Camera lenses could be going on a substantial diet, thanks to a new “metamaterial lens” developed by a team at Harvard University.
Federico Capasso, a professor of applied physics and electrical engineering, and his team used a beam of electrons to carve a structure from titanium dioxide. Called nanofins, the structure is a set of blocks 600 nanometers tall – New Scientist describes them as the world’s smallest Stonehenge. These tiny blocks, when rotated at different angles, pull light together the same way that the traditional piece of curved glass does.
In testing, the material, mounted on a non-focusing piece of glass for stability, was sharper than a 55-millimeter microscope lens. At just 600 nanometers thick, the new lens material is 100,000 times lighter than a comparable lens from Nikon, the team said.
While the lens isn’t the first designed from metamaterials, earlier attempts lost more light in the process.
Traditional lenses use a piece of curved glass to focus the light, but to reduce distortions or cover a longer zoom range, multiple layers of glass are used, creating hefty telephoto lenses and giant telescopes. The metamaterial lens is flat, reducing much of the distortion and eliminating the need for so many layers.
The lens technology was initially only applied to red, green, and violet light, but Harvard announced earlier this week that the team has successfully developed the lens for use on the visible spectrum. While any actual lenses developed from the material are likely well into the future, the potential for dramatically reducing the size of a lens has a wide range of applications, from photography and virtual reality to microscopes.
“This technology is potentially revolutionary because it works in the visible spectrum, which means it has the capacity to replace lenses in all kinds of devices, from microscopes to cameras, to displays and cell phones,” Capasso said. “In the near future, metalenses will be manufactured on a large scale at a small fraction of the cost of conventional lenses, using the foundries that mass produce microprocessors and memory chips.”
Full-frame cameras tend to be chunky beasts, but Sigma wants to prove that big imaging doesn't need a big body. Enter the Sigma FP2, the successor to its tiny, boxy fp mirrorless camera. It keeps the same modular design but packs in some serious upgrades, including a 24.5-megapixel partially stacked full-frame sensor, improved autofocus, 6K video recording, and 70GB of built-in storage. Sigma calls it the world's smallest full-frame camera, and while it might be tiny, the same cannot be said for its price tag.
Sigma FP2 brings faster shooting and 6K video
A phone thermal camera is one of those tools you don’t think you need until the first time it saves you from an expensive problem, and the Thermal Master P3 just got easier to try. For Halloween, it’s discounted with the code THERMCAM10, a 10% cut that works out to $107 off the total. It’s also fresh off a win at the 2026 Tom’s Guide AI Awards for best phone thermal camera, which is the kind of third-party nod that separates a serious tool from the cheap clip-on sensors that flood this category.
We are nearing Amazon's Prime Big Deal Days, which officially run October 6 and 7. But there is no need to wait until the sale begins to start looking. Early offers are already live, and camera gear is one category where I found enough worthwhile discounts to put together a proper creator-focused list.
I’ve deliberately gone wider than interchangeable-lens cameras here. There are pocket and action cameras, a 360 camera, an instant camera, two wireless microphone systems, and a pair of webcams covering very different budgets. Prices were checked on October 2, and as always with Amazon, they can move quickly.