Authored by Admin · daily · researched and written by the Kurzia AI
Wednesday 21 October 2026 · Issue 5 · 5 min read
Pixii liquidated, EOS R8 Mark II ships at $1,899, Nikon Z5 starts bowing out
What's hot
French Leica rival Pixii enters judicial liquidation. Pixii, the small French maker of digital M-mount rangefinders, has been put into judicial liquidation by the Commercial Court of Besançon, which means a liquidator now sells assets and settles debts. Its APS-C Pixii+ and full-frame Pixii Max were built with no rear screen and internal memory instead of card slots, plus a monochrome RAW mode that pulled black-and-white files out of a colour sensor. Without a buyer for the technology, another Pixii body looks unlikely.
You don't buy a camera like this on a weekend whim, but independents are where the odd ideas come from before the big four copy them — and anyone holding one now has no clear answer on repairs, parts or software updates. Court-supervised restructuring began on 10 December 2025 and was converted to liquidation on 22 July 2026; the Pixii Max had reached $4,999. Digital Camera World
New gear
Canon EOS R8 Mark II — is now shipping with good stock after its 15 September 2026 announcement: 24.2MP full frame, 5-axis in-body stabilisation and 4K60p 10-bit internal with Canon Log 3, at $1,899. This is the body most weekend shooters will cross-shop as their full-frame entry point, and the pricing makes that awkward rather than obvious. The older EOS R6 Mark II currently sits only $100 above it and still gives you a mechanical shutter. Canon Rumors
TTartisan AF 50mm f/1.8 NEO — arrives in titanium and green versions for E, Z and L mounts, keeping the same $89 launch price, a stepping autofocus motor and an included hood. A nifty-fifty that costs less than a decent filter is the easy way to put a fast prime in the bag next to your kit zoom, colour choice aside. It weighs 156–167g depending on mount and focuses down to 0.48m; pre-orders are at B&H and TTartisan's own store. Photo Rumors
Flashback ONE75 — is a screenless point-and-shoot shooting 13MP vertical half-frame images, with aluminium top and bottom plates, brass buttons, a xenon flash, a top OLED settings display and double exposure, from $179 / £140. If the Fujifilm X Half look appeals but not its price, this is the cheap way to test whether you actually enjoy shooting without a rear screen. Its Film Camera Mode locks you to 27-shot rolls that only appear in the app 24 hours later; DNG raw needs a USB-C offload. Amateur Photographer
“I keep wondering if we’re going to hit saturation point on these things – surely there’s a finite number of people willing to buy them.”
What people are saying
Canon EOS R6 Mark III — gets a long-term verdict from wedding shooter James Reader, who rates its 32.5MP files as the crop-versus-size sweet spot and says underexposed raws clean up well up to ISO 6,400. It is the honest counterweight to launch-week reviews, and useful if you are weighing this against the pricier R5 Mark II. It is the first R6 with Canon Log 2 and internal 7K raw, but electronic shutter drops files to 12-bit and the EVF and screen are unchanged since the 2020 R6. Fstoppers
Panasonic Lumix S 40mm f/2 — was run by Christopher Frost on a 44MP Lumix S1RII: under 150g, metal mount with a sealing gasket, very sharp in the centre wide open but hazy corners at f/2 that clean up by f/4. At $400 it is one of the cheapest official autofocus primes for L-mount, so it is the obvious walk-around lens if you shoot Lumix or Sigma full frame. Close focus is 30cm, and no hood is supplied — there is no bayonet either, leaving only the 62mm filter thread. Fstoppers
Fujifilm X series — has gone almost a year without a new body since the X-T30 III, and Gavin Stoker argues the reason is money: roughly two-thirds of Fujifilm's camera sales are Instax instant cameras. If you were holding out for the next X-T or X-Pro, the argument says plan for longer gaps rather than an imminent launch. Four Instax cameras arrived this year — Mini Evo Cinema, Mini 13, Square 2 and Pal 2 — plus two phone printers. Digital Camera World
Industry news
Nikon Z5 — Japanese retailers have flagged the July 2020 body as discontinued per Asobinet, while US, UK and Australian stock continues; the $1,399.95 Z5IIC becomes Nikon's cheapest full-frame.
Panasonic Lumix S9 — Wex sells the 24.2MP body at £799 after £200 cashback, while B&H lists $1,097.99 out of stock with availability given as 18 January 2027.
instax film production — New lines at the Ashigara Site in Kanagawa start up in stages from spring 2027 and run fully from spring 2028, lifting film capacity about 20% over FY2026.
Nikon Z9 v5.33 and Z8 v3.12 — Both updates carry a single fix each, for cameras that stopped responding with certain lenses.
EOS C50, C80 and C400 firmware — The C50 moves to v1.0.6.1 and the C80 and C400 to v1.0.8.1, adding IP streaming security, language display fixes and a C50 photo-mode card recording fix.
Canon EOS 6D film emulation — Coders using AI-assisted vibe coding run 15 film looks from the SD card over stock firmware on a 6D; nothing has been publicly released yet.
One takeaway
Buy a Z5 only on a deal, or wait for the Z5IIC. The cheapest way into Nikon full frame is being retired, starting in Japan. Remaining Z5 stock is worth having if you are a stills-first shooter, but only at a discount or used — at list price it sits too close to the Z5IIC, which at $1,399.95 becomes Nikon's new entry point once the Z5 is gone. Watch the clearance prices over the next few weeks rather than paying full price now. Digital Camera World