On Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 08:15:47PM -0600, William Robb scripsit: > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Graydon" Subject: Re: 21th may is > the day for the new Pentax DSLR. >> Which is why I, who think the K20D is a comfy compact size with >> splendid ergonomics, am not wailing about the prospect of a >> significantly smaller camera. >> >> I'm just morally certain they'll have done something direly awful. >> Automatic variable magnification in the viewfinder, say. > > I'm afraid they've put one of those awful electronic viewfinders on > it.
Yeah, that one, too. Though if they're trying for durable, maybe not. I'm not entirely sold on the new item on the mode dial being video; it's not an unambiguous fit for the whole 'rough, tough, outdoor' thing (you certainly don't want someone taking the lens off in any kind of breeze while the camera is in mirror-up video mode...) and it has all sorts of implications for shake reduction and internal volume use, which makes me think this is kinda early for full-up video, especially if there's a new mirror box assembly, the requirement for new, 3-axis shake reduction to support stabilized video, and so on; that's a bunch of big features in one camera. Then again, maybe it's a mirror-less camera in a *good* way. There was an announcement at last falls' Photokina from Zeiss about an integrated spotting scope camera, the Photoscope. The Online Photographer mentioned it at: http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2008/10/carl-zeiss-phot.html The product description of the Photoscope, from http://www.zeiss.de/C1256A770030BCE0/WebViewAllE/2BDF49DD10C81ED9C12574C900483632, says, in part: "The integrated 7 megapixel digital camera enables the simultaneous digital capture of the scenery. Because the camera works without sliding mirrors or similar elements, it is possible to observe and take pictures at the same time without disruptions or vibrations." My take on that one in the case of the scope is "they've put the sensor back of one of the sides of the prism"; there's always a prism to get the image right way up and right way around in sport optics. How they're making that side of the prism selectively reflective in a solid-state way isn't immediately obvious, but work on that kind of thing started in the 70s; I'm quite willing to believe someone's come up with an electro-reactive nanoscale mirror coating that works in shutter-speed time frames. So, perhaps, there's no mirror, or at least no *moving* mirror. The sensor is permanently behind some in-camera optical element; it's not hard to imagine a pentaprism viewfinder designed to be optically optimal, rather than to clear the mirror, having at least one prism face large enough to stick an APS-C sensor behind. (And that this would be a much tougher thing to pull off with a full-frame sensor in ergonomic terms; an awareness that this is in the R&D pipeline may contribute to explaining Pentax's corporate reluctance to tackle full-frame digital.) That way, there's no physical shutter as well as no moving mirror; the sensor is back of a prism face in a shake-reduction mount, and that prism face is the one with the electronically switchable reflective or transparent coating. Taking a picture, whether still or video, is a question of electrically switching the reflective coating. Video just means a set pulse rate -- you can't see it at 30 FPS, you think your optical viewfinder view is continuous -- and FPS for full resolution stills becomes a question of purely electronic limits of internal bus bandwidth, image processing engine speed, and buffer size. It would certainly qualify as re-defining themselves if Pentax has such a thing in the pipeline. -- Graydon, who may have used up two months' supply of optimism typing this post -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
