In today's episode Canon teasing their new camera, Ulanzi releases a waist level viewfinder for mirrorless and DSLR cameras and more.
You can find the show notes here.
You can find the show notes here.
Show Notes
Greetings, welcome back to the show everyone, Liam here and this is Episode 479 for the week of November 6, 2025. In today’s episode Canon Teases new camera, Ulan’s Waist level viewfinder, photographer spends 18 months Documenting an LA Psychiatric Hospital and more.
Less than 48 hours before its highly anticipated reveal, Canon has shared a fresh teaser image of its upcoming camera.
The longtime camera company has stuck with its original teaser tagline: “Elevate Your Image.” This further solidifies the original expectations that this new SLR-styled mirrorless camera would prioritize still photography features and performance over video. However, given that Canon has been serious about implementing high-end video features across nearly all of its cameras since the DSLR era, it is a safe bet that the new camera will also be built with hybrid creators in mind.
The original teaser image, shared again below, showed the back of the upcoming camera, obscured almost entirely in shadow.
In contrast, the new teaser image shows the camera from the front and, somewhat surprisingly, offers a pretty good look at it. There are not necessarily many key details to conclude from this angle, but the camera appears to have an enthusiast-oriented design with a prominent front grip and relatively tall viewfinder area (taller than the one on a camera like the Canon EOS R8). The upcoming camera appears to have a healthy array of physical buttons and controls on its top deck. Concerning these top deck controls, it looks as though they cover the entire area near the shutter release, which would eliminate the possibility of an information display like the one the R5 II has.
Speaking of the Canon EOS R5 II, if this upcoming camera is enthusiast-oriented, as seems like a reasonably safe bet given its design, it is also a safe bet that Canon will incorporate some of the R5 II’s advancements into this new camera. Canon typically employs a trickle-down approach, debuting its newest and best technologies in professional-grade cameras before gradually incorporating them into its later, downstream camera models. Potential R5 II features that could make it into Canon’s next camera include improved Dual Pixel CMOS AF II, enhanced processing and performance, and improved video recording features.
Although the original teaser left open the possibility of a new lens, this latest teaser photo shows that the lens included here is the RF 24-105mm f/4 L. If this is a kit lens for the new camera, that would squarely put it in the enthusiast and even professional segment, as it is a $1,400 L-series lens.
Although Canon has not necessarily answered any of the open questions with its latest teaser, it has provided additional evidence for initial hypotheses. The new camera has all the makings of a photo-oriented model designed for, at the very least, enthusiast-level photographers. Canon fans won’t need to wait much longer to find out all the details, though, as Canon’s new camera will be unveiled on Thursday, November 6, at 1 AM (November 5 at 10 PM PT).
Ulanzi has unveiled the VF01 Waist-Level Viewfinder, a compact accessory designed to bring classic shooting ergonomics to modern mirrorless and compact cameras.
At the core of the Ulanzi VF01 Waist-Level Viewfinder is a three-element, high-transmission lens group engineered to deliver a bright, distortion-free viewing experience. The optical design minimizes chromatic aberration and edge artifacts, ensuring that what photographers see through the finder closely matches their final image. The viewfinder’s ground-glass focusing screen allows precise composition, particularly useful in street and documentary photography, where subtle framing adjustments make a significant difference.
Ulanzi notes that maintaining a focusing distance of at least 16 feet (five meters) offers optimal clarity, making the VF01 suitable for general-purpose street and travel photography. The waist-level angle not only provides a natural, relaxed shooting position but also helps photographers capture candid moments without drawing as much attention as traditional eye-level shooting.
Designed around a 28mm full-frame view, the VF01 also includes bright 35mm and 50mm framelines, allowing photographers to pre-visualize their composition and switch between focal lengths intuitively. This feature will particularly appeal to rangefinder users and street photographers who rely on quick, accurate framing.
By providing an optical preview rather than an electronic display, the VF01 encourages a more organic approach to shooting. Whether capturing fast-paced street scenes or contemplative landscapes, the framelines help photographers visualize their scene with precision while maintaining situational awareness, a valuable advantage when working in dynamic environments.
One of the VF01’s standout features is its magnetic retro hood, which attaches securely and flicks open smoothly with a single motion. The hood effectively blocks stray light, ensuring a clear, distraction-free view even in bright conditions. The tactile design combines nostalgia with practicality, echoing the experience of using classic waist-level finders on vintage film cameras.
Ulanzi emphasizes that the hood should be gently flipped open for smooth, long-term operation. The combination of durable mechanics and aesthetic detail reinforces the product’s appeal for photographers who value craftsmanship as much as function.
