I’ve been testing and writing about GoPro’s small action cameras since the first one was launched in 2004, watching as those cameras evolved from cumbersome chunks of plastic worn on your wrist to the content-capturing machines that they are today.

The two newest versions from GoPro, the Hero13, and the original Hero, continue that evolution. One is the most versatile camera GoPro has ever produced. The other might be the easiest to use. But which is the best option for you?

I spent the last month testing both in a variety of situations, from an epic ski trip to Palisades in Tahoe to a surf trip to Costa Rica to tame adventures on local trails in the Southern Appalachians. Throughout that period, I alternated between the two cameras on bike rides, golf rounds, ski days, and surf sessions, trying to determine which camera was the best.

The result is an enigma: The camera that I like the most personally is not the camera that I would recommend to most people. Here are my thoughts on the Hero13 and the Hero.

The Hero13Ìę

The GoPro Hero13 Built-In Features

Let’s start with the Hero13, which is GoPro’s most versatile camera to date, ideal for serious photographers and content creators who need to get a variety of footage. The new camera uses the same sensor and processor as the previous ($288) but adds a few key upgrades that make it far more capable. That includes interchangeable lenses, a magnetic mount, and a suite of built-in features that allow you to customize the footage you capture by adjusting the resolution, aspect ratio, and even sound before you start shooting.

The Hero13 shoots professional-grade 5.3K video, which is rendered incredibly smooth thanks to the in-camera HyperSmooth 6.0 video stabilization. I shot some shaky ski videos recently that were so silky you’d think they were shot on a gimbal. The fact that this stabilization happens inside the camera means you’re not forced to edit your video in GoPro’s Quik app (more on that below).

It’s waterproof down to 33 feet, but even better is the hydrophobic lens, which sheds water, giving you crystal-clear shots when you bring the camera back up above the surface. I have a lot of useless footage from past surf trips when I used older GoPros that didn’t have this water-shedding lens; instead of epic footage, all I got were videos of blurry water drops. That’s less of an issue with this new lens. I used this camera during a week-long surf trip to Costa Rica, and probably 95 percent of the videos I took while in the surf were crystal clear. On previous surf trips with older models of the GoPro, I’d say that ratio was probably 50/50.

My favorite aspect of the new Hero13 is the tall image sensor, which allows you to shoot wide, vertical, or square videos and images without having to adjust the camera’s settings or lenses. I take a lot of videos for Instagram, which requires a vertical frame, but I also do some scenic and gear videos for this magazine and YouTube, both of which require a horizontal frame. I can switch back and forth from those two perspectives on the touch screen with the swipe of a finger before I start the video, or even better, I can shoot everything in Full Frame and decide later if I want to edit and publish vertically or horizontally in the GoPro Quik app.

This versatility means you can shoot footage with or without GoPro’s signature fisheye perspective, which is handy if you’re vlogging, getting scenic landscapes or closeups, or even if you just want a more straightforward first-person perspective. It also makes it easier to pair footage from the Hero13 with footage from other cameras, like your iPhone.

Hero 13 Add-Ons

And that’s just what’s built into the Hero13. You can also purchase add-on HB Series Lenses, like a Macro that gives you 4x zoom or an ultra-wide that offers a 36 percent wider field of view than the standard GoPro lens. Clip these lenses onto the Hero13, and the camera automatically recognizes which lens you’re using without the need to manually adjust the settings.

Most casual photographers won’t need to purchase these extra lenses, but everyone will appreciate the new Enduro Battery that comes with the camera, which is an absolute game changer. One of my biggest complaints with every GoPro I’ve ever used is the subpar battery life, especially in cold temps. This new battery is a beast with a reported 2.5-hour constant run time. I filmed with the Hero13 over several hours, from cold ski days to hot beach days, and never once ran out of battery.

Another fun tool in the Hero13 is the built-in Burst Slo-Mo, which offers three slow-motion options with different levels of quality. This is key if you ever want to throw your videos up onto a big screen; slow motion video from a low-quality camera blown up on a TV’s big screen can look blurry, but the Hero13 gives you five seconds of slow motion in crystal clear 5.3k quality.

The Hero13’s Downsides

Some professional photographers complained that the Hero13 didn’t get an upgraded sensor from the Hero12. While I do publish videos and photos on a variety of platforms, I don’t consider myself a pro photographer, so GoPro’s decision to stick with their previous sensor doesn’t bother me. I will say that the versatility of the Hero13 comes with a price; there’s a learning curve to the system, and it has taken some trial and error to figure out exactly which features I need. It’s like ordering from a menu that’s five pages long—with so many options, it’s hard to settle on a single choice.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I’m blown away by the Hero13’s capabilities. Straight out of the box, it drastically broadens the kind of footage I can capture. Considering all of the potential add-ons, from the new lenses to external lights and microphones, the Hero13 is out of the action camera category altogether. It is a powerhouse that can be my primary content-capturing tool, whether I’m standing in front of the camera for a vlog, attaching it to my handlebars for action footage, or just capturing a photo to support an article.

The HeroÌę

Ìę

The Hero’s Upsides

Take the Hero13, cut it in half, and you have the Hero. It’s half the weight (86 grams to the Hero13’s 159 grams), roughly half the size, about half the price, and is even waterproof to about half the depth (16 feet to the Hero13’s 33 feet). That said, the tiny size is one of this camera’s selling points, especially if you like to mount a camera on your helmet.

Just like the Hero13, it has flip down mounting fingers, a removable hydrophobic lens cover, and a large touch screen on the back of the camera that you use to adjust the settings. It even has voice-activated controls, just like the Hero13, so you can tell this GoPro what to do without touching any buttons. Very cool.

The Hero’s Downsides

That’s where the similarities end, though, as the Hero is a straightforward, easy-to-use action camera without the bells and whistles of the full-featured Hero13.

For instance, you can’t change the resolution on the Hero (4K is the only option). It doesn’t shoot as well in low-light situations, and if you zoom in on the 4K footage, it’s a little blurry compared to the 5.3K Hero13 footage. You also can’t change the frame ratio; like older GoPros, it only shoots ultra-wide lens, fish-eye type footage, which might be a deal breaker for some users. Another limitation to note is that the HyperSmooth stabilization doesn’t happen in the camera. Instead, you have to upload your footage to GoPro’s Quik app before the video stabilizes. That’s not a big deal for most of us, but if you’re editing in a different software and bypassing the Quik app, you’ll be dealing with shaky footage.

The battery life is roughly half as good as the Hero13, and that’s being generous. The Hero repeatedly died halfway through each day on a recent ski trip. Granted, I was filming heavily, and it was cold, but I’ve been able to get through full days with the Hero13 under similar conditions. The Hero’s battery is within the camera, which eliminates the option of swapping out an extra battery.

Personally, my main issue with the Hero is that it only shoots ultra-wide lens footage. That’s a handy viewpoint for some shots, but I don’t want all of my videos to have a fish-eye view. You also have to mount or hold the Hero vertically in order to shoot vertical videos, which sounds like a silly thing to complain about, except most mounts hold GoPros horizontally. This kept me from getting vertical video during my Palisades ski trip, which makes for an awkward transition if I’m trying to match that footage with a vertical-oriented camera, like my phone.

Which Is the Better Camera For You?Ìę

It sounds like the Hero13 is the camera I’m going to recommend, right? Not so fast.

I love the Hero13, and I think it’s the best GoPro I’ve ever tested. It’s the right camera for me, and I’m excited to keep using it for the various ways I capture photos and videos. But I think many of those features that get me excited aren’t necessary for the majority of users out there. While I mentioned many of the Hero’s limitations, I think it’s a great action camera, especially when you consider the budget-friendly $199 price tag.

The question you have to ask yourself is, what kind of photographer are you? If you just want to get the occasional clip of a surf session or a POV of you sending it on a gap jump at the park, then the Hero is probably the right camera for you. The tiny size means you can bring it almost anywhere and get some really beautiful footage that you might not be able to capture with your phone. But if you’re looking for a single camera that can capture a variety of styles of content in a small package, the Hero13 is the obvious answer.

Or maybe you’re like me, and you’ve convinced yourself you need both cameras: the Hero13 for its versatility and everyday capabilities and the Hero for its diminutive size, which makes it the ideal shooter for POV angles on a helmet mount.

Yeah, maybe that’s the answer here. Both cameras are the best cameras.

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Every time Apple launches a new iPhone we get about a week to test before we can publish our initial review. As someone who primarily focuses on the camera features, it’s always a challenge to find a visually compelling spot that will allow me to fully test what the new camera is capable of.

