In today's episode new binoculars from Leica, new lens adapters from Viltrox, some cute cameras under $60 and the beauty of foxes.
Show Notes
Welcome back to the show everyone, Liam here and this is Episode 484 of the Liam Photography Podcast for the week of December 11th, 2025. In today’s episode, new Leica Binoculars will set you back, Cute cameras for under $60, Viltrox conversion lens for the X100 line and more.
Leica Sports Optics, which makes the legendary photo company’s binoculars, spotting scopes, and weapon sights, announced a pair of new Leica Ultravid White Ocean binoculars. The 7×42 binoculars are designed to be a powerful and elegant companion for people’s luxurious outdoor adventures, especially those on the ocean.
“With 7x optical magnification, these binoculars guarantee a steady image — even in rough seas,” Leica promises. “The 42mm objective lens diameter offers brightness at dusk, and the 140 meter / 460 foot field of view allows a wide overview of events at sea and on land.”
These are not the first Leica Ultravid binoculars to arrive this year, joining super-colorful Compact 8×20 and 10×25 binoculars launched in March. Compared to those vibrant, smaller binoculars, Leica’s new Ultravid White Ocean binoculars opt for a subtle, understated style. The binoculars combine white leather with high-gloss stainless steel, which Leica says delivers a “stylish aesthetic.”
“These marine binoculars feel at home on any yacht deck, every terrace by the sea, and in every coastal town,” Leica says. The binoculars ship with a color-matched genuine leather carrying strap and folding pouch. The foldable pouch wraps around the binoculars like a cloth, then shuts with magnets.
Beyond the colorful Ultravid models introduced earlier this year, the new Leica Ultravid White Ocean joins models with 20mm, 25mm, 32mm, and 50mm object lens diameters. All of them promise a clear image, even in backlit scenes with high contrast, but all deliver a different blend of performance and portability. All of the models, including the new ones, have variable eyecups so they can be used by those wearing spectacles and sunglasses. All Leica Ultravid binoculars also include water-repellent AquaDura coating on the outer lenses, which is especially important when using them on the water.
Like all Leica products, the Ultravid White Ocean binoculars are built using premium materials and come with a price tag to match. The Leica Ultravid White Ocean 7×42 binoculars are available today at all Leica Stores, the Leica Online Store, and through authorized retailers. The retail price is $4,499. Those who want Leica optics and 7×42 binoculars can opt for the standard black Leica 7×42 Ultravid HD-Plus binoculars, which are available now for $2,569.
Japanese stationery and electronics company Nakabayashi Co. Ltd. is all-in on fun cameras. The company recently announced a wide-ranging line-up of cameras that runs the gamut from keychain toy cameras to point-and-shoot film cameras.
As reported first by DC-Watch and this week by Digital Camera World, Nakabayashi has something for just about everyone. To be clear, none of these new cameras sport particularly impressive specifications on paper, but they are undeniably cute and cool, which, as has been demonstrated many times before, can hold significant sway for photographers.
There are six cameras in the new series. Starting with the teeniest of the bunch, two toy cameras. The Toy Camera and the Toy Camera Easy both attach to keychains and weigh next to nothing. The bigger one, although the word “bigger” is used loosely here, weighs under 30 grams and has a two-megapixel Type 1/4 CMOS image sensor with a 0.6mm f/2.8 lens, which is equivalent to a wide-angle lens thanks to the massive crop factor. The camera has an itty-bitty display and records images to a microSD card. The Toy Camera is priced at 8,635 Japanese yen, which is roughly $55.
The even smaller Toy Camera Easy has a 1-megapixel Type 1/10 sensor and a wide-angle prime lens. It also records to a microSD card and weighs a mere 9.5 grams (0.3 ounces). This camera is even cheaper, priced at the equivalent of just under $20.
Both the Toy Camera Easy and Toy Camera can record video as well as still images, although photographers should keep their quality expectations in check. These are tiny image sensors inside toy cameras.
