There's a new kid in town...known as "Smart Camera". Things will change as the kid grows up.

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 Hi Photographer friends,

There's a new kid in town...known as "Smart Camera". Things will change as the kid grows up.

You might be wondering where I'm going with a title like that?  It's no news that the "Smart Phones" have progressed immensely in the last decade, and even faster in the past few years. Smartphones all have the capability of taking still pictures and video. I know, I know, they don't produce the best pictures yet, but they are getting there.

I don't think they will replace the DSLR cameras in the foreseeable future, but one day, they just might. It is so easy to take pictures and send them immediately to your friends, Facebook, Twitter, Image galleries, etc. It's no wonder that apps such as "Instagram" have gotten so popular. It makes you wonder where this is all going when Facebook paid one billion dollars to acquire the small company.Not only can you take pictures, but you can manipulate the images on your cell phone. Adobe has a version of Photoshop that runs as an app for the iPhone, and maybe Droid phones as well. I 'm not sure because I use an iPhone 4. Snapseed is another app that does wonder with image files.

I blogged about the smartphones this past July, and the new kid in town just might take a bite at the cell phones.

Samsung recently announced the Samsung Galaxy Camera, that runs on Android 4.1. This is actually a camera that has the capability of taking pictures and video, then send them over a wi-fi connection or 3G/4G.

The Samsung Galaxy Camera is a new Android camera that has been introduced with a premium level specification, as both a high end Android device, as well as a high specification digital camera - it has the largest screen available in a digital camera, at 4.8 inches and also features a high speed quad-core processor. The camera will be available mid-October priced at around $650.00 U.S.

Key Features

• 16.3 megapixel BSI CMOS sensor
• 21x optical zoom lens, f/2.8-5.9, 23mm wide angle
• Optical image stabilisation
• 4.8inch 16:9 touch screen 1280x720 HD resolution
• 1.4GHz quad-core processor
• P/A/S/M Manual controls
• ISO100-3200
• 8GB memory built in
• Photo wizard, Best Group Pose
• Smart Content Manager
• Google Play Store - download apps etc
• 3G / 4G / Wi-Fi / GPS / Cloud backup
• Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean)
• MicroSD/SDHC memory card slot

Samsung say that the smart phone market is an extremely important market for them with 660 million units sold each year, compared to 120 million digital cameras sold each year, so they believe that the best way to grow the camera market is to bring the two together. In a lot of ways this makes sense, particularly if you are used to Android smartphones and want the same kind of applications and creative options on your camera.

Apple will likely follow with a camera based on their  iOS, and Microsoft could be next. If this is accepted by the public, (and I think it will), we could soon see bigger sensors and who knows...future APS-c or Full Frame DSLRs could be equipped with similar capabilities.

Although the Galaxy camera cannot be used as a cell phone, I don't see why future models couldn't have that capability. Maybe one day, we will be able to alternate between a cell phone and a camera/phone, depending where we are and what we are doing.

Pentax has always been on the forefront of technology and I would be so proud of them if they could come out with a DSLR that also has Internet access and even phone access. Dreams do come true...sometimes.

Thanks for reading,

Yvon Bourque

Please stake a look at my e-books for all Pentax DSLR cameras.

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Is There a Hybrid Camera in Pentax's Future?

Is There a Hybrid Camera in Pentax's Future?
Article by: Miserere

The best perfumes come in small containers. I'm not sure who coined this phrase, but it has been long used by petite women while wooing men. As if men needed help noticing women. I'm sure we will see this phrase in one form or another being used in the market campaigns for one of the new large-sensor compact cameras starting to appear on the market. As if photographers needed help being tempted by new equipment.

When Panasonic and Olympus announced the new micro 4/3 standard in the first week of August 2008, the internet was abuzz with speculation and ideas. As with all vapourware announcements, activity died down rapidly as attention shifted to items that we may actually see in our lifetime. Then, out of the blue, Panasonic announced the Lumix G1 some 5 weeks later. Whoah! When did developments start happening this quickly? And why am I talking about a Panasonic camera on a Pentax blog?

Shortly after the announcement of the micro 4/3 standard, Samsung announced their new hybrid digital camera system, which will feature a 14MP CMOS APS-C sensor (like that in the K20D) and a new lens mount. Like the micro 4/3 cameras, they will be compact, mirror-less cameras and feature EVFs (electronic viewfinders). And they will be small. Did I already say that?

No mention was made of Pentax, but with their ongoing partnership (Samsung produces sensors for Pentax digital cameras, Samsung’s DSLR’s are clones of Pentax’s models, featuring K-mounts, and their lenses are also Pentax clones), we have to wonder whether Pentax will be involved somehow. I would find it unlikely that an electronics giant like Samsung would jump, alone, into a new camera system (in a new market niche) where its competition will be Panasonic/Olympus, another electronics giant backed by (or leading) a well-established camera company.

I, for one, am hoping Pentax will be involved in the hybrid camera project, a type of camera that photographers have been clamouring for since large DSLRs became the norm. After all, Pentax holds the honour of having built the smallest DSLR system ever, the Pentax 110, so it is no stranger to miniaturisation. Pentax also prides itself in offering some of the smallest lenses on the market through their pancake line of primes.

This hybrid camera could use a smaller version of the K-mount, and without a mirror, would allow the distance between lens and sensor to be significantly reduced enabling the design of a much smaller body. Via an adapter, standard size Pentax lenses could still be used, which would undoubtedly attract many current Pentax shooters. It would make sense for Samsung to build on an existing user base, and they would be foolish not to use Pentax for that. Although it might not have the numbers of other systems like Canon or Nikon, Pentax users are loyal, and are often attracted to the system in the first place because they value compact cameras and lenses, which Pentax started offering when they introduced their M lens series.

Of course, the hybrid camera would be launched together with a system of lenses, probably a mixture of compact zooms and even compacter, faster primes. Samsung would need the help of a company like Pentax to produce these optics. No matter how good the camera might be, if the lenses are not of the highest quality the product will crumble and fail in the market.

I look forward to a line of small Samsung bodies with micro K-mount lenses. A camera I can take with me when the size and weight of the K10D make it impractical, but I still want better image quality than I get with my P&S. This wouldn’t be a substitute for my full-size DSLR, it would be a complement.

I could be completely wrong and Samsung has decided they are strong enough to develop their own mount, start a system from the ground up and earn followers from scratch. They could very well hire a third party lens company, like Tamron, Tokina or Cosina, to design and manufacture their lenses. But would this be the most efficient way to break into this emerging market?

The new camera is slated to hit the stores in Spring 2010. As such, it will lag some 15 months behind the micro 4/3 system’s first offering. If Samsung is serious about dominating this camera segment (as Executive Vice President Byung Woo Lee has stated), they must offer a much better product than Panasonic/Olympus, and do so in a relatively short amount of time. Can they accomplish this without Pentax…? We’ll have to wait and see.

In the meantime I’m left wondering…will a Pentax in any other size still click as sweet?

Thank you for reading and let us know your thoughts and comments,

Pentax DSLRs