This year, however, I got lucky. Immediately after I picked up the phones in the Bay Area I got on another plane to Alaska where I’ve been driving overland trucks and fly fishing around Denali. This far north it’s the middle of fall, with bright yellow trees covering the landscape, and moose hunters roaming the woods to collect meat for the winter. It’s been dumping rain most of the time, but we also got one day of partial sun, and that night the northern lights popped out at 2 a.m.

Needless to say, I’ve had plenty to photograph in a variety of lighting conditions that have helped me dig into the camera upgrades. Once again, I’m impressed with the visual features Apple has been able to pack into a tiny device that also serves as a phone, GPS, TV screen, AI assistant, and many other things. But as I always remind readers, iPhones don’t come close to the power of a full-frame mirrorless camera, and the iPhone 16 Pros are no exception. Here are my initial thoughts on why the 16 Pros are a great adventure camera, but just one tool in a photographer’s belt.

We Love the Camera Control Button (But It Takes Some Getting Used To)

Apple keeps the hardware design of the iPhone purposely simple (no headphone jack, for example) so it’s a big deal when they give us a new button (as silly as that sounds). This year they’ve added a Camera Control button, which is designed specifically for photographers and gives immediate and easy control of several different manual camera features.

One hard press of the button, which sits on the lower right-hand side of both Pros, launches the camera. Another hard press takes a photo. But the real power comes when you double soft-press the button (sort of like half-pressing the shutter on a camera) which brings up an entire menu of controls such as exposure, aperture, and focal length.

To select a manual control like exposure, you slide your finger on the button until that control is highlighted, and then soft press it once to enter. Next, you again slide your finger along the button to make a change. Holding the camera horizontally, a swipe right on the button when in aperture control makes the shot bigger for less depth of field. A swipe left on the button when in zoom control makes it zoom out and access the phone’s ultra-wide camera. Another soft double press gets you back to the original menu so you can then click into and change another feature.

I was excited to see Apple launch this button because the best photos are often made when you have as much control as possible over your camera. While shooting landscapes in Alaska, for example, I wanted lots of depth of field so I could gather details in the foreground and background and keep everything in the frame as sharp as possible. While shooting white overland trucks, it was helpful to bring my exposure down a little so that the vehicles weren’t blown out when set against a darker background.

As photographers know, mastering a new camera takes a while, and the same will be true with the Camera Control button. I suspect it will be months before I create the muscle memory needed to use the button quickly and without thinking. I also know that one button on the side of a camera will never match the buttons, dials, and toggles that photographers can use to quickly control bigger mirrorless cameras.

A heads up for anyone who lives in a rainy environment. While shooting in an Alaskan downpour it was hard to get the Camera Control button to react to my sliding finger, so I had trouble changing my exposure or focal length. Many times I had to wipe the button dry with my shirt in order to get it to work. Keep in mind that when you buy a phone case you’ll need to make sure you buy one that either comes with a cutout so that you can directly access the button, or one that Apple has certified so that the phone case button covering the Camera Control button interacts appropriately and doesn’t cause any weird delays or interferences.

Apple says that later this year a software update will allow the Camera Control button to lock focus on a subject so that we can then shift the camera and composition but not lose our main point of focus. This is a technique that many pro photographers use to get more creative framing in their photos and a smart update from Apple.

More Resolution Is a Good Thing

The iPhone 15s and 15 Pros all came with a larger 48-megapixel (mp) main camera (26 mm and 24 mm equivalents, respectively), which was a big deal because those cameras provided enough resolution to make photo prints large enough to hang on your wall. Last year I commented on seeing more photos on the walls of Apple HQ, and the same was true this year, with iPhone photos hanging all over the spaces we toured.

Unfortunately the 15 Pros had a bit of a shutter lag when shooting 48 mp photos in Apple ProRAW because the files that format creates are huge. But with the 16 Pros there’s zero shutter lag on the standard camera (24 mm equivalent), thanks to a second-generation quad-pixel sensor that reads data twice as fast, and something called the Apple Camera Interface that transfers higher levels of data from the sensor to the chip. So photographers can now capture action at the largest resolution possible.

The other big news for the 16 Pros is that their ultra-wide (13 mm equivalent) camera now comes with a 48 mp sensor as well. There’s some shutter lag on this camera when you’re shooting at 48 mp in Apple ProRAW, but I was still able to use it to photograph people fly fishing and overlanding. Thanks to the wide angle and resolution, it was easy to get clean and crisp subjects in the foreground but also capture subtle details in the landscape, creating a photo with lots of depth and character. I’ve yet to print a photo off the ultra-wide camera but suspect I’d have no problem making something that is 11×14 inches or even bigger.

The only hedge I’ll include is a reminder that even though the iPhone now has 48 mp sensors behind multiple cameras, that doesn’t mean that the iPhone photos are anywhere as detailed as a full-frame mirrorless camera that comes with a similar resolution but a much larger sensor and larger lenses. Those larger lenses and sensor drink in more information and will always win in the resolution game.

You Can Now Shoot Slow-Mo 4K Video

Most iPhone users aren’t using their phones to create commercial music videos like the one Apple and showed during the iPhone 16 Pro keynote presentation. That said, it’s definitely convenient to have higher-resolution 4K slow-mo video that you can use to capture action or add drama to social videos.

The new features enables the phone to capture video in 4K at 120 frames-per-second (fps), and the Photos app lets you adjust the playback speed after capture. That means you can watch your video at full speed, or dial it down to half speed, quarter speed, or even one-fifth speed. I shot a guide fly fishing and friends driving trucks through puddles and found it enormously helpful to be able to choose my playback speed in order to best highlight the action.

For example, I chose half speed for the fly fishing video because that was slow enough to emphasize the casting movements but not so slow it made the video boring. When I was editing the cars chewing through puddles, however, I slowed the video all the way down to one-fifth speed because I liked the drama of the splash coming at me as slowly as possible.

The Styles Feature Has a Lot of Potential

All iPhone 16s come with the ability to control something called Styles. At first glance these are just a new set of filters, but Apple says that’s not the case. Instead of applying one simple tone to the entire photo, like some older filters, Styles alter the color balance and tonality in a more sophisticated way that leaves things like skin tone more natural while still adding a certain overall feel to the rest of the photo. There are preset Styles developed by Apple, but each of those can be modified by the user in the Photos app. Note that at this point Styles only work in the HEIF format and do not work on Apple ProRAW files.

Apple says that photographers have created their own tonal styles for decades and that they drew on this history when building Styles. For me, I immediately thought of how modern photographers use Presets in Adobe Lightroom that do something similar. Photographers will create a Preset, or dozens of Presets, that alter the overall tonality of a photo so that everything with that Preset has a consistent feel.

When done well, these Presets help photographers nail an aesthetic that’s uniquely theirs and creates a visual consistency that you might compare to an author’s tone of voice. I asked a pro adventure photographer I ran into in Alaska what he thinks of Presets and he said he uses them all the time. That said, he warned that it’s taken him hundreds of hours to create his set of Presets, and he’s always tweaking them. His advice leads me to believe that Styles, when used best, will not be a magic wand, but instead an advanced tool iPhone users will need to spend some time with to master.

Everything Else You Need to Know About the iPhone 16 Pro

Last year just the iPhone 15 Pro Max came with a 5X zoom (120 mm equivalent), but both 16 Pros now feature that lens and it sits in front of a 12 mp camera. I’ve tested the 5X over the past year and it’s been a fun new way to capture the world and create unique perspectives. For video it’s been great to get in ultra close to the action for a more personal experience, and on the photo side it’s perfect for portraits where you still want a little background info (unlike Portrait mode, where the background is completely blurred).

A new feature called Audio Mix that launches with the 16 Pros will undoubtedly help YouTubers and other social videographers in a big way. There’s a lot to this feature, but what’s most important to know is that when you record video of people talking in a noisy area, Apple’s software can now go into that video and cut out the background noise almost completely or just quieter if you prefer, so that you can hear the forward conversation much more crisply. The effect is like attaching body mics to your subjects or using an overhead mic like you see in film production. It remains to be seen if video creators who use an iPhone ditch their mics completely, but Audio Mix will certainly allow some people to just bring their phone.

Apple Intelligence, or Apple’s version of AI, will be released later this year and, according to Apple, will include important updates to the Photos app. One that caught my eye is the ability to use detailed natural language queries to search through the thousands of photos stored on your phone and in your cloud. Apple says we should be able to type something as specific as “Maya skateboarding in a tie-dye shirt” into the Photo app’s search bar and it will find all the photos that meet that description, even if they’re buried in photos from four years ago. You can also use this same kind of query to search videos. Your phone will sort through all your footage to find the exact spot where Maya is skateboarding in that specific t-shirt.

