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Tiny, Tiny Sony Digicam
Phil writes: "Check out this new digital camera prototype from Sony, it's just 2.7" wide (about the size of a piece of chewing gum) it's got a full colour VGA sensor (640 x 480) and a 0.55" LCD on the back (like a digital viewfinder)... Got to be gadget of the year if they do release it..." Now, if only it weren't saddled to the proprietary, expensive chewing-gum Memory Stick, this would jump even higher on my wishlist.
If you were willing to wire it to a larger gadget, like a laptop, what would make more sense would be an even smaller device - lense and button only - with everything else on a box that clips to your belt. Then you could have a pretty darn high-res camera that would do exactly what you are talking about, on something the size of a lapel microphone.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
Shine on, you crazy diamond.
Finally - something small enough to compete in coolness with the Minox B spy camera. Minox makes a variety of cameras, and the best place to find the classic Minox B is used on EBay, typically about $150-200US. They use 8x11mm film instead of 35mm, but they're extremely small, and come with a watch-chain that lets you measure the distance from those classified documents you're photographing. Here's a picture (on a Geocities page, which is likely to be less bothered by slashdotting than Minox's web site :-)
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
PHr0D wrote:
Thats cool but...I think I'd prefer a higher resolution
The just-released Canon S100 does 1,600 x 1,200 and is the size of a deck of playing cards. Additionally, it takes high-quality pictures (although green gets somewhat under-exposed [which can be fixed in photoshop]).
You can sort-of video capture with it too with a continuous mode that does two frames-per-second. It also has a USB interface and direct video out.
But best of all, it exists.
Zoyd wrote:
But best of all, it exists.
...and had a hyperlink to a price-comparison for Canon S10s in stead of S100s.
Look, normal 35mm frame is 24×36 mm. You can easily have 50 lines/mm of resolution. That'd be 100 pixels/mm (caveman's conversion, I know). 24×36×100×100 = 8.2 Mpixel.
Now if you park your camera on a good tripod and use mirror lock-up, you can get 100 lines/mm. Multiply pixels by 4 and you get the idea.
Now if we start talking medium format (6×4.5 cm or larger)... And if we think about aspiring artists who use 8×10 inches film or even larger... No digital for them, sorry. Not yet.
--
Q: And finally James... <hands Bond a pack of Doublemint>
Bond: Gum, Q? But I have Excellent Oral Hygiene.
Q: No James, this is a highly compact digital camera capable of storing over 100 high resolution pictures.
Bond: Indeed.
Q: Oh, and James...
Bond: Yes?
Q: No more taking pictures of the female agents and posting them on the Internet, I've been recieveing far too many complaints about that...
A wealthy eccentric who marches to the beat of a different drum. But you may call me "Noodle Noggin."
Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati
Simple, use CompactFlash cards. These things are small, inexpensive, and made by quite a few people. And with a $10 convertor, they can be used as PCMCIA cards too.
And comparing the dimensions of compact flash cards and the memory stick it looks like the camera might need to be a little taller to user a compact flash card, but perhaps it could also be less wide (I actually have no clue how the memory stick plugs into the camera, maybe it just sticks out from it).
Compact Flash: 21.5mm x 50mm x 2.8mm
Memory Stick: 36mm x 43mm x 3.3mm
Using compact flash seems to be the perfect answer, you could even go with a bit wider version and use the Type II slot to get the 1gb IBM microdrive.
-- It is too late for the pebbles to vote, the avalanche has already started.
FYI, Compact Flash writes are slower than molasses in January. CF has approx. 60ms (yes _milliseconds_) per 512 byte block write latency. The napkin calculation indicates that at 5:1 compression (assuming 640x480x24bit raw) you're looking at over 20 seconds to save an image down from RAM to flash. This can be a serious impact to the design of an embedded system (such as a digital camera). Yes, you can cache images to RAM (as you must for the image compression) but the more RAM you have (i.e. more snaps before writedown) the greater the cost and shorter the battery life.
FWIW, Memory Stick has much higher write bandwidth than CF... unfortunately I don't have the figures on me at the moment.
As for it replacing my 35mm, no way. At least with photos, you can scan them at whatever resolution you want; you're not limited as much, unless you have a cheap-ass scanner (remember those handheld things?). Blowing up a 640x480 jpeg would look really, really bad.
- A.P.
