.

You can’t make any adjustments to the shutter speed of the camera. And on the note of the shutter, there’s a lot of lag between pressing the button and the shutter actually shutting. I often ended up with pictures of the floor due to this. To combat this, I manually turned on the shutter sound in settings and made sure to listen out for it — only moving the camera after I’d heard it.

Any adjustments to the ISO can be made in the camera’s menu. You can select between Auto, ISO 100, 200 and 400. In Auto, the ISO range is 110-6400, which is pretty fine for a camera like this and gives you some flexibility in lower light.

Image quality on a 12MP compact camera is never going to be the best. The Tank is no exception. Since compact cameras are making a huge comeback amongst younger generations as a bit of fun to capture a vintage, retro aesthetic, you don’t need much more than what you get from the Tank. Generally, the camera does a good job of keeping everything sharp.

When using the standard filter setting on the camera, the images felt pretty dull, as you can see in the gallery above, and I don’t think this reflected the color I was seeing in person very well.

As you can see from the pictures above, the camera gives you the option to use color filters that are kind of like film simulations. These include monotone, negative and lomo. Lomo (as seen in the images below) was my favorite option to use as it made all of the colors in the images a lot more saturated, which was perfect for taking pictures of the brightly colored streets of Porto.

The camera performs best in settings where the lighting is consistent. However, in scenes with a high dynamic range, where there are dark shadows as well as bright highlights, the camera struggles to capture detail across the full tonal spectrum.

In the image gallery below, the first image is straight out of the camera. In the shadows, some detail is lost to black, but some of this was recoverable in post-production, as visible in the second image — with the shadows brightened up, extra detail was revealed around the chairs on the left, although shadows were quite noisy. The highlights are also blown out in the brightest spots, on the tops of the umbrellas in the middle. However, for the price of the camera, this is reasonable, and I was expecting a lot worse.

In the images below, you can see how the Tank’s 8x digital zoom works. A lot of sharpness and clarity was lost as I zoomed into the church and the cloudy park behind, but it’s not the worst thing in the world. It won’t win any awards, but if you want a quick snap of some far-off scenery for yourself, then it’s good enough.

The minimum focusing distance is 10cm, so it’s not the best for getting close-up shots, and there’s no macro mode if you want to get really detailed shots. But again, it’s good enough for everyday photography, which is primarily what the Tank is about.

The autofocus on the Tank uses an AF assist lamp, which you can turn on or off. But at times, this lamp would be captured in the images, leaving me with a red hue over everything.

I found the autofocus to be good, and thanks to the camera’s flip-up screen, I was able to get my selfie positioning right for the focus to lock in.

Yashica Tank review: Video

While I mentioned earlier that you could use the Yashica Tank for video, I wouldn’t recommend it. The camera can shoot in 4K at 30fps which is actually very good for a camera of this size, but the electronic stabilization is shoddy at best, and it picks up on every little movement you make.

As you can see in the above video, it’s very hard to keep the camera steady as I pan around, and when zooming, this becomes even worse. Also, the wind buffeting in the microphone makes it virtually impossible to hear anything.

Yashica Tank review: Battery life

The Yashica Tank houses an 800mAh battery, which can capture 220 shots per charge. This would be passable… if it were true. My camera drained a lot faster than that. I had to charge the camera after about 50 shots. Granted, I was using the flash and also had the LCD screen on the highest brightness. When the brightness was turned down, the battery seemed to last a lot longer. You can get a lot more battery out of the Pentax WG-1000, which has enough power for 300 still images.

The camera can be charged via the USB-C port. It only took around an hour and a half to fully charge in my testing. There’s an indicator light to let you know when the Tank is charged.

Yashica Tank review: Verdict

The Yashica Tank is a fairly good choice for anyone looking to hop on the retro camera trend. It’s cheap enough that it’s not going to break the bank, and its compact style means it can easily be thrown in your bag or put in your pocket to take anywhere. The camera has a 180º flip screen, which is perfect for taking selfie-style photos, and the easy-to-use controls mean that anyone can pick up and use the camera. The image quality is fairly respectable, too, giving me good pictures of scenery and selfies, while the filters make stylized photos a piece of cake.

However, with the low price tag comes cheap build quality. The video to the camera switch on the top of the camera to view each format is annoying. The lack of optical zoom also means that it’s only really suited to wider scenes, as when using the 8x digital zoom, you’ll be sacrificing lots of resolution. You need to get a camera with optical zoom for better zoomed-in quality, like the Kodak PIXPRO WPZ2. I also found the Tank’s delayed shutter annoying at times.

But with that said, if you need a camera that’s cheap enough that you don’t need to worry about it getting damaged, and you just want to take fun photos on your travels and with friends, you can do worse than the Yashica Tank.

Over the last couple of years, I’ve seen phone makers dial down the optical zoom range of their telephoto cameras. The iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max are no exception to this radical change, as they ditch the 5x optical zoom of their predecessors for a 4x lens.

The average person will automatically think it’s a downgrade, but there’s more to it than just hardware zoom. That’s because the iPhone 17 Pro pairs that 4x optical zoom with a much larger 48MP sensor — up from the 12MP sensor on the previous iPhone 16 Pro. On top of that, the latest iPhones benefit heavily from new advancements in computational photography.

That’s why I wanted to see how the iPhone 17 Pro’s zoom performs against a modern mirrorless camera to see exactly which one delivers the best results. For this test, I’m specifically going to look at how the iPhone 17 Pro compares at 16x because it better illustrates the enhancements that Apple’s making. Here’s what I found.

What you need to know

First, let's talk about the $1,099 cost of the iPhone 17 Pro. That’s up $100 over its predecessor, but it’s one of the best camera phones around with good reason. Its triple-camera setup consists of a 48MP main sensor, a 48MP ultrawide, and a 48MP telephoto with 4x optical zoom.

By contrast, the Olympus E-M10 Mark IV I’m using packs a 20.3MP Four-Thirds sensor — but the ridiculous telephoto lens I’m pairing it with is what makes the setup just as versatile. I'm using the Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 12-200mm lens, which covers practically every focal length. While the E-M10 Mark IV is largely considered a budget model with a starting price of $799, the lens tacks on a whopping $1,099 to the bottom line. When you add them up, the Olympus kit comes out to $1,898 before any discounts — giving the iPhone 17 Pro a clear initial price advantage.

To ensure a fair comparison, I’ve adjusted the framing of the Olympus to align with the iPhone 17 Pro at 16x zoom. Because of the Olympus's 2x crop factor, this means setting the lens to a 200mm focal length to perfectly match the iPhone's field of view.

Finally, it’s important to mention their resolutions at this distance. The Olympus captures a full-sensor 20.3MP snapshot (5,184 x 3,888 pixels). Meanwhile, the iPhone 17 Pro relies on a 12MP crop on the center of the sensor (4,032 x 3,024 pixels) that uses computational photography to upscale the digital zoom back to size.

Test 1: Building under construction

If you’re looking at the comparison shots above on your phone, you’d be hard-pressed to see any major differences between them, apart from the warmer color temperature of the iPhone 17 Pro. There’s also slightly more contrast in the iPhone sample, but it's nothing I’d wager to be a deal-breaker — both are absolutely good enough to share on social media.

The true advantage for me emerges when I look closer at the details, like the individual bricks on the building. On the surface, it’s pretty clear that both cameras do a great job defining each brick. However, it becomes obvious that the Olympus draws out sharper details and more natural definition once you really inspect the textures.

Winner: Olympus E-M10 Mark IV

Test 2: Times Square

This matchup is fascinating because it showcases the power of the iPhone 17 Pro’s computational photography working heavily in the background. Looking at the two images at face value, it’s an overwhelming win for the iPhone — mainly due to how perfectly it balances the scene's complex exposure. From the rich blue sky to the darker, shadowed sections of the skyscrapers, it dials everything in just right.

The Olympus really struggles here, overexposing the entire frame in an attempt to compensate for the deep building shadows, which leaves the sky completely blown out. However, I’m still impressed by how well the iPhone 17 Pro matches the dedicated camera in pure definition — which is especially evident when you look closely at the wooden water tower in the lower-middle section of the frame.

Winner: iPhone 17 Pro

Test 3: Flower closeup

At the corner of Broadway and 42nd Street in New York City, there are several large flower beds, so I pointed both devices toward them from across the street. This time, there are distinct qualities I appreciate from both images.

For starters, the iPhone 17 Pro’s ability to deliver accurate colors and balance the exposure (IMG_1209.jpg) is downright impressive, especially with how well it preserves the finer details and red speckles on the yellow flower’s petals.

The Olympus (P5270184.jpg) again struggles to rein in the exposure, resulting in the slight highlight clipping you see on the main petals. However, its large sensor and glass lens pull through with a beautifully creamy, natural background blur that gives the entire shot a much more professional, artistic touch. Still, the Olympus blows out too many details.

Winner: iPhone 17 Pro

Test 4: Lefcourt Colonial Building

There are a lot of ornate details on the Lefcourt Colonial Building thanks to its Neo-Gothic architecture. While these 16x zoom samples look nearly identical at first glance, the matchup highlights the same processing differences I’ve noticed previously. This time, however, the Olympus E-M10 Mark IV nails the exposure on the stone facade a bit better.

That said, the iPhone 17 Pro’s shot holds up nicely because its deeper contrast delivers a much more dramatic look against the dark windows of the building behind it. You can’t really see the difference unless you crop in close, but the Olympus's true optical zoom proves to be far more effective at resolving the finest textures and sharpest lines in the architecture.

Winner: Olympus E-M10 Mark IV

Test 5: 40th Street Philosophers

Near my office, I often take photos of the 40th Street Philosophers nestled on the side of a building — with the iPhone’s shot getting my attention right away. That’s due to its warmer color temperature and the sharpening effect it applies. Side-by-side, it’s hard to tell which one has the stronger details.

However, zooming in again reveals the superior advantage of having a longer optical zoom because those fine details around the statue look more defined. That’s something most people will overlook if they just look at the general shot, but there’s a definitive winner the more I zoom into them.

Winner: Olympus E-M10 Mark IV

Test 6: Light Blue Pansy

The great thing about shooting with a long telephoto zoom is that it can sometimes mimic the tight framing of a macro shot. The images of the light blue pansy above are a perfect example of this, as both cameras do a nice job of isolating the flower from the background pavement. I’ll admit that the iPhone 17 Pro’s sample is better exposed, but to my eyes, it captures just as much raw detail and definition as its competitor.

I say this because zooming heavily into the pansy itself doesn't reveal any meaningful sharpness advantages for the Olympus. Plus, the dedicated camera's underexposure causes the surrounding green leaves to lose a noticeable amount of definition in the shadows.

Winner: iPhone 17 Pro

Test 7: A much closer shot of a building

So far, my previous skyscraper shots were taken from long distances, making them heavily affected by atmospheric distortion. For this next test, I captured the building from ground level looking straight up — eliminating all that extra air. This time, the results are pretty surprising because the iPhone 17 Pro does everything right, matching the Olymous' level of detail in the brickwork.

Meanwhile, the Olympus sample looks flat and again suffers from the same overexposure issues noticed in my earlier tests. The camera blows out the bright highlights, causing a significant amount of brick detail on the sunlit facade to be completely lost.

Winner: iPhone 17 Pro

Test 8: Perfume on a shelf

Moving indoors for this next test, I can easily make out the label on the perfume bottle in both shots, but a few key details give the Olympus the upper hand here. Not only is the Olympus significantly less noisy than the iPhone's, but the tiny fine print at the bottom of the bottle is much more legible. The dedicated camera also pulls off a slightly shallower depth of field, blurring the background bottles more effectively.

The iPhone 17 Pro’s snapshot is still adequate for casual use, but at this 16x digital stretch, it lacks the raw resolving power of the Olympus to sharpen that microscopic text without introducing heavy processing artifacts.

Winner: Olympus E-M10 Mark IV

Test 9: Co-worker portrait

While at the Tom’s Guide office, I captured a few portraits of my colleague Arif Bacchus — and they perfectly reinforce what I already know about these two setups. Immediately, I can see how the sharpness of the Olympus captures the finer, more natural details across his face, while its optical glass smoothly blurs out the background elements.

The iPhone 17 Pro’s shot is still decent, but it's overly warm and the finer details and overall definition are noticeably softer by comparison. Most people probably wouldn't spot the degradation if they only view the photo on a small phone screen, but the difference becomes glaringly obvious when you look at the samples on a larger monitor.

Winner: Olympus E-M10 Mark IV

Test 10: Moon shot

And finally, there’s the ultimate zoom test: a shot of the moon! This is a classic challenge for smartphone telephotos due to the reputation for how some phones digitally alter or enhance the scene. Because the moon is a glaringly bright speck against a pitch-black night sky, I had to rely heavily on manual touch-focusing and exposure sliders to pull out any usable detail. I ultimately had to drop the phone's exposure value all the way down, but the iPhone 17 Pro still managed a passable shot.

Meanwhile, I had to take similar steps with the Olympus because leaving it on automatic mode completely overexposed the moon into a featureless white blob. After switching over to full manual controls, I was able to dial back the exposure to cleanly capture the distinct craters and darker plains across the lunar surface. The mirrorless camera's sample is vastly more detailed, better exposed, and far more true-to-life.

Winner: Olympus E-M10 Mark IV

Bottom line

Am I surprised that the Olympus E-M10 Mark IV won more rounds than the iPhone 17 Pro? Not really. But then again, that dedicated camera setup demands a hefty $1,900 investment — which isn’t cheap by any means. The iPhone is still hundreds of dollars cheaper and proves how Apple’s years of refinement in computational photography allow it to consistently deliver better-exposed scenes.

When I look at all these comparison photos at face value, it’s incredibly impressive how far smartphone zoom technology has come. The phone's internal hardware is doing a fraction of the work, while software and image processing algorithims handle the heavy lifting.

While it ultimately lacks the sheer resolving power of the Olympus and its dedicated optical glass, the iPhone 17 Pro’s telephoto zoom performance is still absolutely worthy of sharing on social platforms.

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Nothing relaxes me more than a nighttime astrophotography session in my backyard. Since the start of the year, I’ve been testing a new smart telescope: the Seestar S30 Pro. While it looks almost identical to the Seestar S30 I used last year, the nebulas, galaxies, and star clusters I’ve captured look far more polished thanks to the upgraded hardware.

It all stems from the Sony IMX585 (STARVIS 2) sensor in its telephoto lens. Unlike the standard S30, it delivers full 4K resolution and vastly superior dynamic range. At the same time, the larger sensor yields a much wider field of view, allowing it to capture larger deep-space objects — like the Horsehead and Flame nebulas — in their entirety.

But the coolest part isn’t just that it shoots better astrophotography than my phone, it also captures some of the most epic nighttime timelapse clips I’ve ever recorded. Honestly, it’s a machine built to capture time in the most amazing way possible.

Movement of the moon and sun

You would think that by now I'd be tired of imaging the same things in the night sky. Because really, how many times do I need another shot of the moon? Most of the best camera phones on the market can pull off impressive lunar shots, capturing small details like craters and darker maria. But no matter how much phone manufacturers try to convince me otherwise, the Seestar S30 Pro proves why smart telescopes are lightyears ahead in terms of quality.

Just look at the shots I captured straight out of the telescope, without any additional enhancements or editing. The details are rich and plentiful, and even when I apply a digital zoom through the app, it still produces a true-to-life image that phones simply can’t match. But the coolest part is using the Seestar S30 Pro to record a timelapse.

A timelapse reveals how the moon subtly changes position and phase over a couple of hours — movements you can only appreciate when time is sped up. It’s a similar story with the sun once I install the included solar filter. Not only does the S30 Pro expose crisp sunspots on its surface, but a timelapse reveals how they shift across the solar disk due to the sun's rotation.

Unmatched performance

Don’t get me wrong, smartphones have come a long way, and so has their astrophotography performance. Over the last six months, I’ve used the Galaxy S26 Ultra, Pixel 10 Pro XL, and iPhone 17 Pro to shoot the night sky. While they do a decent job of capturing those twinkling stars, they simply lack the telephoto reach to resolve distant galaxies and nebulas.

The Seestar S30 Pro can turn any beginner into an expert after just a few sessions because you just select a target through the companion app, and the telescope takes care of the rest. There is simply no comparison to the images it produces. The beauty of the S30 Pro's wider field of view is its ability to easily handle massive deep-sky targets. For instance, I love that I can capture the Horsehead and Flame nebulas together in a single, perfectly framed shot.

Other smart telescopes, like the Unistellar Odyssey Pro and Seestar S50, feature longer focal lengths that allow them to zoom in much closer — but they struggle with expansive targets like the Andromeda Galaxy. Thanks to the S30 Pro's broader view, some of my favorite captures over the past three months include the Rosette Nebula (NGC 2244), the Needle Galaxy (NGC 4565), the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101), and the stunning Whirlpool Galaxy (M51).

Astrophotography timelapse

All of this brings me to why I’ve fallen in love with the Seestar S30 Pro: its remarkable timelapse ability. Because it stays completely stationary on its tripod, I can switch over to the secondary 4K wide-angle camera. Armed with a Sony IMX586 sensor and a wide 63-degree field of view, it keeps the horizon locked while capturing the mesmerizing sweep of the night sky.

The results are breathtaking. Most of the clips above are 15 to 30 seconds long, but I’ve sped them up and converted them into gif animations. It’s genuinely fascinating to see what happens to the sky over a few hours — and I’m not just talking about the stars. In fact, some of my favorite timelapses show fast-moving clouds rolling across the frame, dramatically parting to reveal the vibrant constellations hidden behind them.

Even though competitors like the Dwarf Mini are slightly more compact, the Seestar S30 Pro’s sheer performance and versatility remain unmatched. While I might have a tough time deciding which smart telescope to pack for a quick road trip, the Seestar is easily the better-equipped machine for tracking deep-sky objects and producing jaw-dropping nightscape timelapses.

Ultimately, the Seestar S30 Pro lives up to its promise as one of the coolest gadgets I've tested so far in 2026. It bridges the gap between casual smartphone photography and complex, traditional astrophotography rigs. By packing a crisp 4K telephoto sensor, advanced tracking, and a stellar wide-angle timelapse mode into a single portable package, it doesn't just look at the universe — it captures time itself.

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A few years ago, I put an action camera on my cat — the Insta360 GO 3 — to see what he saw as he roamed around our yard. Since then, Insta360 has come out with a newer version of its thumb-sized camera, so I wanted to see how it would perform.

The Insta360 GO 3S has an upgraded 4K camera, as well as a wide-angle lens so you can capture more of your surroundings. But what I really like about the camera — especially if you're going to send it out in the wild — is that it has Apple FindMy built in, so that if it somehow fell off my cat's collar, I'd be able to find it more easily.

When I first did this experiment, I put the Insta360 on what was then our younger cat, who was then about six or seven. Since then, we've adopted a younger cat, who's about a year and a half old, so he's a bit more inclined to run around.

Well guess what? Regardless of age, cats spend a lot of their time just sitting and looking at stuff, so much of the footage I captured was less than what you would call cinematic.

Another thing to bear in mind is that, although the Insta360 Go 3S can take 4K video, its battery is still pretty small. If you set the camera to continuously record, you'll end up with less than half an hour of footage.

When I set the camera to 2.7k/30 fps, I ended up with roughly 34 minutes of video; I then set the resolution to 1080p/30 fps, and was able to eke out nearly 37 minutes. The latter figure is close to the advertised runtime of 38 minutes; the older Go 3 can last a little longer, up to 45 minutes.

Probably the best video I (or he) took was when he was playing around with a small aluminum foil ball. He discovered early on that he could pick up the ball with his mouth and carry it to a spot where he could more easily bat it with his paws.

Of course, this is all dependent on your cat's willingness to wear the camera. The Go 3S comes with what the company calls an "Easy clip," which you can hook onto a traditional collar. My cat didn't mind it hooked to his collar too much, but he was often so active that he would remove the collar. The camera pod itself weighs a scant 3.4 ounces, so it's pretty unobtrusive.

So, for the second go-around, I used the Insta360 Pet Harness, which comes in both small and medium sizes. It has two mounting points for the camera, one above and behind the shoulders, and one below the chin.

There was some initial resistance when I first put the harness on the cat, but he stopped fussing pretty quickly.

Apart from capturing your pet's exploits, the Insta360 GO 3S is a pretty capable action camera. When attached to its action pod, it has a flip-up touchscreen, and it has other niceties like a six-axis gyroscope for motion stabilization.

In our Insta360 GO3S review, my colleague Peter Wolinski gave it a 4.5-star rating, and even named it one of the best action cams if you're looking for a small, compact device, and don't need a high-end camera for cinema-like experiences. As much as my cat is a diva, he doesn't need the star treatment, so a lower-res video is just fine for him.

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If you're wondering what the GoPro Mission 1 Pro and its siblings (the Mission 1 and Mission 1 ILC) are, there's both a simple answer and a complicated one.

The simple answer is that these action cameras are designed entirely with pros and hardcore creators in mind. When I say pros, I mean literal professional video producers: whether that's action sports filmmakers shooting The North Face's next YouTube documentary up in some Himalayan death zone; jobbing videographers filming anything from weddings to commercial client work; or even full-scale Hollywood movie producers.

When I say hardcore creators, I mean experienced content creators producing high-end stuff for YouTube. GoPro designed this camera not for beginners shooting TikToks, but to instead capture content creators further down their experience pipeline, when they start to get really serious. In both respects, the Mission 1 family is designed to be a portable alternative — perhaps replacement — to traditional full-sized mirrorless cameras and/or cine gear.

The complicated answer is, well... complicated. GoPro's struggles and share price are no secret, and in my opinion, it needed to innovate and pitch away from chasing mass consumer market share — it hasn't got much hope there globally, due to DJI cornering the market with its low prices. That's one for another article, though.

So, how is the Mission 1 Pro camera? And who should buy it? Find out in my full GoPro Mission 1 Pro review.

GoPro Mission 1 Pro review: Specs

GoPro Mission 1 Pro review: Price & availability

The GoPro Mission 1 Pro’s only real con is its price. At $699 / £599, it’s eye-wateringly expensive. You can shrink that to $599 / £509 with a GoPro subscription, while the lower-spec Mission 1 costs $599 / £529 (or $499 / £439 with a GoPro sub). Still not particularly appealing to general consumers.

There’s also the $699 / £599 Mission 1 Pro ILS, ($599 / £509 with a GoPro sub) which has a mirrorless interchangeable lens mount to fit manual focus M43 lenses. This makes it unique in the market and worth the spend if you want to do some creative filmmaking with your GoPro and M43 lenses.

But let me just return to that “not particularly appealing to general customers” bit. See, as I mentioned up top, the M1/M1 Pro aren’t really intended to be. The GoPro Hero13 Black is still on sale, and GoPro has confirmed to me that the Hero line isn’t dead. Those are for general consumers and casual creators.

Like I said, the M1 Pro is designed to be a professional alternative to a mirrorless and/or cine camera. Instead of trying to cram an A7S III or FX3 into a tight space, GoPro wants you to use the M1 Pro instead. And it's spec'd to give the kind of person who would own one of those other cameras what they need. In that light, to its target audience, the M1 Pro is actually an affordable alternative to extremely expensive pro gear.

GoPro Mission 1 Pro review: Design & controls

At a casual glance, the Mission 1 Pro looks very much like a Hero13 Black with a large lens hood. But put ’em side by side and these are very different cameras. For starters, the M1 Pro is enormous (for an action camera). The Hero line weren’t the sveltest flagship action cameras on the market anyway — in recent years, DJI’s Osmo Action line has always been a little leaner — but the M1 Pro is an unashamed chonk. Measuring 3.15 x 2.05 x 1.74 inches and weighing over 7 ounces, this is not the best option if you’re looking for something to mount on a chin or helmet. Mainly, the size is to accommodate the new 1-inch sensor, so it figures.

The larger design has resulted in a bigger screen, which has implications for controlling the camera, as I’ll discuss below. GoPro still hasn’t managed to remove the screen bezel though. The DJI Osmo Action 6’s smaller bezels look much nicer. Still, the M1 Pro’s rear screen is an OLED (finally, GoPro!), which is not only much crisper and nicer to look at, but brighter and easier to use in direct sunlight than the Hero 13 Black’s LCD. The OA6 also features an OLED.

Mounting

Making a return are GoPro’s trademark built-in mounting fingers, which remove the need for an adapter when mounting the camera to accessories with fork fingers — this being the vast majority of third-party accessories.

There’s also a magnetic quick release system, which is super handy for swapping accessories quickly, and is now de rigueur on flagship action cameras from GoPro, DJI and Insta360.

Controls

The Mission 1 Pro is the first GoPro I’ve ever tried that I didn’t dislike using. Partly, this is down to the increased screen size, finally giving the menu system the space it deserves. Secondly, there’s the menu system itself, which has been refined over the Hero 13 Black and GoPro MAX 2.

There’s still a highly detailed pull-down menu, but the touchscreen hosts (customizable) controls during live view, which have been spaced out, making them easy to hit. It’s not a revolution of GoPro’s historically cluttered menu, but a well-implemented evolution. It makes the camera so much easier to use than any GoPro before, even in tricky conditions and wearing gloves.

The Q/Power and Record buttons are now super chunky, too, and give very assured feedback when pressed. Again, I love to see it — operating an action camera in the heat of the moment, wearing thick mountaineering or motorcycling gloves, is easier said than done. This is another small quality of life feature that makes a big difference to the camera’s daily user-friendliness.

Connectivity

The Mission 1 Pro’s connectivity features are fairly run-of-the-mill. There’s the usual USB-C port, positioned annoyingly behind the battery door. That means your battery could fall out if you want to run a USB accessory. The door is also liable to getting jammed by longer fork mount screws, if you’re using one that happens to thread from the battery hatch side.

GoPro announced the M1 Pro alongside its own wireless microphone system, which will offer wireless connectivity to the camera. Obviously, this is an attempt to rival DJI’s camera/microphone ecosystem, and its versatility for content creators.

Unlike the Osmo Action 5 Pro and 6, there’s no built-in storage, which is a bit of a letdown. The OA6’s 107GB of built in storage gives much needed headroom when recording, and also allows faster transfer speeds — important when offloading 8K footage. However, if GoPro had added internal storage, the camera would've become even larger, so on balance, I don't mind seeing it left out.

The GoPro has a MicroSD slot, though, of course.

Waterproofing

In order to challenge DJI’s dominance over waterproofing, GoPro has managed to waterproof the M1 and M1 Pro down to 66 feet (20m) — one foot more than the OA6. This is a big step up over the Hero13 Black, which only manages 33 feet (10m).

GoPro Mission 1 Pro review: Stabilization

Unsurprisingly, the M1 Pro runs GoPro’s HyperSmooth stabilization system. No bad thing — it’s great. For a while, GoPro’s stabilization was unassailable by rivals. That’s no longer true, but it’s a level playing field now and GoPro isn’t on the back foot.

The M1 Pro’s HyperSmooth works perfectly. In most footage, even jerky walking videos, bumps are ironed out completely. It occasionally had issues with high frequency juddering, as in the motorcycle footage above, where one set of yellow painted lines on the road caused camera shake. But issues like that are rare and, for the most part, HyperSmooth does the job.

In the footage above, I was holding the camera without any accessories and crouching while walking. It was a very shaky affair, but the M1 Pro stabilized things extremely well, especially given this was shot at the widest field of view.

GoPro Mission 1 Pro review: Video

The Mission 1 Pro’s video looks, well, like classic GoPro footage: professional. 4K looks gorgeous out of camera. Blues and greens in particular are lovely and vivid, in both the standard and vivid color profiles. There’s an expected level of barrel distortion from the lens, but corners remain fairly sharp even at the wide and super-wide fields of view.

Dynamic range has been dramatically increased over the Hero13 Black, too, thanks to the new larger sensor and GP3 processor. GoPro claims 14 stops. It's noticeable when editing, with plenty of details in shadows and fairly good control over bright highlights (there were still a few blown highlights in the footage below, though). As action cameras go, this sensor is delivering the best imaging on the market right now.

If you’re shooting at 4K, there’s really not a whole lot of difference between the M1 Pro and the Hero13 Black, which also shoots lovely-looking footage. What separates the M1 Pro and marks it as a professional tool is its super versatile roster of features.

The M1 Pro shoots at up to 8K/60fps, giving it an edge over the 8K/30fps top-end of the DJI Osmo Action 6. Shooting in 8K allows for extra flexibility when editing, letting users crop into frame while maintaining a decent resolution, and allowing for oversampled 4K. The M1 Pro’s higher 60fps rate allows for smoother 8K than on the 30fps-capped OA6. That means you can still benefit from shooting first and cropping to 4K later, without sacrificing frame rate. Important in a professional action camera.

The M1 Pro shoots open gate (where it uses the entire uncropped sensor and resolution) at up to 8K/30fps in a 4:3 aspect ratio. Open gate means you can shoot first, frame later in the different aspect ratios you'll need for different platforms. The same recording can be cropped to 16:9 for YouTube and 9:16 for social with less risk of having to crop out important elements. Crucially, the M1 Pro’s open gate isn’t 8K/30fps locked. If you want to shoot 4:3 in 4K/60fps to reduce the file sizes, you’re still getting open gate — the camera is recording with the entire sensor then binning pixels down to 4K for extra sharp 4K out of camera.

GoPro has given slow motion some attention, too. At 4K the M1 Pro can shoot at 240fps, while at 1080p it’ll shoot at 480fps. You’ll only get a few seconds of recording at those frame rates, though, so slow motion is there for judicious use.

But the pro features keep coming! There’s live metering, meaning real-time on-screen readouts for WB, EV, ISO and shutter; 10-bit color; high bit rate capture up to 240Mbps (or 300Mbps via Labs); HLG HDR recording and GP-Log2 with an included LUT bank for grades; and timecode sync for lining up clips to separately recorded audio in post.

And, of course, there’s GoPro Labs compatibility. Labs is an open-source, online bank of custom firmware that can be loaded onto the M1 Pro to accommodate bespoke professional requirements. Need motion detection recording for wildlife camera traps, or to run a custom settings menu? Labs is the answer.

Low light

The M1 Pro features a 1-inch sensor, which is larger than any other action camera on the market (including the OA6) and comparable to bigger cameras like the DJI Osmo Pocket 4. A larger sensor usually means cleaner low-light footage thanks to bigger light-sensitive photosites (which translate to pixels in a digital image). To help further, the M1 Pro also features GoPro's latest GP3 image processor, for increased dynamic range and more efficient noise processing.

The result is fairly clean low light footage. As you can see in the still above and the video below, there's a noticeable loss of sharpness thanks to the GP3's noise suppression smoothing out any grain. But the processor has done a good job at the noise reduction, with very clean shadows. As action cameras go, I'd say this is as good as it gets in low light.

Remember, a 1-inch sensor isn’t gonna give an APS-C or full frame mirrorless camera a run for its money, but the M1 Pro’s low light footage is still as clean as it comes for action cameras. And remember too that this camera is designed to replace a larger traditional body where other factors are more important (like space or waterproofing) to filmmakers — the M1 Pro's low light performance is designed to make a more palatable trade off in those situations versus a typical action camera like the Hero13 Black or Osmo Action 6.

GoPro Mission 1 Pro review: Audio

Listening back to motorcycling footage shot on the M1 Pro for the first time, I was seriously impressed. As action cameras go, the four-mic array and wind reduction system in this camera are the best in the biz.

Motorcycling is a serious challenge for microphones, thanks to the wind buffeting and loud engine noises. The clip above was shot using the camera’s automatic wind reduction mode, which tailors the noise reduction so you’re getting the best balance of sound quality and noise cancellation (which can make audio sound compressed). The wind is audible, but not too distracting, and the bike’s engine noise has been well- preserved.

The only camera I’ve tested with better sound is the Insta360 X5 360 camera. But the M1 Pro’s mics beat other standard action cams pretty confidently.

In an attempt to play DJI at its own game, GoPro is also releasing a wireless microphone system that’ll hook up to the M1 Pro seamlessly, like DJI’s mics do with its cameras. Again, it's a direct attack on the upper-end of the content creator market. I’ve yet to test these, so I can’t comment on performance yet, but it's good to see GoPro building out an ecosystem for ease of use — that's a big selling point for full-time creators.

