Category Archives: Astrophotography

Venus Optics has recently launched the Laowa 15mm f/2 Zero-D LM lens, designed exclusively for Leica users. The lens is perfect for photographers capturing breathtaking landscape, architecture, interior, street, and astrophotography images. The lens has a focal length of 15mm and offers a 110° ultra-wide angle of view, allowing photographers to capture stunning and eye-opening ultra-wide shots.

The Laowa 15mm f/2 Zero-D LM lens boasts a large aperture of f/2, which allows users to capture stunning low-light photography or shallow depth-of-field photos. The lens is also ideal for capturing stunning night and astrophotography shots. 

The lens comprises 12 elements in 9 groups with 2 aspherical elements that help minimise distortion, making it the perfect choice for architecture and landscape photographers. The lens also features a close-to-zero distortion feature that saves time during post-editing.

With a closest focusing distance of just 15cm, the Laowa 15mm f/2 Zero-D LM allows photographers to get closer to their subject, creating clear and dazzling images with a shallow depth-of-field and pretty bokeh effect.

The lens comes with a 72mm filter thread lens hood, which makes it easy for photographers to screw on any ND/CPL/Night filters for shooting in extreme situations. 

It is also compatible with M-E or M-Z autofocus adaptor, which can turn the lens into an autofocus one for Sony and Nikon users. The lens also supports rangefinder coupling on Leica M cameras, providing an accurate and easy focus for Leica users.

The Laowa 15mm f/2 Zero-D LM also features 6-bit coding, allowing users to mark the lens themselves for recognition by M cameras and recorded in the EXIF.

The Laowa 15mm f/2 Zero-D LM is available for purchase on the Venus Optics website and from authorised dealers. The US price for the lens is $649. Please visit for more information about the Laowa 15mm f/2 Zero-D LM lens https://www.venuslens.net/?post_type=product&p=47608&preview=true.

Some of the camera company executives we interviewed at CP+ 2023. (Clockwise from top left: Sony, Canon, Nikon, OM Digital Solutions, Sigma, Fujifilm.)

A few weeks ago I attended the CP+ Expo, the camera industry’s annual trade show, in Yokohama, Japan. CP+ is a great place to see the latest and greatest camera products, but we make the yearly pilgrimage to Yokohama for other reasons.

More importantly, CP+ is where we meet with and interview the industry’s top leaders to gain insight into the state of the camera industry and what we may see in the years ahead. So, as we wind up editorial operations here at DPReview, I thought it would be useful to share what the people who make your cameras think about the current status of their (and our) industry and where it’s headed.

What follows are the trends and themes that revealed themselves over a week of formal and informal meetings with senior executives from almost every major camera and lens company, both inside and outside the scope of official interviews.

The camera market may finally be reaching an equilibrium

The camera industry has been on a roller coaster ride for years. The transition from film to digital saw vast numbers of consumers buying digital cameras, and the availability of affordable DSLRs, a/k/a the ‘Rebel bump’, attracted photography enthusiasts in droves. Annual product announcements promised real, measurable improvements in performance and drove rapid upgrade cycles, leading enthusiasts to buy new cameras every couple of years and frequently more often.

Most of the industry leaders I spoke with believe the camera market is reaching a point of equilibrium.

As we’re all aware, the smartphone changed everything. The average consumer left dedicated cameras in the rearview mirror, resulting in a steep industry contraction.

According to camera executives, the good news is that the market has either bottomed out, meaning it will remain relatively stable or will see some growth in certain areas like video.

The market may have finally reached a natural equilibrium point, similar to the film era.

In essence, they suggest that the market may have finally reached a natural equilibrium point, similar to the film era, where a segment of the population will buy dedicated cameras no matter what other market forces are in play. The people in this group are the spiritual successors to those who bought interchangeable lens film cameras before digital was even a thing; they represent the stable customer base the camera companies are looking for.

Video is driving the market

If there’s a single theme virtually every leader in the industry can agree on, it’s that video is a significant growth driver for the market. Video content is everywhere, and the expectation is that video – whether used by TikTok creators or international media brands – is the best hope of driving the market.

Every company is placing a considerable emphasis on attracting hybrid users who shoot both stills and video and, in some cases, only video. We’re going to see camera companies focusing more on video features and capabilities and probably many more products explicitly targeting that audience. It’s why a company like Nikon, which isn’t historically known as a go-to company for video products, put so much emphasis on video features in a camera like the Z9.

