The cave team reports: The MZ-D was just unveiled. The rep was kind enough to let us play with it for about 30 minutes.
Here's the scoop: It actually comes in three pieces: - A MZ-S with digital back - a remote unit - 2 software CDs Now the details: The digital back holds nothing but the CCD sensors, a microprocessor, RAM/ROM chips and a low power wireless network chip and antenna. No flash memory slots, no LCD screen, no buttons, no wheels, no nothing. These are all located on the "remote unit". This is a small box (cigarette pack size), with various connector slots all around. You may connect different additional modules to it. You can choose between 2 LCD screens (a smaller one and a bigger one), a 40 Gb or 80 Gb miniature hard drive, various flash memory cards, additional Li-Ion power packs, etc. Inserting about all possible modules makes it the size of 4 cigarette packs lined in a row. A workable configuration (LCD screen, flash memory and small power pack) is the size of two cigarette pack. A belt clip makes it easy to carry it around. or you can use a bracelet to secure it on your arm. The nice touch is that apart from the traditional functions offered by digital backs, the "remote unit" is indeed a remote controller too. You can control all the camera's functions from it. We tested this - we hid the camera in the ladies room and had lots of fun with the remote box for about 10 minutes. Then we accidentally turned on the camera's flash and got discovered. After some dealing with the security staff (we explained that it was a scientific experiment, and they seemed to believe us - they even asked for copies of the pics so they could conduct some research too), we got the camera back and proceeded to further investigations. It appeared that instead of the remote unit you may use a laptop or desktop computer. The only requirement is that the computer is equipped with a wireless network card, and you install the software from the 2 CDs. We tried it on our toshiba satellite and whoa! it was really cool. We were impressed by having such a huge display of the image. We could control all the camera's function, and even program it to automatically take images. A timed mode was available (e.g. every 5 minutes), together with an event-driven mode - i.e.the image meets some criteria (changes in the image, eg.). We could easily program it to take an image each time someone used a flash in the room. While studying the software menus, we also concluded that you can control several cameras from the same computer. Very nifty. Unfortunately our 30 minutes ended here, and we had to return the camera to the rep. Asked on why this particular arrangement of camera back + remote unit, the rep told us that it allows for easy, inexpensive upgrades when higher res CCD sensors become available, and helps keeping the camera small and light. Further details and the exact specs are unknown to us. We'll be back soon with more news. cheers, the caveman P.S. Yes, this was yet another cave joke. P.P.S. Perhaps.