Then there are the Kodomona Cameras designed for kids. These compact digital cameras have a chunky exterior, ideal for kids. These cameras come in blue and beige colorways and sport a Type 1/6.5 CMOS image sensor with just one megapixel of resolution. The camera costs under $50, weighs about 80 grams, and ships with a hand strip and tripod that doubles as a selfie stick.
The remaining three cameras are all analog models: the Filma Camera, Filma Camera Daylight, and Filma Camera Half. The standard Filma Camera has a 28mm f/8 built-in lens, a flash, and captures full-frame 35mm photos. This camera is 9,295 Japanese yen, or nearly $60.
The Filma Camera Daylight ditches the flash in favor of a slimmer, cuter form factor and white and pink colorways. It has the same 28mm f/8 lens and captures full-frame photos. The smaller camera is also cheaper, at just under 4,000 yen (about $25).
Rounding out the trio is the Filma Camera Half, a half-frame film camera with a built-in flash and, again, the same 28mm f/8 lens.
All in all, these are pretty interesting new cameras. None of them will set the world ablaze with their tech specs, but there is plenty of space in the market for affordable cameras that don’t make overly ambitious or unrealistic promises.
Viltrox, best known for its excellent camera lenses, has announced a new Wide Conversion Lens that attaches to the built-in lens on Fujifilm’s popular X100 compact cameras, including the newest X100VI model launched last year. The conversion lens turns the X100’s 35mm equivalent lens into a wide-angle 28mm prime.
The Fujifilm X100 series features a built-in 23mm f/2 lens, which is equivalent to a 35mm prime thanks to the APS-C sensor’s 1.5x crop factor. While the X100 is celebrated for its 35mm equivalent lens and this natural field of view, some photographers may want more flexibility, which is where conversion lenses come in.
Fujifilm itself makes conversion lenses, which were most recently updated alongside the X100F model way back in early 2017. The Fujifilm WCL-X100 II, available in both black and silver finishes, converts the X100 camera’s built-in lens to deliver a 28mm equivalent focal length, down from 35mm. This is a 0.8x reduction in focal length, which increases the field of view from around 64° to more like 75°. However, this wide-angle conversion lens and the accompanying telephoto model are nearly a decade old now and were developed well before the X100VI moved to Fujifilm’s higher-resolution 40-megapixel X-Trans CMOS 5 HR image sensor. Further, and perhaps most importantly of all, Fujifilm’s wide-angle and telephoto conversion lenses are $399 each, which is a hefty chunk of change.
Viltrox promises excellent image quality at a much lower price of $159. The Viltrox WCL-X100VI, despite its name referencing the newest X100 model, the X100VI, works with all X100 series cameras. However, fourth-generation models and later, including the X100F, X100V, and X100VI, automatically recognize the conversion lens and adjust the built-in distortion and vignetting correction accordingly.
As Viltrox explains, the WCL-X100VI features five elements arranged in four groups, including a pair of high-refractive-index lenses. The front element features a special coating to repel dirt and water. The conversion lens itself has a 49mm front filter thread, like the built-in lens when used with an adapter, and adds 36.6 millimeters (1.44 inches) of total length to the X100’s lens.
The Viltrox WCL-X100VI is available now for $159 in both black and silver finishes, designed to match the look of the X100 cameras themselves.
A photographer has captured a series of exquisite images of foxes in snow to highlight each of their personalities and to show they don’t deserve their “sly” and “cunning” labels.
Roeselien Raimond from the Netherlands tells PetaPixel that by isolating them on snow in wintry surroundings, she is showing their individuality by eliminating all other noise.
“Animals are often anonymized, making it easier for us to see them as ‘just a fox,’” Raimond explains. “The moment you start seeing an animal as an individual and recognize it as a being with personality and associated traits and emotions, you’ll also treat it with more respect. That’s something I want to emphasize with this ‘Fox Hall of Fame’.”
Raimond has been photographing foxes for 10 years, previously appearing on PetaPixel for her 64 foxy faces project. However, snow appears rarely in the Netherlands so she has had to take her opportunities in the last 15 years.