Finally, Apple Intelligence will also allow users to remove distracting elements from a photo with a few swipes. Personally, I think this is great for photos like family portraits, or anything staged, but not something I’m interested in when it comes to other photography. AI features like this, in my opinion, destroy the character of a photo and it should be the job of the photographer to compose a photo how they want it instead of relying on AI to clean it up or enhance it after the fact.

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For the past couple years Apple has rolled out big releases at their annual Apple event, including the Ultra Watch and Emergency SOS, that were especially important for people who love to play outside. This year was more muted for us outsiders as the big news focused on Apple’s version of AI, called Apple Intelligence, which is launching on their phones in beta this fall.

We didn’t get an Ultra Watch 3 with a better battery life (which we’re still hoping for), and we didn’t get an announcement about any new satellite features (even though we’re very excited about the previously announced ability to when iOS 18 launches later this month).

What we did get were several big improvements to the iPhone’s cameras and two smart health updates. Plus, AirPods get noise canceling and the new Apple Watch has its largest face ever.

Camera Control Button

We started covering the iPhone in șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű years ago because it’s long been the best pocket camera that you can haul along for backcountry adventures. Every year Apple rolls out new camera features that make it significantly better, and this year we’re most excited about something called the Camera Control button.

The Camera Control button, which comes on all the new iPhones—16, 16 Plus, 16 Pro, and 16 Pro Max—sits on the right side of the phone. With one full press, it immediately brings up your camera. Another press takes a photo. More importantly, a soft press gesture on the button brings up a menu that offers a host of manual controls including aperture and exposure adjustment—letting you play with depth of field or optimize the brightness of something in the shadow or highlight—as well as the ability to adjust your zoom range.

A quick demo we watched made the ability to access these features with a button look surprisingly similar to how you might quickly and deftly control a high-end mirrorless camera. Older iPhones offer the ability to change things like exposure, but with a dedicated button you’re able to control these important aspects of your photograph significantly faster, which allows for more creative picture making in fast-moving situations.

Improved Camera Features on the iPhone Pros

Both the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max come with a new in addition to a 48-megapixel standard 24-millimeter camera. This increased resolution for the ultra-wide camera means that when you want to take sweeping landscape shots you’re going to get significantly more detail and resolution. As we pointed out last year in our review of the iPhone 15’s 48mp camera, all that extra detail and resolution is particularly nice when you want to make a print to hang on your wall, or if you want to adjust the color and tone in Adobe Lightroom and not totally ruin your photo.

Last year only the iPhone 15 Pro Max came with a 5x telephoto lens, but both the 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max have that higher-powered zoom that allows you to get close to a subject without losing photo quality.

We love to shoot in RAW, but shooting in this uncompressed photo format takes a lot of processing power and caused some earlier iPhones to have a slight shutter lag. Now, thanks to a quad-pixel sensor in the 16 Pro and Pro Max that can read data twice as fast, there’s zero delay between when you press the button and when you take the photo, which is immensely helpful when photographing action.

High-Res Slo-Mo Video

In many music videos, commercials, films, or other pieces of high-end video, you’ll notice that slow-motion video is often used to add drama and intrigue by giving the viewer more of a chance to focus in on the action. To help shooters create this effect, the new 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max now offer the ability to shoot 4K video at 120 frames per second (fps), which is a high-enough frame rate to slow down a mountain biker or skier slashing a turn, or a runner sprinting by on the track. Once the video is shot you can adjust the playback to full-speed, half-speed option, quarter-speed, or one-fifth-speed, which corresponds to 24 fps.

Sleep Apnea and Hearing-Loss Monitoring

Health monitoring has long been a part of Apple devices and for this go-round they introduced two smart and important advances. First, using the accelerometer the new Apple Watch Series 10 (along with the Series 9 and the Ultra 2) can now monitor small movements at the wrist that are associated with interruptions in normal respiratory patterns, something they call breathing disturbances. A new algorithm then analyzes the breathing disturbance data so that the Apple Watch can notify its user if the data indicates consistent signs of sleep apnea. Apple says that this feature was only launched after being validated in a clinical trial that was “unprecedented in size for sleep apnea technology.”

The sleep apnea information that the watch provides is not meant to be a diagnosis, but instead helps a user identify the problem and consult with a physician. According to Apple, more than 1 billion people worldwide suffer from sleep apnea, but most don’t get a diagnosis. If left untreated, sleep apnea can create an increased risk of hypertension, Type 2 diabetes, and cardiac issues.

To address hearing loss, which affects 1.5 billion people around the world according to the World Health Organization, Apple, via a software update launching this fall, is going to be able to offer a scientifically validated hearing test via their AirPods Pro 2 headphones. That test will result in a personalized hearing profile that will turn the AirPods Pro into a Apple says that this feature was also validated via a clinical trial.

The Best of the Rest

Two other updates of note are the large screen on the Apple Watch Series 10, and the launch of the AirPods 4 that come with active noise cancelation. The watch screen is important because it’s actually the largest screen of any Apple watch, including the Ultra 2, and it provides even more real estate to see important information. For AirPods, we love that Apple bought incredible noise cancelation to their more affordable headphones so that you can spend less but still get a feature that allows you to hone in while traveling and working.

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It’s the most wonderful time of the year…OK, Prime Day isn’t Christmas, but it’s a pretty great fake holiday if you’re a sucker for a good deal. And I am indeed that kind of sucker, especially when it comes to outdoor gear. So I stayed up late (most Prime Day deals were announced at midnight Pacific time this morning) and combed through the scores of products on deep discounts. Note: you have to be a to take advantage of the sale.

Here are some of the best outdoor Prime Day deals I found that you can get from now until the end of the day July 17.

Updated July 17: We’ve added six deals to the list, including the Skratch Labs Energy Chews, Tailwind Nutrition Recovery Chocolate powder, Vssl G25 Java Coffee Grinder,Ìę Adidas Men’s Terrex Free Hiker 2.0, Kelty Cosmic 0 Down Mummy Sleeping Bag, and the Osprey Poco Plus Child Carrier. We also checked all links and removed the Oru Kayak Lake and the Yeti Tundra 35 cooler.

If you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission. This supports our mission to get more people active and outside.ÌęLearn more.

Ready for a pro tip? Prime Day is a smart time to stock up on adventure snacks. High-quality trail treats like these Skratch Labs Energy Chews aren’t cheap, but they can have a decent shelf life, so it makes sense to load your larder now. More importantly, if you haven’t tried Skratch’s sour-sugar-dusted raspberry gumdrops, do yourself a favor and indulge. Not only do these athlete-approved, easy-to-digest energy chews contain an adventure-fueling formula of simple carbs, sugars, and sodium, but they’re downright delicious and taste mind-bogglingly like real raspberries.

Recovery Mix is Tailwind Nutrition’s delicious and nutritious aprùs adventure powder. Whether you’ve been hitting the gym, crushing singletrack, or battling a complicated climbing project, the drink mix is a perfect way to reset and replenish your body. Unlike many post-workout powders that are almost exclusively packed with protein, Tailwind’s formula also includes carbs and electrolytes for holistic recovery and rehydration. If you’re looking for a post-workout pick-me-up, check out the coffee flavor, which includes 80 milligrams of caffeine per serving. Otherwise, you can’t go wrong with chocolate.

How smooth is VSSL’s carabiner-topped, 30-gram-capacity G25 Java Manual Coffee Grinder? Smooth as the best cup of coffee you’ve ever had thanks to high-carbon stainless steel conical burrs and a dual-bearing design. VSSL outfitted the G25 with 50 grind settings, allowing you to fine-tune grind consistency to pair with your preferred method of coffee preparation. And while the sleek, two-toned colorway looks sharp in any home kitchen, the G25 is crafted from ultra-durable machined aluminum, making it ideal for car camping, road tripping, surf missions—you name it.

If you love the feel of a high-top hiker but hate the heft, check out Adidas’ now heavily discounted, lightweight Free Hiker 2.0. The hybrid hiker sports tech typical of Adidas’ Terrex line, including aggressively lugged, granite-gripping Continental rubber outsoles, rebound-enhancing midsoles, and a reliable, well-built heel cup. However, what sets the Free Hiker apart is an integrated sock-like gaiter that simultaneously keeps sand and scree from sneaking into the shoe, providing hikers with a touch of compression and more support. Plus, if you like a little street-style with your singletrack, these three stripes have your name on ‘em.

At four and a half pounds, the Kelty Cosmic 0 Down Sleeping Bag isn’t winning any awards for weight. In fact, we definitely don’t recommend this sleeping bag if you’re planning on putting in serious, or even moderate, mileage on the trail. But if you’re not counting grams and you’re counting dollars instead, this budget option from Kelty is virtually unbeatable. Kelty keeps the price low (and volume and weight high) by stuffing the 20D nylon mummy’s trapezoidal baffles with cost-effective 550-fill hydrophobic DriDown. Again, the result isn’t ultralight, but it is ultra-warm, ultra-comfy, and ultra-affordable.