GoPro Mission 1 Pro review: App

I’m a big fan of GoPro’s Quik app. These days, it’s reliable (even in the beta version I tested), polished, and easy to use. Hooking up your phone and M1 Pro is super simple, and there are no regular Wi-Fi connectivity bugs as is always the case with DJI gear and their companion Mimo app.

Quik offers quick offloading of files to mobile, plus some basic editing features, including trimming, exposure editing, and applying basic filters or effects. Great for cutting together a few clips for a quick social video.

I really like the GPS/accelerometer-based stickers, such as the speedometer and G-counter. But I love the maps tracker, which lets you show the route of your footage in a box — so cool, especially for motovlogging videos. There’s also an altitude widget, which will be fun for any mountaineering content creators.

It’s a shame GoPro has canned the desktop version of Quik, but any pros using the M1 Pro will be editing in other software anyway, while using Quik for snappy social videos or client previews.

GoPro Mission 1 Pro review: Battery life & thermals

GoPro has redeveloped its Enduro battery for the M1 Pro, resulting in the Enduro 2. And combined with the more efficient GP3 processor, Enduro 2 works wonders. The M1 Pro has the best battery life in the market, by a decent margin, too. In my standardized testing at 4K/60p, indoors, the M1 Pro achieved 133 mins. That’s a full 13 minutes longer than the Osmo Action 6.

I run my tests at 4K/60fps, as this is the resolution/frame rate most users will want to shoot action footage at, and what most cameras these days are capable of.

Importantly, the M1 Pro suffered no overheating whatsoever in that test, which was thoroughly impressive (especially as I tested the camera during a heatwave here in the U.K., where indoor temperatures were exceedingly high). The OA6 overheated twice during the same test, although in much cooler ambient conditions. GoPro's data in the table below shows overheating at 4K/30fps after 188 minutes, so at common resolutions/frame rate you have to push this camera very hard to get it to stop.

The M1 Pro is backwards compatible with the original Enduro battery, so any existing GoPro shooters can use their existing power cells. The new Enduro 2 is compatible with the Hero13 Black, but not older cameras (and not the MAX 2). Of course, the Enduro 2 will perform better than the Enduro 1 in the Hero13 Black, but the older processor means the gains won't match the M1 Pro's life.

Likewise, the Enduro 1 won’t last as long as the Enduro 2 when fitted in the M1 Pro, but you'll still see a battery life gain thanks to the new camera's efficient GP3 processor. To test this, I ran my standardized test at 4K/60fps with the M1 Pro and an Enduro 1 battery from my Hero13 Black. It managed 116 minutes — a whole 36 minutes longer than the same battery lasted in the Hero13 Black during the same test. The M1 Pro + Enduro 1 didn't overheat at all either, while the Hero13 Black + Enduro 1 overheated after 54 minutes. Really excellent progress!

GoPro Mission 1 Pro review: Verdict

I’ve been very pleasantly surprised by the M1 Pro. It’s a demonstration of exactly what GoPro needed to do right now — push the boat a bit! The M1 Pro's core video and audio performance is excellent, but crucially, this is a camera that gives professionals a level of versatility otherwise unseen in the action camera market. The camera is designed to be a replacement for pro gear where situations demand for a small, high-powered camera with rugged credentials.

It’s pricey, sure, but if you’re a professional, it’s worth the spend to add a versatile little camera to your kit — and besides, it's cheaper than adding a second mirrorless or cine cam.

Well done, GoPro.

GoPro Mission 1 Pro review: M1 models compared

It’s a cliché for good reason, but the best camera is the one you have on you. The GoPro Mission 1 Pro launches in a couple of days, and this $599 action camera on steroids intends to shake things up. Now, as much as it’s a video-first camera in my opinion, I’m eager to see how it handles photography against the camera that’s always on me: the iPhone 17 Pro.

That’s why over this past weekend, I captured the same set of photos with both the GoPro Mission 1 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro to see which delivers the better results. Action cameras have never won me over with their still-shot performance, but the Mission 1 Pro’s 50MP 1-inch sensor isn't ordinary.

In order to make this photo shootout as fair as possible, I’m going to compare its shots against the 48MP ultrawide camera of the iPhone 17 Pro — simply because it's the lens that best matches the GoPro's sweeping perspective. However, the iPhone 17 Pro’s ultrawide shooter has a 120-degree field of view, which is narrower than the GoPro's native 159-degree view. Despite this, the iPhone 17 Pro holds an inherent utility advantage thanks to its triple-camera setup.

After pixel-peeping the results side-by-side on a monitor, I've broken down exactly how they differ — and which one I'd trust for photography.

Backyard tree

My go-to shot for testing just about everything is this tree in my backyard, simply because of the contrast in the scene. Right away, I’m drawn to the GoPro Mission 1 Pro’s superior dynamic range — mainly due to how it boosts the shadows to balance out the exposure across the entire shot. In comparison, those same shadow areas look underexposed on the iPhone 17 Pro.

Upon closer inspection, neither one has the sharp details to win over my attention, but the iPhone 17 Pro’s 24MP sample still manages to have better definition.

Winner: GoPro Mission 1 Pro

Luxury EV

Under direct sunlight, the GoPro’s expansive field of view captures much more of the sky with the Cadillac Optiq framed in the center. This round is tougher to judge because both devices do an excellent job capturing the EV’s finer details, from the texture of the front grille to the branding on the Continental tires.

While the iPhone 17 Pro skews a bit warmer with its color temperature, the Mission 1 Pro’s dynamic range wins out by doing a better job of boosting the shadows under the car, around the wheel wells, and the branches of the trees in the background.

Winner: GoPro Mission 1 Pro

Indoor brewery

Inside a brewery, you would think the larger 1-inch sensor of the Mission 1 Pro would outclass its competitor, but I’m shocked by the results. The GoPro’s shot is noticeably softer and lacks definition compared to the phone.

The iPhone 17 Pro easily gains my vote thanks to its stronger contrast and superior clarity. I’m particularly impressed by how the overhead Edison lights and the graphic wall to the right both remain in sharp focus.

Winner: iPhone 17 Pro

Alternate Ending

Again, I can’t stress enough the huge disparity between these two brewery shots. The iPhone 17 Pro delivers a moodier image that perfectly captures the atmosphere, specifically because it mitigates the strong light sources before they can overpower the frame. As a result, the yellow Alternate Ending sign is properly exposed, and the textures of the wooden siding are much sharper.

The Mission 1 Pro tries to balance the exposure throughout the entire shot, but the details on the building look incredibly soft, and it completely overexposes the highlights.

Winner: iPhone 17 Pro

Selfie

While the ultrawide camera would probably be the last lens I’d use for a selfie on the iPhone 17 Pro, it still does a better job than the Mission 1 Pro. That’s because when I zoom in on my face and shirt, the iPhone captures far more detail and definition.

I’ll give the Mission 1 Pro credit for once again delivering better dynamic range—safeguarding the exposure in the shadowed tree branches overhead—but it ultimately falters when it comes to rendering sharp facial features.

Winner: iPhone 17 Pro

Cloudy New York

You might have trouble telling it was a cloudy day in the iPhone 17 Pro's shot because of the exposure boost it receives, but this is a prime example of Apple’s image processing working in the background to brighten the scene. Sure, the sky ends up overexposed as a result, but the brighter tone of the surrounding buildings does a much better job of grabbing my attention.

In comparison, the GoPro Mission 1 Pro’s image looks flat due to the lack of any meaningful exposure boost. Even though it's technically more representative of reality, its subdued look and softer details don't make it nearly as impressive.

Winner: iPhone 17 Pro

Nighttime backyard tree

Finally, I’m back to the tree in my backyard—but this time at night under almost pitch-black conditions. Neither shot is something I’d be proud to put in a picture frame, seeing as they’re both severely underexposed due to the lack of ambient light.

Between them, however, I’m giving the nod to the GoPro Mission 1 Pro mainly because it's a tiny bit better exposed. The green grass is more noticeable in the GoPro’s shot, whereas it's completely blacked out with the iPhone 17 Pro.

Winner: GoPro Mission 1 Pro

Bottom line

When it comes to handling challenging, high-contrast scenes, the GoPro Mission 1 Pro's superior dynamic range consistently pulls excellent detail out of harsh shadows — even beating the iPhone 17 Pro in broad daylight. However, its still photography leaves a bit to be desired, as it clearly lacks the crisp definition and fine detail that I crave.

That’s why the iPhone 17 Pro remains my go-to for everyday photography, especially since it's the camera that's always on me. Not only does Apple’s flagship offer a far more versatile triple-camera setup, but it’s clear that a massive amount of computational work goes into its image processing—resulting in better contrast, truer color balance, and superior detail capture.

Needless to say, I’d lean on my iPhone 17 Pro way more than the Mission 1 Pro when it comes to stills — but video is a totally different beast. Based on my time with the new GoPro so far, its video quality is already putting some of the best camera phones on the market to shame.

Looking ahead, I’m most excited about the Mission 1 Pro ILS when it drops later this fall. Featuring an interchangeable Micro Four Thirds mount, it has the potential to truly be the one camera that can do everything.

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It's been quite an eventful few week for cameras. Insta360 launched a Go 3S Retro Bundle, we saw the GoPro Mission 1 lineup, and on Wednesday May 13th, Sony and Canon dropped a camera each — what a time to be alive! Sony and Canon's announcements came out of the blue, with teasers posted on their respective social channels either a week or just a few days prior to the launches.

Canon has expanded its V-series lineup of video-first cameras with the new EOS R6 V, while the Sony A7R VI succeeds the four-years-old A7R V. Sony's offering sounds like the ultimate hybrid that builds on its predecessor's success, while Canon's latest camera looks like it could be the best mirrorless camera for video.

Needless to say, I'm excited and thrilled. As someone who reviews cameras for a living and loves photographing her surroundings, I'm intrigued by both cameras. But is there one I'm excited about more than the other? Well, that's what we're here to find out.

A quick rundown of specs

Who are the Canon EOS R6 V and Sony A7R VI for?

Both the Canon EOS R6 V and the Sony A7R VI have different target audiences — but with some overlap. The A7R VI sets a new gold standard for high-resolution full frame cameras with its 66.8MP sensor and 30fps RAW burst capabilities, which make it great for all genres of photography, including wildlife, sports, and portrait. It also features 8K/30fps video so it sounds like a fantastic all-rounder.

Bolstering the A7R VI's position as a powerful hybrid camera is its OLED viewfinder with a 120fps refresh rate and 9.44M-dot resolution. You also get a 3.2-inch 4-axis LCD monitor with a 2.1M-dot resolution. Oh, and 8.5-stops of in-body image stabilization (IBIS) which means you can shoot at very slow shutter speeds and still walk away with a usable photo.

And what about the EOS R6 V? It's the second R-V body Canon has introduced, and it joins the excellent Canon EOS R50 V. The 'V' version of the EOS R6 is also the fourth EOS R6 body in existence — and as the 'V' suggests, it's a video-first take on Canon's hybrid camera. There's no viewfinder so you must rely on the camera's 3-inch vari-angle screen and its 1.62M-dot resolution. The EOS R6 V offers 7K/60fps RAW and 7K/30fps Open Gate video capabilities, both of which make it ideal for content creation.

In addition to that, you get 40fps continuous shooting which is... surprising, and something I wasn't really expecting in a video-first camera. While this camera sounds like it would be peerless for video, I'm sure it will be ideal for capturing photos of birds in flight too with its 32.5MP CMOS sensor and best-in-class Dual Pixel CMOS II autofocus system. And did I mention it packs up to 8.5-stops of IBIS, just like the A7R VI? Yep, it's almost got it all.

The one I'm most excited for (and why)

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't intrigued by the Canon EOS R6 V. It features the same 32.5MP sensor as the Canon EOS R6 Mark III. As a video-first iteration of the series, it packs an active cooling fan — which you'll most certainly need if you're shooting 7K/30fps Open Gate... or even 4K/60fps, really, especially outdoors.

With the EOS R6 Mark III and its predecessors, battery life while recording video was always a sticking point, but this time around, Canon's going for the "best battery life" crown. The company claims the EOS R6 V can record for two hours or more as long as the built-in fan is toggled on, the overheat limit is set to high, and the camera's on a tripod.

While all of this sounds great (and I'm looking forward to test the camera for my full review), the EOS R6 V isn't the one I'm most excited about — it's the Sony A7R VI. The A7R VI packs a newly developed 66.8MP sensor and enables you to shoot RAW photos at 30fps. This will certainly be a boon for wildlife photographers such as myself.

I loved the Sony A1 II when I tested it and it's the one camera I've thought about buying myself time and again. I captured some of my best photos on it, and being able to make extreme crops was a walk in the park thanks to the 50MP resolution. But 66.8MP sounds even better, and the sensor's stacked nature delivers faster readout speeds and minimizes rolling shutter distortion. Then you've got the new BIONZ XR2 processor for 30fps blackout-free bursts, so you don't lose track of your subject because of, well, black screens between shots.

The A7R VI also borrows Auto subject detection mode from the A1 II, so you don't need to manually change the subject you're photographing — handy for anyone who captures a variety of subject. I loved this on the A1 II as I photograph birds, animals and (occasionally) humans and I can't wait to see how it holds up on the A7R VI.

A new trick up its sleeve

In addition to all the goodies the Sony A7R VI offers, it also features a new battery pack: the 2,670mAh NP-SA100. Sony says that with this battery pack, the A7R VI is CIPA-rated for 600 shots with the viewfinder or 710 shots with the monitor. Its predecessor, the A7R V, is CIPA-rated for 440 shots, so Sony's made some strides.

CIPA testing is done under strict conditions and the number is often conservative, so it'll be interesting to see how the battery holds up in real-world use.

I think it's going to be interesting to see how both the A7R VI and the Canon EOS R6 V perform in practice as, in theory, they both sound great in their own right. I'm obviously not pitting both cameras against one another. That would be unfair as they have different target audiences (and there's quite a bit of a price difference). Needless to say, though, it's an exciting time for photographers and camera enthusiasts. I can't wait to get my hands on both cameras and put them through their paces!

More from Tom's Guide

• I tested the Sony A1 II for 2 weeks — and its autofocus results blew my mind
• I just tested the Canon EOS R5 Mark II to photograph wildlife — and this one feature has changed how I take photos forever
• ‘Few wildlife cameras come close to this’: why the OM System OM-1 Mark II is perfect for photographing birds in flight and other animals

If you've read any of my articles on the original Camp Snap or the Camp Snap CS-Pro, you'll know that I'm a sucker for a gimmicky camera. I enjoy the fact that they're cheap enough that you don't really have to worry about damaging them, and because of that, I can pass them around to my friends. I'm never worried about them hitting the wrong buttons or messing around with settings.

That's why I always make sure that when I'm out and about with friends, I have a digital camera with me — and a cheap one at that. It may not give the same level of quality as your phone or your Canon G7X Mark III, but it means you can put your phone away, switch off from all notifications, and be present in the moment.

So, when I saw the Kodak Charmera on my social media feed, I knew I needed one. It's a point-and-shoot that's small enough to fit on your keychain — it's so convenient, there's literally no excuse for leaving it at home.

Camera quality

I know what you're probably thinking. Why would you use a 1.6MP camera over, say, the 24MP from the front camera of your iPhone? Because it's fun, of course!

I'm not claiming that the Kodak Charmera is going to give you crisp and clear images, because it's not. But what I am claiming is that you and your friends are going to have buckets of fun using it.

As you can see from the images, they are lo-fi, and the camera struggles with the highlights of the image. So not the best choice for a professional photo shoot. But that's not the point.

I went out to grab some pizza with friends and took the camera with me, attached to my keys. We passed it around the table, snapping a bunch of pictures while we waited for our food. It turned out to be loads of fun!

Because the controls are so easy to use, everybody can have a go. You just look through the tiny viewfinder or on the digital screen and hit the big button on top to take the picture — so simple.

It's a mystery!

The main reason this camera went viral is that it's a total mystery which color you're going to get. The camera comes in a blind box, so you don't know which of the seven different colors you're going to receive until you open the box.

This concept adds to the idea that the camera is nothing more than a toy. And in truth, that's how I'm treating it. It put the whimsy back into taking pictures.

Sure, it looks cute hanging on your keys or dangling on the outside of your bag, but ultimately, it's there so you can enjoy snapping silly pictures.

I think most people are in desperate need of less screen time, and if a gimmicky camera is the way to do that and be more present, then I think everybody needs a Kodak Charmera.

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• ‘A $30 camera meant for fun, not serious photography’: Kodak Charmera review
• I’ve been taking this screen-free digital camera everywhere with me — here’s why I prefer it to my phone
• My favorite retro compact camera just got a major glow-up — but should you buy the original or the new model?

Insta360 has just introduced a special edition of its thumb-sized Go 3S camera, and its blend of modern 4K tech with nostalgic style is intriguing.

Dubbed the Insta360 Go 3S Retro Bundle, the new edition brings the nostalgic film aesthetic into 4K video. This new bundle arrives two years after the original Go 3S launched in June 2024. In our review, we gave the Go 3S a tidy 4.5 stars, and found it packed outstanding features — namely 4K video recording, superb battery life, and cool new functions accessible via its smartphone app.

The biggest differences (so far) between the Go 3S and Go 3S Retro are the new add-ons that come with the tiny cam. The most obvious is the new Retro viewfinder, which pairs with the standalone camera to create a handheld shooting experience. The waist-level viewfinder lets you frame shots without looking at the screen and comes with a built-in mirror for quick selfies.

The camera also has new vintage-inspired filters and accessories for hands-free capturing. As with the Go 3S, the camera itself is magnetic, allowing you to mount it easily to many Insta360 mounts (like the included strap and magnet pendant in the bundle). You can also pair it with the accompanying smartphone app for easy editing and remote control of the camera.

Pricewise, the bundle is very similar to the Go 3S, costing $300 / £279 / AU$469.99 for 64GB and $320 / £299 / AU$499.99 for 128GB. The bundles are available now in Canvas White and Classic Red on Amazon and Insta360. If you already own the Go 3S and want to nab the viewfinder, you can pick it up separately for $48 / £46 / AU$80.

Revival of retro-inspired cameras

The new vintage-inspired Insta360 Go 3S joins a long line of other cameras revisiting the retro aesthetic. From the Polaroid Go range to the screen-free Camp Snap and every cute camera in between, the retro aesthetic shots are back, and I'm all for it.

After picking up the Kodak Charmera earlier this year and documenting so much of my everyday life on it, I'm super keen to get my hands on the Insta360 Go 3S Retro. Sure, the specs aren't that different from the original model, but it's a fun new take on the already impressively teeny camera.

Are you hopping on the retro-cam bandwagon? Let me know in the comments below.

I've loved cameras for as long as I can remember, so I'm very lucky that I now get to test them day in and day out. As someone who reviews the best cameras, I'm well aware of how (most) brands love releasing at least two or three new snappers per year. I'm also well aware that not every "upgrade" is really worth "upgrading" to. Because if you have, say, the Sony A7 IV and it works perfectly fine, why would you need to get the Sony A7 V?

Of course, if you can afford to upgrade your camera every year, good for you. But for those who can't due to budget constraints, you don't need to do that. Or if you're new to the world of photography and are overwhelmed by the many expensive choices around you, don't fret: I'm here to tell you that older cameras do the job just fine.

Whether you're looking for a casual camera for vlogging or a fast camera for capturing wildlife and sports, you're spoilt for choice. I've handpicked my 5 favorite and somewhat-older cameras that have either been succeeded by new models or are rumored to be soon. There's certainly some truth in the old saying: old is gold.

More from Tom's Guide

• I test compact and film cameras for a living, and here are my top 12 recommendations for the summer
• I’ve been using my Fujifilm camera for almost a year and these are the time-saving photography hacks I swear by
• ‘Few wildlife cameras come close to this’: why the OM System OM-1 Mark II is perfect for photographing birds in flight and other animals

As a photographer, few things make me happier than using an outstanding camera that takes stunning photos. And as a journalist here at Tom's Guide, I review a lot of consumer tech, including the best mirrorless cameras. That means I get to play with the latest and greatest cameras, capturing stunning sights, and call it work. It's a fantastic job.

For the last two weeks, I've been testing one such camera, and that's the Leica SL3-S. The SL3-S is the Leica SL3's sibling, and both cameras share the same body, autofocus system, and L-mount. The SL3-S, however, is aimed at hybrid content creators who work with both stills and video, and it boasts faster burst shooting (up to 30fps) and 6K Open Gate video. And it's cheaper!

The SL3-S is one of the most beautiful cameras I've had the pleasure of using or testing. It handles sublimely thanks to its stripped back controls and straightforward menu system. It takes gorgeous photos with its 24MP BSI CMOS sensor, and there's 30fps burst shooting too, for anyone partaking in high-speed photography.

There are plenty of things to love about the SL3-S but equally so, there's one thing I dislike and can't look past. Without further ado, here are three things I like about the SL3-S, and one I don't.

What I like

Sublime handling and controls

One of the things I've always appreciated about Leica cameras is their build quality and handling. The Leica SL3-S is no different. It bears striking resemblance to the SL3: it's the same body and the same controls, and I have no complaints there. It measures 5.55 x 4.25 x 3.33 inches and the body weighs 1.69lbs (without battery, SD card and camera bayonet cover).

Though it's a little heavy with a lens attached, it isn't unwieldy to handle. The chunky grip on the right-hand side protrudes quite a bit, and it's perfect for my medium-sized hand to wrap around. The OLED EVF with its resolution of 5.76M dots and refresh rate of 60Hz/120Hz is bright and comfortable to look through too. In addition to that, I love the dual displays: a 3.2-inch rear monitor with a resolution of 2.33M dots, and a 1.28-inch LCD which quickly shows you the active settings.

I also appreciate how rugged and robust the SL3-S is. Its body is IP54-rated, which means it's protected from dust ingress and water spray from any direction. Having shot with the SL3-S in the rain (typical British weather for you), I can confirm that the SL3-S is indeed waterproof, making it a fantastic choice for landscape photographers or anyone who shoots outdoors, really.

Keeping in line with Leica's luxurious philosophy, controls on the SL3-S are stripped back and well-laid out as well, as there aren't too many overwhelming buttons and dials. Similarly, the user interface and menu system is extremely clean and well-signposted. If you want a detailed breakdown of the controls and design, check out my Leica SL3 review — like I said, both the SL3 and SL3-S are visually identical.

Sharp image quality

Unlike the Leica SL3 which utilizes a 60.3MP sensor, the Leica SL3-S settles for a 24MP BSI CMOS sensor to prioritize speed (30fps burst up from 15fps) and improved video capabilities. Even so, the 24MP images the SL3-S captures are gorgeous, and they still pack plenty of detail. While they aren't suited for large format printing or extreme crops, they're ideal for online use, portfolios and making small prints.

I've always been a fan of Leica's colors, and you can see just how beautiful the different shades look in the galleries above (shot in the Standard color profile) and below. The purples and blues appear deep and rich, while the pinks pop, and the camera has captured the pastel pink shades well too. The images are very sharp, as you can see every seed head on the dandelion in the third slide, and the red flower's stigma in the fifth slide above.

Just like on its other cameras, Leica offers users access to a few color profiles on the SL3-S: Standard, Vivid, Natural, Monochrome, and Monochrome High Contrast. The photos in the gallery above were shot with the Vivid color profile toggled. I love how deep the greens appear in the first and second slides, with just the right amount of depth to contrast against the bright pink flowers.

In terms of the camera's shooting settings, the electronic shutter has a shutter speed of 60s to 1/16000s, while the mechanical shutter has a speed of 30m to 1/8000s. The SL3-S has an ISO range of 50-200,000, up from 100,000 on the SL3. There's 5-axis in-body image stabilization (IBIS) at play too, providing up to 5.5 stops of compensation, enabling you to shoot at slow shutter speeds.

Alongside this, the SL3-S boasts an accurate and fast hybrid autofocus system which uses 315 contrast AF and 779 phase detection AF points to quickly lock on to animals/birds and humans. As someone who loves photographing wildlife and taking portraits of my partner, I thoroughly appreciated the SL3-S' autofocus. In the gallery above, it was quick to focus on the pigeons outdoors, and my partner in low-light conditions indoors.

The photo of my partner was shot in the Monochrome High Contrast color profile which has remained a constant favorite of mine every time I've tested a Leica camera. The portrait exudes drama and the inky blacks look stunning. Overall, the SL3-S is a brilliant and capable snapper, and the image quality doesn't give you much to complain about.

6K video is simply stunning

While the Leica SL3-S is a capable stills shooter, it's a video-first camera, which is what distinguishes it from the SL3. The SL3-S is capable of recording 6K video at 30fps, 4K at 60fps, and FHD at 120fps. There's also internal 5.8K ProRes capture, as well as 10-bit color depth, which means the camera is capable of capturing over a billion individual hues and shades.

One of the SL3-S' biggest selling points is that it records Open Gate video in 6K, which means the camera is recording the entire sensor area (3:2), rather than cropping to 16:9. This gives you more freedom to reframe in post-production. Theoretically, it enables users to create 4K videos in both horizontal and vertical formats, fit for social and long-form video.

Video footage captured on the SL3-S is stupendously good-looking. I captured the footage above in 6K Open Gate and reframed it to 16:9 in post. As you can see, the movement of the flowers is smooth and fluid, the colors are gorgeous, and the clips have lovely background bokeh which looks pleasing to the eye. I relied on the monitor to shoot these clips, and I was able to see the screen even in direct sunlight.

Audio quality isn't too shabby either, with the sounds of birds tweeting and the breeze brushing against the leaves sounding clean. Wind buffeting is a slight problem so if you're serious about video work, I'd recommend hooking up one of the best microphones via the 3.5mm audio input jack.

What I don't like

Battery life remains Leica's biggest hurdle

The Leica SL3-S, the Leica Q3 43, the Leica M EV1, and the Leica SL3 all have one thing in common — and it ain't the high price points. I've tested my fair share of Leica cameras, and one things that's been a common denominator amongst most of the models is the short battery life. If we're going based on CIPA ratings alone (done under strict testing conditions), Leica lags behind its rivals from Fujifilm, Sony and Canon.

For instance, the Q3 43 is CIPA-rated for 350 shots; the M EV1 for 244 shots; the SL3 for 260 shots; and the SL3-S for 315 shots. That's... not a lot. But like I said, CIPA battery tests are conducted under very strict conditions, so you'll probably get more shots in real-world use anyway, depending on the camera's settings. In my testing, I was able to achieve approximately 330 shots between charges — and I was shooting in JPEG and DNG, and utilizing both the viewfinder and the monitor for framing/previewing images.

Even though that's 15 shots more than the CIPA-rated battery life, it's still not great, and if you throw video into the mix, it might get even worse. That's why it's recommended to carry an additional BP-SCL6 ($240) battery pack. But that really shouldn't be a requirement, in my opinion, when you're already spending nearly $6,000 on a camera. If and when Leica decides to introduce a successor to the SL3 and the SL3-S, I hope there's a big bump to battery life. I'll stop complaining then.

Looking ahead...

Although mediocre battery life remains a sticking point for the Leica SL3-S, it's something I'm willing to overlook because of everything else the camera offers. Just like the Leica SL3, its hybrid counterpart is a joy to handle. Buttons and dials are sensibly laid out and they never feel overwhelming. The stripped back menu is a pleasure to navigate as all the settings are easy to find.

But it's the SL3-S' video and photo capabilities that are its biggest sell. 6K Open Gate video means you're recording using the entire camera sensor area at 6K resolution, rather than cropping to 16:9. The video quality is drool-worthy, as are the 24MP images the SL3-S captures.

I've thoroughly enjoyed my time with the SL3-S, and though I'd personally prefer the SL3's 60.3MP sensor as a stills-first photographer, there really isn't much else I can complain about. And if you don't mind dropping to a lower-res sensor, the SL3-S comes in cheaper than the SL3 too, with the body retailing for $5,665 at B&H Photo / £4,489 at Clifton Cameras. If I win the lottery, I won't tell anyone, but there will be signs.

More from Tom's Guide

• I’ve been testing the Leica SL3 — here’s my honest verdict on whether it’s worth $7,500
• I’ve been testing the Leica SL3 — it’s the only camera that’s made me want to ditch my Fujifilm
• I tested and loved the controversial Leica M EV1, but I’d choose this 4.5-star camera instead

I’ve tested my fair share of the best photo books available, so I can say with complete certainty that the Blurb photo book isn’t one of them. After slaving away to create a photo book, you want a result that you’re happy and proud to share with friends and family when they come to visit. You may even want to get a book as a gift for someone. But the Blurb isn’t one I’d be happy to gift someone.

Color replication is dull and lackluster, while black and white images suffer from overly dark blacks, losing all shadow detail and dynamic range. After only flipping through the book a couple of times, the front cover started to crack, which was a letdown. And there was an issue with ink transfer across the pages inside.

But if you want to see what I didn’t like about this book and what you should try instead, keep reading this full Blurb photo book review.

Blurb Photo Book review: Specs

Blurb Photo Book review: Price & availability

The Blurb photo book is available to purchase starting from $12 at the Blurb website. The $12 price is for the cheapest option, which is the softcover, but I tested out the hardcover option, which is a lot more sturdy. This option starts from $32 on the Blurb website. I opted for this as the hardcover should last a lot longer (more on this later), which is what you want when preserving memories.

I created a 12 x 12-inch ImageWrap Hardcover photo book with 20 pages and the matte standard paper. This cost $83, and I also got a PDF of the photo book. You can make further upgrades to the photo book, like more premium paper options for additional cost.

While Blurb was easy to create, I much prefer the results I achieved with Popsa, which was only three dollars more at $86 for a similar style book. Blurb offers a convenient photo book creation process, but is let down majorly in the quality department. The Popsa results are so much better for the same price, so it’s hard to justify spending on Blurb.

If you’re not fussed about having the premium feel of Popsa and don’t want to spend so much, Chatbooks offers a lot of customization, and I got a 10x10-inch book for $50. Alternatively, if you want something more premium-looking to display on your coffee table, you can look at the Printique photo book service, which would cost around $110 for a similar-sized book that has excellent color and contrast replication.

Blurb Photo Book review: Software & production

Creating the Blurb photo book felt quite limited when designing. After testing out services like Popsa and Mixbook, which both have easy-to-navigate interfaces, Blurb felt pretty clunky. Sure, I got the hang of it after much trail and error, and then it was fairly easy to use, but it was tricky at first. The service uses BookWright Online, which is a book design software that can be used in your desktop browser, so there’s no need to download any software.

Unfortunately, this software isn’t compatible with mobile devices, so you need to use a computer for it to work. It took a while for me to get to grips with all of the tools on the site, and the layout options are pretty limited, which made me feel like I couldn’t be very creative.

I first uploaded the images I wanted to use to the site and could drag images from the bank to where I wanted them in the book. However, I had to have a frame for the image set out first, or I couldn’t place the image. I found it best to choose a frame from the layout section and customize the existing layout styles, but this was quite time-consuming.

Options for decoration are also limited. You can change the background color and add some text, but there aren’t any decorative elements. This obviously depends on the style of book you’re going for, but I enjoy adding a little whimsy to my books.

For the easiest experience, especially for beginners, I would recommend using Popsa, but if you’re someone who wants to add your own creative flair to the book, then Mixbook is certainly the way to go.

Blurb Photo Book review: Print quality

Having tested a bunch of other photo book services, I was very disappointed with the results from Blurb. I’m someone who loves to see the vibrancy of the colors in my photos and the pages, and I didn’t get that result here — not even close. Everything felt very washed out, making the pages feel flat rather than full of life.

The book also struggles with dynamic range and contrast in black and white images. The blacks look too black, meaning that any shadow detail in the darker portions of the image is completely lost. However, the highlights are well presented and not blown out.

After flipping through the book a couple of times, I noticed that the cover on the front started to crack. I wasn’t putting any extra strain on the pages, but where the book was folding was cracking from repeatedly opening and closing the book. This is especially disappointing given I paid for the more expensive hardback precisely for longevity.

I also noticed an issue with some color from the pages transferring over to the opposite pages. I only picked up on this because, on my first look through the book, some of the pages were stuck together from where the book had been closed without fully drying. This meant ink was removed from some pages and transferred to the other side, making the whole thing look a little messy and, honestly, cheap.

There are also visible pixels on all of the images. I haven’t experienced this with any other photo book when using the exact same images at the same size. Overall, while the photobook looks nice at a glance, closer inspection shows countless flaws that make it hard to recommend this service.