“I typically expose to the right (ETTR), which makes my entire photo slightly brighter,” Raimond says of her technique for photographing in the snow. “Then I adjust the contrasts, lights, darks, and shadows to make the snow a bit whiter and expose the fox perfectly. And in some cases, I had to remove some disturbing spots from the snow.”
Certainly Raimond’s photos leap off the screen, but it’s not just about capturing wonderful frames; the photographer is keen to change perceptions about foxes which have been characterized as “tricksters” throughout history via folklore, children’s tales, and in literature.
“Foxes are opportunistic and, given the chance, will not hesitate to ‘steal’ some chickens,” Raimond says of the vixens and tods. “This, of course, does not make them popular. What also doesn’t help is that they are interested in the same prey as human hunters, such as rabbits, hares, and pheasants. So they are, in effect, competitors.”
Fox hunts have of course been a thing for centuries. “To this day, hunters still call for foxes to be ‘regulated or managed’,” adds Raimond. “Because their populations are getting too large, under the guise of protecting other animals. While it’s now been proven that foxes can perfectly regulate their own numbers based on territory size and food availability.”
Raimond adds that foxes are a “vital link in the ecosystem” and culling them creates more problems. “After years of studying foxes, I can say that foxes are far from mean or nasty. They are intelligent, curious, and enterprising, and above all, they are the friendliest and most sociable wild animals I know.”
Raimond says she hopes her photos and the stories she writes about them influence people’s opinions of foxes. “Because if you look closely, you’ll immediately see that this wonderful, intelligent animal that deserves a better story,” she adds.
You can find more of Raimond’s work on her website, Facebook, and Instagram.
In modern photography, nearly every part of the workflow has evolved at an incredible pace. Sensors are larger, resolutions are higher, and video formats now reach deep into 8K and beyond. Yet one of the smallest pieces of gear in your bag plays one of the biggest roles in whether your camera can take full advantage of that power: the memory card. For professional photographers, choosing the right media is not a convenience. It is a critical decision that affects performance, reliability, data safety, and ultimately the quality of the work you deliver.
A memory card is the first link in your data pipeline. When that link slows down or fails, the entire workflow suffers. Missed frames, reduced burst rates, dropped video frames, and unpredictable offload speeds can compromise a shoot in ways that cannot be fixed in post-production. This is why the right card and the right reader are essential tools for every working photographer.
Professional cameras today generate enormous amounts of data. A single high-speed burst from a 45-megapixel body can create hundreds of megabytes of RAW files in seconds. High bitrate 4K and 8K internal video recording places even heavier demands on sustained write speeds. If your card cannot keep up with these data streams, the results are immediate and painful.
Using a card that is too slow or not designed for your camera can lead to:
Smaller burst sequences
Slower buffer clearing
Unexpected recording stops
Overheating and throttling
Corrupted files
Missed moments
This is why many photographers now rely on CFexpress and V60 or V90 SD cards like OWC Atlas that are built for sustained, not just advertised, write performance.
Speed enables performance, but reliability protects your work. A memory card must handle repeated cycles of high-speed writing, sudden power interruptions, extreme temperatures, and years of use without failing. For professionals, this durability is not optional. The cost of a failed card can be measured not only in lost images, but in the lost trust of a client.
OWC’s Atlas line is known in the professional space for offering performance that holds up under real workloads. Unlike consumer cards that may hit high peak speeds then throttle, Atlas cards are designed for sustained throughput, stability, and endurance in demanding environments. This is why they have become a favorite among photographers who shoot action, weddings, sports, wildlife, and commercial work where the camera never gets a break.
For cameras from Canon, Nikon, Panasonic, and other systems that rely on CFexpress Type B, Atlas Pro and Atlas Ultra cards deliver the sustained speeds needed for continuous RAW bursts and high-bitrate video formats. Atlas Ultra Type B cards, in particular, support long 8K RAW recording sessions without the dips that cause many cards to fail mid-take. The Atlas Ultra Type B cards are RED APPROVED, meaning they meet the performance and reliability standards required for cameras like RED KOMODO-X and other advanced cinema workflows.
