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Photography news: Wacom’s slimmer pen, Leica’s cinema special edition

Leica

Afraid of missing out on the latest photo industry news while you’re out, well, actually taking pictures? Photography News of the Week is all the news you might have missed this week, published on the weekends. Alongside the biggest stories of the week, like the Canon EOS RP, the Fujifilm X-T30, Olympus’ lens with the widest zoom range yet, Lightroom’s new Detail Enhance, and Nikon’s 24-70mm f/2.8 Z lens, find briefs on the latest in accessories and photography news from this week.

Leica’s special edition M10-P uses new Cine Look modes

Leica is known for launching special edition cameras, often a color change or adjustment on the look of the camera. But the company’s special edition to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the American Society of Cinematographers includes two new Cine Look modes designed specifically for cinematographers. The ASC Cine Classic mimics the look of a 35mm film motion picture. The ASC Contemporary, alternately, is designed to replicate the style of more current works of cinema.

The ASC 100 Edition Leica M10-P includes a Leica Summicron-M 35 f/2 ASPH lens, a Visoflec electronic viewfinder, and an M-PL-Mount Adapter. The exterior of the camera is modeled after the UR-Leica prototype with a black body with black engravings. The lens, on the other hand, is a gold-colored anodized finish. The special edition kit won’t be available until this fall. Leica hasn’t yet shared a price.

The Wacom Pro Pen Slim is more pen-like with smaller design

Wacom users have another option for a stylus with a more pen-like feel. The Pro Pen Slim is a smaller version of the company’s Pro Pen, which has a slimmer build closer to the feel of an actual pencil. As a part of the company’s Pro line, the pen has 8,196 levels of pressure sensitivity as well as tilt recognition. Flipping the pen over instantly swaps to an eraser tool. Designed for the Cintiq Pro, Cintiq 16, Intuos Pro and MobileStudio Pro, the pen is available for pre-order for about $80.

Instagram Direct Messages may migrate to web

Love Instagram’s chat tool? Direct Messages may soon be available on the web. According to Jane Manchun Wong’s reverse engineering efforts, the company is testing Direct Messages inside web browsers. If the feature is successful in testing, users could soon send and receive messages in a web browser, including in mobile web browsers. The feature could help more users interact with the platform’s messaging app. 

While Facebook’s messaging tool started on web browsers, Instagram on the web still has fewer features than the mobile app, prioritizing the “insta” in Instagram with the immediacy of mobile. Along with the lack of messaging, Instagram doesn’t allow uploads with filters, live video, or posts to Stories from the web.

Hillary K. Grigonis
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The best photo printers you can buy in 2024
Alan compares draft, standard, and high-quality photos from Epson's EcoTank ET-8500.

A comparison of draft, standard, and high-quality photos from Epson's EcoTank ET-8500. Tracey Truly / Digital Trends

If you love sharing photo prints or building physical photo albums, you might want to upgrade to a photo printer. When manufacturers optimize printers for pictures, the results can match or exceed that of the best printers available.

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Crutchfield sale: Save on Canon, Sony and Nikon mirrorless cameras
Canon EOS R5

Photography can be a fun and even lucrative endeavor, although it also can be exceedingly expensive, with some of the best full-frame cameras on the market easily reaching and even exceeding one or two thousand dollars, and that's without taking into account the cost of the lenses. Luckily, there is a great sale at Crutchfield right now on various cameras and camera kits, and you can actually grab yourself some excellent cameras, whether you're just starting out or want to upgrade to the next level. To that end, we've picked some of our favorite deals below, although it's well worth checking out the full Crutchfield sale that's happenning now.

What you should buy in Crutchfield's camera sale
If you're just starting out with photography and don't want to spend the thousands of dollars you do for the slightly better cameras that you'll find in the mid-range, the Canon EOS R100 is an excellent option, and this kit includes a lens as well. It has a 24.1-megapixel sensor for high-quality photography, a 3-inch screen so you can get a better sense of what you're filming, and, of course, the RF-S 18-45mm f/4.5-6.3 lens that the kit comes with. It can also connect with both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and all of that comes packaged at , which is $100 off the usual $599 price tag.

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