Canon's Sensor Future and Ricoh's Black-and-White Dream – Photo News of the Week

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Occasionally you have to start tiny to achieve great things. For Canon, this means starting as small as a single photon. At CES 2026 in Las Vegas, the company presented a prototype of its SPAD sensor (Single Photon Avalanche Diode), which doesn't just measure light, but actually counts individual light particles. This sounds like a physics lecture, but it has tangible implications for the future of photography.

Counting Photons Instead of Collecting Light

The small 1-megapixel chip with a 3D stacking architecture achieves a dynamic range of approximately 20 stops. For comparison, current professional cameras typically manage 14 to 15 stops. Each pixel reacts to individual photons, triggering an avalanche of electrons that is digitally counted. This virtually eliminates readout noise, which causes problems and frustration in dark image areas with conventional CMOS sensors.

Canon engineer Kazuhiro Morimoto, who began development in 2013 and was named one of Nature's "four emerging stars of nanoscience," explains the advantage: SPAD sensors process information in about 100 picoseconds – that's one ten-billionth of a second. This allows even extremely fast movements to be captured without motion blur.

The fact that Canon presented the technology at CES and not at a photography trade show is no coincidence: autonomous vehicles, robotics, and industrial automation could benefit from the technology just as much as photographers. However, it will likely take another five to ten years before SPAD sensors are used in consumer cameras – but the direction is clear. With the MS-500, a 3.2-megapixel prototype, Canon has already shown that the technology is scalable.

Ricoh GR IV Monochrome: Black and White Without Detours

While Canon looks to the future, Ricoh caters to a very present desire: the desire for purist black-and-white photography. The new GR IV Monochrome is the third model in the GR IV series and consistently omits a color filter in front of the APS-C sensor. Each of the 25.7 megapixels directly captures brightness information – no color interpolation, no compromises.

The result is said to be particularly sharp images with fine tonal gradations. The ISO range extends up to 409,600, double that of the base model. This is a treat for fans of analog grain. Particularly clever is the physical red filter built into the lens unit, which can be activated via the Fn button. Blue skies are darkened, and white clouds gain more contrast – just like with color filters in front of the lens in the past, but without the fiddling.

The body, finished entirely in matte black, weighs only 265 grams and fits into any jacket pocket. The camera is expected to be available from February for 1,800 Euros. Incidentally, the GR series is celebrating a round anniversary: the first GR1 appeared in 1996 as an analog film camera – exactly 30 years ago.

Sports Photography: 23,130 Images, One Winner

Speaking of perfect timing: The World Sports Photography Awards 2026 have announced their winners. With 23,130 submitted images from 4,120 photographers from 123 countries, it was the largest edition of the competition to date. From American football to Formula 1 to baseball, the best sports photos were awarded in 24 categories.

"This year's images show photographers at the peak of their creativity – pushing boundaries and capturing sport in ways we haven't seen before," said Richard Shepherd of Canon Europe. All winners can be admired on the competition's website.

Portrait of Britain: 100 Faces of a Nation

Also worth seeing are the winners of the "Portrait of Britain Vol. 8" competition. The British Journal of Photography and JCDecaux UK have selected 100 portraits that will be displayed on digital screens across the United Kingdom. Among them are fishmongers, scientists, veterans, and ballerinas – the selection showcases the diversity of British society.

The competition started in 2016, when the British were voting on Brexit. The idea behind it was to show how diverse modern Britain is. "Photography still has the power to make statements," explains jury member Dennis Morris. All winning images will also be published in a photobook by Bluecoat Press – for anyone who wants to be inspired on how to truly capture people.

(tho)