These cards are rigorously tested across major camera bodies to ensure predictable behavior and maximum performance.
Sony mirrorless cameras use the smaller CFexpress Type A format, and OWC offers Atlas cards purpose-built for the unique speed and thermal requirements of models such as the Alpha 1, A7S III, A9 III, FX3, and FX6. These cards provide the sustained performance needed for 4K and 8K capture, S&Q frame rates, and rapid stills bursts that would overwhelm slower media.
The result is smoother recording, longer takes, and more consistent performance on set.
For hybrid creators and event photographers who rely on SD media, Atlas Pro V60 and V90 cards provide stable, predictable write speeds for 4K and high frame rate recording. Many SD cards can hit top speeds only briefly before slowing down. OWC’s cards maintain consistent throughput, which is crucial during long time-lapses, multi-cam shoots, or continuous bursts.
Photographers often select fast, reliable cards but overlook the importance of pairing them with the right card reader. A reader is the first device your images and video touch after they leave the camera, and it plays a major role in how fast and how safely your data is transferred. A slow or unstable reader can bottleneck your workflow, cause overheating during transfers, or compromise file integrity during large offloads.
OWC’s Atlas readers are designed specifically to handle the speeds that today’s CFexpress and SD cards are capable of. When paired with Atlas Pro or Atlas Ultra cards, these readers deliver some of the fastest and most stable offload speeds, up to 5000MB/s, in the industry. Unlike many generic readers that drop speed once heat builds up, Atlas readers maintain consistent performance across entire offloads, even when transferring hundreds of gigabytes of RAW files or 8K footage.
The OWC USB4 CFexpress 4.0 Card Reader and the Atlas USB-C SD readers are compact, rugged, and built for real professional environments. They are bus-powered, travel friendly, and engineered for stable thermal management. This means that photographers can trust their offload process whether they are in a studio, working out of a hotel room, or offloading footage between sets.
OWC supports both its cards and readers with the OWC Innergize software. This unique tool lets you monitor card life, perform card sanitization to restore peak performance, and check for firmware updates that improve reliability and camera compatibility. For working photographers who depend on every card in their kit, having insight into card condition is a valuable insurance policy.
Professional photography is about consistency, trust, and the ability to deliver under pressure. When your camera card and reader are chosen intentionally and designed for your workflow, you unlock the full performance of your gear and minimize your risks.
The right card ensures:
Full burst speeds
Reliable high-bitrate video recording
Faster workflow from capture to delivery
Long-term durability
Greater confidence on every shoot
OWC’s Atlas cards, readers, and Innergize software create a complete ecosystem that protects your files, accelerates your workflow, and supports the demands of modern professional production.
Memory cards and readers may be small pieces of gear, but they carry enormous responsibility. For professionals who want to extract every bit of performance from their camera, reduce friction in post-production, and safeguard the work that clients depend on, choosing the right media is essential. With OWC’s Atlas lineup and its accompanying readers, photographers gain a complete, reliable workflow that keeps pace with the speed and creativity of today’s imaging technology.
Viltrox has been busy so far in December. Alongside wide-angle and telephoto conversion lenses for Fujifilm X100 Series cameras, the Chinese lens maker has also launched a new 2x teleconverter for Sony E-mount cameras. The new teleconverter works with the expected Sony lenses, plus Viltrox’s 135mm f/1.8 prime.
The Viltrox Teleconverter 2.0x for Sony E-mount is listed for order now on B&H, and B&H notes that per Viltrox, the new teleconverter works with the Sony 70-200mm f/2.8 G Master and GM II lenses, Sony’s 100-400mm, 200-600mm, and 400-800mm telephoto zoom lenses, the Sony 300mm f/2.8 GM, 400mm f/2.8 GM, and 600mm f/4 GM, plus Viltrox’s 135mm f/1.8 portrait prime. This is the same set of Sony lenses as Sony’s own 2x teleconverter works with, plus, of course, the Viltrox 135mm.