Camera companies see video as one of their most significant growth opportunities. Witness how much effort Nikon put into making its Z9 flagship camera a video powerhouse.

In a nutshell, every manufacturer I spoke with said the data tells them that video is where the growth opportunities will be found, and we can expect them to act accordingly.

Everyone is looking to ‘creators’ for growth

Camera companies see video use growing across all categories of users, but there’s one segment they’re all laser-focused on: creators. I couldn’t get through five minutes of conversation without hearing the word ‘creator.’

Camera companies see video use growing across all categories of users, but there’s one segment they’re all laser-focused on: creators.

But what, exactly, is a ‘creator?’ At a basic level, it’s someone who uses a camera to create content for public sharing. But let’s be clear about what the camera companies mean when they talk about targeting ‘creators’: Gen Z and teenagers. I’m not just speculating; they straight up told me that in multiple conversations. Camera companies see this demographic as a critical market for the future, and there’s a land grab going on to attract these users in their formative years to create brand loyalists.

Sony has been the most successful at this so far with the budget end of its ZV series of vlogger-oriented cameras. In some markets, it has launched special programs to promote these cameras in schools and provide student discounts. If you look at the entire ZV line, though, there’s already an upgrade path from starter to full-frame models. Sony hopes that some of these users will eventually graduate to the FX series as their careers grow.

Camera companies want to reach Gen Z and teenage ‘creators’ and are building products designed to connect with this audience.

Sony isn’t alone. A significant portion of Nikon’s booth at CP+ was aimed at creators: it was a colorful, hip area with staff in sweatshirts proclaiming ‘Nikon Creators,’ and it was generally packed. Other companies have similar messaging.

You may think this is very different from the traditional camera market, and you’re right – this group of consumers cares about different things than you do. For example, one executive I spoke with told me that this market isn’t very worried about Raw files, and many don’t know what they are.

You’re not going to get a camera without video

There’s a group of people we can depend on to post a comment under every camera review proclaiming, ‘Just give me a pure camera with no video features!’ While I appreciate where that purist sentiment comes from, I have bad news for you:

You’re not going to get it.

If what I’ve said so far tells you anything, it should be clear that camera manufacturers are putting more resources into video, not less.

If what I’ve said so far tells you anything, it should be clear that camera manufacturers are putting more resources into video, not less; they see video as a growth driver for their individual brands and the industry as a whole. They could make a stripped-down camera without video features, but as my colleague Richard Butler explained in an article, it would probably cost more, not less.

Video is here to stay. You won’t be able to buy cameras without it unless you use a specialized product like a Leica rangefinder. Though you probably won’t save money by doing so.

There are a few niche products, like Leica rangefinders, that don’t include video, and these will probably continue. Still, they will continue to be limited in number and cost a premium.

A focus on creating unique products

A word that came up a lot in my discussions was ‘unique,’ expressing a desire by companies to make unique products. That isn’t rocket science; every company wants unique products to differentiate itself from the competition. But in the context of the camera industry, it means something a little different.

For the past several years, there’s been a scramble by Canon, Nikon and Panasonic to gain a market foothold with their full-frame mirrorless systems. In many cases, the focus was less on producing unique products and more on building out a complete system to broadly appeal to photographers: camera bodies that hit all the important price points, key lenses like 35mm, 50mm, and 85mm primes, and coverage of the popular zoom ranges.

The Sigma 14mm F1.8 Art lens was a unique product that helped grow the market for astrophotography. Now that most mirrorless systems are relatively complete, camera and lens makers plan to release more unique products to help grow market segments.

Now that those systems are more mature, manufacturers told me they want to focus on products, particularly lenses, that are unique to their systems. They wouldn’t share specific product plans (they generally won’t), but Kazuto Yamaki, CEO of Sigma, explained that, if done correctly, unique products don’t just fill a market need – they have the potential to grow the market.

Manufacturers told me they want to focus on products, particularly lenses, that are unique to their systems.

An example of this was Sigma’s 14mm F1.8 prime lens. It quickly became a favorite of astrophotographers, and access to that lens drove people who had never done astrophotography before to try it. In essence, that lens, and the category it created, grew the entire market for wide-field astrophotography. We can probably expect to see more examples of specialty products like this in the future.

