EZCast Just Turned Every Phone Into a Professional Camera Monitor

Posted on 28/02/2026 by JC Torres

Monitoring a camera feed used to require either hovering behind the viewfinder or investing in a dedicated wireless video system with separate transmitters, receivers, and field monitors. For solo content creators, small production teams, and anyone shooting interviews or tutorials with limited gear, that kind of setup has always felt disproportionate to the task. The gap between “professional monitoring” and “just squinting at the back of the camera” remained stubbornly wide.

EZCast’s CamCast CT-1 is a compact wireless transmitter designed to sit on top of any HDMI-equipped camera, from mirrorless bodies and DSLRs to action cams and camcorders. Once connected, it broadcasts a live 1080p 60fps feed over 5GHz Wi-Fi to up to four iOS or Android devices simultaneously. EZCast has spent over a decade building wireless display and screen-mirroring technology for offices and classrooms, and the CamCast is their first product built specifically for cameras, applying that signal distribution expertise to a production context.

Designer: EZCast

Click Here to Buy Now: $129 ~~$239~~ ($110 off). Hurry, only a few units left!

The device itself is small enough to mount on a camera hot shoe or gimbal arm, with included adapters for both horizontal and vertical orientation. A built-in OLED screen displays connection details, and pairing happens through a QR code scan that takes roughly three seconds. Power comes from either a standard NP-F battery, the same type used across countless cinema accessories, or a USB-C connection at 5V/3A. That dual-power flexibility means a battery for mobility on location or a simple cable for longer, stationary shoots where runtime matters more.

Beyond passive monitoring, the companion CamCast app lets users save takes directly to their phone, review footage instantly, and share clips without ever pulling a memory card from the camera. For a two-person crew shooting a wedding, for instance, the second operator can watch the main camera’s composition from across the venue on a phone while managing their own setup. A makeup artist can confirm framing before the talent walks on set. Four people watching the same live feed, all from devices they already carry, collapses a communication problem that traditionally required dedicated hardware to solve.

What separates the CamCast CT-1 from a basic wireless HDMI sender, though, is the built-in PTP camera control. From the app on a phone or tablet, users can adjust shutter speed, ISO, color temperature, and aperture, and even navigate through camera menus remotely. Consider a camera mounted on an overhead rig for a cooking tutorial, or locked onto a gimbal for a tracking shot. Physically reaching the camera to change a setting interrupts the flow of a shoot. Being able to tweak exposure or white balance from a phone across the room changes how a solo creator or small team interacts with their gear.

The CamCast CT-1 also has a UVC output, which means it can connect directly to a laptop or desktop and function as a capture card. For livestreamers, educators, or anyone running a webinar, this removes an entire piece of hardware from the signal chain. One device handles wireless monitoring to phones and wired streaming output to a computer at the same time, which is a lot of functions packed into something that weighs less than most on-camera microphones.

Picture a YouTuber who films with a mirrorless camera on a tripod across the room. Right now, checking framing or adjusting settings means walking over, making a change, walking back, and repeating until it looks right. With the CamCast mounted on that camera, the phone becomes both the monitor and the remote control. An instructor recording a craft tutorial gets the same benefit, turning their tablet into a live preview without needing cables snaking across the workspace or an expensive field monitor clamped to a light stand.

Rather than building another monitor or another receiver, EZCast built a bridge between cameras and the screens people already own. That redistribution of function, turning four phones into four production monitors through a single transmitter, might be the more interesting design move in a category still dominated by expensive, single-purpose hardware.

Click Here to Buy Now: $129 ~~$239~~ ($110 off). Hurry, only a few units left!

The post EZCast Just Turned Every Phone Into a Professional Camera Monitor first appeared on Yanko Design.

EZCast Just Turned Every Phone Into a Professional Camera Monitor

Posted on 28/02/2026 by JC Torres

Designer: EZCast

Click Here to Buy Now: $129 ~~$239~~ ($110 off). Hurry, only a few units left!

The post EZCast Just Turned Every Phone Into a Professional Camera Monitor first appeared on Yanko Design.

EZCast Just Turned Every Phone Into a Professional Camera Monitor

Posted on 28/02/2026 by JC Torres

Designer: EZCast

Click Here to Buy Now: $129 ~~$239~~ ($110 off). Hurry, only a few units left!

The post EZCast Just Turned Every Phone Into a Professional Camera Monitor first appeared on Yanko Design.

vivo V70 Review: A Concert Photographer’s Phone in Mid-Range Clothes

Posted on 19/02/2026 by JC Torres

PROS:

Striking "Sunset Glow" Golden Hour design

4K 60fps video recording on a mid-tier smartphone

Powerful 50MP ZEISS Super Telephoto Camera

Large 6,500mAh battery with super-fast 90W charging

CONS:

8MP ultra-wide camera is decent but mediocre

No wireless charging

RATINGS:

AESTHETICS

ERGONOMICS

PERFORMANCE

SUSTAINABILITY / REPAIRABILITY

VALUE FOR MONEY

EDITOR'S QUOTE:

The vivo V70 proves that a clear camera identity and premium materials still matter at this price.

The mid-range smartphone segment is crowded in ways that make individual products hard to distinguish. Specs converge, designs flatten, and most phones feel interchangeable within days. vivo’s V70 enters that space with a clear point of view: a ZEISS-co-engineered telephoto camera tuned for stage photography and travel, a large battery built for long days, and a physical design that genuinely tries to look and feel like something worth keeping.

The v70 also introduces the Golden Hour edition, the most visually expressive option in the lineup, with an etched glass back, an aerospace-grade aluminum frame, and a ZEISS camera module with serious hardware inside. Running OriginOS 6 on a Snapdragon 7 Gen 4, it promises a telephoto-first camera experience for concerts and travel, backed by a 6,500mAh battery. Does the full package deliver on all of it? Read on.