Thanks to its universal cold shoe, the VF01 is compatible with a wide range of compact and mirrorless cameras. It pairs seamlessly with popular models from Ricoh, Fujifilm, Sony, Nikon, Canon, Olympus, and Panasonic, covering series such as the Ricoh GR, Fujifilm X100 and X-T lines, Sony a6000 series, Nikon Z30 and Zfc, Canon R100 and R10, Olympus E-P7, and Panasonic GX systems. This broad compatibility allows photographers to easily integrate the VF01 into their existing gear setups without the need for special adapters or modifications.
The VF01 measures 1.78 × 1.5 × 1.74 inches (45.2 × 38.2 × 44.2 millimeters) and weighs approximately 2.2 ounces (63 grams), small enough to stay on the camera without adding bulk, yet solid enough to feel substantial in hand.
The Ulanzi VF01 Waist-Level Viewfinder is available now for pre-sale at $40, ahead of its official shipping date on November 6, 2025. Ulanzi notes that the product is offered in limited quantities, with both Classic Black and Vintage Silver options available through its official store and authorized resellers.
In 1979, photographer Merrick Morton (@merrickmortonphoto) received a California state grant to document the Volunteer Program at a psychiatric hospital in Los Angeles, a project that led him to return again and again over the next year and a half.
Morton’s brief was to capture a series of photos that could be used in a “slide presentation” — a PowerPoint in today’s parlance — that could be used to recruit members of the public willing to spend time with the patients for socialization purposes.
The facility Morton was assigned was the Metropolitan State Hospital in the city of Norwalk, Los Angeles County. It opened in 1916 and still operates today — although parts of it has fallen into disrepair.
Morton tells PetaPixel that the project was supposed to be for a period of three to four weeks, in which time he would photograph patients, staff, and volunteers. But he wound up hanging around for a lot longer.
“I was issued a passkey to both chronic and acute locked wards,” Morton explains. “I mainly photographed on the weekends when the admin offices were closed.”
The photographer says he “became lost in the system” and extended his documentation of the hospital to a year and a half, without the main office finding out.
“They became aware of me on a Sunday when certain staff did not know me, and notified the administration,” Morton says. “Throughout my stay, I became friends with both the staff and certain patients.”
Morton recently shared the photos on his Instagram page where they received high praise, mixed with sadness. “Life isn’t always a bowl of cherries,” writes one person.
Morton reflects that “in an odd way,” the ward’s inpatients and staff became family to him over the course of 18 months. “I was allowed to capture pain and joy, often with a sense of humor that flowed within these walls,” he adds.
Around the same time Morton visited, a groundbreaking documentary called Hurry Tomorrow (1975) filmed at Norwalk caused a stir after it depicted patients being overly-drugged. But conditions have vastly improved at the Metropolitan State Hospital since then.
Morton is one of LA’s finest photographers who, as well as taking stills for motion pictures, has documented the lives of Mexican-American mobsters. He also founded Fototeka, which gained access to the LAPD photo archives. His Instagram page is well worth a follow.
From 2006 to 2023, photographer Claire Beckett embedded herself on military bases in the United States to capture elaborate training camps that simulated war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Using a 4×5 analog large-format camera, Beckett focused on the depictions of Arabs and Muslims played by U.S. combat veterans who dressed up as insurgency fighters from the Middle East to help train American soldiers going into battle.
Beckett’s new book, Defense Language, shows costumed role-players, elaborate Hollywood-inspired sets, and staged tableaus on military bases across the United States.
“With this project, I look at the way Americans such as myself interact with other cultures,” Beckett says. “The photographs draw attention to the problematic depiction of ‘cultural others’ in these trainings, challenging the implicit assumption of American cultural superiority.”
The military would draft in immigrants from Iraq and Afghanistan to make the training look and feel realistic. Local American civilians were hired to populate the artificial villages. Beckett’s photographs include a combination of formal portraits, landscapes depicting makeshift constructed buildings, and more informal images of the figures interacting within the training scenarios.
The photographs were made at Fort Drum, New York; Fort Irwin, California; Fort Jackson, South Carolina; Fort Polk, Louisiana; The Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center (Twentynine Palms), California; and The Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center, California.
The book also features ephemeral printed materials used by American soldiers and Marines deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Including fold-out pocket guides, language training books, and historical documents relating to Arab and Muslim people.
“As a young adult post 9/11, I worked as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Bénin, West Africa. Through this experience, I learned to see myself as an American, and to take ownership of my power in a global context,” Beckett says. “This experience forced me to confront the disproportionately large influence that we have as Americans, and how our actions, or inactions, impact the lives of people worldwide.”
