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This year included some fantastic new cameras, lenses, and accessories. From the Nikon Z8 and the Sony a7CR to the Canon RF 100-300mm f/2.8 and Sigma 14mm f/1.4 DG DN Art, nearly every camera maker brought something amazing to the table. However, some of them also announced products that slipped through the cracks by virtue of being dreadfully boring, if not outright bad. That point is vital to hammer home. Not every announcement featured in this article is for a bad product. Many selections are perfectly fine, or even outstanding, even if they arrived to little fanfare. Canon PowerShot V10: The Vlogging Camera Nobody Asked For That said, let’s kick things off with a bad camera, the PowerShot V10. If not for the work I did preparing the “Canon in 2023” recap, I would have forgotten that Canon released an all-in-one compact vlogging camera this year altogether — and I have one in my possession that I have actively used. As far as first impressions are concerned, that is not a very good one. Remember this? I didn’t, and I wrote about it and have actually used the camera. | Credit: Canon Nikon Nikkor Z 26mm f/2.8: A Good Pancake Lens That Flew Under the Radar Another product that I only remembered by doing a recap is the Nikon Nikkor Z 26mm f/2.8 lens. Now, this is not a bad lens by any stretch of the imagination, but it has been thoroughly overshadowed by not only the lens Nikon announced alongside it, the Nikkor Z 85mm f/1.2 S, but the rest of the gear Nikon unveiled in 2023. The Nikkor 26mm f/2.8 lens is compact, lightweight, stylish, and good. But it’s also sorta forgettable. | Credit: Nikon
Weird Waterproof Cameras Ricoh/Pentax did some great things this year, including releasing some nice new 50mm prime lenses and the K-3 III Monochrome DSLR. The company also revealed the Pentax WG-90, which is the Ricoh WG-80 with Pentax’s name on the front. Pentax WG-90 | Credit: Ricoh/Pentax Speaking of old cameras sporting a fresh coat of paint, OM System got in on the trend with the OM System Tough TG-7, which is pretty much the same as the Olympus TG-6, which is itself basically the same camera as the TG-5. Is it the TG-5? No. And it isn’t the TG-6 either. This is the new TG-7, a camera you’d be forgiven for forgetting. | Credit: OM System Polaroid I-2: $600 Instant Camera is Cool but also Why? I’m not sure who has been asking for a $600 instant camera, but here it is, the Polaroid I-2. While the Polaroid Instant Now and Now+ are $120 and $150, respectively, Polaroid threw caution — and cost consciousness — to the wind with the new I-2. It’s hard to imagine this camera having anywhere near the cultural impact of some of Polaroid’s other products. The Polaroid I-2 is a really expensive instant camera. But this product image is amazing, at least. | Credit: Polaroid Capture One for iPhone Was a Long Time Coming but Landed With a Soft Thud Capture One for iPhone, first announced in November 2021, finally arrived this June. Unfortunately, the mobile image editor captures none of the desktop version’s charm but inherits many of its frustrations.
Throwing Shade: Meta’s Ray-Ban Smart Glasses Are Forgettable Remember that time Meta announced Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses in 2021? No? How about the second-gen Ray-Ban Smart Glasses that landed in September with better cameras and fancy AI? Me either. But Chris Niccolls probably remembers them since he reviewed them. Epson’s New Printer Deserves More Attention Dedicated photo printers are few and far between. There are some very good ones, but printer lines rarely receive new models, and when they arrive, they don’t get much fanfare. The Epson SureColor P5370 is Epson’s newest 17-inch photo printer, and it sports an improved printhead, new inks with better performance, especially in dark blues, and a more powerful printing engine. As a longtime Epson user, I am confident that the P5370 will deliver amazing prints when it arrives at retailers early next year. Hopefully, people remember it exists because printing your photos is one of the greatest joys of photography.
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