Nearly a month ago, smartphone maker OnePlus debuted its first folding smartphone, the OnePlus Open. Beyond being the company’s first foray into the foldable space, it is among the best folding phones. It does not compromise at all in terms of specs, performance, and photography features.

While there is so much to like about the OnePlus Open, it does have one rather sizable drawback — its hefty price. The Open is $1,700, which, while not outlandish for a flagship foldable, is very expensive for a smartphone maker that has yet to make its mark in the North American handheld market.

No matter how good a premium device is, and the Open is splendid, many consumers prefer to opt for more affordable smartphones. So, the decision for OnePlus to push hard into a somewhat limited premium market is fascinating. PetaPixel spoke to OnePlus North America’s CEO, Robin Liu, about the Open and how it fits into the company’s broader long-term plans.

How Does a Premium Foldable Device Fit into OnePlus’ Goals?

“While the foldable market is still new to consumers, especially in North America, we believe that now is the time for OnePlus to have a foldable that brings fierce competition in the US and Canada,” Liu tells PetaPixel over email. “We know from our research that consumers, especially power users, are paying top dollar for current foldables; in some cases, twice the price of a single display flagship phablet.”

However, the enormous task facing OnePlus in the North American market, where Apple, Samsung, and Google dominate, is not lost on Liu.

“We face the challenge of being a smaller player pushing to make a dent in the foldable market — but the plan is to make an impact with the launch of the OnePlus Open.”

Although innovation is expensive in terms of research and development and, perhaps most damningly, in terms of the opportunity cost of eschewing one option in favor of another in the rapidly changing smartphone landscape, it is something that OnePlus pushed extremely hard with the Open.

In fact, Liu believes that OnePlus’ bold approach to the folding market, which includes incorporating a very thin design that does not preclude having flagship-level cameras (something its competitors have thus far failed to do), goes far beyond the Open.

“We knew that when launching the OnePlus Open in North America, we would increase our brand awareness and also encourage more people to try us for the first time or to even switch back from other Android phones to OnePlus. The launch of the OnePlus Open significantly increased our brand awareness in the region, and we’re looking to build off of this momentum and all the successful launches we had in our 2023 portfolio.”

OnePlus seemingly views the OnePlus Open as a sort of flagship product that anchors its entire portfolio. While not everyone will be able to afford the Open or even necessarily want it, the fact that it exists makes people more aware of all of the company’s smartphones.

Flagship Feel and Features in a Foldable Smartphone

The OnePlus Open represents a very big swing for the company, and for what it’s worth, the company not only made solid contact, but it has also hit a home run.

It’s far too soon to know whether people notice the success, but OnePlus is confident that it has delivered the best folding smartphone on the market.

“Over the years, the tech landscape has shifted rapidly. With each new development, we observe, we listen, and we adapt,” Liu explains. “We believe that users should be at the center of this evolution and we focused our efforts around that concept. With the advancements we’ve made, we’ve addressed the concerns plaguing current foldable phones — from durability to the center crease, to the software optimization, and of course, the camera.”

“But with the OnePlus Open, we feel that we’ve taken the best parts of OnePlus, our premium hardware and fluid software — and used them to create a foldable experience that will challenge the status quo and push innovation forward in this unique form factor.”

For mobile photographers, the Open’s impressive folding design, new OxygenOS version built from the ground up for foldables, and the phone’s impressive performance are great, of course, but the star of the show is the brand-new camera system.

Where other foldables have typically received hand-me-down camera systems that don’t even match a company’s best single-screen devices, the Open takes what worked in prior OnePlus devices and goes even further. Among the big new features is the 48-megapixel Sony LYT-T808 image sensor.

It is important to note that the LYT-T808 is different from the Sony LYT-808, which Sony Semiconductor has also released this year. The LYT-T808 sports a two-layer transistor pixel, also known as pixel-stacked technology, dramatically increasing full well capacity (FWC).

“This revolutionary camera technology dramatically increases the full well capacity of the ‘T’ sensor. FWC is a numerical measurement representing how much light is taken in and stored by the sensor’s photodiodes. [The LYT-808] almost doubles the FWC when compared to sensors without Pixel Stacked Technology,” Liu says.

“In this case, FWC of the Sony LYT-T808 sensor is rated at 40,000e, with the LYT-808 rated at 24,600e.”

“In regards to the benefits of the stacked design — instead of arranging photodiodes and pixel transistors side by side, the two are separated, with transistors stacked below the structure. This innovative approach allows for twice the light capacity (FWC),” Liu explains. “Ultimately this improves image quality, especially in environments that require a wide dynamic range. It results in true-to-life colors, details and realistic lighting and shadows.”

In PetaPixel’s OnePlus Open review, Ted Kritsonis writes of the device’s image quality, “I got better images with the Open than I did with the Fold 5, and the higher resolution gave me extra wiggle room for editing afterward.”

