UnicornCam: Lumix G1
September 20, 2008
Continuing the Imponderable Decisive Moment Compact Camera Challenges post I made some time ago and continued with a post about the Sigma DP1 it looks like the new Micro Fourth Thirds standard is coming close to the mythical UnicornCam I describe. Luc Saint-Elie has a Lumix G1 series of images on his flickr site that show-off the small size of Panasonic’s Micro Fourth Thirds entry.
Lumix G1 by Luc Saint-Elie
So is it a baby SLR or a big Point-And-Shoot? The body is 12.7 oz and 45mm thick. Digital Photography Review has a Lumix G1 Preview.
UnicornCam 1.0: Sigma DP1
March 2, 2008
According to PopPhoto’s First Look at the Sigma DP1, what seems to be the first version of a UnicornCam has a APS-size image sensor and a 28mm f/4 prime lens.
Since it was first announced a year and a half ago, Sigma’s DP1 (street: $799) has been creating buzz. Yes, that’s the same base Foveon X3 chip as its DSLR brother, the SD14, taking up a whopping .5 x .8 square inch of real estate in this compact camera. But the DP1 has all new microlenses, a new Three-layer Responsive Ultimate Engine (”TRUE”) processing, a specially designed 28mm f/4 equivalent lens
28mm f/4 doesn’t really turn my crank. The article includes some test shots. The images are not exactly low-noise, but it will be interesting to see how the camera compares to low-end DSLRs in the noise department.
As I discussed in Imponderable Decisive Moment Compact Camera Challenges, the UnicornCam will always represent a compromise. The compromise in the Sigma DP1 UnicornCam is the lens. 28mm is wide but not quite wide enough for interesting shots. Its a bit too wide for street photography. f/4 has way too much depth of field for decent portrait shots. Great for crowd shots. Protest march anyone?
UnicornCam Update
November 30, 2007
In Imponderable Decisive Moment Compact Camera Challenges I talked about a digital camera I call the UnicornCam. This mythical beast marries a digital SLR sized imaging sensor with a compact camera body to achieve a type of photographic nirvana.
One camera that gave hope to the UnicornCam enthusiasts was the announced but unreleased Sigma DP1.
Today, Sigma announced that the DP1 has entered alpha testing and the final specifications will differ than those previously announced.
After a careful evaluation, we found that the image processing pipeline we had developed for the DP1 was not ideal for achieving the best image quality as it was intended for the faster image processing speed, and we needed to make major revisions to it. At that time we had a choice between compromising image quality and moving forward or taking a different path. After long and sometimes intense discussions, we finally decided to change the entire image processing pipeline. When we decided to change the entire image processing pipeline, we also decided to return to the simple and original product concept of “a camera with the best still image quality in a compact body” and dedicate all of our DP1 development resources to that concept. Because of this change, we had to change some of the specifications that we had announced.
The final specifications will be released at a later time. I’m guessing that the APS sized sensor is gone.
Imponderable Decisive Moment Compact Camera Challenges
November 13, 2007
Another one of Pogue’s Imponderables is:
I’m told that they could make a shirt-pocket digital camera that takes pictures like an S.L.R., but it would cost a lot. So why don’t they make one for people who can afford it?
This is a long running meme that I think started with Mike Johnston’s Decisive Moment Digicam and continued with Thom Hogan’s Compact Camera Challenge. Both Mike and Thom want a pocketable digital camera with: Read the rest of this entry »
Happy Diwali
November 9, 2007
Sea & Sea DX-1G Camera Update
August 15, 2007
DPReview has a review of the Ricoh Caplio GX100 which is the Sea & Sea branded camera inside the announced DX-1G underwater system. There are no big surprises in the review for someone, like myself, considering the DX-1G. It takes 5.5 seconds between shots if you are shooting RAW but JPG is snappy. There is no Flash preset for the whitebalance which is a bit odd and will impact underwater macro shots taken with a strobe. Noise is high above at ISO 400 and above which is the price you pay for live LCD preview and tiny size compared to a digital SLR but it is a non-issue for strobe shots. Low-light autofocus is slow which means the Sea & Sea YS-110 Strobe with LED modelling light will be very popular with this camera. I replaced my old YS-120 strobe with a YS-110 so I should do a mini-review of the new strobe some time.
Like all underwater camera systems, flash/strobe performance is always a question. DPReview mentioned that the flash hotshoe is not live, that is, the hotshoe does not fire a regular attached flash. This means the communication between the Sea & Sea “flash-like strobe triggering accessory” and the camera occurs over the same type of connection the external viewfinder uses. The protocol must be something proprietary to Ricoh. Is this protocol pre-flash based? Will the default in Aperture mode be slow-sync and will there be a way to turn slow-sync on and off? I dunno. I hope it works flawlessly though :-)
Brown Eyes
August 8, 2007
Cone Head
August 6, 2007
White and Pointy
August 3, 2007
Petals
August 2, 2007
Grumpy Tomato
July 31, 2007
Gutted
July 30, 2007
Lakeside
July 29, 2007
