Last week, B&H emailed customers who’d purchased EN-EL15b batteries from them. They said that some of the batteries were “subpar”. It was suspected that this was a euphemism for fake, and according to a statement released by Nikon to DPReview, the suspicions were correct. While many photographers have been using 3rd party batteries for years without issue, they’ve bought them knowingly. They’re advertised as 3rd party batteries and haven’t claimed to be the genuine article....

As we all know, the coronavirus pandemic has been affecting many businesses, big and small, and camera companies are not an exception. In a recent notice, Nikon warned investors of “extraordinary losses” expected due to the current pandemic. Nikon issued one notice to revise the financial forecast initially announced on 6 February current year. Apparently, the situation has changed, and the revision reflects the company’s recent business performance trend. In this notice, Nikon suggests that “impairment losses are expected to be recognized....

All Nikon users out there, we may have something to look forward to in 2017. A Swedish photographer Tomas Jönsson recently shared a photo he took with a Nikon camera in 2015. According to the description and comments, it’s something Nikon will treat us with next year: a new full frame camera with amazing low light capabilities. Jönsson claims he took the photo of the forest in the middle of the night in December 2015....

I don’t know how long camera manufacturers will continue to think that we believe their “we didn’t know it was going to be so popular!” excuse. Of course, they knew it was going to be popular. because its predecessor was also extremely popular. Still, Nikon has posted an announcement stating that demand “exceeds our expectations”, so they’ve suspended sales of the new Nikkor Z 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 VR S lens. All I hear when companies claim they “didn’t anticipate the demand” is Homer Simpson saying, “It’s my first day“....

According to recent reports, Nikon will soon announce a new mirrorless camera, the first APS-C model of the Z series. There hasn’t been much information about the camera so far, but we now know more about the expected specs. And what’s more, the camera may be coming as soon as next week. According to Photo Rumors, the Z50 will be the mirrorless equivalent of Nikon’s D7xxx series of DSLRs. Design-wise it will reportedly look very similar to the Nikon Z1 prototype camera, like “a smaller version of the Z6/Z7....

In all my years in photography, I don’t think any camera has had as much buzz leading up to its release as the Nikon Z 9. There were many reasons for that, both good and bad, but now that the camera’s here, does it live up to the hype? After one week of using it, I think so. (Disclaimer: I taught Nikon School for Nikon – as a contractor – from 2002 to 2018, and was paid to moderate one of their Facebook groups for the past three years....

“I just purchased a beautiful painting. It was in a gallery and I fell in love with it. It cost quite a bit of money, but it was a great investment and will look amazing in my house. Well, that is, after I add my some finishing touches to it with my own acrylic paints. Maybe add some extra flowers, put glitter around the edges, or change the color of the sky, because I spent a lot of money on this beautiful painting and want to change it completely....

While the fate of cameras formerly produced by Olympus seems in good hands with the recently formed OM Digital Solutions, the name itself has had something of a question mark over it since the news of a takeover first broke. Initially, it looked like JIP were planning to kill off the Olympus brand name fairly quickly, with an official statement from Olympus that it will continue “for the foreseeable future”....

Ok, so that title might’ve been a pun at the expense of Samsung, but OPPO has jumped onto the foldable phone bandwagon, a newly published patent shows. The patent was filed in October 2018, but has only now been published and includes several design sketches as well as full colour renders of what a foldable OPPO might look like. Oppo showed off some samples of a folding prototype smartphone at Mobile World Congress in February of this year, although it didn’t seem to get much attention compared to the likes of Samsung and Huawei....

Outex has launched a new underwater housing on Kickstarter. Unlike their previous models, this time they offer a completely transparent cover, and it seems like a really handy piece of gear. It’s light-weight and modular, so the makers promise a versatile and travel-friendly cover. It’s also malleable and adaptable, so you have the complete tactile control over the camera. A couple of years ago, Outex launched their malleable, modular cover, also through Kickstarter....

