10 ms·

Samsung's abandoned NX cameras can be brought online with a $20 LTE stick

180 points by ge0rg 2y ago

ge0rg 2y ago
Original blog post: https://op-co.de/blog/posts/samsung_nx_mastodon/ https://op-co.de/blog/posts/samsung_nx_mastodon/
- dang 2y ago
  Thanks! We've changed the URL to that from https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/07/samsungs-abandoned-nx-cameras-can-be-brought-online-with-a-20-lte-stick/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/07/samsungs-abandoned-n... above. Submitters: "Please submit the original source. If a post reports on something found on another site, submit the latter." - https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
scohesc 2y ago
I'm not a camera enthusiast - but are these cameras still "worth it" to go through all the effort for their qualities, or is this closer to a vintage computer enthusiast just cracking away at something because it's a challenge? Very interesting route to go through to get the camera working again!
- steve_adams_86 2y ago
  The hashtag on one of the original author’s tweets is “ShittyCameraChallenge” and the photos don’t look great, so I think it’s mostly about reviving dead tech and learning.
- RobotToaster 2y ago
  Vintage digital cameras, especially the sony ones that use floppy disks, are now "retro" and in fashion with zoomers, apparently. edit: Many of these aren't that old, the last NX was 2015, I still use a pentax APS-C DSLR around that age and it's fine.
  - netsharc 2y ago
    I've seen kids using 2010 era cameras, but I doubt they'd be using ones with floppies. Those are 90's tech and probably have 1024x768 resolution at most, plus can you even buy USB floppy disk drives, or plug it into your phone? (E.g. I have a Micro-SD card reader that I can plug into my phone using USB-C, and I can plug the card into my camera using an Micro-SD-to-SD-adapter). Then there are the geeks taking pictures using the B&W 320x200 Gameboy cameras, my feeling is even the Gen-Z would view these people as nerds...
- ge0rg 2y ago
  The compact models are probably not competitive to modern smartphones, except if you need optical zoom. The NX series interchangeable lens cameras however don't fare too badly compared to today's models, and have a good price-point on the used market, if you are ready to do some bargain hunting. In the last decade, the improvements were largely in sensor resolutions (from 20MP to 40MP, not relevant for most practical uses) and in "smart" auto-focus, with better tracking of eyes, animals or objects.
  - cmrdporcupine 2y ago
    In-body image stabilization is another area that has had huge improvements in pro/pro-amateur cameras in the last 10 years.
    - ge0rg 2y ago
      Right, that's something that I'm actually sometimes missing on my NX500 when using vintage lenses, but I'm not sure how relevant it is for pro amateurs in general.
      - cmrdporcupine 2y ago
        It's super useful, esp if you're going after longer focal lengths and snapping birds, and if you're... like me... into manual focus or vintage lenses. My little Olympus M43 camera has an older IBIS system and it's very useful and I can definitely tell when it's off or not configured. Newer cameras have made huge improvements in this, and, yeah, autofocus ...
- ianburrell 2y ago
  The big problem with the NX cameras is that they are no longer supported and won’t ever get more lenses. If happy with kit lens or adapting manual lenses, then they are probably cheaper than other mirrorless.
- wongarsu 2y ago
  Just having exchangeable lenses is a huge boon. The sensor is probably worse than what you can find in a modern smart phone, but phones simply don't have the space for deep lenses and thus have to emulate effects like zoom and depth-of-field. On this camera you can have the "real" thing without paying $1000+ for a DSLR and $300+ for a lens. And of course there's the effect where for every sufficiently popular camera their technical deficiencies become a desirable vintage look, given enough time. Kind of like people preferring vinyl records for their sound
  - Marsymars 2y ago
