B&H Photo News Roundup: Week of January 29, 2024

A bit of a breather compared to the previous few weeks, this final week of January still saw some new product announcements from OM SYSTEM, in the photo world, and new computer components from AMD and NVIDIA. Outside of these main announcements, we also had a timely release from Polaroid as well as a few other educational and inspirational pieces of content to share.

After a relatively quiet 2023, OM SYSTEM is making an early splash with the introduction of its first wholly original camera under its new moniker, along with a pair of zoom lenses. The OM-1 Mark II is a Micro Four Thirds mirrorless camera sharing many of the core features of its predecessor, including a 20MP stacked sensor, TruePix X processing, and a penchant for computational photography. The updates, while iterative, are significant compared to the original OM-1, and include:

• A world’s-first Live GND (graduated neutral density) function, that simulates the effects of an optical GND filter, allowing you to control exposure selectively over portions of the image area. This is mostly used for sunset and sunrise photography, where the bright horizon and sky are several stops brighter than the shadowed foreground.

• Improved Live ND function that now compensates for up to 7 stops of exposure over the entire frame—perfect for blurring motion, such as when photographing a waterfall.

• Enhanced AI Detection AF, meaning the OM-1 Mark II has better subject recognition and tracking skills for sharper shots of moving subjects.

This camera fits OM SYSTEM’s mold of making smart cameras that fit into the niche of outdoor, nature, and wildlife photographers looking for a powerful system, enjoy the benefits of computational image processing, and like the Micro Four Thirds format for the added reach.

Coinciding with this new flagship camera, OM SYSTEM also released a pair of contrasting lenses: the ultra-wide M.Zuiko Digital ED 9-18mm f/4-5.6 II zoom and the super-telephoto M.Zuiko Digital ED 150-600mm f/5-6.3 IS zoom.

Despite the huge difference in focal lengths and applications for these two lenses, they still appeal to the core OM SYSTEM shooter. The wide zoom proves to be a nice version II upgrade and ideal for expansive landscape and astrophotography shooting; the super-telephoto zoom fits the birding and wildlife photographer looking to maximize the reach of the system with a 1200mm equivalent focal length along with robust IS. It wouldn’t be too surprising to see an outdoors-minded photographer pick up all three of OM’s new items to form a well-rounded nature photography kit.

AMD Introduces Ryzen 5000 Series CPUs

Regarding a couple of computer component announcements, AMD introduced some additions to its Ryzen 5000 Series of processors: the AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D, AMD Ryzen 5 5700, AMD Ryzen 5 5600GT, and AMD Ryzen 5 5500GT. Generally, these are designed for gamers and content creators using socket AM4 motherboards—the top model from this launch is the 3 GHz Ryzen 7 5700X3D, which has eight cores and 100MB of AMD 3D V-Cache; a great match for a variety of gaming applications.

While technically announced at CES this year, B&H is now offering a whole line of NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 40 SUPER Series graphics cards, including the top-end GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER model built for gamers to play in 4K. While intended primarily for gamers, these graphics cards also benefit creative applications with AI-powered graphics capabilities, offering faster performance when editing photos or videos. NVIDIA Broadcast even helps with video calls, removing background noise and providing seamless virtual backgrounds, which is great for livestreaming or daily remote work needs.

NAMM 2024 Recap

NAMM finished last week, and we still have some content trickling in, recapping all the new announcements at the show. Check out our roundup of best new pro audio gear, the best new synthesizers, and our collection of video footage from the trade show floor.

• The first installment of our Gaming Build series is out: a Guide to GPUs

• The latest episode from the Picturing World Cultures series is available on the B&H Photography Podcast, featuring Joshua Irwandi, from Indonesia.

• This week’s episode of Teton Perspectives features Nate Luebbe discussing wildlife photography.

• And B&H finally has the Pantone Color of the Year edition Polaroid film in stock, featuring the peach fuzz-colored border and classic instant film quality you crave.

Another fun week with a little something for everybody. We’ll see you next time for the first full week of February 2024.