The crucial camera news from CES 2024 (so far) Image: CTA The Consumer Electronics Tradeshow of 2024 is kicking off, and while we don't expect any huge camera announcements this year, there are plenty of other bits and bobs of interest to the photographically inclined.

On Sunday night, the first pre-show activities marked the unofficial start of the show, and today we'll have a hurricane of press conferences before the show floor official opens on Tuesday.

We're not on the ground in Vegas this year, but we are keeping close watch from afar to collect just the juicy photography-related news and round it up for you.

Here are the most important announcements, awards and releases (so far). We'll be updating this post as announcements roll out throughout the show, which runs until Friday, January 12th.

This post will be updated live throughout CES 2024. Check back for the latest announcements.

Panasonic Lumix S 100mm F2. 8 macro lens

Image: Panasonic

In conjunction with CES 2024, Panasonic has announced the Lumix S 100mm F2. 8 Macro lens for full-frame L-mount cameras. Panasonic calls it "the world’s smallest and lightest medium-telephoto fixed focal length macro lens. " However, as important as its size and weight is versatility: Panasonic tells us its goal was to produce a macro that can also handle portraiture and medium telephoto shooting with vanishingly few drawbacks.

Read more about it here.

Apple Vision Pro gets a February release date

Image: Apple

Apple hasn't had a significant official presence at CES in quite a while, but occasionally it sees fit to drop some news into the fray. This year, that news is an official release date for Apple Vision Pro, the mixed reality headset it first unveiled last year. Apple's Vision Pro will be shipping (in the United States) on February 2nd, and preorders for the $3,500 device will start at 5 AM PST on January 19th. While Apple bills its headset as a 'spatial computer' with various applications from communication to productivity, it's also a potential turning point in 3D photography and videography, as one of the first (potentially) mass-market devices capable of capturing and viewing 3D photos and videos.

The Odyssey Smart Telescope

Image: Unistellar

French company Unistellar is using CES 2024 as its launchpad for a new range of smart telescopes dubbed the "Odyssey" line. Designed in partnership with Nikon, both telescopes in the line feature an 85mm primary mirror, a 24mm secondary mirror and a 320mm focal length. The $2,500 base model provides a picture that's only viewable on a smartphone, while the $4,000 Odyssey Pro model sports a dedicated OLED eyepiece for viewing, also developed in partnership with Nikon. The real selling point of both models, however, is the telescopes' smart features, including what Unistellar calls its "Multi-Depth Technology," promising the easy observation of heavenly bodies near and far, as well as autofocus, star-finding technology and other creature comforts.

Canon MS-500 Interchangeable Lens Camera

Image: Canon

Single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) technology is a photon-counting technique that's been in development for decades. Canon's prototypes of SPAD sensors, based around its 3. 2MP chip, are some of the highest resolution examples and have accomplished impressive party tricks like capturing the movement of light as it travels through smoke. Now, with the MS-500, Canon has wrapped a Type 1 (13. 2 x 9. 9mm) SPAD sensor in a body that's actually up for sale, capable of capturing images of objects in color during the dead of night at distances of a mile and beyond. Its applications in hobbyist photography are scant, and its $21,000 price tag makes it clear this is for industrial and commercial purposes. But packaging this tech into a product that's actually for sale has earned it a CES 2024 Innovation Award.

Leica BLK2GO Pulse Handheld Laser Scanner

Image: Leica

Leica Geosystems, which spun off from Leica's camera business in the 1990s, specializes in a different way of capturing reality through the travel of light: laser rangefinding. The company's BLK2GO PULSE, winner of a 2024 CES Innovation Award, puts a two-sensor, solid-state LiDAR array (designed in partnership with Sony), into a handheld body that can capture instant, colored point-cloud scans of a location in concert with the device's RGB cameras. Capable of capturing snapshots in a 10-meter range with a 2cm margin for error, the BLK2GO PULSE is definitely priced for commercial enterprises. Unless you've got $38,400 to burn, and something to use it for.

Bor

Image: Bor

Anything with points of friction is a potential point of failure, whether on a smartphone or a camera body. And while Apple has long replaced its Home buttons and trackpads with unmoving touch surfaces that only simulate a click, its 'Taptic Engine' still contains moving springs. Bora CES Innovation award by taking the principle further, simulating a physical response, but with no points of internal friction or wear. Combined with the advent of electronic shutters, this tech brings us closer to cameras with no moving parts to break down – eventually.

2024-1-9 17:57