    > The sensor is probably worse than what you can find in a modern smart phone, but phones simply don't have the space for deep lenses Phones don't have space for big sensors either, other than some gimmicky big-sensor phones (808 PureView, Lumia 1020). The iPhone 15 Pro main camera sensor is 9.8x7.3mm, compared to say, the Ricoh GR III with a 23.5x15.6mm sensor, about 5x larger. The GR III is actually less tall/wide than an iPhone, but about 4x the thickness.
- jdfellow 2y ago
  I have an NX Mini (which isn't exactly the same as the regular NX line) which has a "1 inch" sensor and a 3-lens interchangeable system. With the 9mm fixed lens it's as pocketable as a phone, but with a flip-out screen, a real flash and otherwise much better quality. With the 9-27mm zoom lens it's even a reasonable portrait camera. I haven't found one of the 17mm f/1.8 lenses, they're pretty rare. Anyway, I really like that little thing. With a C-mount lens adapter I can use surveillance camera lenses which is pretty fun.
  - ge0rg 2y ago
    I'm a huge fan of the NX mini and they are fully supported by the SNS API bridge. I have a bunch of them, one converted to infrared. Usually I have the mini with me when the NX500 is too bulky. It's a pity that the lenses are so rare on the used market. The image quality is just awesome for the form factor!
- freeAgent 2y ago
  This is definitely not “worth it” given that NX is a dead platform, but I can totally see it being a passion project for someone who wants to improve the system. The NX cameras were pretty darn good. The NX1, which was the final flagship of the range, was an amazing camera IMO, and of course these cameras can produce excellent images (better than modern smartphones) with their APS-C sensors. Photography is all about light, so smartphones with tiny sensors will always be disadvantaged. Computational photography tries to work around the physical limitations, but it also yields some very unnatural results. Personally, I prefer traditional cameras where the bokeh is real and there’s no built-in adjustment to the image.
- ulfw 2y ago
  "Worth it" is relative. No camera phone can beat pictures from my Leica Q3 with it's full-frame 61MP sensor. Especially if it is anything but ultra bright out there. But like you said it's an enthusiast thing. Photos are a hobby of mine. If you don't really care about having the best look and quality and are fine with good quality a 48MP RAW iPhone pic can be edited quite nicely with Photoshop nowadays. Even for large screens to enjoy them on. If you don't care at all, snap away with any semi-new phone and pictures will be good enough for phone screen/sharing.
- numpad0 2y ago
  Can't say for this camera specifically, but expensive lenses and larger pixel sizes usually do what they are worth in cash. There's no viable way around paying more, like trying to milk phone cameras with AI enhancements. At least for the glass.
samcat116 2y ago
Its crazy to me that there isn't a modern version of this kind of camera. Sony and Cannon could be doing a lot to take away from the smartphone share if they made cameras more usable and modern: - Built in GPS for location tagging in photos(a few cameras have this but for many you need an external dongle attached to the camera) - Automatic backup of photos to cloud/network storage locations - built in flash storage for redundancy - Wifi that isn't trash so you could transfer photos at a meaningful speed - LTE for the same reason when on location - Run apps for upload to a variety of services - More computational photography features
- glial 2y ago
  +1 I would absolutely buy this.
  - cmrdporcupine 2y ago
    Many of us would. I love my little Olympus PEN EPL8 camera, the form factor beats the crap out of phones, the quality of the pictures way better (despite "only" 16MP), etc. But the ... software experience is awful. I could come up with dozens of ways to improve the experience that would have been possible even in 2016 when it was made... (In fact I wasted a couple days writing my own custom WiFi remote control program for it a few days ago, hoping to snap birds at the feeder while I sit at my desk, cuz the "OI Share" Olympus/OM Systems one is terrible) But there's not enough of a market at all to make it justifiable. Software developers are expensive. The interchangeable lens camera market is tiny, and the professional people who spend serious money care less about things like that and more about stellar optics and sensors. The