Cameras and Photography Explained

At the end of the year I'm considering transitioning all of my News/Views into a single format. This is anticipated to be available only by subscription via a weekly email as well as a private site (see end of this digest for more). Don't worry, the rest of the information on my current sites would remain free.

To give you an idea of what that a weekly digest might look like, I've again taken the past week's news and built it into what this week's email would have looked like under this new plan. Enjoy.  (p.s. If you're interested in potentially subscribing, be sure to click here to receive further updates as this idea gets developed.)

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LEDE ON

AI for the loss. Yeah, I know you're as tired of Artificial Intelligence (AI) getting mentioned here, there, and everywhere as I am. So much so that you probably just pass over anything claiming to provide information about AI. But pay attention to this one: AI is starting to create a new form of tariff: shortages are causing price increases. Shortages of what, you ask? Hard drives and SSDs to start with (memory comes next). Since every AI player under the sun now wants to not only scrape every Internet page ever written (and keep doing so) to build in more parameters and more information and context through training, all those data centers popping up here in Merica and elsewhere need storage (and water, and electricity, and...). At the moment this demand is still masked in some of the data sets, but consider this one for a 256GB M.2NVME SSD, which is a popular option in building up fast server capacities:

While prices were tracking relatively flat in the low to mid 30's, suddenly we've seen a relatively fast ramp to US$40. 

It's also difficult to pull out real tariff impacts, as this is a mixed data set (imports and domestic, across multiple countries). Still, word in the warehouses is that server farm orders are up, driving hard drive and SSD inventories down and prices up. This is something we'll all need to watch. So, if you want to get a great present this holiday season while you can still afford it, maybe put hard drives or SSDs on your Wish List. 

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COMPACTION

It's not just for skiing anymore

"With help from Leica, we've redefined the action camera. It's no longer just for capturing thrilling action sports—it's become a creative tool for serious photography." So says Max Richter, the co-founder and VP of Marketing at Insta360. 

What's that entail? Some clip on lenses, a grip kit, an attachable Zink (instant) printer, and some Leica designed color profiles (all designed for the Insta360 Ace Pro 2). In an act of absurdity, this does bring your basic Ace Pro 2 buying options up to 15 different choices ;~). It could be worse, as you could simply mix and match accessories yourself and enter the often near-infinite realm of combinational permutations.

What fascinates me is that Insta360 gets one thing right: camera systems should be systems. Even GoPro has started to figure this out, though why it took them so long to get to lens modules I don't know. The big camera makers these days seem to keep trying to simplify and make everything solely about a body and some lenses, though I sometimes see a stab at something that isn't very well marketed or promoted (the Nikon MC-N10, for instance, which also requires a way of attachment that Nikon doesn't make ;~). Extending a mirrorless system these days with anything other than a body or lens seems to be verboten. The days where the yearly Nikon catalog—which itself seems to be gone—listed ways to extend your system in ways you never thought of are gone. Kaput. [Note to Thom NotAI: stop the Germanic accents.]

I have to say I'm tempted. The notion of 37mp stills at at least 16:9 (and I think possibly far wider given the anamorphic lens add on) in a vest pocket and attachable to anywhere on my Land Cruiser is interesting, to say the least. Of course I already have a Fujifilm X100VI at 40mp 3:2 that isn't all that much larger and travels with me. But here's the thing you should be picking up on: professional photographers always examine new offerings using a basic context. That context is: Can this new widget/thingie/gizmo product (a) give me a way to take photos I can't take now, (b) provide a look that might distinguish my work from those of others, or (c) just speed up or simplify what I'm already doing? A yes to any of those questions, and out comes the corporate card. Followed by some days of experimentation/verification. Followed by abandonment or acceptance. Repeat ad infinitum. 

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MARKET

Who won first? What's on second?

The fan-boys still seem to be trolling any interesting data set or best-selling list they can find, and still not understanding that this is mostly nonsense data that says nothing about the global market. The most recent example of that came with Yodabashi publishing their top 10 best selling cameras this past week (others did, as well, but I'll just stick with one of the most promoted sources). 

First, we don't know the integrity of those lists, we don't know whether the camera makers were offering spiffs (incentives) to sell certain models, and we don't know how many units (or dollars, because that, too isn't always clear) each position represents. What data is presented is so sparse as to be mostly meaningless. 

