Yesterday we brought you
pictures of the touchscreen-loving user interface on Sony's
genre-straddling camera concept, so what better way to improve on that than with video and a few specs? Beyond the break you shall find one of those excessively stylized promotional vids you know and love to hate, but tolerating the fluff with reward you with some nice hints about how the shooter is operated plus finally some word on what's inside. An Exmor APS HD CMOS sensor is touted, along with the accompanying capability to shoot 1080p AVCHD video. While we still find the design of these interchangeable lens cameras
ridiculously appealing, there is one thing we have to complain about and that's the clunky naming scheme. Please Sony, give us something sexier to call it than an "ultra-compact camera concept" -- how about the Sony Beta, it comes after Alpha and is typically used to denote an unfinished product. You can have that one for free.
posted March 12th 2010 7:25AM
Can't wait.
if there is one thing sony's good at, its miniaturization
@Vaio i dont think this is good enough to buy ;[
Make.Believe?
or
Believe.Make?
Now if the commercial was filmed exclusively with the camera being sold, that would be something interesting.
@Marti
Agreed. Nikon and Canon have set the standard. Shooting your ad with anything other than the camera you're selling is pretty much an admission of inferiority these days.
If you look, you can see they still haven't fixed the Jello-cam problem
@Vaio
im thinking about replacing my webbie with this because i want to take awesome pictures and i want to record very good video's
@Vaio
If it fits in my jeans pocket, I'm sold. Micro 4/3 and everything other iteration is worthless to me. My Canon S90 is pretty much at the upper limit. If I need a bag, then dSRL it is.
Uhh... APS? Doesn't tell us much about the sensor. Full 35mm? APS-H? APS-C? Makes a big difference, especially if they're saying APS as in "Active Pixel Sensor", at which point it could be some crappy 1/2.4"...
@Jason Litka
Its APS-C. At PMA they said it will share the same sensor as their dSLR A700-replacement. Something to keep in mind is that Sony supplies sensors to Nikon, and their previous IMX-series APS-C sized CMOS sensor has found its way into the Nikon D300 (and later D90).
Its not inconceivable that we are looking at the IMX sensor that will find its way into a Nikon D400. Meaning that Nikon will finally be able to do dSLR video on par with Canon.
@Temple Eh, I'm one of those people that thinks that SLRs shouldn't have video, at least not while we're stuck with contrast detection AF.
@Jason Litka
Panasonic has shown that contrast-based AF doesn't need to be slow nor inaccurate in their GH1. Phase-detection AF isn't necessarily great either, the Canon 5D MkII has horrid AF, doesn't even have spot metering in the outer AF points. The GH1 in particular is truly amazing, it has infinitely variable aperture on its HD lenses that is only possible because contrast-based AF.
Video on dSLR and cameras like these do add functionality that ultimately improves still-photography. Video is essentially capturing stills at incredibly high-speed, the improvements in CMOS acquisition rates is due to video in cameras.
I've had my initial apprehensions, but the demo is pretty impressive:
>>The first thing that struck me is that in the video above was it was shot handheld, and for a handheld shot it really didn't have any jello-effect at all (a common problem on dSLR video).
>>It also seems you can take still shots while you take video, if they are full-res shots while shooting 1080p video that would be impressive.
>>Looks to have capacitive touch-screen instead of the slower unresponsive resistive touchscreen in most point-and-shoots.
>> The slow-motion effects within the video seems to indicate that it may be able to do 720P/60 or 1080p/60. The camera may also allow for slow-mo directly from the camera instead of having to use a video editing software.
>>"background" defocusing is basically shooting with "bokeh", which is adjustable your aperture and narrowing your DOF. Most people that know their way around a camera would know how to do this. However, most people coming from point-and-shoots obviously wouldn't know how to do this being that point-and-shoots have small sensors and can't do bokeh very well. I'm hoping for a more advanced model, but for people people entering into higher-end/larger-sensor photography I can see those features being helpful.
@etwashoo
It's not gonna fit in your pocket once you put a lens on it.
What'S the big deal?
This is a marketing stunt trying to bring across that a blurry background is cool, big deal.
Will this be a lot smaller than a DSLR? Will it be cheaper?
What I would like to see is more cameras like the LX3 or the S90, not cameras that have an APS size sensor but are as pocketable as a DSLR.
i've been in the market for a new camera, being an amateur this looks very interesting. Now if the price is at dslr lvl then meh
Anyone else read the headline and expected to read about...
Sony's new compact shooter. Where's the guns and the depressing environment. Maybe it was blowing up small cars...
Oh no, no next step in first person mayhem, just a lame camera
www.sony-europe/newsonycamera
@etwashoo
Agreed, this is pretty much what I've been waiting for years for. Oh please let it uses something other than MemorySticks though....
This is an interchangeable lens system but it isn't micro 4/3? What the heck Sony?
@spin cycle
m4/3rds cameras use a smaller sensor, this uses a APS-C sensor, hence a m43rds lens will not project over the entire sensor.
Most of these mirror-less cameras have a short focal-flange distance, which means that adapters can easily be made. The assumption should be that this camera will have a shorter FFD then a M-mount, meaning that most lenses could likely be adapted to fit this camera.
EVIL (Electronic Viewfinder Interchangeable Lens)
@Sren Kierkegaard
The "EVIL" naming system is really not applicable to all these cameras, this for instance, this cameras doesn't have a "electronic viewfinder", nor do microFourThirds cameras like the some Olympus Pen variants where the "EV" of the "EVIL" optional.
In reality there is no good unique name for these cameras.