New Perk for Members: A Free Mystery Box of Presets

Dearest Subscribers to the Phobographer: we've got great news. We're giving you a brand new perk. For all current and future members, you now can get a mystery box of presets made by the Phoblographer. This is on top of the banner-ad free experience, Capture One discount, Imalum…

The Biggest Scam in Film Photography

Next to me in my desk is a drawer. Inside that drawer is a box. The box's contents are Instax, Polaroid, and Instant film images I've made since I started the Phoblographer 16 years ago. I can officially say that I've made some of those images before my friends' children were bo…

How The Heck Do Solar Panels Work? “Every hour,...

How The Heck Do Solar Panels Work? “Every hour, the Earth receives enough sunlight to power all of human civilization for a year. It arrives silently, from all directions, at no cost.”

Mad Max creator George Miller wants to make one more Mad...

Mad Max creator George Miller wants to make one more Mad Max movie and a TV series before calling it quits.

📸 Photo

Is Viltrox Really Building a Camera to Compete with Nikon?

Viltrox has been one of the most sought-after third-party lens brands to work with. However, since Nikon has sued Viltrox, there have been waves of new reports of varying kinds. One of the latest articles points out that Viltrox is keen on launching a new camera that offers a Z-…

Randomly thought of Brendan Dassey today. He’s...

Randomly thought of Brendan Dassey today. He’s still serving out his life sentence for, IMO, having absolutely nothing to do with the murder at the center of Netflix’s Making a Murderer.

The SpaceX IPO Is A Giant Unworkable Con Orchestrated By...

The SpaceX IPO Is A Giant Unworkable Con Orchestrated By An Overt White Supremacist Huckster. “He’s endlessly mythologized by a shitty corporate press, eager to ignore his virulent racism & financial fraud bc he’s accumulated obscene amounts of money.”

Telescope Ranchers

Rockwood, Texas is home to a unique business, Starfront Observatories. Owner/operator Bray Falls hosts hundreds of other people’s telescopes in perfect conditions — ultra-dark skies (Class 1 on the Bortle scale), clear weather, and fast internet — so astrophotographers…

Opday

On a medical frontier Adrian Gropper in the AI corner of the New England Journal of Medicine: The Medical AI Assistant as Publication, Not Device — Why Peer-Reviewed, Open-Source AI Belongs in the Standard of Care. From the abstract: "I argue that when a physician publishes a…

How to get out of bed . “There is no 28 point shot...

How to get out of bed. “There is no 28 point shot in basketball. The only way to come back from a 27 point deficit is one shot at a time. Two points here. Two points there. A few three pointers sprinkled in.”

DJ Shadow and the BBC Symphony Orchestra will be...

DJ Shadow and the BBC Symphony Orchestra will be performing a “collaborative reimagination for orchestra” of his seminal album Endtroducing… in December. Tickets are already sold out, but there will be a recording!

The Best Lens Nikon Made in the Past 10 Years

As a journalist who's been reviewing Nikon cameras and gear for nearly 20 years (even before starting the Phoblographer) I've found myself thinking back fondly on a few pieces of gear that really stood out. One of those is a lens that Nikon made back in 2016 and that never faile…

Tethys

On Inherent AI Risk: “Extinction-Level Capitalism”

Matthew Butterick is a lawyer, programmer, writer, and designer. He’s written a long, interesting piece about the inherent risks of AI called Extinction-Level Capitalism. It is well-worth a read; I’ve excerpted several passages here but urge you read the whole thing. In pr…

Paul McCartney on Song Exploder . I think he was with...

Paul McCartney on Song Exploder. I think he was with The Beatles at some point?

Pikachu Makes For the Very Best Hot Shoe Cover, and I Had to Catch Them All

Recently, I've been going through the Phoblographer's archives looking for fun ideas and then I ran into our coverage of the Artisan Obscura hot shoe covers a long time ago. Looking around the web, I found a ton of other fun options -- and so I searched for the one my heart desi…

nikitonsky is being grumpy

nikitonsky: This is exactly backwards: non-destructive action behind a click, yet the destructive action “in the open” Thanks KillerX for the picture

The Formerlies

This Knicks NBA championship run is the greatest of all time. Reasons:

The Knicks Starting Five Painted on One Dollar Bills

Artist Claire Salvo has painted the starting five of the world champion NY Knicks on a set of US one dollar bills. If you’re in NYC, you may have seen these cheekily pasted up around the city. She’s selling a print of all five bills but is also auctioning off the han…

Sports but make it wealth inequality :...

Sports but make it wealth inequality: “Brunson…didn’t take an extra $113M so the Knicks could sign KAT, Mikal Bridges and keep OG long term… It’s almost as if sharing wealth leads to better outcomes for all…”

We’ve Updated Our Sony a1 II Review’s Autofocus Section

The Sony a1 II is the first camera that the company stated had enhanced abilities at focusing on humans in low contrast situations. And we took really big note of that in our review and even in our updates. As of now, three different journalists have added updates to our Sony a1…

The 3 Budget-Friendly Camera Kits for Travel Photography (Part 1)

Travel photography is an exciting genre that requires a sturdy camera and lens. It is not only about the performance in terms of images, but also the build quality. If you are a young photographer who wants to invest in a professional set-up, without having to pay extra money, t…

Is the Canon G1x Mk III Still a Good Camera in 2026?

My Canon G1x Mk III sat in my Canon-specific camera bag for around a year. The camera, which I often tout to be the single best point and shoot camera in the digital world, was unused for various reasons. At times, I often feel like Canon constantly abandons their customers. We'…

Shunday

Other laws may apply I started to write something here, but turned it in to a whole post on its own: Customer Service Sample of One. In response to that, Don Marti pointed to Skylabs Audio and its YouTube channel. As it happens I was an audiophile many decades ago. Worked on we…

Customer Service Sample of One

Our Samsung TV* and our Samsung soundbar/woofer no longer connect over bluetooth. Well, they do connect—both displays say they are connected—but the TV only plays through its own speakers. I called Samsung for help with this, but the phone maze robot said only texts would wo…