Image courtesy: Digitalversus
The yet not in Store Kodak PixPro S-1 got reviewed for the first time at Digitalversus (Click here). The camera earns 3 points aout of five and the conclusion says:
It’s great to see Kodak/JK Imaging making headway so quickly and already releasing its first mirrorless interchangeable-lens camera—one that uses an already existing standard (Micro 4/3) rather than simply creating yet another mount. The S-1 is a basic camera, but it also doesn’t suffer any deal-breaking flaws, which is good news for a first release. It is in no way a rough draft, and the firm has a palpable desire to move onwards and upwards. Can’t wait to see what’s next! Until then, we have to say, Panasonic and Olympus’ competing models are the safer choice.
If the camera will ever hit the American and European is unclear. The camera main market will be China and few other Asian countries (at least for now).
12 Responses
Great news!!!
This may be the start of a universal mount standard. With Panasonic, Olympus, Kodak, and Black Magic, everything from budget priced models to tiny models (GM1 and GM2), to pro models, and to pro video models are covered. Also this means there is another source for lenses, i.e. reasonably priced lenses, to add to the impressive lines from Sigma, Tamron, Voigtlander, Black Magic, and of course Panasonic and Olympus, not to forget their pro lenses as well as the 43 lenses. With so many lenses to choose from, there is little competition in terms of lenses from other mirrorless makers. So, it makes all the sense for others like Sigma, Ricoh, Casio, Polaroid etc to start making serious cameras for a ready market (going to be huge soon as DSLRs continue to decline) and join M43 (without needing a range of lenses).l This will make M43 a standard so common that we will have the benefit of volume and therefore lower prices, wide choices of camera models, as well as freedom from being locked into one particular system. And if Sony joins, it will be fait accompli. This is similar to Compaq, Dell, and all the other small PC makers uniting together as they use common standards and defeating IBM, while making PCs affordable to every person.
You forgot Handevision! Its 40mm f/0.85 is already available. Also Schneider. It announced 3 lenses coming in autumn.
And Zeiss cine lens with m43 mount 😉
And you forgot JVC videocamera’s the will make an interchangeable lens Videocamera based on 43 system 🙂
It will never happen. Kodak was part of the consortium already, so through licensing, JK imaging was able to join in. It makes very little sense for Panasonic and Olympus to allow other still camera manufacturers to join and compete.
They are already struggling financially. Why would they want to turn their camera business into a low margin, super competitive venture where consumers are no longer locked in?
And look at where Compaq, Dell and the open system is today. Not only are almost all the PC manufacturers struggling, gone, or bought by a large conglomerates…. among my friends the perception is that if you don’t use Apple, you are either a hardcore gamer, you got your computer from work, or you are so poor you can only afford the cheapest possible craptop available. Or you were locked in by software you can’t live without (and those guys tend to run both systems).
Not only will it never happen, it would pretty much suck if it did.
JK Imaging and Kodak are both members of the group, and the former would probably have been allowed to join even if they hadn’t bought the licence to the Kodak brand. What’s the point of creating an open standard, if you aren’t going to invite others to join?
Kodak itself was an active member back in the Four Thirds days, when they made sensors for Olympus. I highly doubt that they have been actively involved with the group since Micro Four Thirds was launched. They are a member on paper only.
The computer market is the way it is now because companies like Dell, HP, Compaq, Gateway, etc, all produced cheap garbage and sold it for a huge profit. Making a $100 plastic fantastic overheating laptop with the lowest resolution screen possible and charging $700 for it is what spelled their doom. Instead, Apple released mid quality products, but at an ultra premium price, and consumers flocked to them. Apple didn’t release any low quality products at all, keeping their brand name free of “junk” products entirely, and consumers fell right into line, waiting to drop $2000+ on what is actually a mid quality Foxconn manufactured laptop with mediocre specs.
I’m not saying that Dell and others don’t make quality products – They certainly do, their Precision, Latitude, and Optiplex lines are of decent quality, sometimes excellent quality. But they also release bottom barrel, ultra cheap, plastic everywhere laptops with extremely low resolution screens, and disgustingly slow hard drives. Consumers will typically buy the cheapest thing that works when they don’t understand something. Computer specs for example. “Oh, it goes on the internet and plays movies, this works”. They buy it and are disgusted by the slowness, poor screen quality, etc, and then instead of buying a mid range or high end Dell, they flock to Apple instead, as Apple’s cheapest product is mid quality with no stigma, and acceptable to them.
So its not the fact that computers are built on a standard, its that most of the companies flooded the market with literal junk computers in an effort to make a quick buck, and it backfired on them.
FourThirds is a standard and open to everybody who whants to join. The latest member is JVCKENWOOD which joined in April 2014.
http://www.olympus-global.com/en/news/2014a/nr140407mfourthirdse.jsp
Nikon or Canon are also invited. Every member makes a standard stronger.
No doubt about it, change is coming, and DSLRs will die slowly. Better divest of my DSLR lenses while they can still fetch a good price, before the tide turns and DSLRs and their lenses get dumped. Mirrorless is the future and it is happening. DSLR sales are already going down while mirrorless sales go up.
“If the camera will ever hit the American and European is unclear. The
camera main market will be China and few other Asian countries (at least
for now).”
The camera is listed on JK Imaging’s Chinese and American websites, but not any of the European ones. So it definitely seems like it will be sold in the US, but not in Europe (for now).
http://kodakcamera.jkiltd.com/Americas/
The Digitalversus reviewers should have tested the Kodak camera body’s interoperability with other M43 lenses and vice versa.
KODAK is still around? what?