“While computational photography is crucial in today’s day and age, we employed imaging technologies that other foldable manufacturers have yet to explore. A perfect example would be the Sony LYT-T808 image sensor. Alongside proprietary HDR algorithms, the revolutionary sensor handles low-light and wide dynamic range better than most traditional [Sony] IMX sensors while allowing for a small physical footprint that slots perfectly into the OnePlus Open’s 5.8mm thin body,” adds Liu.

OnePlus and Hasselblad

The OnePlus Open continues the company’s strong partnership with Hasselblad, sporting the company’s collaboration and input within the entire image processing pipeline, and even some very nice color reproduction modes and Hasselblad-inspired lenses, complete with realistically modeled bokeh.

“The partnership with Hasselblad began during the development of the OnePlus 9 Series. OnePlus has always prioritized premium user experiences, and strives to significantly improve all aspects of mobile devices. With our top-of-the-line hardware and computational photography, and Hasselblad’s rich aesthetic knowledge and expertise with traditional photography, we partnered to usher in the next big leap forward when it comes to mobile photography,” explains Liu.

OnePlus Aims to Make a Mark with the Open

“The OnePlus Open embodies our brand mantra, ‘Never Settle,’” says Liu.

“Delivering iconic Hasselblad capabilities into the hands of everyone using a OnePlus Open, we’re proud to bring DSLR-level depth-tracking, bokeh, and flares effects. For photography enthusiasts who want a great smartphone device that can capture professional photos and videos while also being productive in their daily lives, OnePlus’ first foldable device is the right choice for them,” Liu concludes.

It remains to be seen if customers will agree and vote with their wallets. Still, there is no doubt that OnePlus entered the foldable space with a bang and has crafted the first folding smartphone that offers an uncompromised experience.

An auction of photography by John Witzig titled Endless Summer gives Australian surf fans the chance to hang some unique slices of surf history in their home. For the rest of the world, it is an opportunity to revisit the photographer, writer and designer’s immense contribution to early surf culture (the images are only available in Australia). 

Witzig’s career in surf photojournalism started with his first published article in Surfing World in 1963. From 1967 to 1969 he was editor of the now defunct Surf International magazine, and in 1970 co-founded Tracks magazine. He is perhaps best known for his “We’re Tops Now” article that appeared in SURFER in 1965. That was a response to the U.S. media’s dismissal of Australia’s rise to dominance after the 1966 World Championships that Matt Warshaw has called, “still the best, most righteous ‘fuck you’ surf article ever published.”

Witzig photography was however even more important. He was on hand for the exploration of Australia’s East Coast in the early 1960s and has the best documentary archive of the Australian contribution to the shortboard revolution from the mid-1960s. 

Esteemed Australian novelist Robert Drewe has said of his imagery, “Viewed simply as a representation of an alternative culture of the 1970s, Witzig’s photographs were valid and intriguing even back then. But viewed with today’s eyes, they seem almost impossibly innocent and idealistic, like looking at a remote tribe of wild-haired boys just discovered by anthropologists for National Geographic.“

I spoke with Witzig about some of his iconic images that are available for auction and asked to explain the stories behind them. 

Why the auction, and what do you hope people will get from owning these images?

What people get from buying my prints is one that I don’t really have an answer for. I understand that blokes my age can relate to them, but why younger people have an interest, I’m not sure. It isn’t nostalgia for something they’ve never experienced, but possibly an intuitive sense of the romance of a period that was less complicated than the world they’re faced with today.

As a collective of images, what do they make you feel now?

I am proud of my photographs as an accidental archive. Like everyone else who was taking pictures in the surfing world of the 1960s, I lost much of it. Magazines didn’t return transparencies or prints, and we didn’t treat them as having any real value. What images of mine that survived from the 1960s was due to good fortune, not good management.

It is easy to get misty-eyed at the past, but just how special was that time?

I see curating my archive – which is really what I do – as a contemporary exercise, and one that interests me… but I don’t get ‘misty-eyed’ about it. The 1960s in Australia was a terrific decade if you were a surfer. We were starting to explore our coastline. There was adventure and exploration and that’s a pretty good mix.

Editor’s Note: The following are extended captions from Witzig about a few specific images, beyond the gallery above.

Mr. Lynch, in action.

Just how good was Wayne Lynch?

Wayne was probably the most gifted surfer I observed from a young age. He had a remarkable natural affinity with the ocean. Unquestionably he is one of the greats in my opinion. Wayne changed surfing.

Cactus: An enviable way of life in South Australia.

This looks both beautiful and brutal. How tough was it living life on the edge?

