Electric vehicles are emerging left, right, and center, but I bet nobody put their money on a vacuum cleaner manufacturer coming up with one. And it's not just a plain ol' EV put together with random Chinese components, but a proper hypercar!
Category: Automotive, Transport
Tags: Electric Vehicles, Vacuum, China, Bugatti, Xiaomi, Dyson
Epson added an ultra-short-throw laser projector to its new Lifestudio range of streaming models last year, which promised "impressive brightness and a vivid, true-to-life picture day or night." Now the veteran company is adding a more powerful flavor.
Category: Home Entertainment, Consumer Tech, Technology
Designed for full-time living in a small footprint, the Julia tiny house packs an impressive number of features into its compact frame. It includes a light-filled and airy interior with a netted hangout area, as well as a home office, and can even optionally run off-the-grid.
Category: Tiny Houses, Outdoors
Tags: Micro-House, Tiny Footprint, House, Home
The final round of voting has closed, and it's time to reveal the winners of our 2025 Readers' Choice Awards! Beginning in December, DPReview readers picked their favorite cameras, zoom lenses and prime lenses released in 2025. The winners of the first round of voting were then pitted against each other for the title of Product of the Year. Take a look and see which products came out on top.
Second runner-up: Sony FE 50-150mm F2 GMThe Sony FE 50-150mm F2 GM won our Readers' Choice Award for Best Zoom Lens of 2025, so it's not surprising to see it land in one of the top three positions in the Product of the Year competition. It pulled in 13.8% of the vote total, just edging out the Canon RF 45mm F1.2 STM for the second runner-up position.
To be sure, the Sony FE 50-150mm F2 GM was one of the most interesting lenses of 2025, offering a combination of fast aperture, a versatile zoom range, and top-notch image quality that can deliver impressive levels of background separation. Even better, its relatively compact size makes it manageable to carry around. We have no doubt this will be one of Sony's most popular lenses for the foreseeable future.
Buy now:
$3998 at Amazon.comBuy at B&H Photo First runner-up: Sony a7 VThe Sony a7 V secured the first runner-up position in our Readers' Choice Product of the Year vote, pulling in 19.5% of the votes cast. That's a solid performance for a camera announced so late in 2025 that it came within a couple of days of missing the deadline for this year's award voting.
We're not surprised it did so well, though. It significantly improves upon its predecessor, the a7 V, arriving with an updated 33MP "partially stacked" sensor that supports 14-bit readout even when shooting at bursts of 30fps. It also features the most up-to-date AF system in Sony's a7 series, pre-burst capture, and much improved video specs, including 4K/60p video derived from 7K capture. And even with its partially stacked sensor, it still manages to deliver impressive dynamic range. We expect this to be Sony's workhorse enthusiast camera for the next several years, and based on your votes, it looks like the a7 V delivers where it counts.
Buy now:
$2898 at Amazon.comBuy at AdoramaBuy at B&H Photo Winner: Nikon Z5IIAnd the winner of our 2025 Readers' Choice Product of the Year Award is the Nikon Z5II, marking Nikon's third consecutive win, following the Nikon Z8 in 2023 and theNikon Z6III in 2024. That's an impressive run by any measure. Clearly, Nikon is doing something right.
More notably, the Z5II made a clean sweep of all our awards this year. A few weeks ago, we named it the Best Enthusiast Camera of 2025 in our DPReview Annual Awards, as well as our DPReview Product of the Year for 2025. It also won Best Camera in our 2025 Readers' Choice awards, before you chose it as your Product of the Year.
Wow. Just wow.
However, the most impressive part might just be that the Z5II wasn't the most impressive camera introduced this year by any measure, except possibly one: value. It delivers excellent still and video quality, includes in-body image stabilization, Nikon's latest autofocus system, and the fantastic ergonomics we've come to expect from Nikon. And, as we said in an earlier write-up, it comes at a price that's low enough to make you wonder if there's a catch. (There isn't.) To sum up our own Nikon Z5II review, "Very few of us truly need anything more."
Buy now:
$1596 at Amazon.comBuy at AdoramaBuy at B&H PhotoA team of researchers in China has developed a remarkable device to allow people with limited mobility to use computers and experience VR content by moving their eyeballs – and to power the gadget simply by blinking.
