squirrel$$$bandit
Mentor
This is really cool—I would love a screenless camera that instantly zaps photos to my phone. And the design is appealing—different but not ugly. Hope it comes to fruition.
I think it looks pretty nice actually. I wouldn`t even bother with the cell phone. Of course, the key to this camera is price vs. quality as always.
Folks,
this thread is about an important new French camera,
not French cars.
Please stay on topic.
Thanks
this thread is about an important new French camera,
not French cars.
Please stay on topic.
Thanks
eckhardf
Established
Coincidence? - Hippolyte Pixii (1808-1835): "An instrument maker from Paris, France. In 1832 he built an early form of alternating current electrical generator." Wikipedia.
nukecoke
⚛Yashica
I think equipping the optical rangefinder alone would make it go over the $1000 price tag.
Darthfeeble
But you can call me Steve
I went through all of the site and couldn't find the two most important specs for a prospective buyer, sensor size and megapixel count. Makes me a little suspicious.
farlymac
PF McFarland
The commentators on PetaPixel have been doing some detective work, and came up with a couple of candidates, one being M4/3, the other APS-C. Take into consideration you are putting the images directly on your phone over WiFi or Bluetooth, the pixel size/pitch is 5.5um, and the internal memory is a minimum of 8gb (32gb optional), I don't believe it's going to be a very large sensor. RAW output is quite doubtful too.
PF
Jamie Pillers
Skeptic
Just curious... does the link between lens helicoid and rangefinder have to be mechanical? Could the lens helicoid push on some sort of electrical contact that operates some sort of computer circuit? And if so, could this save money?
Paul T.
Mentor
That's possible but you'd have to factor that against the design time, of essentially reinventing the wheel.
In any case, no way will this come in at under $1000. You simply can't expect a ground-up, new camera design, for a niche market, at that price point. What was the Epson launch price? $2k? We'll be lucky to get that.
Similarly, the inventors must surely know a m4/3 sensor machine will be dead in the market.
teddy
Jose Morales
If the sensor is excellent from 100-800 then I would buy it, because I don't shoot anything on film in the Leica world beyond 400 ISO.
This is SO interesting - I hope they have success!
This is SO interesting - I hope they have success!
aizan
Mentor
$10 says this is just another konost.
santino
FSU gear head
M4/3 is unlikely the sensor size in combination with an m mount... imagine the lack of wide angle lenses then... a 15 would become a 30 and so on.
eckhardf
Established
Hmmm...it has frame lines for 28/35 and 40/50mm; this suggests full-frame to me - apsc crop factor is 1.5x and m3/4 is 2x - not many M-mount lenses around to fit the frame lines with these ratios....
Lss
Well-known
I hope this happens.
No need to read into the vaporware specs before the product materializes, though.
No need to read into the vaporware specs before the product materializes, though.
Sumarongi
Registered Vaudevillain
Just a reminder: the French were -- and they certainly are -- absolutely prepared to build very capable cameras, e.g. here a pristine example of a Foca Universel RC:
willie_901
Mentor
I don't think sensor surface area is limited by internal storage capacity or data transfer rates.
The M10 raw file size is 25-30 MB. 30 MB is only 0.03 GB. 8 GB of internal memory is not a limitation for still photography. The 20 megapixel M4/3 Panasonic DC-G9 Lumix raw file size is about 24 MB.
Many people will only use JPEGs because that's what they use with their smart phone cameras. In this case Bluetooth transfer is practical. The Leica M10 offers 24MP, 12MP, or 6MP JPEGs. A 6MP JPEG would suffice for image review or web-based image sharing. Large JPEGs (or raw) could be saved simultaneously in-camera and eventually downloaded to a computer.
WiFi and, or Bluetooth transfer speeds between devices depends on many variables. There are several different Bluetooth specifications as well. A slow BT transfer rate would be ~ 1/4 MB per second. BT V3 can be ~ 10 times faster. Often the camera-to-phone distance will be short. The transfer can begin immediately after the shutter closes. I think lossless compressed DNG raw file transfer is practical. However BT transfer may only be practical if both devices support BT V3 or V4.
The Panasonic DC-G9 Lumix offers up BT V 4.2 and 5 GHz WiFi.
A seperate issue is the file-transfer power drain for camera and phone could be an issue. Also WiFi network management is a complication. When the phone-to-camera transfer is done as part of a home network, the transfer is indirect. In some cases a slow home network would be a problem. Direct transfer means the phone would no longer be part of the home WiFi network.
All these issues would be moot if the camera had a USB 4 (or better yet a USB-C) port. Then raw files transfer to a computer would be fast.
People could just use JPEG transfer for image review or even selection and transfer the raw files via USB at a later time.
I know someone involved with the Pixii project.
It might turn out better than most are expecting.
Stephen
It might turn out better than most are expecting.
Stephen
Sumarongi
Registered Vaudevillain
It might? It certainly will, dear Stephen!
shawn
Mentor
Agree with what you are saying but if you look into the website more it does not appear as if the camera will do JPEGs at all. It sounds like they saving RAW only and are offloading all additional processing to their app or a computer.
Shawn
xayraa33
rangefinder user and fancier
So if you don't own a cell phone or so called "smartphone".. can you still use this camera?