Parent or packhorse? With Osprey’s Poco Plus Child Carrier, you can be both! Osprey’s backpacking DNA is evident as soon as you shoulder the Poco Plus. The toddler-toting pack comes equipped with a padded harness, aluminum-framed suspension, and ample ventilation for easy carrying, ensuring parents don’t tap out early on the trail. It also comfortably accommodates a petite passenger in the kiddie cockpit (replete with stirrups and a retractable sunshade), as well as plenty of toys, treats, and other essentials spread across 26 liters of ingeniously compartmentalized gear storage.

If you don’t have a Solo Stove yet, now is the time to pull the trigger. Their super popular Bonfire 2.0 is 30 percent off right now, knocking over $100 off the typical price. And this deal comes with the stand, which raises the fire pit off the ground, helping to increase the airflow while allowing you to use the stainless still fire pit on a deck. This is the same family-sized fire pit I have in my backyard and I’ve become completely addicted to the smokeless aspect of this product. Honestly, I have a hard time sitting around a regular fire after using the Bonfire for so long.

This is, hands down, the best water bottle I own. And I have a lot of bottles in my cabinets. It holds 40 ounces, has a wide-mouth opening, and keeps water cold for up to 24 hours. All of that is great, but I carry this bottle because it’s absolutely leak-proof and dishwasher safe, which means I don’t have to hand wash it every night. The pro-grade stainless steel lining also means you’re only tasting water—not leftover flavors from previous drinks. Buy it now for about $14 less than the sticker price.

Osprey makes some of my favorite packs, and their quality carries over to the Duro, a vest that’s built for running. A rear sleeve holds a 1.5-liter reservoir with a tube that routes around and secures to your chest so you can have hydration on the move, while the front vest panels are strategically designed with pockets that will hold all your snacks, phone, and keys. There’s even an attachment point for a trekking pole or ice axe if you’re getting really wild during your trail runs. I’ve done some long runs and races with this pack, and I love it. It’s 34 percent off right now.

You don’t always need the LifeStraw water filter, but when you do, you’ll be glad it’s in your pack. This personal water filter acts as a straw that removes 99.9999 percent of waterborne bacteria and parasites from creeks and ponds. It only weighs 1.6 ounces and a single LifeStraw will filter 1,000 gallons of water, so you can keep this in your pack and have peace of mind for years to come. It’s 50 percent off on Prime Day.

The Headout is an aggressive hiker designed to tackle difficult terrain, with an upper that blends breathable mesh with durable leather and Keen’s patented multi-directional lugged outsole that provides traction and stability when the trail gets rowdy. There’s a layer of squishy cushion that bounces back when you’re moving fast and the whole thing is waterproof, so feel free to tromp through those puddles. It’s a steal at 29 percent off for Prime Day.

Coleman makes some of the most iconic car camping stoves, and for this two-in-one Tabletop, they took their streamlined two-burner design and gave it a miniature grill. One side has a standard stove burner, and the other has a 130-inch grill. You can grill steaks and cook pasta on the same appliance at the same time. It offers 20,000 BTUs of cooking power spread between the two cook surfaces. The lid turns into a wind shield (flaps fold out from the side), and you can remove the grates from the grill and burner to wipe the system clean after the grill cools down. It’s 19 percent off, so if you need a car camping grill, hop to it.

It’s hard to remember life before CamelBaks, but I can tell you, it wasn’t great. You had to carry a lot of water bottles and stop pedaling to pull those bottles out of your pack. The Hydrobak takes CamelBak’s winning platform and reduces it to the essentials: This small pack holds a 50-ounce bladder and has a small pocket big enough for your essentials, making it perfect for a two-hour ride. It’s a minimalist design that’s perfect for cyclists who just want to stay hydrated without all of the frills.

Do you need an over-engineered coffee mug? If you’ve ever taken a sip of lukewarm coffee at 11 am from a standard mug, then you know the answer to that question is “yes.” The Rambler’s double-wall insulated design keeps 14 ounces of java hot for hours, and the lock-tight lid is a joy to sip from. I have a few. I love them, and they’re 30 percent off, so I might get a couple more.

If you haven’t dabbled in the “cot life” while car camping, do yourself a favor and make the leap. Getting off the ground and into a cot while sleeping in a tent makes the whole situation feel more civilized. Coleman’s Camping Cot is a queen sized bed with a plush air mattress topper for ultimate frontcountry comfort. There are even two side tables with cup holders. You’re basically glamping when you use this thing.

Okay, technically this isn’t a Prime Day deal. This is a “Limited Time” deal on Amazon, but right now the latest model of GoPro is $100, making it only slightly more expensive than the GoPro Hero11 that’s on sale for Prime Day. So I feel like it’s a no-brainer to go for the Hero12, which is their most advanced camera to date boasting new NDR 5.3K and 4K video and an upgraded video stabilization that makes video shot in even the shakiest situations look like it was shot on a gimbal. It has twice the run time than previous models and has Bluetooth audio support for headphones and microphones. It’s 25 percent off right now, taking $100 off the regular sticker price.

More Amazon Prime Day Deals from Our Sites:

The post Our 16 Favorite Deals on Outdoor Gear for Prime Day appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

Nowadays there’s no such thing as a bad digital camera. The iPhone you have in your pocket takes stunning images and every single mirrorless or DSLR being released by the major brands is capable of capturing images that could land on the cover of șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű.

But with great choices come hard decisions. The camera market is crowded, so you’ll have to do some research to find the option that includes the features you want—be that amazing autofocus, enormous file size, or affordable pricing. We’ve put together a list of our favorite new mirrorless cameras as a starting point.

At a Glance

• Best Overall:
• Simplest:
• Best for Action:
• Frequently Asked Questions
• How We Test

All gear in this guide was tested by multiple reviewers. If you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission. This supports our mission to get more people active and outside. Learn more.

Best Overall

Sony A7CII

Weight: 15.1 oz (body only)
Size: 4.9” x 2.8” x 2.5”
Sensor: 33-megapixel full-frame Exmor R BSI

Pros and Cons
⊕ Small
⊕ Full-frame sensor
⊕ Fair price
⊗ No auto-focus joystick
⊗ Not ergonomic with Sony’s largest zoom lenses

The Sony A7CII is our top pick because it’s small but mighty and the best option for those of us who like to adventure. At just over a pound and about as thick as three iPhones stacked together, it’s travel friendly and comes with a giant full-frame sensor that captures 33-megapixel images, advanced auto-focus, and interchangeable lenses. In short, it’s a pro-level camera that’s significantly better than any current phone camera (or any phone camera we’ll likely see in the next five years).

The interchangeable lenses you can use on the A7CII add bulk and weight, but Sony makes two that are the perfect add-on. Less than three inches long and about the diameter of a paper-towel tube, they’re much smaller than most standard lenses but fast enough to capture great photos in low light, wide enough for landscapes yet not too wide for portraits, and built with high-quality glass so it produces tack-sharp images

This camera is best for those who primarily want to shoot photos; but if you want to shoot video, you get beautiful 4K footage and incredible image stabilization for handheld shooting.

The A7CII costs $2,198 and the 35 millimeter f1.8 lens adds another $748, which brings the total to just shy of $3,000 for the basic setup. That may seem high, but it’s in the ballpark for a pro-level, full-frame camera that has the chops to shoot everything from action to landscapes.

Read our full review of the Sony AC7II here

Simplest

Fujifilm X100VI

Weight: 1.15 lbs
Size: 5” x 2.9” x 2.2″
Sensor: 40.2-megapixel APS-C X-Trans CMOS 5 HR

Pros and Cons
⊕ Easy to transport
⊕ Simple to use
⊕ Rich photos
⊗ No interchangeable lenses
⊗ Not a full-frame sensor

The X110VI won a spot on this list for three reasons: it’s small, relatively simple, and captures gorgeous images. About the size of three iPhones stacked together, the camera weighs just 1.1 pounds so backpackers, bikepackers, hikers, skiers, or anyone who’s moving fast won’t feel weighed down. You won’t want to pack it in a running vest, but the camera is certainly small enough to fit in your daypack, or even the chest pocket of your ski shell.

Some photographers will chafe at the idea of not having interchangeable lenses, but we love the simplicity of this camera. With just one, high-quality 23mm f/2 (35mm equivalent) lens to work with, you’re forced to be a more creative photographer. If you want to zoom in, you’ll need to walk closer. Need to capture a landscape? Back up or climb a hill. The 35mm focal length isn’t perfect for portraits, but it doesn’t distort the subject and can be made to work if you’re careful about your framing.

