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4 Best Cameras From 2019, and 4 Disappointments to Avoid

The year 2019 was quite an exciting year for cameras. Why? Because many brands switched from DSLRs to mirrorless, medium-format cameras found a new footing in the DSLR world. While everything was still in its infancy, each of these companies showcased that if there is a will, th…

Is Sigma Developing the Brightest Zoom Lens Yet?

Sigma has multiple zoom lenses in its portfolio. Options such as 14-24mm f2.8 DG DN Art, 28-70mm f2.8 DG DN Contemporary, and 150-600mm f5-6.3 DG DN OS Sports have enabled photographers to capture images of wide and distant objects and people. It now appears the company is focus…

The Yashica City 300 Aims to Ride the Current Wave of Digicam Demand

If you've been paying attention to the cameras that are capturing the imaginations of new and younger photographers, you'll notice the trend towards pocketable, simple, and affordable point-and-shoot styled cameras. Yashica's latest City-series camera, the City 300, is one such…

📸 Photo

Max Cooper, Repetition

This music video, directed by Kevin McGloughlin for Max Cooper’s song Repetition, features remixed fractal-like forms from the constructed world (roads, skyscrapers, wind turbines, etc.) interspersed with scenes from nature. Totally mesmerizing. (You’ve got a give it a min…

Kieran Healy recently became a US citizen. “I know the nationalities of...

Kieran Healy recently became a US citizen. “I know the nationalities of my fellow oath-takers because of the next stage of the ceremony. This was the Roll Call of Nations. I did not know this was going to happen.” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

Building a Watch From Scratch in a Brooklyn Basement

Giles Clement tends to go a little overboard with his hobbies. During the pandemic, he taught himself to repair old watches and then decided to try building one himself. Taylor Scott Mason made a short documentary about Clement and his effort to build a watch from scratch in his…

Kodak Crisis: Could Other Camera Brands Face the Same Fate?

The photo world has been having battles on multiple fronts. From the invasion of smartphones to the boom of AI to tariffs in the United States, the industry has been trying to find ways to keep itself going despite the challenges. However, in some cases, it seems the efforts are…

Me talking about AI elsewhere

I’ve been popping up in a few places lately. Here’s a round-up: a talk, an academic paper, and a blog post. Rethink AI, WIRED x Kendryl I spoke about AI agents as part of a Wired event called Rethink AI with Azeem Azhar and others (as previously mentioned). Here’s the R…

Michael Chabon on the time he tried to get hired to write...

Michael Chabon on the time he tried to get hired to write the script for a Fantastic Four movie (in 1995). “What are you doing here? I mean, you’re, like, a serious writer.” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

Generous Media

In the latest issue of his monthly newsletter, Robin Sloan shared a quick reflection on why the Criterion closet interviews are so effective, entertaining, and worth participating in for celebrities (emphasis mine): Let’s think about the format that is the Criterion closet:…

The Case for MyTerms

We know more than we can tell. That was how Michael Polanyi distinguished between tacit and explicit knowing. We may know how we form speech, or when to shake hands with someone, or hug them. But we can’t explain all the signals and mechanisms involved. Not exactly. In the nat…

From the inbox: “ldial is a website for listening to a curated...

From the inbox: “ldial is a website for listening to a curated list of community radio stations from across the US. I took efforts to make it super fast. To me, the random button feels like magic.” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

“If you want to fight for what’s right in this moment, and...

“If you want to fight for what’s right in this moment, and forge politics that exist in opposition to what Trump represents, you must protect anyone chased by the fascists.” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

Radiohead: Hail to the Thief (Live Recordings 2003-2009)

Radiohead dropped a surprise album yesterday, a live album of songs from Hail to the Thief. You can find the album on various streaming platforms, including Bandcamp, Spotify, and Apple Music. The band’s lead singer Thom Yorke says of the album: In the process of thinking h…

No Tubes, No Limits: Mitakon Macro Lens Brings Subjects 5X Closer

Macro lenses have enabled us to view the details of the unseen world with ease. Whether it is a dragonfly's eyes or a butterfly's wings, macro lenses showcase a side of nature that we interact with daily but never truly care about. While there are multiple lenses in this portfol…

The Best 100MP Cameras for Pro Photographers (And The One To Ditch)

A great medium-format camera offers various features, including image quality, weather sealing, and excellent autofocus performance. While there are multiple options to choose from today, we look at a few that can help you get the best of both worlds. These medium-format cameras…

“Competitive authoritarianism [can be seen as] a prevalent form of government throughout...

“Competitive authoritarianism [can be seen as] a prevalent form of government throughout American history — one which we have only tentatively started to move away from in recent decades.” Interesting historical context.

On the disorienting thrill & agony of picking up a new sport...

On the disorienting thrill & agony of picking up a new sport (or relearning an old one) in midlife. “Falling as an adult means calling friends and family to tell them ‘I had a fall.’” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

The Thing Every Experienced Wildlife Photographer Needs

If you're a wildlife photographer, we both know that you've worked really hard on the images that you make. Some are honestly much better than others -- and we shouldn't necessarily base that on how Instagram followers are rating it. We all have those one or two images that we'r…

Underlines and line height

I was thinking about something I wrote yesterday when I was talking about styling underlines on links: For a start, you can adjust the distance of the underline from the text using text-underline-offset. If you’re using a generous line-height, use a generous distance here t…

Burning Questions: WTF is a Petzval Lens?

Photographers and Cinematographers are enamored with creative ways to separa­te their subjects from their backgrounds. One such trick is to implement a "swirly" background effect that turns otherwise mundane scenes into something out of a dream. Although the swirly bokeh effect…

LUMIX S9 Review Update: This Camera Aged So Well

The LUMIX S9 has recieved a few firmware updates, and so we've updated our full review. The other day when shooting with it, I realized that if you've got it, you've got very little reason then to want to get any of the new fancy point and shoot cameras that are being announced…