Sony's ultra-compact concept camera gets slightly less mysterious
By Donald Melanson 
posted March 11th 2010 11:42AM
posted March 11th 2010 11:42AM
[Thanks, Julien]
posted March 11th 2010 11:42AM
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This'd make a pretty cool camera UI for smartphones..
@sshole or should android hop up onto their lens' :P
@sshole
love the screen name!
@sshole I wonder why they shorten "background" to bckground. Thats just one letter.
@moijk For as far as I know, the difference between Background and Bkground is 2 letters.
Hmm would be a nice point and shoot back up.wonder how much the damage would be.
@Evodadi Meh...
Sony + Words like "Ultra" or "Compact" usually = LOTS
@sshole
Lol so true
Why would anybody want themselves called @sshole ?
@coolpal Because he's an asshole.
@coolpal
Because @ntelope, @ngry, @ntisocial, @nimosity, @nimated, @nglican, @phrodisiac, @ppopletic, and so on, and so on, are not as funny and clever as monkeytail_sshole. Huh?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_sign read it and weep.
Hope there's panorama mode and the 10 fps
Background Defocus looks interesting..
@xValentine
Is it really a depth of field? I thought that could only be accomplished by a lens attribute. If it's an artificial blurring that is pretty lame.
@xValentine
It's probably just an option to click to have the camera do all the work for people who don't understand how f/stops work.
@xValentine
fancy name for shallow depth of field effect lol, probably just opens up the f-stop
@drumwiz86
Actually seems like a great idea for bringing more advanced photographic techniques into the hands of ordinary people.
@xValentine
it seems losing the focus on the object supposed to be focused, while it is defocusing the background.
@xValentine
looks like faux-bokeh
@UnixSystemsEngineer
probably.
If that bokeh effect can be done on a great distance from the subject, then it's great.
My LX3 don't have a bokeh unless you're really close to the subject. Even @ f/2.0
:(
Jpeg? Eeeew.
Why not PNG?
@Denji I'm sorry, what? How is PNG a good format for photos?
@Denji
Think you meant to say RAW
@GenericMessage
PNG is a grand parent of image formats. It's lossless and compressed. That's some reasons why. Here, read more on why it's so great.
http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/ go ahead, edumacate your self.
I love PNG and TIF, and it was the worst day for imagery when cameras settled on JPG. What a crying shame. I still boo hoo as much as possible to lament that deplorable decision. Lossy. Yuck.
@Please forgive me
Both TIFF and PNG are poor choices for cameras. The whole point of using JPG is to save space. You aren't going to save that much space with a non-lossy image format, so you're better off with RAW that using TIFF or PNG if image quality is important to you.
@soupisgoodfood
I'll have to read up on RAW, none of the cameras I've bought yet had that format. But yes, I care about image quality... why bother taking photographs if image quality is not important? By the way, I should explain also that I use PNG / TIF for images I create in 2D and 3D applications, so it's not just camera related... although an old Nikon I have creates TIF too.
Where is the "Link Below for more screenshots"?
@balsak just click the source
@balsak
http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/sony-ultra-compact-dslr-camera-concept-menu-and-lcd-screenshots-11-03-2010/
Looks sweet :D Looking forward to it!
http://www.wergadgets.com/
You'd still need confirmation on exactly what kind of sensor the thing uses.
@KupoCheer An APS-C sensor, apparently build for video useage. wouldn't be surprised if it was one exmor-r variant (bigger version of the ones in the later compacts)
this wouldn't be Sony's entrance into the Micro 3/4 field.... would it?
@Ingus
Most likely. A small sensor compact camera wouldn't be able to produce shallow DOF like that. Unless that's a really damn small flower.
@Ingus not 4/3s, but a tad bigger (APS-C, as most dslrs use)
That's a REALLY UGLY camera, especially coming from Sony. Even though Sony's don't have the best quality images, you can usually count on them for being "lookers". Hopefully this is just dev unit or something. If being the middle ground means being ugly, than they can count out both markets. The point-n-shoot folks go for looks, the SLR's go for highest quality, so this fails on both.
@The E
Go have a gander at DxO mark, and see where Sony DSLRs rank compared to Nikon and Canon. They are certainly competitive. The big deal with this camera, like the Samsung NX10, is that it has an APS-C sensor, rather than the smaller m4/3 sensor. It also looks like Sony made the mount big enough to accommodate fullframe sensors some day. Awesome.
Sony claims this is just the first of a whole line of small, mirrorless cams coming. We'll probably see more advanced versions in the future.
@The E The a450/a500/a550/a700 are very competative in terms of image quality at low, mid and high iso. the a850/a900 are just amazing at low and mid iso, but due to high resolution creates a bit noise at high iso. Still almost the same quality as the Nikon d3x at half the price. I find the new mirrorless cameras to be decent looking. Looks like a compact with a big lens on it. but it is still tiny.
Does this thing even have a control dial? I mean i can't imagine myself coming from DSLR land and not have a dial control. That's why I am not going to even think about the E-PL1.
@flashx The initial models are targeted those who come from compact cameras, but want to have the quality of DSLRs. I'm sure there will be models that targets the DSLR crowd that wants a smaller camera for travels.
I'd rather have physical controls on my camera. I think they're overdoing this touchscreen tech...
I'm confused as to what the market is for this.
Firstly, it's too big to carry around as a spur-of-the-moment camera, and secondly, if you have a dedicated bag for your camera, what stops you from using a full DSLR with mechanical controls.
Frankly I don't understand the whole micro four-thirds movement, despite how cool it is.
I think this camera looks amazing.
I'd buy it in a heartbeat.
The only thing better is if Canon or Nikon would make a compact camera with a big sensor.