Designer: vivo

Aesthetics

Of all the V70’s color options, the Golden Hour edition is the one most worth talking about. vivo uses a specialized chemical etching process to form micron-scale texture on the back glass, creating a diffuse reflection that reads as refined matte from a distance but reveals subtle warmth in direct light. It’s fingerprint-resistant and smooth without feeling slippery, a noticeably more considered finish than the glossy or painted backs that dominate this price tier.

What’s more surprising is that the back doesn’t stay a single color. Depending on the viewing angle and ambient lighting, it shifts toward a cooler, slightly bluish hue you wouldn’t expect from a finish called Golden Hour. That unexpected chromatic movement makes it more visually engaging than a standard gradient, the kind of surface detail that keeps catching your eye without you fully understanding why.

Around the front, the aerospace-grade aluminum alloy frame wraps a flat display with ultra-thin bezels measuring just 1.25 mm on the sides. Rounded corners soften the silhouette without cheapening it, and the flat screen is a deliberate departure from curved-edge designs that can distort content near the edges. The overall impression is controlled and considered rather than flashy, which suits the V70’s personality well.

On the back, the camera module is a rounded metallic rectangle sitting just 3.29mm above the surface, low enough that the phone doesn’t rock noticeably on a table. Three lens rings and a ZEISS badge keep the composition clean without feeling crowded. It’s a well-executed rear panel that reinforces the premium identity without needing extra ornamentation to make the point.

Ergonomics

At 194g light and 7.59mm thick in the Golden Hour configuration, the vivo V70 feels present without being heavy. The matte AG glass provides enough grip for confident one-handed use without a case, and the flat sides and rounded corners make it comfortable to hold at its screen size. Weight distribution is balanced, which matters more for all-day carry than any single spec on a data sheet.

The 3D Ultrasonic Fingerprint Scanning 2.0 is one of the more underrated features here. It works reliably with damp fingers, meaning no frustrating tap-and-retry cycle after a workout or a skincare routine. Best of all, it’s located a good distance away from the bottom, so you don’t have to precariously shift your hand from its natural holding position just to unlock the phone.

Performance

Under the hood, the vivo V70’s Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 with LPDDR5X memory and UFS 4.1 storage handles everyday tasks and multitasking without hesitation, and a 4,200mm² vapor chamber keeps sustained performance steady during longer camera sessions. It’s not a chipset that headlines benchmark charts, but it delivers consistent, smooth day-to-day performance, which is more relevant to what the V70 is actually designed for than theoretical peak numbers.

The 6.59-inch 1.5K OLED runs at 120Hz with 459 PPI and peaks at 5,000 nits local brightness, which holds up well in direct sunlight and makes reviewing photos outdoors genuinely practical. Colors are rich without being oversaturated, and the 1.07-billion color depth makes gradient-heavy AI-edited shots look smooth rather than banded. It’s one of the better mid-range displays available at this price tier right now.

The camera system’s two stars are the 50MP main and 50MP periscope telephoto. The main uses a Sony LYT-700V sensor with a 1/1.56-inch surface area and OIS, delivering consistent, detailed portraits across daylight and mixed lighting. The telephoto uses a 1/1.95-inch sensor with its own OIS and a periscope structure that enables 10x zoom in a compact body. Both cameras consistently outperform what you’d expect at this price.

Of the three rear cameras, the 8MP ultra-wide is where things get more ordinary. It’s functional for casual wide shots, but the gap in detail and dynamic range between it and the main and telephoto cameras is noticeable. Given the vivo V70’s travel ambitions, wide landscape shots will come out looking more ordinary than portraits taken at the same destination. The phone’s real camera personality clearly lives in the other two lenses.

AI Stage Mode is a genuine differentiator if you attend live events regularly. At 10x zoom from 10m to 20m away, the AI Image Enhancement Algorithm and AI Style Portrait Technology combine to pull facial detail and expression clarity from performers under challenging stage lighting. It won’t replace a dedicated camera at that distance, but for a phone that fits in your jacket pocket, the results hold up surprisingly well.

Video gets a meaningful upgrade with 4K 60fps, the first time the vivo V series has offered this, and footage looks cinematic when lighting cooperates. AI Audio Noise Eraser in post-editing selectively reduces wind noise, crowd chatter, or ambient sound from recorded clips. It sounds like a spec sheet bullet point until you actually try cleaning up a concert recording with it, and then it becomes a feature you’d miss on another phone.

Battery life is a genuine strength. The 6,500mAh BlueVolt battery with 90W FlashCharge handles a full day of heavy use and then some, including heavy video playback. Wireless charging still isn’t part of the package, though, which will matter to those who’ve built it into their daily routine, but fast wired charging and a genuinely large battery soften that trade-off considerably.

Sustainability

vivo commits to four generations of OS updates and 6 years of security patches for the V70, placing it firmly in the category of phones worth keeping rather than replacing every two years. That’s the most meaningful sustainability argument a phone can make, applying regardless of materials or recycling programs. Longer software support means slower obsolescence, and slower obsolescence means less electronic waste accumulating on a shelf somewhere.

IP68 and IP69 ratings, combined with what vivo calls 10-Facet Drop Resistance, lower the anxiety of carrying a polished phone through real conditions. IP69 covers high-pressure water jets, going well beyond typical rain scenarios. That durability confidence changes how casually you handle the phone day to day, and there’s something genuinely reassuring about owning a device you don’t have to constantly worry about.

The material choices also support long-term ownership. Aerospace-grade aluminum and etched AG glass age more gracefully than glossy plastic, which yellows, scratches, and starts looking tired within a year of daily use. The matte texture stays presentable with minimal cleaning, and IP68/IP69 combined with drop resistance gives the V70 a realistic chance of surviving the accidents that typically end mid-range phones early.

Value

The V70 packages premium design, a ZEISS telephoto-first camera system, a strong OLED display, fast charging, and long software support into a price tier that usually demands more compromises. The Golden Hour finish gives it a visual identity that stands above most phones at its price, and the combination of AI Stage Mode with ZEISS Multifocal Portrait focal lengths makes it genuinely specialized rather than just generically capable.