Why not just pack your iPhone 15 Pro since it’s also portable and actually has three lenses? Because the X100VI is a camera (versus a phone with a built-in camera), Fujifilm is able to pack in a significantly bigger sensor (40.2 megapixel APS-C X-Trans CMOS 5 HR) compared to what you get with the iPhone. That bigger sensor drinks in more light and therefore creates more detailed photos and also does better in low-light situations.

The X100V isn’t as powerful as a full-frame Sony or Canon camera, but it’s the perfect travel-sized option that captures better quality photos than an iPhone.

Best for Shooting Action

Nikon Z8

Weight: 2 lbs
Size: 5.7” x 4.7” x 3.3″
Sensor: 45.7-megapixel FX-format stacked full-frame CMOS

Pros and Cons
⊕ Precise autofocus that’s ideal for shooting sports
⊕ Easy to use with larger lenses
⊗ The shutter sound is awful
⊗ On the pricier side

It’s no secret that Nikon has lagged lately. The brand dominated the film and DSLR market but got its butt kicked by Sony when mirrorless cameras were introduced. Thankfully, the brand is now back with cameras like the Z8, which packs all of the most important features like stunning detail capture and great autofocus into a compact body.

, a Bay Area photographer who’s edited Pulitzer Prize stories for the San Francisco Chronicle and ran the online photo department at Wired, loved the Z8 first and foremost because of the 45.7 megapixel FX-Format Stacked CMOS sensor that makes amazing images.

“The colors were beautiful and the files were easily worked to meet my creative vision,” he said. Merithew often shoots cycling photos, so he also fell in love with the smart autofocus system that will lock onto and follow anything from a human to an airplane to a bicycle. If you half press the shutter, the Z8 will also capture a burst of pre-images, so that if you’re a little late to the decisive moment the camera already has the moment recorded. “There was no situation where I felt underprepared,” Merithew said.

Ergonomically, Merithew liked that the camera hit a nice balance between weight and heft. “It was substantial and felt great in the hand without being a total brick,” he said. Nikon has a huge range of high-quality lenses that work with the Z8, and those lenses are a worthy investment because they’ll still be sharp and relevant long after the Z8 has been replaced by whatever Nikon has up its sleeve next.

If there was one thing Merithew wanted to fix, it was the shutter sound Nikon added in to accompany the electronic shutter. The sound “made me feel less like a professional photographer and more like a teenager playing a cheap version of an 8’s handheld video game,” he said.

Sound aside, we’re glad to see that Nikon is back with a competitive mirrorless offering that fits the bill for aspiring and pro photographers alike.

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the Difference Between DSLR and Mirrorless Cameras?

A DSLR has a mirror inside the camera body that reflects the light coming through the lens and shoots it up to the viewfinder. When the shutter button is pressed, the mirror moves out of the way to let the light from the lens hit the digital sensor.

In a mirrorless camera there is no mirror, so the image you see through the viewfinder is electronically generated and the light goes straight from the lens to the sensor.

Which Is Better—DSLR or Mirrorless?

You could spend a week combing through threads about whether DSLRs or mirrorless cameras are better, but the short answer is this: mirrorless cameras are the future and that’s where you should spend your money.

Some people like that the viewfinder on a DSLR is optical, not digital, but the digital viewfinders these days are so good that you’ll never have any problems. Some people like the larger form factor of DSLRs when handling big lenses, but it’s easy to add an extra grip to a mirrorless that makes these smaller cameras just as easy to handle.

The advantages of the mirrorless camera, on the other hand, are numerous and growing. They’re smaller to start because there is no mirror, and therefore easier to transport on adventures. You can also shoot silently, since there’s no mirror moving around, which is an advantage in situations where you’re capturing wildlife or other sensitive scenes.

There used to be more lenses for DSLR cameras, but all the major companies now have a full line of high-quality mirrorless lenses, and the prices have also come down so you can easily find affordable but high-quality mirrorless cameras these days

How Much Does a Decent Camera Cost?

You should plan on spending at least $2,000 for the body. That gets you a pro-level camera that uses interchangeable lenses and comes with all the best features, like a full-frame sensor and high-quality autofocus. If you can make the jump to $3,000, you get even better resolution and all the new autofocus features that make shooting sports a breeze.

What Are Key Features to Look For?

If you’re going to invest in a mirrorless camera, get a full-frame sensor. These large sensors have incredible resolution and great low-light performance. From there you’ll need to decide what kind of photographs you want to make.

Shooting sports? Go for a mirrorless camera that has a really high frame rate and all the newest autofocus technology. More focused on landscapes and portraiture? Go for a camera that shoots high-resolution or high-megapixel images.

How We Test

• Number of cameras tested: 10
• Number of testers: 5
• Number of pictures taken: 70,000 +
• Hours spent figuring out each camera: Over 50 hours total

You’ve probably heard the term “camera geek.” I bring this up because our tester pool was full of digital nerds. All the testers are former or working photojournalists who’ve followed camera development for the past 20 years and love to geek out on new specs and features. They spend hours debating which camera is the best overall, which is the best for sports, which is the best for portraits, and love to argue about where the technology is going next.

All this enthusiasm made our job easy because we just had to distribute the cameras and let them go crazy. For this test, the cameras traveled all over the United States and Europe and captured everything from bike races to beach vacations.

What made a camera rise to the top of our test was a blend of performance and usability. Our testers looked for cameras that performed, whether that was accurate autofocus or great low light captures, and then also gave notes on how easy it was to get the camera to do what you asked. Were the dials in a convenient place? Was it easy to hold the cameras with a larger lenses? Did the camera bog you down on longer adventures? To be honest, the final decisions were quite hard but these were our clear favorites.

Meet Our Lead Tester

Before Jakob Schiller was a columnist at șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű he spent almost a decade working as a photojournalist at newspapers around the country. He’s old enough to have shot film, but since the rise of the digital camera, has taken well over 1,000,000 photos on various DSLRs and smartphones. He loves photography because it facilitates adventure and captures important historical moments, but he’s also a tech lover and can geek out with the best of them about things like resolution, autofocus, and shadow detail.

The post Our 3 Favorite Cameras for șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍűrs and Travel Junkies appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

When asked which camera takes the best photos, professional photographers like to quip that “the best camera is the one you have with you.” It’s a tongue-in-cheek way of saying that you should never worry too much about your gear. Use whatever you have, then do the work to find, frame, and capture a high-quality photo. The photographer matters more than the camera.

That mantra has become easier to follow now that we all have high-powered cameras in our pockets thanks to companies like Apple, Google, and Samsung. I’ve been blown away by the camera in the new iPhone 15 and think that we’ve finally reached a point where camera phones can produce images that we’d be happy to print and hang on our wall (a true test of image quality).

That said, I’ll eat my hat if Apple ever finds a way to make an iPhone that’s just as good, in every way, as a pro-level digital camera. Because phones are designed to be more than just cameras, they have to compromise, allowing companies like Sony, Nikon, Canon, Fuji, and Leica to still make a significantly superior product.

Case in point is the new . It’s smaller than a traditional mirrorless camera—it weighs just over a pound and is about as thick as three iPhones stacked together—playing on the trend that people want something that’s easy to travel with. Yet the small size doesn’t limit its functionality: You still get a giant full-frame sensor, advanced auto-focus, and interchangeable lenses, making it a pro-level option that’s significantly better than any current phone, or any phone we’ll likely see in the next five years.

See how it stacks up against our other favorite mirrorless cameras

Sony A7CII

Specifications

• Price: $2,198
• ISO range: 50-204800
• Weight: 15.1 oz (body only)
• Size: 4.9 x 2.8 x 2.5 inches
• Sensor: 33-megapixel full-frame Exmor R back-illuminated CMOS

Pros and Cons
⊕ Small and light
⊕ Comes with a full-frame sensor that performs well in low light
⊕ Works with all of Sony’s high-quality E-mount lenses
⊕ Fairly priced
⊗ No auto-focus joystick
⊗ Does not match ergonomically with Sony’s largest zoom lenses

All gear in this guide was tested by multiple reviewers. When you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission. This supports our mission to get more people active and outside. Learn more.

Review: Sony A7CII Mirrorless Camera

After testing the A7CII alongside many other newly-released full-frame digital cameras, I think it’s the best camera on the market for those of us who like to adventure. Weight and size matter on an all-day hike, multi-day ski tour, or when you want to haul a camera along on a 100-mile road ride, and the A7CII is small and light enough to never really bog you down or get in the way.