consumer (and even "pro-sumer") level tier of the camera market has almost disappeared. Even in Japan, which is camera crazy, it's in free-fall still. Take Panasonic's new GH7, for example, a new rather nice Micro Four Thirds camera with a bunch of advanced features, but kind of targeted towards the video segment (so great for YouTubers, etc)... They announced the production numbers and it's only 4000 a month. That's... basically nothing... in the consumer hardware segment. That said, I think this segment will come back in a bit. The digicam craze is evidence at least that young people (like my teenage daughter's age) can see the value in the camera form factor over using a phone. The ergonomics are way better. And Fujifilm can't keep the X100V series in stock, it keeps flying off the shelves. Phones themselves are becoming less "cool."
Scene_Cast2 2y ago
It's a bit weird that there aren't any great ultraportable high quality cameras anymore. Some interesting ones I've found are the Yongnuo YN450M and the Switchlens.
- cmrdporcupine 2y ago
  There's a lot of hand-wringing in the micro-four-thirds camera community about why Panasonic and OM Systems haven't released any updates to their older small/portable cameras (which the M43 system was great for, the lenses being much smaller than APS-C and full-frame). It's likely there's just no money in it and so they're focusing on more $$ niche tiers instead, with larger bodies. (Panasonic on video, OM Systems on bird/nature photography). Fujifilm is having great success with their fixed-lens X100V, though.
- Zambyte 2y ago
  I don't know if "ultra portable" is referring to a specific kind of camera type, but I got a Sony ZV-1 on black friday last year, and since then it has been my go-to camera over both my DSLR and smart phone. I usually just carry it in my pocket instead of my phone these days, but I also can fit it in my pocket with my phone if I want to.
  - madeofpalk 2y ago
    Sony RX100 line is very portable...
- zokier 2y ago
  People who want separate non-ilc camera are already niche. People who want to compromise image quality and ergonomics for ultracompactness is small niche within that niche. Its not like something Fujis X100, Sonys ZV, or Ricohs are huge cameras
  - tomatocracy 2y ago
    Not sure about the Sony ZV or Ricohs but the X100 series are excellent cameras - the compromise of going for a prime lens works very well for this format in my view (Sony used to have the RX1 series but it was probably too expensive and a bit too big to work). I've used them since the X100s. They also seem to be rising in popularity recently amongst people who don't also own a pile of DSLRs or MILCs - I think this is mostly due to the retro styling.
gruturo 2y ago
Partially off topic: What happened to the "non-flat" CCD / CMOS sensors which were going to enable awesome smartphone cameras, by allowing lens assemblies with far fewer elements and virtually no chromatic aberration? Thanks to the fewer elements whey could be way thinner (or much wider in the same thickness, collecting way more light) and still fit in a smartphone body. This was supposed to especially benefit smartphones due to their fixed lenses (while for a variable zoom lens you would need different sensor curvature depending on the zoom level which is trickier....). A couple relevant links (just a few search results): https://optics.org/news/12/5/4 https://optics.org/news/12/5/4 https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/news/sonys-new-curved-image-sensors-could-shake-up-the-whole-camera-industry https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/news/sonys-new-curved-ima... https://www.dpreview.com/news/7542036825/french-startup-is-preparing-its-curved-cmos-image-sensor-for-mass-production https://www.dpreview.com/news/7542036825/french-startup-is-p... Also, the quickly deformable (with an electric field) "liquid" lenses which would revolutionize the lens aspect, similarly appearing in a lot of news and then never seemingly materialize. https://opg.optica.org/oe/fulltext.cfm?uri=oe-31-26-43416&id=544219 https://opg.optica.org/oe/fulltext.cfm?uri=oe-31-26-43416&id... https://www.nextpit.com/liquid-lens-technology-smartphones https://www.nextpit.com/liquid-lens-technology-smartphones
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- picture 2y ago
