A Farm Shed And Field

I'll Say It Again, The Nokia 808 Pureview Will Blow Your Fucking Mind

DPReview has posted a full review of the Nokia 808, and if you ever wanted proof that it is the camerphone, this is it. DPReview gives you their studio comparison tool that shows, in stark detail, how well the 808 Pureview compares to full cameras. The detail is jaw-dropping. The ISO performance so completely obliterates all other cell phones as to make them seem like toys. Obviously, there is only so much magic that can be done on a sensor of a set size, and the Nikon V1 noticeably outperforms the Pureview at ISO 1600.

The 808 is not without its faults. Most of them are in the software and interface, which can be fixed with updates or with aftermarket software. The only fundamental issue is that the sensor clips highlights, but this could undoubtedly be fixed with access to the raw files.

This is a company-making product. It is unique in the market. Nokia should be proud, because it finally delivered the innovation that people have been wanting since the iPhone came out. With this and the Sony RX100, the P&S camera market has been completely upended.

A Bee Rising From Flowers

First Nikon D800 Medium Format Comparison

Camera Labs has published a quick comparison of shots between the Nikon D800 (the non-E version) and the beastly Phase One IQ160 60MP. I would have preferred a comparison with the Pentax 645D, since it is the closest in both resolution and price. While we can go to DPReview and use their comparison tool, any good photog knows that the studio shots that are conducive to standardized testing are rarely a good measure of a camera's real-world resolution abilities. That's what makes side-by-side, landscape comparisons like this so useful.

Regardless, it is a foregone conclusion that the Phase One out-resolves the Nikon. In some cases, by a noticeable margin. Unfortunately, the lens choice on the Nikon is not Nikon's sharpest lens. A good prime would have been a better choice. Still, as is mentioned in the article, the difference cannot be wholly attributed to the lens — the Phase One is resolving an amazing level of detail. I think a more interesting choice would have been the Nikon D800E since, without the AA filter, it is more architecturally similar to the P1.

One thing that I took from the comparison is that the medium format companies will have to bring their A-game yet again. I remember writing years ago that I thought medium format was a pointless purchase. Phase One then came out with a back that had more than double the resolution of FF cameras at the time, and I was made a believer (a believer that could never afford one, but a believer nonetheless). Now, the FF crew has stepped up their game and closed the gap between them at MF to such a degree to again make the massive price premium, to my eye, not worth it. The 80MP IQ180 is still in a class of its own, and if you need it, you need it. But every step down from that makes the D800 loom ever larger. Perhaps its because back then, the numbers were so small as to make any jump immediately noticeable. The jump from 36 to 60 is smaller than the numbers make it appear.

But likewise, at numbers this high, the correct comparison can reveal a camera's true abilities, and that may not be happening here. A studio model, or a more complex landscape may provide the images that "pop" in the same way that the mountains in the upper-left of Camera Labs' test pop in the Phase One's image. It's very impressive.

Canon G1X Drops Price By Nearly $100

When the Canon G1X came out, I mocked it, as I've been known to do to Canon. It was a camera built on pretensions, over-priced, and under-lensed. At $800, only a madman would buy it. It has been outsold by almost every primary competitor in that price bracket since launch. The NEX 5n, 7, E-M5, every major P&S, and now the Sony RX100.

Well, at some time in the past month, Canon saw fit to drop the price on its poorly selling, malformed baby. It is now available for $709 on Amazon, Adorama, and B&H. I don't know when this happened, but it doesn't matter. It hasn't been enough to lift the camera out of the doldrums of the Amazon sales rank; it's currently hanging at #224 in cameras. Just for the sake of confirmation, the G1X doesn't even appear on Flickr's Camera Finder charts.


This reminds me of the wild discounting that started happening on Panasonic cameras after they realized that everyone was buying the Olympus E-M5. Just take a look at these two charts to see where Canon is headed.

The Panasonic Cameras Flickr Chart... Ruh Roh. The magenta line is the 3-year-old GF1.

Meanwhile, here is the Olympus chart. Take a guess as to which line is the E-M5.

That about says it all. How long do you suppose we'll have to wait before we see a price drop on the new Canon EOS M? A month? Two? It took the G1X six.

Canon EOS M Shoots Itself In The Foot

Ok. The Nikon V1/J1 hasn't been a terrible sales success. It hasn't be a failure, either, but it is far from setting the world alight like the Olympus E-M5 and Sony NEX cameras have. I think that it's philosophically wrong, but I suspect that another problem with the whole thing was the insane price.

Apparently, Canon thinks that the only problem with the V1/J1 was, in fact, the sensor! Haha! Oh, silly me! And this whole time, I thought cameras followed basic laws of consumer economics. Man. I'm glad that Canon is around to tell me what's what.

The only detail that we didn't have previously was the price. It was, considering the shape, size, quality, and reports et al., safe to assume that it was going to be cheap — more in line with the Sony NEX C3 than the 5n or 7.

Ohh, how wrong we were to assume that. Canon has done what big companies do best and woefully misjudged the market. The new EOS M will cost eight-hundred dollars with the 22m pancake lens, $1,200 with the 18-55mm kit zoom, and $1,500 with both lenses (the last two numbers converted from GBP). To whom are they selling? The only people in this price range are enthusiasts and pros — the very people who don't give a crap about sleek yet accessible styling.

This. Is. Laughable. The Olympus E-M5 will eat its lunch. Sony will barely feel it. After the initial burst of sales that any company with a huge marketing and distribution budget can manage, this camera will fall off the map. Guaranteed. I will put money on it.

UPDATE:

EOSHD posted his thoughts on the EOS M's official specs and everything is summed up pretty well in this:

There is still a very small chance that Canon have put something useful in this thing… Like a better video processor, or more resolution in 1080p, or…


No, I’m dreaming.