Blurb Photo Book review: Verdict

The Blurb photo book service is hard to recommend. While it’s easy to create the book once you get the hang of the software and there are some cheaper options to choose from, it’s just not worth the money spent.

Firstly, the design software is desktop-only, and I find it so much easier to use mobile software from other photo book services like Popsa. And the book itself feels cheaply made. After only flipping through a handful of times, the hardcover began to crack. On the inside of the book, there were also issues with ink transfer, poor color replication and contrast issues in black and white images.

If you hadn’t already guessed, I really don’t recommend Blurb.

If you’re in any doubt as to the DJI Osmo Pocket 4’s significance to today’s content creator market, let me clear things up with an anecdote of sorts. I go to a lot of press events for cameras, and by far the most common camera I see being used by my fellow mediafolk is the DJI Osmo Pocket 3.

YouTubers, vloggers, social media creators, journalists — all rely on the Pocket 3. Why? Because it’s absolutely fantastic. It wraps up everything you need for video content creation into a slick, high-performing package. So… why did DJI need to make the Osmo Pocket 4? It didn’t, to be honest. But it went ahead and did so anyway.

I’ll get this out of the way early. The Osmo Pocket 4 (OP4) is very much an evolution, not a revolution, to the chagrin of many interested parties, I’m sure. Before its launch, there were spy shots showing multiple lenses — people believed them precisely because the Osmo Pocket 3 (OP3) was so good at its job, the thought being that any new model would have to be radical to justify its own existence.

Alas, it isn’t radical, but there are a number of key upgrades under the hood. An improved 1-inch sensor and image processing, 4K/240fps slow motion, and film simulation profiles for in-camera grades, to name a few. So is this the new best camera for vloggers? Find out in my full DJI Osmo Pocket 4 review.

DJI Osmo Pocket 4 review: Specs

DJI Osmo Pocket 4 review: Price & availability

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like the Osmo Pocket 4 will be coming to the U.S. just yet. DJI has had a rocky time with the U.S. government in recent years, facing a ban on its drones, and having been slapped with hefty tariffs on its other imports.

For many camera products, like the DJI Osmo Action 6 ($369) and DJI Osmo 360 ($549), this has meant no “official” support — so no first-party availability through DJI’s website and no aftercare plans. But you can still buy those products (at a mark up) from third party suppliers like Amazon. Alas, the Pocket 4 doesn’t fit that trend, and DJI has confirmed it won’t be coming to the U.S. at all… yet!

From DJI: “We do not have U.S. pricing. The Osmo Pocket 4 will not be available in the U.S. market as the application for authorization is still pending.” If you’re American, you’ll need to buy the +2-year-old DJI Osmo Pocket 3 instead for now, which remains steeply priced in the U.S. at $499 thanks to those tariffs.

The Osmo Pocket 4 is available everywhere else though, and in the U.K. it starts at £429 from Amazon. That’s actually a drop in launch price from the Pocket 3, which launched at £489, although you can pick up a Pocket 3 at the time of writing for £385.

DJI Osmo Pocket 4 review: Design & controls

The DJI Osmo Pocket 4 looks identical to its predecessor, with similar general proportions. And if it weren’t for some slightly different ridge patterning on either model, you’d struggle to tell the two apart. That’s no bad thing, though — it means the Pocket 4 is just as lightweight, pocketable and easy to use as its older sibling. Of course, build quality is typical DJI: second to none.

The controls are again very similar, with a gimbal joystick and record button at the front, plus a swivelling display that reveals two more buttons when in its horizontal position. These buttons are new — one is a dedicated quick zoom button and the other is a custom button for mapping your three most commonly-used functions via single, double and triple presses.

The custom button is super handy in theory, although the assignable options are quite limited. I regularly need to switch between gimbal modes, which is a bit fiddly in real time — being able to assign this to the custom button would’ve been ideal, but no such luck (not even via the C1/C2 custom modes, as these don’t save gimbal modes).

Most settings control is done via the touchscreen though, and it’s gorgeous. It’s bright, detailed and spacious enough for in-depth control of DJI’s intuitive and feature-packed menu system. I’m very familiar with DJI’s menu and find it easy to use in the heat of the moment, but if you aren’t, the learning curve isn’t too steep.

On the back of the gimbal is an electronic connector, allowing you to hook up an accessory — namely the clip-on vlogging fill light (available with the £549 Creator Combo).

The Pocket 4 is not an action camera, so it isn’t waterproof. But that’s to be expected.

Connectivity

The Osmo Pocket 4 boasts the same wealth of connectivity options as its predecessor. It has a USB-C slot which enables the addition of an additional battery pack (very useful, pictured above). You can hook up wirelessly to your smartphone, and to Bluetooth accessories — and of course, connecting to DJI microphones via OsmoAudio (Bluetooth) is a mere screen-tap away.

Making a return is the electronic accessory connector on the back of the gimbal, too, for hooking up a vlogging light. In short, there’s everything you need for high-tier content creation on the go.

There’s 107GB internal storage, up from nothing at all in the Pocket 3. This is the most generous internal storage DJI has yet fitted to one of its handheld cameras, and is more than double the 50GB found in its flagship action camera, the Osmo Action 6. DJI is championing internal storage these days, and I love it. It’s so reassuring to know you have extra space if your card fills or, worst case scenario, corrupts — you can still get the footage you need.

Naturally, there’s a MicroSD slot for expanding storage if needed, but with 107GB of storage on offer, I haven’t needed to yet. And besides, with internal storage, transfer speeds are faster (up to 800Mb/s).

DJI Osmo Pocket 4 review: Stabilization

The DJI Osmo Pocket 4 uses the same 3-axis gimbal design as its predecessor, although there have been some internal tweaks to the algorithms, vastly improving stabilization, according to DJI. Honestly, the Pocket 3’s stabilization was excellent to begin with, so I’ve struggled to tell the difference. But hey, they’re both absolutely fantastic.

As you can see in the footage throughout this review, it’s super easy to shoot long, smooth pans and tilts. The stabilization also works wonders to iron out the bumpiness of walking. If you’re going to be vlogging on the move, especially when walking, there’s no better and more compact way to get ultra-smooth, professional footage than the Pocket 4.

There are three different gimbal modes to allow you to customize the behavior of the stabilization. I mainly stick to the default 'Follow' and 'Tilt Locked' (horizon locked) as these are great for everyday use, mostly minimizing drift but allowing some natural movement. There’s also an 'FPV-' mode, though, where the gimbal always matches the direction the screen is facing, until you use the joystick. It’s kinda like a manual mode, and I found it very useful for restricting the gimbal movement when I didn’t want drift or tracking.

DJI Osmo Pocket 4 review: Autofocus

The DJI Osmo Pocket 4 brings back a couple of handy autofocus modes from the Pocket 3. There’s Spotlight Follow, which prioritizes registered subjects in frame. You add subjects and the camera tracks them over other stuff the Dynamic Active Tracking (i.e. automatic subject detection) detects.

Spotlight Follow sticks to the first-detected subject in any scene until that subject leaves the frame. It’s ideal for solo vlogging, although if you have multiple people in frame at different distances from the lens, you might end up with one out of focus as the camera prioritizes the first subject in frame.

There’s also a Dynamic Framing frame which allows you to set the focus area from 9 central points. It’s a helpful bit of manual control for when you need to lock focus.

Honestly, though, I just left the camera out of these modes most of the time and in its basic autofocus and Dynamic Active Tracking (automatic subject detection and tracking) mode, which works really well. It prioritizes faces, which is what you’d want, but can recognize wider shots, prioritizing deeper focal range — switch to closer subjects if faces come into frame. It’s perfect for vlogging, though, and I never recorded a clip where my face was out of focus when talking to camera.

DJI Osmo Pocket 4 review: Video quality

The OP4’s 4K footage looks beautiful and sharp, with bold, vibrant colors… although it’s not like the older OP3’s video looked bad. The lens gives a nice, wide field of view that doesn’t suffer from too much ugly barrel distortion, making it perfect for vlogging. There are two zoom levels, 2x and 4x, which are “lossless,” according to DJI — although I’m not really sure what that means, as you can see the resolution taking a big hit at the increased zoom levels in the vlogging clip below.

In normal video mode, the Pocket 4 shoots 4K at up to 60fps in 16x9 landscape orientation, and 3K at up to 60fps in 9x16 vertical orientation — the same as the Pocket 3. However, slow motion has received a big boost, with the OP3 able to shoot up to 4K/240fps (versus 4K/120fps), for twice as slow footage. Check out the vlogging video in this section to see an example.

Perhaps the main change to the core imaging gear is a revamped 1-inch sensor, which delivers super clean images with lots of detail, vibrant color, and increased dynamic range (up to 14 stops from 12 on the OP3). I was impressed with the dynamic range: standing in a shaded area on a bright day, the camera rendered both detailed shadows and bright highlights in the same frame.

There’s 10-bit color for over a billion individual tones, delivering more natural colors and smoother color transitions. 10-bit also provides more editing flexibility thanks to the greater amount of tonal data recorded.

DJI has done away with D-Log M, its historic “log” profile, which technically wasn’t a log profile but just a desaturated color profile. Now there’s D-Log Pro, which is legitimately a logarithmic gamma correction curve, and delivers wider dynamic range capture (the trade-off being it needs grading in post). DJI has also binned HLG HDR, which makes sense — this is primarily used by the broadcast media industry, so it always felt a bit redundant on vlogging cameras, like the Osmo Pocket line.

If you want to apply some in-camera grades, the Pocket 4 has color filters, akin to the color filters on DJI’s action cameras. These are nothing special — no Fuji-level film-sim color science — but nice to have for some quick creative looks. I love DJI’s default color profile, which produces vibrant blues and greens on sunny days, so I mostly left the camera in that aside from testing.

There are also some new beauty filters, to smooth out skin tones and generally pep up appearance on vlogging. I’m not personally a fan of this type of thing, but if you are, they’re there for you to use.

Low light

The new 1-inch sensor, with its increased dynamic range, delivers cleaner shadows than the OP3, making the OP4 a better tool for low light footage. In moderately low light, the Low Light mode (capped at 4K/30fps) does a great job at brightening footage, and noise was barely perceptible (see the walking clip in the Stabilization section, which was shot in the Low Light mode).

In very dark conditions, as in the video above, the Pocket 4’s image sharpness takes a noticeable hit, with a watercolor effect on the background from the smoothing of in-camera noise reduction. However, this is a very challenging scenario, and I think the footage and smoothing looks pretty good, all things considered.

My Pocket 4’s auto exposure had a little bit of trouble in certain low light conditions, flickering constantly as it tried to balance exposure. This happened mostly in medium-dark situations, where there was a little bit of light entering the frame. It was solved by locking the exposure. I've reached out to DJI to establish why this might be, and if there's a fix in the works.

DJI Osmo Pocket 4 review: Audio quality

I’ll be honest here and say that if you’re not looking to use the DJI Osmo Pocket 4 with a DJI microphone, you won’t be using it properly. This camera is designed to be used with the DJI Mic 2, Mic 3 or Mic Mini, and doing so will give you excellent, YouTube-quality audio, with clean vocals and strong ambient noise reduction — as you can hear in the walking vlog above.

Using OsmoAudio — i.e. pairing the camera via Bluetooth with one of DJI’s Mics — gives you access to four audio channel recording, spatial audio and audio zoom, where the audio direction matches the zoom area.

That said, if you can’t stretch to a standalone mic just yet, or one of the creator combos that bundles a mic, the OP4 will still do the trick. Like the OP3, there are 3 internal microphones, plus wind reduction and voice priority modes. You can hear in the clip above how the internal mics sound in quiet and noisy conditions, with both those settings on. The result? Fine, and passable, but nothing like the quality you’ll get when hooking up a DJI mic.

DJI Osmo Pocket 4 review: App

I’m a big fan of the DJI Mimo app, which has come a long way in the last few years. It’s now slick, feature-packed and fairly reliable (I still experience the odd issue connecting devices over Wi-Fi on my iPhone 17 Pro Max). The Mimo app is your central point of control for the Pocket 4, and used for registering your device, updating it, live camera control and editing.

I really like the editing functionality in particular. I roughly spliced together the vlogging video above in around an hour between meetings. I was able to cut and arrange clips, apply effects, animations and music, and generally put out a decent looking short video in very little time. Sure, it’s a bit clunkier to use than desktop editing software, but for creators editing on the go, it’s very good.

DJI Osmo Pocket 4 review: Battery life & overheating

DJI rates the OP4 for 240 minutes, up from 166 minutes on the OP3. The caveat there, though, is that those figures are at 1080p. At 4K/60fps, which is where we test all our cameras (if they shoot at 60fps), you can expect less. Realistically, that’s where most people will want to shoot.

In real world testing at a mixture of 4K/60fps, 4K/30fps and 4K/240fps, I shot for around 80 minutes, recording around 40 short clips. The battery only dropped to around 50%, suggesting 160 minutes of runtime.

In my lab testing at 4K/60fps, the camera lasted for around 140 minutes, which is very impressive. What’s even more impressive is the thermal performance — the lab test is conducted indoors away from the cooling effects of wind and cold ambient temperatures. The OP4 got a little warm, but not hot, and didn’t overheat at all, recording in 4K/60fps continuously until the battery died.

DJI Osmo Pocket 4 review: Verdict

If you’re a vlogger, influencer or other content creator, especially one who records out and about regularly, there really is no better all-in-one package than the DJI Osmo Pocket 4. If you want beautiful, professional-looking video, with solid audio and a wealth of connectivity options, it’s the camera for you.

Sure, it’s a refinement of the Pocket 3 rather than a wholesale revamp, but as I mentioned in my intro, the Pocket 3 was already the content creator’s default tool for a reason: it was fantastically good at its job, so there wasn’t much that needed changing.

The Pocket 4 upgrades all the right things. Changes to the sensor, stabilization and battery life, plus the shedding of some unnecessary features to make way for more genuinely useful ones. DJI has knocked it out of the park… again.

GoPro just revealed pricing for its new Mission 1 action cameras and micro four thirds camera makers should be scared.

If you haven't seen the new Mission 1 lineup, GoPro describes the series as lightweight cinema cameras. They feature 50MP 1-inch sensors, a new processor, making them faster than even some of the best camera phones and a good number of point-and-shoots.

Of course, being GoPro, these cameras are video forward capable of filming up to 8K resolution footage. And it comes with a reasonable price tag.

• Mission 1 - $599.99
• Mission 1 Pro - $699.99
• Mission 1 Pro ILS - $699.99

All three cameras come with $100 off discounts for existing GoPro subscribers and purchase through GoPro.com

The Mission 1 Pro is heralded as the flagship model in the new lineup, while the Mission 1 Pro ILS features a micro four thirds mount that can be used to attached different lens to achieve a cinematic look much like dedicated cinema cameras that cost thousands of dollars.

There's added versatility in these pocket cinema cameras because of the myriad of accessories that GoPro has designed with them, like a body cage where users can attach different accessories such as cold shoe mounts or a Wireless Mic kit.

The Mission 1, Mission 1 Pro, Mission, and the Mission 1 Pro Grip Edition are all available for pre-order starting today. Those cameras will start arriving on May 28, 2026.

The other two creator editions and the ILS model won't be available until Q3 of 2026, which would pin it somewhere between July and September this summer.

A good argument to move on from your point-and-shoot

In early April, my colleague John Velasco got a chance to check out the Mission 1 cameras and came away quite impressed. At the time, he suggested that the Mission 1 would be competitive if it was priced around $500, which GoPro pretty much hits.

Even the high-end Pro and ILS models, make for compelling alternatives for traditional point-and-shoot cameras. This level of utility has neve been achieved by an action camera, which certainly would make buyers think harder about their next purchase. Not only do they record at 8K resolution, but they also offer insane 960 fps slow motion. For vloggers, it's an attractive pocketable camera that GoPro says will offer outstanding stabilization and low light performance.

"After seeing the GoPro Mission1 Pro ILS in particular, I’m convinced I could ditch my micro four thirds camera altogether. In fact, the Mission1 makes a compelling argument that the traditional point-and-shoot is finally obsolete," Velasco wrote.

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Last night, April 16th, Sony announced the winners and shortlist of its 2026 World Photography Awards. Now into their 19th year, Sony’s World Photography Awards (WPA) celebrate and award existing and new photographic talent, giving its winners an international platform to showcase their work (not to mention cash prizes and a sack of Sony imaging gear).

This year, the WPAs received over 430,000 entrants from 200 countries across the world, making this one of (if not the) largest photography competition around.

The flagship award — the equivalent of ‘Best Actor / Actress’ at the Oscars, if you like — is Photographer of the Year. This year is has been scooped up by Citlali Fabián, a London-based visual artist originally from the Yalalteca Indigenous community, Mexico, whose work explores the intersections of identity with territory, migration and community.

The 2026 ‘Outstanding Contribution to Photography’ award — a lifetime achievement kinda deal — goes to legendary American street/documentary photographer Joel Meyerowitz. A pioneer of color photography, Joel was at Ground Zero to document the aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks on 9/11 — a visceral and haunting collection that simultaneously highlights the heroism and humanistic elements of the tragedy and cleanup.

The WPAs award a further 10 professional categories, though, each with a winner and two runners up. Not only that, but Sony and the WPA also foster the next generation of photographic talent through student and youth categories, plus an open category for anyone to enter.

I've included some of my favorite shots from this year's finalists and winners, but a full gallery of all the competition images are all visible on the World Photography Awards website.

London exhibition

If, like me, you’re lucky enough to be in London in mid-April, you can also check out the World Photography Awards exhibition, which runs from April 17 to May 4 2026 at Somerset House, London (tickets available via the link).

The exhibition will showcase over 300 entries from this year’s awards. I was given early access to the exhibition to see the entries, and it’s a fantastic showcase. The talent on display is phenomenal. My favorite series is by Seungho Kim, winner of the Perspectives category. His work documents his and his wife's lives after having an unexpected child, with a particular focus on how the family dog adjusted, and finally made friends with the baby.

I’ve interviewed many photographers in my time as a journalist, seen many exhibitions, and obviously gazed intently at many photos. I know full well that many photographers shoot deliberately with a final printed product in mind. There’s nothing like looking at an image in large printed format, in precisely the way the artist wanted it to be seen. It always beats digital in my book.

No Sony? No problem

If you’re inspired by this year’s awards — either the online gallery or physical exhibition — you can get involved in 2027’s competition, which will open on June 1 2026.

Importantly, while Sony hosts the WPA, there’s absolutely no stipulation for entries to be shot on a Sony camera. You don’t need to be rocking the latest, greatest Sony A7V to enter next year’s competition — maybe you’re rocking a humble Canon EOS R100 or, like me, a several-year-old Fujifilm X-E4. In fact, I talked to lots of the entrants in this year's awards, and even many of the pros shoot with other brands. Will Burrard-Lucas, winner of the Wildlife & Nature category, shoots on whatever old DSLRs he can find to jerry rig into traps or mobile recording devices (he literally straps cameras to RC cars to get close up wide-angle photos of hyenas!)

And that’s cool: it means you don’t need expensive gear to take part in the event. Remember, great imagery has more to do with the photographer than the camera.

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I own all sorts of cameras for different circumstances, but over the last year, I’ve been trying to follow a "less is more" philosophy. That’s why I’ve stopped carrying a full-frame mirrorless camera to work, opting instead for my compact Panasonic Lumix GX850 micro four thirds camera — though I still keep my phone and GoPro Hero Lit on me.

This is exactly why I’m so stoked for GoPro's new Mission1 lineup. It represents a dramatic shift, catering to serious enthusiasts who crave better performance and utility than what’s offered by the current action cam market.

After seeing the GoPro Mission1 Pro ILS in particular, I’m convinced I could ditch my micro four thirds camera altogether. In fact, the Mission1 makes a compelling argument that the traditional point-and-shoot is finally obsolete. Here’s why.

A 1-inch sensor is a big deal than you think

If you look at the current market for point-and-shoot cameras, many effectively use smartphone-sized sensors — and the Panasonic Lumix ZS99 is a perfect example. It actually has a smaller sensor than what’s found in the best camera phone around, the Galaxy S26 Ultra, which utilizes a 1/1.3-inch main sensor.

That’s why the GoPro Mission 1 lineup's move to a 50MP 1-inch sensor is such a significant shift. By using a larger sensor, the camera is able to accumulate more light, resulting in sharper images and vastly improved low-light performance. Most flagship phones now excel at shooting in the dark, but they still require long exposure times. Since the Mission 1 models all feature 1-inch sensors, they can gather the same amount of light in a fraction of the time required by standard phones or point-and-shoots.

However, the GoPro Mission1 is clearly positioned as a video camera first — which makes that 1-inch sensor even more valuable. If you’ve ever shot video with a point-and-shoot or a phone in dim lighting, you know how noisy and muddy the footage can look. With the Mission 1, that should no longer be the case.

Size does matter

Micro four thirds systems are some of the lightest mirrorless cameras around, but even my Panasonic Lumix GX850 looks bulky next to the GoPro Mission 1. In a side-by-side comparison, it's unbelieveable to see the size difference between them. The beauty here is that GoPro has taken the iconic design of its Hero 13 Black and made it ever so slightly larger to house everything necessary to make the Mission 1 the ultimate all-purpose camera.

Thanks to its rugged construction and small footprint, it’s far easier to position in tight areas where traditional cameras simply won’t fit — like on my car's dashboard. Crucially, it offers significantly better protection than any point-and-shoot camera, complete with every mounting option imaginable: the standard 1/4-20 tripod mount, classic folding fingers, and my personal favorite, the Magnetic Latch Mount.

Even with its diminutive size, GoPro claims the Mission 1 offers impressive endurance thanks to the new Enduro 2 battery, which is rated for three hours of 4K 30fps recording.

A truly pocketable cinema cam

I never imagined that a GoPro-sized camera could deliver the same level of cinematic quality as full-frame cameras like my Lumix S5. GoPro’s answer to that skepticism is the Mission 1 Pro ILS, which features a Micro Four Thirds mount that allows you to attach professional cinema glass directly to the body. While it shares the same 50MP 1-inch sensor as the other two models, the video specs are in a league of their own — we're talking 8K 60fps, 4K 120fps, and beyond.

While there's roughly a 3x crop factor with this system that narrows the field of view, the fact that it’s an interchangeable lens system still means I have total control over the compression and aesthetic of my shots. I’m especially excited about its 960 fps slow motion mode at 1080p, which rivals dedicated high-speed cameras costing tens of thousands of dollars. Imagine the cinematic possibilities when pairing a lens with a shallow depth of field with that level of frame rate.

Time wouldn't just slow down, it would practically stand still.

Forget point-and-shoots

All of this has me incredibly excited for the GoPro Mission 1 lineup. You’ll have to consider what matters most to your workflow because there are three options: the entry-level Mission 1, the flagship Mission 1 Pro, and the interchangeable Mission 1 Pro ILS.

GoPro hasn’t announced official pricing yet, but pre-orders begin on May 21, 2026. I’ve been considering an aftermarket compact micro four thirds camera similar to my Lumix GX850, or even a bridge point-and-shoot, but the insane prices I’m seeing on the used market make it impossible to pull the trigger.

That’s why GoPro can’t afford to overprice this lineup. If I had to guess, a competitive price point for the Standard Mission 1 would be around $500 — especially since the GoPro Hero13 Black currently retails for $429. As for the Mission 1 Pro and Mission 1 Pro ILS, I’m hoping the latter stays under $899 to keep it a more attractive option than a traditional mirrorless setup.

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DJI has faced a ban on importing and selling drones in the United States since December 2025, but the company may have slipped one final drone under the wire. Between leaks, official announcements and FCC filings DJI may have one more drone for American enthusiasts to enjoy.

Today, DJI posted a teaser video for the new Lito drone, which could be the last DJI model to receive FCC certification, pending the outcomes of various legal battles. The teaser promised an official reveal on April 23.

Based on FCC filings, it appears DJI was able to get the Lito approved before the December 22, 2025, cutoff for the FCC ban. This means the new drone is "grandfathered" into the US market and can be sold in the US.

What is DJI Lito?

DJI's official teaser only highlighted the name and official launch date. However, some previous leaks revealed images that purported to be the new compact drone.

Earlier this month, "tech detective" Igor Bogdanov showed photos that look like marketing materials and not just CAD renders or dummy models. He also posted some packaging images. Today, in light of the announcement, he posted some zoomed in looks at the drone.

A separate leak on Reddit appears to reveal some specs of the Lito drone. According to the poster, the Lito has a top speed of 18m/s and an apparent incompatibility with current controllers.

Based solely on Igor's images, the Lito looks a lot like the DJI Mini 5 Pro, if perhaps a bit sleeker. It's not clear where it will fit in the DJI lineup. My speculation is that the Lito is a slightly less feature-rich version of the Mini.

How we got here

As mentioned, the FCC implemented a ban on foreign-made drones in December of last year, specifically targeting Chinese manufacturers. DJI has been fighting the ban since at least 2023 and sued the FCC in February claiming the agency "exceeded its statutory authority" in an attempt to overturn the ban.

You can still buy DJI-made drones in the US, especially grandfathered in ones that were made before the December deadline. Everything else has been or will be added to the FCC's "Covered List" or its list of banned devices.

Technically, DJI could possibly release more drones in the US after passing "rigorous cyber and hardware assessments," according to the NSD FCC Covered List Waiver 0126. However, it's not clear what those assessments include and if they'll be made difficult just to keep drones on the Covered List.

The legal battles are ongoing, so it may be some time before this is totally cleared up. But for now, the Lito is coming and could be the last new DJI drone we see for a while.

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I adore photography. Whenever I go to a new place, or even when I'm out and about with my family or partner, I love photographing the landscapes, wildlife, and taking portraits. For almost a year, I've been using the Fujifilm X-T50, and I've taken some beautiful photos with it — in the U.K., in Iceland, and everywhere else I've been since owning it.

One of the greatest things about the best mirrorless cameras is that they can simplify your workflow and make it easier to take photos. The X-T50, like many of Fuji's latest cameras, boasts time-saving features which you may or may not already know of. When you're photographing a crucial moment, say, a bird in flight, you might not want to bother with diving into the in-depth menu settings.

Luckily, many modern Fuji cameras — and other brands — offer quick and easy solutions. From creating your own custom film recipes to adjusting shooting settings on the fly, here are my time-saving tips and tricks as someone who reviews cameras for a living. Hopefully you'll find some of these helpful, and if there are any that you use and I haven't included, do share them in the comments below!

1. Creating custom film recipes

Film simulation dials are a staple on Fuji's latest cameras, but it was first introduced on the Fujifilm X-T50. While some people may disagree, I absolutely love the film sim dial and think it's a big time-saver. The film sim dial gives you access to eight of Fuji's most popular recipes, as well as three customizable slots and a 'C' position for menu-based selection — so 20 in total.

The film sim dial basically lets you apply filters so that images are ready to go for either printing or sharing on social media without you having to edit them in post-production. Customizing your own recipes is super easy too, by diving into the image quality settings menu and editing custom settings. You can then adjust values like Grain Effect, Color Chrome Effect, White Balance, ISO, Sharpness, Exposure Compensation, and more.

It's worth taking your time and playing with the settings to get to the look you like most — or you can copy settings from recipes available on Google and online forums, like Reddit. After that, it's a matter of assigning them to either the three custom slots or menu-based selection.

2. Assigning personal shortcuts

We've all been there. You want to change one setting in a camera's menu settings but you have to navigate through several sub-menus that aren't relevant to you in that moment. The Fujifilm X-T50, for one, offers a simple solution: My Menu. The last tab in the main menu settings is empty by default, but you can add up to 10 items you use most (but aren't assigned to physical buttons).

Once you've assigned your desired items to My Menu and it's all set up, the camera will default to this tab every time you press the Menu button. This saves you a lot of time as you negate having to scroll through sections like Image Quality.

3. Quickly resetting the focus point

The Fujifilm X-T50, like many other Fuji cameras, features a focus joystick, located on the back panel and next to the monitor. While you can use the joystick to change focus points, did you know that pressing it resets and recenters the focus point? This is something most photographers will be familiar with, but I don't think you should overlook its importance.

I find myself pressing the focus joystick to recenter the focus point nearly every time I pick up my camera. It's quick and easy and saves you the time you'd otherwise spend on manually bringing the focus point back to the center of the screen.

4. Zooming into the focus point

One of my favorite dials on the Fujifilm X-T50 is the rear command dial, or the thumb wheel, located right above the focus joystick and navigation buttons. If you use it as a scroll wheel, you can adjust the ISO — or the shutter speed and other settings, depending on what you've programmed it to. Clicking it, however, makes the electronic viewfinder (EVF) and the LDC screen show a 10x zoom on your focus point.

It's a quick way of checking if your subject is in focus, especially if you're using manual focus or single AF. To zoom out, simply press it again. If you're shooting through the viewfinder, as I usually do, you can verify sharpness without taking your eye off the EVF.

5. Remapping gestures/buttons on the fly

The rear panel of the Fujifilm X-T50 houses a few different buttons which help you navigate the camera's settings and gallery. But did you know that the Disp/Back button isn't just for, well, exiting menus? If you hold the Disp/Back button for two seconds, it instantly opens the Function (Fn) Setting menu, which allows you to remap any physical buttons and touch gestures on the fly.

Using the Disp/Back button saves you a lot of time you'd otherwise spend diving into detailed menus. It's important to note that touchscreen gestures are disabled by default, so remember to enable them via the menu if you want to use swipes on the screen to access settings like internal mic adjustment, histogram, and so on.

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It's not news anymore that Gen Z and the younger generations love "retro" tech. MP3 players, vinyl, film cameras, and flip phones have all had a resurgence. Add to that list compact cameras like the much-talked-about Fujifilm X100VI, Ricoh GR IV, and Canon PowerShot G7X Mark III. These three are the usual suspects and the darlings of TikTok. Look up any article, video or short on the best compact cameras, and you'll see one or more of these cameras guaranteed. There's just one problem: you can't find them anywhere new.

The hype around them is just too much for manufacturers and retailers, making it impossible for the average person to buy one at retail value. But, they're not the only game in town. Older cameras like the Panasonic GX1 and GX85 are well-known, reasonably priced cameras that produce great images. And they're easy enough to find, so I got one of each… for less than half the cost of a Fujifilm X100VI.

Though Lumix shooters are well aware of these two pocket rockets, Gen Z photographers aren't clamoring for them like they are the Canon PowerShot Elph 360 HS A. I believe they should.

Smaller sensors need love too

The bigger the sensor, the better the image quality. You get better low-light performance and less noise thanks to larger and more sensitive photosites (the analog light sensors that become digital pixels). You get a shallower depth of field, and there's less crop as the sensor size goes up — 35mm full-frame sensors don't have any crop because thanks to the legacy of 35mm film, it sets the standard. But, despite what YouTubers say, bigger isn't always better.

The advantage of a smaller sensor is a smaller camera body. That's why the three aforementioned Fuji, Canon and Ricoh point-and-shoot compacts all feature APS-C sensors instead of full-frame sensors. At roughly 2/3 the size of a full-frame sensor, APS-C sensors are small, but they're not the smallest.

The Micro Four Thirds format is twice as small as full-frame, with a 4:3 aspect ratio, hence the name. This system used by Olympus and Panasonic has produced some of the smallest digital cameras to date, like the legendary Panasonic Lumix GM1 (an absolute powerhouse of a compact camera). While the size and sensor help it stand out, it's the choice of lenses on such a small body that makes it so sought-after.

M43 compacts give you options

The point-and-shoot experience is simultaneously freeing and limiting. The fixed lenses on these cameras are great and allow you to keep your kit small when going on a shoot. The Fujifilm X100VI has a 23mm lens, which gives a field of view equivalent to a 35mm lens on a full frame camera — a classic all-purpose field of view. You can't go wrong with it. After a while, though, the convenience becomes a setback. If you want to shoot landscape, portraits, or sports photography, you're out of luck. That's not an issue with an interchangeable lens compact camera like the GX85 and GX1.

On a trip home to South Texas a few years back, I brought my recently purchased Lumix GX85 and the kit lens it came with. This cheap, plastic 12-32mm, f/3.5-5.6 lens turned out to be all I needed. I snapped a ton of great images of my family, and I got to see the city I once lived in and knew so well in a whole new light with this dinky little lens. And due to the collapsible design of the lens, the entire kit was still small enough to fit in my Wandrd D1 crossbody sling. When I want to travel light but am unsure of what I'll be shooting, this lens is a no brainer.