Category: Medical Innovations, Body and Mind
Tags: VR, Paralysis, Eye-tracking, Accessibility
Hyundai has been teasing the electric model Staria people mover since 2021 and has finally introduced the full production spec model. Debuting in Brussels, the 800-volt minivan will go on sale in Korea and Europe before mid-2026.
Category: Automotive, Transport
Tags: Hyundai, Electric Vehicles, Van, Green+Energy, korea, Battery Technology
Chronic liver disease gets worse when the liver's immune system stays overactive, resulting in ongoing inflammation and scarring. Signals from the gut make the situation worse by encouraging immune cells to release harmful molecules. Macrophages and monocytes are central players, intensifying injury and shifting the body's defenses toward a more aggressive state. Among them, liver macrophages are essential and are now being explored as therapeutic targets.
Category: Illnesses and conditions, Body and Mind
It's amazing how much mileage architects manage to get from the humble shipping container, with notable designs ranging from large apartment buildings and offices, to tiny houses. This example of the latter skillfully squeezes a comfortable home for two into a single shipping container.
Category: Tiny Houses, Outdoors
Tags: shipping containers, Tiny Footprint, Micro-House, House, Home
Every photographer inevitably goes through periods where they hit a wall. That wall can come from all kinds of things, including a lack of inspiration, growth stagnation or both. But either way, it often leads to not wanting to pick up a camera. While just like exercise, there are times when rest is best (pardon the rhyme), there are also times you're better off pushing through those feelings of apathy.
While I've yet to find a consistent one-size-fits-all fix for the countless times I've been in a creative drought, there's one method I frequently fall back on: tackling various types of photography projects. For me, those projects have taken the form of five separate 365 projects (a photo a day for a year) and three 52-week projects (a photo a week for a year).
Why specific projects help with stagnation My first 365 (from 2010/2011) challenged me to take photos I wouldn't have otherwise thought of or tried.No matter the structure, these projects all have the same goal: to give me a reason to pick up my camera when I least feel like it. If I feel like I've plateaued in terms of my skills, leaving the camera on the shelf isn't going to help me move past that. Instead, I'm better off finding ways to challenge myself with my camera. Likewise, if I find I'm lacking inspiration, ignoring my camera often isn’t the way to go. Sometimes forcing myself to pay more attention to what's around me on a daily basis can be just what I need to find that inspiration and feel like myself as a photographer again.
Designing a sustainable projectIf the goal is to pick up your camera with some consistency, it's important to plan a project that you think will be sustainable for you and your life. Just like going to the gym, you won't be much better off if you only stick to your plan for a few months and then revert to your old habits.
Luckily, there are essentially endless ways to structure a project so that it's more likely you'll be able to stick to it. But putting some thought into it ahead of time is useful, so you aren't completely winging it during the project (which I've also done). That's not to say rules and guidelines can't shift over time, but having some expectations and guardrails in place will help in getting more out of the project.
Time span and cadenceFirst, you'll want to decide on how long the project should be and how often you'll want to take pictures. You could decide on a year-long project, such as a 365, 52-week project, or 12-month structure. Or maybe something shorter, like a photo every day for a month, is better for you.
"I won't sugarcoat it: year-long projects, especially 365s, are hard."I won't sugarcoat it: year-long projects, especially 365s, are hard. That can be even more true if you opt for specific rules, such as requiring the use of your dedicated camera and editing the images on the same day. Such projects can involve a lot of time. Real life doesn't stop when tackling a project like this, and it can feel like a grind at times. Be as realistic as possible (a lot can change in a year) when deciding how long you want the project to last and how often you want to create images.
Open-ended or themed This image is from a 52-week project I completed in 2010, which was entirely dedicated to taking a self-portrait once a week for a year.You also have options when it comes to the theme or topic of your project. My 365s have been completely open-ended with no topics or themes to stick to, whereas my 52-week projects always have more structure, such as a self-portrait once a week or a weekly hike with a video and photos for each one.
A more structured project could be beneficial if you have specific skills you want to work on. For example, if you want to improve your lighting, maybe a project that's focused on using artificial light for every image would be best. Or, if you want to improve your portraiture, taking a portrait every day for a year could be a good challenge. The structure could also relate to an area of your portfolio you want to develop more, if you’re trying to find work in a certain niche or genre. The key, as with any goal, is to find something that challenges you, but is still attainable.