Panasonic has just posted to its Lumix Facebook page that “new GH series cameras are coming”. Yes, cameras. Plural. So, it looks like the rumours may have been true about seeing both a GH5 Mark II release announcement as well as a GH6 development announcement – I can’t imagine the GH6 will be launched just yet. The cameras are to be announced during a live online event, streamed through YouTube on Tuesday, May 25th at 10am Eastern....

At least, that’s what the latest rumours say. 43Rumors has put up a list of “confirmed” and possible specs for a potential upcoming full frame mirrorless camera from Panasonic. The specs do look very impressive, and quite logical given Panasonic’s reputation amongst filmmakers and video creators. So, let’s look at what 43Rumors says is “confirmed” Full frame 4K readout with no pixel binning and no crop in 4K 24/25Internal 4K 10Bit 4:2:2 recording up to 60pSimilar audio adapter to the GH5Adapters will be available for other mountsWeather sealed body (probably shower/splash and dust proof)...

It’s been long-awaited and after a development announcement in March, Pentax has now officially announced the HD PENTAX-D FA★ 85mm F1.4 SDM AW, ahead of its original “late 2020” target. This is the second fixed focal length lens added in Pentax’s newest “Star” lens series, adding to the 50mm f/1.4 released in 2018. There was some speculation that the Pentax 85mm was simply a rehoused Sigma 85mm f/1.4 Art, but now that the optical formula for the new 85mm f/1....

Pergear has launched their new 10mm f/8 fisheye pancake lens. It’s available in an array of APS-C mounts including Fuji X, Sony E and Nikon Z as well as Micro Four Thirds. It has a fixed f/8 aperture as well as a focus with a range of only 30cm up to infinity. It’s a tiny lens measuring a mere 55mm x 10mm, weighing only 80g and it’s designed specifically for mirrorless cameras....

New Zealand pet photographer Ben Sheehan found himself in the dog eat dog world of Photo Stealers, a site dedicated to outing cheating and stealing photographers. The award-winning photographer ended up on the front page of the Photo Stealers site when several photographers noticed an uncanny resemblance to many stock images in the backgrounds of his dog images. Compositing images together from various photos is a common and reasonable way to create original art, but usually, there is some unwritten understanding that the artist acknowledges the fact that they are composites and doesn’t usually try to pass them off as their own....

Celebrity photo agency Backgrid has sued Twitter over copyright infringement after users uploaded thousands of its photos on the social media platform. Twitter reportedly received DMCA takedown notices, but failed to take action, and it also reportedly failed to sanction “repeat infringers.” Because of this, if Backgrid wins, Twitter will have to pay a whopping $228.9 million! Backgrid filed the lawsuit on 30 December 2022 at the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California....

Over the past couple of months, I believe most of us could have related to the feeling of pure boredom, at least for a bit. British photographer Dawn Parsonage managed to capture boredom in her photos. In her project, Boring People, Dawn captured the pure essence of this emotion in a series of interesting, and often hilarious portraits. We chatted with Dawn about her project, the idea and the process behind it, and how she managed to make her subject sink into boredom for the sake of a photo....

Photographing volcanoes can be dangerous, but it’s certainly an experience to remember. Israel-based photographer Erez Marom traveled to Hawaii to try it for himself, and he captured the magnificent view of hot lava flows. But there was a price to pay – and he paid with his gear. He used a drone to get some aerial shots. But at one point, he got too close and the hot lava melted the plastic....

How many times has it happened that you travel and manage to photograph only a bunch of other people’s heads, mobile phones and selfie sticks? Thomas Heaton came in a situation like this, and he became every photographer’s hero when he decided to do something about it. Thomas and his wife went to Hawaii, where he wanted to photograph an active volcano. It was the first time for him to capture something like this, and he was very excited....

Moscow-based photographer Alexander Khokhlov and makeup artist Veronica Ershova are known for some brilliant optical illusions. They have recently published their latest project titled Humiforms, which turns models into familiar objects using only makeup and simple props. Thanks to Veronica’s marvelous makeup and Alexander’s photography skills, the illusions were made entirely in-camera, and the final black and white images are truly striking. A post shared by Alexander Khokhlov (@alexanderkhokhlovcom) When I first saw the project, my eyes were instantly drawn to these minimalistic, yet extraordinary images....