Thursday, September 20, 2007

Mirrorless interchangeable lens camera

I posted something like this on the FredMiranda forum recently. It had me thinking, so here is the guts of it more carefully thought out.

Compact cameras with tiny little sensors are losing their way. They have nowhere to go. We should be seeing 14mp point-and-shoots soon, thrilling stuff. Of course, you'll need to be able to shoot in 3000 lux lighting only. Do the manufacturers really not get it.

Now that Nikon has announced a camera with a 36mm chip, some people are now asking for a compact camera with this size chip. I'd like to see something else.

Nikon keep making these little compacts cameras like the P5100 (and the 8400 a few years ago) with extension lenses, I want to see them design a new format (ie CX) and mount system for the compacts.

Yes, lunacy I know. But we don't need these massive SLR lenses on our compact cameras. We just need small and that might mean introducing some completely new designs. The trick is, do it right.

Design something based along the lines of the 4/3rds system, and E-410 camera. A camera with a smaller, not larger sensor. The whole camera would be smaller due to the fact the mirror assembly would be small, and it would consume less power in the process.

But I'd take it further, remove the mirror completely and it would be even better. A CX or 4/3rds camera without a mirror , and smaller interchangeable lenses... yep, that would be ideal. Make the camera 7-10 megapixels and add a couple nice little lenses to go with it. For instance, a 24-72mm (FX equiv) lens could be standard, an optionally available an 18mm and a 105mm lens would be pretty ideal I think. Nothing stopping them from making other lenses too.

Yes, still dreaming. But I have hope.

Friday, August 10, 2007

Nikons Sensor Patent

Wow, didn't this thing explode. I first posted it on FredMiranda.com (see link if it still exists) on the 8th August, 2007 and a forum member re-posted it the next day on dpreview.

Yesterday (9th August 2007) Dpreview ran with it on their front news page, and now every photography web page is running this.

How cool, I was almost famous, haha. It did get just a touch nasty for a moment, but that was all sorted very quickly before anyone asks. It's all good fun. Would love to see this technology coming to our cameras soon. I can't imagine it would be in the D3 though it would be nice. Maybe the model after that.

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Nikon Full Colour Sensor

Background: We all like to Google our own names. Type mine and nothing comes up (Australia's Most Wanted doesn't count), but type in someone of importance and you may find some good stuff.

His name is Hideo Hoshuyama, the head designer of the D2x.
The link later, but its to do with a new type of CCD. This patent was lodged on Dec 11, 2003. Its technical and somewhat repetitive, but it has to do with having 3 light receiving sensors in the one pixel (similar but different to foveon).

Just to break down the main points:
+There is no bayer pattern coloured filters on the microlenses, so more light passes through.

+The light effectively reflect within the pixel and the three primary colours are caught by three 'light recieving surfaces", first blue light is collected, then green, then red, and then IR is absorbed". So effectively, all the light is first caught by the microlens.

+This has the ability to provide the highest level of photon catching (thats a Nik'ism) and the lowest level of false colour.

Below is the actual abstract:
A microlens condenses incident light to an opening. Light passed through the opening reaches a first dichroic mirror. The first dichroic mirror passes blue light and reflects green and red light. Only the blue light is incident on a first light receiving surface. The first dichroic mirror leads the green and red light to a second dichroic mirror. The second dichroic mirror passes the green light and reflects the red light. Only the green light is incident on a second light receiving surface. The second dichroic mirror leads the red light to a third dichroic mirror. The third dichroic mirror reflects the red light. Therefore, the red light is incident on a third light receiving surface.

The diagrams in are the links below. Inside the link, you can download the pdf version. The patent issue is dated Nov 21, 2006.


http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=7138663.PN.&OS=PN/7138663&RS=PN/7138663
or the google version which is well formatted

http://www.google.com/patents?id=vSp9AAAAEBAJ&dq=7,138,663

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Nikon D200s/x coming?

Ok, so if you've gotten this far, then you've agreed to the terms and conditions. Its a rumour thread!

Some people know my situation with my beloved D200.... that is, it left me for another man. And some people know when I'm not saving cats from trees, helping elderly ladies across the road, or stopping crime at night, that my day job is working in a camera store as mild mannered Nik.

So I asked someone who knows what's going on with the Canon and Nikon cameras because, well... I need one.

Ok, so the "rumour" has it that the D2x is being replaced, we know that one. But also the D200s is coming in September. This is what I think it will have:

+a three inch LCD,

+better high ISO noise processing,

+improved battery consumption


And maybe a couple of surprises:-
+9 cross type sensors
+Improved AF but not Cam2000 (Cam 1300 maybe, re: F5/F100)
+Buffer increase to 45 jpegs.
+And my favourite "I think we just might get it".... HSC 8fps.

Thursday, February 8, 2007

New Nikon D3... my guess

If there was a square sensor (which I would doubt but love to have, please give me the ability to portrait shoot (vertical crop, black out the edges like the D2Xs does). Anyway...


10MP JFET LBCAST II sensor
14 bit RAW
8.5 frames per second
Cam 2200
22 AF points over a wider area
3" LCD (maybe even OLED)
1080i output
Dual slector control (dial and nav buttons) as found on the Coolpix 'S' models
Dual memory card slots
Firewire 2 and direct hard drive connection
I don't know about WiFi, maybe maybe.