Manufacturers don’t see smartphones as competition

This one surprised me. I was sure most manufacturers would express concern about having to compete with smartphones. After all, smartphones were undoubtedly the single most significant factor driving the contraction of the camera market over the past few years. And yet, this wasn’t the case. I was repeatedly told that manufacturers see smartphones as complementary rather than competitive technology.

I don’t know if I buy this, though it may go back to the market equilibrium I discussed earlier. Manufacturers may believe we’ve reached a point where the remaining buyers in the market are enthusiasts and pros who care enough about photography that they’re not a flight risk, who will buy a camera alongside their smartphone. And they may be right.

I expected camera makers to express concerns about competing with smartphones, but I was wrong. Most see smartphones as a complementary rather than competitive technology.

Several manufacturers even indicated that they see smartphones as potentially driving market growth. The ubiquitous presence of smartphones is part of what created the vlogger generation. (Can I take credit for coining the term ‘Gen V?’) Some of these users will naturally seek out higher-quality cameras, and manufacturers are trying to position themselves to connect with them and create brand loyalty when they do. However, I’m not convinced that any of them have figured out how to do it (yet).

Manufacturers may believe we’ve reached a point where the remaining buyers in the market are enthusiasts and pros who care enough about photography that they’re not a flight risk.

If camera companies plan to treat smartphones as a complementary technology, it would be great to see them embrace that philosophy when it comes to, you know, functional integration with those devices. Right now, smartphone support is all over the map. While my experience with Nikon’s SnapBridge is that it works reliably and integrates pretty seamlessly, I’d be happy if my Fujifilm app worked on anything other than the newest models. There’s an entire continuum between the two.

We’re just getting started with AI

If there’s another thing every camera company can agree on, it’s that they want the letters ‘AI’ on their products. Today, AI is used chiefly to deliver improved subject recognition and tracking using algorithms trained by machine learning. AI will get more sophisticated, probably quickly, and a few insiders shared off-the-record examples of what we might see.

Imagine a camera that analyzes what’s in the viewfinder and understands that you’re shooting a sporting event. The camera might evaluate the first few frames in a burst shot to determine if there’s motion blur and, if necessary, increase the shutter speed in real-time to compensate. It might also adjust your burst rate on the fly based on how much the image changes between frames. For example, if you’re shooting a group of sprinters at the starting block, holding down the shutter might result in a very slow burst rate. Within milliseconds of the runners starting to move, the camera could ramp up its burst rate in response.

Many recent cameras include AI technologies to assist with functions like subject recognition and tracking. Industry leaders tell me they expect more AI features to find their way into cameras, and some may even change the way we shoot.

Or, a camera could detect that you’re shooting a portrait, but instead of going to a default portrait program, it might go the extra step of analyzing the setting, the time of day, the weather and even the mood of your subject. If they’re happy, it might adjust the exposure to be bright and cheery; if they look morose, it might tone down the exposure for a moodier image. If you have a flash attached, it could adjust output to help achieve the appropriate look.

Instead of just spotting patterns based on machine learning, future AI will adapt to how you shoot and learn your style. And that’s all in ‘P’ mode.

AI will get more sophisticated, probably quickly.

I can’t promise you’ll see this type of functionality soon, but this is what manufacturers are talking about doing, and it has the potential to change how we use cameras.

The wrap

Cameras have changed to a staggering degree over the past quarter century. When Phil founded DPReview in 1998, most of us couldn’t have predicted some of the camera features we now take for granted. I suspect the same will be true of cameras 25 years from now in 2048, but the observations above should at least give us insight into what we can expect in the next few years.

What trends do you see coming in the camera industry? Let me know in the comments – I always enjoy a good conversation!

Open up Instagram at any given moment and it probably won’t take long to find crisp pictures of the night sky, a skyline after dark or a dimly lit restaurant. While shots like these used to require advanced cameras, they’re now often possible from the phone you already carry around in your pocket.

Tech companies such as Apple, Samsung and Google are investing resources to improve their night photography options at a time when camera features have increasingly become a key selling point for smartphones that otherwise largely all look and feel the same from one year to the next.

Earlier this month, Google brought a faster version of its Night Sight mode, which uses AI algorithms to lighten or brighten images in dark environments, to more of its Pixel models. Apple’s Night mode, which is available on models as far back as the iPhone 11, was touted as a premier feature on its iPhone 14 lineup last year thanks to its improved camera system.