Another lens I've grown to love is the Lumix 14mm f/2.5 pancake lens that came bundled with my used Lumix GX1. This stubby lens is a community favorite because of its small size and unique 28mm equivalent shooting experience that’s great for street photography. The wider aperture, while not incredible for low-light shooting, is fine for most dusk and indoor shots — the built-in flash on the camera is a lifesaver here.

But if you want options and you're on a budget, spare a thought to the Lumix 14-140mm f/4-5.8 lens. Since this ends up being a 28-280mm equivalent lens, it's great for sports photography, street, landscapes, and portraits all at once. It's the biggest lens I own, and it's even bigger when I max out the focal length. Though it looks ridiculous on a smaller body like the GX1, it's worth the additional size and weight. I've taken it to several MLS matches, where I've captured my Rapids up-close as if I was standing on the sidelines. Most sports venues won't let you bring a telephoto lens inside, but if you can, this is the one.

You don’t get that versatility with a fixed-lens compact.

Access to Leica glass

Panasonic and Leica have a longstanding partnership that goes back to the early days of digital photography, when the two brands worked on the Lecia Digilux 1. Since then, Leica has been making glass for Panasonic in formats like Four Thirds, Micro Four Thirds, and L-Mount — the latter is a partnership between the two and Sigma to create full-frame L-Mount lenses. That means Micro Four Thirds shooters are spoiled for choice when it comes to quality lenses.

One of those lenses is my all-time favorite, the Leica Summilux 25mm f/1.4 lens. This 50mm equivalent lens is my go-to when shooting at night or indoors. It's a must-have for concert photography, which is where I've taken some personal favorite shots. Despite having to shoot manual because of loud and slow focus, this is also my top choice for shooting video due to the superior image quality. It's basically glued on to my Lumix GH5 these days, which I use any time I'm headed out the door on the weekends.

A lens I got recently and have been using a lot is the Leica 45mm f.2.8. It's a prime macro lens great for shooting detail up-close, though I've mostly used it to scan 35mm film at home. That said, it has a lot of potential as a portrait lens since it offers a field of view equivalent to 90mm on full frame. If you're shooting product photography or videography, this is one lens you need in your kit for close-up shots and b-roll.

Get more value for your money

The Micro Four Thirds system is alive and well — the Lumix GH7 is a heck of a video camera with the option for Arric LogC3. But the M43 cameras and lenses I've mentioned have been around for a while. You can pick them up for relatively cheap on the used market.

The Lumix GX1 goes for about $200, while the Lumix GX85 tends to fetch a higher price of roughly $400-500. I got lucky when I purchased mine, finding it a local used camera shop for $350. It came bundled with the kit lens, charger, three batteries, and a half-cage. All in, that’s $700 max for my two cameras — less than half the asking price of a new (if you can find one) Fujifilm X100VI ($1,799).

Lenses aren't expensive, either. The trusty Lumix G 14mm pancake lens goes for about $120-$200, and the 12-32mm kit lens sells for $125-$175. The Leica lenses are a bit pricier used, but it's nothing outrageous. My favorite Leica Summilux 25mm is in the neighborhood of $300-$400. Seeing as how this lens has made me many times what it costs through client work, I don't regret purchasing it.

Leave the hype to the influencers

The compact point-and-shoots that everyone is hyped about are great cameras. They're not so good that they're worth paying way above retail value or waiting years until they become available. Let the influencers do that. If you care more about creating images than the status of owning one of these cameras, then there are other options out there.

Micro Four Thirds are near and dear to my heart because they offer a ton of value for not a lot of money. Their compact size, modern features, and lens selection make them more viable for just about any type of shooting you're planning to do. And you don't have to wait years to get one.

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When I say, "drones really don't get much better than this," I'm obviously talking about the brand new DJI Avata 360. DJI has been teasing its latest and first-ever 360° drone for a couple of weeks now, and that's not even the first we've heard of it. Since the tail-end of 2025, online rumors and leaks have been speculating the Avata 360's launch, specs and price, and finally, finally, the drone has landed — and it's made a splash.

I'll be the first to admit that drones have been... a little boring of late. The same specs recycled and stuffed into the same sub-250g / sub-8.78oz bodies, the drone industry feels like it has plateaued in the last few years. As someone who tests the best drones, I've been wanting someone to shake things up. Make a bang. Make me go, "Wow, they can do that?!" That finally happened when the Antigravity A1 came out in November 2025, and while it impressed me, the premium price left a sour taste in my mouth. Enter DJI.

The Avata 360 is, in true DJI fashion, a fine drone. It's not only the best 360° drone, it's one of the best drones in general, period. DJI has managed to pack twin lenses that capture 8K/60fps footage and 120MP stills, omnidirectional obstacle avoidance, and next-gen features like Intelligent Tracking into a body that doesn't break the bank. And it certainly gives the Antigravity A1 a run for its money.

Chock-full of goodies

While you can read all about the drone's specs in my full DJI Avata 360 review, I'd like to give you a quick overview of what we're being treated to here. The Avata 360 is fitted with twin lenses that record 4K record a 180° FoV (field of view) each in 4K, and the frames are then stitched together by the camera. What this means is that you get +8K resolution before stitching and when the clips are stitched together, you get 360° footage at true 8K resolution.

In addition to this, you can capture 120MP stills too, as the twin lenses snap 64MP images each and then stitch them together. The best part is that you can't see any stitching lines, neither in videos nor in stills. Also, if you want to quickly share clips on social media and don't have time for post-production (you'll need to reframe the footage a fair bit in post to make it usable), you can do that and create 'tiny planet' effects by manipulating the two top dials on the RC-2 controller.

Speaking of, there are two ways of flying the Avata 360: you can do so with either the RC-2 controller (or any other recent DJI controller, really) or the DJI Goggles N3 and the RC Motion 3 controller. Compared to the Antigravity A1 which can be flown only with a headset and motion controller, the dual ways of flying make the Avata 360 far more versatile. Having tested both, you can take my word for it when I say both work extremely well.

No qualms about the build

As is always the case with DJI's drones, the DJI Avata 360 is built extremely well and designed just as nicely. Looking like the lovechild of the DJI Avata 2 and the DJI Neo 2, the Avata 360 is wrapped in dark grey colors which lend it a premium edge. The drone features propeller guards which not only make the drone safe for flying indoors or near people, but also protect the propellers if the drone runs into a wall, tree or other obstacle.

One important thing to note about the Avata 360 is that it weighs 1lb or 455g, which means that you’ll need to register it with the F.A.A. in the U.S. and the C.A.A. in the U.K., or any other governing authority depending on where you live. More restrictions may apply too, so I highly recommend doing your research before taking to the skies. In my opinion, don't let the weight put you off — it's well-worth it. Because it's a little heavy, the Avata 360 doesn't get knocked by sudden gusts of wind either, ensuring you always get smooth and stable footage.

Alongside the brand's trademark RockSteady technology, the drone also features a single-axis mechanical gimbal which provides further stabilization. None of the footage I captured appeared shaky or unsteady, and even if it does, you can digitally stabilize it via DJI Studio when you're back at your desk.

So... it's perfect?

Yeah, it kinda is. Look, my job is to analyze tech and put products through their paces, and I've struggled to find any real flaws with the DJI Avata 360. Okay, it weighs more than 8.78oz, but does that matter in the grand scheme of things, when you're getting such a solid drone? U.S. consumers have to wait a while too as the drone is currently available for pre-order only, but again, that's not a flaw. It will come.

Other than that, no, there isn't anything wrong with the Avata 360, and you can rest assured that you're getting bang for your buck. It's some of the most fun I've had flying and testing a drone recently, and the creative possibilities are truly limitless. It's worth every cent.

Wondering which 360° drone is right for you? Check out my DJI Avata 360 versus Antigravity A1 face-off!

More from Tom's Guide

• DJI Avata 360 review: The undisputed king of 360-degree drones
• I've flown both the DJI Avata 360 and the Antigravity A1 360-degree drones — and there's a clear winner
• I tested the DJI Goggles N3 for a month — and I don’t want to fly a drone without an FPV headset ever again

I’ve been on a mission to find the best photo book service, and after a lot of trial and error, I think I’ve finally found a worthy contender. Popsa is the easiest way to create a photo book and get premium results. Customization is super simple, and the layflat binding option means wear and tear is minimized.

While color replication is generally impressive, blues can sometimes appear oversaturated. It’s also on the expensive side when compared to some budget counterparts — but I think the premium price is worth it for the book’s quality.

You can find out more about my experience with the photo book service by reading this full Popsa review.

Popsa Photo Book review: Specs

Popsa Photo Book review: Price & availability

You can purchase Popsa photo books directly from the Popsa website with prices starting at $44 for a hardback book. If you’d rather try out something cheaper, Popsa also offers a softcover book starting at $34, but I would recommend the hardback book for the best quality and longevity.

When creating the photo book I tested, I added a gloss finish to the pages, silver foil on lettering and layflat binding, and the book came to $86. These features come at an extra cost, but in my opinion, they made the photobook feel incredibly premium. If you’re looking for something that will look good on display as well as when you’re flicking through photos with friends and family, Popsa is a great option, thanks to all its features.

The minimum number of pages you need to order the book is 20, and you can add up to 130 extra pages, which would take the book to a maximum number of pages of 150. While I think this is more than enough pages to make a great photo book, Chatbooks allows up to 366 pages.

The Printique photo book service starts around the same price for $45, but its superior quality makes it more of a coffee table book, and something to display. Although the Popsa book feels of premium quality, it also looks less expensive, and is more comfortable to use for casually looking through pictures.

Photo book newbies may want to try something a little more friendly on the bank account first time around, so Mixbook would be a good option as it starts from just $14 and offers a wide range of customization options.

Popsa Photo Book review: Software & production

With the premium results, you’d be forgiven for thinking that designing a photo book with Popsa would be a complicated process. But you’d be wrong. I used the free mobile app and tried out Popsa’s AI software.

This process is super simple. I just had to upload all of the pictures I wanted in the book from my camera roll and into the app. The software then analyzed the photos and organized them. I think it did a pretty good job at suggesting designs, but I was able to manually resize some pictures to ensure the best layout.

I also tested out the background colors. You can have a different color on each page if you’d like, but I opted for a light purple color on all the pages. It’s easy to add text to the pages too. The software feels basic, but I like that because everything is laid out in a satisfying way that feels relaxing to process — totally stress-free.

Making the book was very straightforward, and the software makes the whole process feel accessible to even the most inexperienced photo book curator. If you’re looking to have more creative control over the book, I would recommend Mixbook, which is user-friendly but offers a very wide variety of customization tools.

Popsa Photo Book review: Print quality

The quality of print you get with Popsa is totally worth the money you spend on it. The 200gsm paper is a lot thicker than the paper you get with other photo books like Chatbooks, Mixbook or Vistaprint, and feels almost like card. This means that the pages don’t bend or fold, and the pictures always look perfect.

Colors in the images are well presented throughout the book, although blue tones sometimes appear oversaturated compared to the originals. However, this isn’t an issue for me, as I love my images to be as bright as possible, and I think it lends well to water images, adding an extra dose of vibrancy.

Despite the tendency to oversaturate blues, the Popsa deals with colors that are already oversaturated extremely well. In other photobooks like Vistaprint, bright colors look blown out, but this isn’t an issue with Popsa.

However, I think that black and white images are slightly sepia-toned. This isn’t something that my colleague Erin noticed, but when I looked at all of the photobooks I have tested side by side, this was clear.

The glossy finish of the pages makes the book feel more authentic, like a printed photo. And the layflat binding is a great way to minimise any damage to the book from bending or folding pages, and you can use the entire margin of the book for photos.

The binding also makes the book feel a little thicker because of the way it’s put together, but it’s worth it. The front cover of the hardback book is nicely padded and has a luxurious, glossy finish. I think the silver foil lettering on the cover also lends to the premium look and feel.

It feels like a lot of care has gone into making this book, which is what you want when you’re creating something to help you look back at memories.

Popsa Photo Book review: Verdict

Popsa’s photo book service offers a quick and easy way to put all of your favorite photos in one place, and I found the whole process extremely straightforward. There was no fussing with different settings and sizing, and I could even use AI software to take care of all the fiddly bits like choosing layouts and resizing photos for me.

The book can easily be upgraded with additions such as glossy pages and silver foil lettering to make it feel premium, but still have an accessible look. Blue tones are sometimes oversaturated, which I don’t mind, but it won’t be for everyone.

Popsa is a little more expensive than other budget services like Mixbook and Vistaprint, but I think paying a little extra to get something that feels so high-quality is definitely worth it.

In November of 2025, there was a seismic shift in the drone world: a new brand threatened DJI's position as the king of the skies. Antigravity, a brand "incubated" by Insta360 (yes, the 360° cameras giant), launched its first drone, and the world's first-ever 360° drone, called the Antigravity A1.

At the time, DJI didn't have its own 360° drone which meant that Antigravity had carved a niche of its own and the A1 remained the undisputed best 360° drone... until now.

Four months later, in March 2026, DJI launched its first-ever 360° drone (and the world's second), the long-rumored DJI Avata 360. Since there are only two 360° drones in existence, at the time of writing, and both come from two of the biggest names in the realm of action cameras and drones, I naturally had to pit them against one another.

While I initially thought there weren't many differences between the two, I have since been proven wrong. Both the Avata 360 and the Antigravity A1 shoot 8K 360° video which can be edited in post, and since every single angle is captured, you can focus on and enjoy flying first and think about framing later. Battery lives are fairly similar too... so are there any substantial differences? And is there a clear winner? Yes and yes.

Here's how it went when I tested the DJI Avata 360 versus the Antigravity A1.

DJI Avata 360 vs Antigravity A1: Specs compared

DJI Avata 360 vs Antigravity A1: Price & availability

The Antigravity A1 is a sub-brand of Insta360 — yes, the action and 360° cameras giant — and it officially launched in November 2025. Four months later, the DJI Avata 360 was announced, becoming the world's second-ever 360° drone (and the Chinese giant's first). I'll start off by talking about the elephant in the room that's desperately wanting to be addressed: the price difference between the DJI Avata 360 and the Antigravity A1.

There's a massive price difference between the two, and I wish I was exaggerating but I'm really not. The Avata 360 starts at ~$549 / £409 for just the drone, and this is the perfect deal for those who already own a DJI controller, like the RC-N3 or the RC-2, or a pair of DJI Goggles N3 and a DJI RC Motion 3 controller. There are three additional bundles available: with the RC-2 controller (~$859 / £639), an RC-2 Fly More Combo (~$1,199 / £829), and a Motion Combo (~$1,199 / £829).

In comparison, the Antigravity A1 starts at $1,599 / £1,219, while its Explorer bundle costs $1,899 / £1,399, and the Infinity bundle retails for a whopping $1,999 / £1,499. It's staggering, and the fact that the Avata 360's most expensive bundle still costs a lot less than the Antigravity A1's cheapest bundle blows my mind.

Winner: DJI Avata 360

DJI Avata 360 vs Antigravity A1: Design

Both the DJI Avata 360 and the Antigravity A1 look very different from one another. The Avata 360 retains the DJI Avata 2's design and borrows styling cues from the DJI Neo 2. It's fitted with propeller guards which means that not only can you fly it indoors, but that its propellers are protected if your drone crashes into a tree or another obstacle. On the other hand, the Antigravity A1 looks similar to drones like the DJI Mini 5 Pro, with its propellers exposed, limiting its indoor usage.

The two drones are fairly compact in size, with the Avata 360 measuring 9.69 x 7.83 x 2.19 inches and the Antigravity A1 measuring 12.15 × 15.05 × 3.51 inches (unfolded, with propellers). Both come with shoulder bags for easy transport.

The biggest difference lies in their weight. The Avata 360 weighs 1lb while the Antigravity A1 weighs 8.78oz. Because the latter weighs so little, you don't need to necessarily register it with the F.A.A. in the U.S. or the C.A.A. in the U.K., or any other governing authority depending on where you live.

Because the Avata 360 weighs so much, more flight restrictions apply, such as staying under a certain height limit, avoiding flying over groups of people, etc. I'd recommend reading up on the different rules and restrictions depending on where you live or where you're planning on flying the drone.

Due to the added restrictions, the Antigravity A1 takes the crown when it comes to design and portability — although the Avata 360 won't give you anything to complain about in terms of build quality.

Winner: Antigravity A1

DJI Avata 360 vs Antigravity A1: Features & app

There's no dearth of features on both the DJI Avata 360 and the Antigravity A1. Both drones feature omnidirectional obstacle avoidance, and return-to-home where the drones fly to their last known take-off positions either manually or automatically when battery is low. Both drones also feature internal storage, with the Antigravity A1 packing 20GB of it and the Avata 360 packing 42GB of it, making the latter the winner.

As is the nature of 360° footage where every single angle is captured, you need to edit footage in post-production to make it usable or professional-looking. Up until recently, DJI's companion software for editing action camera footage was fairly lackluser, but the brand has made massive strides with the Avata 360. DJI Studio on macOS/Windows is the easiest way to edit your footage, and in a similar vein, so is Antigravity Studio. Both drones are also accompanied by clean-looking, user-friendly mobile apps for on-the-fly editing.

The biggest difference, and the deciding factor of this round, lies in the drones' straight-out-of-camera footage — and this is also related to how the drones are controlled/flown. The Avata 360 can be used with either the RC-2 or the RC-N3 controller, and you can use these controllers to create Tiny Planet videos that can be shared online without editing. Since the Antigravity A1 uses a screen-less Grip motion controller, the same isn't possible, therefore handing over the win to the Avata 360.

Also aiding the Avata 360's win in this round is its 42GB of internal storage (compared to just 20GB on the Antigravity A1). In addition to this, the Avata 360's omnidirectional obstacle avoidance, in my opinion, works just a little better than the Antigravity A1's, as seen in my testing.

Winner: DJI Avata 360

DJI Avata 360 vs Antigravity A1: Photo & video quality

Both the DJI Avata 360 and the Antigravity A1 are fantastic, competent drones, capable of capturing 8K 360° footage. The Avata 360 does so at 60fps, while the Antigravity A1 does so at 30fps. The Avata 360 is in fact the only 360° device (action cameras and drones included) to record 8K/60fps footage, so it signals a new age for 360° devices.

Regardless, both drones capture stable and steady footage but the Avata 360's footage is more stabilized thanks to a single-axis mechanical gimbal working in conjunction with DJI's RockSteady tech.

8K video shot on both drones gives you enough headroom in post-production to reframe at up to 4K in a 16:9 aspect ratio — the default ratio for YouTube and TV. Twin lenses on each drone basically capture 4K videos which are then stitched together. On the Avata 360, the resolution you get is true 8K and therefore true 4K, and there are no stitching lines visible — in fact, you can't see stitching lines in the footage captured with the Antigravity A1 either.

The video above was shot on the Antigravity A1, and reframed in post. You can add many effects and adjust every single angle in post-production, and it's like having unlimited A and B cams. The video is smooth and stable, and the colors appear true-to-life too.

Above is a video shot on the Avata 360, in comparison. Because of the 60fps frame rate, the footage appears smoother and the motion looks more realistic. Personally, I prefer the look of the Avata 360's footage because the colors look more vibrant and the finer details (like the patterns in the clay) look more hi-res when compared to the Antigravity A1.

Alongside shooting video, the Antigravity A1 and the Avata 360 are excellent for capturing aerial stills too. The Antigravity A1 shoots 55MP photos with its 1/1.28-inch sensor while the Avata 360 shoots 120MP photos with its 1/1.1-inch sensor. The 120MP photos are achieved by stitching two 64MP photos together, although there are again no signs or stitching lines in the final results. The Avata 360 also gives you more freedom in terms of cropping when compared to the Antigravity A1 — although 55MP stills are still outstanding.

The images in the gallery above were shot on the Antigravity A1. They look good, and the drone has captured enough detail in the building in the distance, but some of the finer detail, like the edges of the window panes, has been lost.

In comparison, the images in the gallery above were shot on the Avata 360, and again, they look better, in my opinion. The colors are more pleasing to look at, and the images themselves are quite detailed. At the end of the day, the Avata 360 is the drone to get if you want best-in-class image and video quality, and so, it wins this round.

DJI Avata 360 vs Antigravity A1: Battery life

Neither the DJI Avata 360 nor the Antigravity A1 will give you much room to complain about when it comes to battery life. The Avata 360 is rated for 23 minutes between charges, while the Antigravity A1 is rated for 24 minutes. You can also use High-Capacity flight batteries with the Antigravity A1, and using one bumps the flight time up to 39 minutes, but it's worth noting that this pushes the drone's weight over 8.78oz, which means more restrictions apply.

Both drones are also accompanied by three-way charging hubs — if you buy the respective bundles. These charge three batteries in just under/over an hour each. At the time of writing, it isn't confirmed whether more advanced battery packs will be available for the Avata 360, so the Antigravity A1 is the winner in this department by a very narrow margin.

Winner: Antigravity A1

DJI Avata 360 vs Antigravity A1: Verdict

Both the Antigravity A1 and the DJI Avata 360 usher in a new age for drones: the era of 360° drones has begun. They're feats of engineering in their own rights, with both drones boasting incredible 8K video capabilities. But having spent weeks testing both drones, the winner couldn't be more obvious. When it comes to sheer value for money, the Avata 360 takes the cake as its most expensive Fly More Combo costs less than the Antigravity A1's cheapest one.

But that's not all. The Avata 360 is more intuitive to fly with either a controller or a pair of goggles, and it enables you to create good-looking straight-out-of-camera footage. Furthermore, it packs 8K/60fps video capabilities while the Antigravity A1's caps at 8K/30fps. Not only is the Avata 360 an Antigravity A1 killer, but this could potentially mean that DJI will start packing 8K/60fps into its action cameras, which wouldn't be good news for Insta360.

Combine that with 120MP stills, user-friendly editing software, and sublime build quality, and you've got a drone that will stay on top for a long, long time. The Avata 360 is clearly the king of 360° drones, and I can't picture it being dethroned anytime soon.

DJI Avata 360 vs Antigravity A1: Ratings scorecard

More from Tom's Guide

• 'The best 360-degree drone, maybe ever' — I tested the DJI Avata 360 for 3 weeks and it's the new gold standard
• I’ve been testing the Antigravity A1 and the world’s first-ever 360° drone confirms one thing: DJI has some serious competition
• “What if drones became an extension of our senses?”: I spoke with the Antigravity A1’s product lead about the brand’s inspirations, hopes and challenges

For a few years now, it has felt like the evolution of drones has plateaued, with the same specs being fitted into practically every quadcopter out there. That all changed with the introduction of 360° drones in 2025, and DJI has staked its claim as the best 360° drone with the Avata 360. The Chinese giant’s first 360° drone is a winner, and it upstages the Antigravity A1 (rival Insta360’s drone) in more ways than one.

Capable of recording 8K/60fps footage, the Avata 360 captures every angle possible with its twin lenses, and gives you plenty of headroom to maintain 4K resolution when cropping to 16:9 in post. Intuitive to fly with either the standard controller or a pair of goggles and a motion controller, the straight-out-of-camera footage can even be used without any work in post-production. It captures hi-res 120MP stills too, and the best part? It’s affordable!

To find out if this is the best drone for you, read my full DJI Avata 360 review.

DJI Avata 360 review: Specs

DJI Avata 360 review: Cheat sheet

• What is it? DJI’s first-ever 360° drone and the latest addition to the Avata lineup
• Who is it for? For content creators and anyone who wants to capture every angle, as well as first-person view (FPV) enthusiasts
• How much does it cost? The DJI Avata 360 starts at ~$549 / £409 and goes all the way up to ~$1,119 / £829
• What do we like? The build quality, 360° 8K/60fps video, 120MP stills, dual ways to fly, and detailed companion software
• What don’t we like? The heavy weight

DJI Avata 360 review: Price & availability

Launched on 26 March 2026, the DJI Avata 360 is the Chinese manufacturer’s first-ever 360° drone, and the latest addition to the Avata lineup. At the time of writing, it’s only the second drone to feature 360° technology, and so, it competes directly with the Antigravity A1 ($1,599) which first came out in November 2025.

The Antigravity A1 uses the same technology found in Insta360’s 360° cameras, and this is also the case with the Avata 360. DJI’s drone builds on the imaging tech used in the DJI Osmo 360 camera ($549), and I’ll discuss that more in detail soon. The Avata 360 massively undercuts its primary rival, the Antigravity A1, as it costs a lot less. The drone on its own costs ~$549 / £409 and is perfect for those who already own a DJI controller. If you want the DJI RC-2 controller, it’ll cost you ~$859 / £639, while both the RC-2 Fly More Combo and the Motion Combo (including the DJI Goggles N3 and the DJI RC Motion 3 controller) retail for ~$1,199 / £829 each. U.S. pricing is yet to be confirmed.

That’s right: the Avata 360’s most expensive bundle costs much less than the Antigravity A1’s cheapest one ($1,599 / £1,219). This, alone, makes the Avata 360 a much better investment, and when you add all the goodies it offers to the equation, there’s no question about which drone offers better value for money.

However, as with all other recent DJI launches, the Avata 360’s U.S. availability is dicey. That’s due to the restrictions on foreign-made drones by the F.C.C. While drones that were registered with the F.C.C. prior to the 23 December 2025 ruling can be sold in the American market — and there are very strong rumors that the Avata 360 was one of them — it’s difficult to ascertain how it will impact the Avata 360’s launch. We also don’t know if DJI Care Refresh will be available for the Avata 360 yet, but I have reached out to a DJI representative to get a clearer picture.

DJI Avata 360 review: Design

The DJI Avata 360, like every other DJI drone I’ve tested, is exceptionally built and designed. As part of the Avata lineup, it borrows design cues from the DJI Avata 2 ($409) as well as the DJI Neo 2 ($319) — it looks like the lovechild of the two. Twin lenses sit on the top and bottom of the gimbal unit to capture a 360° view which can later be edited in post-production via the companion software (more on that soon).

Similar to the Neo 2, the Avata 360 is wrapped in dark grey colors which lend it a premium edge and make it look more high-quality than, say, the DJI Neo ($199) or the DJI Mini 4 Pro ($759), in my opinion. Just like on the Neo 2 and the Avata 2, bumpers protect the Avata 360’s four propeller guards, which not only make the drone safe for flying indoors or near people, but also protect the propellers if the drone runs into a wall, tree or other obstacle. Bumper guards are absent on the Antigravity A1, in comparison, which gives the Avata 360 a leg-up — more safety features are always welcome!

The Avata 360 weighs 1lb or 455g, and it measures 9.69 x 7.83 x 2.19 inches. Though it isn’t as small as, say, the DJI Neo 2, the Avata 360 is still easy to travel with, especially in the included shoulder bag. As the drone weighs more than 8.78oz, you’ll need to register it with the F.A.A. in the U.S. and the C.A.A. in the U.K., or any other governing authority depending on where you live. The Avata 360’s heavy weight comes as no surprise, given that the DJI Avata 2 weighs 13.3oz or 377g.

As with most 360° cameras, the Avata 360’s lenses are easily replaceable by users, which is good news as the lower lens can be liable to impacts during landing. This is simple enough to do, as all you need to do is unscrew and pop out the damaged lens with the tools provided in the replacement kit, and screw on the new one.

We’ve also seen the inclusion of interchangeable lenses with the Antigravity A1, so it’s great that DJI has implemented this feature too. To ensure that the lenses don’t get damaged, the Avata 360’s gimbal rotates in a way that the lenses are only exposed when the drone is turned on. When you’re landing the drone, the gimbal rotates and tucks what would be the lower lens to the back, so that it doesn’t come in contact with the ground.

Build quality remains sublime as usual, and the Avata 360 doesn’t feel low-quality. Tapping it with my fingernails didn’t reveal any hollow parts or pinging, so you’re getting bang for your buck.

DJI Avata 360 review: Controls

When you buy the Antigravity A1, you get Vision goggles and a Grip motion controller in the bundle, and that’s what you use to fly the drone — similar to the DJI Goggles N3 and the DJI RC Motion 3 controller ($229 + $99). The DJI Avata 360 is a more versatile drone in that regard, as you can fly it with either the Goggles N3 and the RC Motion 3, or with a DJI RC-2 controller.

I’ve covered the RC-2 controller extensively as I’ve used it with the DJI Mini 5 Pro ($759) and other drones, but with the Avata 360, the interface is a little different. For instance, when using the RC-2 with the Avata 360, the top left dial lets you adjust the 360° Virtual Gimbal’s tilt and roll angle while the top right dial zooms in and out to help you capture each and every angle. When you’re doing this while flying the drone, it feels a little trippy and disorienting, but it’s extremely fun.

One of the advantages of buying the Avata 360 over the Antigravity A1 is the RC-2 controller — it can even be flown with an RC-N3 controller — as it enables you to view the footage you’ve just shot. You don’t need to wait until you’ve offloaded the footage to your phone or when you’re back at your desk. You can view a low-res preview of the video you’ve just filmed, and you can even use your finger to change the on-screen viewing angles.

Then you’ve got the Goggles N3 and the RC Motion 3, which I also tested with the Avata 360. If you want a more immersive flying experience, I’d highly recommend grabbing that bundle instead, as it makes you feel like you’re sitting on top of the drone, and it gives you a proper bird’s eye view of the world. You can see all around you by simply moving your head. Look down and you’ll see what’s under the drone. Look to the right and you’ll see what’s to the right of the Avata 360. This is also how the Antigravity A1’s Vision goggles and Grip controller work. Both the Avata 360 and the Antigravity A1 are very similar in this regard.

The RC Motion 3 works just as well, and gives you a lot of control over the Avata 360’s movements. It enables you to make minute adjustments to your drone’s position and direction, so you can turn tight corners with ease. To find out more about how FPV flying works, read my full DJI Goggles N3 review.

If you don’t want to spend nearly a grand on the Motion combo, the standard RC-2 bundle will be enough for you. 360° footage needs to be edited in post-production to make it usable and the RC-2 controller captures every angle anyway, so you don’t necessarily need the most expensive bundle.

DJI Avata 360 review: Features

There’s no dearth of features on the DJI Avata 360. Alongside its 8K 360° video capabilities, you also get solid wind resistance, omnidirectional obstacle avoidance, and other safety features. For a retail price much less than the Antigravity A1, I’d say the Avata 360 trumps Insta360 in the features department.

The Avata 360 has a flight distance of 8.38 miles, which is a little more than the Antigravity A1’s 8-mile distance when you’re using a standard flight battery. On the Antigravity A1, this doubles with a High-Capacity battery. On the right edge of the drone, you’ll find a microSD card slot. While you get 42GB of internal storage (versus just 20GB on the Antigravity A1), I’d highly recommend investing in a microSD card, such as the Lexar 256GB V60 ($134). If you’re constantly shooting 8K/60fps video, the Avata 360’s internal storage will fill up extremely quickly — any drone’s or camera’s would.

Wind resistance

The Avata 360 features great wind resistance, capable of withstanding level 5 winds (10.7 m/s or 24mph). This is the same as the Antigravity A1 and the DJI Avata 2. I flew on a couple of windy days when the speed was over 20mph, according to my phone, and the drone didn’t falter. Because it weighs 1lb as well, it isn’t susceptible to gusts of wind — something that is an issue with sub-250g drones, like the Antigravity A1.

Obstacle avoidance

The Avata 360 features fantastic obstacle avoidance too. Its omnidirectional obstacle avoidance means it can brake or bypass objects in its way, depending on your settings. This is one of the most important features you can have in an FPV drone, and it comes in handy especially when flying the Avata 360 through the Goggles N3 and using the RC Motion 3. It gives you a lot more confidence when navigating tight spaces.

It will continue detecting and avoiding obstacles even when you hit the return-to-home button. This prompts the drone to fly back to its last known takeoff position, and is automatically toggled when the Avata 360 is low on battery.

DJI Avata 360 review: Video quality

The DJI Avata 360 is an incredible 360° drone, capable of recording 8K video at 60fps, which gives it a leg-up over the Antigravity A1 whose frame rate tops out at 30fps. While the Avata 360 borrows much of its core technology from the DJI Osmo 360, it’s important to note that the action camera’s 8K video is limited to 50fps (which is also outstanding, by the way) or 5K at 60fps. It does, however, feature the same 1/1.1-inch Square CMOS sensor.