The 8MP ultra-wide is the honest weak spot, and travelers who rely heavily on wide shots will feel that gap. Wireless charging is also absent. But what the V70 does well, it does consistently, and the combination of a premium-feeling design, a capable telephoto system, and 6 years of security updates makes it a phone that’s easy to justify and hard to grow out of quickly.

Verdict

The vivo V70 in Golden Hour is one of the more cohesive mid-range phones available right now. The etched glass with its unexpected bluish shift, the aluminum frame, the ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, the bright 1.5K OLED, and the ZEISS telephoto and portrait system all work together in a way that makes the phone feel intentional rather than assembled from a spec sheet and a parts catalog.

The 8MP ultra-wide and the absence of wireless charging are unfortunate blemishes on what is otherwise a remarkably well-rounded package. Both are real trade-offs rather than dealbreakers, though, and the vivo V70 earns its place as a phone that’s genuinely hard to fault for what it costs, especially if portrait photography, concert shooting, and long battery life are what matter most to you.

The post vivo V70 Review: A Concert Photographer’s Phone in Mid-Range Clothes first appeared on Yanko Design.

This Camera roll with concealed shooting lens is a fun novelty for geeks

Posted on 16/02/2026 by Gaurav Sood

Quite a lot of interesting gadgets tend to originate from Japan, challenging the conventional product designs for good. Some are surprisingly multifunctional, while others tick the boxes of fun novelty for geeks. The OPT100 NeoFilm digital camera that looks like a camera roll is from the latter pool. The tiny accessory emulates the old-school camera rolls by Kodak, evoking nostalgic memories. The Kodak Charmera is another accessory with similar vibes, so, of course, there’s a market for such offbeat gadgets.

Maker Opt has designed the camera roll shooter in different colors to leave no one complaining. There’s the classic Kodak color combination of yellow and black, or the rainbow colors contrasted with the white, along with other colors that bring back charming memories of clicking moments that mattered. A time when clicking a photograph was a more mindful activity of “one shot one opportunity,” rather than shooting in burst mode on modern digital cameras and smartphones.

Designer: Opt

OPT100 NeoFilm measures 47mm x 25mm x 25mm and weighs just 25 grams, making it highly pocketable, or good to carry along tethered to a keychain or backpack. Obviously, this won’t replace your flagship smartphone or digital camera with its 8-megapixel CMOS sensor, but it’s a good accessory to show off. In daylight, it fares well with the ability to shoot photos at 3760 × 2128 pixels resolution, and videos at 0.3 megapixels in HD resolution at 30 frames per second.

The camera roll has a fixed 3.2mm lens that can focus on objects at a distance of 20 cm or 70 cm away from the shooter. Shutter speed of 100-300 milliseconds, and the ISO range of 1500-1600 is not bad for such a makeshift shooting accessory. That could come in useful for quick shoots on the fly when you don’t want to take out your phone. On the rear section of the roll, there’s a 160×80 pixel display to frame the shots and go through the clicked photos on the memory card slot of up to 32 GB. The accessory has an in-built 230mAh battery that is good to go for an hour’s use on a single charge.

Labeling this cool gadget as a toy camera won’t be wrong, since it is a fun novelty meant for casual use and a way to show off your love for old camera rolls. OPT100 NeoFilm comes in period-correct packaging for 5,940 Yen (approximately $40). Currently only available in Japan, the toy camera can be shipped from third-party merchants like eBay, but you might have to spend more money.

The post This Camera roll with concealed shooting lens is a fun novelty for geeks first appeared on Yanko Design.

The Flashback ONE35 V2 Turns Limitation Into Its Most Compelling Feature

Posted on 30/12/2025 by Vincent Nguyen

Digital photography has spent three decades eliminating friction, yet the Flashback ONE35 V2 deliberately reintroduces it. This compact camera restricts shooters to 27 exposures per roll and can withhold images for 24 hours before revealing them, treating scarcity and anticipation as design features rather than technical shortcomings. The approach feels counterintuitive until you recognize what it actually targets: not the act of taking pictures, but the behavioral patterns that infinite storage and instant preview have normalized.

Flashback, the Australian startup behind the ONE35, positions the device as “film feeling, digital freedom,” a phrase that captures the central tension the product navigates. The camera doesn’t simulate film chemistry or grain patterns. Instead, it borrows the behavioral scaffolding of disposable cameras, the fixed exposure count, the inability to review shots immediately, the delayed gratification of waiting for development, and grafts these constraints onto a reusable digital core. What emerges is less a nostalgic throwback than a deliberate intervention in how we interact with image-making tools.

The design argument here is worth parsing carefully. Constraint, when applied with intention, can redirect attention and reshape behavior in ways that pure capability expansion cannot. The ONE35 V2 doesn’t ask users to appreciate limitation for its own sake. It proposes that limitation might produce something that unlimited access has gradually eroded: the weight of a single frame, the suspense of unseen results, the social ritual of collective reveal.

Form Language and Material Identity

Physically, the ONE35 V2 speaks a dialect of late-1990s consumer electronics, updated with contemporary material sensibilities. The body arrives in eight colorways ranging from high-contrast pairings like Yellow/Black and Red/White to more subdued options like Coffee/Cream. Two variants feature transparent shells that expose internal componentry, a direct nod to the see-through electronics trend that peaked around 1999 with devices like the iMac G3 and translucent Game Boy Color. The proportions feel familiar, chunky without being bulky, designed to disappear into a jacket pocket or small bag.

Color blocking dominates the visual strategy. Each variant commits to two tones maximum, avoiding the gradient meshes and complex surface treatments common in contemporary consumer tech. This restraint serves the object’s conceptual positioning: it looks like something you would find at a beach shop checkout in 2001, yet the material finish and assembly precision read as current. The plastic shells have a matte texture on most models, reducing fingerprint visibility and giving the camera a tactile presence that glossy alternatives would sacrifice.