These tools have come a long way in just the past few years, thanks to significant advancements in artificial intelligence technology as well as image processing that has become sharper, quicker, and more resilient to challenging photography situations. And smartphone makers aren’t done yet.

© Provided by CNN

People watch fireworks during a Fourth of July celebration, in this photo taken using the Google Pixel 5 Night Sight setting. – Brook Joyner/CNN

“People increasingly rely on their smartphones to take photos, record videos, and create content,” said Lian Jye Su, an artificial intelligence analyst at ABI Research. “[This] will only fuel the smartphone companies to up their games in AI-enhanced image and video processing.”

While there has been much focus lately on Silicon Valley’s renewed AI arms race over chatbots, the push to develop more sophisticated AI tools could also help further improve night photography and bring our smartphones closer to being able to see in the dark.

How it works

Samsung’s Night mode feature, which is available on various Galaxy models but optimized for its premium S23 Ultra smartphone, promises to do what would have seemed unthinkable just five to 10 years ago: enable phones to take clearer pictures with little light.

The feature is designed to minimize what’s called “noise,” a term in photography that typically refers to poor lighting conditions, long exposure times, and other elements that can take away from the quality of an image.

The secret to reducing noise, according to the company, is a combination of the S23 Ultra’s adaptive 200M pixel sensor. After the shutter button is pressed, Samsung uses advanced multi-frame processing to combine multiple images into a single picture and AI to automatically adjust the photo as necessary.

“When a user takes a photo in low or dark lighting conditions, the processor helps remove noise through multi-frame processing,” said Joshua Cho, executive vice president of Samsung’s Visual Solution Team. “Instantaneously, the Galaxy S23 Ultra detects the detail that should be kept, and the noise that should be removed.”

For Samsung and other tech companies, AI algorithms are crucial to delivering photos taken in the dark. “The AI training process is based on a large number of images tuned and annotated by experts, and AI learns the parameters to adjust for every photo taken in low-light situations,” Su explained.

For example, algorithms identify the right level of exposure, determine the correct color pallet and gradient under certain lighting conditions, sharpen blurred faces or objects artificially, and then makes those changes. The final result, however, can look quite different from what the person taking the picture saw in real time, in what some might argue is a technical sleight-of-hand trick.

© Provided by CNN

Lights illuminate the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, in this photo taken using Google Pixel 5 Night Sight setting. – Brook Joyner/CNN

Google is also focused on reducing noise in photography. Its AI-powered Night Sight feature captures a burst of longer-exposure frames. It then uses something called HDR+ Bracketing, which creates several photos with different settings. After a picture is taken, the images are combined together to create “sharper photos” even in dark environments “that are still incredibly bright and detailed,” said Alex Schiffhauer, a group product manager at Google.

While effective, there can be a slight but noticeable delay before the image is ready. But Schiffhauer said Google intends to speed up this process more on future Pixel iterations. “We’d love a world in which customers can get the quality of Night Sight without needing to hold still for a few seconds,” Schiffhauer said.

Google also has an astrophotography feature which allows people to take shots of the night sky without needing to tweak the exposure or other settings. The algorithms detect details in the sky and enhances them to stand out, according to the company.

Apple has long been rumored to be working on an astrophotography feature, but some iPhone 14 Pro Max users have successfully been able to capture pictures of the sky through its existing Night Mode tool. When a device detects a low-light environment, Night mode turns on to capture details and brighten shots. (The company did not respond to a request to elaborate on how the algorithms work.)

AI can make a difference in the image, but the end results for each of these features also depend on the phone’s lenses, said Gartner analyst Bill Ray. A traditional camera will have the lens several centimeters from the sensor, but the limited space on a phone often requires squeezing things together, which can result in a more shallow depth of field and reduced image quality, especially in darker environments.

“The quality of the lens is still a big deal, and how the phone addresses the lack of depth,” Ray said.

The next big thing

While night photography on phones has come a long way, a buzzy new technology could push it ahead even more.

Generative AI, the technology that powers the viral chatbot ChatGPT, has earned plenty of attention for its ability to create compelling essays and images in response to user prompts. But these AI systems, which are trained on vast troves of online data, also have potential to edit and process images.

“In recent years, generative AI models have also been used in photo-editing functions like background removal or replacement,” Su said. If this technology is added to smartphone photo systems, it could eventually make night modes even more powerful, Su said.