Defense Language by Claire Beckett is published by Gost Books.
This past week, Adobe added several new features to Lightroom Classic that are powered by AI. My knee-jerk reaction to any new AI feature is immediate skepticism, but after looking at the updates, the additions all look like welcome improvements.
Adobe’s biggest, attention-grabbing headlines over the last couple of years have been all AI, and a lot of it relies on Firefly, the technology behind Adobe’s generative AI, which powers tools like Generative Expand and Generative Remove. It is also behind the company’s attempts at competing with OpenAI and the text-to-video generator it released earlier this year was absolutely not ready for prime time. Adobe has recently changed its tune and gone from focusing entirely on its in-house AI to opening the doors to a wide variety to be used.
“Every generative AI model has a distinct aesthetic, and we want to give users more choice and flexibility, especially during the concept phase, to use the right model for their project needs,” Adobe said of the decision. “Whether you need the impeccable quality and commercial safety of Adobe’s models or the unique capabilities and aesthetic styles of the non-Adobe models, you can effortlessly compare outputs to find the ideal style for your creative needs.”
Maybe this decision had another side-effect of freeing up internal resources, because the new features in Lightroom Classic feel like a return to form for Adobe.
Firstly, the AI culling feature (which was teased earlier this year) feels like a major boon for wedding and event photographers. Culling is and has been one of the most unpleasant aspects of the job, so much so that multiple businesses and products have popped up over the years that attempt to specifically address this pain point. The problem there is the added cost, as each new hardware or software tool adds to the cost of the base software. It always made more sense for this to be a built-in feature.
The AI culling tool is still in early access, so don’t expect it to immediately outperform third-party plugins that have lived in the space for years, but it’s still great to see some way of making culling less of a time sink added to the base software.
Similarly, a new AI-powered dust removal feature has been added, which will help reduce or eliminate another tedious editing task.
I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that Adobe recently dramatically improved its AI-powered remove tools inside of Photoshop. Previously, the best way to use Adobe’s generative tools to remove an object was to tell Firefly via the prompt box that was what you wanted it to do (this is a hotly debated topic, as I received instructions from Adobe that both leaving that box blank and specifically telling it “remove” were best practice at two distinctly different points in time). But in the last few weeks, a new button appeared on that taskbar: Remove. I now no longer have to guess what method will provide me with the best result; I have an easy button that just does it. An added benefit: it works really well.
Another AI-powered tool that got better recently is the selection tool. It does require an Internet connection, but sending the process to the cloud for object and subject selection has gotten extremely good.
Using a mix of masks in Adobe Camera Raw and the new selection and removal tools has made it significantly easier for me to produce high-quality work faster than ever.
These are simple changes that don’t lean too hard into fully generating visuals with AI, but instead are designed to address very specific pain points in workflow and smooth them out. That’s what AI additions to creative software should do.
Generally speaking, Adobe does not sit in the good graces of the vocal photography community. Its pricing model has really rubbed a lot of photographers the wrong way, but there are times when that cost of entry appears to be paying off. These updates to Lightroom are legitimately useful and will make photographers’ lives easier and meaningfully better. This is the kind of AI we need to see more of, and Adobe deserves praise for getting this right.
According to a consistently reliable Apple insider, Apple is preparing to compete in the highly competitive low-cost laptop market by leveraging its iPhone and iPad-oriented A-series chips in a compact notebook.
Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman claims that Apple is actively developing a budget-friendly Mac laptop to compete against entry-level Windows PCs and Chromebooks. The new device will be aimed primarily at students, businesses, and casual users who do lightweight tasks, such as browsing the web, working on documents, and basic media editing.
“Code-named J700, the machine is currently in active testing at Apple and in early production with overseas suppliers,” Gurman writes. “The Cupertino, California-based company plans to launch it in the first half of next year, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the product hasn’t been announced.”
Although Apple has long offered budget-friendly products across its lineup, its Mac computers have typically prioritized performance and premium designs, which necessitate higher price points. Apple’s current most affordable MacBook is the 13-inch MacBook Air with M4, which starts at $999. The most affordable Mac is the Mac mini, starting at $599 without a display or accessories.
Gurman believes the anticipated low-cost Mac laptop will sell for “well under $1,000,” as Apple will rely on cost-effective hardware across the board, including an iPhone processor and “lower-end LCD display.” Speaking of the screen, Gurman says it will be smaller than the 13.6-inch display on the MacBook Air, although only “slightly.”
If the rumors are true, this would mark the first time Apple has ever put an iPhone processor into a Mac. However, iPhone chips have generally worked well in iPad tablets, even though the iPad Pro transitioned to Apple’s M-series computer chips for recent models.