But had you told me that Yodabashi was about to publish October's list, I would have guessed most of it without seeing it. How? Well, the top position(s) will almost always be taken up by whatever was released in the market most recently (#1 ZR, #2 X2DII). Most of the rest of the positions would be taken up by affordable cameras released fairly recently (#4 X-M5, #6 Z50II, #9 Z5II). It's really the older cameras making the list that suggest any significance, and the longer they've been on the market, the more that's saying something about their strength (#3 A7C II, #7 R50, and #10 R5 Mark II are 2023 releases and thus showing stamina, or perhaps dealer incentives to sell). 

So when I look at these monthly or quarterly lists, I ask "did the most recent camera releases fail to make it to the top?" and "what cameras are continuing to appear in the list over and over?" That provides a small nugget of information, emphasis on the small. 

Oh, and here's another thing that a number of folk skip over: Yodabashi lists kits separately from bodies. So the Sony A7C II showed up as #3 with the kit lens, and #5 body-only. So here's another problem: it's highly likely that combined body+lens and body-only data would have produced a far different order.

Here are the actual lists:

1. Nikon Zf body
2. Hasselblad X2D II 100C body
3. Sony α7C II zoom lens kit 
4. Fujifilm X-M5 XC15-45mm lens it
5. Sony α7C II body 
6. Nikon Z50II double zoom lens kit 
7. Canon EOS R50 double zoom lens kit
8. Sony ZV-E10 II double zoom lens kit
9. Nikon Z5II body
10. Canon EOS R5 Mark II body 

Lenses:

1. Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 S II
2. Nikon 24-120mm f/4 S
3. Sony 24-70mm f/2.8GM II 
4. Sony 70-200mm f/2.8GM OSS II 
5. Canon 100-400mm f/5.6-8 IS USM 
6. Sigma 20-200mm f/3.5-6.3 DG Contemporary (E-mount) 
7. Canon 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1 L IS USM 
8. Nikon 16-50mm f/2.8 VR DX
9. Hasselblad 55mm f/2.5 V
10. Tamron 18-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di III-A VC VXD (RF mount) 

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MARKET

Return of the Mack

I'll let you look that Morrison title up, but I suspect some compact camera makers might be singing their version these days (with far fewer women in bikinis surrounding them than in the Inaz/Snoop Dog cover). CIPA numbers through September show us a 22.4% increase in shipment volume, and a 46.6% increase in sales dollars. That's about 1.7 million units and almost US$700m. For the full 2024 year the total was 1.9m units, so it's pretty clear 2025 is going to be a banner year for cameras with lenses welded on. Moreover, in nine months this year the numbers have already hit very close to what was shipped in 2023, so prepare to declare the Decline of the Compact over. (Just to be clear, CIPA is a Japanese organization, and only reports on cameras made by the Japanese makers, so Leica and Hasselblad, for example, are not part of those numbers. Leica makes compact cameras as well as mirrorless.)

We really didn't get many new compact launches in 2025: Canon Elph 360 and V1, Fujifilm X half and GFX100RF, Nikon Coolpix P1100, Ricoh GR, and Sony RX1RIII (total: 7). The GFX and the RX certainly helped with raising the average selling price, while the X half and GR helped with the volume. 

Thing is, I thought this volume resurrection would happen sooner. Virtually every serious photographer I know wants at least a competent jacket-pocket type camera (e.g. X100VI, GR). Meanwhile, the still available Coolpix P950—but not the P1100 that got the wimpiest update ever; sorry Nikon—is a strong contender for Casual Safari work, even if that's only at your local zoo or park. The Elph is a shirt pocket possibility, I guess, but it got a downgrade to take it back to the early teens, best case.

The camera makers ran screaming away from compacts when mobile phones got momentum coming out of the first decade of this century. I questioned why Japan was doing that then, and I still question it. While there's no doubt that mobile phones have been getting better and better at taking Web-worthy imagery to the point where that's about all you see these days in the doom scrolls, close examination of the results, particularly in marginal conditions, fall well behind scenes even the old 1/2.3" compacts handled well (and today we have better sensors and processors available). 

This is just another repeat of the Convenience Wins battles (e.g. LP versus CD). However, forgotten in virtually all of those battles is that the less convenient alternative recovered from its bottom and became something quite profitable to pursue fairly quickly. It seems only Fujifilm and Ricoh acted on this (the long substantive updating of the X100 and GR). Everyone else seemed to be more than happy to shut down their compact design groups and not try to bring them into the present.  