Big Tech companies, including Google, are already fully embracing this technology in other parts of their business. Meanwhile, smartphone chipset vendors like Qualcomm and MediaTek are looking to support more generative AI applications natively on consumer devices, Su said. These include image and video augmentation.

“But this is still about two to three years away from limited versions of this showing up on smartphones,” he said.

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The fiery surface of the sun is the star of an incredible new photograph created by a pair of astrophotographers using NASA data.

To make the image, Andrew McCarthy (opens in new tab) and Jason Guenze (opens in new tab)l used some of their own photographs, including one snapped by Guenzel during the 2017 total solar eclipse, as well as thousands of sun images pulled from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (opens in new tab), a spacecraft that NASA launched in 1995 in collaboration with the European Space Agency.

© Onkamon Buasorn via Getty Images
April’s full moon rises tonight (April 5)

April’s full moon, also known as the Pink Moon, rises tonight (April 5), and will be visible in its full glory throughout the night. Around the globe, the Pink Moon will rise at around dusk and will set at around dawn, meaning it is visible for most of the night. 

In the Sky gives specific times that skywatchers can see the full moon, with it rising on Wednesday at 19:01 EDT (2301 GMT) and reaching its peak at 00:34 EDT (0434 GMT) before setting on Thursday at 06:49 EDT (1049 GMT). 

Following the Pink Moon full moon phase when the moon will be fully illuminated, the portion of the lunar face lit by the sun will begin to recede, a process called “waning” by astronomers. This will lead to the next completely dark moon, or new moon phase, on April 20 according to Time and Date. This point also marks the start of the next lunar cycle and the point at which the sun’s illumination once again begins to creep back across the moon’s face, with this growing illumination known as “waxing.”

Related: Night sky, April 2023: What you can see tonight 

Leading to the new moon, this darkening isn’t the only change that the moon will undergo. After the Pink Moon and following April 6 the moon will rise an hour later each day and will become predominant later each subsequent night. By the time it is half illuminated, during the last quarter phase on April 13 it will rise at midnight and set around midday. Later, during the new moon phase, it will rise and set around the same time as the sun, meaning the moon is absent during the night.  

The moon won’t actually be pink during the Pink Moon 

While skywatchers will be presented with an incredible opportunity to see the beauty of the fully illuminated moon during the Pink Moon, one spectacle they are unlikely to see is a full moon lit in pink. 

This is because, according to Farmer’s Almanac, the Pink Moon moniker is purely figurative in nature. The name actually refers to the fact that the April full moon is correlated with the springtime bloom of a pink wildflower called Phlox subulata, also traditionally known as “moss pink.” The April Pink Moon takes its name from this springtime association which originates from Native American culture like many other full moon names.

Alternative April full moon names also have strong seasonal associations. The Tlingit and Oglala people refer to this full moon as the “Budding Moon of Plants and Shrubs” and the “Moon of the Red Grass Appearing” respectively, with these names also referencing the bloom of plant life. Other seasonal names refer to other springtime phenomena that would have been significant to Native Americans like the thawing of winter ice allowing increased mobility. The Algonquin people refer to the April full moon as the “Breaking Ice Moon” and the Dakota tradition gives it the moniker “Moon When the Streams Are Again Navigable.”

If you’re hoping to catch a look at this Pink Moon our guides to the best telescopes and best binoculars are also a great place to start. If you’re looking to snap photos of the night sky in general, check out our guide on how to photograph the moon, as well as our best cameras for astrophotography and best lenses for astrophotography.

Fancy taking a more in-depth moonlit tour of our rocky companion? Our ultimate guide to observing the moon will help you plan your next skywatching venture whether it be exploring the lunar seas, mountainous terrain, or the many craters that blanket the landscape. You can also see where astronauts, rovers and landers have ventured with our Apollo landing sites observing guide. 

Editor’s Note: If you snap an image of the Pink Moon and would like to share it with Space.com’s readers, send your photo(s), comments, and your name and location to [email protected].

April’s full moon, also known as the Pink Moon, rises tonight (April 5), and will be visible in its full glory throughout the night. Around the globe, the Pink Moon will rise at around dusk and will set at around dawn, meaning it is visible for most of the night. 

In the Sky gives specific times that skywatchers can see the full moon, with it rising on Wednesday at 19:01 EDT (2301 GMT) and reaching its peak at 00:34 EDT (0434 GMT) before setting on Thursday at 06:49 EDT (1049 GMT).