Too Many Good Stories to Only Pick One

The latest from the Phoblographer for August 12th, 2025.

Subscribe to get the Phoblographer Banner-Ad Free for $25/year.

Here’s the latest:

This Could Be The Only Lens You Need…If Manufacturers Weren’t Fooling Around

By Chris Gampat

August 12, 2025

The other day, I was thinking about having just a single zoom lens. APS-C cameras and Micro Four Thirds cameras have that with one of the best being the Tamron 18-300mm that we reviewed a while back. And the closest and best I've seen for full-frame is the Nikon 28-400mm and the Tamron 28-300mm. But why can't they go even wider? Manufacturers say that an 18-300mm lens for full-frame would be so big. However, I don't really think that it would be.

F.R. Eye Is The First Ever Instant Capture Multispectral Film Scanner

By Feroz Khan

August 12, 2025

In a quiet workshop on the edge of a small Saskatchewan town, two highly committed individuals bring a new kind of film scanner to life. This by no means has the familiar scent of fixer or the slow reveal of silver on paper. Instead, they've developed something that brings a precise hum of custom-machined rails and the click-click of LEDs cycling through spectral bands. Here, Film Rescue International™, familiar to the analog world for coaxing images from the dustiest corners of forgotten film, has unveiled something unprecedented: an instant-capture multispectral scanner for analog negatives. Nicknamed the "F.R. Eye," this machine hopes to rewrite the rules of what film scanning can be, marrying the tactile traditions of analog photography with spectral science

An Open Letter to the Art Photography Community From the Only Publisher Who Consistently Cared

By Chris Gampat

August 12, 2025

If you've been reading us for years, you'll know one thing: we went out of our way to feature news and interviews with photographers and their galleries moreso than any other photography publication. And in January of this year, something happened that made us say that we're taking a break from the art world. So this year, I've given direction to the staff to focus instead on just tech, combatting generative AI involved in image making, and more investigative stories. Additionally, we've leaned into the fact that we've tested the most cameras and lenses of any photo-speciality publication -- so we do lots of roundups. Who would've thought that it would be working for us?

Love the Look of Older Sony Cameras? Check This Out

By Chris Gampat

August 11, 2025

The Sony a900 and that entire era was quite a great time for the looks depts from Sony. Our presets are designed to make editing a minimal task so you can get back to shooting! We're in love with Retro Digital. Luckily, that's when we founded the website closer to two decades ago. So we dove into our image archives, looked at how the Adobe Gurus were telling us how to edit, and adapted those methods to create our Retro Digital Lightroom Presets and Capture One Styles. These are in addition to the popular Photojournalism presets that we released a while back.

Flickr Became a Place for Adults Only

By Chris Gampat

August 11, 2025

Last month, Flickr announced a new set of rules that state that it's only a place for 18+ old photographers to be able to share images and join the community. I'm not sure how they're enforcing this, but I can tell you for certain that this helps to make it one of the better communities for photographers around. I can start with the fact that I can scroll past images and won't get randomly poked to check out some other thing that they think I may be interested in. Seriously, I'm long over internet algorithms feeling like a golden retriever puppy with its attention split on a million things at once.

Will Fujifilm’s Future Cameras Follow The Path of X-Half and GFX100RF?

By Nilofer Khan

August 11, 2025

Fujifilm is one of the few companies that seems to have had a great year so far. They have launched a number of new cameras, many of which have performed far better than their competitors. In fact, they also announced the tariff increase much later, with the number being closer to a 10% increase than 15%. Now, in a new report that reveals the company's earnings, Fujifilm has reported a significant profit alongside a plan that showcases the increase in its camera production.

The Thing all Professional Photographers Need

By Chris Gampat

August 11, 2025

Hey pros! Listen up! Our photography insurance program is designed to be there when photographers really need it! We’re giving you more than the competition can in different ways! Here’s a little-known fact: the warranty of your camera or lens doesn’t necessarily cover what happens to it in case of dust, inclement weather, etc. That’s …

Why We Need More Lenses Under F1.2 Today

By Nilofer Khan

August 11, 2025

The photo world has changed tremendously over the last two decades. From compact cameras to DSLRs, to mirrorless, and now compact cameras again, we have seen the rise and fall of many formats. But the one thing that persists is the need for brighter lenses. While the market is flooded with ample options like f1.2, f1.4, and f1.8, which are helping those who want extra bokeh and the ability to shoot in the dark. However, there is still a massive gap in those that push boundaries, and as the title suggests, we need more options like that today. Why? Let's dive in.

How the Camera Industry Has Returned to 2008

By Chris Gampat

August 11, 2025

I remember how insanely excited I was to go to one of my first Photo Plus Expos and how vibrant of a show it was back then, at least to me -- the millennial a year away from graduating college. The camera industry had so many more players: Samsung, Casio, HP, Epson, and more. But the big bad smartphone came with and smited the camera industry into the quietest caves to lick its wounds. It did the same to the watch industry -- which took quite a while for it to heal on top of efforts from beyond just Switzerland. And today, the camera industry is doing the same thing. For the first time in my career, I feel like the camera industry is finally on its way back up.