  As someone with mild knowledge of semiconductor fabrication and optics, I honestly think these technology are not that meaningful to justify their cost of development and implementation, compared to the winning solution of arbitrarily complex plastic lens assemblies. Chromatic aberration can be good enough with doublet lens design and Petzval is largely solved by the final field flattener usually with multiple concave and convex sections, and you can still easily fit a large number of lenses in a small formfactor. Additionally being able to adjust the power of a lens is not a huge gamechanger, as a lot of the complexity with modern optic design is to counter various defects and distortion like aforementioned Petzval. Rather, the fundamental limit is the sensor size. It's just not practical to achieve much better image quality with a physically small system
petabyt 2y ago
The Fuji cameras I'm working on include similar functionality. Basically the camera can connect to any AP, then it will find a client. From there the client can do liveview/automatic photo importing/change settings.
- cmrdporcupine 2y ago
  My older Olympus camera does the opposite. Becomes an AP and then the phone app switches WiFi networks and connects that way. It's an interesting approach but the problem is that Android and iOS get up to wonky unpredictable action when dealing with private ad-hoc wifi networks, so the situ becomes unreliable. (this was a vexing problem when I worked on the Google WiFi some years ago). That and the wifi range is terrible, and it's a drain on the camera's batteries.
  - petabyt 2y ago
    Yep, that's a pretty with a lot of IoT products in general.
    - petabyt 2y ago
      * a pretty common thing
- amadeusw 2y ago
  petabyt I'm interested in this capability, is this available out of the box? What's the client API/contract? Or is Fujihack [0] required? (I just found it on your website.) [0] https://fujihack.org/ https://fujihack.org/
  - petabyt 2y ago
    Fujifilm offers this functionality on newer cameras, intended to be used with Fujifilm PC AutoSave and Fujifilm Acquire desktop apps.
    - 2y ago
ge0rg 2y ago
So I've used the discussion here and the inspiration by @samcat116 to finally publish my review of the Samsung Galaxy NX - half smartphone, half "professional" camera: https://op-co.de/blog/posts/galaxy_nx/ https://op-co.de/blog/posts/galaxy_nx/
nopromisessir 2y ago
[flagged]
- cuttysnark 2y ago
  While I tend to agree with your sentiment, this particular project resurrects bricked-by-corporate e-waste—I'd call that a win. Plus, let's have fun while we can. On the next planet, cameras will be recyclable, limited to 12 holographic shots, and wrapped in humble cardboard. You'll have to take it to the local colony druggist for developing. Perhaps you'll browse Earth Imports section while you wait.
  - nopromisessir 2y ago
    You're probably right. I would hope that we eject our ewaste into our star in a sustainable way. The model says I'm being too speculative about our future and that we should tackle ewaste better right now. The model is usually right. Appreciate the comment. I guess every little bit helps. Maybe I'm becoming a bit of a hater. The last project I commented on in this way had much less utility.
Bloating 2y ago
But its much more convenient for me to live stream what I'm eating for lunch using my phone. Please like & subscribe, so I can eat
bloqs 2y ago
I think I may be missing the point of a lot of the comments, but could someone explain what this does that a smartphone does not?
- ponorin 2y ago
  They are proper cameras, with proper camera-sized sensors, and some model had interchangable lenses. One of them, for better or for worse, even came with Android. https://op-co.de/blog/posts/galaxy_nx/ https://op-co.de/blog/posts/galaxy_nx/
numpad0 2y ago
Something I think should be said more often: the root cause of decades-long ongoing camera data exfil mess must have to do with 802.11 Wi-Fi standard. Technically it could be just as painless and usable like Apple AirDrop; it might not be readily implemented in products, but technically it's shown possible. The reason why it remains massive pain has to be in the Wi-Fi standard that can't be kicked from client or established in split seconds.