Additional boundaries to consider My last project, completed last year, started as a hiking project to get outside with my dog more, but ended up being a photography and videography project as well, as I set a requirement of creating a Reel for Instagram for every hike.There are countless boundaries you can put in place to add more challenge or make it easier. For my most recent 365 project, completed in 2020, I allowed myself to use my phone for photos, rather than requiring polished images taken with my dedicated camera every day. Additionally, you could decide to use only unedited images to save yourself some time and effort.
Considering where or how you will share the project is also worthwhile. It may be something just for you, and you might not want to share the photos or videos anywhere. You could plan on combining all of the images into a book when you are done. Or maybe you want to start a blog or share on social media to help keep yourself accountable. There are also many groups specific to these types of projects (including in our forums), and joining one could be a good way to stay motivated, find inspiration, and hold yourself accountable.
Getting through mid‑project slumps When I was in a slump during my 365s, I would sometimes try a new technique or process to spark some creativity. In this case, I had a single giraffe that I took many individual shots of and then edited together. This was taken during my third 365 in 2012.For each of the eight year-long projects I've tackled, there have inevitably been mid-project slumps. During every single one, I've debated quitting or found myself off track for various reasons. Whether due to a vacation mid-project, life struggles or just busy times at work, I've inevitably missed days here and there. It may seem counterproductive to have feelings of apathy about a project aimed at addressing apathy, but it's all part of the process in my experience.
As a result, it's important to just keep going. Getting off track for a day or two doesn't mean you need to abandon the whole project and give up. This is where those boundaries you set up (or establish mid-project) can come in handy. Maybe you decide that editing a photo from another day that you hadn't touched yet counts. Or, just move forward, and the project will take a little longer than you originally planned. The important thing is to keep working at it and not let a few missteps derail the entire thing.
Looking back: what a project can change I recently started a project with a friend, based on prompts that we alternate in choosing to try to overcome my most recent creative slump. This was for a black and white week.To be honest, tackling a specific project is unlikely to be a dramatic, life-changing experience that will prevent you from ever struggling with your photography. However, it can be a driver of growth and help you learn a great deal about yourself and your photography.
Each of my projects helped me understand more about what inspires me, which is useful even when I'm not tackling a long-term project. Picking up my camera on a regular basis also inevitably improved my skills. And while far from every photograph from these projects was excellent (or even good, for that matter), I did produce a lot of images that I'm very proud of. Plus, they helped me identify subjects and genres I enjoy, guiding my photography over the years. At the risk of being cheesy and motivational, growth is growth, no matter how small.
I came across this sign in a park in St. Petersburg, Russia, many years ago. It says, "Attention! Keep an eye on your things." While the message is serious and a good reminder to tourists, I always thought the illustration was creative and amusing.
Photo: Dale Baskin
Our January Editors' photo challenge theme is "Silly Signs."
This month, we're celebrating the silly and strange world of signage that tells an interesting story. Whether you're traveling across the country or just around the corner, show us a photo of a sign with a unique story to tell. It could be a massive billboard along a highway or a quirky notice in your local pub. We can't wait to see what you discover!
Photos can be submitted between Sunday, January 18, and Saturday, January 24 (GMT). The challenge is open to photos captured at any time.
Important: Images MUST include a title and a description of at least 25 words to be eligible. We need to be able to share the story behind your photo. We will consider both photos and captions when selecting our winners, so make sure to tell us that story!
Visit the challenge page to read the full rules and to submit your photos for consideration as soon as the challenge opens.
When COVID-19 lockdowns emptied city streets, urban environments changed almost overnight. New research suggests that Los Angeles city birds responded just as quickly, with measurable shifts in beak shape during this period. The changes coincided with altered food availability and reduced human activity, offering a rare opportunity to examine how human behavior can rapidly shape biological traits in urban wildlife.
Tags: Birds, Evolution, Coronavirus (COVID-19), UCLA, Complutense University of Madrid, University of Granada, lockdown
Although Presta valves are pretty much standard on higher-end bikes' wheels, the things definitely do have their drawbacks. Dutch company BBB Cycling has decided to do something about that, with a li'l Presta-improving device known as the CoreCap.
Because of industrial climate chaos, catastrophic economic inequality, war and displacement, there is, as the United Nations puts it succinctly, a global food crisis in 68 countries, with 318 million people facing acute hunger. Simultaneous famines in two countries (Palestine and Sudan) – which the UN calls “a devastating first this century” – threaten millions of lives.
