Photo news · Week of April 27 to May 3, 2026
« Film revival at Kodak and Harman, Leica opens its first flagship store-gallery in Chicago, and the Liberation Museum of Paris pays tribute to Robert Capa. The week in review. »
The past week delivered two intertwined signals: film photography keeps consolidating its return, while digital workshops are gearing up for a busy end of spring. A short tour.
Film: the comeback gains substance
Kodak announced its first brand-new emulsion line in decades, alongside a Euphoria-inspired colour-negative film aimed at motion picture productions. On the British side, Harman confirms it has the industrial capacity to supply the world for the next twenty years, and is investing heavily in its UK factory.
More surprising: a US factory that burned down in 2005 is being reborn under actor Jeff Bridges, who is about to bring to market brand-new, all-metal, all-mechanical panoramic film cameras. Proof, if any was needed, that film is no longer a nostalgia trade: it is becoming an industrial subject again.
On the gear side
Zeiss unveiled the Otus ML 35mm f/1.4, the third focal length in the Otus ML range for mirrorless cameras, available in Sony E, Canon RF and Nikon Z mounts. The promise: top-tier sharpness and microcontrast in a format designed for modern bodies, while keeping the manual handling that has been the series' signature.
On bodies, the Sony A7R VI is expected on May 13 according to several converging sources, which would put Sony in pole position on the high-resolution segment before summer. And at Canon, statements from executives at CP+ 2026 fuel the idea of a retro tribute to the AE-1, whose 50th anniversary fell in April — more a collector's item than a new standard, but the nod deserves a mention.
Worth seeing: Leica in Chicago, Robert Capa in Paris
Leica opened its first Chicago flagship store-gallery on April 30, in the Gold Coast neighbourhood. The space will host rotating exhibitions and a masterclass program under the Leica Akademie label — a format the brand is now using as much as a brand asset as a sales floor.
Closer to home, the Liberation Museum of Paris is running until December 20, 2026 a major exhibition on Robert Capa, in collaboration with Magnum Photos. Over 160 items — vintage press prints, magazines, documents and personal objects — retrace the journey of a young Hungarian exile who became one of the founding figures of war photojournalism.