The interchangeable lenses you can use on the A7CII add bulk and weight, but Sony makes two that are the perfect add-on. Less than three inches long and about the diameter of a paper-towel tube, they’re much smaller than most standard lenses but fast enough to capture great photos in low light, wide enough for landscapes yet not too wide for portraits, and built with high-quality glass to produce tack-sharp images when paired with the well-tuned sensor on the camera (more on that later).

Because the A7CII is a full-frame camera, it works with Sony’s entire line of E-mount lenses. If you’re a birder and want to save a little weight on the camera but still bring along a 70-200 millimeter f/2.8—or heck, even the new 300 millimeter f/2.8—you’d be more than happy with the image quality. The ergonomics of holding a big lens matched to a small camera are not ideal, but doable if that’s where you land.

The full-frame sensor on the A7CII captures 33-megapixel images that are plenty big and detailed enough to produce stunning prints or magazine covers, but not so big that you’ll fill up unnecessary space on your hard drive. Like all Sony full-frame sensors, this one offers a wide dynamic range, so you can always go into Adobe Lightroom and tone down the highlights and pull out the shadows to create a balanced image, even when you’re shooting in lousy light.

For travel and adventure photographers who are shooting on the go and almost never bring along any external lights, knowing that you’ll always get a usable—if not absolutely gorgeous—image takes away the stress and allows you to focus on your framing and the moment.

One big update on the A7CII is a front adjustment dial that sits just below the shutter button. It’s an important addition to the A7CII because that dial allows you to quickly and easily adjust your shutter or your aperture if you’re shooting in shutter or aperture priority mode. If you want to shoot manually, there’s another dial on the back of the camera where your thumb sits so you can control aperture and shutter speed at the same time.

The only ergonomic drawback, one that I admittedly had to get used to, is the lack of an autofocus joystick. On Sony’s larger cameras, like the A7RV, there’s a small joystick that sits in the upper righthand corner on the back of the camera which easily allows your thumb to move the spot focus point around. I love that joystick because I can quickly, with just a flick of my thumb, tell the camera exactly where to focus, be that in the middle of the frame, down at the bottom, or in an upper corner.

The workaround on the A7CII is to turn the rear dial into your joystick. Ergonomically, this works fine because it’s easy to press the dial up, down, or side to side to move the focus point. The downside to this is that it requires reprogramming the standard setting.

When you get the camera out of the box, the rear dial is set up to allow you to change your frame rate (how many photos the camera takes when you hold down the shutter) and ISO. If you reprogram the rear dial to act as your autofocus joystick, as I did, you lose the ability to change frame rate and ISO quickly. These features can be changed otherways, but it’s a little more difficult. Side note: the A7CII shoots up to ten frames per second, which is plenty for capturing high-octane action shots.

Some photographers will not turn the dial into the autofocus select mechanism because the A7CII has phenomenal autofocus tracking. You can tell the camera to latch onto a subject by aiming the focus on the human, animal, insect, or even a car or a plane you want to track, and then half-pressing the shutter. The camera then tracks that subject no matter where it moves in frame, negating the need to manually move your autofocus point.

This technology has gotten significantly better in the past few years and allows the photographer to track subjects in dynamic and fast-moving situations. To switch subjects, you just line up your focus point and half-press the shutter once again.

I’d recommend the A7CII primarily for shooting photos; but if you did want to shoot video, you get beautiful 4K footage and incredible image stabilization for handheld shooting.

The A7CII costs $2,200 and the 35 millimeter f1.8 lens adds another $748, which brings the total to just shy of $3,000 for the basic setup. That may seem high, but it’s in the ballpark for a pro-level, full-frame camera that has the chops to shoot everything from action to landscapes.

There are similar cameras out there that are small but mighty, but within that testing pool, the Sony still comes out on top. The Fuji X100V, which has a loyal following and a similar price point, does not have the same high-level functionality as the Sony, and the images are not as good, in my opinion. There are rumors about an that will improve that camera’s specs, but even that will likely still leave Fuji behind Sony in the rankings.

Leica also released the recently, which is just as compact and makes beautiful Leica-quality images. But that camera comes in at $6,000 with a lens. For Leica loyalists, that price tag might be easy to rationalize; but for others, it might be too hefty.

The post This Is the Most Travel-Friendly Pro Camera We’ve Tested appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

DJI Mavic 3 Classic Drone (Starting at $1,599)

Do you have a drone hobbyist on your list that’s looking to take their flight game to the next level? Check out the Mavic 3 Classic from DJI. Its film quality is good enough for all but Hollywood shooters, but it’s user friendly enough “for those of us who are still mastering the art of drone flight,” says our lead camera tester Jakob Schiller.

Read the Full Review.

Apple Fitness+ ($10/month or $80/annually)

Testers loved the inclusivity of the roughly 4,000 different workouts you can choose from on this app: not only do workout lengths vary, but each session includes three instructors catering to different ability levels. Of course, you need at least one Apple device to enjoy them—we suggest the new Apple Watch.

Read the Full Review.

Sony a7RV Camera ($3,900)

The Sony a7RV gets you “some of the best digital imaging on the market,” says Schiller. The autofocus is amazing at capturing action sports (10 shots per second in compressed raw mode) and you can capture 8K, image-stabilized footage, too. If you want your gift recipient to potentially shoot some wall-hangers for you in the future, this Sony will do the trick: the 61 megapixel, full-frame sensor will provide plenty of detail for printing.

Read the Full Review.

Sponsor Content
Siren 3 Pro ($797)

Make every boating experience better and more secure with the Siren 3 Pro. Siren Marine’s smart boat monitoring system allows boaters to remotely track their boats’ location, engine, temperature, bilge pump activity, battery levels, water levels, shore power status, and more. Your boat is at your fingertips. With the touch of a button, you can control the lights, A/C, and access digital switching. When coupled with the easy-to-use Siren Marine Mobile App, the Siren 3 Pro connects you to your boat anywhere, anytime.

Marshall Emberton II Outdoor Speaker ($170)

If you’re buying a gift for an audiophile that takes a speaker wherever they go, get them the Marshall Emberton II. Not only is the sound “potent and and clear from every direction,” according to our lead audio tester Will Palmer, but it’s tough too, thanks to a steel, silicone, and recycled plastic build.

Read the Full Review.

Garmin Enduro 2 Fitness Watch ($1,100)

Yes, this was the most expensive fitness watch we tested this year, but it’s also the most capable. It would be especially valuable for serious endurance athletes who need features like 150 hours of battery life (GPS mode, with solar charging), topographic maps, and an easy-to-read screen.

Read the Full Review.

Suunto 9 Peak Pro Titanium Fitness Watch ($699)

This watch from Suunto has the best GPS acquisitions of all the devices we tested this season and is tough as nails. Our testers also loved the on-screen navigation features and the 40-hour battery life in GPS mode—oh, and it charges lightning fast, too.

Read the Full Review.

Sony WH-1000XM5 Headphones ($400)

Who doesn’t want to put on headphones and forget the world exists from time to time? These have some of the best sound quality thanks to its futuristic tech, like a new carbon-fiber driver and eight microphones that detect your surroundings and adjust the noise canceling levels with AI. As our lead tester said: “the outside world can wait.”

Read the Full Review.

The post Gift One of These Seven Curated Picks of the Latest Tech appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

Apple, at its core, is a hardware company. But damn if it doesn’t also have the best marketing department in the world.Ìę

Case in point: in the for this year’s Keynote that Apple used to announce its new iPhone and Apple Watches. The video shows a group of people whose lives were saved using Apple products, from the young girl whose watch detected a high heartbeat that led to the discovery and removal of a cancerous tumor, to the middle-aged man who used the iPhone’s SOS technology to call in rescuers when he got trapped out adventuring.

I’m not ashamed to say that I sat there and cried watching all these people celebrate birthdays they would have otherwise never celebrated if not for their Apple products.Ìę

But there was another marketing feature that Apple showed off during their launch. The feature literally hung in the background and might be more relevant to your day-to-day life.

ÌęA series of large photo prints taken with iPhones adorned the walls of Steve Jobs Theater and other buildings on the Apple campus. These prints, many of which stretched to somewhere around six feet, were gorgeous and showed the rich colors, sharp details, and astoundingly good low-light information that a modernÌę iPhone camera is capable of capturing.