However, where Viltrox aims to separate itself from Sony’s offering is price. The Sony FE 2x Teleconverter is $598, while the Viltrox option is $280. That’s a significant price difference. Viltrox promises that its teleconverter performs similarly to Sony’s offering, including in terms of image quality.
As its name suggests, a 2x teleconverter doubles the effective focal length of attached lenses, turning something like a 400-800mm telephoto zoom into an 800-1600mm lens. However, this comes at the cost of maximum aperture, as a 2x teleconverter slows a lens by two stops. In the case of a 70-200mm f/2.8 telephoto zoom, this means photographers have the equivalent of a 140-400mm f/5.6, which is not necessarily limiting in terms of light-gathering. However, in the case of the 400-800mm f/6.3-8 example, that lens is already on the slower side without a teleconverter. While 1600mm of reach is great, it comes with a max aperture of f/16, which can be very limiting. Such is the nature of the beast with teleconverters, no matter which company makes them.
The Viltrox Teleconverter 2x for Sony E-mount is available to order now for $280. B&H expects it to be available in the next 7-14 days, just in time for the holidays.
Godox announced the AD300Pro II, a new all-in-one outdoor flash arriving five years after the original AD300Pro.
The AD300Pro II, as its name suggests, offers 300Ws of output. The battery-powered flash delivers roughly 350 flashes per charge at its maximum output and recycles in 0.01 to 1.5 seconds, depending on the selected power setting. The Godox AD300Pro II is also known as the Flashpoint Xplor 300 Pro II at some retailers.
“The AD300Pro II delivers sustained performance for extended location shoots,” Godox promises. “That means fewer interruptions, fewer battery swaps, and more usable frames during long assignments — minimal downtime and more decisive shots.”
These primary specifications are the same as the original AD300Pro, but there are some nice upgrades on offer. Among the biggest upgrades is the new one-tap wireless sync functionality. Using the Godox X3 and X3Pro wireless triggers, the AD300Pro II can be connected in a single tap with no manual group or channel setup required. The AD300Pro II is also compatible with Godox’s other X-series transmitters and can be used with wired connections via 3.5mm sync and USB-C.
Other upgrades include improved control and versatility. While the original AD300Pro offered nine stops of power control, the AD300Pro II ups the count to 10, providing photographers with more fine-tuned control over their lighting.
For photographers fortunate enough to use cameras with super-high-speed electronic shutters, especially those like the a9 III and its global shutter, the AD300Pro II offers meaningful performance improvements over its predecessor. While the original outdoor flash could fire a flash as short as 1/10,200s, the new AD300Pro II delivers even better action-stopping flash. The AD300Pro II can reach flash durations as short as 1/24,390s, all while promising stable color with drift under 100K.
The modeling light is also better. While still 12-watt like before, the AD300Pro II’s modeling light features a bi-color LED with color temperature adjustments from 2800 to 6000K. The original AD300Pro’s modeling light did not offer color temperature control.
Speaking of color temperature, the AD300Pro II’s primary monolight delivers a 5800K white balance with ±200 K accuracy.
The Godox AD300Pro II weighs just 2.6 pounds (1.2 kilograms) with its battery attached, roughly the same as its predecessor. The AD300Pro II is approximately 7.4 x 3.9 x 3.5 inches (18.7 x 10 x 9 centimeters). The flash can be controlled remotely, but it also includes rear buttons, dials, and a color display.
Like other Godox flashes, the AD300Pro II accepts Godox’s own modifiers but works with an optional S3 bracket to take Bowens-mount accessories. An optional AD-AB adapter expands compatibility to include mount adapters for Broncolor, Profoto, and Elinchrom light-shaping tools.
The Godox AD300Pro II is compatible with most TTL systems, including Canon, Nikon, Fujifilm, OM System, Panasonic, Sony, Leica, and Pentax.
The Godox AD300Pro II outdoor flash is available to purchase now for $499 and will begin shipping soon. It ships with a battery, charging cable, and carrying case.
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