You've entered a world
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What a long and winding road we've traveled since digital cameras first hit the mainstream in the mid-1990s. During our 25th anniversary year, we've been looking back and thinking a lot, a lot, about the cameras that mattered to us. We've shared some of our favorites and we also asked you to tell us what camera you wished you could always have had and why.
Well, today we take a strange turn. A turn toward the big swings, the grand visions, the risks that failed to rise to their ambitions, the groundbreakers ahead of their time and the coulda-shoulda-wouldas around each corner, all leading us down the path to the down-right weird, quirky, novel and odd.
Before us is a threshold to a yesteryear between science and reality, a reminder of dreams lost and deferred, a place where the limits of a digital camera are only bounded by the scope of our wildest ideas. We find ourselves in a place between here and now, at the fulcrum of zig and zag.
You've just entered the twilight zone (of cameras).
Pentax Q
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The Pentax Q may be arguably be the smallest mirrorless interchangeable lens camera ever made, a feat achieved by being built around a Type 1/2.3" CMOS sensor, which makes the camera pocketably small (a jacket pocket, but a pocket nonetheless). To get an idea of how much smaller we're talking, the sensor in the Q is around 1/8th the size of the sensor used in Micro Four Thirds cameras.
Quirky design choices like a flash that laddered out to extend to the right and above the camera body and a series of filters that can be applied to the Quick Dial on its front plate were melded with full manual controls and a then brand new lens mount that emphasized the lightweight, small approach.
Released in 2011, it seemed the Q could be a strong contender to claim a place between smartphones, DSLRs and mirrorless cameras: a compromise on size and sensor size in exchange for maintaining SLR manual features, interchangeable lenses and video functionality.
Sony QX-series
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What do you do when compact camera sales are on the decline and younger shutterbugs seem to be content with their smartphone cameras? If it's 2013 and you're Sony, you design a camera/lens combo that clips onto smartphones and has the ability to use a smartphone app to control the lens. A better camera and lens for the device most people under 40 carry around every day, that's a win-win, right?
It seems this idea was just too out of the norm to catch on with consumers. It's hard to point to any particular reason why it didn't fly off shelves; perhaps it was the price point (the cheapest version had an 18MP BSI-CMOS sensor with 25-250mm equivalent lens for $250, not much lower than a decent compact camera), or maybe the portability (the QX-series added bulk and was one more thing to remember to carry), or possibly a failure to understand consumer needs (smartphone photography exploded in part due to being hassle-free). Or perhaps it just arrived at the wrong time. What's your take? Would you buy one today? Let us know in the comments.
Read our impressions of the Sony QX-series
Canon Powershot Zoom
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I have to admire Canon's chutzpah. You have to admire a company that is willing to take risks, try something new and swing for the fences.
The Powershot Zoom doesn't have the best image quality, won't let you go below 100mm and limits buttons to a shutter and zoom. It's not a replacement for compact cameras but it's not trying to be.
It's a 100-400-800mm digital-zoom 12MP compact monocular camera that fits in the palm of your hand. It's pretty much a modern pirate's spyglass. With the ability to capture stills (JPEG only) and video (1080p up to 30p) and a design based on simplicity, the Powershot Zoom was small enough and capable enough to be thrown into a pocket next to a smartphone and have everyone play nice.
It was weird and owned it.
Read our Canon Powershot Zoom hands-on
DxO One
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In 2015 DxO gave an answer to what a modular camera might look like.
Taking a 20MP Type 1 (13.2 x 8.8 mm) sensor and 32mm equivalent F1.8 lens, they laid it out in a body a little bigger than a hip flask and slapped on an Apple lighting plug. That plug let you attach an Apple iPhone or iPad to become the touchpad and processor for the camera. In theory, such a system can keep upgrading parts of the camera to take advantage of faster processing (smartphone) or improved optics and storage (DxO One) over time.
Like the Sony QX-series, it's a nifty idea.
Sigma sd Quattro
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Everything about the sd Quattro screams 'weird.' A boxy body, unusual notch along the bottom, a full-depth DSLR mount (the company's own SA mount) and two real LCD panels. It's defiantly different in a way as if to say, 'Hey, I'm not like the other cameras.' Inside, the camera uses Foveon sensors, which capture light differently than Bayer and other color-filter sensors and purport to reduce image noise and enable very high megapixel images.