Just like on the action camera, the Avata 360’s twin lenses record a 180° FoV (field of view) each in 4K, and the frames are then stitched together by the camera. What this means is that you get +8K resoltuion before stitching and when the clips are stitched together, you get 360° footage at true 8K resolution. This is how the twin lenses on the Antigravity A1 work too. I couldn’t see any stitching lines between the clips either, even after I zoomed in and analyzed the clips (and stills).

8K/60fps is extremely smooth and stable, and gives you a lot of freedom in post-production. You’ll be relying on companion software for editing these files in post (more on that soon), and 8K resolution basically gives you enough headroom in post-production to facilitate reframing (cropping into that full 8K image) at up to 4K in a 16:9 aspect ratio, depending on how wide the field of view is of your final frame.

But the Avata 360 has an ace up its sleeve. You see, when you’re shooting video on the Antigravity A1, you can’t really zoom out and change the pitch angle much, so you need to heavily edit files in post to make them watchable and usable. On the Avata 360? Even without editing, you can create ‘tiny planet’ effects by manipulating the two top dials on the RC-2 controller, as you can see above. I haven’t edited the footage (except for trimming the beginning and the end) and it still looks fantastic, giving the viewer a bird’s eye view of the world.

I think this massively adds to the Avata 360’s appeal. 360° editing software can take a while to get to grips with and might not be everyone’s cup of tea, and if a novice can create footage that’s instantly usable and shareable, it’s a win.

But editing 360° footage via companion software is necessary if you want longer clips that aren’t simply using effects. It can be a lot of fun, and I’ll discuss the software in detail soon. I edited the video above to add a few different effects, such as Asteroid, Ultra Wide and more, and adjusted the FoV, pan, tilt and roll angles to create a trippy video.

Similar to Deep Track on the Antigravity A1, the Avata 360 features Intelligent Tracking where you can draw a box around a subject in post-production, and the drone will automatically track it and highlight it as the primary subject. As you can see in the video above, I drew a box around a pillar in the distance on two separate occasions, and the software did an excellent job of tracking it even as the Avata 360 was moving.

Since the Avata 360 records every single angle, you can swap between different FoVs — forward, behind, above, below, and so on — which essentially gives you unlimited A and B cams. It increases creative capabilities by enabling you to capture otherworldly angles which isn’t necessarily possible on non-360° drones. You also get access to DJI’s range of QuickShot Intelligent Flight modes, such as Dronie, Rocket, Follow, etc.

Like DJI’s action cameras, the Avata 360’s footage is stabilized using the brand’s trademark RockSteady technology, so every clip turns out smooth, as you’ve seen in all the footage above. Alongside this, the drone also features a single-axis mechanical gimbal which provides some degree of stabilization. Using both together, the Avata 360’s footage never flickers or appears unsteady.

DJI Avata 360 review: Image quality

Alongside stellar video quality and capabilities, the DJI Avata 360 is exceptional at capturing stills too. Each lens on the Avata 360 captures 64MP stills which are then digitally stitched together to deliver a 120MP 360° photo (15520×7760). I couldn’t see any visible stitching lines in the photos I’d captured for the purposes of this review. The 360° photo means you can edit it as you wish, and view every single angle if you share it with another person as an interactive 360° photo.

If you’re short on space and don’t want massive 120MP files clogging up your internal storage or microSD card, you can drop the resolution down to 30MP. You won’t capture as much detail, of course, but it’s a good idea if you’re in a pinch.

The 1/1.1-inch sensor captures plenty of detail with faithful color reproduction, as you can see in the gallery above. The highlights and shadows are well-balanced while the images themselves are highly detailed, and you can zoom in and not lose too much detail either.

These were taken in Auto mode but you can shoot manually too, as the Avata 360 has an adjustable shutter speed of 1/30s to 1/8,000s and ISO range of 100-6400 when shooting stills. This is the same ISO range you’ll find on the Antigravity A1, and should be just enough to shoot in low-light conditions, such as at dusk or dawn.

DJI Avata 360 review: App & software

The DJI Avata 360 saves 360° files in the OSV format which must be opened in either DJI Fly on your smartphone or DJI Studio on your macOS or Windows machine. Both apps are extremely easy to use and I’ll discuss both, starting off with DJI Studio. Full disclosure: this was my first time using DJI Studio, and as a newbie, I thoroughly enjoyed using the software thanks to its user-friendly interface.

DJI Studio gives you quick tutorials on how to edit 360° footage, so even if you’re a newcomer like myself, you won’t have any trouble getting a hang of it. It might take a while to understand keyframes and effects but once you wrap your head around them, editing the Avata 360’s footage is a walk in the park. Within DJI Studio, you can adjust pan, tilt, roll angles, FoVs, add effects like Asteroid, and lots more. You can also color grade your footage in the app itself, if you’ve shot it in D-Log M. If you shoot in MP4, you can adjust the contrast, brightness, color temperature, etc. Easy as pie.

There are a few handy editing features for smoother or creative results too, such as Chromatic Aberration Control, Stitching Optimization, Distortion Optimization, and Motion Blur. You get a fair bit of control over the motion blur which can help convey a sense of high speed if you so wish.

Then you’ve got DJI Fly on Android and iOS, which serves as the central hub for all your DJI drones. As with other DJI drones, you can use this app to quickly offload footage (useful if you’re running out of space), see nearby fly spots, and update the drone’s firmware.

In addition to all of this, you can also edit your 360° footage, and I especially love the One Tap Edit feature, which utilizes AI to trim your selected clips and add effects and music to them, as you can see in the video above. You get several templates to add your clips, text and music to too, and it’s all you need to create quick footage to share instantly on social media.

DJI Avata 360 review: Battery life

The DJI Avata 360 has respectable battery life, at least by drone standards. On a single charge, the Avata 360 can fly for 23 minutes, which is the same as the DJI Avata 2. The Antigravity A1, in comparison, can fly for 24 minutes using a standard battery pack or 39 minutes when using a High-Capacity battery.

Of course, the battery life will depend on the usage and flying conditions. I flew the Avata 360 for approximately 22 minutes while shooting 8K/60fps video before the drone had to automatically return-to-home due to low battery. This is fantastic, in my opinion, but also worth noting that it’s entirely subjective, as I was flying in windless conditions and in Neutral mode.

The Avata 360 comes with a three-way charging hub and two extra batteries if you buy the Fly More combo. All three batteries, in my testing, took just over an hour to go from zero to 100% charge.

DJI Avata 360 review: Verdict

If you’re a fan of aerial photography and want to capture every angle possible, there’s no better 360° drone better than the DJI Avata 360. It’s super easy and intuitive to fly with either the DJI Goggles N3 or a standard DJI RC-2 / RC-N3 controller. Since it captures every angle, you can focus on and enjoy flying and think about framing later. Both the DJI Studio and DJI Fly apps are easy to use and enable you to create stunning (and even trippy) footage.

The Avata 360 captures beautiful, stable 8K/60fps footage and highly detailed 120MP stills. With good battery life, excellent stabilization, and a premium build that doesn’t get knocked about by gusts of wind, the Avata 360 is all you need to get creative and create professional-looking footage. And the best part is that the drone is extremely affordable, and none of the bundles break the bank. It’s the undisputed king of 360° drones.

Photo books are a great way to tell a story with some of your favorite memories. But for beginners, this can seem pretty overwhelming at first, as there’s software to get to grips with and design aspects to wrap your head around. I’ve been testing the Vistaprint photo book service, but is it one of the best photo book options out there?

Vistaprint is a great place to start for those who want a basic and affordable option and it’s ideal for experimentation. But I wouldn’t recommend this service to anyone who wants a polished product since it suffers in areas with color and high contrast.

To find out more about the photo book service, read my full Vistaprint review.

Vistaprint photo book review: Specs

Vistaprint photo book review: Price & availability

Vistaprint photo books are available directly from the Vistaprint website starting from $13. As you increase the size of the photo book and add more detail with the finish of the cover, the binding of the book and the number of pages, the price of the book naturally increases.

We paid $45 for an extra-large square book with standard binding, a standard glossy cover with a photo, and 24 pages. This falls in the same price range as Chatbooks, which costs $50 for similar specs, but Chatbooks' finish is much more polished.

For the sake of quality, you’ll want to spend a little extra on something with a more premium finish, like Mixbook. The Mixbook photo book with similar specs costs $89, but the print quality is far superior.

However, if you want a photo book that doubles as premium decor, you can look at Printique, which offers more of a “coffee table book” look — something to display around your home. The smallest size from Printique starts at $45, so the expenditure can ramp up fast. So if it’s your first toe-dip into the world of photo books, it’s a good idea to try out cheaper options first, like Vistaprint or Chatbooks.

Vistaprint photo book review: Software & production

Producing the photo book with Vistaprint software is very simple. There’s a lot of scope for customization. You can choose from templates you’d like to use, or start with a blank canvas. I went for the blank canvas to test the entire process.

There are no bells and whistles with the Vistaprint software, but that’s what makes it a decent option for beginners who don’t want too much fuss. The general editing tools are also very basic, which makes it easy to get the hang of.

I experienced no issues with lag on the site — everything moves smoothly. I uploaded all of the images I wanted to use so I could view them all in the sidebar, which naturally took a little time. This was also a handy way to know what pictures I had already used, as you get a little number denoting the number of times it’s featured in the book in the corner.

There are background options, frames for images, stickers for decorations and masks for images too. With everything provided for you, it’s easy to get creative. All of the elements are simple to find, and there’s a drop-down search function to help you locate exactly what you're looking for. You’re not limited to movement across pages or spreads either. You can simply drag and drop elements and images anywhere.

While I like the Vistaprint software, it’s very basic. For more control and creativity in a similar price range, I’d recommend looking at Mixbook. The software on Mixbook is much more user-friendly as it’s far easier to be creative, and all the controls are simple to manage.

Alternatively, Chatbooks sits in the same price range but offers much more limited customization. In Chatbooks, for instance, you can’t stretch an image over a double-page spread, but with Vistaprint, this isn’t an issue.

Vistaprint photo book review: Print quality

The Vistaprint photo book looked good when I first got it out of the box. The glossy cover made the image of the robin appear extremely vibrant. But it’s when I opened the book that the cracks started to show.

The first thing I noticed was on the pages with the block blue background. There were streaks going across the pages that looked like the printer had been jammed or started to run out of ink. I was shocked to see this. This wasn’t an issue with the similarly priced Mixbook photo book, either, so it’s not a sacrifice you need to make to save money.

Colors are well-replicated and rich on the page, but some colors appear very oversaturated. In the picture of the pink pansy flower, the pink colors appear to bleed into each other. This results in loss of detail, compounded by blown-out highlights throughout the book.

I also noticed pixelation, which typically occurs when a low-res image is blown too large, but the image where it was most noticeable was taken from the Sony A1 II, which is a 50.1 MP camera. I have tested this same image file across other photo books, and pixelation hasn’t been an issue anywhere else. This also appears worse on darker colors.

It’s also worth noting that black and white images lack depth and appear washed out. There’s minimal contrast in these images, and they look very flat, making this photo book feel like it has far less depth than the other photo books.

However, the paper of the photo book feels very high quality and thick enough that you can’t see through the pages. I also appreciate that not much of the page is lost in the seam of the binding. But of course, this will differ depending on the number of pages you have in the book.

Another thing worth mentioning is that when I received the photo book, some of the pages were stuck together and needed to be carefully pried apart. This is another big letdown.

Vistaprint photo book review: Verdict

Vistaprint is a viable option for anyone who wants to experiment with photo books for the first time on a budget. It’s ideal for beginners thanks to its easy-to-use software and straightforward design elements.

The paper quality is top-notch, but the print quality… not so much. Bright colors, including reds and pinks, are oversaturated, making them bleed into other parts of the image. The highlights are also blown out, so pretty much everything feels washed out, and the lack of contrast in black and white images is very disappointing.

For a first-time photo book creator, basic software is a good thing. It means you can focus on the main elements you want in the book. But anyone with creative flair is going to be let down by the limited elements in Vistaprint, not to mention the serious quality issues.

There are cameras I use professionally. Then, there are ones I use for fun. The Panasonic Lumix S5II and the GH5 are of the former variety, while the Olympus E-PM2 falls in the latter category. That's because bringing a professional camera to a soccer match or event can be too much. I need a smaller, older, less expensive camera to bring on the weekend because I'm not scared to drop or lose it. If either happens, it doesn't affect my bottom line.

I'm constantly looking for a new, fun camera, of which there are too many. It seems like every time I get on YouTube shorts there's a creator telling me about a digital camera from the 2000s that I've never heard of. That's how I heard of the Lumix L1 (shout out to snappiness), a beautiful rangefinder-style Panasonic DSLR from 2006.

The Lumix L1's aesthetics alone are reason enough to get this camera. It looks like a Leica on steroids, sporting a magnesium body that makes the camera super durable and lightweight, considering its size. Being a DSLR, the L1 is bulky. Built like a tank is how I'd put it, and it behaves like one too: tactile, slow, and durable. Two hours after I saw it, it was on its way to me. It's been a refreshing, albeit humbling, experience that's made me appreciate the joy of shooting photography.

A slower-paced, analog-like shooting experience

Shooting with the L1 feels like going back to basics. It feels analog. There's a button for almost everything, and that tactility makes me feel more familiar with the camera. The grip is comfortable, and most functions can be done with the right hand.

The area around the shutter dial alone has a combination of six dials, switches, and buttons, and I can reach an additional 14 functions with my right thumb. There's so much happening on the body, there's not much need to visit the menu often — a good thing, as the menu is shockingly minimal compared to modern Lumix cameras.

Coming from a modern system, it’s surprising not to see a mode dial, especially since there are so many functions available. The shutter dial lets you set the shutter to ‘auto’, but there are no shutter priority or aperture modes. While you can shoot in a fully automatic way by setting all aspects of the exposure triangle to ‘auto’, it's not an intuitive or quick process. The lack of a mode dial snatches away the training wheels. With few aids to fall back on, I have to be more comfortable with the exposure triangle and slow down to double-check the exposure meter, even when shooting with an automatic shutter or aperture. This level of constraint, while slow, is also freeing.

Why freeing? Because I feel at the peak of my creativity when there are constraints. Give me too many options, too many settings, and I feel overwhelmed. But take something away, and now I have to adapt and get creative to get a shot I'm happy with. For example, instead of switching to aperture priority when shooting indoors, which isn't possible on the L1, I have to really slow down to tweak the ISO, shutter, or aperture to find the right exposure. Yes, it takes time, and it can lead to missing a shot altogether, but slowing down gives me time to compose the image to my liking in the moment rather than spraying and praying.

It's like Kodak Tri-X straight out of camera

Fuji may have the market cornered when it comes to film recipes, but the L1's film modes are low-key great. These modes are accessible through the camera menu or via one of the function buttons. The options are sparse, with just seven to choose from. Four are color, and three are black and white. The black and white modes leave the color ones in the dust, and are the main reason I got this camera in the first place.

There's just something about this LiveMOS sensor that makes black and white images look so good, especially when shooting in the contrast-heavy ‘Dynamic’ black and white mode. I'm no expert on the minutiae of sensor technology, but Olympus' LiveMOS sensors bridge the gap between the beloved CCD sensors and modern CMOS sensors, which dominate the industry today. You get the image quality of the CCD sensor with the low power consumption of a CMOS sensor. The result is a level of contrast and tonality in these images that I've only experienced when shooting Kodak Tri-X film stock.

After a day of shooting, I don't have to go into the editing bay to squeeze some juice out of the L1’s images, because they’re already the finished product. They look great to me straight out of the camera, aside from some cropping. It's why I leave the camera on the Dynamic black and white mode all the time. The best part is that if I want the image in color in addition to black and white, I still have the RAW file to mess around with, which is in color.

A surprisingly modern... 20-year-old camera

A camera old enough to drink won't have the modern trappings you're used to — the aforementioned mode dial being one. But things like stacked sensors, 100 FPS burst modes, and 5-axis IBIS are out of the question, too. That doesn't mean the camera is a dinosaur, though. The Lumix L1 included some features that were ahead of its time, which makes it feel at home in 2026.

One of those features is the Live View, something we take for granted these days. Yet, back in 2006, this was cutting-edge on a DSLR, making it possible to see what the sensor was seeing on the rear display. What was a game-changer then is par for the course now, and it's part of why the camera doesn't feel ancient. Using Live View is loud and slow, as the camera has to shift the mirror aside every time you half-press the shutter to focus, but it's very usable.

Autofocus is another modern feature. Although AF wasn't groundbreaking in the mid-aughts, it was far from perfect. The autofocus on this system was super reliable when I used it. I didn't feel the need to switch to manual focus often. The only times when it was necessary were in dimly lit conditions or when focusing on something far away. Other than that, autofocus worked well for me.

One thing I have to mention is the flash system on the L1. Hardly anyone in the history of camera reviews has been excited about an onboard flash, but this one is different. The pop-up flash works very similarly to the flash on the Lumix GX1 and GX85 (GX80 in the UK and Europe). You press the button, and it pops out to face the subject. But if you lightly press the button, the flash pops out to face upward. Pointing it upward lets you bounce the reflection off the ceiling, which is less harsh than a full flash to the face. It's incredibly clever and, I believe, a one-of-a-kind flash design that I'd like to see more of in modern cameras.

In addition to all these features, you also get a hotshoe compatible with the excellent Godox iT30 Pro flash, an SD card slot, and the ability to shoot in RAW. These last two features work naturally with modern workflows. There's no need for an SD card adapter or relying on JPEG files that give you little flexibility.

It's not for beginners

The Lumix L1 is a great weekend camera. I feel closer to the craft of photography while using it, but it's not the camera I'd hand a friend to shoot pictures with. It's just not intuitive, and the lack of modes, like shutter or aperture priority, can be frustrating for someone who just wants to point and shoot. This camera is clunky, heavy, and slow. Using Live View, which would appeal to someone with modern sensibilities, is sluggish and loud. The shutter is equally noisy, so it's not an ideal camera for stealthy street photography. The rear display is another setback. It has low resolution, lacks touch capability, and it's fixed to the camera — you can't tilt or rotate it at all.

Functionality aside, the L1 is not an easy camera to find or purchase. Looking on used camera sites like MPB or KEH will get you nowhere, so eBay is the best place to find it, where it sells for between $300-$400 for the body alone. The L1 body I bought cost $300 and came with a third-party battery and charger.

Lenses are even harder to find since every time you look for "Four Thirds lenses," you get served with Micro Four Thirds lenses instead, which are not backward compatible with this system. I got lucky and found a 14-54mm kit lens on KEH for $80. However, if you want the nice Panasonic lenses made in collaboration with Leica, you'll have a harder time finding those, and they're not cheap. The good news is that, with an adapter, you can use older Four Thirds glass on the Micro Four Thirds systems, so the investment is worth it if you own cameras from both systems, as I do.

The legacy of Four Thirds lives on

You don't need to buy a Lumix L1 to experience the joys of shooting on a 4/3"-size sensor. Cameras like the Lumix L1 and the Olympus E-330 walked so that the Micro Four Thirds system could run. You can purchase a new Micro Four Thirds camera right now, like the video-focused Panasonic Lumix GH7; the photography-focused Lumix G9 II; a retro film body like the OM System OM-3; or the compact entry-level OM System E-M10 Mark IV.

These cameras are more compact than full-frame ones, and have a huge selection of quality first-party glass that can be found for cheap on used sites. Even older, used M43 cameras like the GX1 are great ultracompact pocket rockets perfect for weekend photography, and they're way more affordable than the point-and-shoots popular on TikTok.

But, if you want a shooting experience that's tactile, feels analog, and has enough obstacles to slow you down, the Lumix L1 deserves a serious look.

More from Tom's Guide

• I just bought this 5-year-old Fujifilm camera and it proves newer isn’t always better
• I took 200 photos on the Leica Leitzphone and the Google Pixel 10 Pro XL to see which is better — and it’s not even close
• The best cameras you can buy

TikTok is responsible for a lot of things. Making retro games go viral. Fantastic edits of your favorite TV show characters. "Influencing" you into buying a product that has been (sometimes) wrongfully romanticized. The last bit is very true, as I often see videos of content creators sharing their favorite tech that, as a tech journalist and reviewer, I don't agree with.

Recently, we've seen this with the Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark III which first came out in 2019 but has since exploded on TikTok and received cult-like status. The demand for decade-old cameras that are near-impossible to buy new has skyrocketed since, and it has claimed another victim: the Canon PowerShot Elph 360 HS A / IXUS 285 HS A. In fact, this camera originally came out in 2016 but ever since Kendall Jenner was spotted using it, it became so popular that Canon decided to re-release it in 2025 with an "A" at the end of its name.

Well, I'm here to "de-influence" you, which is another TikTok trend where people talk you out of buying either overpriced or overhyped products. Look, the PowerShot Elph 360 HS A / IXUS 285 HS A is a good camera — I've even taken some of my best pics on a compact on it so far — but is it worth nearly $400 when there are so many other value-for-money options available? Let's find out.

What's good about it?

The Canon PowerShot Elph 360 HS A (as it's known in the U.S.) or the IXUS 285 HS A (as it's known in other parts of the world) features a 20.2MP 1/2.3-inch CMOS sensor and it can record FHD/30fps video. It's extremely easy to use thanks to its well-placed buttons and straightforward menu system, and it packs a few creative modes which make it a versatile snapper. One of its biggest selling points is its 12x optical zoom which lets you zoom in to subjects without losing much image quality and sharpness to digital processing.

I've tested many compact cameras and not all of them boast sharp image quality — but the PowerShot Elph 360 HS A does. You can see a few sample photos in the gallery above, and these are some of the best photos I've taken on a compact camera yet. Canon's color science has always been excellent and it has rarely given me much to complain about. As you can see in the gallery, the reds are popping while the greens are vivid. There's a good amount of contrast in the images too and the images look neither too dark nor too bright.

One of my favorite features is the Hybrid Auto mode which records a short video clip when you press the shutter button, so it shows the lead-up to the image. You can see what this looks like in the video above. This is a great feature to have for those who like to share behind-the-scenes footage on their social media accounts, or even those who just like capturing candid moments. It's like a live photo on a smartphone but better.

Okay, sounds great, so what's wrong?

There are... a few things up with the Canon PowerShot Elph 360 HS A. It isn't the strongest camera when it comes to battery life, as it's CIPA-rated for just 180 shots. This means that if you're taking the camera to a day-long festival, for instance, it won't necessarily last a full day of capturing stills or recording video. In my testing, the camera lasted me just over 190 photos, which isn't great.

That isn't even my biggest issue with the camera, though. The PowerShot Elph 360 HS A is fitted a USB-B port for data transfer, which means it doesn't feature in-camera charging. To charge the camera, you need to remove the battery pack and insert it into the included external charger — which uses a proprietary cable, so it isn't like you can use a USB-C cable to charge it either. My issue with this is that the camera originally came out in 2016, and for that time period, the USB-B port was fine, but for 2026? It's a no-go.

Then you've got the lackluster build quality. It feels plasticky and fragile, especially the sliding cover that protects the battery pack and the microSD card. It honestly feels like it could snap into two if you used just a bit of excessive force. Oh, and speaking of, Canon has replaced the SD card on the 2016 version with a microSD card. It isn't a massive drawback, but SD cards are simply faster and are better for heat dissipation.

What are my options?

All of this for a camera that costs $379 / £379 is simply not good enough, in my opinion. But there are other options out there, and you've come to the right place if you want a compact camera that's powerful and doesn't break the bank.

More from Tom's Guide

• Kendall Jenner and Dua Lipa made this 10-year-old Canon compact go viral so I tested it to find out if it’s worth the hype — here’s how it went
• Seven years later, the Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark III is still TikTok’s favorite compact camera — here’s how it holds up in 2026
• I took 200 photos on the Leica Leitzphone and the Google Pixel 10 Pro XL to see which is better — and it’s not even close

Recently I’ve been on a push to take more filmic, cinematic photos. I love the look of old movies and wanted to recreate that (or at least try to) — the desaturated pallets; soft highlights and deep, inky shadows; the massive white balance hues to convey mood.

When making your images more filmic, a lot of the work can be done before you even lift your camera: choosing the right light, subject and framing in the first place. Yet more can be done in-camera without any extra kit: custom film simulations (especially if you’re a Fujifilm shooter like me), shifting white balance tone and tweaking shadow and highlight tones, for example. And even more can be done in mere seconds when you get to post, by cropping to an ultra-wide aspect ratio, for instance.

Having done all that, though, one thing was missing from my photos: bloom. In old cinema using classic film stock and vintage lenses, light was often a lot softer and hazier, bleeding into the surrounding areas to create a dreamlike glow. That's bloom. Without it, light sources just look that bit too sharp and well-defined. You can add bloom in post (to some extent) but a simpler way is just screw on a mist filter!

So I got to looking for some mist filters to use, and of course, the internet told me I needed to spend hundreds on premium quality filters. "Really?" I thought. I get spending more on other filters, where you want images to remain as sharp as possible. But mist filters deliberately make things hazy and soft anyway, so why not use an affordable one?

To see how cheaper filters perform, I got myself a couple! I bought a $20 Neewer 1/8 Black Diffusion Mist filter from Amazon, while K&F CONCEPT was kind enough to send me its equally affordable 1/4 Black Mist Filter. Here’s how I got on.

The before…

Before we get started, what did my photos look like without a mist filter? Well, I could still achieve a cinematic effect and a bit of bloom with all the techniques I mentioned up top, shooting on my Fujifilm X-E4.

Bloom is a pretty easy effect to add in Adobe Lightroom: using a mask, simply bring up blacks around light sources and add some minus dehaze (A.K.A haze), and you get a pretty good effect. As you can see in the images above, where there are very bright light sources, I’ve been able to add that hazy glow. Notice the light bleeding around the two lamps in the first image, and the yellow haze around the sunlight in the second image.

I also added some haze around the bright light in the background of the images above, particularly noticeable on the stem of the floor lamp in the background of the first shot.

And in the restaurant shots below, I’ve also added a teensy bit of bloom around the strip lighting at the top of the images, plus the light-heavy sections of images, like windows, lit faces and white objects.

The thing is, this method takes more effort than I like (I prefer to spend as little time in post as I can) and is much, much easier to overdo — whiting out areas of the image, which looks unnatural. Hence I've had to keep things fairly pared back and, honestly, not that bloomy at all. They're also lacking that image-wide haze you get from a mist filter, as adding haze globally in post is risky and tends to just make everything look white.

The after...

By comparison, here is the bloom using Neewer’s 1/8 Black Mist Filter (from $20). Without doing any bloom tweaking at all in post, the lights running through the middle of the image looked super soft, with the whole image in general having that light haze.

The light bleed feels more natural, too. When I’m applying bloom in post, it’ll end up wherever my mask is — which might not be perfectly even all around my light source. That’s probably not noticeable to others, but I notice it.

With a mist filter, bloom is uniformly applied around light sources, as you can see in the image of the pizza sign below. Again, combined with that overall haze applied to the entirety of the frame, the filmic look is simply much more cohesive.

I’m really happy with how these images turned out, especially the bloom around the bright light and bokeh in the image of the lanterns below. Best of all, I love how little work I had to do in post to get there (just some tweaks to white balance, shadows and highlights).

As I mentioned above, something I’ve found difficult to replicate in post production is the soft global haze you get from a mist filter across the entire image (not just light sources).

It looks particularly lovely in sunlight, with bright blue skies. When the sun is out, I use a custom Kodak Gold 200 film recipe on my Fujifilm X-E4, and it’s really complemented by a mist filter. With hazy highlights and the archetypal dreamlike mist across the image.

Again, I’m really happy with the images, and think they have that dreamlike cinematic effect I was after. Sure, they aren’t the sharpest images ever shot, but I’m using these filters with an affordable Fujinon XF 35mm F/2 lens on a 26MP X-E4 — I wasn’t trying to win any sharpness awards anyway. I think they look fine.

What strength to use?

It’s important to remember that not all mist filters are the same. Just like ND (neutral density) filters, mist filters come in grades. I tested a Neewer 1/8 Black Mist Filter, which is the weakest grade. It still gives a nice haze and bloom to light sources, but the effect is relatively subtle. You can see some shots taken using the Neewer 1/8 filter in the section above, and in the gallery directly below.

Compare that to the shots below taken on the K&F CONCEPT 1/4 filter, which applies a much stronger effect. It’s not as noticeable in daylight photos, but drop the ambient light and you can see just how much the bloom bleeds around strong light sources, such as the light bulb in the photo of the market stall.

Still, I like the 1/4 filter. It adds a deliberate, stylized effect which, let’s be honest, is what I’m after by shooting deliberately cinematic-style photos. To me, it’s the same as shifting white balance to yellow or blue to add warmth or coolness, or hueing green to change mood. To get a cinematic look, sometimes you have to go big!

So, do you need expensive filters?

If this first test has shown me anything, it’s that I’m perfectly happy with the results from a $20 mist filter. It’s proved a really simple way to get the effect I was after and take the cinematic aura of my photos up a gear.

Admittedly, I probably wouldn’t use the 1/4 filter everyday like I would the 1/8, primarily because of how much bleed the stronger filter adds around lights — it’s a lot, and I think that could be a little distracting. But I love the haziness, and will definitely be keeping the stronger filter in my camera backpack. The 1/8 filter meanwhile, has barely left my camera lens in two months (and when it did, it was only to fit the 1/4).

So, cheap mist filters get the OK from me. And now to get some pricey filters ordered for a direct comparison!

More from Tom's Guide

• I just bought this 5-year-old Fujifilm camera and it proves newer isn’t always better
• I tested this $329 smartphone lens against the iPhone 17 Pro’s camera — here’s what happened
• The best cameras in 2026

Compact cameras aren’t dead, hooray! While many of us thought that the compacts we grew up with would become obsolete and get phased out by DSLRs and mirrorless snappers, that hasn’t happened, and Canon has proven it won’t be anytime soon with the re-release of its PowerShot Elph 360 HS A / IXUS 285 HS A. This 10-year-old compact features a 20.2MP CMOS sensor and packs digital image stabilization as well as a 12x optical zoom. The nostalgia-inducing image quality is lovely, and the camera relays vibrant colors too.

But is it worth the premium? The PowerShot Elph 360 HS A has some significant drawbacks, such as the lackluster build quality, poor battery life, and an old-fashioned USB-B port which means there’s no in-camera charging.

To find out if this is the best camera for you, read my full Canon PowerShot Elph 360 HS A / IXUS 285 A review.

Canon PowerShot Elph 360 HS A / IXUS 285 HS A review: Specs

Canon PowerShot Elph 360 HS A / IXUS 285 HS A review: Cheat sheet

• What is it? A 2025 refresh of a 2016 compact camera with a 20.2MP 1/2.3-inch CMOS sensor
• Who is it for? Anyone who wants an easy-to-use portable camera
• How much does it cost? The Canon PowerShot Elph 360 HS A / IXUS 285 HA S is available for $379 / £369
• What do we like? The image quality, handy 12x optical zoom, ease of use, portability, and built-in flash
• What don’t we like? The lack of in-camera charging, poor build quality and battery life, and the asking price

Canon PowerShot Elph 360 HS A / IXUS 285 HS A review: Price & availability

First things first, this Canon compact goes by two different names. In the Americas, it is known as the Canon PowerShot Elph 360 HS A, while in the U.K., Europe and Australia, it’s sold as the Canon IXUS 285 HS A. The “A” in the name doesn’t stand for anything, but it denotes that this camera is a 2025 refresh of the original 2016 model. If that sounds familiar, it’s because the original Elph 360 HS / IXUS 285 HS went viral recently thanks to Kendall Jenner and Dua Lipa, so chances are you’ve seen it on TikTok or in paparazzi photos.

To make this review easier to read, I’ll be referring to this camera as the PowerShot Elph 360 HS A throughout. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about the pricing. The PowerShot Elph 360 HS A is available for $379 at Adorama U.S. / £369 at Amazon U.K. That’s a lot of dough for a compact camera, and it’s one of the most expensive compacts I’ve tested so far.

The PowerShot Elph 360 HS A is priced similarly to the Panasonic Lumix ZS99 ($499), and is more expensive than the likes of the Pentax WG-1000 ($196) and the Kodak PIXPRO WPZ2 ($179). But hey, at least it’s cheaper than the atrociously priced Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark III ($879). While the PowerShot Elph 360 HS A is a decent compact camera, is it worth spending that many doubloons on it? Let’s find out.