Most people I saw at the launch walked right by these photos without giving them a second thought. I, however, stopped to look at each one and was impressed with the display because this was the first time since I’ve been covering the iPhone launch that Apple used real, on the wall, photographic prints as a marketing tool for the iPhone.Ìę

The message I got, and the one that Apple was trying to deliver, is that with the iPhone 14 Pro, and truly with the launch of the and , we’ve arrived at a point where the photos coming out of these phones are so good enough to print them and hang them on our walls. We’ve spent years posting our iPhone shots to social media, but thanks to a series of both software and hardware upgrades, the new iPhones finally have enough resolution to allow us to print large, beautiful photos that will sit in our homes and offices and bring us much more joy and pleasure than some fleeting digital image flies by on our favorite platform.ÌęÌęÌęÌę

How the iPhone 15 Lets You Make Big Photo Prints

What it really comes down to is the sensor size. Last year the iPhone 14 Pro got a larger, 48-megapixel (mp) sensor for the main 24 millimeter camera that drank in tons of information, and if you shot in Apple ProRAW (meaning uncompressed 48 megapixel files) you got giant, information-rich images that had enough detail to create high-definition prints. This year, a similar although updated 48 megapixel sensor is included in both the 15 and 15 Pro behind their main cameras (the main camera on the 15 is a 26 millimeter focal length, and the 15 Pro is a 24 millimeter focal length). That means anyone who buys a new 15, Pro or regular, now has a print-making machine in their pocket.Ìę

Also new this year is the USB-C connector at the bottom of the 15s that will charge your phone, but also acts as a data port. Connect a USB cord that supports USB 3 speeds and you’ll be able to move up to ten gigabits of data per-second off your phone and onto a hard drive. This will allow videographers to record directly to an external hard drive, and for the photographers it will allow you to move hundreds of giant, 75- to 100 megabyte ProRAW files from your phone to an external hard drive for storage. Someone working in a studio will also be able to shoot on an iPhone and tether it via the USB 3 cable to an external monitor so that the images can instantly be viewed on a large monitor for review.

I’ve only had a limited time to test both the new ProRAW images and data transfer, but I’m very impressed. I love having a camera in my pocket that takes such rich photos that I can print them for posterity, and being able to easily clear my phone of giant ProRAW files so that I always have space is a damn nice feature. In terms of workflow, the data transfer capability is also nice because I can now quickly drag all my ProRAW files onto a hard drive and then use that hard drive for Adobe Lightroom on my MacBook Pro, which is the system I and many people use to select, tone, and print images. Gone are the days of having to select my favorite photos in the Photos app and then Airdrop just a select few ProRAW images to my MacBook Pro, or use Lightroom on my phone, which eats battery like nothing else.Ìę

Will the 15 Replace My DSLR or Mirrorless Camera?

I come back to this question every time I review an iPhone, and the answer is still a firm no. For those of us who love to adventure, we now have an even more powerful camera that weighs almost nothing and slides into our pocket so it’s incredibly convenient to use on the trail, on a rock wall, in the water, on a bike, or wherever you’re out exploring.

But even with a large 48 megapixel sensor now standard, it’s still much smaller than what comes in any full-frame DSLR or mirrorless camera. And sensor size is ultimately what matters. Even though the Sony a7IV only shoots 33 megapixel images, those images will always beat 48 megapixel images from an iPhone, particularly in low light, because the full-frame sensor inside the Sony takes in more light, and more light equals better quality all around.Ìę

It’s a smaller niggle, but when you try shooting a ProRAW 48 megapixel image on an iPhone it’s so big that the phone takes a second to process the image, so you can’t shoot in succession like you can on a Sony, Canon, Nikon, or Fuji camera, all of which allow you to shoot multiple ProRAW images per second.

Apple has done an amazing job of building different lenses into the back of the iPhone and the iPhone 15 Pro Max even gets a huge 120 millimeter (5x) zoom lens this year. But even so, all the major camera brands still win because they can offer interchangeable lenses that will always offer more range. I can guarantee you that photographers on the field during the NFL season will not be using iPhones because the iPhone lenses are too short. I can also guarantee you that Jimmy Chin will not be using an iPhone as his principal camera the next time he heads out to document climbers on a wall because he’ll need the range of whatever pro system he’s using. That said, I’m also sure that Jimmy will be plenty impressed with the detail captured by the 48 megapixel sensor.

What About Average Photographers?

Apple knew most people who buy the iPhone 15s won’t use ProRAW images or quick file transfer as much as a photo geek like me , so they found a way for you to benefit from the giant new sensor as well. They did that by making the camera on both the 15 and 15 Pro default to a more reasonable 24 megapixel size so that you can shoot in succession without a delay, but still use all the light that the big sensor drinks in.

To get the 24 megapixel image, the camera shoots one 12 megapixel image that’s designed to gather a broad range of light (shadow details, etc,) and then a 48 megapixel image that captures tons of detail. The iPhone software then combines those images together for a 24 megapixel image that captures the best of both worlds. What’s cool is that the phone also realizes that there might be slight movements between when the two images are taken so it uses software to adjust for these movements and ensure there’s no mismatch.Ìę

To make things more complicated, or varied, depending on how you look at it, the 15 and 15 Pro will also shoot a 48 megapixel image in something called HEIF MAX, which is a slightly compressed and toned format. The phone does this so that you still get the detail of the 48 megapixel image but don’t have the giant files (or the same amount of total information) that you get when you shoot a 48 megapixel ProRAW image.Ìę

I’ve shot several of the 24 megapixel default images since I got my hands on the 15 and 15 Pro a couple days ago and they’re very nice images. They lack some of the razor-sharp details you get with a 48 megapixel ProRAW image, but are still impressive, with individual eyelashes and dog hairs coming through, great color, and nice low-light information.

Other Updates

Some other updates that are not as impressive but that you should be aware of are the new focal lengths available on the 15 Pro and Pro Max, and the ability to turn a regular photo into a portrait after the fact.

On focal lengths, both 15 Pros now come with two new wide-angle focal lengths—28 millimeter and 35 millimeter—that you can choose via a button in the camera app. It’s cool to have these pre-set focal lengths because many photographers find the standard 24 millimeter main camera focal length too wide. But it should be noted that neither the 28 or 35 millimeter focal length is created by its own camera. Instead, Apple uses the 24 millimeter main camera, shoots a 48 megapixel image, and then crops in and transfers detail from the 48 megapixel image to create the two new lengths. As a result both of those new focal lengths still produce nicely defined, and medium-res 24 megapixel images.Ìę

For portraits, you can now shoot a regular photo of a person, dog, or cat on any of the 15s and turn that photo into a portrait, with a blurred background, after the fact. If you have multiple people in the shot— one person in the foreground and one in the background—you can also tell the photo which person to focus on and which one to blur out and switch back and forth as many times as you want.

Should You Upgrade to the iPhone 15?

If you have the 14 Pro already, don’t upgrade, the cameras are very similar. If you have an older iPhone and care about the quality of your photos and think you might want to print medium or large prints of the photos that come off your iPhone, then yes, you should upgrade. And this year you don’t have to spend the extra money on the Pro version of the iPhone to get the bigger sensor.

We know that an iPhone will never replace a pro-level, full-frame camera, but it’s extremely nice to have a high-resolution camera in your pocket at all times that you can pull out to capture the everyday moments that define our lives. And it’s also nice to have a high-resolution camera in our pockets that is so light we forget it’s there so that we can hike, ski, climb, ride and then stop to capture the moment without having to fumble with a backpack or some hard-to-carry mirrorless body and lens setup.

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When I was traveling the country back in the mid-2000s doing photojournalism internships at various newspapers, I constantly heard the staff photographers say they were going to “make” a photo. That word stood out to me because up until that time I, and most people I knew, had always said “take” a photo.

When I asked these photographers why they swapped words, they told me that they preferred “make” because their entire job was to enter a situation and construct a photo. To do so, they considered factors like light, moment, composition, and distance in order to create a photo that captured what was most important or visually appealing.

All this work was much better described by the word “make.” To them, the word “take” implied that they just waltzed into a situation and grabbed a photo out of thin air instead of putting in the hard work needed to build the photo that would appear in the next day’s paper.

I, of course, immediately adopted that lexicon and have used it ever since. It’s a constant reminder that good photographs are created through a process, just like good writing. Every time I get a photo assignment, I remind myself that the photo isn’t going to just appear. I have to work hard in order to make something worth capturing.

I’m giving you this background because one of the tools that has helped me and many photographers “make” the best photographs possible is the prime lens. “Prime” means that the lens is a fixed focal length—35mm, for example—and does not change focal lengths like a zoom lens such as aÌę 24–70mm.

These fixed-length lenses are important tools in the photo process because without the advantage of a zoom, the photographer is forced to move in order to make the photo. Instead of standing in one place and using a zoom to get closer or farther away from a photo subject, a photographer using a fixed-length prime lens has to back up or walk closer. In the process of moving around, photographers often learn more about what they’re capturing. They find new angles, get a better sense for the action, and become more in-tune with whatever is going on in front of them.