It didn't help that the big boys have continuously downsized their development groups due to the overall smaller market size, writing off assets, and generally putting maximal effort into their mirrorless offerings (Canon to hold market share, Nikon to regain it, Sony to hold onto what they stole from being the early entrant). It didn't help that the pandemic created parts shortages and supplier shutdowns. It didn't help that mobile phones added multiple cameras so as to simulate "zoom" capabilities. 

The real problem is as I pointed out as it started to happen: the camera makers had no idea how to market against Apple, Samsung, et.al. They still don't, and they don't seem to be doing anything to fix that. Which makes the Fujifilm X100 and Ricoh GR successes easier to explain: they're also not having to market against Canikony. They are winners almost by default: the last great players in a once strong market (and that dates back into the film days, with products such as the Olympus XA). 

I'd love to see Canon come out with a Powershot R1 and Nikon with a Coolpix Z1, but these two companies are distracted right now with trying to push down Fujifilm and Sony in the mirrorless market. I'd argue that not having anything that competes against a Fujifilm X100/GFX100 or the Sony RX1RIII actually makes that job of defending mirrorless more difficult, as Canon and Nikon don't look like they're serving adjacent markets, diluting some of their brand messaging. 

I haven't tried the new Ricoh yet, so of all the other compact camera products I have played with (at least briefly), I'd say the seriously competent compact that everyone should look at if they're interested in having a more portable camera is the Fujifilm X100VI. The GFX version is a bridge too far. The updated Sony RX is too big and too expensive. The Leica D-Lux is overpriced. Now that Fujifilm is building X100VI's in Japan for the US market to avoid the China tariffs, they're starting to show up (very briefly) as in stock again, so it's worth seeing if your store has one and will let you handle it. In the meantime, read my review of the X100VI.

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First Impression

Battle of the 16-50mm DX lenses

The 16-50mm f/2.8 DX VR showed up on my doorstep this past week, and while it's far too early to make a full judgment, there are some things that we can talk about. 

First up, it's a light lens for its physical size. It's actually very proportional to the original kit lens: we've added the same proportions of volume and weight, relatively, despite gaining a metal instead of plastic mount. Given that the kit lens was impressively small and light, this new fast-aperture version also doesn't have nearly the mass and volume that we saw in the DSLR era with fast DX lenses. Which is good, as Nikon's only Z DX cameras are small and light, smaller and lighter than the DX DSLRs were. 

I can see how some of that was achieved. When you zoom in, the inner barrel rotates a bit (mostly in the 16-24mm range). Not enough to really bother you, but perhaps just enough that you'll want to re-adjust your circular polarizer if one is mounted up front. That inner barrel extension is a full inch, by the way (on a lens that's only 3.5" in length to start with). That does move the center of gravity (CoG) forward some, but at 16mm, that CoG is very far back towards the mount, so it doesn't really feel like you're making a Z30 front heavy by zooming in. 

Nikon does supply a nice lens hood with the 16-50mm f/2.8 VR, though two strange slot gaps on each side at first made me fear this was another of those multi-part hoods that we used to get and which almost always immediately fell apart. Nope. It's just two unexplained holes at the sides.

Of course everyone wants to know "how good is it?" That'll have to wait for the review. However, I have taken Nikon's theoretical MTFs for the two 16-50mm lenses used wide open and merged them:

The red and blue lines are for the new f/2.8 zoom, while the yellow and green lines are the older kit lens. At first glance, you're probably saying "the kit lens is better." Hold up Sherlock, the kit lens is at f/3.5 instead of f/2.8 on the left, and at f/6.3 instead of f/2.8 on the right. If you stop the new lens down to the kit lens' maximum apertures, those red and blue lines are going to move up and get better, particularly on the telephoto side. I'm looking forward to putting the new f/2.8 zoom through its paces. Early impressions are positive in almost every respect. But I've got a lot of charts and scenarios to photograph before making any formal pronouncement. But a quick and dirty hypothesis is: you don't buy the f/2.8 zoom for specific improvement in sharpness, as the kit lens was already good at that; you buy the f/2.8 zoom because it's f/2.8 and you need that same performance in lower light or with more background blur.