The transparent variants deserve particular attention. Exposing circuitry and internal structure creates an honesty of construction that opaque housings inherently conceal. You see the battery, the sensor housing, the flash capacitor. This transparency also functions as a trust signal, suggesting the device has nothing to hide about its relatively simple internals. There’s no pretense of computational complexity here, just the essential components required to capture and store 27 images at a time.

Materiality extends to the accessory ecosystem. A vegan leather case at $19 positions the camera as an object worth protecting and displaying, not a disposable item despite its disposable-camera heritage. The existence of branded caps and lanyards suggests Flashback understands the ONE35 as a lifestyle product, something users might want to signal ownership of rather than simply use.

Interaction Architecture: How Constraint Reshapes Behavior

Twenty-seven exposures. That number, pulled directly from the standard frame count of disposable film cameras, functions as the ONE35 V2’s primary behavioral lever. Disposables dominated casual photography from the late 1980s through the early 2000s before smartphones consolidated image capture into always-available, unlimited-capacity devices. By imposing the same ceiling, the ONE35 V2 forces a kind of photographic triage that contemporary shooters rarely practice: you cannot spray-and-pray when each frame represents roughly 3.7% of your available shots.

Scarcity changes the shooting ritual in observable ways. Users report thinking before pressing the shutter, evaluating whether a moment warrants one of their limited frames. The camera transforms from a capture-everything tool into something closer to a curation device, where selection happens at the point of exposure rather than afterward in a bloated camera roll. Each shot carries psychological weight proportional to the constraint.

The 24-hour development delay in Classic Mode introduces a second behavioral intervention. Instead of chimping (the photographer’s habit of immediately reviewing each shot on the camera’s screen), users must wait a full day before seeing results. This delay severs the feedback loop that digital photography introduced, the instant gratification that allows endless re-shooting until the perfect frame emerges. Without that loop, users either accept what they captured or miss the moment entirely.

Flashback’s decision to include Digicam Mode alongside Classic Mode reveals a pragmatic understanding of user psychology. Some shooters want the constraint of limited exposures without the enforced patience of delayed development. Others want the full experience. By making the delay optional, the ONE35 V2 acknowledges that not every context suits maximum friction, a party might call for immediate sharing that a travel diary would not.

The transfer workflow also carries design intention. Photos unload via Lightning or USB-C cable to the Flashback app, which handles what the company frames as “development.” The cable requirement is notable in an era of wireless everything. It creates a deliberate moment of connection, a physical ritual that separates capture time from viewing time. You must decide to plug in, to initiate the transfer, to move from shooter to viewer.

What Constraint Produces

The behavioral implications extend beyond individual users into social dynamics. At parties or group events, the ONE35 becomes a shared object that circulates hand to hand, with each person granted temporary access to a limited pool of exposures. This communal aspect mirrors how disposable cameras functioned at weddings and gatherings in the pre-smartphone era: multiple people contributing to a single roll that no one could immediately review.

The delayed reveal transforms image sharing from instant broadcast into group ritual. When Classic Mode holds photos for 24 hours, the eventual viewing becomes an event rather than a continuous trickle. Group chats waiting for a camera’s worth of party photos to “develop” experience collective anticipation, a social texture that immediate availability cannot replicate. Flashback’s marketing leans into this with phrases like “your friends will be begging you to share.”

There’s also an environmental dimension to consider. Disposable cameras generate physical waste with every roll: plastic housing, battery, packaging, chemical development. The ONE35 V2 retains the behavioral structure while eliminating the material throughput. One device, rechargeable via USB-C, replaces hundreds of single-use cameras over its lifespan. The sustainability argument nests inside the experience design rather than leading it.

Cultural Positioning: Where This Object Lives

The ONE35 V2 enters a market already primed for analog revival and digital skepticism. Film photography has seen sustained growth since the mid-2010s, driven partly by aesthetic preference but also by users seeking relief from the infinite scroll of digital capture. Fujifilm’s disposable cameras routinely sell out. Kodak has reintroduced discontinued film stocks. The secondhand market for film cameras has pushed prices for once-cheap bodies into collector territory.

Within this landscape, the ONE35 occupies an interesting niche. It doesn’t require users to learn film handling, find processing labs, or pay per-roll development costs. The app handles what chemistry once did, for free, indefinitely. But it preserves the behavioral constraints that film imposed, the limitations that many film revivalists cite as the actual source of appeal. In this sense, the camera represents a kind of constraint extraction: pulling the valuable behavioral friction out of an analog medium and transplanting it into a digital one.

The “screen detox” movement provides additional context. Products and services promising to reduce smartphone dependency have proliferated over the past five years, from grayscale phone modes to minimalist devices like the Light Phone. The ONE35 V2 aligns with this impulse without requiring users to abandon connectivity entirely. You can still have your smartphone in your pocket. You simply capture certain moments with a different tool, one that encourages presence during the event and patience afterward.

Flashback’s origin story reinforces this positioning. Founders Kelric and Mack reportedly started the project after observing that partygoers spent more time on their phones than engaging with each other. The garage-prototype-to-Kickstarter arc (reaching $80,000 in 13 minutes, $800,000 total) suggests the observation resonated with a substantial audience. The subsequent Good Design Award and Shark Tank appearance mark a trajectory from indie curiosity to legitimate product category.

What the ONE35 V2 Signals

The camera’s success, 50,000 units across 68 countries, 10 million captured images, suggests that designed constraint has commercial viability beyond niche appeal. Users are paying $119 for a device that does less than their phones, specifically because it does less. This inverts the typical value proposition of consumer electronics, where more features justify higher prices.

