DESIGN /
DIGITAL
June 9, 2015
Feature: Cameras That Bring Joy to Ownership, Uniquely Designed to Leverage Digital Advantages
Unique Designs With a Purpose
New Style Cameras Leveraging Digital Advantages (1)
There are photographs that can only be taken with digital cameras. Because they capture subjects as digital data, these cameras allow you to easily preserve endlessly transformable images. Both the design and the resulting photographs break free from the form of film cameras, offering emotional landscapes that differ from the world seen with the naked eye. These digital cameras bring a new joy to owning a camera.
Photographs by JAMANDFIXText by TSUCHIYA Motohiro (OPENERS)
Designs and Photographs That Harness Digital Benefits
Even entry-level compact digital cameras now exceed 20 million pixels, and top-tier digital cameras, particularly DSLRs, are equipped with full-frame sensors. However, the evolution of digital cameras isn't limited to image quality. They retain the form inherited from film cameras while transforming the very nature of photography, expanding the joy of shooting. We want to experience an unprecedented "joy of owning a camera" with unique digital cameras that propose new styles.
Adjust Focus After Shooting with 3D Data
Lytro "LYTRO ILLUM"
The "LYTRO ILLUM" immediately catches the eye with its large lens and angled camera body. The unconventional body line, deviating from traditional digital camera shapes, is not a mere gimmick but is designed based on user-friendliness. The angled body enhances operability and visibility.
A high-performance zoom lens, akin to a DSLR's large-aperture lens
An angled body designed for user-friendliness
Beyond its appearance, the images captured by this digital camera also present a different world from conventional digital cameras. When you take a photo with a typical camera, focusing on a foreground subject blurs the background. While it's possible to achieve overall focus, the image can become soft or a flat, uninspired photograph. However, with the "LYTRO ILLUM" developed by Lytro Inc. in the US, you can change the focus point of a taken photograph arbitrarily after the fact.
The dedicated application "LYTRO Desktop" allows for focus adjustment and extraction of 3D imagery from original data. It also enables image retouching and online uploading.
To use this feature with the "LYTRO ILLUM," you set the focus range from where to where when shooting. While conventional cameras capture light intensity to depict shadows and highlights, the "LYTRO ILLUM" is equipped with a special image sensor that records not only light intensity but also the direction of all light. By recording both, it preserves depth information extending from foreground to background, capturing the scene as a three-dimensional image.
The data left by the "LYTRO ILLUM" retains three-dimensional information, clarifying the positional relationships within the image. Using the dedicated processing application "LYTRO Desktop," you can import data that captures "space" rather than a flat landscape, and freely adjust focus points or change perspectives three-dimensionally. From a single captured image, it's possible to output photos with different focus points, 3D images, and more.
Furthermore, it can shoot with the subject at a distance of 0mm from the lens (0mm from the front of the wide-angle lens). The ultimate macro photography, bringing the lens infinitely close to the subject, is one of the photographs that can be created precisely because the "LYTRO ILLUM" captures subjects in three dimensions and allows for free focus control.
Using "LYTRO Desktop," you can adjust focus and upload original images to the web
The "LYTRO ILLUM," with its new design and technology, expands the possibilities of photography. It is sure to bring a new value distinct from conventional digital cameras.
LYTRO ILLUM
Price: Around ¥181,440
Body Dimensions: W145×H86×D166mm
Weight: 940g
Image Sensor: 1/1.2-inch CMOS sensor
Lens: F-stop: F2.0, Zoom: 8x optical zoom,
Minimum Focal Distance: 9.5mm
Effective Pixels: Light Field Sensor
40 million light rays (Output pixels: 4 million pixels)
ISO Sensitivity: 80–3200
Lytro Japan
Tel. 03-6434-0209
http://www.lytro.jp/
- New Style Cameras Leveraging Digital Advantages (2) Ricoh Imaging "RICOH THETA"
- New Style Cameras Leveraging Digital Advantages (3) Next-Generation Camera Sony "ILCE-QX1L"
Unique Designs With a Purpose
New Style Cameras Leveraging Digital Advantages (2)
Capturing a 360-Degree World Beyond Naked-Eye Perception
Ricoh Imaging "RICOH THETA"
The "RICOH THETA" digital camera allows you to capture a 360-degree panorama in a single shot, simply by pressing the shutter button, without the need for complex shooting techniques or special accessories. The latest model, "RICOH THETA (m15)," can now also record movies in addition to still images.
