This is pretty.
This is a good trick. Take advantage of rolling shutter to treat each pixel as a sensor. Can increase your sampling rate to ~number of pixels x camera FPS.
You might remember the idea from “bag of chips as a microphone”.
I’m reminded a little of this trick I came across recently too, where you remove the lens from a camera, and use the pixels as a ruler. Both using the physical properties of the camera in a creative way.
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A real fake camera, inside Blender, to take real fake real fake photographs.
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Nikon previously released the Zfc. A modern digital camera in a body like an old SLR. The only existing camera in that class is the Fuji XT series. But the Fuji XT is the top end flagship camera from Fuji. The Zfc is much less expensive. Still a very tempting camera for those who have Z-mount lenses.
Now Nikon has released the Nikon Zf.
Wow, this is a tempting camera. It costs only a bit more than the Fuji XT-5, but it’s full frame. This is, to my knowledge, the only modern digital camera with a full frame sensor and an old school SLR form factor. Just like the Leica M is the only modern full frame digital camera in an old school rangefinder body (that I know of).
I have a Fuji X100F, which is an APS-C rangefinder with a fixed lens. There is an X100V, but I skipped that as it didn’t seem like a necessary upgrade for me when it came out. Meanwhile the X100F is still my favorite most used camera. It still takes great photos. And somehow I’m still learning more about it all the time. I’ve just really fallen in love with the way the Fuji cameras work.
That said, the X100F is now starting to show its age. The battery life is not great. It still uses micro USB. The newer Fuji cameras that have come out have some great new features and film simulations. And the new improved, supposedly actually works properly, Fuji app doesn’t support this old camera.
I’ve been waiting for a new release from Fuji to upgrade. A new X100 would be tempting. But I’m really hoping for an XPro4. That’s basically an X100 with interchangeable lenses. The XPro 3 exists, but it’s from 2019. It’s been discontinued, and has all the same oldness issues as the X100F.
All that said, this Nikon Zf really changes things. As much as I have come to love the Fuji system, here I could get a full frame sensor from Nikon in the form factor I want at a pretty reasonable price. I think I’m going to go to a camera store and try it out. Or maybe I’ll become one of those camera people that keeps buying and selling cameras more frequently. I do have a few sitting on the shelf that I could move along.
Edit: I said the Nikon Zf is much less expensive than the X-T5. It’s not actually. Zf is $2k and the X-T5 is $1700. That said, the Zf is a full frame sensor, even if it’s not the absolute top of the line Nikon sensor, it’s still pretty high end. The X-T5 sensor is APS-C, but is the best Fuji has to offer (except for their medium format cameras, obviously). When you consider that it’s just $300 difference for the sensor size upgrade, and that other full frame mirrorless cameras like a Sony a7Cii cost $2200+, the price of the Zf is very attractive and competitive.
Edit 2: Additional info! This camera has an SD card slot AND a micro SD card slot. My GH5 has two slots, and I use it for various things, like separating video and photos to separate cards. Or recording to a panel to two cards at once, for safety. Or if I ever make an insanely long video I can have it rollover from card 1 to card 2.
On a purely photo camera, with SD cards as big as they are, what do I need two slots for, especially if one is micro SD? I think it’s actually really genius. You use the SD as your primary memory card. But you put a micro SD in there and just leave it. You can keep taking photos off of the SD and erasing it between shoots, but leave the micro as a permanent backup of everything you’ve ever shot. And if you ever grab the camera to shoot quickly, you don’t have to worry if you remembered to get a memory card in there. the Micro SD is always in there for sure.
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Excited for the Nikon Z and Nikon .
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There was recently a paper published describing a camera setup from some researchers. It records 7 frames at 4,800,000 fps.
It uses a smart trick with a DMD (the mirror array inside any modern projector) to produce a changing diffraction pattern. That fans the 7 frames out across the sensor that does the actual recording.
The paper has some pics:
https://opg.optica.org/getimagev2.cfm?img=UIdxt3XOtuTfmNZttuPzpTtc5vHpCDOdyb0L5VcM9CI%3D&uri=optica-10-9-1223-g003
Extra cool because it’s all relatively normal, cheap parts. In theory, basically any camera could be used to capture the image.
A camera is just a light-sealed box that has an opening which allows the photographer to control when light gets into the box. A lens can be put over the opening to control the shape of the light when it does enter. That was true for the first camera ever and the newest camera.
The mechanism inside the camera which captures the light and records an image has changed greatly over time. As long a it can physically fit inside the box, that mechanism is replaceable. There’s nothing much stopping anyone from putting a brand new digital sensor in an old film camera, as long as they can make it fit.
As the price of film and development rises, and it’s supply decreases, analog cameras could become useless. Film can only be used once, and it expires. If the wheels of industry that produce film, or the chemicals to develop film, come to a halt, every analog camera will become a dead weight no matter if it’s a cheap plastic disposable one or a preposterously expensive Leica.
Retrofitting digital sensors into old analog cameras is such a no-brainer. Old cameras and their lenses are often excellent. They’ve lasted this long because the quality is high. People frequently use adapters to put old lenses on newer digital cameras. This is just the same thing in reverse.
And so it’s obvious that I’m Back exists. Sadly, I don’t think it’s there yet. But it’s existence makes me hopeful that the product will improve and eventually an ideal one will come along for me to buy.
The first problem with this is that it’s too big. You not only have to add the sensor, but a big chunk of electronics on the bottom of the camera. No thanks. This needs to be miniaturized to fit almost entirely inside the camera. Maybe I can tolerate a small external module on the hotshoe or something, but not that big.