The famous photojournalist Robert Capa once said, “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough.” He wasn’t saying that the best photos are captured just inches away, but that to create great photos, photographers should not be afraid to be intimate with whatever they’re photographing. They need to be in the action and next to the subject to really capture what’s going on. A zoom lens allows a photographer to stay at a distance, while a prime lens forces a photographer to be in the middle.

Because prime lenses have fewer mechanical parts, they’re often less expensive and offer better quality glass for the price—creating noticeably sharper, more defined images. You can pick up a or prime lens from most major brands (Canon, Nikon, Sony, and others) with mid- to high-quality glass for just a couple hundred dollars, and that lens will be capable of covering a wide swath of photographic situations. The same inexpensive prime lens will have a wider aperture than all but the most expensive zoom lens. This lets in a lot of light, enabling faster shutter speeds, shallower depth of field, and the ability to make sharp photos in low-light situations.

For those zoom-lovers who have hated my argument to this point, I agree that zoom lenses still, and will always, have their place. It would be nearly impossible to cover an NFL or soccer game without a long telephoto zoom lens that allows photojournalists to zoom in on and track players at a distance. Nature photographers also rely on zoom lenses to create intimate photos of animals that are constantly on the move or are too dangerous to approach.

Many photographers love a quality wide-angle zoom lens because it covers so many situations. At 24mm you can shoot a wide-open landscape and then use the 70mm part of the lens to shoot a portrait. In high-action situations, like a protest, for example, it’s nice to have a zoom so you can quickly shoot a variety of situations without having to swap lenses.

These days, the glass quality on zoom lenses is also phenomenal. It used to be that if you wanted razor-sharp images where every pixel was crisp, you had to use prime lenses. But many modern zoom lenses I’ve tested from top companies create images that are equally sharp. The only drawback is that these sharp zoom lenses are wildly expensive.

So what should you buy? Pro photographers realize that if they want to have a complete lens kit, it’s going to include both prime and zoom lenses. Many photographers I know rely mostly on prime lenses, but they also carry zoom lenses just in case they’re shooting sports or other events where a zoom comes in handy.

For photographers just starting out, I, and most of the photographers I know, would suggest starting with prime lenses. With primes you’ll save money, increase the lenses’ photographic capabilities, and be forced to move around, which will help teach you how to make better photos. As your photo skills grow you’ll start to see what zoom lenses are needed to complete your kit, and you can invest accordingly.

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When smartphones first hit the market 15 years ago, their cameras left a lot to be desired, and we didn’t have apps like Adobe Lightroom for on-the-fly editing. Our DSLRs were getting better, but they had a fraction of the high-end and photographer-friendly features we see today. Camera technology has come a long way since then, and today we find ourselves surrounded by intuitive, powerful cameras that capture the world in beautiful detail. Below are our three favorites for 2023.

The Winners at a Glance

Apple iPhone 14 Pro

Sony a7R V

DJI Mavic 3 Classic

How We Test

Number of Products Tested: 7

Number photos taken: 5,000

Locations visited: 25+

You’ve all heard the cliche about your grandparents walking uphill both ways in a foot of snow to school. For photographers, a similar cliche would start with film cameras and include complaints about 36-frame rolls of film, finicky cameras, and a labor-intensive development and printing process.

The point here is that thanks to digital photography, the proliferation of smartphones, and the rise of social media, nearly everyone on the planet has become a better and more prolific photographer. It’s a hobby and skill that has been democratized and the world is (mostly) a better place for it.

Today, just when you think that cameras couldn’t get any better, and the process of toning and sharing your photos that much easier, the industry turns around and launches new technology that moves both those things forward. The developments happen so fast that it’s almost impossible to keep track and choose what’s right for your photography needs.

That’s why we’re purposely keeping things simple this year. We’ve recommended just three cameras—one smartphone, one DSLR, and one drone—because those choices will cover nearly everyone’s bases. These cameras are so good that no matter where you are, or what you’re shooting, you’ll come away with stunning photos that tell great stories and capture important moments.

Meet Our Lead Tester

Before Jakob Schiller was a columnist at șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű he spent almost a decade working as a photojournalist at newspapers around the country. He’s old enough to have shot film, but since the rise of the digital camera, has taken well over 1,000,000 photos on various DSLRs and smartphones. He loves photography because it facilitates adventure and captures important historical moments, but he’s also a tech lover and can geek out with the best of them about things like resolution, autofocus, and shadow detail.

The Reviews: The Best Cameras of 2023

Apple iPhone 14 Pro ($999)

Pros: A larger camera sensor makes photos that rival those of a DSLR
Cons: Not a DSLR

Thanks to a sensor that’s 65 percent larger than the one included in the iPhone 13 Pro, plus the ability to shoot in the uncompressed Apple ProRAW format, the new 14 Pro can take 48-megapixel photos that have stunning detail for a smartphone. For regular photos, the iPhone automatically takes every four pixels on its sensor and converts them into much larger “quad pixels” that can drink in more light and produce a regular 12-megapixel image that looks great even in low light situations. On the software side, the Photonic Engine software allows the 14 Pro to combine multiple, uncompressed images into one single great photo.

Bottom Line: The iPhone 14 Pro is a powerful adventure camera that takes amazing photos and fits in your pocket.

Sony a7RV ($3,900)

Pros: Improved autofocus and class-leading resolution
Cons: You’ll need a suite of lenses to really make the most of this camera

If you’re trying to land a photo on the cover of șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű magazine, the a7RV is a great camera to use. That’s because it packs a gigantic 61-megapixel, full-frame sensor that captures humongous and detail-rich photos that look great in print (and online, of course). You’d also be impressed with the new autofocus that’s a big step up from the a7RIV model and can help you nail a wide variety of action shots by auto-recognizing and locking onto not only humans, but also birds, insects, cars, and planes. When you’re shooting action, it will capture up to ten frames per second, even in the compressed RAW mode, and for video, it shoots 8K footage and comes with impressive stabilization.

Bottom Line: If you’re willing to pay, the Sony a7RV gets you some of the best digital imaging technology on the market.

DJI Mavic 3 Classic (Starting at $1,599)

Pros: Top-shelf features in a more affordable drone
Cons: Still not cheap

DJI made this drone for those of us who need to create high-quality editorial or marketing content but aren’t professional drone pilots shooting for Hollywood productions. Case in point: It comes with a small but still powerful 4/3 CMOS 20-megapixel Hasseblad camera that has a great color profile and shoots absolutely gorgeous 5.1K footage. A 46-minute flight time is respectable and the omnidirectional sensors help ensure pilots, especially those who are new to drones, don’t crash the Classic into nearby objects. We suggest you pay the extra $150 and spring for DJI’s remote, the DJI RC, so that you don’t have to use your phone as the controller. The DJI RC has a generous 5.5-inch screen and is a joy to use, especially for those of us who are still mastering the art of drone flight.

How to Buy

The best question you can ask yourself before buying a camera is, “what kind of camera do I really need to execute on the job I want to do?” If you’re a weekend warrior who’s just looking to update your social profiles and maybe make an 8×10 print of your favorite outdoor spot, the iPhone 14 Pro is the best choice. It doesn’t have a full-frame sensor or interchangeable lenses, but it’s easier to carry, and packs enough resolution to help you nail the kind of photos you want to take. We also love that you can take a stunning photo on your iPhone, bring it into the Adobe Lightroom app for toning, and then immediately post it for the world to see.

If you’re trying to break into magazine photography or work for a marketing agency that’s putting together a big campaign, you’ll need more than the iPhone. A camera like the Sony a7RV has a full-frame sensor that’s much bigger than the iPhone’s and therefore drinks in significantly more light and makes photos that are several times more detailed and rich. The a7RV also works with Sony’s giant selection of high-quality lenses (wide angles, fixed, and zooms) that will help pros or aspiring pros create photos that just aren’t possible with the iPhone. There are a few downsides, though: building out a full Sony system will cost thousands of dollars; none of the Sony gear fits in your pocket; and you’ll need a high-powered laptop to process the gigantic files.

Finally, we know that anyone who’s truly invested in drone work will know exactly what they need to get their job done. The rest of us who are drone-curious, or might need a drone here and there, will benefit from the Mavic 3 Classic because it’s powerful enough for pro-level work but won’t totally break the bank. It’s the perfect middle ground and great place to start.

When it’s time to upgrade your gear, don’t let the old stuff go to waste–donate it for a good cause and divert it from the landfill. our partner, Gear Fix, will repair and resell your stuff for free! Just box up your retired items, , and send them off. We’ll donate 100 percent of the proceeds to .

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