180 points by ge0rg 2y ago

ge0rg 2y ago

Original blog post: https://op-co.de/blog/posts/samsung_nx_mastodon/ https://op-co.de/blog/posts/samsung_nx_mastodon/

dang 2y ago
Thanks! We've changed the URL to that from https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/07/samsungs-abandoned-nx-cameras-can-be-brought-online-with-a-20-lte-stick/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/07/samsungs-abandoned-n... above. Submitters: "Please submit the original source. If a post reports on something found on another site, submit the latter." - https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

scohesc 2y ago

I'm not a camera enthusiast - but are these cameras still "worth it" to go through all the effort for their qualities, or is this closer to a vintage computer enthusiast just cracking away at something because it's a challenge? Very interesting route to go through to get the camera working again!

steve_adams_86 2y ago
The hashtag on one of the original author’s tweets is “ShittyCameraChallenge” and the photos don’t look great, so I think it’s mostly about reviving dead tech and learning.
RobotToaster 2y ago
Vintage digital cameras, especially the sony ones that use floppy disks, are now "retro" and in fashion with zoomers, apparently. edit: Many of these aren't that old, the last NX was 2015, I still use a pentax APS-C DSLR around that age and it's fine.
- netsharc 2y ago
  I've seen kids using 2010 era cameras, but I doubt they'd be using ones with floppies. Those are 90's tech and probably have 1024x768 resolution at most, plus can you even buy USB floppy disk drives, or plug it into your phone? (E.g. I have a Micro-SD card reader that I can plug into my phone using USB-C, and I can plug the card into my camera using an Micro-SD-to-SD-adapter). Then there are the geeks taking pictures using the B&W 320x200 Gameboy cameras, my feeling is even the Gen-Z would view these people as nerds...
ge0rg 2y ago
The compact models are probably not competitive to modern smartphones, except if you need optical zoom. The NX series interchangeable lens cameras however don't fare too badly compared to today's models, and have a good price-point on the used market, if you are ready to do some bargain hunting. In the last decade, the improvements were largely in sensor resolutions (from 20MP to 40MP, not relevant for most practical uses) and in "smart" auto-focus, with better tracking of eyes, animals or objects.
- cmrdporcupine 2y ago
  In-body image stabilization is another area that has had huge improvements in pro/pro-amateur cameras in the last 10 years.
  - ge0rg 2y ago
    Right, that's something that I'm actually sometimes missing on my NX500 when using vintage lenses, but I'm not sure how relevant it is for pro amateurs in general.
    - cmrdporcupine 2y ago
      It's super useful, esp if you're going after longer focal lengths and snapping birds, and if you're... like me... into manual focus or vintage lenses. My little Olympus M43 camera has an older IBIS system and it's very useful and I can definitely tell when it's off or not configured. Newer cameras have made huge improvements in this, and, yeah, autofocus ...
ianburrell 2y ago
The big problem with the NX cameras is that they are no longer supported and won’t ever get more lenses. If happy with kit lens or adapting manual lenses, then they are probably cheaper than other mirrorless.
wongarsu 2y ago
Just having exchangeable lenses is a huge boon. The sensor is probably worse than what you can find in a modern smart phone, but phones simply don't have the space for deep lenses and thus have to emulate effects like zoom and depth-of-field. On this camera you can have the "real" thing without paying $1000+ for a DSLR and $300+ for a lens. And of course there's the effect where for every sufficiently popular camera their technical deficiencies become a desirable vintage look, given enough time. Kind of like people preferring vinyl records for their sound
- Marsymars 2y ago
  > The sensor is probably worse than what you can find in a modern smart phone, but phones simply don't have the space for deep lenses Phones don't have space for big sensors either, other than some gimmicky big-sensor phones (808 PureView, Lumia 1020). The iPhone 15 Pro main camera sensor is 9.8x7.3mm, compared to say, the Ricoh GR III with a 23.5x15.6mm sensor, about 5x larger. The GR III is actually less tall/wide than an iPhone, but about 4x the thickness.
jdfellow 2y ago
I have an NX Mini (which isn't exactly the same as the regular NX line) which has a "1 inch" sensor and a 3-lens interchangeable system. With the 9mm fixed lens it's as pocketable as a phone, but with a flip-out screen, a real flash and otherwise much better quality. With the 9-27mm zoom lens it's even a reasonable portrait camera. I haven't found one of the 17mm f/1.8 lenses, they're pretty rare. Anyway, I really like that little thing. With a C-mount lens adapter I can use surveillance camera lenses which is pretty fun.
- ge0rg 2y ago
  I'm a huge fan of the NX mini and they are fully supported by the SNS API bridge. I have a bunch of them, one converted to infrared. Usually I have the mini with me when the NX500 is too bulky. It's a pity that the lenses are so rare on the used market. The image quality is just awesome for the form factor!
freeAgent 2y ago
This is definitely not “worth it” given that NX is a dead platform, but I can totally see it being a passion project for someone who wants to improve the system. The NX cameras were pretty darn good. The NX1, which was the final flagship of the range, was an amazing camera IMO, and of course these cameras can produce excellent images (better than modern smartphones) with their APS-C sensors. Photography is all about light, so smartphones with tiny sensors will always be disadvantaged. Computational photography tries to work around the physical limitations, but it also yields some very unnatural results. Personally, I prefer traditional cameras where the bokeh is real and there’s no built-in adjustment to the image.
ulfw 2y ago
"Worth it" is relative. No camera phone can beat pictures from my Leica Q3 with it's full-frame 61MP sensor. Especially if it is anything but ultra bright out there. But like you said it's an enthusiast thing. Photos are a hobby of mine. If you don't really care about having the best look and quality and are fine with good quality a 48MP RAW iPhone pic can be edited quite nicely with Photoshop nowadays. Even for large screens to enjoy them on. If you don't care at all, snap away with any semi-new phone and pictures will be good enough for phone screen/sharing.
numpad0 2y ago
Can't say for this camera specifically, but expensive lenses and larger pixel sizes usually do what they are worth in cash. There's no viable way around paying more, like trying to milk phone cameras with AI enhancements. At least for the glass.

