Harlowe, a company known for lighting accessories that cater to influencers and amateurs, has released a $95 alternative called the Omni 360 that evenly illuminates with a diffused soft glow in all directions. The Omni 360's 2W of light output can be boosted to up to 4W as needed but neither mode is quite bright enough to fully illuminate a dark environment.
Vivo is going all in on both photography and videography with the new X300 Ultra. The phone is finally coming to the global market, and to entice people away from other camera-centric Ultras lurking about, vivo has partnered with Zeiss and known camera accessory maker SmallRig, to make the X300 Ultra the best tool for both photos and videos.
If it's speed you want for sports or action shots of your kids, models like Canon's R50 can shoot bursts as fast as many high-end cameras. Creators, meanwhile, can choose Sony's ZV-E10 for vlogging jobs. There are also great, and cheap, models in the action and gimbal camera categories.
Previous leaks have hinted at a dual-lens design with a secondary zoom camera, akin to a recent Insta360 leak and more crucially, the dual camera systems on some of DJI's drones. However, this latest leaked short hands-on video shows a very familiar design with a single lens, but still some notable changes here and there. That dual-lens design might still become a reality as a Pocket 4 Pro.
On YouTube, The Rest is History podcast draws roughly around 500,000 viewers, who stick around for an average of about 48 minutes. That's close to the length of a traditional hour-long show and even longer than the podcast's strong audio average of around 40 minutes.. For the production team, seeing that level of engagement, especially on TV screens, was a turning point. People weren't just listening along to podcasts. They're settling in to watch now too.
Albert Cheng, who heads the AI Studios initiative, emphasized that the goal is to support creative teams, not to replace them. The focus is on improving efficiency and reducing costs while ensuring that intellectual property is protected and AI-generated content isn't absorbed into other AI models. One example used is Amazon's "House of David" series, which featured 350 AI-generated shots in season two.
Through the tiny window of short clips on Instagram and TikTok, Mary's world seems enchanting and vast. Bree's work exudes melancholic emotion and ethereal femininity, painting the surfaces of Mary's world in the vibrating style of stop-motion animation, dappled with sparkling light and computer-generated surfaces so convincing it feels like you could pose the model with your own hands. O'Donnell sat down with us to talk a bit about her process creating textures and her life's work making magic real.
Younger folks are snapping up old point-and-shoots because they view the aesthetic as more authentic and more appealing than smartphone images. Companies are even rereleasing old tech at new prices. And there are cameras like the original Camp Snap: a $70 single-button point-and-shoot with no screen, designed as a modern take on a disposable film camera. It's cheap enough to send off with a kid to summer camp and accessible enough for just about anyone to enjoy its lo-fi aesthetic.
Today's models are compact, increasingly affordable and capable of capturing sharp aerial photos and video with minimal effort. Whether you're curious about flying for the first time or looking to upgrade to a more advanced camera drone, the options available in 2026 are broader and more approachable than ever.Entry-level drones now offer features like GPS-assisted flight, return-to-home safety systems and automated shooting modes that take much of the stress out of learning to fly.
Forget the film camera revival that never quite materialized at scale. The defining hardware trend of 2026 will be the continued adoption of C2PA (Content Credentials) signing in camera bodies beyond the flagship tier. Leica and Nikon have been early movers here, with Sony engaged in the broader Content Credentials ecosystem. This year, we are likely to see signing capabilities expand from flagship and select professional models into higher-volume lines as implementation costs fall and workflow integration matures.
Perhaps the most anticipated new camera of 2025, Sony's new A7V mirrorless camera just squeaked onto the scene before the end of the year. The A7 series is Sony's all-around camera. It lacks the resolution of the A7R cameras and the video focus of the A7S cameras, but in some ways offering enough of the best of those to make the plain A7 the best choice for most people.
One of the first points is uncomfortable but practical: sometimes the fastest way into a new lane is a short, intentional stint working for free. Ranft frames it as an access trade when the door is locked, not a lifestyle, and he's blunt about using discretion so you don't get exploited. The emphasis is on choosing situations where the learning is real, the stakes are real, and the experience creates proof you can show later.
SmallRig's origin story remains grounded in practical workflows. The company, unlike any traditional manufacturer mapping out product categories in advance, entered the ecosystem almost reactively, responding to specific modification requests from filmmakers who encounter difficulties in finding solutions elsewhere. Over time, that reactive posture transformed into structure. Today, SmallRig speaks openly about its "Shadow R&D" network, a community of more than 15,000 vetted creators who co-develop, test, refine, and sometimes originate product concepts.
Insta360 has introduced two AI-powered 4K webcams, the Insta360 Link 2 Pro and Insta360 Link 2C Pro. The new models aim to narrow the gap between basic webcams and professional camera and microphone setups by offering improved video quality, enhanced audio capture, and smarter software tools. The Link 2 Pro has received a 2026 CES Picks Award in the TWICE category. Both webcams are built for desktop use and are said to be aimed at professionals, educators, and content creators seeking reliable performance.
In recent years, smartphone photography has become increasingly dominated by software. Computational imaging, AI processing, and post-capture optimisation now play a central role in how images are produced. Yet as these techniques become more widespread, camera hardware is once again emerging as a key differentiator. The REDMI Note 15 Pro 5G Series reflects this shift clearly, placing renewed emphasis on sensor capability and optical fundamentals rather than relying solely on software to define image quality.
Confession time: I'm not much of a moviemaker. I try. I strap action cameras to my bike handlebars all the time. And I have hours of GoPro footage I shot living in a vintage RV for years. All these clips sit, unused, collecting dust on external hard drives. I just haven't figured out how to tell stories with video, so the footage sits, waiting for me to learn.
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"The Drone Ban" sounds overly alarmist, but it's real. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has instituted a ban on new foreign-made drones and drone components. Which, considering the huge market dominance of Chinese brands, translates into a "buy them now while you can" situation for hobbyist drones. While this ban prevents any new models from being imported and sold in the U.S., ones that are already here are still available for purchase and use.