What Flashback demonstrates is that subtraction can constitute a design feature when the thing being subtracted has become a source of friction itself. Unlimited storage, instant preview, always-on connectivity: these capabilities solved problems when they emerged, but they’ve also generated new ones. The ONE35 V2 proposes that rolling back certain capabilities, with intention and care, might address the second-order problems the first capabilities created. Pick up the camera. Feel its compact, slightly chunky form. Press the shutter knowing you have 26 frames left. That deliberate friction is the product.

The post The Flashback ONE35 V2 Turns Limitation Into Its Most Compelling Feature first appeared on Yanko Design.

Sandmarc Lens Gives iPhone 17 Pro 16x Optical Zoom, No Digital Tricks

Posted on 06/12/2025 by JC Torres

iPhone zoom has improved, especially with the 17 Pro’s tetraprism, but anything past 5x still leans heavily on digital tricks. Distant concert shots look like watercolor paintings, city skyline details collapse into mush when you pinch to zoom. If you actually care about long lenses, you usually end up carrying a separate camera and a chunky telephoto, which defeats the point of traveling light in the first place.

Sandmarc’s Telephoto Tetraprism Lens offers a different approach. It is a 48mm 2x optical telephoto that mounts directly over the 17 Pro’s 5x tetraprism camera, giving you up to 16x reach, roughly a 384mm equivalent. Real glass does the work instead of software interpolation. It is built specifically for Apple’s tetraprism module, not a generic clip on trying to cover all three lenses poorly.

Designer: Sandmarc

The lens is a multi element, multi coated cylinder weighing about 250 grams, closer to a compact mirrorless lens than a toy. The field of view narrows to 16.7 degrees, which gives you tight framing and real telephoto compression, the kind that pulls distant mountains closer or stacks city buildings into dense layers. The front element sits deep inside a metal barrel with blue anti reflection coating, machined rather than molded.

Where it shines is shooting where you physically cannot move closer. Standing on a ridge pulling in a faraway peak, shooting street portraits from across the road, grabbing architectural details from stadium seats without leaning on digital zoom that turns textures into paste. The lens only works with the 5x module, so you need a pro camera app to force the phone onto that sensor, but once dialed in, results look more like a small camera than a phone.

The front of the lens is threaded for Sandmarc’s own filters, so you can snap on an ND, polarizer, or diffusion filter just like you would on a regular camera. That opens up long exposures, glare control, and more cinematic looks. The included Ultra Slim case handles alignment and mounting without fiddling with clips, though it does mean swapping out whatever case you normally use when you want the lens attached.

The trade offs are real. The lens adds bulk and weight, only works with the 17 Pro and Pro Max tetraprism camera, needs Sandmarc’s case, and really wants a third party camera app. It is not something you leave on all day. It is the piece of kit you pack when you will be chasing distant subjects and want something better than cropped pixels, accepting your phone will feel like a small camera for a few hours.

Accessories like this make the iPhone feel less like a sealed black box and more like a modular camera system. For people who already think in focal lengths and filters, the Sandmarc Telephoto Tetraprism Lens turns the 17 Pro into a capable long lens rig, without asking you to give up having your main camera still live in your pocket when you are done shooting and need to check email or navigate to the next location.

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When One Camera Just Isn’t Enough: The Moon Walker Multi Cam

Posted on 13/11/2025 by Ida Torres

Remember those old flip books where you’d thumb through pages to watch a stick figure run? Or maybe you’ve seen those mesmerizing bullet-time shots from The Matrix where everything freezes except the camera swooping around the action. Now imagine capturing that kind of magic with a wooden camera that looks like it walked straight out of a steampunk fantasy. That’s exactly what Woodlabo has created with the Moon Walker Multi Cam, and it’s got photographers and design nerds equally captivated.

At first glance, the Moon Walker looks like something a Victorian inventor might have dreamed up after a few too many glasses of absinthe. This isn’t your sleek, minimalist smartphone camera or even a traditional DSLR. Instead, it’s a sculptural wooden installation equipped with eleven separate lenses arranged in a curved arc, all working together to capture the same moment from different angles simultaneously.‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎

Designer: Woodlabo

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The genius here lies in what happens after the shutter clicks. Those eleven simultaneous shots can be sequenced together to create animated sequences that show movement through space rather than time. It’s like having eleven photographers standing in different spots all pressing their shutters at the exact same instant. The result is something between a photograph and a short film, a kind of dimensional flip that makes you see familiar subjects in completely new ways.

Woodlabo, the creative force behind this project, clearly has a thing for merging old-world craftsmanship with contemporary photographic concepts. The wood construction isn’t just aesthetic posturing. There’s something deliberately nostalgic about using timber to house cutting-edge multi-perspective photography technology. It creates this fascinating tension between the handmade and the high-tech, the analog and the digital.

What makes the Moon Walker particularly interesting in today’s photography landscape is how it challenges our relationship with image-making. We’re living in an era where everyone has a powerful camera in their pocket, where we can shoot hundreds of photos in seconds, apply AI filters, and share them globally before lunch. Yet here’s a device that’s intentionally cumbersome, deliberately complex, and requires actual physical space and setup. It’s the photographic equivalent of listening to vinyl records in the age of streaming.

The multi-angle approach also taps into something we’ve been obsessed with since Eadweard Muybridge strapped cameras to horses to capture motion in the 1870s. We’ve always been fascinated by seeing things we can’t normally see, by breaking down movement, by viewing the same subject from impossible perspectives. The Moon Walker is essentially a modern riff on that same impulse, updated for an Instagram age that’s hungry for content that looks genuinely different.

For designers and artists, the Moon Walker represents an interesting commentary on how we create images. It’s both camera and sculpture, functional tool and art object. You could mount it on a wall when you’re not using it, and it would hold its own as a piece of design. That dual nature makes it more than just another photographic gadget. It’s a statement about the value of intentional, considered image-making in a world drowning in throwaway snapshots.

The practical applications are pretty wild too. Imagine capturing products for e-commerce from multiple angles in one shot, creating dynamic motion graphics for social media without complex video editing, or developing entirely new forms of visual storytelling that exist somewhere between still photography and animation. For creatives willing to experiment, the Moon Walker opens up possibilities that standard cameras simply can’t achieve.

