Lenses

​Why carry a dedicated camera around these days when your phone can take care of most moment capture needs? Chinese photographic equipment maker Yongnuo has revealed the YN450, a smartphone-like mirrorless camera that runs Android and is compatible with Canon camera lenses.​

This is one of the weirdest and most extraordinary new camera lenses we've come across. Laowa's 24mm f/14 probe lens looks bizarre, works like nothing else we've come across, and offers a truly immersive and endlessly fascinating way to experience and document the world at the microscopic level.

Back in 2014, Canon stunned pro videographers with an absolute monster of a lens. The Cine-Servo put top-grade glass behind camcorder-like controls to offer unprecedented flexibility. And it only came to be after a wildlife videographer laid down a challenge.

For the price of a year-long backpacking trip around the world, you can now own the fastest-ever 75mm aspherical lens. Leica's new Noctilux-M 75mm f/1.25 is a US$13,000 piece of glass with a monster aperture and a razor-thin depth of field to deliver dreamy out-of-focus bokeh.

Researchers at Caltech have created a lensless camera which could lead to the development of thinner smartphones and other imaging devices. The new camera replaces the traditional lens with an ultra-thin optical phased array.

​If you're a professional photographer, then you likely switch between multiple lenses while shooting. The problem is, digging the right lens out of your kit bag at a moment's notice can be a hassle. It was with this in mind that Swedish photographer Jonas Lundin invented the quick-draw TriLens.

The PowerShot SX730 HS is the latest compact camera from Canon, and one designed to appeal to everyday photographers who feel limited by the lack of zoom on their smartphones. The camera combines a 40x zoom lens with a tilting rear monitor and wireless connectivity for quick and easy sharing.

Nikon has (almost) been around for 100 years, and it's pulling out all the stops to celebrate. Along with a set of commemorative trinkets, like neck straps and crystal cameras, the imaging and optics company has designed limited edition versions of its flagship cameras, lenses and binoculars.

Lensbaby has announced a new three-in-one creative lens for mirrorless cameras. The rotating optic allows users to switch between Lensbaby’s Twist, Velvet, and Sweet creative effects without having to swap lenses.

The new M.Zuiko digital ED 25-mm F1.2 pro and 12-100-mm F4.0 IS pro are the latest examples of Olympus’s efforts to offer lenses that provide greater image stability, enhanced resolution, and more creativity for both professional and advanced amateur photographers.

Perhaps above all else, the smartphone camera triumphs for capturing the drunken antics of our friends. With the simplest of additions, though, our phones can be used for capturing a world so small that it is barely visible to the human eye.

The Daguerreotype Achromat Art Lens is the latest vintage-inspired lens from Lomography. Currently on Kickstarter, where it’s already secured its funding target several times over, the lens is a modern reworking of the world’s first photographic optic lens from 1839, but now for your DSLR.