Canon PowerShot Elph 360 HS A / IXUS 285 HS A review: Design & build quality

Compact cameras, as their name implies, are compact and portable, and the Canon PowerShot Elph 360 HS A is no different. It’s smaller than your average smartphone — certainly smaller than my Google Pixel 10 Pro XL — and can easily slide into even your jeans’ front pocket. The PowerShot Elph 360 HS A measures 3.92 x 2.28 x 0.89 inches and weighs 5.15oz, so you barely notice it in your pocket or handbag.

Even though the PowerShot Elph 360 HS A is small, I didn’t have any problems using it with one or both hands. The light weight also means that my hand didn’t hurt after long periods of holding up the camera — when shooting video, for example.

The PowerShot Elph 360 HS A comes in either black or silver, and I tested the black model which looks nice and certainly looks like a premium product. The design also brings back a lot of childhood memories for me, as many of the compact cameras my family and I owned looked very similar to the PowerShot Elph 360 HS A.

My only issue with the PowerShot Elph 360 HS A’s otherwise premium design is the lackluster build quality. The camera is made entirely of plastic which feels low quality, and sounds hollow when you tap it. The covering on top, which protects the USB-B and micro HDMI ports, feels very plasticky and I wish Canon had used a rubber flap instead. It’s also frustrating to open as you have to use a fair bit of force.

In a similar vein, the plastic sliding cover protecting the battery pack feels just as plasticky, if not more. It feels fragile too, like it could snap easily without too much force. If you want a camera that feels more well-built, I’d recommend either the Panasonic Lumix ZS99 or even the cheaper Pentax WG-1000. The WG-1000 is even shockproof and can withstand falls up to 6.5 feet.

Ports

You’ll find just two ports on the PowerShot Elph 360 HS A, and both are located on the top plate (when the camera is sitting upright). There’s a micro HDMI output and a USB type-B port for data transfer. This feels obsolete, as most cameras now feature a USB-C port, which is more up-to-date and offers much higher data transfer speeds.

Monitor

The PowerShot Elph 360 HS A is fitted with a 3-inch fixed TFT LCD monitor with a resolution of approximately 416,000 dots. It’s nearly double that of the Pentax WG-1000 (230K dots) but is much lower-res than the Panasonic Lumix ZS99’s (1.84M dots). The PowerShot Elph 360 HS A’s monitor is bright enough to see in most lighting conditions, even in bright sunlight. It can help you frame your shots better and change settings accurately.

Unlike the Lumix ZS99, the PowerShot Elph 360 HS A’s monitor is fixed which means it can’t be flipped or tilted, limiting shooting capabilities from awkward angles. For instance, the Lumix ZS99’s monitor can be flipped up 180º to become a selfie screen. But it isn’t uncommon for compact cameras to have immovable screens, as this is something I’ve seen on other compacts I’ve tested, like the Kodak PIXPRO WPZ2 and the Kodak PIXPRO FZ45 ($99).

Weather-sealing

The PowerShot Elph 360 HS A is not weather-sealed. It isn’t protected against water, dust or falls. I’d be careful using the camera in the rain as there are no protective coverings over the ports. It’s worth getting the Pentax WG-1000 if weather-sealing is important to you, as that camera is fully weatherproof.

Canon PowerShot Elph 360 HS A / IXUS 285 HS A review: Controls

If you’re looking for an easy-to-use compact camera, the Canon PowerShot Elph 360 HS A is perfect for you. Its straightforward control scheme, well-laid out buttons and easy-to-read menu system makes it a compact camera fit for everyone, regardless of your photography expertise level.

Most of the buttons are exactly like the ones you’ll find on the majority of compact cameras, but alongside being able to swap between stills and video, Canon has added a Creative Shot mode. Pressing the shutter button with this mode enabled captures six photos and a few different filters and effects are applied to your images.

For instance, in the series of images in the gallery above, the camera has applied different color profiles to each shot, and has created crops in different aspect ratios as well. While I believe that this can give you some creative freedom, I can’t see myself using it much if I owned the camera. I suppose these photos would be good for social media, but having spoken to a few of my friends about this feature, none of them seemed too convinced, and they felt it was a gimmick.

You’ve also got a Hybrid Auto shooting mode which records a short video clip before the shutter button is pressed to capture a still, creating a behind-the-scenes video akin to B-roll, ideal for your Instagram feed or TikTok. This feature alone has me convinced that the PowerShot Elph 360 HS A was designed for TikTokers and social media users. It’s really nice seeing the lead-up to the image. The photo above is the result…

…and above is the video leading to the image. I had fun using this feature, and I’m sure social media users who like sharing behind-the-scenes footage with their followers or friends.

Canon PowerShot Elph 360 HS A / IXUS 285 HS A review: Lens

The Canon PowerShot Elph 360 HS A is fitted with a 20.2MP 1/2.3-inch CMOS sensor with a focal length of 4.5-54mm (25-300 mm full frame equivalent). This focal range is great for group photos, landscapes, portraits, street and travel photography. The f/3.6-f/7 aperture is adjusted automatically by the camera, and so is the shutter speed (15s to 1/2000s). ISO range is limited to 80-3200, which is what I expected from a sensor this size.

You get a 12x optical zoom, a 24x ZoomPlus, a 4x digital zoom, and a 48x combined zoom. The 12x optical zoom is handy as it enables you to magnify subjects and capture high-res images. This is better than a digital zoom which enlarges a portion of an image using software, which results in some pixelation and lower-res images.

Canon PowerShot Elph 360 HS A / IXUS 285 HS A review: Image quality

The Canon PowerShot Elph 360 HS A captures 20.2MP images that are ideal for sharing on social media and making small prints for your physical photo album or scrapbook. The resulting images have a vintage, retro aesthetic and charm to them which reminds me of the photo albums my family compiled when I was growing up. So while image quality isn’t the best and the most highly detailed, it would be unfair to mark a compact camera down for not being able to go toe-to-toe with DSLRs and mirrorless cameras.

Image quality, by compact camera standards, is great, and you can see samples in the gallery above. These images were taken on sunny and overcast days, and even those taken in cloudy conditions have turned out well, with colors that capture the moodiness of the scenes. Colors appear true-to-life, and I especially love the photos of the flowers and holly. The reds pop very well against the vivid greens, and the yellows appear beautiful too.

Most of the images are sharp as well, especially the one of the holly and the reflection of the building in a puddle, as the edges of the subjects are well-defined and distinguishable. These might actually be the best photos I’ve taken on a compact camera so far!

As I mentioned earlier, the PowerShot Elph 360 HS A’s 12x optical zoom is extremely handy, and is one of the most compelling reasons to buy this camera. Take a look at the two images in the gallery above. The first was shot with the camera fully zoomed out, and the second was taken with the 12x optical zoom. As you can see in the second photo, plenty of detail has been captured and the image has turned out great. There isn’t much loss in sharpness either, as the patterns in the bricks and the details in the window pane have been retained.

You will, however, notice that there’s some chromatic aberration in the second photo, with purple color fringing along the right-hand edge of the building. This is due to the camera’s optics not dispersing light properly so different wavelengths of the same light hit the sensor in different places — it’s an undesirable characteristic often reflective of cheaper optics. It doesn’t ruin the image, but it’s important to note that it is prevalent.

Alongside a handy 12x zoom, you also get a macro mode which reduces the minimum focusing distance to just 1cm. In theory, this can help you get detailed shots of the finer details, such as the patterns on flower petals. In my testing, though, I found the macro mode to be hit-or-miss. The first two images in the gallery above are sharp and in-focus, and you can make out plenty of detail in the white flowers.

The third image, on the other hand, is all over the place. I couldn’t get the camera to focus on the dark berries no matter how hard I tried, and regardless of how far I placed the lens from the fruits. Instead, the camera ended up focusing on the bunch of berries in the top-right corner. At first I put it down to the wind blowing and displacing the berries, but even after I held the berries’ branch with my hand, I still couldn’t get the PowerShot Elph 360 HS A to focus on them, which is quite disappointing.

On the plus side, the PowerShot Elph 360 HS A packs good autofocus for human beings, and it utilizes Canon’s TTL AiAF system with Single, Continuous, Servo AF/AE and Tracking AF modes. The camera also features human and animal subject detection, and in my testing, I found human face detection to be very reliable.

In the gallery above, the camera was quick to lock on to mine and my partner’s face in the first shot, and her face in the second shot. Even though these images were taken at different times of the day with different lighting — one after dark and one in the daytime — the PowerShot Elph 360 HS A’s autofocus never felt sluggish.

Animal detection works well too, as the camera was quick to lock on to the common wood pigeon and European robin in the gallery above. Even when the birds were obscured by the branches, the PowerShot Elph 360 HS A did not struggle to focus on the subjects.

Canon PowerShot Elph 360 HS A / IXUS 285 HS A review: Video

Alongside shooting stills, the Canon PowerShot Elph 360 HS A can shoot FHD video at 30fps too, making it a versatile hybrid compact camera. It’s the same resolution and frame rate you’ll find on the Pentax WG-1000, but the Panasonic Lumix TZ99 should be your port of call if you want a 4K shooter.

You can see a compilation of clips shot in FHD/30fps above. While you don’t have a lot of room for cropping and the video isn’t as high-res as 4K, it’s still good and doesn’t look too choppy, at 30fps. You also get 4-axis Intelligent IS, which is digital image stabilization, which helps negate some choppiness from camera shake.

The PowerShot Elph 360 HS A features a built-in mic too which is good enough for recording ambient sounds. I love how clear the European robin’s song sounds in the video above. Although, it’s worth noting that the camera also records the sound of it zooming in and out so I’d avoid doing so when you’re recording video as it can be unpleasant and jarring.

Canon PowerShot Elph 360 HS A / IXUS 285 HS A review: Battery life

The Canon PowerShot Elph 360 HS A utilizes a removable and rechargeable Lithium-ion NB-11LH battery pack. One of my biggest gripes with the camera is that you can’t charge the camera directly. It’s because the camera still features a mini USB-B port which, in my opinion, feels a bit old-fashioned. This means that you need to remove the battery pack, slide it into the included external charger, and plug it into a power port.

I’m really surprised that Canon has decided to retain the USB-B port and not replace it with a USB-C port. Why refresh a 2016 model and not fit it with up-to-date technology, given that even keychain cameras like the Kodak Charmera ($29) now feature in-camera charging? I can understand Canon wanting to make the camera readily available since the 2016 model went viral, but why not update it with useful features?

My rant aside, the PowerShot Elph 360 HS A is CIPA-rated for 180 shots or 265 shots when using the camera in Eco mode. This is shorter than the Panasonic Lumix ZS99’s 380-shot and the Pentax WG-1000’s 380-shot CIPA ratings. But of course, CIPA tests are conducted under very strict conditions, and the rating is usually conservative, especially compared to real-world usage.

In my testing, I was able to take just over 190 photos between charges, while using the camera’s monitor to view my images every now and then. This isn’t great, and it means that you might run out of charge before the end of, say, your day-long music festival.

Canon PowerShot Elph 360 HS A / IXUS 285 HS A review: Verdict

As compact cameras go, the Canon PowerShot Elph 360 HS A / IXUS 285 HS A is a decent choice. The images it captures have a retro aesthetic to them which is fit for today’s social media age, and the colors are bright and vivid. The autofocus works well, and the handy 12x optical zoom lets you zoom in without losing too much sharpness. You can also record FHD/30fps video, and I particularly like the Hybrid Auto mode which captures a short clip of the lead-up to the still you’re capturing.

But with underwhelming battery life and plasticky build quality that feels subpar, and the lack of in-camera charging, the PowerShot Elph 360 HS A falls just behind other compact camera offerings from the likes of Pentax and Panasonic. Given that the camera costs nearly $400, I feel like your money would be spent better elsewhere.

If money isn’t an object and you want a compact camera that’s extremely easy to use, then the PowerShot Elph 360 HS A could be perfect for you. After all, if Kendall Jenner (who isn’t a professional photographer, as far as I know) can use the camera, I suppose anyone can.

Listen, I love my iPhone 17 Pro, and have very few complaints about its camera. It does everything I need a smartphone camera to do… which is to take copious photos of my dogs and the occasional picture of my wife and/or family. For more serious photography, I have my Fujifilm X-E4 and Fujifilm X-T5.

Not everyone is as lucky as me in owning a mirrorless camera, though, which is why iPhone lenses are a thing. The best iPhone lenses provide a moderately affordable way to boost your smartphone’s capabilities — by adding a better macro lens, for example, or a more characterful lens for video or portraiture.

There are loads of smartphone lenses out there: from anamorphic video lenses through to fisheyes and macros, and on to super telephotos, like the Sandmarc 10x super tele lens I’ve been delving into this week.

This lens has a 10x magnification, which is equivalent to 200mm on a full frame camera. That’s longer than the optical reach of my iPhone 17 Pro’s 8x lens, although the built-in lens can digitally zoom to 10x (and far beyond) to match framing.

The Sandmarc 10x costs a whopping $329, so I wanted to see how it fared against the iPhone’s built-in lens. Is it worth the spend? And are iPhone lenses worth it at all, for that matter? Read on to find out.

Sharpness (or lack thereof)

I’m gonna get a major issue with the Sandmarc out of the way first: this lens is not sharp. In fact, it’s anything but. Much of that is to do with the optics themselves. When you use a smartphone lens, you’re placing glass in front of an already finely-tuned and calibrated optic (your phone's built-in lens) — it’s almost never going to come out sharper than the standard lens without the additional glass.

When people ask me whether iPhone lenses are worth it, I ask them about purpose. If you want sharp, don’t put anything in front of your iPhone’s lenses. If you want to add something your iPhone can’t do, and especially if you want characterful results… that’s different.

For instance, anamorphic iPhone lenses (like ShiftCam's lenses) give a softer, cinematic look with beautiful lens flares and in ultra widescreen, which the iPhone can’t do on its own. Macro lenses, well, do better macro photography than the built-in lens. Below are some shots taken on Sandmarc and Moment macro lenses, and they produce results that you simply can't achieve with the iPhone's hardware.

External telephoto lenses can give a softer look, nicer blur and better bokeh for portraits, which the iPhone's lens can’t. Unfortunately, the trade off for getting those characteristics with an external lens is usually decreased image quality.

All this is to say that the Sandmarc 10x ain’t sharp, and suffers from a lot of ostensibly undesirable lens characteristics, which is normal with these kinds of optics.

As you can see in the bird images at the top of this section, the Sandmarc tele's sharpness falls off dramatically around the center and the subject is blurred from the lack of stabilization. It also demonstrates significant lateral chromatic aberration, visible as yellow banding around high contrast areas (see the swan images below). Again, this is all pretty normal for iPhone lenses — your iPhone’s glass was never meant to have extra glass stuck in front of it.

Stabilization (or lack thereof)

At 200mm full frame equivalent, the 10x lens is super telephoto, which is a little problematic. Longer focal lengths magnify micro-blur, resulting in more visible camera shake affecting the sharpness of your image. Your iPhone’s built-in lens uses optical image stabilization to reduce blur, but it can’t do that for an enormous lens that’s simply stuck on the front and not connected electronically to the phone camera in any way.

The Sandmarc is also heavy, so your hand is going to be more shaky, exacerbating the blurring issue. As you can see in the images above, the iPhone photos are simply much sharper, with more detail visible in the face of the statue and stained glass windows.

You can solve the issue in part by using one of the best iPhone tripods to keep things steady. I’d recommend the Joby Compact Tripod — it's basically a smaller, lighter version of a full-size mirrorless camera tripod, allowing you to keep your phone properly stable while also giving you lots of height adjustment.

It’s also important to use a good case that holds the lens firmly. I use the SmallRig Mobile Video Cage, which is awesome — it lets you swap out lens cover plates between bayonet and threaded lens mounts (the two main types) making it universal fit, and comes with an outer rig for attaching cold shoe accessories.

Don't waste your money on proprietary cases from individual lens manufacturers when you could buy an excellent universal alternative for the same (or less) money!

Bags of character

The upshot to all this (and there is one) is that the artefacting and generally imperfect nature of using iPhone lenses results in “character” — i.e., not every image has to be razor sharp, and it’s kinda fun when that isn’t the case.

If you just accept the imperfections and get creative with them, a seemingly poor lens can be a lot of fun. I mean, that’s one of the reasons why many photographers choose to fit older vintage lenses to their modern cameras.

With the Sandmarc 10x tele, like I said earlier, sharpness drops off very quickly around the center, so you need to put your subject in the middle. Once you do that, you can use the sharpness drop-off as a frame — extra blur to help isolate your subject.

The blur itself is quite nice, too. It’s tight and a little swirly at times, which lends an artistic, painter-y style that I really like. Although, hilariously, it mostly appears on the right hand side of the image for some reason. By contrast, the iPhone’e tele lens at 10x just looks a little bland. There’s no tight blur in the background, making the scene feel flat.

Admittedly, I’d like a bit more bokeh from the Sandmarc 10x — light sources are a little more artistic than the standard iPhone lens, but not by much. However, I don’t care about the other artefacts. A little chromatic aberration is fine, and the Sandmarc swan photo still looks way nicer than the iPhone photo.

Improved color and contrast

One thing I love about certain external lenses (the Sandmarc 10x included) is how much they improve the color and contrast of images. The iPhone’s built-in tele lens is sharper, yes, but it’s so boring. There’s much less contrast, resulting in a washed-out, flatter, often gray look.

In comparison, look at the color difference when using the Sandmarc 10x lens in the image gallery above. Reds and oranges really pop, making the Sandmarc photo look much more vibrant. The same is true in the swan images above, where the bird’s orange bill really stands out in the center of the photo. Compare that to the iPhone photo, where the swan’s bill looks literally gray.

Additionally, there’s just much more contrast with the Sandmarc lens, which combined with the better background blur results in a more three-dimensional image. Again, in the bird images above, the added contrast in the water really brings out the ripples and stops the photos looking flat like the iPhone snap.

So are external iPhone lenses worth buying?

I alluded to this already above, and it all comes down to one question: what do you want? If you want a lens to be sharper than your phone’s built-in camera, you’re out of luck almost entirely with external smartphone lenses. The sharpest iPhone lens I’ve tested is Sandmarc’s 58mm 2x tele lens, but even that is still only on par with the iPhone 1x lens at similar framing, and it still had some issues with chromatic aberration. You’re putting glass made by a small manufacturer in front of glass calibrated by one of the biggest tech firms in the world — that's never going to give you dramatically sharper results.

But while the Sandmarc 10x and other iPhone lenses may not be a quality upgrade, they are certainly a character upgrade. If you want to have fun with your phone camera without spending thousands on a big camera, additional smartphone lenses can help with that. And, importantly, certain smartphone lenses will allow you to achieve effects or styles that simply aren't possible with your phone's default hardware otherwise — particularly anamorphic and macro lenses.

I personally much prefer the look and feel of the images taken using the Sandmarc 10x tele lens to those taken with the iPhone’s built-in tele lens. Not everything has to be about sharpness, and sometimes imperfection has its charms. Would I recommend spending $329 on this particular lens, though? I'm not so sure.

More from Tom's Guide

• ShiftCam iPhone lenses review: the most characterful iPhone lenses around
• Best mirrorless cameras in 2026
• I just bought this 5-year-old Fujifilm and it proves newer isn't always better

What happens when you strip away all color and shoot exclusively in black-and-white? That was the challenge at hand when I started testing the Leica Q3 Monochrom, a camera carrying the same shooting specs as the standard Q3 but packing a mono sensor. This 60.3MP beast captures highly detailed images, chock-full of detail, and even with no color in sight, the images are characterful and nothing short of stunning.

Aiding the Q3 Monochrom’s position as one of the best mirrorless cameras is clean high ISO performance, all packaged into a body that handles well, is easy to use, and is beautifully designed. Autofocus is fast and reliable, and the camera can even shoot 8K/30fps video (in black-and-white only).

But similar to nearly every other Leica I’ve used, CIPA-rated battery life remains a sticking point, and optical stabilization limits handheld shooting capabilities. For the complete breakdown, read my full Leica Q3 Monochrom review.

Leica Q3 Monochrom review: Specs

Leica Q3 Monochrom review: Cheat sheet

• What is it? A 60.3MP camera that shoots exclusively in black-and-white
• Who is it for? Photojournalists, street photographers, and anyone who prefers shooting in monochromatic tones
• How much does it cost? Leicas rarely come cheap, and the Leica Q3 Monochrom retails for $7,790 / £5,800
• What do we like? The detailed and sharp images, clean high ISO and dynamic range performance, beautiful design, and tactile handling
• What don’t we like? The underwhelming battery life and optical stabilization

Leica Q3 Monochrom review: Price & availability

The Q3 Monochrom, at the time of writing, is the latest Leica to get the black-and-white treatment, joining the rangefinder M11 Monochrom ($10,160). It succeeds the Leica Q2 Monochrom which can be bought second-hand for approximately $5,000. The Q3 Monochrom’s imaging tech is identical to the base model, the Leica Q3 which shoots in color. The difference? The Q3 Monochrom features a mono sensor that shoots black-and-white photos and videos only.

As is the nature of Leica cameras, the Q3 Monochrom costs a pretty penny, retailing for $7,790 at Adorama / £5,800 at Wex. It’s a little more expensive than the full frame 60MP Sony RX1R III ($5,099), and far more expensive than other 60MP cameras, such as the Sony A7R V ($3,900). Of course, these cameras shoot in color with black-and-white color profiles available, and the Q3 Monochrom’s monochromatic color profile is closest to Fujifilm’s Acros, found on cameras like the 102MP medium format Fujifilm GFX100RF ($4,899).

One of the advantages of getting the Q3 Monochrom is that it features a fixed Summilux 28mm f/1.7 ASPH. lens, so at least you won’t need to spend money on glass (and Leica glass is ridiculously expensive). It’s also Leica’s only Monochrom camera capable of shooting 8K video, making it a more versatile snapper.

Leica Q3 Monochrom review: Design

The Leica Q3 Monochrom is nothing short of beautiful. Similar to the base Q3 model, the Q3 Monochrom is fitted with a fixed Summilux 28mm f/1.7 ASPH. lens. If you want a lens whose field of view resembles human vision and what your eye sees, I’d recommend the Leica Q3 43 ($7,380) with its 43mm lens. The Q3 Monochrom and its 28mm lens are perfect for street, travel, and landscape photography. It comes fitted with a square lens hood which is revealed when the cap is twisted off.

This looks like a very minimalist camera, and if you didn’t know it was a Leica, you wouldn’t really guess that it’s one. That’s because the German giant has chosen to forego the red dot you find on most of its other cameras. The base Q3’s yellow and red accents have been eliminated too, and the lens and shutter dial markings are now gray and white to reaffirm the fact that this is a black-and-white camera. As Leicas go, this is the stealthiest-looking one out there.

Size and weight remain fairly identical to the standard Q3 as the Q3 Monochrom measures 5.11 x 3.64 x 3.16 inches and weighs 1.64lbs (with battery and SD card). I’ve had no problems or discomfort carrying it in my backpack or wearing the camera around my neck, thanks to the great weight distribution.

Handling is good too, but there is some room for improvement. I wish the camera had a protruding or sculpted grip on the right-hand side, like the Fujifilm GFX100RF does. But the Q3 Monochrom is still very grippy, thanks to the textured faux-leather surface, so I didn’t have any problems holding the camera with one or both hands.

Viewfinder

The Q3 Monochrom features the same viewfinder found on the Q3 43: an OLED EVF with a resolution of approximately 5.76 million dots. It’s also the same resolution found on medium format beasts, such as the Fujifilm GFX100RF, Hasselblad X2D 100C ($8,199) and Hasselblad X2D II 100C ($7,399), and is much higher-res than the Sony RX1R III’s (2.36 million dots).

This viewfinder is exceptional as it’s very bright and highly detailed, displaying adequate shooting information. Via the settings menu, you can opt for either a 60fps or a 120fps refresh rate, both of which relay smooth motion — the latter doing so at the expense of battery life. In my testing, I was able to keep track of my subjects even while panning, and was able to get an accurate picture of what the result would look like when viewing my subject through the EVF.

Monitor

Around the Q3 Monochrom’s back, you’ll find the 3-inch TFT LCD touchscreen. The screen is bright with a resolution of approximately 1.84 million dots. Although it’s a little lower than the Sony RX1R III’s 2.36M-dot and the Leica M EV1’s ($8,995) 2.33M-dot screens, it’s nice and bright, so I was still able to read it clearly even in direct sunlight.

The monitor can also tilt up and down, enabling you to shoot inconspicuously at waist level, which is great for street photography when you want to capture candid moments. The Q3 Monochrom takes the cake here as the Sony RX1R III’s features a fixed monitor. While some people might find it restrictive, compared to a three-way tilt-type monitor, I had no issues using it, as this is also how the monitor on my personal Fujifilm X-T50 ($1,399) works.

Alongside the monitor being easy to read, Leica’s quick settings and detailed menu system is as straightforward as always. Everything is easily accessible and understandable, thanks to the stripped-back menu.

Ports

Similar to many other Leica cameras, such as the Q3 43 and the M11-D ($9,799), the Q3 Monochrom doesn’t feature many ports. A hatch on the left-hand edge of the camera houses the micro HDMI port as well as the USB-C port for charging and data transfer.

It’s important to note that even though the Q3 Monochrom can shoot 8K video, it doesn’t feature any headphone or mic ports, which limits its video capabilities. If you fancy a Leica with video-first specs, I’d recommend the SL3-S ($5,665) instead. But given Leica’s partnership with Rode, the Q3 Monochrom supports Rode mics via the USB-C port.

On the bottom plate, a silver release lever, when pushed, releases the battery pack and also reveals the memory card slot. The Q3 Monochrom is compatible with a single SD/SDHC/SDXC UHS-II/V90. There is no support for CFExpress cards, though, which might be a problem for those constantly shooting 8K video.

Weather-sealing

The Q3 Monochrom carries an IP52 durability rating. This means that the camera is protected from dust entering and ruining the tech inside, and it is also safe against water drips at a tilt. This, basically, means that you should be able to use the Q3 Monochrom even if it starts drizzling — as I did, in good ol’ rainy Bath, U.K.

Leica Q3 Monochrom review: Controls

Now that I’ve tested a few, one thing I always appreciate about Leica cameras is that they are extremely easy to use, and this is also true in the case of the Leica Q3 Monochrom. As a special iteration of the base Q3 and the Q3 43, its control scheme is exactly the same as the two cameras. I’ve had no issues getting to grips with the camera, and every button and dial gives good tactile feedback when pressed or turned.

The top plate houses the shutter speed dial as well as the shutter/power button, and alongside this is the exposure compensation dial (±3 EV in 1/3 EV increments). Your standard navigation and playback buttons are located next to the monitor. The only important thing missing is a focus joystick, and to change focus points, you must rely on the D-pad. It’s annoying and something we disliked about the Sony RX1R III as well, but it isn’t as bad as the Hasselblad X2D 100C where you must rely entirely on the touchscreen for shifting focus points.

Also making a comeback are the two buttons located above the monitor, one for digital cropping for additional effective focal lengths, and another for swapping between stills and video. The former lets you crop in-camera at an effective 28mm (default, zoomed out), 1.25x (35mm), 1.7x (50mm), 2.7x (75mm), and 3.2x (90mm). Like the Leica M EV1 and the Leica Q3 43, the Q3 Monochrom crops into images to give effective focal lengths at the cost of some resolution, but with 60.3MP at your disposal, there’s plenty of room for extreme cropping.

I found myself making use of the digital crops quite often in my testing. They helped me frame my images better as I could see, in real-time, what they would look like if I chose to crop into them during post-production. I’ll discuss the image quality of these crops in the following sections.

Leica Q3 Monochrom review: Autofocus

Unlike the Leica Q3 and the Leica Q3 43 which utilize phase-detection autofocus, the Leica Q3 Monochrom utilizes a contrast-detection-only AF system. Phase-detection is usually quicker and best for moving subjects, but on a mono sensor, phase-detect AF points can produce visible artefacts. So instead, it relies on contrast-detection, which makes sense as this isn’t a fast-paced camera for wildlife or sports, so it isn’t as big of a deal as in a professional workhorse, like the Sony A7R V.

Similar to other Leica cameras, you can choose between Single AF, Continuous AF, Manual focus and Intelligent AF which automatically swaps between the first two.

You can choose between human eye/face/body and animal detection, and in my testing, the camera locked onto animals and people within milliseconds, as you can see in the gallery above. The first two shots of my partner were taken with face/body detection enabled, and the camera did a good job of focusing on her. The photo of the swan has turned out lovely as well, and this was taken with animal body detection enabled.

Leica Q3 Monochrom review: Stabilization

A pitfall of most Leica cameras is the lack of any in-body image stabilization (IBIS). The base Q3 and the Q3 43 both utilize optical image stabilization, which isn’t as effective as the IBIS found on the SL3 ($7,485). Relying on optical image stabilization means you can’t shoot at the kind of slow shutter speeds you could with IBIS, so I’d still recommend using a tripod for shooting in low-light environments and long exposures (naturally).

The first photo in the gallery above was shot at 1/4s and as you can see, the image is clear and in focus, and that’s the slowest shutter speed I could shoot at. Any slower than that, such as at 0.5s in the second slide, and the image was negatively impacted by camera shake. It still isn’t terrible, though, and the image is still usable.

Leica Q3 Monochrom review: Image quality

The Leica Q3 Monochrom is a well-endowed camera, featuring a 60.3MP CMOS sensor, just like its stablemates, the Leica M EV1 and the Leica Q3 43, and it’s the highest resolution of any Leica Monochrom camera yet. It works in conjunction with the Leica Maestro IV processor to capture images packed with heaps of detail. The images captured by the Q3 Monochrom come out extremely detailed and crisp, perhaps even sharper than ones captured by its color siblings.

But why is that? Most digital cameras that capture images in color utilize what’s known as the Bayer color filter array (CFA), located over the sensor. In simple terms, it’s a set of red, green, and blue filters that allows the sensor to detect the wavelength (color) of light, as the light sensitive photosites on a camera’s naked sensor can only measure light intensity (brightness) on their own. Decoding this information can result in a loss of luminance data. So, when a camera is without a CFA, its monochromatic sensor captures all the luminance detected by its photosites, resulting in a sharper image — and better high ISO performance (more on that soon).

This is all to say that the Q3 Monochrom captures ridiculously stunning images, and as someone who shoots primarily in color, even I was impressed by them. The Q3 Monochrom utilizes either a 15fps electronic or a 7fps mechanical shutter so it’s best suited to street, landscape, travel and portrait photography. The 15fps drive is enough for casual wildlife too, and I’ll get to that in a second.

First, let’s talk about the general image quality, and you can see some photos I’ve captured in the gallery above. The image quality is, in one word, gorgeous. The different textures in all the images have a crispness to them that look etched and defined, such as the details in the shots of the Bath Abbey, storefronts, and the water. In the photos I’ve taken, the Q3 Monochrom has captured inky blacks that appear deep, and the subjects never appear flat.

The Q3 Monochrom is an excellent camera for street photography and capturing candid moments. I loved taking the camera around Bath, U.K. and capturing people going about their day. On any other normal day without the camera in my hands, I wouldn’t have thought twice about how strangers behave and act, but with the Q3 Monochrom, I couldn’t stop taking photos of them. The black-and-white images make otherwise mundane scenes look like they’re part of a movie.

Also, in my opinion, there is good subject separation — humans or animals standing in front of a building or vehicle never look like they’re bleeding into the background. The Q3 Monochrom creates a sense of 3D pop, which gives images lots of character and gives you a sense of movement, even in a still.

Because you have a whopping 60.3MP at your disposal, there’s plenty of room for making extreme crops. You can crop right into an image while retaining lots of detail, and images captured with a 60.3MP sensor are suited to large-format printing too.

In the gallery above, the first image is an extreme crop of the second, and the third is an extreme crop of the fourth. As you can see in the first shot, even though I’ve cropped right into the swan’s face, you can still see its individual feathers and water droplets on its beak. And if you saw the fourth image, you wouldn’t actually think there’s a robin in the shot, and the third image reveals the little bird perched on the branch.

The Q3 Monochrom’s lens has a handy macro mode too, which can be enabled by turning the macro ring, revealing a different set of lens markings and reducing the minimum focus distance from 70cm to 17cm. I love how detailed the photos of the flowers are in the gallery above. You can see the various lines and patterns on the petals and though the photos are devoid of color, they’re still characterful.