samcat116 2y ago

Its crazy to me that there isn't a modern version of this kind of camera. Sony and Cannon could be doing a lot to take away from the smartphone share if they made cameras more usable and modern: - Built in GPS for location tagging in photos(a few cameras have this but for many you need an external dongle attached to the camera) - Automatic backup of photos to cloud/network storage locations - built in flash storage for redundancy - Wifi that isn't trash so you could transfer photos at a meaningful speed - LTE for the same reason when on location - Run apps for upload to a variety of services - More computational photography features

glial 2y ago
+1 I would absolutely buy this.
- cmrdporcupine 2y ago
  Many of us would. I love my little Olympus PEN EPL8 camera, the form factor beats the crap out of phones, the quality of the pictures way better (despite "only" 16MP), etc. But the ... software experience is awful. I could come up with dozens of ways to improve the experience that would have been possible even in 2016 when it was made... (In fact I wasted a couple days writing my own custom WiFi remote control program for it a few days ago, hoping to snap birds at the feeder while I sit at my desk, cuz the "OI Share" Olympus/OM Systems one is terrible) But there's not enough of a market at all to make it justifiable. Software developers are expensive. The interchangeable lens camera market is tiny, and the professional people who spend serious money care less about things like that and more about stellar optics and sensors. The consumer (and even "pro-sumer") level tier of the camera market has almost disappeared. Even in Japan, which is camera crazy, it's in free-fall still. Take Panasonic's new GH7, for example, a new rather nice Micro Four Thirds camera with a bunch of advanced features, but kind of targeted towards the video segment (so great for YouTubers, etc)... They announced the production numbers and it's only 4000 a month. That's... basically nothing... in the consumer hardware segment. That said, I think this segment will come back in a bit. The digicam craze is evidence at least that young people (like my teenage daughter's age) can see the value in the camera form factor over using a phone. The ergonomics are way better. And Fujifilm can't keep the X100V series in stock, it keeps flying off the shelves. Phones themselves are becoming less "cool."

Scene_Cast2 2y ago

It's a bit weird that there aren't any great ultraportable high quality cameras anymore. Some interesting ones I've found are the Yongnuo YN450M and the Switchlens.

cmrdporcupine 2y ago
There's a lot of hand-wringing in the micro-four-thirds camera community about why Panasonic and OM Systems haven't released any updates to their older small/portable cameras (which the M43 system was great for, the lenses being much smaller than APS-C and full-frame). It's likely there's just no money in it and so they're focusing on more $$ niche tiers instead, with larger bodies. (Panasonic on video, OM Systems on bird/nature photography). Fujifilm is having great success with their fixed-lens X100V, though.
Zambyte 2y ago
I don't know if "ultra portable" is referring to a specific kind of camera type, but I got a Sony ZV-1 on black friday last year, and since then it has been my go-to camera over both my DSLR and smart phone. I usually just carry it in my pocket instead of my phone these days, but I also can fit it in my pocket with my phone if I want to.
- madeofpalk 2y ago
  Sony RX100 line is very portable...
zokier 2y ago
People who want separate non-ilc camera are already niche. People who want to compromise image quality and ergonomics for ultracompactness is small niche within that niche. Its not like something Fujis X100, Sonys ZV, or Ricohs are huge cameras
- tomatocracy 2y ago
  Not sure about the Sony ZV or Ricohs but the X100 series are excellent cameras - the compromise of going for a prime lens works very well for this format in my view (Sony used to have the RX1 series but it was probably too expensive and a bit too big to work). I've used them since the X100s. They also seem to be rising in popularity recently amongst people who don't also own a pile of DSLRs or MILCs - I think this is mostly due to the retro styling.

gruturo 2y ago

Partially off topic: What happened to the "non-flat" CCD / CMOS sensors which were going to enable awesome smartphone cameras, by allowing lens assemblies with far fewer elements and virtually no chromatic aberration? Thanks to the fewer elements whey could be way thinner (or much wider in the same thickness, collecting way more light) and still fit in a smartphone body. This was supposed to especially benefit smartphones due to their fixed lenses (while for a variable zoom lens you would need different sensor curvature depending on the zoom level which is trickier....). A couple relevant links (just a few search results): https://optics.org/news/12/5/4 https://optics.org/news/12/5/4 https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/news/sonys-new-curved-image-sensors-could-shake-up-the-whole-camera-industry https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/news/sonys-new-curved-ima... https://www.dpreview.com/news/7542036825/french-startup-is-preparing-its-curved-cmos-image-sensor-for-mass-production https://www.dpreview.com/news/7542036825/french-startup-is-p... Also, the quickly deformable (with an electric field) "liquid" lenses which would revolutionize the lens aspect, similarly appearing in a lot of news and then never seemingly materialize. https://opg.optica.org/oe/fulltext.cfm?uri=oe-31-26-43416&id=544219 https://opg.optica.org/oe/fulltext.cfm?uri=oe-31-26-43416&id... https://www.nextpit.com/liquid-lens-technology-smartphones https://www.nextpit.com/liquid-lens-technology-smartphones