The sd Quattro is a mirrorless camera with an APS-C-size Foveon sensor (which Sigma claims is 'equivalent' to 39MP), and a 'Super-Fine Detail' mode that combines seven exposures into one for high dynamic range. An 'H' version with an APS-H sensor (which Sigma claims is 'equivalent' to 51MP) would also launch alongside it.
Read our Sigma sd Quattro impressions
Pentax Optio NB1000
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In our customizable world in need of softer edges, this Pentax take on the compact may be a breath of fresh air. Photography needs a little less tech lust and a little more fun and 'play.'
The camera uses a Lego-like grid on its face to invite users to customize it. The bricks don't 'do' anything to the camera but clever builders could stack bricks near and around the lens or flash to change the image look. Building a stack near the lens to introduce some vignetting. Stack near the flash and you're flagging light. The changes won't be dramatic, but they let you play around and have a little out of the norm fun.
Lytro
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This was a fun one from 2012. The Lytro looked like nothing else, closer to a tube of lipstick than even the smallest camera. It also photographed light in a different manner, one which would let users photograph without setting focus, then allow them to pick a focus point when editing the images. The idea of moving a focus point after an image was taken was mind-blowing. 'No more slightly off sports photos!' I remember thinking at the time.
The cameras came and went in the consumer space (Lytro went on to adapt the technology for Hollywood productions and enjoyed success there), but the weird memory of what could have been lives on.
Polaroid i-zone digital combo
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In 2000 Polaroid mashed an instant camera with a 0.3MP digital camera and created this amazing device that looks something like a power strip. It could be operated in two orientations, each with its own separate buttons. Turning it one way took digital photos, turning it the other used instant film.
Today it's a proud relic of '90s design meets 'iono, just add AI blockchain digital to it.'
[Not familiar with "'iono" -- possible typo? -MW]
Ricoh GXR
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Some advice I was given when just starting out (and something I still give) is 'invest in lenses, not bodies.' Meaning, spending a little more to get better glass pays off, as your lenses will travel from one body to the next.
This camera takes that notion and flips it on its head.
Rather than selling a camera body with a fixed sensor, the GXR system uses interchangeable lens/sensor units – every lens comes in a sealed unit complete with sensor, shutter, aperture, processing engine (there's also one in the camera body) and the motors necessary to focus the lens (and drive the zoom mechanism if present). You are, essentially, buying a new 'camera' every time you buy the lens: the GXR body is little more than a shell containing the screen, card slot, controls and flash. That's a radical rethink of the 'interchangeable lens.'
Light L16
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How many lenses do you want?
This camera was similar in size and form to a smartphone, with an array of 16 individual cameras lining its face. The L16 used the set of lenses to capture an image at the same time at different fixed focal lengths and then stacked them to produce a 52MP file.
Read our impressions of the Light L16
Nikon Coolpix S1000pj
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Now this is a novel idea. Take a compact camera, add in a projector capable of projecting a 40-inch screen, and you have a fun, portable 'social' camera that is always ready for a show and tell.
In no time at all you'll be sharing your vacation photos with anyone you can corner at a party, coming full circle to parents in the '50s and '60s with their Kodak Carousel slide projectors.
Read our look back at the Nikon Coolpix S1000pj
Casio Exilim TRYX
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An unorthodox design allowed the camera body to rotate 360 degrees vertically and 270 degrees horizontally around the frame. The design allowed the photographer to shoot from odd angles without losing stable footing, let the camera be propped with the frame acting as a kickstand, or be hung from a hook, doorknob or other surface.
Read our impressions of the Casio Exilim TRYX
Bonus: Barbie Video Girl
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Okay, it's not a real camera, and was never meant to be anything more than a toy, but look at this thing. Plus, I'll take any excuse to show you DPReview's Jason Hendardy's video on what it was like to use the Barbie Video Girl to shoot around Seattle.
[It seems a missed opportunity not to mention Canon's just-released V10. Maybe toss that in at the end to prove that quirkiness isn't dead? --MW]
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