Will you see Moon Walker Multi Cams at your local camera shop anytime soon? Probably not. This is more art project than consumer product, more proof-of-concept than mass-market solution. But that’s exactly what makes it worth paying attention to. The most interesting developments in design and technology often start as these quirky, impractical experiments that make us rethink what’s possible. Today it’s eleven lenses on a wooden arc. Tomorrow it might be the standard way we capture the world.

The post When One Camera Just Isn’t Enough: The Moon Walker Multi Cam first appeared on Yanko Design.

When a Photographer Builds a Fortress: John Dessarzin’s Brutalist Jungle Sanctuary in Costa Rica

Posted on 10/11/2025 by Vincent Nguyen

When a National Geographic photographer designs his sanctuary, the lens doesn’t disappear. John Dessarzin’s Brutalist compound in Atenas, Costa Rica, frames the jungle like a permanent viewfinder: all concrete, steel, and calculated sightlines. Perched on a cliff bordering a protected bird sanctuary in the Central Valley, the 2017 residence rejects the neoclassical templates that dominate the region in favor of raw materiality and seismic resilience.

Designer: John Dessarzin

Dessarzin collaborated with noted Costa Rican architect Jaime Rouillon to create a cantilevered complex that includes a two-bedroom main house and three guest villas. The property, now listed at $2.195 million as Dessarzin relocates to Portugal, stands as a study in what happens when photographic composition dictates architectural form. There are no visible neighbors, no decorative flourishes, no concessions to tropical vernacular. Only exposed concrete, industrial glass, and the unfiltered sounds of the jungle.

This isn’t architecture that accommodates the landscape. It’s architecture that isolates and amplifies it.

Material Honesty on Unstable Ground

Rouillon’s design philosophy centers on “honesty to materials,” and here that principle translates to a building with zero wood: only poured concrete, metals, and glass.

The decision wasn’t purely aesthetic. Costa Rica sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, where seismic activity demands structural rigor. Shear walls anchor the main house to the cliff face, distributing lateral forces through a foundation designed to absorb rather than resist movement. The cantilevered upper level, which houses the primary living space and infinity pool, floats above the slope without appearing precarious. It’s a balancing act that requires precise engineering hidden within minimalist form.

John Dessarzin

Rouillon, whose portfolio includes high-end custom residences like Casa Val and Casa Las Olas, brings a postmodern sensibility to Costa Rican site conditions. His work fuses horizontality with floating roof planes, creating compositions that read as sculptural objects rather than shelters.

In Dessarzin’s compound, that approach manifests as a series of stacked volumes that step down the hillside, each level offering unobstructed views toward the Central Valley. The exposed concrete weathers visibly, accumulating stains and patina that reinforce the material’s permanence rather than diminish it. The textural contrast between raw concrete and industrial glazing establishes the visual language. There are no mediating elements: no stucco cladding, no painted surfaces, no decorative screens. Every material performs its structural role without cosmetic enhancement.

The result feels less like a residence and more like infrastructure repurposed for habitation. Which aligns with Dessarzin’s stated goal: a space that prioritizes utility and sensory immersion over comfort signaling.

What distinguishes Rouillon’s execution here is the restraint. Brutalism often tips into heaviness, where mass becomes oppressive. This design maintains lightness through proportion and transparency, using glass expanses to dissolve boundaries between interior and exterior while the concrete frame remains legible.

Spatial Choreography Across Elevation

The main house organizes two bedrooms across vertical zones: an upstairs primary suite and a downstairs guest suite, with a dedicated office studio that once served Dessarzin’s photography practice.

The upper level opens onto a patio and infinity pool, both positioned to eliminate sightlines to neighboring properties. The spatial logic prioritizes controlled exposure: maximizing connection to the sanctuary while maintaining seclusion from the surrounding development. Circulation between levels feels deliberate, with each transition offering reframed views of the canopy and valley below.

John Dessarzin

Dessarzin added three guest villas to support Airbnb operations. A three-bedroom, two-bath unit for families. A studio villa with en-suite for couples. A compact one-bedroom casita at the entrance for solo travelers. The villas operate independently from the main house, distributed across the hillside to preserve privacy while sharing access to the broader landscape.

This fragmentation (separating program into discrete volumes rather than consolidating under a single roof) amplifies the sense of inhabiting terrain rather than a building. The design avoids conventional hierarchies. There’s no grand entrance sequence, no central courtyard organizing movement. Instead, pathways and terraces establish a loose network where orientation depends on topography and view corridors.

It’s a composition that privileges wandering over procession.

The Photographer’s Eye Encoded in Concrete

Dessarzin’s National Geographic background permeates the spatial organization. Every major window functions as a framing device, isolating specific landscape elements: a particular tree canopy, a slice of valley, a section of sky, all with the precision of a telephoto lens. The infinity pool acts as a foreground element that extends the visual plane toward the horizon, a technique borrowed from photographic composition where layered depth creates dimensionality. Rouillon’s horizontal roof planes reinforce this effect, establishing strong lines that guide the eye outward rather than upward.

The prioritization of light follows photographic logic. Morning sun illuminates the primary suite, while afternoon light floods the upper living area and pool terrace.

Dessarzin positioned glazing to capture specific solar angles throughout the year, treating daylight as a variable input that changes the character of each space across seasons. Shadows from the concrete structure migrate across interior surfaces, creating time-based patterns that wouldn’t exist in a conventionally finished building. The house operates as a light meter calibrated to tropical latitude, where extreme brightness and deep shade occur simultaneously.

Dessarzin describes the surrounding homes as “nothing special.” The dismissal is rooted in their reliance on neoclassical templates that ignore site-specific conditions. His residence rejects that imported vocabulary entirely, opting for a design language that foregrounds geology, climate, and ecological context.