This is Canon.

Canon EOS-M Mirrorless Camera Fully Leaked

As I said, I'm here to taunt Canon a second time!

Canon will officially announce the EOS-M sometime tomorrow (the 23rd) in an event in the UK. I have complete confidence that it will totally fail to set the world on fire. Ladies and gentlemen, this is what an arrogant company, artificially segmenting and differentiating its product lines, looks like! Give them a round of applause.

Seriously. I am at the point where I have nothing but contempt for Canon. They seem to have very little interest in actually innovating and pushing boundaries. Everything they have put out is either a "me-too" product, or an overpriced monstrosity aimed at a niche market. They apparently think that the non-professional market is simply stupid enough to not notice that Canon's cameras stopped competing years ago. At this point, they're just squeezing blood from the faithful.

So what are the deets, then, what's the 411, what are the specs that are sure to set aflutter the hearts of hard-core Canon fanatics and no one else come release day?

• 18MP APS-C
• DIGIC V Image Processor
• 3″ 1MP Touchscreen
• Phase & Contrast AF
• 1920×1080 Video 30p/25p/24p
• 1280×720 Video 60p/50p
• MPEG-4, AVC/H.264
• SD Card

First, we have the exact same sensor as is in Canon's current entry-level cameras, the tried and true 18MP soldier. A good sensor, to be sure, but one or two generations behind other cameras. The sensor will be paired with a single DIGIC V processor. Not bad. Not good either, but not bad.

The touchscreen is good. They are at least not skimping on that (*COUGH*Olympus!*COUGH*). At over 1MP that makes it competitive with essentially everything on the market. As far as I know, it's only bested by the (much) more expensive Fuji X Pro 1.

Yes, you read that right, phase and contrast detection autofocus. There's a reason for that, and some great commentary from EOSHD on the subject.

Everything else is competitive for what will likely be a low price. The various film modes are nice, especially the 24p at 1080 resolution. That said, Canon's video has been surpassed many times over by other cameras, and this video will likely suffer all of the same problems that current Canon cameras suffer.

Finally, the EOS-M will come with the usual assortment of consumer features like "fun" filters and a full touch screen interface that will suck. It will not come with almost anything that an enthusiast or professional may want, like physical controls, a fast shooting speed, CF cards, and large buffer.

Canon is so positively, absolutely desperate to avoid any possible cannibalization of their traditional SLR market that they are paralyzed. They cannot innovate. This is a wan response to Micro 4/3 and NEX, taking the same trajectory that Micro 4/3 failed at. What makes Canon think they can succeed? Who cares! As long as they don't eat up any sales of SLR's!

This conflict between wanting to make something good and make something that "fits" into Canon's family is best evinced in the lenses and autofocus. As I mentioned, this camera has both contrast and phase detection AF, which makes perfect sense when you see that Canon is releasing an EF lens adapter right from the get-go. This is both in response to Sony's adapter, but also yet another desperate attempt to keep people involved in the EF line of lenses whether they fucking like it or not. Too big, you say? Not enough primes, you say? Too bad!

EOSHD has an excellent point about the strategic failure of this new camera and it's lenses, and instead of paraphrasing, I'll just post it.

Focus groups keep telling camera manufacturers they want DSLR quality in a small camera.

Canon, Nikon, Olympus and Panasonic took this to mean a small DSLR with interchangeable lenses.

This pleased their accountants – there is much margin in cheap glass. Rather than sell only a body like they were doing with compacts, Sony, Panasonic and Olympus could now sell multiple lenses to the mass market for the first time not just to enthusiasts and pros.

However.

What they needed was to listen to a visionary like Steve Jobs instead, because a focus group doesn’t actually know they really want.

Sure enough it turns out that what these people really wanted was a compact camera with a massive zoom lens built in...

The 7D’s sensor went into six more cameras [after the 7D] – important ones at that. The 550D, 600D, 60D. Then the G1X which cut the size down but used the same sensor, and the 650D which used the same sensor but with a few pixels turfed off for AF sensels. Now the EOS M looks likely to use that sensor AGAIN. Effectively for the 6th time Canon is serving up the same camera in a different shape aimed at a different focus group.

I couldn't have said it better myself. It appears that Canon is so God-like as to succeed where everyone else has failed. Or perhaps they just want to succeed in Japan, where the tiny Micro 4/3 cameras have indeed found success. Or maybe Canon is just stupid. Both options seem equally likely.

As I pointed out in my posts on the Sony RX100, Sony is the one breaking new ground. And while it sometimes takes awhile to become successful, especially when entrenched players control so much ground, it eventually happens. It happened with the massive success of the NEX-7 and 5n (the latter of which is the most popular Flickr camera that Sony has) and the now world-beating success of the RX100. Let me reiterate that last point: the RX100, the most expensive P&S currently on the market, is the #1 camera on Amazon and has been for weeks.

That is huge. It beats out insanely cheap Micro 4/3 cameras, a Panasonic GX1 that's been discounted all to hell, dozens of Canon and Nikon SLR's that cost the same or much less; it confirms what I and many others have been saying for years: people do not want tiny, cheap, SLR's. They want a camera that you turn on and then press a button.

Cell phones took over that market, and instead of fighting back, companies either did nothing like Canon, released crap years late like Nikon, or they thrashed around in some blind alley for three years like Panasonic and Olympus. Don't even get me started on the still-born Pentax-Q. Only Sony stepped up the plate.

There are two markets: those who want simplicity and those who want control. Both markets want better image quality. Neither market wants these quasimodo halfway cameras. I don't understand how these camera companies don't get that.