Putting advanced tech into traditional-looking hardware is guaranteed to initiate mild euphoria in people of a certain age – my age, in fact, if we’re going to be specific about this. Nikon’s latest Z-mount mirrorless camera presents as an old-school F-mount: pseudo-leatherette exterior, buttons and switches inspired by 50-year-old models but given modern functionality, brass dials destined to take on a gentle patina over time, a ker-chunk mechanical shutter. The classic black version is unashamedly retro, but for those who yearn for a more flamboyant collision of classic and modern, it comes in six more colourways including Moss Green and Sunset Orange.
A camera that takes its design cues from the past will inevitably suffer an ergonomic hit; while it’s substantially lighter than its professional big sisters the Z8 and Z9, the Z f is not necessarily more comfortable in the hand. But that’s a minor negative in a sea of positives. For those (like myself) who experience low-level unease when manually adjusting camera settings, full auto mode does some spectacular heavy lifting and essentially plonks a supercharged compact camera in your hand: very quick start-up time plus brilliant results. If you already speak fluent ISO/aperture/shutter speed, you can assume as much control as you like. But if you want to learn, the Z f acquaints you with the basics and encourages you to think creatively about the images you’re making.
It’s a well-forged alliance of new and old. On one hand, you’ve got slots for both SD and microSD cards, a vari-angle monitor for vloggers, super-smooth slo-mo video and automatic subject detection (people, animals, aircraft…) On the other, it has a deep-tone monochrome mode that’s capable of stunning black-and-white pictures with barely any effort – the kind of bold shots you’d have worked hard with a red filter to achieve back in the days of film. If you grew up using such cameras, the Z f will prompt a gentle smile of recognition. If you didn’t, you’ll simply be enjoying semi-pro power in a quite beautiful package.
Nikon Z f, from £2,299 body-only
Instant gratification
Polaroid I-2 Instant Camera, £599.99
Polaroid’s journey has been extraordinary, from hugely celebrated (both practically and artistically) to almost obsolete and back again. It’s faintly preposterous that this new, high-end, three-lens, autofocusing integral film camera even exists, given how easy it is to snap high-quality pictures on our far more portable smartphones. But as soon as you slot in a chunky cartridge of i-type film, those eight shots become rather precious.
The device works seamlessly with the accompanying app (I hardly ever say that) and the resulting pictures are now pinned to my office noticeboard: shimmering colour, sharp detail and a beautiful bokeh blur.
Polaroid I-2 Instant Camera, £599.99
A level head
DJI Osmo Pocket 3 Creator Combo, £619
Having experienced the indignity of trying to assemble and align an errant smartphone gimbal in public, I’m thankful for DJI’s compact, all-in-one camera-gimbal flagship, which makes such antics look laughably old-fashioned. This package comes with two handles, mic transmitter, wide-angle lens, tripod and other goodies. Three gimbal modes offer flexibility when filming (eg, Follow mode for selfies) and its Active Track feature will doggedly follow whichever subject is in focus. The 2in touchscreen is adequate enough for monitoring, but the true majesty is revealed when playing back on a big screen: smooth 4K footage with vibrant colours.
DJI Osmo Pocket 3 Creator Combo, £619
Reach for the stars
Amateur astronomy can involve a steep learning curve. There’s plenty of tech out there for urban stargazers, but you have to know where to look, when to look and what for. Unistellar’s newest model is designed for those with little knowledge but boundless curiosity; the companion app advises where the most interesting stellar objects currently are and what they’re up to on a given night, while high-precision Nikon optics guide you towards them. Multi-depth technology captures low brightness objects (nebulae and galaxies) as well as high (the moon, planets), and does a great job of autofocusing on these small dots despite the expanse of darkness surrounding them. Unistellar Odyssey Pro, from £3,499
Your next project
Leica Cine 1 projector, 120in, £8,995
Large, high-spec TVs come with two annoyances: getting them up a spiral staircase and reflections on the screen. Both these are resolved by short-throw projecting onto an ALR (ambient light rejecting) screen, and the Cine 1 demonstrates this to wonderful effect. It’s Leica’s tardy follow-up to the world’s first mass-produced projector (the Uleja) launched in 1926. That device is now a museum piece, but the Cine 1 is a true living-room statement, a sizeable 15kg unit with 50W Dolby Atmos surround sound. While cheaper short-throws can project at different sizes but suffer an attendant dip in visual quality, the 120in version of the Cine 1 projects at 120in alone, but in breathtaking detail. Leica Cine 1, 120in, £8,995 (without screen)
@rhodri
MrBeast is a man who needs no introduction as he’s considered the world’s most successful and popular YouTuber today.
Generating millions from his content on the popular powerhouse online video app, the star spends huge sums of money on his posts to ensure fans stay engaged until the end. And we agree that hard work goes a long way and his success is well deserved.
Just recently, we saw the star whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, post his first video on the X app and that managed to generate a great response of $263K. This featured close to 150 million views in just seven days and that’s a massive achievement. The same content was posted on YouTube last year in September.
The first content made more than $250k, he added, celebrating the news but wait, he was not too happy. He marked the success in a bittersweet way by adding how it was similar to the likes of being a facade. Meanwhile, some advertisers looked at the success as one that they had to take advantage of. So they made more money by purchasing ads on each click and hence revenue was made on every view which is greater than what many would expect.
The content featured Donaldson and the team exploring a wide range of cars such as those that are flying and beyond. And they’re also able to get into a fancy ride with comedian Jay Leno.
The X app rolled out the famous and much-anticipated creator revenue share program in 2024 and that’s when they rolled out to creators how they could be eligible if the posts could attract a certain number of views. This way, both parties would benefit.
Since they bought the app in 2022, Musk pointed out how he hoped to transform X into an app for all that had due focus on videos and brought in a range of famous media personalities across the board including Tucker Carlson and Tulsi Gabbard who published content on the app.
Today, MrBeast is the biggest content creator (at least in terms of making money) on YouTube featuring close to 370 million users from various channels. That led to Musk welcoming his content on the platform and posting more marketing strategies so more people would engage with the material seen online.
Musk made the first suggestion about how Donaldson was ringing in content on X toward the year’s end and generated a response by rolling out teasers through posts across X.
But he made sure that he had his thoughts on the ground about how he did not like the thought of posting on X as they gave him very little to no return and he did not think that was fair. “My production expenses for every video are in millions so it does not make sense to post on X”- he blasted X. However, he did not shun the idea completely and mentioned to people how he was open to making the most of the matter if monetization got better on X.
This led to the billionaire entrepreneur confirming through a blog post that X is going to ensure creators get a well-deserved benefit that was greater than what arch-rival platform YouTube was rolling out.
We do agree that the revenue generated by MrBeast on X seems like a huge figure for just a single post, but we have to remember that we’re talking about one of the world’s biggest and most popular content creators. So in that sense, it’s not a huge deal.
As per Forbes magazine, he managed to pull in a staggering $54 million and turned out to be the biggest earning content creator of last year. And that made him inch closer to a deal generated with Amazon too.
Some are even referring to how the views might not even be 100% organic and users reported seeing that on so many of their feeds daily as an unmarked ad. Donaldson says he felt videos like this on X were getting boosted thanks to advertisers.
But it wouldn’t be wrong to mention how MrBeast is a potential candidate for improving the general economy on X, thanks to his fame and that opens more opportunities for other creators of the industry.
