Photo news: Sony's sensor denial, tariffs and the new Nik

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Where there's smoke, there's fire – is not just a scout's wisdom, journalists follow it too. And although Sony immediately denied the rumor that it would sell its sensor division, let's take a closer look. Because if this were ever to become a reality, it would turn the camera market upside down.

Around half of all CMOS sensors, and therefore the ones we are interested in this column, come from Sony. Sony image converters are used not only in the Alphas, but also by many other manufacturers such as Nikon, in cameras for film production, in smartphones, drones, car cameras, and so on and so forth. They are also used in many industrial applications, medical technology and research. Samsung is the second-largest manufacturer of image sensors with a market share of around 20 percent, followed by the rest.

Sensors are also just semiconductors

So it's quite startling when a major news agency such as Bloomberg recently reported from anonymous sources that Sony wants to sell off its sensor division. Together with the entire "Sony Semiconductor" division. For financial reasons, of course, because as with so many big players in an industry, holding on to the top spot is pretty expensive. In contrast to other semiconductors – and nothing else is an image sensor – production can hardly benefit from the usual economies of scale in the chip industry.

A sensor is just as big as the optical design of the camera dictates, there is nothing to downsize. So the fixed costs of production are always more or less the same. Looking briefly at PC processors, there has been a trend towards chiplets for around ten years, where chips of different sizes are assembled into a complete system using different manufacturing processes to save costs. This is hardly possible with an image sensor, so the costs remain constant. And even if the camera market is now growing again, Sony can only earn more from the number of units within narrow limits. Sony has denied the rumors to Bloomberg, saying "there are no concrete plans". But, see above: Where there's smoke …

The sticking point of technology leadership

Although, according to the news agency's sources, Sony intended to secure a minority stake in the sensor division according to the – unspecific – plans, the business prophets seem to have overlooked one thing: technology leadership. It is certainly no coincidence that after around a year, the A9 III is still the only system camera with a global shutter and 120 raw images per second. Sony is obviously not (yet?) releasing the sensor to other manufacturers. With a purely profit-oriented sensor division in the hands of investors, things would probably be somewhat different.

And while Sony's thoughts about selling the sensor division are likely to be a long-term strategy, some manufacturers are reacting to the enormous punitive tariffs imposed by the US government in the very short term. When announcing its business figures for the first quarter of its 2025 financial year, Tamron announced its intention to expand production in Vietnam. – In contrast to the up to 145 percent for China –, the country is currently subject to "only" 46 percent additional tariffs on paper from the USA. According to Tamron, 65 percent of its products are currently manufactured in China and 25 percent in Vietnam. By 2028, 45 percent is to come from each country, and an unchanged ten percent of production from Japan. Although this is also a long-term strategy, announcing it at the next possible date for its own shareholders to reassure them can be considered a short-term reaction.

Canon and Sigma become more expensive in the USA

Canon reacted in a very similar way, albeit not with information on the relocation of production, but with direct bad news for US buyers: Canon products will become pricier in the United States in the second half of the year. This company also used its latest annual report (PDF) for this announcement. Sigma made a similar announcement in its own report – products will become more expensive in the USA from June 2, 2025. Neither company has yet said by how much and for which product groups this will be implemented.

This is also unusual in the otherwise quite conservative camera market, but is not surprising at present, as the actual US tariffs are constantly changing. There are exemptions for electronics – Lenses are probably not included –, deadlines that are sometimes introduced, then removed again, in short: it's a complete mess. Petapixel also uses this word in a report on small US manufacturers who produce photo accessories in the United States. As they also rely on imported materials, right down to the packaging, their very existence is threatened by customs duties.

Nik Collection 8 with masks and smart objects

For over 20 years, it has been easy to explain the use of Nik Collection filters to beginners in digital image editing, because: Creating masks and layers is not really necessary with it. The U-Points do this almost automatically, you can click around in the entire image and include or exclude areas for editing. This also works with the new version 8, but: It now also takes over and exports masks and layers from Photoshop. Smart objects are also returned, which makes it easier to stack filters during non-destructive editing.

And, finally, you can also see the color image in direct comparison with the still great black and white tool "Silver Efex". Fortunately, new owner DxO is bucking software trends in one respect: the Nik Collection is still available without a subscription and without a time limit. Our detailed report reveals the costs and other functions.

Anamorphic lenses on modern cameras

If U-Points have perhaps already caused some nostalgia here – how about anamorphic lenses? In other words, the glass that first distorts an image when filming so that you get a widescreen look, which you then have to rectify again in editing? This still makes sense for some formats, but requires a bit of calculation. Our long read for the weekend from Slashcam shows why this is the case and that you should ignore the math for a while.

(nie)