Weekly Wash: the 5 biggest camera news stories of the week (June 30)

It’s been an interesting week of revolutionary new technology, scandals and fashionable dumbphones.

Panasonic has found itself in hot water after confirming that 77 cameras and lenses were marketed using images taken on other cameras.

Phones have been making the news this week as Samsung announced a new 200MP sensor, and The Light Phone, Inc has released their new dumb phone, and it’s actually pretty cool.

In other news, the wait is over for lens lovers, as Sigma releases its first ever RF lens for the Canon EOS R system, and getting is geared up for the Olympics, a stunning action shot of a gymnast wins the top at the World Sports Photography Awards 2024.

The wait is over for Sigma's first Canon RF lens

Six years after the launch of the EOS R system, Sigma has finally released its first Canon RF mount lens: the Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 DC DN | C .

While it will physically fit any RF mount camera, the Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 DC DN | C is specifically an RF-S lens – which means it is designed for EOS R bodies with an APS-C sensor, such as the Canon EOS R7 , R10 , R50 and R100 , though it can be used on full-frame EOS R cameras in crop mode.

The lens has an equivalent focal length of 28.8-80mm and boasts a constant f/2.8 maximum aperture along with weather sealing, which effectively makes this a standard trinity lens – but one that, thanks to its Contemporary designation (the "C" in the name), is as portable as it is powerful.

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FINALLY! After 6 years of waiting, Sigma releases its first Canon RF lens

Naughty Panasonic...

Panasonic has confirmed that a total of 77 cameras and lenses were marketed on its website using photographs not taken by those products.

The news comes following the scandal that erupted last month , when it was revealed that images used to promote the Panasonic Lumix S9 were in fact taken on a Nikon D810 . This led to social media sleuths finding dozens of examples of Panasonic products being promoted using photographs taken on equipment from Canon , Tamron and others.

Panasonic issued a discreet apology on its website, admitting that it had used images from stock libraries instead of photos taken on its own cameras. This did not placate consumers, however, nor shareholders – who expressed their anger at Panasonic over this, and another scandal involving fraudulent certifications from a safety organization in the US, demanding the company explain itself more thoroughly.

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Panasonic photo scandal: 77 cameras and lenses were marketed with images taken on other equipment

Dumb phones get cool

As technologically incredible as the best camera phones now are, there's a growing number of users who are getting fed up with how a smart phone can become so interwoven with our existence, demanding attention with its relentless pings, highly curated news and social media algorithms, and resultant data sharing concerns.

The answer to this is a more back-to-basics phone, that retains the core functionality of a mobile/cell phone - the ability to make calls and send text messages - but ditches the apps and extra frills that turn a phone into a technological addiction. A whole industry has developed to produce 'anti smart phones' - or dumbphones as they're often called - and the latest such device to be announced is the Light Phone III .

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A new dumb phone is on the scene, and it looks pretty darned cool

Samsung release a potentially unbeatable 200MP sensor

Samsung has announced three new image sensors designed for the primary and supplementary cameras in smartphones: ISOCELL HP9, ISOCELL GNJ and ISOCELL JN5.

The most interesting sensor of the trio is the ISOCELL HP9. It's been designed as a sensor for a telephoto camera module, yet it boasts a huge 200MP resolution. This makes it the world's first 200MP telephoto sensor, with its resolution matching Samsung's ISOCELL HP1, HP2 and HP3 sensors used in numerous primary camera modules.

The new HP9 is also surprisingly large for a telephoto sensor, at 1/1.4-inch, meaning it's exactly the same size as the existing ISOCELL HP3. Consequently, a phone using the HP3 in its primary camera and the HP9 in its telephoto module could generate near-identical image quality across both cameras. At present this is rarely possible, as most telephoto cameras use a sensor that's significantly smaller than that in the neighboring wide-angle camera, resulting in inferior image quality.

Read more:
Samsung has just revolutionized smartphone telephoto cameras

Gear up for the Olympics with stunning sports photos

Chosen as the victor from over 9,000 submitted images to the 2024 World Sports Photography Awards competition, Belgian photographer Erik T’Kindt has been declared the overall winner, for his image of 22 year old Japanese gymnast Daiki Hashimoto.

The image was taken at the 2023 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships, where Hashimoto won three gold medals.

The youngest man in history to win all-round champion at the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021, Hashimoto is hoping to win a third world title in Paris next month, despite recovering from an injured finger. He told journalists last week: "I think it's looking good, but my finger still isn't 100% so I can't let my guard down.”

Read more:
Stunning action shot of world champion gymnast scoops top prize at World Sports Photography Awards 2024

Check out our guides to the best dumb phones , the best Canon RF lenses , and the best camera phones .