The contrast is stark. Where neighbors deploy columns and arches, Dessarzin’s compound presents unadorned planes and cantilevers. It’s an architectural critique delivered through form rather than rhetoric, arguing that luxury in this setting means unmediated access to the landscape, not decorative reassurance.

The design also acknowledges the owner’s eventual absence. Dessarzin built the property to function as both personal sanctuary and rental asset, structuring the villas to generate income independent of his occupancy. Now, as he relocates to Portugal, the compound transitions from lived project to market commodity. That shift underscores a broader tension: can architecture this specifically calibrated to one person’s vision maintain its integrity under different ownership?

Lifestyle Economics and the Expat Market

Atenas attracts expats from the US, Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands, drawn by climate, cost of living, and proximity to San Jose’s international airport (40 minutes) and Pacific beaches (one hour).

Dessarzin’s decision to sell reflects rising operational costs and the demands of managing Airbnb rentals. The property functions as both retreat and business, and those roles don’t always align.

Maintenance for an all-concrete structure in tropical humidity requires specialized attention, and the remote location limits service access. The $2.195 million asking price positions the compound within Costa Rica’s luxury market, where architectural distinction commands premiums. For design-focused buyers, the property offers a rare synthesis: earthquake-proof engineering, Brutalist materiality, and immersive access to protected nature.

The trade-off is operational complexity and aesthetic uncompromising. This isn’t a turnkey residence that adapts easily to diverse tastes. It’s a fixed statement that rewards occupants who share Dessarzin’s priorities or are willing to engage the architecture on its own terms.

The post When a Photographer Builds a Fortress: John Dessarzin’s Brutalist Jungle Sanctuary in Costa Rica first appeared on Yanko Design.

Oppo Find X8 Pro Review: Powerful Quad-Camera, Now with a Slimmer Profile

Posted on 21/11/2024 by Aki Ukita

PROS:

Sophisticated quad-camera system with dual-periscope telephoto

Excellent ergonomics and sleek design

Impressive performance

CONS:

Quick button functionality can be inconsistent

Limited to 80W wired charging

RATINGS:

AESTHETICS

ERGONOMICS

PERFORMANCE

SUSTAINABILITY / REPAIRABILITY

VALUE FOR MONEY

EDITOR'S QUOTE:

The OPPO Find X8 Pro distinguishes itself from competitors with unique selling points such as a sophisticated quad-camera system that includes dual-periscope telephoto lenses, providing unparalleled versatility in photography.

OPPO is turning up the heat in the flagship arena with the launch of the global version of the OPPO Find X8 series. These premium devices place a major emphasis on camera innovation, with Hasselblad lending its expertise to elevate the photography experience. The Find X8 Pro, in particular, exemplifies OPPO’s partnership with Hasselblad, offering a sophisticated quad-camera system that includes dual-periscope telephoto lenses for unmatched versatility.

Beyond its photographic prowess, the Find X8 Pro delivers impressive performance powered by MediaTek’s latest Dimensity 9400 chipset, complemented by excellent ergonomics for a comfortable user experience. We put the device through its paces to see just how well it performs under various conditions, evaluating its capabilities in real-world scenarios.

Designer: OPPO

Aesthetics

The OPPO Find X8 Pro has undergone a significant design transformation, presenting a more subtle elegance with a less dominant camera island. OPPO has managed to reduce the size and thickness of the camera bump by 40% compared to its predecessor, according to the company. Although the camera bump remains prominent, it is now more streamlined.

The camera island is designed with perfect symmetry, housing four cameras and featuring the Hasselblad H branding at its center. OPPO’s distinctive Cosmos Ring design and the iconic orange dot are also present, paying homage to classic cameras.

Both variants of the Find X8 Pro are sleek and sophisticated, embodying modern design principles. The Space Black model boasts a frosted textured back panel with a matching matte black aluminum frame and a glossy black camera island, creating a seamless and understated look.

The Pearl White variant, inspired by organic beauty, features a unique pearl-like pattern on the back panel that subtly reflects light, complemented by a silver matte frame and a white camera island. This variant captures attention with its elegant and refined appearance. Notably, there is no vegan leather option available for the Find X8 series.

The overall design of the OPPO Find X8 Pro reflects a meticulous attention to detail, ensuring that both color options offer a premium feel and a visually appealing aesthetic.

Ergonomics

The OPPO Find X8 Pro excels in ergonomics, thanks to its thoughtful design and reduced size and weight. With dimensions of 162.27×76.67×8.24 mm for the Space Black variant and 162.27×76.67×8.34 mm for the Pearl White variant, and a weight of 215 grams, the device is not small but manages to avoid feeling massive in hand. This is largely due to its reduced thickness and weight, which contribute to a comfortable grip.

The back panel is slightly curved at all four edges, providing a seamless transition to the frame and enhancing the device’s ergonomics. The slightly curved glass around the edges facilitates smooth swiping, making navigation a breeze. However, the placement of the fingerprint scanner near the bottom edge can make unlocking and operating the phone a bit awkward.

OPPO has reintroduced the alert slider, allowing users to quickly switch between ring, vibrate, and silent modes. Additionally, the Find X8 Pro features a new quick button on the right side, dedicated to camera functions. This capacitive touch button enables rapid camera launch in just 0.4 seconds with a double tap, as well as zooming in and out by sliding your finger and snapping photos in single or burst mode.

The concept of a dedicated camera button is exciting, but my experience with it was a bit of a mixed bag. I’ve had a similar experience with the iPhone 16’s button, which was also less than impressive. OPPO’s quick button is different from the iPhone’s, as it is a capacitive touch button. However, it requires a bit of force to activate, which can make it feel less responsive.

The zooming function sometimes went in the opposite direction of what I intended, though I did notice some improvement after adjusting the pressure sensitivity settings, and I got better with practice. Personally, I still find the dial carousel on the camera UI easier for zooming, but that might just be me. It would be nice if the quick button included features like a two-stage shutter (half-press for focus, full-press for shutter) and some customization options.