Am I sad that this is the 16-50mm focal length again, and not 16-80mm as we had in DSLR world? Not really. I'm more sad that we don't have a telephoto companion, say a 50-200mm f/4 with close focusing that tries to also stay compact. As long as Nikon sticks to the current DX bodies (particularly in size), what we should be wishing for are more lenses that also play off that "small" theme but open up some new potential (such as a fast DX-appropriate telephoto). 

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Opinion

Does camera still matter?

We're starting into the primary buying season for photo gear, and the "should I buy X, Y, or Z" questions are being fired in my direction. Ten (and twenty) years ago such questions were absolutely worth exploring, as the variation between products and the differences between newer and older products were dramatic. Today, these distinctions between products tend to be smaller and more nuanced.

I've mostly come to the conclusion that any current generation camera from Canon, Fujifilm, Nikon, OMDS, Panasonic, or Sony is perfectly acceptable for photography at the moment, and often for video work, as well. 24mp is enough for a 20" print, and very few need to go beyond that. 10 fps is enough for action, and few need to go beyond that (and those that do tend to be sorting through stacks of images to find one gem). 11 stops of dynamic range is workable for all but the most extreme situations (and even in those we had pragmatic solutions that date back into the film era, where we were far more restricted in dynamic range). Autofocus systems on any current camera work well if you know how to control it.

So from a camera standpoint, the motivation to buy something new really gets deep down into details. A wildlife photographer, for instance, would value pre-release capture if their current camera doesn't have it. An event photographer might value high-frequency flicker reduction to deal with strange lighting and displays at venues they work at, but again only if their current camera doesn't have it. 

I could go on with examples, but the relevant words tend to just boil down to "necessary, and my current camera doesn't have it." If you can point to something that comes up often in your photography where that bold-faced phrase applies, then yes, the camera still matters, and it may be time for you to explore updating. Some of us with top cameras (e.g. Nikon Z8), have no significant options for a new camera, so we're really waiting for a next generation camera. But even then, the same bold-faced statement earlier in this paragraph needs to be true. That happens less and less with each generation of camera.

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Video of the Week

The notion of "project"

One thing I haven't written about enough is the notion of a personal project. Personal projects aren't just a single image you take and work through to completion, but a group of related images. A personal project can be as simple as a diptych, which is a pair of photos displayed together that are complimentary or that together, tell a bigger story than each individually. Many original diptychs (predating photography) were even a hinged work of art that displayed together. 

A far bigger personal project is to tell a story through a group of photos, which might be called a photo essay (e.g., an expansion of a single idea). Photojournalists get trained to do this partly because they don't always know whether they were sent out to get just one photo to head a shorter story, or a group of photos used to illustrate what will become a longer, more elaborate piece. Wedding photographers are always telling a story, though the story is mostly the same over and over, which is one reason why you see the great wedding photographers branching deeply into a personal style of their own (e.g. trying to make their work stand out above that of others doing exactly the same thing). 

Lately I've been making what I call "tone poems." Last week's video was simply a group of images all taken during one short trip (and which, by the way, was put together during the trip; the video was complete at the end of the trip). It's rare that I can build a full, coherent visual poem from just one trip like that, so in the back of my head I'm also contemplating something I want to specifically say, and collect images until I can put that all together. A few years ago I kicked this off with my Valentine to Lions. That project led to today's video (below), which is the result of a few trips in Botswana where I was thinking specifically about collecting images for this project (in addition to everything else I do on such trips). 

How did I come up with that idea? Well, the minute I heard this local artist's music I was triggered into thinking about how I could incorporate it with visuals into something akin to a music video, only centered around the lyrics, not the artist. This particular song spoke directly to what I observe every time I go to Africa, so was a natural.

At any given time I typically have three, maybe four photo projects I'm working on. I have one that I've been working on forever that will require making very large prints and mounting as a one-man photo show in a gallery, for example. Prints the size needed scare me, so I'm treading slowly. But that project is an example of me trying to take on something I normally wouldn't do and seeing what happens. So far, it's just scaring me. But I think I have two images now that might work for what I'm trying to do, so I only have what, a dozen or so more to go? ;~)

Which leads me to my last point: projects are a way to expand the way you think about photography. When most people take up photography they think "I want to take one great photo." Well, there's a huge world beyond that once you manage to do that. Projects are where you start taking your next steps on your journey.

