New camera formats debut

The Consumer Electronic Imaging Fair in Mumbai last week confirmed the death of the point-and-shoot camera – but several new formats made an entry, writes BRIAN PEREIRA.

Canon-EOS-1100D

The Consumer Electronic Imaging Fair, (formerly called Photofair) is an annual event, conducted alternatively in Mumbai and New Delhi. Organized by the All India Photographic Trade and Industry Association (AIPTIA), the event was held in Mumbai from January 9 to 12 at the Bombay Convention and Exhibition Center, Goregaon. The fair is patronized by thousands of photography enthusiasts, solutions providers, amateur and professional photographers from all over India.

This year the absence of camera giants like Canon and Nikon was profound, though Sony, HP, JVC, Pentax, Ricoh, Panasonic and others made up for the loss.

CEIF also confirmed the death of the point-and-shoot camera, since camera technology in smart phones has now caught up. But new formats like action cameras and smartphone attachable lens-style cameras made an entry.

We visited the Sony stall and got a demo of the new lens-style cameras ‚Äî DSC-QX100 (for professionals) and DSC-QX-10 (amateurs). At first glance we could tell that this is an entire camera fitted in a lens, minus the viewfinder. Your smartphone screen is the viewfinder. The lens camera relays images to your smartphone over Wi-Fi. The lens camera straps on to the back of your cell phone, but does not make use of your phone lens or flash. We’ll get to the specs in a moment.

We asked the Sony official about its application.

Apparently, the lens can go into nooks and crevices that are beyond the reach of a typical camera. For instance, if you want to capture a shot of a fox in its hole, or a kitten that hides in the hole of a wall, you’d take the lens in your hand and place it closer to the subject. The Sony representative explained that it could also be used for wildlife photography, where you can’t get closer to the animal, to take a shot. But you can place the lens near the spot and move away, monitoring the shot on your phone and remote controlling the lens through an app on the phone.

Getting down to specs. The DSC-QX-100, priced at Rs 24,990 (The Rupee exchange rate is about 60 to the US dollar, and 5.6 to the Rand) is a 20.9 megapixel camera with a CMOS image sensor and a SLR style control ring. It has a F1.8 Carl Zeiss Vario Sonnar T* lens with 3.6x optical zoom. The other highlight is the BIONZ image processing engine which converts the raw image data from a CCD or CMOS image sensor into the format that is stored on the memory card. So a copy of the image, smaller in size, is made on the memory card — and you can upload it to a website or share it via e-mail. The original image is left on the lens camera.

Sony DSC-QX100

According to Sony, the BIONZ imaging engine transforms data captured by the CMOS sensor into ‚”stunningly beautiful‚” images with accurate colour, rich tonal gradations and minimal noise. For connectivity, it offers both NFC and Wi-Fi.

The DSC-QX-10, which costs Rs 12,990 is an 18.9 megapixel camera. It has a Sony G lens that offers a 10x optical zoom. Like its sibling the QX-100, it has BIONZ image processing engine and features NFC and Wi-Fi. Both cameras come with a smartphone bracket.

Sony DSC-QX-10

With a lens style camera, you can get beautiful images without lugging around a bulky SLR and a bag full of lenses.

Action Cameras

Sony, Panasonic and others make HD video cameras that are used by sports enthusiasts and athletes. They come with water-proof enclosures or special brackets for mounting on cycles, headgear and other sports equipment.

SLRs become affordable

But SLR cameras, which were once the staple of professionals and affluent photography enthusiasts, have now become affordable, sinking below the Rs 50,000 price point. We see more photography enthusiasts and hobbyists upgrading to the SLR platform, as prices for entry-level SLRs and lenses continue to fall.

Manufacturers like Canon and Sony are wooing amateur photographers with sub-Rs 50,000 packages, that include the camera body, kit lens and also a telephoto lens. For instance, at CEIF, Sony was offering a package for Rs 43,990 that included the Alpha SLT-A58K body, standard kit lens (18 55 mm) and telephoto lens (55 200 mm). During the Christmas season Canon was also offering similarly priced packages for its EOS 600D and EOS 1100D cameras.

Teeming Crowds

With swarming crowds at the fair, jostling and pushing, or squatting in the aisles, it was at times difficult to walk in the aisles, and spend enough time at the stalls. By day two 27 000 people had visited the fair, and crowd control was a serious problem — something the organizer might want to look into for the next edition. But overall, the fair was well organized, with an entire hall set up just for registration (no separate media registration though), and another for the fashion show, with the expo held in a separate hall.

* Brian Pereira is Editor-in-chief of InformationWeek in India. Visit his blog at http://techwow.wordpress.com and follow him on Twitter on @brian9p