I was only ever an occasional visitor to Cactus when my brother and his wife were living there in the second half of the 1970s, but “brutal” is a pretty good word to describe it. And it wasn’t just the elements that were tough. The “locals” were a feral lot, and fiercely resistant to any attempt to try and protect the fragile environment – which my brother was insistent on doing, and he did own the land. It is beautiful and a superb bit of the Australian coastal landscape.

Perfection.

Why is this one of the most iconic images in surfing?

What it is, is one of the most accidental of the photographs in my archive. It was simply a snapshot… I didn’t even wait for a good set. But to answer your question, it’s a combination of the fact that there is not a single surfer in the lineup, and then there’s the old car which helps immeasurably. If I was ever to offer advice on how to shoot an iconic photograph I’d say, “put an old car in it.”

An Auction of Photographer John Witzig’s Work Is a Study in Australian Surf History

How crucial was Angourie in Australian surf culture? And how much for a kilo of mullet?

HA… I forget how much Alex, who was a caretaker of the area, charged for his fish. Strangely, I don’t think that I ever bought it from him, and I did like mullet.

Angourie was one of the first of the really good New South Wales north coast surf breaks to be exposed in Surfing World magazine in 1963, but that doesn’t explain its almost mythical status in Australian surfing history. I think that Morning of the Earth, Albe Falzon’s seminal 1971 film, was responsible for that. Albe created a hero in David “Baddy” Treloar, and with that came his superb, adopted home break.

Empty lineups never get old.

How was Europe in the 1970s? Just how much did that experience change your perspective on life?

I’d gone to Europe with my family as a teenager, so I’d had an early taste and had then gathered a fascination with France through reading (and drinking some of their wines). Both were good introductions to a country I came to love. It was 1976, a good time to be in Le Pays Basque, and I settled down for a while in the town of Guéthary.

Photographers have an insatiable appetite for new gear. The excitement of unboxing a new camera, lens, or accessory provides a rush of inspiration that compels us to get out and shoot. But why does acquiring the latest and greatest equipment motivate us so much?

In the latest video on his YouTube channel, photographer Pat Kay digs into the psychology behind what he calls “new gear inspiration.” He argues this phenomenon all comes down to novelty. When we expose ourselves to something new that energizes us, it sparks creativity by allowing us to make connections we couldn’t before. New gear gives us a novel experience that generates this surge of motivation and flow.

While new equipment can provide a short-term creative boost, Kay cautions buying gear constantly is unrealistic for most. And we can’t rely on new purchases to repeatedly inspire us forever. So, how do you keep finding novelty to feed your photography on an ongoing basis?

Kay offers strategies like exploring new places, doing photo challenges, and introducing constraints into your usual style. Changing your process, even in small ways, creates the novel experiences that drive creativity. Consistency over the long haul still matters, but regularly trying new things keeps your mind flexible.

If you find your photography motivation waning, this video offers insight into how novelty and new gear inspiration work. Kay shares ideas to kick-start your creativity without emptying your bank account. In the end, new gear isn’t the only way to spark inspiration through novelty, nor should it be the main way to do. Check out the video above for the full rundown. 

MEXICO CITY — A photographer for a newspaper in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez, which has been dominated by drug cartels, was found shot to death, prosecutors said Thursday.

The body of news photographer Ismael Villagómez was found in the driver’s seat of a car just after midnight Thursday in Ciudad Juarez, a violence-plagued city across the border from El Paso, Texas.

Villagómez’s newspaper, the Heraldo de Juarez, said he was found dead in a car that he had registered to use for work for a ride-hailing app. Given low salaries, it is not uncommon for journalists in Mexico to hold down more than one job. The newspaper said his phone was not found at the scene.

Ciudad Juarez has been dominated by drug cartels and their turf battles for almost two decades, and gangs often object to photos of their victims or their activities being published.

Carlos Manuel Salas, a prosecutor for the northern border state of Chihuahua, said authorities are investigating whether Villagómez had a fare at the time, or whether the killing was related to his work as a photographer.

The Committee to Protect Journalists made an urgent call for authorities to investigate the killing.

His death was the fifth instance of a journalist being killed in Mexico so far in 2023.

In September, Jesús Gutiérrez, a journalist who ran a community Facebook news page, was killed in the northern Mexico border town of San Luis Rio Colorado when he was apparently caught in the cross-fire of an attack aimed at police.

Prosecutors in the northern border state of Sonora said Gutiérrez was talking with the police officers, who were his neighbors, when they were hit by a hail of gunfire, killing one policeman and wounding the other three. They said Gutiérrez’ death was “collateral” to the attack on the police.

At least three other journalists have been killed so far this year in Mexico, which has become one of the deadliest places in the world for journalists outside a war zone.

In the past five years alone, the Committee to Protect Journalists documented the killings of at least 52 journalists in Mexico.

Last year was the deadliest in recent memory for Mexican journalists, with 15 killed. That year, Mexico was one of the deadliest places in the world for journalists, second only to Ukraine.