All concept images via Yanko Design.
We had quite a long and complex discussion last week about how Sony should make hybrid mount camera. And Designers Dae Jin Ahn and Chun Hyun Park found a very creative solution. They designed a modular NEX camera that has as its hardcore a compact Sensor module. I found this to be an extremely elegant solution but I doubt Sony is going to develop a modular E-mount system- Would be nice, but not going to happen.
Source: Yanko Design. Found via TogTech.
Click on the images to see a large size version:
43 Responses
I like it. This solves the problem of which model to buy and compromise on which feature. You can just buy the whole kit, or the bits you like, and customize to each situation. It’s like the old Hasselblads.
And I don’t think the designers meant it to be limited to E-mount.
BTW, I like the wooden handle, and that space between the handle and the sensor unit.
I’d say this is what the Hasselblad ‘Lunar’ should rather have been…
I find pale wood and chromed metal can look quite tasteful together. More interesting than black plastic, and not tacky like the Lunar’s semiprecious stones and carbon fibre look.
I think I’d rather have a series of 3 thru 9 Alpha bodies capable of interchanging sensors.
As innovative as this seems, it looks to have all the stability of a flash bracket attachment. The company that separates the lens mount from the sensor, wins biggest.
“The company that separates the lens mount from the sensor, wins biggest.”
Amen.
Disagree
Seperating the sensor from the body is more valueable!!! see Mamiya/Phase One, Leaf, Hasselblad!
I said “lens mount”… which is on “the body”.
You probably want both. Sensor “back” comes off the body, AND, lens mount is switchable on the body.
I had thought that if Sony released the A900 with options for N/C lenses, they could have inserted themselves into the middle of the dSLR arena.
– Bert
artistically awesome.
a modular camera will just drive the price up, up, and up.
damn sexy looking camera. A+ for design… will unlikely see something like this for 4-5 years though.
Quite a nice design exercise, but it seems to ignore the reality that every cubic millimeter inside of a compact camera is jam packed with electronics and support for control features. It’s like some artist being asked to rethink car design but make no accommodation for the engine and transmission.
To some degree I agree, but if the lens module contains the E-mount, sensor, touch-screen, electronic connectors and the electronics required to give a reasonable electronic connector layout, and the “body” contains battery, processor, memory card reader, memory, and the rest of the electronic, it might be possible to do something like what the image shows. You could then use the sensor part in various bodies, and have a large body with good battery life, powerfull processor, tethering and whatever else you want, and a small body with weaker specs for vacation use. Still, I don’t think that is a good idea :-).
Let’s sum up the GXR reviews shall we?
“It’s like getting two cameras, for the price of three.”
That is exactly what I was suggesting in my earlier posts! I hope someone will produce a camera like this one day…
i guess the designer must have been brainwashed by apple.
I don’t think that’s E-Mount.
Anything modular means larger (just like Tom commented), proof of concept, compare Leica S vs the other Medium Format cameras and you’ll know why.
If only with A77 body frame with interchangeable view finder, sensor, hot shew. Sorta like Medium Format IQ-180 system. But I guess that makes to much sense.
I’d buy that for a dollar!
ahhhhh, robocop 🙂
Consequently this should feature a square sensor.
I do hope they’ll go for modular.
could be awesome!
btw I am selling my camera gear (moving house, need cash and all that) anyone interested?
http://albin-roussel.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/all-must-go-in-one-go.html
I agree with Tom.
This is a sketch done by a creative designer rather than a one with an engineer looking over his shoulders mean while. As that usually concludes, it looks attractive and cool but doesn’t seem realistically applicable.
I also like the idea of separating the mount from the sensor but More separate parts = More problems in the other hand.
Cute rendering, but the solution is quite unrealistic. Back to the drawing board guys.
ugly scrap
Finally a fundamental proposal. Too good to be accepted, I am affraid.
Today i begin my fictitios review of the new super secret nex 9HMP prototype.
This 54mp camera has dual native resoulutions of 12.75 and 56mp.
The sensor is the same design as the nex7n scaled up to full frame.
At 54mp as expected low iso performance is spectacular but at high iso noise is noticable.
The amazing new feature of this camera is th 12.75 mp noise ELIMINATION! !!
Heres how it works. Each set of four adjacent pixels is analyzed by a powerfull quadprocessor.
The two most similar pixels are compined to increase dynamic range.
The other two pixels are eliminated. At 6400the iso i could detect no noise.
High resolution perfomance in part 2.
As usual for concept designs, they’ve forgotten the power source. The battery would fill in the gap between the handle and sensor… and you’re left with NEX!
Nice to dream, but a little impractical because of that one crucial factor.
They seem to have forgotten the shutter too.
All the variations have shutter buttons in the expected place. Some are more understated than others.
Why don’t they try to kickstart a project? Ideally it should be an open source/open hardware design. Could become a great fun for enthusiasts!
… and the speedlight is waaay off scale to the camera, because if it was shown actual size, you would see a number of other errors (stability, frame needs to be thicker because it is no longer a ridged box structure, centre of gravity is variable, etc.).
I don’t see any speedlights. I see optical viewfinders.
Nex9HMP part 2
At 54mp i was able to shoot an entire event in horizontal format an make amazing 24mp croppings.
I could enlarge to 20×30″ at 300ppi and 40×60″ at 150ppi.
This camera supports multiple jpg formats, tiff, raw and raw+jpg.
The uncompressed tiff is a great time saver ehen handling files for publication.
More features and overview in part 3.
Ne 9HMP prototype review part 3.
This camera accept s a and e mount lenses.
Size is a litlle bigger and thicker than other nex models to accomadate a moving sensor and in camera stabilization..
The moving sensor also allows closer focusing with any lens in the macro mode, and auto focusing of som manual fucus lenses in the rear back focus mode.
Quad buffers and true dual memory slots allow quite good continuous shooting rates. Blazingly fast at 12.75mp.
Overall performance is virtually identical to the nex7n.
This is on fantastic camera. I hope for thier next camera they will make a 81mp square version of this.
This has been a fictitious review of of sonys new nex9hmp camera. Any similarity between this and s real sony product would be a very smart move by sony.
Admin. You have my permission to copy and or publish this review, and please make sure sony gets a copy.
Looks like the old Nikon 950.
3D STEREO potential by mounting 2 modules..
There is one killer concept in those diagrams. On the back of light wood grip there are a pair of buttons that also slide into one of two positions. That would be terrific to alternate between toggle and hold settings for things like AE Lock and MF hold/toggles.
modular camera …i though the ricoh camera gxr done this already hmm…
Looks like someones been scavenging parts from a vintage eames chair. 😛 Not a good thing. Cool concept though.
Similar to the Ricoh system
A modular NEX system just makes sense…… Work’s in the medium format digital game why not here?