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By eatstoomuchjam · Posted
Sure, slow zone focusing lenses are definitely a possibility. I used that exact lens for part of my YouTube review of the Z Cam E2c if I remember right, pushing the compact-ness of the body/setup. It's a potato, but it's alright in the context of "it's a body cap you can use to make photos." You could also go the route of MS Optics-style designs. I have their 21/4.5 triplet and there are most definitely compromises to get it as small as it is, but it's also a really fun lens with better quality than the Olympus cap (and full frame-ish coverage). A design like that one or their 24/4, but stopped down to f/8 could be interesting. Indeed - and I don't think they've said that the images are SOOC. It's hard to know how much editing was done with the moon shot. It's also not out of the question that an auxiliary lens was used to make it more telephoto. This is the importance of waiting until devices are in the hand of real consumers before getting too hyped. There aren't many things that I'll preorder and the number gets smaller every year, getting replaced by the number of things that I'll wait are available used for at least a 20-30% discount. X-M5 for $900? Shrug. X-M5 for $824-874 on mpb? Get bent, mpb. X-M5 for $781 on adorama? Starting to move in the right direction... Yes. And the close-up stuff could, theoretically, be done with some of the nicer existing action cameras with a diopter. -
Could do, I guess there are options. One thing that comes to mind for the vlogger crowd is having a small manual focus that goes between two useful focal distances, like vlogging distance and normal infinity focus. This is how the Olympus 15mm F8 MFT pancake lens works, and it's surprisingly functional. It sort of sits in that middle-ground where you need to adjust focus because you can't get 30cm to infinity in focus at the same time (like a normal GoPro), but the DOF is still deep enough that you don't really need to have much control over it. In practice it's sort of like a switch where you're either at one end or the other. Looking at those GoPro sample shots, both the shallow DOF shots are relatively macro, so that doesn't need a large sensor or super-fast lens, but the moon shot might actually be the more difficult one requiring both a long focal length and also a larger aperture to get enough light. I don't really do astro-photography but the moon is approaching higher-ISOs I would imagine. Seriously though, there are probably 5-year-old android phones that could replicate both those images, so I'd suggest that most of what we're seeing is the hype and that GoPro shares the same definition of cinema that most YouTubers do. -
By eatstoomuchjam · Posted
Oh yeah, they absolutely do. And as the article you linked said, they look like optical shallow DOF instead of simulated! Another possibility is that they release two versions, one with a small sensor for the traditional action sports use case - and one with a bigger sensor for the vlogger crowd. If they DID release something like the Z Cam E1, but with a modern SOC supporting 10-bit, a flat profile, and a decent H.265 implementation, I'd be excited for a GoPro for the first time in years. -
All true, but the sample images from the promo video all have shallow DOF, so that means another kettle of fish entirely with AF and/or focus guides (peaking etc). I'd question if it might have lidar rather than PDAF etc, but it's a GoPro, so let's just assume it's 95% marketing and only 5% actual specs, like almost everything else about their cameras (no proper log profile, barely-passable bitrates, etc).
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By eatstoomuchjam · Posted
If the sensor is getting that big, focus is going to be a problem. On 1" sensor action cameras with a fixed focus range, there's already a problem where manufacturers need to choose whether to optimize for the 2-4' range when someone is filming themselves or the 8'+ range matching traditional action camera usage. I think they all optimize for the longer range and sell you a diopter if you want to self-film. Users don't seem to love using diopters. So if they're bigger than MFT, they're going to need autofocus or a whole series of lenses with preset focus distance and (probably) slow apertures to keep DOF usable. Autofocus is problematic for a camera that has associated itself with action sports. The mechanism would need to be able to take a pretty gnarly crash at speed, but also even if the AF is great, people are accustomed to deep DOF from them - will they be unhappy when their footage of their buddy doing some crazy move is trashed because the camera decided to focus, instead, on a passer-by? Preset focus distance lenses are less of a concern for reliability since they're pretty similar to the diopters currently used, but they do have the problem that the user needs to start recording with a pretty good idea of their focal distance and they also need, necessarily, to be pretty slow lenses so that the user will stay in focus while moving/talking at a distance of 2-4'. If I were GoPro, I'd be way more likely to follow the approach of phones - use a second sensor to build a depth map and allow setting focus in post. That said, a camera that small with such a big sensor and, ideally, swappable lenses, would be a dream for me. 😅
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