--
"One World, one Web, one Program" - Microsoft promotional ad
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
Thats pretty sweet.. Now can I have it with a Tera-Pixel CCD - 8 Month Battery & A Gig- Microdrive?.. Um.. In black please.
air and light and time and space
In the next Bond movie, tenatively titled 007: Sponsored by Sony Corp., we'll see Sony's newest invention - not just a camera the size of a piece of chewing gum, but actually is a pack of chewing gum! Bond will be able to take pictures and swallow the evidence! When it comes out the, well, other end, the piece of gum can be hardned with a special chemical and inserted into the new Sony Memory Stick PDA to view the pictures.
Sooner or later it would end up in the pocket of my jeans...in the wash. So much for that camera. Isn't there a limit to how small things can get before they are seen as unuseful?
This is cool and all, but I want to know when we'll have medium-sized, mid-priced very high-res digital cameras.
Storage space (and price) becomes less and less of an issue every day so even many dozens full (or very lightly) compressed images can be stored on an average camera. However, I've been less than impressed with the resolutions offered to consumers. I'd much rather have a camera that can hold 40 high-res images on a CF or smartmedia card than one that can hold 170 (like I often see).
I'm not saying that we don't want lower-res pictures as an option, but when are we going to see some more advanced sensors at consumer prices?
yours,
john
Whuzzup with Sony? First a video camera that can see through clothes, and now this. Someone needs to restock their engineers supply of tenticle porn.
-Spazimodo
Fsck the millennium, we want it now.
Fsck the millennium, we want it now.
Millennium Crisis Line: 0890 900 2000 [calls cost 50p/min]
Besides, even if they do release it, small usually means expensive (so does "SONY"...), so I doubt it will reach mass-market proportions any time in the near future.
--
We may not imagine how our lives could be more frustrating and complex—but Congress can. – Cullen Hightower
Okay, I don't usually post "This is really cool" replies, but thisis really cool.
Basically, the camera itself adheres to the memory stick spec, and the camera itself has a Memory Stick Duo slot, for removable image storage. So you can stick the Duo mem card into the camera, and the camera into your sony pilot, and the pony pilot on the cradle, hooked to your PC, hooked to the net.
I'll wait for the Duo camera, that'll use microdots for image storage...
Kevin Fox
Kevin Fox
An affordable self-contained video camera system that can fit in the nose cone of a model rocket just got another step closer. Ohhh, yes.
Didn't Q pass the torch to R in TWINE? Q's dead anyway.
<O
( \
XGNOME vs. KDE: the game!
Will I retire or break 10K?
At least with photos, you can scan them at whatever resolution you want; you're not limited as much
Most film begins to show its grain at resolutions higher than about 3072x2048.
<O
( \
XGNOME vs. KDE: the game!
Will I retire or break 10K?
Can you create a beowolf cluster of these? ... I'd rather see normal size cameras come down in price and be better in quality.
Actually, a cluster of the CCDs in these tiny cameras would add up to a high-resolution CCD for a bigger camera with film-like (6 megapixel) resolution.
<O
( \
XGNOME vs. KDE: the game!
Will I retire or break 10K?
...and so does this company. :(
Looks like it's made for specific camera bodies though. Also, it's been vaporware for some time now
-CausticPuppy "Of all the people I know, you're certainly one of them." -Somebody I don't know
combine this sucker with bluetooth and you can use it to send pics to the PDA in your pocket, or the laptop in your bag, etc. Also use it as remote cameras for, e.g., day care centers!
Now what would be cool is a pcmcia/compact flash version. Just use it like a camera, then jam it into your laptop to get the pics.
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Napster-to-go says "Fill and refill your compatible MP3 player", which is a lie. It's not MP3. It's WMA with DRM.
Anyway, let's hope that this new small camera will drop the prices (or at least pave the way for a price drop) on regular-sized, better-resolution digital cameras.
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We have fought the AC's, and they have won.
When are we going to see some medium-sized, very low price, mid-to-high-res digital cameras?
Unlike everything else computer-related, last-generation digital cameras never seem to _really_ come down in price. For example, the Kodak DC215, right around a megapixel, is still $300. It's hardly cutting edge, but I want something _cheap_ - on the order of $150, that takes decent digital pictures (no, the Barbie-cam doesn't count...) Is there anything out there?
They need to add some sort of transponder so you could make it beep when you lose it. That small is bound to be misplaced :)
Pair up in threes. - Yogi Berra