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
picture 2y ago
As someone with mild knowledge of semiconductor fabrication and optics, I honestly think these technology are not that meaningful to justify their cost of development and implementation, compared to the winning solution of arbitrarily complex plastic lens assemblies. Chromatic aberration can be good enough with doublet lens design and Petzval is largely solved by the final field flattener usually with multiple concave and convex sections, and you can still easily fit a large number of lenses in a small formfactor. Additionally being able to adjust the power of a lens is not a huge gamechanger, as a lot of the complexity with modern optic design is to counter various defects and distortion like aforementioned Petzval. Rather, the fundamental limit is the sensor size. It's just not practical to achieve much better image quality with a physically small system

petabyt 2y ago

The Fuji cameras I'm working on include similar functionality. Basically the camera can connect to any AP, then it will find a client. From there the client can do liveview/automatic photo importing/change settings.

cmrdporcupine 2y ago
My older Olympus camera does the opposite. Becomes an AP and then the phone app switches WiFi networks and connects that way. It's an interesting approach but the problem is that Android and iOS get up to wonky unpredictable action when dealing with private ad-hoc wifi networks, so the situ becomes unreliable. (this was a vexing problem when I worked on the Google WiFi some years ago). That and the wifi range is terrible, and it's a drain on the camera's batteries.
- petabyt 2y ago
  Yep, that's a pretty with a lot of IoT products in general.
  - petabyt 2y ago
    * a pretty common thing
amadeusw 2y ago
petabyt I'm interested in this capability, is this available out of the box? What's the client API/contract? Or is Fujihack [0] required? (I just found it on your website.) [0] https://fujihack.org/ https://fujihack.org/
- petabyt 2y ago
  Fujifilm offers this functionality on newer cameras, intended to be used with Fujifilm PC AutoSave and Fujifilm Acquire desktop apps.
  - 2y ago

ge0rg 2y ago

So I've used the discussion here and the inspiration by @samcat116 to finally publish my review of the Samsung Galaxy NX - half smartphone, half "professional" camera: https://op-co.de/blog/posts/galaxy_nx/ https://op-co.de/blog/posts/galaxy_nx/

nopromisessir 2y ago

[flagged]

cuttysnark 2y ago
While I tend to agree with your sentiment, this particular project resurrects bricked-by-corporate e-waste—I'd call that a win. Plus, let's have fun while we can. On the next planet, cameras will be recyclable, limited to 12 holographic shots, and wrapped in humble cardboard. You'll have to take it to the local colony druggist for developing. Perhaps you'll browse Earth Imports section while you wait.
- nopromisessir 2y ago
  You're probably right. I would hope that we eject our ewaste into our star in a sustainable way. The model says I'm being too speculative about our future and that we should tackle ewaste better right now. The model is usually right. Appreciate the comment. I guess every little bit helps. Maybe I'm becoming a bit of a hater. The last project I commented on in this way had much less utility.

Bloating 2y ago

But its much more convenient for me to live stream what I'm eating for lunch using my phone. Please like & subscribe, so I can eat

bloqs 2y ago

I think I may be missing the point of a lot of the comments, but could someone explain what this does that a smartphone does not?

ponorin 2y ago
They are proper cameras, with proper camera-sized sensors, and some model had interchangable lenses. One of them, for better or for worse, even came with Android. https://op-co.de/blog/posts/galaxy_nx/ https://op-co.de/blog/posts/galaxy_nx/

numpad0 2y ago

Something I think should be said more often: the root cause of decades-long ongoing camera data exfil mess must have to do with 802.11 Wi-Fi standard. Technically it could be just as painless and usable like Apple AirDrop; it might not be readily implemented in products, but technically it's shown possible. The reason why it remains massive pain has to be in the Wi-Fi standard that can't be kicked from client or established in split seconds.