Cameras and lenses used in the video: Z8, Z9, 400mm f/2.8 TC VR S and Tamron 35-135 f/2-2.8 for the most part.

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Wrapping Up

And in other news

▶︎ Skylum's Luminar Neo Fall Upgrade 2025 is now out—the official number is 1.25.0—including cross device editing, photo restoration, a new light generation tool, and a way to share photos via Web galleries. Additional AI features are promised in December (Neo already has at least 24). Neo is probably the product that provokes the most debate about AI image processing, as it crosses a number of boundaries that many of us believe start to get well into photo illustration rather than mere photo processing. Personally, I've given up on Skylum's products. Whereas years ago I found that they helped me get to a better result, these days I find that I'm fighting against results I don't want. Moreover, AI functions tend to move my pixels away from the optimal captures I made into something that isn't correct. Simply put, I find it difficult to get the results I seek from Neo. That said, for someone that doesn't want to invest time in understanding image processing and how to preserve data integrity, AI provides (near) instant answers.

▶︎ OWC StudioStack. I use a Mac Studio Max as my main desktop machine. As any serious photographer/videographer will tell you, you quickly run out of connections. And one of those connections you're always trying to add is "more storage." The StudioStack attempts to solve both the connection and storage problem, giving you up to 24TB via internal hard drive, 8TB via internal SSD (16TB will be possible in the future), plus three extra Thunderbolt 5 (USB-C) and three extra fast USB-A ports. You have to be a little careful when you start maxing out ports via accessories like this, as the PCIe channels driving the Mac's Thunderbolt connections do have upper limits to simultaneous data transmission (one of the reasons why the Macs have a maximum number of monitor connections). Still, a lot of my cables snaking out the Studio are to things that aren't all trying to use the channels simultaneously, so more is better ;~). Be aware that the StudioStack comes with its own power brick, so you'll be using another AC socket if you add it (and you could be snaking cables to things that have their own power brick). The cable creep caused by both external devices and AC connections gets insidious, and has created a warren of cables behind my Studio. Thus, I'm looking at whether the StudioStack might simplify that a bit. I think I can consolidate two external drives boxes into one StudioStack, for instance. Moreover, it'll take up less space. At US$329 without internal drives, this is not an inexpensive addition, but it's one that some may find worth pursuing when final product ships next month. Remember, too, that you'll need Thunderbolt 5 cables to keep the downstream Thunderbolt devices operating at max speed.

▶︎ CFexpress change. You might have noticed some articles elsewhere this past week mentioned Nextorage's new B2 Pro+ cards, which have passed both the VPG400 and VPG1600 tests. What didn't always get mentioned is why that might be important. VPG400 is what the current Nikon Z System cameras need to max out raw video recording. A VPG400 card guarantees a minimum sustained write speed of 400MB/s, no matter the circumstance. A number of things can change write speed performance, including but not limited to heat, NAND use distribution, and error handling. To carry the 400 slate icon, a VPG400 card must go through certified testing at the CompactFlash Association that defines and monitors the standards. 

But that's for the Video Performance Guarantee—the VPG—Profile 4.0 standard. There's a new one that was agreed upon (VPG Profile 5.0) that requires preconditioning of the card, and it allows 800MB/s and 1600MB/s sustained write performance. You'll see these icons on tested cards (CFA's list is returning a 404 as I write this, otherwise I'd point to it; I wouldn't recommend buying any CFexpress card with at least a VPG400 marking now).

"Preconditioning" refers to re-establishing a card to its factory format. Readers of my Z8/Z9 books may have noted that I recommend that you use Full format instead of Quick format in those cameras if you're going to record video, and it's for the same reason: if the FAT/directory have to be navigated randomly to account for things already on the card, it slows down the transfer process just enough to potentially become an issue (even on a VPG400 card). 

What we're seeing with the new VPG standards is fragmentation in the way CFexpress cards perform with high transfer rates. We now have:

• VPG Profile 4 — VPG200 or VPG400 and requires a CFexpress 2.0 card and test certification
• VPG Profile 5 — VPG800 or VPG1600 and requires a CFexpress 4.0 card (also 2.0 for 800) and test certification

The earlier VPG Profiles were for CompactFlash, CFast, and XQD cards, and none of those really keep up with the bandwidth we need for top end video any more.

