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Opinion

This is where I offer thoughts on developments in photography and video, some of the context behind news stories and industry events, and how these might impact photographers.

What the GoPro Mission 1 Pro ILS tells us about sensor size

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The GoPro Missiion 1 Pro ILS is due this September and it’s a pretty odd sort of camera, a kind of fusion between GoPro’s action camera sensor technology and interchangeable lens cinema cameras. It will use a Micro Four Thirds lens mount but GoPro’s existing 1-inch type sensor. What’s interesting, though, is what this small sensor can achieve – 8K 60p and 4K 240p video, or 8K 30p and 4K120p in open gate mode. These are insane specs in a $699/£599 camera.

The IBIS hall of shame – mirrorless cameras that don’t have in-body stabilization in 2026

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Is in-body stabilization essential? Maybe not for stills photography, though it has some definite advantages. Video is a different matter, especially in cameras designed for video beginners, YouTubers and novice content creators. This is an audience that doesn’t have time for tripods, doesn’t want to mess with gimbals and doesn’t understand why their new camera is worse than their phone. So which mirrorless cameras don’t have IBIS in 2026 and is it a problem?

Canon has not launched a new APS-C camera for more than three years. Should we be worried?

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There is one exception, which is the Canon EOS R50 V, launched in April 2025, but can we really count that even as a new camera or even a hybrid model that photographers might buy? It’s a variant of the regular EOS R50, which was launched back in February 2023, and the ‘V’ version is clearly aimed at vloggers, not even hybrid photographers. The fact is, Canon’s APS-C development seems to have stopped in May 2023 with the old-tech, cut-price EOS R100.

It’s not photo-graphy any more, it’s fomo-graphy – the fear of missing out on the latest camera tech

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I little while ago I was seriously considering the Nikon Z7 – this was when it first came out in 2018. Then the Z7 II and its superior features made think I was wise to wait and then the Z8 arrived to make the Z7 look weak by comparison. But do you want to know the stupidest thing of all? If I had bought the Z7 right at the start, I’d still be perfectly happy with it today.

Why a 1-inch sensor isn’t actually a 1-inch sensor

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We imagine that a 1-inch sensor measures a full inch across the diagonal, right? Not quite. Not even close, as it happens. That’s because this sensor size is a relic of a bygone era, when digital capture devices used CRT tubes and it was the size of the tube that was quoted, not the actual imaging sensor.

Is it time for camera makers to start quoting readout speeds?

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Sensor readout speeds have become something of a talking point, especially as we move towards ever higher video capture resolutions and frame rates, super-fast continuous shooting modes and the gradual replacement of traditional mechanical shutters with electronic shutters.

Why shouldn’t cameras have style? These are cameras that combine both style and performance

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Would you ever buy a car you thought was ugly or horrible to drive? Would you ever eat food you don’t like in a restaurant because it’s cheap? And yet it’s a curious thing in photography that there are so many ‘experts’ who insist that practicality, value and features are all that count and all the rest is shallow vanity or just plain stupidity.