Also the sensor is just a micro 4/3 sensor. I already have a micro 4/3 camera. I can use old lenses on that camera already. One of the reasons I use the old film cameras is to get a larger sensor without having to shell out thousands for a digital camera with a larger sensor. If the digital sensor isn’t the same size frame as the film that was originally in the camera, that’s a non-starter for me.
I’m still very glad this product exists, and hopeful for the future of this category. If I could put a 35mm sensor in my Canon F-1, that would actually be preferable to buying a Nikon Zf. If it was small enough I could even move it around from camera to camera. There’s a lot of potential here. One day it will be miniaturized enough to work. Hopefully in my lifetime.
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The popularity and price of analog photography have been rising for years. But the supplies of film have been decreasing.
Back in 2012 someone started a company, CineStill. They bought motion picture film from Kodak, and chemically removed a protective layer from it. Then they cut the big film reel up into strips of 32 frames, and put them into individual canisters. They resold it as their own brand. Honestly, it’s pretty great. I crowdfunded them in 2016 when they released a 120 version.
Since then they’ve taken off. People in the film world all know their name. They have a full lineup of films to choose from, as well as developing chemicals. The film is now widely available, in photo stores basically everywhere. I really like their monobath. It makes developing black & white film at home very easy and cost effective.
Aaaaand, they just ruined themselves by deciding to be frivolous trademark trolls.
I guess they were feeling threatened by the fact that other people can do the same thing they are doing and undercutting them on price.
Either way, once I finish all the film I’ve got stocked up, I won’t be buying from them again.
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I was in Manhattan today to go to the dentist. Decided to make a quick stop at the camera store to try the aforementioned Nikon Zf. They didn’t have them on sale yet, but there was a display model.
There are a lot of positives about this camera, but ultimately, I don’t think I’m going to buy it.
I’m sure the autofocus wasn’t impressive to people who are used to using the high end Nikon and Canon cameras, but it was impressive to me. I’ve only really been using Micro 4/3 cameras and my Fuji X100. I never experienced that high end autofocus. It’s significantly faster and more accurate.
Even though the camera has a full frame sensor, it was not nearly as large or as heavy as I thought it would be. The lens was much bigger than I’m used to, and disproportionately chunky relative to the body, but not so heavy.
The reason I won’t buy it is that despite having the sort of old school design, the UX just isn’t there. That’s really the huge selling point of the camera, and they didn’t nail it. They came close, but not quite there.
The lenses don’t have aperture rings. At least the default one doesn’t. I’m sure you can get some other lenses that do, maybe even with electronic contacts that report the aperture back to the camera. But it’s not the default. That’s kind of meh.
Despite having very nice ISO and shutter speed dials, they still have a PASM switch on the side! That’s not how it’s supposed to go. A film camera should have an A setting on each dial, and the aperture ring. That way you don’t have to specify PASM, you just put one, two, or all of the settings on A as is appropriate. With this PASM switch you could end up in a situation where the camera is on aperture priority mode and you keep turning the shutter speed dial to no effect whatsoever. That’s annoying.
The final thing is admittedly maybe not a fair criticism. My experience with Nikon digital cameras amounts to just the few minutes I tried this one out in the store. But wow, were the menus BAD. There really aren’t any cameras out there with good menus, but these were particularly difficult to navigate. It’s probably just a matter of learning them, but I’m not about to spend $2000 to find out.
I think I will be keeping my plan to wait until next year to see what Fuji releases. My X100F is still my most-used camera. We’ll see if they release another camera in that line and/or another XPro and make a decision. Otherwise, maybe I’ll just wait even more years for an X-T6.
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The Fuji X Summit is scheduled for February 20th.
Of course we don’t know for sure what will be announced there. The most reliable rumor suggests that they will announced the next camera in the X100 series. They also say it will have the 40MP sensor that is present in the XT-5, and also have IBIS. Those are some major upgrades.
If there rumors are true, I think I’ll be ordering this camera immediately. The X100F I have is my most used and favorite camera, but is slightly long in the tooth. I skipped the X100V, so I’ll jump on the new one right away. Also, since the X100s that are already out are in such high demand, I may have to fight to get the new one. Hopefully I can also get some good resale value on the one I have already.
If they also announce an XPro4, that will be a difficult and tempting choice.
That is a sexy camera.
Unlike various other TikTok crazes over cups and other nonsense, this is actually legitimate. As I said, I got plenty of cameras, and I use the X100F more than all the others combined.
When it comes to cameras, Nikon has always been behind in the video department. Instead they put their energy towards ultra pro and niche stills photography. Sports, nature, astrophotogrpahy, etc. Nikon is at or near the top.
As for video, they’ve always been behind. SONY, Panasonic, and Canon all dominated video in different ways.
Until now.
https://www.nikon.com/company/news/2024/0307_01.html
RED has been this kind of weird company. They started out with a bang, having the higher resolution digital cameras at prices that were more reasonable than what was available. But over time, their cameras took heat (pun intended) for having issues like overheating. Better alternatives started appearing also. People could film very high resolution high frame rate with much cheaper equipment. People who were going to pay big for real film production would just pay even bigger and get ARRI or something.
The merge of RED and Nikon opens up some strong possibilities. If they can make it work, they might be able to take on SONY and such. But it’s no sure thing. It’s going to be a competition, and probably for the benefit of everyone who uses cameras.
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A merger like this feels so out of left field but, damn, it’ll be interesting to see what comes out of it.