In-camera crops

In-camera cropping on the Q3 Monochrom can be helpful when you don’t want to bother with making detailed crops and edits in post-production. It can help you frame images better too, giving you a real-time view of what they will look like if you crop into them later. As I mentioned up top, I found myself using these a fair amount. If you’re shooting in both JPEG and DNG, the Q3 Monochrom will also save an uncropped DNG if you aren’t happy with the crop.

The images of the robin ornament in the gallery above were shot at the following crop settings: 1x (28mm), 1.25x (35mm), 1.7x (50mm), 2.7x (75mm), and 3.2x (90mm). Even at 90mm in the last slide, the robin is packed full of detail, with the wooden carving shapes sharp and distinguishable.

High-speed drive

Though the Q3 Monochrom is more of a street and landscape camera, it can shoot burst photos with its 15fps electronic or 7fps mechanical shutter. I personally can’t imagine using the Q3 Monochrom for, say, casual wildlife photography, as you’ll want a dedicated wildlife camera for that, like the OM System OM-1 Mark II ($2,399).

But even so, I had to put it to the test, and the Q3 Monochrom performed respectably. I went out to photograph some birds and swans, and you can see samples in the gallery above. I found the autofocus quick to lock on, and the 15fps burst felt just enough to capture birds in flight.

ISO performance

The Q3 Monochrom has a high ISO range, ranging from 100 to 200,000. Alongside JPEGs, the camera captures DNGs which are generally 15-20% smaller than RAW but with negligible differences. As for the camera’s high ISO performance, it’s perhaps some of the best and cleanest I’ve seen on any camera I’ve tested so far. That’s because due to the absence of a Bayer color filter, the sensor has more light information for each photosite/pixel, resulting in cleaner images with less noise.

Images taken at ISO6400 come out as you’d expect so I’ll discuss shooting at higher ISO sensitivities here. Shot at ISO12,500, the first image in the gallery above is a JPEG export of the DNG file, and the second is the straight-out-of-camera (SOOC) JPEG. As you can see in the second slide, the camera has done well to reduce the noise and grain, and there’s plenty of sharpness to be found in Knuckles’ knuckles and face.

I didn’t notice much difference between ISO12,500 and ISO25,000, so I pushed the camera to ISO50,000. The first image in the gallery above, the JPEG export of the DNG file, features plenty of noise, especially in the background and around Knuckles’ head. The SOOC JPEG, however, is sharp, as you can make out the patterns in the branch on the book in the background, and Knuckles’ features still appear sharp. Though there is visible noise, I don’t think it necessarily ruins the image or makes it unusable — it just makes it look like a film photo with the right amount of noise that doesn’t hurt the eyes.

Given my ISO testing, I believe that you shouldn’t be afraid to push the ISO when you’re using the Q3 Monochrom, because noise in high ISO shots isn’t particularly ruinous. If you want even better high ISO performance, I’d recommend a medium format camera like the Fujifilm GFX100RF where I noticed ruinous noise only at ISO102,400. The Sony RX1R III does well when you’re shooting at ISO25,600 too, as shown in our tests.

Dynamic range

Just like many of its siblings, the Q3 Monochrom can capture a wide dynamic range, offering up to 14+ stops, so you can make extensive adjustments in post-production without significantly impacting image quality. This comes in clutch especially in challenging lighting conditions.

To test the Q3 Monochrom’s dynamic range performance, I conducted an extreme indoors test where I photographed scales in front of a bright studio light at base ISO100, as seen in the gallery above. The first slide is the original unedited image and the second is the same shot where I’ve reduced the highlights and lifted the shadows in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.

As you can see in the second slide, lifting the shadows has revealed the scales’ legends, all of which are clearly readable and are very sharp. I was also able to save some highlights in the fake ice cubes placed on the background netting, and you can even see their edges.

But how does the camera’s dynamic range fair in real-world scenarios? Very well! The first slide in the gallery above is the original unedited image, and the second is the same shot but with highlights reduced and shadows boosted in Lightroom. Shadows, again, remain noise-free with plenty of detail captured in the dark areas. You can see the markings and various patterns on the tree’s bark and branches, and lifting the shadows has also revealed several new branches which you can’t necessarily see in the first slide.

Leica Q3 Monochrom review: Video

The Leica Q3 Monochrom isn’t your regular hybrid camera. Just how it can only shoot JPEG/DNG files in black-and-white, it can only shoot MP4/RAW videos in black-and-white too. It’s excellent for casual video or cinematic work, as it can shoot C8K/30fps in a 17:9 aspect ratio, and is Leica’s only Monochrom camera that can do so (at the time of writing). You can also record C4K/60fps and slow motion FHD/120fps.

C8K is recorded in 4:2:0 10-bit to deliver true monochrome footage as well as smooth tonal transitions. 8K also gives you plenty of room for extreme cropping while maintaining a high resolution and retaining details. The Q3 Monochrom also supports Apple ProRes compression at FHD, for high-quality video editing in professional post-production workflows.

4K footage looks stunning, as you can see in the compilation of clips above. Movement of the water is fluid and flawless at 60fps, and the weir looks almost mesmerizing. I also think the camera has captured the moodiness of the overcast weather well. If you want to capture a wider dynamic range and for more flexibility in post, you have the option to shoot in L-Log as well.

Leica Q3 Monochrom review: Battery life

Leica continues to miss the mark when it comes to its cameras’ battery life. Packing a 2,200mAh Lithium-ion rechargeable battery, the Leica Q3 Monochrom is CIPA-rated for a measly 302 shots. Although poor, it’s worth noting that this is still better than the Sony RX1R III, CIPA-rated for 270 shots only.

CIPA tests are usually conducted under strict conditions, and Leica specifies another rating for the Q3 Monochrom, and says that the camera can last for up to 1,535 shots with the Adaptive Shooting Cycle. According to the official product page, this test is done in two stages, which are repeated alternately until the battery is empty:

“Cycle 1: Switch on, 1st shutter release after 5s, one shot every 3s, the camera switches off after 10 shots (Auto Power Off) and switched back on after a waiting time of 5 min.

“Cycle 2: Switch on, 1st shutter release after 5s, one shot every 3s, the camera switches off after 50 shots (Auto Power Off) and switched back on after a waiting time of 5 min.”

While this is not exactly how I tested the camera, I consistently checked the media playback, adjusted settings, and used a combination of the EVF and the monitor for framing. I took over 600 photos between charges. Though this is nearly double of the CIPA rating stated by Leica, I’d recommend taking that value as the reference point, as the results will vary depending on whether you’re shooting in burst, etc.

Leica Q3 Monochrom review: Verdict

If you’re a fan of black-and-white photography and need a premium, good-looking camera that takes beautiful images, it’s hard not to recommend the Leica Q3 Monochrom. Its 60.3MP sensor captures an astounding level of detail, perfect for large-format printing and extreme cropping. The camera boasts clean high ISO and dynamic range performance, giving you plenty of freedom in post-production.

The camera itself is tactile to use and handle, with a straightforward control scheme and stripped back menu system. It looks and feels like a Leica but omits the classic red dot to make it an inconspicuous street shooter.

Though it costs a lot of doubloons and its CIPA-rated battery life of 302 shots is underwhelming, few cameras are better at pure black-and-white photography than the Q3 Monochrom.

The GoPro LIT Hero is a modest update to 2024’s GoPro Hero — the smallest member of the legendary action camera manufacturer’s current lineup. The original Hero was a likeable little camera. It packed 4K/30fps video and strong battery life into a very compact (not to mention cheap) package.

I awarded the original Hero 3.5 stars. That effectively means “good, but not recommended outright,” and it didn’t make our roundup of the best action cameras. Other tiny action cameras like the Insta360 Go 3S and DJI Osmo Nano did things better, with more intuitive controls and 4K/60fps.

As I mentioned above, the LIT Hero is only a small update to the original formula. The new model, as its name suggests, features a built-in light, and has received a resolution boost to 4K/60fps. So is that enough for this to be considered among the best action cameras? Find out more in my full GoPro LIT Hero review.

GoPro LIT Hero review: Specs

GoPro LIT Hero review: Price & availability

The GoPro LIT Hero costs $269 / £239 at Amazon — a huge price jump from the original Hero, which launched at $199 / £199. At the time of writing, you can find an original Hero for well under the $199 MSRP, though.

GoPro’s justification for the hike is doubtless that the new camera has 4K/60fps (up from 4K/30fps in the OG) and a built-in light. More features cost more money, so a price jump is fair. But $70 feels a little steep. One of the things that I really loved about the original Hero was how affordable it was — it made it a likeable camera despite the flaws. I can’t say the same about the LIT.

Nevertheless, the LIT Hero is still cheaper than all of its competitors’ tiny cameras. The Insta360 Go 3S costs a whopping $379, but is a better product in almost every way. The DJI Osmo Nano costs $299 and also offers many more features, but isn’t officially supported in the U.S. by DJI itself (which should only be a problem if the camera breaks) due to the manufacturer's ongoing feud with the U.S. government.

GoPro LIT Hero review: Design

The GoPro LIT Hero looks exactly the same as the original Hero, except for the frontal LED light, which I’ll cover in the low-light video section below (spoiler: it’s bright). It features the same overarching design, with the vertical stripes, and, like any GoPro, is built extremely well. Sure it costs too much, but at least it doesn’t feel cheap.

At 2.2 x 1.9 x 1.1 inches, it’s almost exactly the same size as its predecessor. That makes it one of the easiest action cameras to mount. I’ve had no issues putting it anywhere, from handlebars to helmet chin or backpack strap mounts. In fact, at only 3.2 ounces, it’s an ideal choice for mounting to helmets as it doesn’t weigh them down.

Both rivals — the Osmo Nano and Go 3S — have modular thumb cameras which need to be removed from pods to be considered truly tiny. That limits battery life, as their pods host larger batteries. By contrast, the LIT Hero is an entirely small package, so it doesn’t force you to sacrifice the main battery for increased mountability.

Mounting

On the topic of mounting, the LIT Hero features a magnetic latch for quick release mounts, plus GoPro’s usual built-in fingers and 1/4-inch thread, which I love — it means you can mount the LIT to pretty much any third part accessory without needing a proprietary quick release adapter (as you will with the Osmo Nano and Go 3S).

Waterproofing & ruggedness

The LIT Hero is fairly rugged. I’ve dropped it a few times and it barely has a scratch on it. You can also replace the lens cover if it gets damaged enough to affect image quality. Like the OG Hero, the LIT is waterproof only down to 16 feet / 5 meters, so this isn’t one to take diving. The Osmo Nano and Go 3S are both waterproof to 33 feet / 10 meters, but only their cameras (the screen pods are each only IPX4-rated / splashproof), so you’ll be sacrificing battery life and controls for the extra depth.

If you want a camera to take in water, the DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro and Osmo Action 6 have the rest of the market beat, with waterproofing down to 65 feet / 20 meters — no external dive case required.

Connectivity

The LIT Hero features a USB-C port for charging and data transfer, a microSD slot for storage, and wireless connectivity for pairing to the GoPro Quik app. The latter is essential, as it’s where stabilization is applied to video. But the app is also where you’ll update the camera, access better camera controls, and edit files — all very important, too.

Nothing really out of the ordinary here, although it’s worth mentioning that the Osmo Nano has internal storage and a microSD slot, making it the most versatile option for file management. The Go 3S has only internal storage, and you’ll have to step up to the much pricier Insta360 Go Ultra ($449) for a microSD slot (but no internal storage).

The LIT Hero can’t connect to external microphones, but I’ll discuss this later in the audio section.

GoPro LIT Hero review: Display & controls

The GoPro LIT Hero features the same 1.76-inch LCD touchscreen as its predecessor. It’s fairly low-res and too small to be of much practical use, particularly when wearing gloves. This makes navigating the camera a frustrating experience, especially versus the slick, wide screen of the Osmo Nano and the huge flip-up vlogging screen of the Go 3S. Unfortunately, all of the camera control is done via the screen, making this a pretty big issue.

While we’re on flip-up screens: the Go 3S’ is perfect for vlogging, allowing you to see yourself while you shoot. The Osmo Nano’s screen pod also works in either forward or backward orientation (in relation to the lens), so it can also be used for vlogging. The LIT Hero has no facility for shooting to camera without using the Quik app — not ideal, as you don’t want to be looking at your smartphone while shooting to camera. If you’re vlogging to camera, the LIT isn’t for you.

Like the OG Hero, the LIT’s menu system is exceptionally amateur-feeling in comparison to rivals, and offers very little meaningful control of the camera — selectable resolutions are very limited, there are only four modes, and you have virtually no control over camera settings within those modes. GoPro was clearly going for a stripped-back feel but went too far — the lack of control just makes the LIT Hero feel cumbersome and limiting. I just don’t get how GoPro has made something so small and simple feel so unwieldy. Talk about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

GoPro LIT Hero review: Stabilization

The GoPro LIT Hero doesn’t feature in-camera stabilization. Instead, footage is smoothed out in the GoPro Quik app when transferred to your smartphone. Alternatively, you can offload unstabilized files from the SD and stabilize the footage in video editing software (many apps have a stabilization feature).

It’s a pain to constantly route footage via your smartphone, especially as 4K/60fps footage is all broken down into 5-6-minute clips. However, I rarely just upload untrimmed or unedited footage anyway, so it’d always be going through the app and getting stabilized.

You’ll have no issues with the app’s stabilization, either. It’s very good. As you can see in the motorcycle footage above, the app has smoothed out any jumpiness while maintaining the lean angles on the bike.

It’s also ideal for walking or slower paced footage, which is the kind of thing the camera is primarily designed for. As you can see in the walking video above, the Quik app did a great job at mostly smoothing out my footsteps, so it feels natural but not jumpy.

GoPro LIT Hero review: Video performance

Just like the OG Hero, you mustn’t expect any bells and whistles with the GoPro LIT Hero — a fact that kinda stings given the $70 increase. There are only four modes (three video, one photo), and you can’t change resolution or frame rate in any but one of the video modes. Sure, you can change the export resolution in the Quik app, but what if you want to shoot smaller 2.7K files in camera for quicker handling in the app? You can’t.

The LIT features the same 1/2.8-inch sensor as the OG model, and the resulting 4K image looks okay, with plenty of detail and respectable sharpness in the center. But sharpness drops off at the edges due to distortion from the ultra-wide lens (which is common with action cameras).

Even after corrections in the Quik app, there’s also noticeable vignetting in image corners, which looks rather ugly, clashing with the brighter center of the image. When viewing footage as you shoot, you’ll notice the lens guard intrudes into the image corners of uncorrected files, too. The intrusions disappear when the camera crops footage to stabilize it, but regardless, these aren’t the finest optics ever fitted to an action camera.

The camera only records on auto white balance and auto exposure — there’s no manual control — and it did a respectable job on the bright sunny day in the footage above. Colors look natural and faithful to the cold, sunny day, while the exposure is adequately balanced, even during the shift in lighting at around 12 seconds in.

60fps is obviously a very welcome update from the OG Hero’s 30fps cap, allowing for smoother action footage. There are three modes to choose from: Video, which shoots 1080P/30fps or 4K/30fps; 4:3 Video, which shoots 4K/30fps only; and Sport POV, which shoots in 4K/60fps only. I’ve no idea what makes this view particularly “sporty” — it’s just a 16:9 crop into the 4:3 image, shot at a 165-degree field of view.

Other than that, there isn’t much to talk about video-wise. It’s basic and it’s passable. If I were to score the Lit Hero’s video, it’d get a C+. I’d rather shoot on the LIT than on budget cameras like the Akaso Brave 8 ($289) or Akaso Brave 8 Lite ($199), although mainly for the audio and app, not for the video — its 4K isn’t really much better than that of budget brands, which is a poor showing given this is a $269 GoPro.

Low light

But of course, the LIT Hero has a trump card: it’s LIT. There’s a frontal LED with three brightness settings, and boy is it bright. You’ll have no problem lighting scenes, as long as you’re not trying to film a wide open space. The built-in LED will also save you buying an external light accessory, so it’s definitely handy to have.

That’s not to say the light is… pleasant. It’ll brighten the image, but it’s a frontal light, so it flattens any subject in front of it. Think about how photos look when shot using a frontal camera flash — subjects’ faces look flat and washed out, with eyes like startled deer. The LIT’s light makes footage look like something out of the Blair Witch Project, which is admittedly kinda fun. It’ll also blind anyone in front of the camera, so it won’t be much use for vlogging.

Without the LED, you can eke out a little bit of low light performance by dropping the frame rate from 60fps to 30fps, which exposes the image more. Still, low light footage looks as lumpy as I’d expect from a 1/2.8-inch sensor, although less noisy in the shadows than I’d anticipated. For low light, though, I’d still recommend a camera with a bigger sensor, like the DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro ($349) or DJI Osmo Action 6 ($369).

GoPro LIT Hero review: Audio performance

The GoPro LIT Hero’s internal audio surprised me… for the better. Motorcycling footage is an extremely tough challenge for microphones, with lots of wind buffeting. Many action cameras feature wind reduction noise cancellation modes to help with this. Unsurprisingly, the LIT Hero features no such modes, but its dual mics do alright on their own!

In the footage above, shot with the camera on the front of a motorcycle with no wind guard or fairings in front of it, wind buffeting is present but not awful, and you can hear the sound of the engine fairly clearly. I’ve certainly heard a lot worse — the Akaso Brave 8 and Brave 8 Lite, to be specific.

In slower-paced situations, like vlogging, the mic will have absolutely no issues, as you can hear in the low light footage above, where I’m talking to the camera.

Unfortunately, like the OG Hero, the LIT doesn’t support external microphones. If you use a mic, you’ll need to record audio separately and then sync up in post. With no timecode on the LIT, that won’t be as easy as with professional cameras like the Hero13 Black.

GoPro LIT Hero review: App

The GoPro Quik app is vital to the operation of the GoPro LIT Hero, at least if you don’t have access to or knowledge of video editing software. This is because the app is where stabilization is applied to video, so without it your footage will be a shaky mess. As I alluded to above, you can of course stabilize footage in third party video editing applications, if you know how.

Thankfully, GoPro’s app is really good. It’s easy to use, offers lots of control and editing features, and is as slick as you’d expect a companion app from a major manufacturer to be.

The app is by far the easiest way to control the LIT Hero, given the small/unresponsive screen and limited in-camera menu. Hooking up to the app is quick (or should I say, Quik) and easy, giving me no headaches in testing.

The app is also where you can quickly edit footage once offloaded from the camera, and there are some basic editing tools for pulling your videos into usable shape to then upload to social media. Quik is on par with the DJI Mimo app, although the Insta360 app offers more bells and whistles in the features and editing departments, and is the gold-standard for straight-to-social action camera footage.

GoPro LIT Hero review: Battery life & overheating

Battery life was one of the OG Hero’s strongest points, and it’s the same story with the GoPro LIT Hero. In my standardized indoor battery tests, I shoot in 4K at either 30fps or 60fps (if the camera supports it) until the battery dies. This also tests overheating, as I run the test indoors.

The OG Hero achieved 103 minutes at 4K/30fps, which was really impressive given the relatively small battery. Amazingly, using the same 1,255mAh battery, the LIT achieved exactly the same figure at 4K/60fps — very impressive given the higher frame rate, and not something I was expecting. That’s longer than the GoPro Hero13 Black ($399) at 4K/60fps, when I put that through the same test. I tested the LIT without its LED on, so you can expect the battery to deplete quicker when using that.

Annoyingly, the battery is fixed in situ, so there's no way of swapping out batteries. That means when it dies, you have downtime.

Just like the OG Hero, the LIT also manages thermals very well and didn’t overheat once, recording continuously for 103 minutes. That’s better than our top-rated action camera, the much pricier DJI Osmo Action 6.

GoPro LIT Hero review: Verdict

There’s no doubt the GoPro LIT Hero is an improvement over its predecessor. It upgrades 4K recording from 30 to 60 fps and adds an LED, while maintaining the original model’s excellent battery life (even at 60fps) and versatility.

Still, make no mistake, this is a no frills camera, but at a very frilly price this time around. One of the redeeming features of the Hero was its price, and unfortunately, I don’t believe the LIT justifies such a steep increase. You can buy an older professional action camera like the DJI Osmo Action 4 for around the same money (at the time of writing), and the fantastic Osmo Action 5 Pro drops within the same ballpark at sales events. $269 makes no sense, and feels like GoPro is charging purely for its name.

Nevertheless, this is a good little action camera. Our 3.5-star rating means a product is decent, but we wouldn’t recommend it outright (that’s why our 4-star rating comes with a ‘TG Recommended’ badge). The LIT is a very handy little action camera, but if it does fit your bill, just make sure to buy it on sale.

Ah, TikTok. A social media platform with hundreds of thousands of videos pertaining to anything and everything on the planet. You've got your classic "brainrot" memes like 6-7, and existential videos discussing the meaning of life all in one app. I won't lie, I love scrolling through TikTok and laughing at the silly things people post on there — or crying at videos of puffer fish, and polar bears struggling to survive as the snow around them melts, with Twenty One Pilots' "Drag Path" playing in the background.

Aside from humorous and inspirational content, TikTok is also responsible for popularizing products we thought would fade into oblivion as the years went by. Retro cameras are very popular on TikTok, with Gen Z going gaga over the likes of the Kodak Charmera and the Camp Snap CS-8. And you'll never guess what TikTokers' favorite compact camera is — it's the Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark III. Yes, the one that came out all the way back in 2019.

But why is the PowerShot G7 X Mark III still so popular, seven years after its launch? That's the question on everyone's mind — well, on mine, at least. Looks like I might finally have the answer to that, now that I've spent a week testing this camera. If you're wondering whether it's worth the hype in 2026, here's what I've learnt, and here's everything you need to know.

A quick rundown

• What is it? The Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark III is the third iteration of Canon's popular compact camera, and it packs a 20.1MP CMOS sensor, and is capable of recording 4K/30p video. You get a 4.2x optical zoom to get stuck into the detail, and the camera is easily portable, thanks to its small size, making it great for travel snaps.
• Who is it for? TikTokers, apparently. I jest! The PowerShot G7 X Mark III is for anyone who wants a compact camera, really, and doesn't want to spend more money on a mirrorless camera or DSLR.
• How much does it cost? It's on the pricey side of things. The PowerShot G7 X Mark III retails for $879 / £1,035, or you can buy the 30th Anniversary Graphite Edition for $1,299 / £859.
• Is it available to buy? Well, it depends. In many places, such as the U.S., the PowerShot G7 X Mark III is either on backorder or out of stock, and you can blame the camera's TikTok popularity for that. The 30th Anniversary Edition is available but limited, so I'd recommend grabbing it ASAP.

What are the Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark III's specs like?

Explaining the TikTok phenomenon

When I picked up the Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark III for the first time, I wondered, "Why does TikTok love this camera, specifically?" After all, there are many other competent compact cameras out there. You've got the Pentax WG-1000 and the Kodak PIXPRO C1 — both great, both much cheaper than the PowerShot G7 X Mark III. But then I realized, there's no point in trying to find much logic here as with most trends on TikTok, that's all they are: trends. This video alone has nearly 400,000 likes!

But the PowerShot G7 X Mark III has reached legendary status, given how popular it is seven years since it was first introduced. It's like a cult classic movie nowadays. If there's one thing Gen Z and Gen Alpha love, it's the sweet spot that lies somewhere between professional quality and nostalgic, lo-fi aesthetics. And that's really what the PowerShot G7 X Mark III is catering to: its 20.1MP sensor is enough to capture good images while teetering on the image quality being just lo-fi enough.

Professional, high-end bodies can often reveal too much detail, such as the many pores in your face, and make everything look like a production. The PowerShot G7 X Mark III, then, strikes a balance between good-quality images and video and the candid vibe, and instead feels like a cool, chill, low-key camera. As a millennial who is mostly confounded by Gen Z-isms, that's what I'm guessing they want (but feel free to disagree with me in the comments).

A joy to handle

As is the nature of compact cameras, the Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark III feels wonderful to handle. Its buttons and dials are thoughtfully laid out, and everything is signposted clearly, so even if you aren't familiar with cameras, you should have no trouble getting to grips with it. I'm guessing the ease of use is one of the reasons why this camera is loved by TikTokers. I've always liked Canon's menu system as well, as it's detailed but easy to understand, with most settings being fairly self-explanatory.

The PowerShot G7 X Mark III is an excellent choice for those who want to photograph their travels, as it measures 4.13 x 2.4 x 1.63 inches and weighs 10.7oz, so it doesn't take up much space in your pocket or handbag, and it doesn't weigh you down either.

Another advantage of owning the PowerShot G7 X Mark III (or any compact camera) is that you can take it with you to music festivals and concerts. In the U.K., where I'm based, concert-goers aren't allowed to bring cameras with interchangeable lenses into venues, but that rule doesn't apply to the PowerShot G7 X Mark III as it features a fixed lens. I've personally seen many people with this camera (or similar) at gigs I've been to, so it's a safe choice for live music lovers.

One button to rule them all

Somewhere along the line during my testing period, I think I cracked the code re: why the Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark III is so popular amongst "influencers" and TikTokers. The answer lies in its Q/Set button, located next to the monitor. This button gives you access to Color Profiles, Background Blur Degree, Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, and color tones, all of which pop up on the screen, and the changes are displayed in real-time.

I think this is a fantastic addition to the camera, and will surely appeal to many users. Since you can adjust the brightness and contrast, and apply filters while shooting, you can tailor the shot to look exactly the way you want it to. After that, it's a simple matter of using the camera's built-in WiFi and Bluetooth to transfer the images to your phone, and share them straight to social media — no need for post-production or hours spent color grading (unless you aren't bound by time, of course).

One-touch real-time editing is a boon for social media, where it's a race to see who breaks the news first, or who reveals a new product first. I myself had a lot of fun playing around with it during testing. I do wish, though, that you could save your own custom color profiles to the camera, akin to saving custom film recipes on my Fujifilm X-T50.

The image quality surprised me

The Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark III packs a 1-inch Stacked CMOS sensor, capable of capturing 20.1MP images. That's not a lot of megapixels, so you don't have much room for making extreme crops, but it's enough for sharing your photos on Instagram, Facebook (though I'm not sure how many Gen Zers use it) and TikTok. Alongside this, you get a 4.2x optical zoom (which means you can zoom in without the quality being negatively impacted), and an 8.4x digital zoom.

Optically zooming in is great, but once you push past it and venture into "ZoomPlus" territory, image quality suffers, as the camera begins to digitally crop rather than optically magnifying the scene. But it's still good to have for those who want to get stuck in the detail. In addition to shooting stills, the PowerShot G7X Mark III records 4K/30fps video, which is more than enough resolution for social media sharing.

Having tested many Canon cameras in my time, one thing I've always loved is Canon's color science. Colors are reproduced faithfully and appear true to life — what you see with your eyes is what the camera will replicate (with 99% accuracy, I'd say). This applies to the PowerShot G7 X Mark III as well, and you can see a few sample images in the gallery above.

In the first shot, I love the popping oranges and neon colors, which add life to an otherwise dull scene (it was an overcast day in Bath, U.K., as most days are). In the second photo of the flowers, I upped the saturation in-camera via the Q/Set button, and I adore the vivid greens which add depth and character to the white flowers.

I also have to give credit to the PowerShot G7 X Mark III's contrast-detection autofocus system. I've seen users talking about it being frustrating to use on online forums like Reddit, but I didn't have any issues with it. The camera does a respectable job of tracking and keeping locked onto faces/subjects you've tapped on via the touchscreen.

You can see sample images in the gallery above. I found the camera was fairly quick to lock onto the swans as well as my partner. This autofocus system isn't as advanced as Canon's Dual Pixel CMOS AF/AF II which you find on cameras like the Canon EOS R50 V, but you usually get that in the brand's DSLRs and mirrorless cameras, not compacts.

I won't lie, the PowerShot G7 X Mark III's image quality actually surprised me. The photos I've taken are packed full of detail, especially the ones of the swans. For instance, in the first shot, you can clearly make out the individual feathers and kinks in the swan's coat. Even its webbed feet are highly detailed, and you can see water droplets on them too.

Is it the best option in 2026? Well...

Though the Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark III is a good camera that takes very lovely photos, I don't think it's the best way of spending your hard-earned money — unless you already own it, of course. But buying it secondhand or pre-loved? I'd consider other options. Seven years is a long time, and technology has come a long way since then.

Canon's own PowerShot line has developed a fair bit, with cameras like the Canon PowerShot V1 ($899) boasting amazing autofocus and 4K/60fps recording capabilities. Budget options, like the Canon PowerShot V10 ($429), are fairly competent too. Then you've got competition from other brands like Sony and Fujifilm, with the Sony ZV-1F ($499) and the Fujifilm X-M5 ($799) providing affordable vlogging solutions. Heck, for a price lower than the PowerShot G7 X Mark III, the Fuji X-M5 features interchangeable lenses, making it more versatile.

For serious content creation, all of the aforementioned cameras are arguably better than the PowerShot G7 X Mark III. I'd even add the Canon EOS R50 V ($699) to that list. And yet, the PowerShot G7 X Mark III reigns supreme. In fact, it's so popular that most places have it on backorder. Sound familiar? It's what happened with the Fujifilm X100VI ($1,599) when it exploded on TikTok.

My best guess is that TikTok content creators aren't looking for the most pixels. After all, you don't need 4K/60fps footage as TikTok downsizes it anyway. They probably want a compact camera that requires minimum effort to make something look great, and that's fair enough — that one-touch in-camera editing is a blessing.

As a professional reviews writer and someone whose job it is to scrutinize tech to figure out whether it's worth the money, I struggle to understand why the PowerShot G7 X Mark III is as popular as it is. But as a photographer and consumer, I can kinda see why: it's easy to use, it's very compact, it takes nice photos, and it can record 4K/30p video. It really depends on the lens you view the situation through.

What do you think? Is there any other tech that's popular but you don't understand why and would like me to check out? Let me know in the comments below!

More from Tom's Guide

• Best cameras in 2026
• 'Always be prepared for anything’: here are my 7 expert tips for amazing wildlife photography
• This camera’s ‘killer feature’ finally solved my biggest frustration with film photography — and I'd recommend it over a high-end vintage camera any day

When it made the DJI Osmo Action 6, Chinese tech giant DJI was presumably faced with somewhat of a tricky challenge: how to improve on the DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro (OA5 Pro), already the best action camera on the market.

Doing too much with the Osmo Action 6 (OA6) risked spoiling the formula. So DJI could’ve just pulled a GoPro: tweak the core performance very slightly (if at all), add an interchangeable lens mount, and voilà.

But DJI went at least a bit further. Following on the Hero13 Black’s coat-tails, the OA6 has indeed been given an interchangeable lens mount. And while the OA6’s headline figures are much the same as the older model’s, there’s also a major upgrade under the hood: the Osmo Action line has finally pushed beyond 4K, with a shiny new 8K/30p maximum resolution.

Otherwise, things are little-changed: 65-foot waterproofing; beautiful build quality; OLED displays front and back; plus 50GB internal storage. Is that a bad thing? Nope. The OA5 Pro wasn’t broken, so there was no way in hell it needed fixing.

For the complete breakdown, read my full DJI Osmo Action 6 review.

DJI Osmo Action 6 review: Specs

DJI Osmo Action 6 review: Price & availability

The DJI Osmo Action 6 starts at $369 / £319 for the Essential Combo, which gives you just the camera and a battery. The Standard Combo costs $379 / £329 and is the one I’d recommend for newcomers, as it bundles a spare battery and basic accessories. At an extra $10 / £10, it’s a no brainer.

Once again, DJI’s pricing is extremely competitive, undercutting the GoPro Hero13 Black’s $399 launch price (although the price has since risen to $429 at Amazon, as I write this in early 2026).

$369 is only a $20 increase over the OA5 Pro’s $349 launch price, so not a major hike. Meanwhile, in the U.K., the OA6’s launch price is actually £10 cheaper than the OA5 Pro, which cost £329 at launch — very welcome, as it’s rare to see a price drop these days.

Availability

With DJI these days, though, it isn’t the price that’s the problem — it’s the availability. In the U.S. anyway. In case you missed it, DJI is feuding with the U.S. government over drones and was already pretty annoyed about tariffs. Until further notice, the company has pulled official support from the U.S. market.

