Google Pi xel 8a is here

THERE’S been more happening in the hyperactive smar tphone market this week, with one of the biggest players, Google, announcing the mid-range Google Pixel 8a model.

Key features include a 64MP, f/1.9 wideangle camera with optical image stabilisation, a 13MP f/2.2 ultra-wide and a 13MP f/2.2 selfie camera. The AI features now include Best Take, which helps you get more consistent group shots; Magic Editor, which includes Magic Eraser functions; and Circle to Search, which lets you find information about items of interest in a shot that you’ve taken. These were first seen on the full-fat Google Pixel 8.

Computational photography and AI goodies aside, however, the camera hardware remains largely unchanged from the 7a. This could be a marketing issue for Google as the new phone currently costs £170 more than its predecessor, which we named as one of the best budget phones out there. Meanwhile, the Google Pixel 8, with its more powerful camera array, only costs £70 more, and if you stick with the older 7a, Google is

The Pixel 8a should be out now throwing in a charger, too. The Pixel 8a is also said to have a more durable design, and it has a revamped display that is 40% brighter than the 7a’s (with a 120Hz refresh rate for smoother scrolling), and the option of 256GB storage.

The price of the Pixel 8a star ts at £499, and it will be available from 14 May.

New Hasselblad 25mm wideangle lens

HASSELBLAD has announced the new XCD 25mm F2.5 V lens, designed to deliver the resolution needed for 100MP cameras such as the company’s CFV 100C (described by our reviewer as ‘the world’s most beautiful camera.’) Equivalent to a full-frame 20mm focal length, the new lens has a relatively fast f/2.5 aper ture, as well as a push/pull AF/MF focusing ring and a customisable control ring.

Hasselblad claims the lens gives sharp results from the centre to the edge of the frame, and the company says it is ideal ‘for urban nightscape photography, night street photography, natural landscapes, astrophotography, and low-light indoor por traits’. Like other recent Hasselblad lenses, it features an upgraded 10-blade leaf shutter unit, which is also found in the XCD28P, XCD38V, XCD55V, and XCD90V models. This new shutter unit allows for faster exposures, as previous lenses only used a 4-blade design.

The new XCD 25mm F2.5 V lens is compatible with all of Hasselblad’s mirrorless medium-format cameras, and it costs £3,559.

See store-eu.hasselblad.com/en-uk

The new lens is equivalent to 20mm full frame

V A N G A D

R A J E S H

I L L A N D

I G

G A U R

’ ©

I G H T

O F S

I E L D S

‘ F

I E S

T H E S E R

F R O M

The Eye has it

‘The Eye in the Sky’ by Gauri Gill and Rajesh Vangad is amongst the winners of the 2024 Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize, on display at The Photographers’ Galler y, London W1F 7LW until 2 June. It’s par t of an ongoing series called Fields of Sight, mixing conventional photography with techniques from traditional Indian ar t. Deutsche Börse Prize winners have not always been to ever yone’s taste, but photography being the broadest of churches, we are all for keeping an open mind and tr ying new creative approaches. See thephotographersgaller y.org.uk

4

www.amateurphotographer.co.uk