VPG Profile 5 is not (necessarily) backward compatible with VPG Profile 4. That's because the memory controllers and NAND being used is usually different. You could, in theory, make a VPG Profile 5 card that's compatible with the VPG Profile 4, but that's not likely because of the internal parts cost increases required. This brings up a point you need to know: all current cameras that I know of were designed to VPG Profile 4.

So why would Nextorage be announcing VPG Profile 5 cards already? Excellent question. There's a chicken and egg thing that goes on with tech, and we're seeing new eggs which imply new chickens. The Nextorage engineering team is mostly the original Sony CF/XQD card team that spun out on their own. In other words, they were involved with the original definition of XQD, which turned out to be just Nikon and Sony in the end (Canon and SanDisk went for CFlash instead; oops, dead end). I take Nextorage's announcement as meaning that they are actively working with someone who will have a VPG Profile 5 capable camera in the near future. Sing it with me: who can that be, now?

▶︎ YACI (Yet Another Chinese Import) is almost a daily occurrence. Here are some of the more interesting ones this week:

• Godox iT32 TTL Mini Flash (and X5N trigger). This small US$100, GN 59 (ft) unit reminds me a lot of the Nikon SB-500 in size and function, except the X5N trigger lets you go wireless off-camera. Note that the iT32 has an internal USB-C charged battery, not changeable AA's, so it's more for casual rather than constant use. Effectively, the Chinese flash clones, of which Godox is just one, have rendered the flash evolution by the camera makers moot. The same features/performance are available for less from third parties now. The fact that the camera makers have mostly ignored moving forward with flash in the mirrorless era means that all the reverse engineered flash units you can buy now put the camera companies in a bind: change flash meaningfully, and they render a ton of third party ones that users bought to fill the maker gaps useless, irritating users. Merely updating (or even just continuing) the Big Three flash systems is not price competitive now. This is a lose-lose situation for Canikony. And here's the twist: the flash units of the DSLR era (and even many back into the film era) are OEMed from third-party Japanese vendors and modestly modified by the camera makers.  
• 7Artisans (not a fisheye) autofocus 10mm f/2.8 APS-C. The parenthetical thought is important here, as 7Artisans has two versions of a 10mm f/2.8 APS-C fisheye lens, plus a 10mm f/3.5 manual focus rectilinear one. This new lens should be available for Fujifilm X, Nikon Z, and Sony E cameras (there's been some regional variability with 7Artisans in the past). It's small, it's light, and it even takes 62mm filters. The strange thing about many of the Chinese lens makers is that their "launches" are soft. This new 10mm has been announced via Instagram with a series of teases and then details, but doesn't appear on 7Artisans Web page as I write this. 
• DJI launched the Neo 2 drone. I happen to have a Neo (1) and the competitor Hover Pro. Both have a number of pain points, the biggest of which is obstacle avoidance, something that Neo 2 fixes. So naturally I'd be interested in this new sub-250g option. Only problem? The US government, where the FCC appears to be ready to ban DJI products starting two days before Christmas (Happy Holidays, Americans!). The reason for the possible ban? DJI might be building backdoors into their products. Did we actually look to see if that's true? No, and the ban is automatic if we don't get around to looking. Talk about passive aggressive. Because of this, the Neo 2 is not being marketed in the US. So, for the time being I'll just note that this low-cost option is available elsewhere, and seems to address all the issues those of us had with the original, which was already the best and most flexible mini-drone I've used.

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Congratulations on making it this far. As you can see, this weekly "newsletter" style for News/Views can be quite elaborate and lengthy, particularly once I add in video instruction and other planned items. The fact that it will be sent (mostly) weekly would be part of its benefit: you wouldn't have to scroll all my sites daily to find what I might have written, because you've subscribed for everything to come directly to your email InBox as it gets published each week. By putting everything in one spot, in a single format, it also saves me time. 

My current intention is to remove News/Views from all but the zsystemuser.com site (where you'll still get short, one or two line news items about the latest Z offerings), to remove all ads and affiliate links from my sites, and generate on-going revenue through modest subscription fees that include the weekly News/Commentary newsletter, ongoing video instruction/presentations, monthly hangouts, and more. I call this new thing byThom Max, because I'll be on maximum while doing it, including going to as many of the trade shows I can, as well as other events, and covering them for the newsletter, as well.

I'll have more about byThom Max when (and if) I kick it off in early 2026. In the meantime, if you're interested in subscribing, click here to receive updates.