Category: Science
Tags: UC San Diego, Plants, Crops, Agriculture, Antibacterial
The year is 2011, Tesla CEO Elon Musk was asked in a Bloomberg interview whether Chinese automaker BYD Auto posed a real competitive threat to Tesla. Musk cheekily laughed and said, "Have you seen their car? I don’t think they have a great product… I don’t think the technology is very strong."
Category: Automotive, Transport
Tags: BYD, Tesla Motors, Model Y, Tesla Model 3, Electric Vehicles, PHEV
Boston Dynamics has unveiled the new industry-ready Atlas, a humanoid designed as a practical industrial tool for warehouses and factories. Atlas can operate 24/7 in extreme temperatures, and uses AI to adapt to its environment. Production has already started.
Category: AI and Humanoids, Technology
Tags: Boston Dynamics, Humanoid, Production, Hyundai
The smaller you try to make a micro-camper or tiny trailer, the less space you have to install conventional camping essentials. The bathroom tends to be the first thing to go, but eventually the kitchen might have to follow. Then you're stuck with a backpacking stove, or maybe a box of Pop-Tarts. German startup Stuff Bubble has a different idea on how even the smallest camping vehicles can bring along a complete kitchen. Its collapsible kitchen weighs just 33 lb (15 kg) fully equipped, packs flat on the vehicle floor, and inflates into form at camp, offering a sink, worktop and even a refrigerator.
Tags: Camping, Cooking, Kitchen, Inflatable, Campervan, mini-campervan, RV, Outdoors and Camping
The Khongor Sand Dunes in Mongolia, partially covered by snow and ice.
DJI Mavic 2 Pro | ISO 100 | 1/200 sec | F8
Photo: Erez Marom
Today, I'd like to talk about my experience shooting landscapes and wildlife in Mongolia. Known for its remote location and as the world's least densely populated country, Mongolia encompasses some very interesting landscapes and wildlife. While hot in summer, in winter it goes into a deep freeze. Temperatures plummet, and as a result, both landscapes and wildlife change dramatically. It's definitely a whole different place in winter when it comes to photography.
My first visit to wintery Mongolia was in early 2020. A friend and I set out to spend a couple of weeks shooting both the Khongor dunes and the frozen Khuvsgul Lake, but after a week, we had to flee the country since Covid had just begun spreading uncontrollably. As our guides put it, it was either get on the next flight or settle in, set up a ger tent and find a nice Mongolian wife. The second visit, which took place in January 2025, was far better and more fruitful. I will share my images from both these trips in this article and the next.
The first location I visited in Mongolia was the Khongor Sand Dunes. Known as the "Singing Sands," It lies within the Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park, extending up to the foot of the high Altai Mountain range. The dunes "sing" (produce a humming sound upon the movement of the sand) mainly in summer. In winter, the dunes are saturated with moisture from falling snow and become something else entirely.
Other than a few snowy patches, I had to settle for ordinary-looking dune shots, without any winter characteristics.
Canon 5D IV | Canon 70-300mm
Focus stack from 2 shots taken at 182mm | ISO 100 | F16
Another aerial image of the dunes.
DJI Mavic 2 Pro | ISO 100 | 1/240 sec | F9
Photos: Erez Marom
Our goal was to shoot the dunes with snow and ice, which proved difficult. There isn't much precipitation in the area, so it's a big gamble, which we didn't really win. There were patches of snow, but it was mainly just dunes. The positive part was that the dunes had gigantic snowy mountains behind them, which is something that you rarely see. This combination really said "Mongolia," which is something I wanted to achieve.
Snowy dunes at the foot of snowy mountains – quite a unique sight.
Canon 5D Mark IV | Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS II USM | ISO 100 | 1/250 sec | F9
The next location was one I was supposed to visit back in 2020 but couldn't: Khuvsgul Lake. Khuvsgul is an ancient lake (more than 2 million years old) in northern Mongolia, located near the Russian border and adjacent to the similarly ancient Baikal Lake. As it is with Baikal, Khuvsgul's surface freezes in winter, forming an ice layer thick enough to drive a car on most of its surface. The wind's drag (and to a lesser degree the currents underneath) push parts of the frozen surface against each other, creating a myriad of cracks and shapes which are beautifully visible and shootable using a drone.
These cracks were so nice and symmetrical that they basically dictated the composition, leaving me with very little thinking work.