Overall, the OPPO Find X8 Pro impressively balances advanced features like its four-camera system with a design that remains sleek and manageable. It’s a testament to OPPO’s engineering that they managed to incorporate such powerful features into a device that remains easy to handle and use. While there are still some areas, like the quick button, that could be refined further, the overall ergonomic design is commendable.

Performance

The OPPO Find X8 Pro is a powerhouse in terms of camera capabilities, boasting an impressive array of hardware and features. It is equipped with four 50MP cameras, including two periscope telephoto lenses, just like the Find X7 Ultra. The phone sports a 32MP camera on its front for selfies.

Main, 1x

Main, 1x, Low Light

Main, 2x Portrait, Low Light

The main camera features a 1/1.4-inch Sony LYT-808 sensor with an f/1.6 aperture and optical image stabilization (OIS). It excels in both well-lit and low-light conditions, capturing photos with vibrant yet natural colors and accurate white balance. The main lens also offers a 2x optical zoom, adding versatility to your photography.

Main, 1x

Telephoto, 3x

Telephoto, 6x

Telephoto, 30x

Telephoto, 60x

Telephoto, 120x

The 3x optical zoom, 73mm-equivalent camera boasts a 1/1.95-inch Sony LYT-600 sensor, an f/2.6 aperture, and OIS. The 6x optical zoom, 135mm-equivalent telephoto camera features a 1/2.51-inch Sony IMX-858 sensor, an f/4.3 aperture, and OIS. Both telephoto lenses deliver detailed, well-exposed (sometimes slightly overexposed) shots with impressive dynamic range across various lighting scenarios.

The ultra-wide camera, featuring a Samsung 5KJN5 sensor with a 1/2.75-inch size and an f/2.0 aperture with autofocus, completes the versatile camera system. While it may be less exciting compared to the other lenses, it performs reliably well.

The portrait mode offers a range of focal lengths, including 23mm, 48mm, 73mm, and 136mm, providing outstanding subject isolation and creamy bokeh at any focal length.

Ultrawide, 0.6x

Macro, 3x

Portrait, 73mm

The device can record 4K 60fps Dolby Vision video on all cameras, including the front-facing one. Videos from the rear cameras are well-exposed, featuring vibrant colors and smooth transitions between lenses.

The OPPO Find X8 Pro features a stunning 6.78-inch AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, offering a resolution of 2780×1264 and a pixel density of 450 PPI. With a peak brightness of 4500 nits, the display is exceptionally bright, fluid, and vibrant, making it perfect for viewing content in any lighting condition. The inclusion of 2160Hz PWM dimming ensures comfortable viewing by reducing flicker, even at low brightness levels.

Under the hood, the Find X8 Pro is powered by the latest MediaTek Dimensity 9400 chipset, paired with either 12GB or 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM. Storage options range from 256GB to 1TB of UFS 4.0, providing ample space and speed for all your apps and media. The phone can handle demanding workloads effortlessly, including intensive gaming sessions and multitasking.

Running on ColorOS 15 atop Android 15, the Find X8 Pro offers a smooth and intuitive user experience. As expected from a 2024 flagship, it includes a suite of AI features, such as AI Studio and AI Reflection Remover. While testing the AI Reflection Remover, results were a bit hit or miss; however, this feature holds promise and could become incredibly useful as it becomes more sophisticated.

ColorOS 15 also introduces Touch to Share, enabling simple file transfers between the Find X8 Pro and iOS devices via NFC. This feature, which requires the O+ Connect app on iOS, will be available in a future update.

The phone is equipped with a robust 5910mAh silicon-carbon battery, supporting 80W wired fast charging and 50W wireless charging. Additionally, the device offers 10W reverse wireless charging, allowing you to power other gadgets on the go. Battery life is impressive, typically lasting a full day of heavy use without the need for a recharge.

Sustainability

With environmental responsibility becoming more critical these days, the sustainability of tech products is increasingly scrutinized. The OPPO Find X8 Pro, while impressive in its technological prowess, has room for improvement in its ecological impact. Constructed with reinforced glass and hardy aluminum alloy the device offers durability, and its IP68 and IP69 ratings provide robust protection against dust and water, further extending its lifespan.

However, by adopting a more proactive approach to sustainability, such as incorporating recycled materials and enhancing repairability, OPPO could significantly boost the Find X8 Pro’s appeal to eco-conscious consumers.

Value

In the Chinese market, the OPPO Find X8 Pro offers a compelling value proposition with its impressive specifications and features. The base model, featuring 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, is priced at CNY 5,299 (approximately 735 USD), while the higher-end model with 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage is available for CNY 6,499 (approximately 900 USD).

At a similar price point, the Xiaomi 15 Pro presents itself as a competitive alternative. Meanwhile, the Vivo X200 Pro is positioned as a slightly more budget-friendly option within the premium smartphone segment.

Although pricing for markets outside of China is not available at the time of writing, OPPO’s strategy in its home market suggests an intent to deliver high-end performance and features at an accessible price point.

The Find X8 Pro distinguishes itself from competitors with unique selling points such as a sophisticated quad-camera system that includes dual-periscope telephoto lenses, providing unparalleled versatility in photography. Additionally, the device features a quick button for rapid camera access and an action button designed to enhance user interaction and convenience.

Verdict

The OPPO Find X8 Pro is a standout in the flagship smartphone market, offering a blend of cutting-edge technology and elegant design. Its camera system, developed in collaboration with Hasselblad, provides exceptional versatility and quality, making it a top choice for photography enthusiasts. The device’s performance and ergonomics are equally impressive, ensuring a smooth and enjoyable user experience. While there are areas for improvement, such as the quick button functionality, the Find X8 Pro remains a compelling option for those seeking a premium smartphone with a strong emphasis on photography and performance.

The post Oppo Find X8 Pro Review: Powerful Quad-Camera, Now with a Slimmer Profile first appeared on Yanko Design.