Accessory Roundup: new printers, colorful instant cameras, and more
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| Images: Caldigit, Lomography, Canon |
Welcome to the weekend! The flow of accessories has been a little light this week – not a surprise, given that CES wasn’t all that long ago – but there’s still a few interesting things to round up. First, though, let’s see what’s on sale.
For the video fans
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Sony’s video-focused a7S III is definitely getting up there in years, but it’s still very capable of shooting great-looking 4K footage with very little rolling shutter. It’s currently on sale for $300 off its MSRP.
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| Photo: Richard Butler |
If you shoot equal amounts of video and stills, the Nikon Z6III is one of the most capable mid-range hybrid cameras we’ve tested, and it’s currently available for $300 off MSRP.
New printers
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| Image: Canon |
Good news for photographers who like printing their work: this week saw the launch of two new photo printers from Canon, the Pixma Pro-200S and the imagePrograf Pro-310. The Pixma, which costs $599, supports paper sizes up to 99 x 33cm (39 x 13″), as well as borderless prints.
The higher-end imagePrograf, which retails for $899, is able to print up to 238 x 33cm (129 x 13″) and uses nine colors of ink along with a “Chroma Optimizer” cartridge. Unlike its predecessor and the Pixma it uses a matte black ink for “deeper blacks on fine art paper,” according to Canon. Both models have a 3″ LCD to show you ink levels, printer status, and more, and support wireless printing.
Canon Pixma Pro-200s
Canon imagePrograf Pro-310
Instant Special Editions
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| Image: Lomography |
Lomography has been selling the Lomo’Instant Square Glass camera for a while now, but recently debuted two new editions of the folding instant camera. The first, known as “The Blues” has a denim look, while the Pemberley Edition is beige, wrapped in a pink and green “pastel leather.”
Apart from the new look, the cameras are the same as the regular Lomo’Instant Square Glass. As the name implies, they use a glass 45mm equiv. lens, take the Fujifilm Instax Mini or Square film, and fold down so they’re easy to carry around. At $149, there’s no price premium if you want one of the fun designs.
Even more Thunderbolt 5
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| Image: CalDigit |
Now that some of Apple’s latest computers have Thunderbolt 5, which supports speeds up to three times faster than the 40 Gbps Thunderbolt 4, we’re starting to see a steady flow of accessories made using the standard. Caldigit, a company mainly known for its docks, has entered the game with its Element 5 hub, its first Thunderbolt 5 accessory.
The Element 5 plugs into your computer with a single cable and can provide up to 90W of charging power to it. It gives you access to three additional Thunderbolt 5 ports, two 10Gbps USB-C ports, and three 10Gbps USB-A ports. Essentially, you can use it to turn one port on your computer into 8, all while keeping it charged.
Can you hear me now?
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| Image: Tascam |
Tascam has released two new portable handheld recorders with 32-bit float audio, which more or less ensures that your recordings will never peak. While they’re mainly aimed at musicians, they have 3.5mm line outputs that will let you use them as an external microphone for a phone or camera, though you’d have to also have the unit recording if you wanted to make use of the 32-bit float function.
The DR-05XP, which costs $119, has stereo omnidirectional condenser microphones, which Tascam says “can withstand high sound pressure levels,” preventing distortion even in loud environments, such as a concert. The $159 DR-07XP, meanwhile, has “adjustable stereo condenser microphones” that let you capture a wider sound stage. Both recorders feature USB-C, so you can connect them to a computer and use them as an external microphone.
Tascam DR-05XP
Tascam DR-07XP
Blackmagic Camera 2.0 comes to Android
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| Image: Blackmagic |
Blackmagic’s camera app for Android is getting more powerful with a 2.0 update. It now supports select tablets, like the Xiaomi Pad 6 and Samsung Tab S9, as well as Samsung’s latest S25 smartphones.
The free video recording app, which gives you manual controls that most built-in camera apps don’t, also now lets you control multiple phones running the app from a single device. For example, you could have two people shooting with the app on their phones and monitor both streams on a Samsung Tab S9. This feature has been available in the iOS version of the app for a few months but is now available to even more users. The 2.0 update also adds support for recording 120 and 240 fps on some Sony Xperia phones and includes general performance improvements.
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