As for why Apple might use an A-series iPhone chip rather than just using older M-series chips in a low-cost Mac, it stands to reason that Apple would prefer to make more of the current A-series chips than to dedicate manufacturing efforts to restarting older M-series production. The company is also committed to AI, which was not as heavy of a focus when designing the initial M-series chips.
“A much cheaper Mac that maintains Apple’s design and works smoothly with the company’s other products could spur a new wave of Mac adoption — particularly in the US, where the iPhone dominates,” Gurman speculates, noting that Apple’s overall computer market share trails behind three companies, Lenovo, HP, and Dell, which all make low-cost laptops.
Beyond this expected low-cost MacBook, Gurman adds that Apple plans to release M5 and M5 Pro Mac mini configurations and an M5 Ultra Mac Studio at some point, adding that a totally redesigned MacBook Pro with M6 and an OLED touchscreen is planned for much farther down the road, late 2026 or maybe even early 2027. “Apple will debut two new external Mac displays as well,” the analyst adds.
DZOFilm unveiled the Arles 18mm T1.4 FF/VV Prime Cine Lens, marking the 11th and final addition to the company’s full-frame Arles cine series. With its ultra-wide focal length and refined optical design, the 18mm T1.4 offers a unique balance between technical precision and cinematic character.
As initially reported by CineD, the Arles series is designed for large-format cameras and compatible with PL and EF mounts, with the new 18mm lens completing a lineup that has steadily grown since its debut in mid-2024.
PetaPixel covered the Arles lens series when it first launched in June 2024 with five focal lengths, 25mm, 35mm, 50mm, 75mm, and 100mm, before expanding to include the 14mm, 21mm, 40mm, 135mm, and 180mm lenses later that year. The addition of the 18mm T1.4 fills a key gap between the 14mm and 21mm models, creating a comprehensive eleven-lens set that covers a broad range of cinematic needs.
DZOFilm has positioned the Arles range as a professional alternative to its earlier Vespid lineup, favoring a cleaner, more neutral optical style. Each lens maintains a consistent mechanical design, including 0.8 MOD focus and iris gears aligned across the range for seamless lens swaps on set. The 18mm T1.4 continues this tradition, offering a unified user experience for cinematographers who demand both visual consistency and operational efficiency.
The Arles 18mm T1.4 FF/VV Prime Cine Lens covers a 46.5mm image circle, making it compatible with full-frame and Vista Vision cinema cameras. This ensures the lens is well-suited to large-format workflows, offering future-ready flexibility as production standards evolve.
Its optical construction, with 15 elements in 13 groups, includes two large-diameter aspherical elements, five extra-low dispersion fluorite-grade elements, and three high-refractive-index elements. Together, these components promise to deliver high resolution, minimal chromatic aberration, and precise correction of wide-angle distortion and astigmatism.
With its fast T1.4 aperture, the lens should perform well in low light, producing images with natural depth and rich tonal transitions. The 16-blade iris contributes to smooth, circular bokeh and the soft, painterly aesthetic for which the Arles series is known. Even wide open, the 18mm delivers a subtle, cinematic rendering with controlled flare and minimal ghosting, thanks to its multilayer nano coating.
DZOFilm’s engineers designed the Arles 18mm with floating optical groups to maintain image consistency and minimize focus breathing during rack focus. The lens’s 270° focus rotation allows precise, repeatable adjustments critical for professional cinematography.
The resulting image character combines technical accuracy with a touch of visual softness, a look often described as “painterly.” This aesthetic makes the Arles series a popular choice for narrative filmmaking, commercials, and any project seeking to blend realism with expressive visual texture.
Like the rest of the series, the Arles 18mm T1.4 features a robust aluminum alloy body with a 95mm front outer diameter. While most lenses in the series offer an 86mm front filter thread, the 18mm and 14mm models omit the thread to prevent vignetting and preserve optical performance.
Physically, the lens maintains the same dimensions as other Arles primes, 4.76 inches (121 millimeters) in length for the PL version and 5.08 inches (129 millimeters) for EF/LPL mounts, streamlining use in multi-lens productions. Dual focus scales in both feet and meters ensure ease of operation across global markets.
The mount system is also interchangeable, allowing users to switch between PL and EF configurations without tools, broadening compatibility across cinema and mirrorless ecosystems. With this release, DZOFilm’s Arles series now forms one of the most complete families of fast, full-frame cine primes on the market, promising to offer filmmakers a unified optical system that balances technical refinement with expressive character.
The DZOFilm Arles 18mm T1.4 FF/VV Prime Cine Lens will begin shipping at the end of November with a retail price of $2,399 (€2,049).
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