DJI Mavic 3 Classic | ISO 100 | 1/240 sec | F6.3
The lake has several rocky islands, and the movement of the surface pushes ice toward the banks, where it shatters and creates piles of icy debris, perfect for both near-far landscape compositions and abstract photography.
Ice slabs, pushed into a vertical position, created a natural foreground for this shot.
Canon R5 Mark II | Canon RF 24-105mm F4 L IS USM | ISO 200 | 1/320 sec | F14
An abstract of shapes and light.
Canon EOS R5 Mark II | Canon RF 24-105mm F4 L IS USM | ISO 100 | 1/100 sec | F11
Large pieces of ice get pushed up onto the lake's banks, adding color and interest to the foreground.
Canon R5 Mark II | Canon RF 24-105mm F4 L IS USM | ISO 100 | 1/125 sec | F14
I particularly enjoyed shooting aerial abstracts of the lake's surface. The options are endless, plus the ice changes every winter, turning Khuvsgul into a truly infinite source of compositions.
These cracks shot top-down looked like a neural network!
DJI Mavic 3 Classic | ISO 100 | 1/100 sec | F6.3
This composition is nice because it shows the huge ice slabs with large cracks between them, the snowy patches dotting the surface, and the smaller cracks filling the ice. Can you spot our car?
DJI Mavic 3 Classic | ISO 100 | 1/200 sec | F6.3
I know it doesn't seem like it, but this is 100% natural. As is often the case with abstract photography, it's a bit challenging to perceive the scale of things. Is this a frozen lake or a petri dish? I like the combination of rough surface ice with large cracks, opposed by clear ice with smaller, finer cracks.
DJI Mavic 3 Classic | ISO 100 | 1/80 sec | F6.3
These cracks looked just like man-made roads. I was fascinated by the shapes and textures in the ice.
DJI Mavic 3 Classic | ISO 100 | 1/100 sec | F6.3
Photos: Erez Marom
Different parts of the lake have different depths and thus different colors. When shooting close to the banks, where the water is shallow, the ice has a more turquoise color. When shooting at the center, where it's deeper, the color is a deep shade of blue.
The larger and smaller cracks combined to create both the foreground and texture of this image. The contour of the bank and the mountains in the background completed the composition.
DJI Mavic 3 Classic | ISO 100 | 1/160 sec | F7.1
In the second part of this article, I will talk about shooting landscape in the Jargant River and wildlife in the vast Mongolian Steppe.
Erez Marom is a professional nature photographer, guide and traveller. You can follow Erez's work on Instagram and Facebook, and subscribe to his mailing list for updates.
If you'd like to experience and shoot some of the world's most fascinating landscapes and wildlife with Erez as your guide, take a look at his unique photography workshops in Zambia, Colombia, Vietnam, Madagascar, Ethiopia and more.
Erez has recently published his first e-book, Solving the Puzzle, thoroughly explaining his views about composition in landscape photography and beyond.
Selected Articles by Erez Marom:Cannabis produces a complex suite of bioactive compounds, including tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD), but how these molecules evolved has long been a mystery. Now, new research has shed light on their origin story – and opened the door to innovative ways of harnessing these compounds for human medicine.
Category: Society & Community, Wellness and Healthy Living, Body and Mind
Tags: Wageningen University, Cannabis, Cannabinoids, CBD, Drugs, Biotechnology, Drug development
You know you have a proper enduro motorcycle on your hands when it has Graham Jarvis’ credentials behind it. That’s the Jarv-E project, born from a collaboration between Jarvis and Austrian motorcycle engineer David Freidinger.
Category: Motorcycles, Transport
Tags: Electric Vehicles, Electric Motorcycles, Enduro, Endurance Racing, Dirt Bikes, Off-road
Depending on how you look at it, the all-new Camp Tonneau Tent could be called an integrated, fast-pitch truck tent, an ultralight, affordable pop-up pickup camper, or a tonneau cover that doubles as a truck-back shelter. Or, you could rightfully consider it all three. Weighing less than most rooftop tents and taking up far less space than a camper, the simple, no-frills solution is always at the ready for a camping trip but stows completely out of the way for unencumbered everyday commuting and cargo hauling. It sets up into a hybrid hard/soft-walled shelter in about a minute and a half.
Category: Pickup Campers, Adventure Vehicles, Outdoors
Tags: Tent, Pickup, Truck, RV, Camping, Outdoors and Camping, Off-road