The "RICOH THETA" can also be remotely controlled by installing a dedicated app on a smartphone and linking it. It's also possible to attach dedicated accessories to mount commercially available straps.
The design, aiming for a form that captures 360 degrees without being constrained by the front or back of the camera itself, features minimal operation buttons and is very simple. It is designed with smartphone integration in mind, having a form that doesn't get in the way when placed alongside a smartphone.
Post from RICOH THETA. -Spherical Image - RICOH THETA
You can create works that resemble art, capturing scenes different from those seen with the naked eye. Captured data can also be uploaded to the web through a dedicated app.
With this simple body and its front and rear lenses, you can capture the scene as if looking from inside a 360-degree sphere in a single shot. One advantage of 360-degree shooting is that the photographer can also be included in the frame. You can include yourself in a group photo with a single shot, and even large groups won't be cut off on either side. Furthermore, because the photographer can capture areas beyond their direct line of sight, the atmosphere of the moment can be preserved as is.
The world captured by "RICOH THETA" is not just the scene before your eyes, but an image that includes your own expression and the scenery behind you. Within these immersive images, there may be "discoveries" you didn't notice at the time of shooting.
RICOH THETA (m15)
Price: Open (Street price around ¥34,700)
Body Dimensions: W42×H129×D22.8mm
Weight: Approx. 95g
Lens: F-stop: 2.1mm, Zoom: No optical zoom, Minimum Focal Distance: 100mm
ISO Sensitivity: 100–1600
Ricoh Imaging Customer Consultation Center
Tel. 0570-001313
http://theta360.com/ja/
- New Style Cameras Leveraging Digital Advantages (1) Lytro "LYTRO ILLUM"
- New Style Cameras Leveraging Digital Advantages (3) Sony "ILCE-QX1L"
Unique Designs With a Purpose
New Style Cameras Leveraging Digital Advantages (3)
Shooting with a Smartphone What You Can't Capture with a Smartphone
Sony "ILCE-QX1L"
Designed with the concept of "interchangeable lenses for smartphones," Sony's lens-style camera "ILCE-QX1L (QX1)" adopts a symbolic cylindrical form to clearly convey that it is a "high-performance lens" to be attached to a smartphone. The unique form, which is "based on the premise of being used with a smartphone," is packed with functionality.
The "QX1," created with the concept of "interchangeable lenses for smartphones," can be attached to a smartphone using the included attachment.
With the "QX1," the smartphone screen serves as the monitor. You can also shoot handheld at various angles, detached from the smartphone. Naturally, it boasts extensive smartphone connectivity, with an app designed to seamlessly manage the entire photo communication process, from shooting to selecting and sharing images.
The lens mount is compatible with Sony's E-mount
Furthermore, by adopting Sony's E-mount lenses, the "QX1" allows you to choose your shooting range based on the lens. Among the compatible lenses are ZEISS lenses, a dream for photographers worldwide. By utilizing this lens system, you can engage in professional photography with interchangeable lenses, from ultra-wide-angle and super-telephoto to macro and fisheye lenses. Its expressive range is virtually the same as other digital interchangeable-lens cameras.
While its unique design might seem intimidating, it can be viewed as a "best of both worlds" digital camera, incorporating digital single-lens camera quality while maintaining the ease of smartphone photography. This lens-style camera, which brings a new joy to owning a smartphone, is a cutting-edge model befitting an era where everyone owns a smartphone.
ILCE-QX1L
Lens Style Camera
Power Zoom Lens Kit
Price: Open (Street price around ¥54,950)
Body Dimensions: W74×H69.5×D52.5mm
(Body only)
Weight: Approx. 158g (Body only)
Mount: Sony E-mount
Image Sensor: APS-C size
"Exmor" CMOS sensor
Effective Pixels: Approx. 20.1 million pixels
ISO Sensitivity: 100–16000
Kit Lens: SELP1650
(E PZ 16-50mm F3.5-5.6 OSS)
Sony Shopping Consultation Service
0120-777-886
http://sony.jp/lsc/