That means you can’t buy the OA6 directly from DJI, although it’s available from third party retailers like Amazon. Importantly, it means there’s no official aftercare and you can’t buy a DJI care plan. In the U.S. (but nowhere else), if your device breaks, DJI ain’t gonna fix it.

It’s a risk you’ll have to weigh up. I’ve owned many DJI products and, aside from some pre-production samples (which we expect to be imperfect), not one has broken.

DJI Osmo Action 6 review: Design

Measuring 2.86 x 1.85 x 1.3 inches and weighing 5.2 ounces, the DJI Osmo Action 6 is slightly larger than the OA5 Pro (2.77 x 1.74 x 1.29 inches, 5.15 ounces), and now only a fraction smaller than the Hero13 Black (2.8 x 2 x 1.32 inches, 5.4 ounces). There’s not a lot in it though, so none will be markedly more mountable than the others.

I usually prefer the squatter design of the Osmo Action line versus the GoPro Hero13 Black — when helmet chin mounting, the lower height gives you more room to angle the camera upwards and also prevents it intruding into my field of view. Unfortunately, though, the OA6 is almost the same height as the Hero13 Black.

Still, I had no major problem mounting the OA6 on my chin mount, and it didn’t weigh my helmet down either. The OA6 was also able to fit into a tight gap on my handlebars, where larger 360 cameras like the GoPro MAX2 ($499) can't fit.

Build quality is phenomenal. The exterior is finished in a rugged metal, which feels great. All the buttons click nicely with decent positive feedback (important when wearing gloves) and the hatches click firmly shut. The screens are also beautiful, but I’ll get onto those a little later.

A new design feature is, of course, the interchangeable lens mount. But I’ll cover that more in the video section below.

Weatherproofing

Waterproofing has stayed the same as the OA5 Pro at 65 feet / 20 meters without any case needed. This was already class-leading, so DJI didn’t need to build on it. The Hero13 Black offers only 33 feet / 10 meters while the Insta360 Ace Pro 2 ($399) manages 39 feet / 12 meters. If you’re a snorkeler or diver, the Osmo Action line is still the one for you.

DJI seems very proud of the OA6’s cold temperature performance, marketing the camera with images of it smashing through ice and being used while skiing. In reality, the -20°C minimum operating temperature is the same as the OA5 Pro, because they use the same battery. Again, this is still best in class, as the GoPro Enduro battery is only rated down to -10°C.

Mounting

Like all its competitors, the Osmo Action 6 features magnetic mounting. It utilizes the same quick release mount found on all recent DJI cameras. I’ve used the exact same quick release adapter on my DJI Osmo 360 ($549), DJI Osmo Nano ($299), OA5 and now the OA6.

This is awesome if you already own DJI gear, saving you money on accessories. And it’s a solid reason to buy the cheaper Essential Combo if you already own an OA5 Pro or DJI Osmo 360 — they all use the same mounts and batteries.

Sadly, there are still no GoPro-style built-in fingers, so you need to use an adapter for finger-mount accessories.

Connectivity

The Osmo Action 6 hooks up to your smartphone wirelessly via the DJI Mimo App for camera control, updating and basic editing.

There’s a USB-C port for wired hookup of accessories or a microphone (but you’ll need DJI’s USB-C to 3.5mm audio adapter). The USB-C port has its own hatch, so no exposing the battery when using accessories (seriously, GoPro, why is that still a thing?).

The Osmo Action 6 features a MicroSD slot that accepts up to 1TB cards, but there’s also 50GB of internal storage — up from the OA5 Pro’s 47GB. This is so useful. I ran out of space on a 64GB card during testing and was able to switch to internal and keep shooting.

DJI Osmo Action 6 review: Controls

The Osmo Action 6’s on-board controls are minimal, which is normal for action cameras. One record and one power button, and that’s it. But they work, and that’s not something to take lightly…

See, every GoPro I’ve owned has decided on its own terms when to turn on — sometimes the power button works, sometimes it doesn’t; sometimes the button needs a long press, sometimes a short press. And that’s without adding thick gloves into the equation. It’s infuriating. By contrast, DJI’s buttons just work, always, gloves or not.

Most camera control is done via screens. The OA6 features the same 2.5-inch rear and 1.4-inch front OLED displays, and they’re beautiful. The rear in particular is bright and wide, with plenty of space to navigate menus, and is highly responsive. In comparison, remove “wide,” “plenty of space to navigate menus” and “highly responsive”... and you have yourself a GoPro screen.

DJI’s menu system is also excellent. It’s intuitively laid out, allowing quick navigation around the camera, and offers a high level of in-depth control. It’s miles ahead of the dated GoPro menu.

DJI Osmo Action 6 review: Stabilization

The Osmo Action 6 features the same RockSteady 3.0 stabilization system as its predecessor, which is great. There’s a new, larger sensor, which should give the OA6 more space to crop into frame and better stabilize footage. Honestly, though, I can’t tell the difference between the OA5 Pro and OA6 stabilization. In fact, stabilization is so good on all flagships these days, including the Hero13 Black and Insta360 Ace Pro 2, that you’ll get beautifully stable footage from any of them.

As you can see in the video above, the OA6 weathered the bumpy ground supremely and footage stayed very smooth. And in the higher octane clip below, again, it’s a super smooth performance.

The Osmo Action 6 also features a HorizonSteady mode for keeping the horizon level in footage that leans heavily — motorcycling or skiing, for instance — I personally like showing lean angles, but it’s nice to have a horizon level mode there if you want it.

DJI Osmo Action 6 review: Focusing

Making a return is DJI’s subject tracking mode. Place a subject within the central tracking box and the camera will detect and lock onto it reliably and tenaciously. It only works with humans but it’s still extremely useful for ensuring fast-moving subjects stay in focus. Importantly, this mode is limited to 2.7K resolution.

There’s also Portrait mode, which tracks faces in frame but is intended more for vlogging, with adjustments to soften skin tones. This mode is limited to 4K/30fps.

A major upgrade in the focusing realm comes with the new macro lens accessory. With this lens fitted, you can manually shift the minimum focusing distance to focus on close up subjects in the foreground. It’s really cool and gives you more control than previous OA cameras.

The OA6 sports a variable aperture system. You can choose between fixed focus at f/2 or f/4, which is especially handy for fixing your focal plane for a wider depth of field when using the macro lens.

With the standard lens fitted, you can also shift the automatic variable aperture at the wide end from f/2-f/4 to f/2.8-f/4, in increments of 0.2 (so f/2, f/2.2, f/2.4, f/2.6, f/2.8). All of these ranges end at f/4 on the narrow end.

Truthfully, I haven’t had much use for the different variable aperture bands. The difference between f/2 and f/2.8 is pretty difficult to discern in most action camera footage, where footage is moving fast, FoVs are very wide and subjects are often at infinity, so I prefer to keep it at f/2-f/4 to give myself the best low-light performance if needed. But hey, if you need the camera to operate at maximum f/2.8 to get that slightly deeper focal plane versus f/2, you can.

DJI Osmo Action 6 review: Video performance

One of the major upgrades the OA6 sports over the rest of the lineup is 8K/30fps shooting, possible thanks to a new 1/1.1-inch sensor (up from the 1/1.3-inch sensor in the OA5 Pro). Beware: manufacturers love to bandy about +4K maximum resolutions, but for many people, they’re of little use given YouTube still tops out at 4K.

However, any +4K resolution is beneficial for a couple of reasons. More res gives you room to crop into frame and maintain at least 4K resolution, for extra flexibility with framing. It also allows you to export oversampled 4K footage for super sharp results. Both will be of use to those who edit their footage, especially pros.

The Hero13 Black tops out at 5.7K/30fps, and the Ace Pro 2 also tops out at 8K/30fps. The OA5 Pro, meanwhile, was capped at 4K/60fps. Annoyingly, on the OA6, there’s no selectable resolution between 4K/60fps and 8K/30fps. So, you can’t shoot 6K/60fps, for example, if you wanted to strike a balance between higher resolution and a faster frame rate.

4K can be shot at up to 120fps for high-res slow motion footage (240fps is also available at 1080p). 4K footage looks excellent — lovely and sharp. Colors are natural-feeling, although there are now some color filters to apply grades to footage in camera, something DJI has been way behind on. There are 6 to choose from, including vibrant profiles, a skin tone profile, and a few cinematic/nostalgic profiles, too. As with other DJI cameras there’s D-Log M for wide dynamic range capture to preserve highlights in challenging lighting — primarily useful for pros editing in post.

Obviously, there are the new lenses. GoPro introduced a similar interchangeable lens mount on the Hero12 Black and Hero13 Black. DJI needed to catch up. I tested the Ultra Wide and Macro lenses, and they’re a lot of fun. The Ultra Wide in particular looks gorgeous, allowing you to capture huge panoramic footage. You can see it in action above, and for comparison the Ultra Wide setting on the standard lens below.

The Macro lens is also a lot of fun, allowing you to get creative with close-up scenes. There’s no anamorphic lens, as on the rival GoPro, but I’m hoping to see the lineup expand that way soon. Nevertheless, interchangeable lenses put more creativity in video shooters’ hands, so I’m a fan.

Low light

Low-light performance is fairly respectable. A 1/1.1-inch sensor won’t ever blow the world away with ultra clean low light footage, but as action cameras go, the OA6 does a decent job. You’ll want to use SuperNight mode, which is now available in up to 4K/60fps (night modes are often locked to 30fps, as on the Osmo Action 5 Pro), which demonstrates DJI’s faith in the sensor.

The videos in this section show examples of nighttime footage shot at 4K/30fps and 4K/60fps. I think it looks pretty good. The footage doesn’t quite do justice to how dark it was while filming because the camera has brightened up the sky significantly at both 30fps and 60fps.

4K/30fps isn’t the cleanest, with noise affecting image sharpness, but it isn’t ruinous and you can still see what’s going on. At 60fps, sharpness has suffered quite a bit, as the camera has bumped ISO as much as it could to brighten things up, so that’s to be expected.

The camera's inner lens likes to flare a fair bit with bright light sources, which is particularly noticeable at night. It's only really intrusive with super bright lights, which isn't uncommon, and I’m actually a fan of the sunstar flares from medium-bright light sources.

DJI Osmo Action 6 review: Audio performance

The DJI Osmo Action 6’s internal audio quality is very strong. As you can hear in the motorcycle footage above, shot on the camera’s ‘high’ wind reduction, there’s some but not too much wind buffeting and the bike engine still sounds clear. With wind reduction on ‘normal’ in the clip below, it’s still not too bad. In windless scenarios, though, turning off the reduction will give you the best quality audio.

As with all DJI cameras nowadays, you can hook up DJI mics wirelessly via OsmoAudio. This uses Bluetooth, which compresses and degrades audio quality severely, so it’s fine for vlogging and lower-octane pursuits. For any footage where wind or very loud noises are going to occur, you can connect a wired mic using DJI’s USB-C to 3.5mm audio adapter.

Happily, the Osmo Action 6 also records with timecode, so you can also just record audio separately and sync up via timecode in post.

DJI Osmo Action 6 review: App

The Osmo Action 6 pairs with the DJI Mimo app, of which I’m a big fan. It’s come on leaps and bounds since the Osmo Action 4, and now offers comprehensive control over the camera in real time as you shoot.

It also lets you update the camera and gives you some basic tools to edit your footage — although Insta360’s app, with its straight-to-social approach, offers a wider array of editing features (including some rather gimmicky ones).

DJI Osmo Action 6 review: Battery life & overheating

The Osmo Action 6 uses the same 1,950mAh battery as the OA5 Pro and Osmo 360, which I’m very pleased about. Firstly, I own about 15 of the things, and secondly, it’s a solid power cell. DJI claims up to 240 minutes, although that figure isn’t particularly helpful given it’s based on 1080p recording.

In my standardized indoor stress testing at 4K/60fps, with the screen set to auto-shut off after a minute, the Osmo Action 6 lasted 120 minutes in total. It overheated after 62 minutes and then again after 40 minutes, which is a fair amount of time.

In the same test, the OA5 Pro lasted 112 minutes in total and overheated after 43 minutes. The Hero13 Black lasted 80 minutes in total, overheating after 54. The Ace Pro 2 lasted 76 minutes without overheating. Remember, though, mine was a stress test, so overheating isn’t something you’ll have to worry about outside and/or while moving.

At its maximum 8K/30fps resolution and frame rate, the OA6 overheated after 65 minutes and lasted for 93 minutes, which is longer than anything from GoPro or Insta360 shooting at 4K — go figure.

DJI Osmo Action 6 review: Verdict

As I said at the outset, the DJI Osmo Action 6 was building on an already excellent formula. The DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro was a fantastic camera, which held the top spot on our best action cameras guide since not long after its launch. The Osmo Action 6 is a worthy successor, maintaining everything that I loved about its predecessor, but building on it in important ways.

Core video performance, stabilization and internal audio are fantastic; battery life and waterproofing are best in class. And now there are some fun features for creators to experiment with, namely color filters and the interchangeable lenses. Pros, meanwhile, will relish the addition of higher than 4K res.

The DJI Osmo Action 6 is the ultimate all rounder. Whether you’re a pro, a content creator or just a casual shooter, there really isn’t a better action camera out there.

Film photography is great fun. I love it and so do many of my friends. It seems like almost everyone has either a disposable or a reusable film camera in their pockets nowadays. Once an almost-forgotten art form, film photography has experienced a well-deserved resurgence in recent years, and we're all the better for it.

I have used and tested many film cameras in my time. Not all of them are perfect, but that's the fun of film photography, isn't it? There's a charm in its imperfection as you can't see the photos until you get your roll developed. But I also recognize that film rolls can be expensive, and you don't want to waste your money taking out-of-focus, blurry photos. The solution? Getting a camera that never fails to focus, like the Lomography Lomo MC-A 35mm.

The Lomo MC-A 35mm is one of the only modern film cameras that features autofocus. Now, don't come at me with, "Autofocus on a film camera? Film is all about manual focusing!" please. You can swap between the two as and when you like, but having autofocus is an undeniably killer feature, and something inexperienced photographers will definitely value. So, if you're on the hunt for a competent film camera, let me show you why the Lomo MC-A 35mm is my top pick.

Say goodbye to blurry photos

The Lomography Lomo MC-A 35mm features LiDAR-powered autofocus, and it can be enabled when you switch on the camera. You can choose from autofocus and manual focus when powering on the camera. If this is the first time you're getting a film camera, I'd recommend spending some time experimenting with the manual focus as it can be very rewarding when you get an in-focus shot.

But for when you can't be bothered with manual focusing, you've got fairly reliable autofocus that, in my testing, never once let me down. I found it quick to focus on to my friends and even buildings, and I captured the best photos I've taken on a film camera yet.

Combine the Lomo MC-A 35mm's autofocus with its sharp lens and you've got a winning combination. You get plenty of manual control over the camera's shooting settings too, as you can manually adjust the shutter speed, ISO and aperture. This not only gives you more creative freedom but it helps you hone your photography skills too.

As I said, I love the photos I've taken with the Lomo MC-A 35mm, and you can see a few examples in the gallery above. The images feature bright and vivid colors, and they're packed with detail too. Humans photograph particularly well with the Lomo MC-A 35mm, in my opinion, as the photos of my friends as well as my partner have turned out great.

Handles as beautifully as the photos it takes

When it comes to the build quality of Lomography cameras, it can be best described as hit-or-miss. I've tested many of the brand's instant cameras and more often than not, I've found the build plasticky and fragile. Imagine my surprise when I unboxed the Lomography Lomo MC-A 35mm and found out that it's actually built really well. I'd even venture to say that it's Lomography's best-built camera yet.

The Lomo MC-A 35mm's metal body feels substantial to hold, and it's got a good weight to it. It actually feels like you're using one of the best mirrorless cameras, to be honest. The camera weighs 11.2oz and measures 4.9 x 2.7 x 1.6 inches, so it's pocketable and can be carried around easily, making it fantastic for travel snaps. The right-hand side of the camera sports a slightly protruding, textured grip which enables you to easily use it with one hand.

All of the buttons and dials on the Lomo MC-A 35mm are well-placed within easy reach too, and this makes the camera a sheer joy to use. And you know what I love most? The film advance lever has a buttery smooth and satisfying motion that makes advancing film not just easy, but fun too.

The "live, laugh, love" of cameras

Have you ever been to someone's house and they have a cushion cover with a platitude printed on it? Or vinyl decals or neon lights hung in their living room? You know what I'm talking about. "Live, laugh, love" is the most popular of the lot, and you've also got "God bless this mess" and "It's wine o'clock somewhere," as well as "Not all who wander are lost."

Well, I present to you: "Everyone is equal before the lens and behind it." I can't take credit for that because that's what's printed on the Lomography Lomo MC-A 35mm's top plate, in cursive writing. The camera comes with a photobook too, with more platitudes, and stickers with quotes like, "We will frame first, frame second" and "The tactile and the imperfect are our heroes" printed on them.

This is why I call the Lomo MC-A 35mm the "live, laugh, love" of cameras. It's a little tacky to me, personally, but some people might like it. I suppose it's a nice touch as it gives the camera some personality, and makes for a great icebreaker or talking point.

Despite the cliché quotes, the Lomo MC-A 35mm is a wonderful camera. Its autofocus is nothing short of powerful and quick, and it makes taking lovely photos just that much easier. Its sharp lens captures vivid colors and shades, making the Lomo MC-A 35mm the only film camera you'll need. It makes film photography more accessible to the general masses.

More from Tom's Guide

• I just tested the Lomography Lomo MC-A 35mm — and I live, laugh, love this camera
• Best cameras in 2026
• I swapped digital cameras for film photography for 2 weeks and the Pentax 17 blew me away — here's why

Photography is a great pastime to pick up, and you can take it to the next level by making it your profession too — it's certainly my own favorite hobby. I review the best mirrorless cameras at Tom's Guide, and whenever I'm testing a camera, I always take photos of birds and animals. Wildlife photography is my niche, and I absolutely love it.

There are many reasons why I love wildlife over other genres of photography. I adore animals, and observing them in their natural habitat brings me joy. I find it very fulfilling, and it gives me a sense of purpose. It also means that I have an excuse to stop playing video games and literally go touch some grass.

I've reviewed and used many cameras in my time and having spent many hours amongst animals and in nature, I've learnt a thing or two. If you're looking to dip your toes into the world of wildlife photography, you've come to the right place. I'll share my best seven tips for wildlife photography here, and if you have any of your own tips, feel free to share them in the comments below!

1. Pick the right gear

The number one thing you need to do is pick the right camera and lens. There are many options out there so it can be overwhelming, but there are a few features you should consider when buying your kit. I've recently been testing the OM System OM-1 Mark II, which is a Micro Four Thirds camera, and is great for wildlife photography, especially if you're an enthusiast.

One of its key selling points is that the OM-1 Mark II is extremely easy to use, thanks to its straightforward control scheme, well-signposted dials and buttons, and an easy-to-read menu system. What makes it fantastic for wildlife is its 120fps sequential shooting capabilities, and the high-res electronic viewfinder (EVF) which is bright and detailed, and blackout-free too. This means that there are no black screens between shots, so you can keep tracking your subject without any disruption.

The OM-1 Mark II's autofocus system and subject detection are ridiculously good too, as the camera quickly locks onto birds and animals, no matter the size. In fact, when I was testing the camera, it was able to find birds obscured by branches and leaves, and the autofocus worked better than my own eyes! Subject detection also includes humans and vehicles, making this a versatile camera.

You also get up to 8.5-stops of in-body image stabilization (IBIS) so you can shoot at slower shutter speeds, even handheld. The camera is fully weather-sealed too, carrying an IP53 rating, so it's protected against dust and ruin, and can be used in freezing temperatures down to -14°F / -10°C. Pair this camera with a 150-600mm lens so that you can take photos of wildlife from afar and without disturbing them.

2. Research the location

Before you head out, it's good to do a bit of research. There are plenty of resources online, so research the animals and birds that are local to your area — you don't have to venture far from home to find wildlife. Animal and bird populations and species vary from area to area. I highly advise finding out which wildlife resides wherever you decide to go.

Knowing the wildlife in that area will also give you a good starting point. It's better than diving into the deep end without having any prior knowledge. This way, you'll know where to start. It's also a great idea to join groups on, say, Facebook and Reddit, where locals talk about wildlife.

3. Learn animal behavior

It's important to learn animal and bird behavior. I don't mean that you need to be ecology expert, but you should know how wildlife behaves. A kingfisher won't necessarily act like a barn owl, for instance. Google (or an AI chatbot) is your best friend here, so don't be afraid to put in your questions, regardless of how simple or complex they may sound to you.

Birds have different calls, and some animals travel in herds or packs. Some of them come out only at dusk or dawn. Just like humans, animals and birds have unique personalities, so do your research.

4. Pack appropriate clothing

Now that you've done your research on the location and animal behavior, it's time to head out! This is the most fun part, as you get to see the animals and birds in action. I, personally, really enjoy finding wildlife, and I'm sure you will to — there's something very rewarding about following a trail of footprints or hooves and finally coming across the animal you've been tracking.

But hold your horses. Before you head out, pack appropriate clothing as you should always be prepared for anything. For example, if it's looking even a little cloudy outside (as it often does in the U.K. where I live), pack a raincoat or a waterproof jacket, and wear waterproof shoes. There's nothing worse than being outside miles from home and getting caught unawares.

I'd also recommend carrying some snacks and drinks for yourself in a backpack, especially if you're heading into the woods or an area where there may not be a grocery store nearby. Patience wears thin when you're hungry or thirsty, and wildlife photography is a waiting game, so it's best to be prepared. I always have a bar of chocolate for an instant energy boost in my pocket.

5. Talk to those around you

One thing I've noticed when I'm out and about with a camera and telephoto lens, strangers will often ask me if I've photographed anything good. I think it's important to engage with these people. A lot of times, strangers have kindly shared their knowledge of the local wildlife with me. Someone told me they saw a woodpecker a mile away, and one of them even pointed out a kingfisher to me.

Talking to locals and people at the scene can be extremely useful. Some might even share their own photography tips, or tips for spotting certain wildlife.

6. Be patient

Like I said, wildlife photography is a waiting game, and requires a bit of luck. You won't always spot an owl in the area where someone said they saw one a while ago, so be patient. Patience is a virtue and it really pays off. Observe animals, wait around, keep an ear out for birdsong or movement.

Remember: these are wild animals and birds whose behavior can sometimes be unpredictable. You might not always get the shot you want, and that's okay. There have been many instances where I've barely taken any photos when I've been out, and I've still thoroughly enjoyed being outside. Sometimes, after I've taken a bird's photo, I'll often just sit or stand there and watch them. Listening to birdsong isn't a bad way to start or end your day.

7. Respect the birds and animals

Last but not least, it's crucial that you respect the animals and birds. Again, these are wild creatures, and you shouldn't expect them to act like they're your pets. Give them their space, and watch them from a distance. Do not try to approach them too close, and don't try to pet them.

I also strongly advise against feeding or baiting them to get them to behave in a particular way. You shouldn't disrupt their natural way of being just because you want to get a photo.

And there you have it! These are my seven tips for wildlife photography, and these have all come about as a result of me having spent many hours testing cameras. To recap:

• Pick the right gear
• Research the location
• Learn animal behavior
• Pack appropriate clothing
• Talk to people around you
• Be patient
• Respect the birds and animals

If you'd like to know more, I'm always available to answer questions, and you can either email me via the button below or message me on my Instagram, and I will try my best to answer.

Or if you want to share any wildlife photos you've captured and just want to talk about our shared love of animals, I'm open!

More from Tom's Guide

• 'It breaks the laws of physics’: the OM System OM-1 Mark II is now my favorite wildlife camera, and its 120fps burst isn’t even the best part
• ‘Few wildlife cameras come close to this’: why the OM System OM-1 Mark II is perfect for photographing birds in flight and other animals
• Want to take up photography in 2026? These are the 5 beginner cameras I recommend

A good film camera can help you capture lovely images with a retro touch to them, all the while allowing you to live in the moment as you can’t see the photos until you get the roll developed. The Lomography Lomo MC-A 35mm is the latest film camera from a storied brand, and it’s a knockout.

Featuring an autofocus system, fully manual controls, and a powerful flash, the Lomo MC-A 35mm is one of the most advanced modern film cameras. Its autofocus works well and it’s quick, and the camera captures great, sharp photos with vivid colors. It comes with a rechargeable CR2 battery too. But the camera isn’t perfect, as its autofocus is loud and the film advance lever can be a little finicky.

To find out if this is one of the best cameras for you, read my full Lomography Lomo MC-A 35mm review.

Lomography Lomo MC-A 35mm review: Specs

Lomography Lomo MC-A 35mm review: Cheat sheet

• What is it? A 35mm film camera with manual controls and autofocus
• Who is it for? Anyone who wants a modern film camera that takes great photos
• How much does it cost? It ain’t cheap — the Lomography Lomo MC-A 35mm is available for $549 / £449
• What do we like? The premium build and handling, sharp and bright images, plenty of manual control over settings, and accurate autofocus
• What don’t we like? The loud and jarring autofocus, and the finicky (at times) film advance lever

Lomography Lomo MC-A 35mm review: Price & availability

The Lomography Lomo MC-A 35mm is one of the most expensive modern 35mm film cameras you can buy today. It retails for $549 / £449 and can be bought directly from Lomography. Yes, it’s far more expensive than film cameras like the Kodak Ultra F9 ($49) and the Novocolor Swiss+Go 35mm ($45).

It’s even pricier than the Pentax 17 ($499), even though the Pentax is a half-frame film camera, which means it captures two shots on one 3x2 sheet — as opposed to the Lomo MC-A 35mm capturing one shot on one sheet. It is, however, cheaper than the digital film Fujifilm X half ($849). The only other film camera the Lomo MC-A 35mm is cheaper than is the Rollei 35AF which costs a whopping $799, and it’s the closest competitor as it also features autofocus and manual controls.

Lomography Lomo MC-A 35mm review: Design & build quality

I have tested my fair share of Lomography cameras — most of them instant, such as the Lomo’Instant Square Glass ($149), the Lomo’Instant Wide Glass ($279) and the Diana Instant Square ($129). Each has had its unique quirks — problems, rather. Subpar build quality and very awkward handling have been two recurrent themes.

That said, when I first held the Lomography Lomo MC-A 35mm in my hands, I was blown away by the premium feel. While the Pentax 17 (despite its metallic looks) felt too plasticky and hollow, the Lomo MC-A 35mm’s metal body feels substantial with a good weight to it. It’s Lomography’s best built camera yet, although there’s no major competition here. The camera measures 4.9 x 2.7 x 1.6 inches and weighs 11.2oz. Not only is it comfortable to hold with just one hand or both, it’s highly portable too. Slip it into your pocket and be on your merry way.

However, I did find the film advance lever a little finicky, as I needed to pull it twice for the film roll to advance. I’ve also seen some users complaining about the lever feeling “crunchy,” but thankfully, I didn’t experience this.

Aiding the Lomo MC-A 35mm’s handling is a slightly protruding grip on the front right-hand side. It’s not as big as the one on, say, a compact mirrorless camera like the Fujifilm X100VI, but it’s enough to ensure you hold the camera well. The camera’s wrapped in textured faux leather which not only makes it look classy, but provides a better grip on it too.

Most other Lomography cameras I’ve tested have been bright and colorful — not the Lomo MC-A 35mm though. Lomography has taken a minimalist approach, making the camera available in black only. This is a great choice, in my opinion, because it looks very premium.

On the top plate, “Everybody is equal before the lens — and behind it” is inscribed in cursive writing. Some people might like this, but it reminds me a little too much of cushions or kitchen walls in the 00s, emblazoned with “live, laugh, love” or “God bless this mess”. At least it isn’t too bold or huge that it draws eyeballs to it, thankfully. The product box also includes a booklet and… stickers, inscribed with platitudes, such as, “We shall feel first, frame second.” Again, too “It’s wine o'clock somewhere!" for me.

Lomography Lomo MC-A 35mm review: Lens & viewfinder

The Lomography Lomo MC-A 35mm is fitted with a 32mm lens, which offers a tighter view than the Pentax 17 with its 25mm lens. The 32mm lens makes the camera suited to environmental portraits, landscapes, street and travel snaps too. Included in the box are UV, polarizing and ND filters which can be attached to the lens’ filter thread.

There’s a small optical viewfinder (OVF) located right above the lens, and though it’s small, I found it comfortable to look through, even as someone who wears prescription glasses. The viewfinder has a couple of LED lamps. Blue, when it’s solid, means the focus is set and if it’s blinking, you’re too close to your subject. The orange light is a warning that the shutter speed is below 1/30s, so there’s a chance the photos will suffer from image blur.

Lomography Lomo MC-A 35mm review: Controls

Similar to the Pentax 17, the Lomography Lomo MC-A 35mm gives you plenty of manual control over its settings. The first thing you need to do is load film, and this is done by twisting the tap on the camera’s left-hand edge to open the film door. Pop your roll in and ensure the sprocket has caught on to it, and close the door. It couldn’t be simpler.

The top plate houses the shutter speed dial which enables you to set it to either Auto or between 1s and 1/500s. Next to is the exposure compensation dial and a button to enable multiple exposures (MX). Also located on the top plate is the on/off switch which lets you toggle between autofocus and manual focus. The ISO, self-timer (2s, 10s, 30s) and flash can be changed via the trio of buttons located next to the monitor which displays your active shooting settings. All of these buttons are within easy reach and give good tactile feedback when pressed.

Moving to the front of the camera, you’ll find the aperture control dial around the lens, and you can twist it to choose one of six settings: f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, or f/16. Also located next to the lens is a switch that lets you change the focus zone between 0.4m, 0.8m, 1.5m, 3m and infinity.

If you don’t want to bother with manual controls, you can set the shutter speed to Auto (20s to 1/500s) and the ISO to DX Auto, where the camera will read DX-coded film and automatically set the ISO to the appropriate value. If you’re using ISO 200 film, the camera will shoot at ISO 200. Of course, you can manually override it by pressing the ISO button. To advance the film after you’ve taken a photo, you need to pull the inset wind lever which, I found, has a smooth and satisfying motion to it.

Even though there are lots of controls, they’re well-placed and laid out in a way that even beginner photographers can pick up the camera and start using it. Film photography, by nature, involves a fair amount of trial and error, so don’t worry too much about, say, your shutter speed being off or your aperture being too wide — there’s always room for learning and improvement.

Lomography Lomo MC-A 35mm review: Image quality

I’ve been using the Lomography Lomo MC-A 35mm for nearly three weeks now, and I love the photos I’ve taken on it. Images captured on a film camera with a small, built in-lens naturally lack the sheer sharpness of those taken on one of the best mirrorless cameras. However, the Lomo MC-A 35mm still does a decent job of capturing detail as the lens is fairly sharp (at least for the intended purpose). You can see some of my street shots in the gallery above.

The Lomo MC-A 35mm is one of those rare film cameras that features autofocus alongside manual focus — the Rollei 35AF does too, but it costs nearly $300 more than the Lomo. Mostly, in my testing, the autofocus was fast and quickly locked on to my subject, as you can see in the gallery above. In the second shot, I opted for manual focusing because I wanted the flowers towards the back to be sharp, and I found this easy to do.

My only issue with the lens is that autofocusing is really loud and jarring. If you’re shooting indoors, trying to be inconspicuous while capturing street shots or wanting to capture candid shots, chances are that your subject will hear the camera trying to focus. This isn’t ideal.

Colors captured by the Lomo MC-A 35mm are bright and vivid. I love the shades of purple the camera has captured in the second photo, and the vivid greens and popping reds in the first and third. If you want more contrast-heavy photos, I’d recommend the Pentax 17 which is a half-frame camera.

Humans photograph well through the Lomo MC-A 35mm too, as you can see in the photos of my partner and friends above, taken during the daytime. I like that in the first shot of my partner, the camera has kept her in focus and added some background blur which makes her stand out as the primary subject. This is the advantage of having a lens with a variable aperture, as f/2.8 is wide enough to get a nicely out-of-focus background for portraits.

You’ll notice that these photos are grainy, and the level of noise in your film photos will depend on the film you’re using. These three photos were captured using a roll of Lomography Color Negative 400 film ($44 / £43 for a pack of three), while all the others were taken with Fuji 200 film ($14 / £11). I recommend researching and experimenting with different types of film to find the style you prefer.