What do you think about Ciara (MFT camera for iPhone and with AI)

[anax276]

Hi!

I just saw this Kickstarter project:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cameraintelligence/caira-worlds-first-ai-native-mirrorless-camera
 

It’s an MFT camera that attaches to the iPhone and uses the phone as monitor and for operation. I find it interesting because I have a number of MFT lenses and I always wanted a camera with the UI of an iPhone. I of course see the downsides regarding handling without physical buttons etc. The AI features are a nice gimmick, even if I don’t know how useful these really are…

What do you think?

[eatstoomuchjam]

1) This didn't go well for Sony when they released the QX100 and QX10 years ago.  It also didn't work well for Olympus with the Air A01.  Of course, none of them stuck a stupid bullshit "AI" label on the end of the camera name so who knows, maybe that's what was missing.

2) Fuck GenAI.  Of all the things I want integrated in my camera, that's at about the rock bottom of the list.

3) Note that at least 3 of the 6 testimonials that they include (screenshot below) don't actually say anything positive about the camera. "That's very different" is not an endorsement.  In fact, where I live, saying "that's different" is usually a form of backhanded insult.

4) It looks like it only supports wifi connection to the phone without a wired option.  In a best-case scenario, screen lag will be tolerable.  Go to any reasonably-crowded urban area, though, and enjoy the slide show and/or "connection lost" messages.

5) Even though they say you can choose from over 100 M43 lenses, I'd be worried about magsafe supporting any moderately heavy lens.  Even if it does, the camera will be really unbalanced.

6) When Caira goes out of business, there will be nobody left to update the app and the camera isn't usable without it.  Cross your fingers that Apple doesn't change some necessary API during an OS update.

7) Super early bird pricing is $695.  You can go buy a used Panasonic G85 in like new condition for about $430.  You can get an OM System OM-5 in like new condition for about $760 or in excellent condition for about $690.  The G85 is cheaper and pretty good - at least on a spec sheet, they seem similar - a little bulkier, maybe.  The OM-5 should be at least as good of a camera, also is quite small (not as small, of course, but very small by modern camera standards), and will keep working whether or not OM Systems stays in business or decides they want to stop making cameras.

8 ) Phone cameras are already very good these days.  Mine is more than good enough for any of the sort of images/videos that they seem to be promoting on their site.  If not, I'd probably just get a newer/better phone and not some janky add-on.  🙂 

9) Small company + Kickstarter means you'll probably be waiting a good long time and/or never actually receive the order.  Even though they say they have 500 mainboards already in stock, actually building and shipping hundreds of units is a really hard challenge that a lot of kickstarter projects don't take into account - and sometimes not even due to fault of the creators.  My 4x10 film camera that I ordered from an established brand (Ondu) who already made/shipped lots of pinhole cameras for years beforehand took WAY longer than expected, at least partly because suppliers kept sending out-of-spec parts to them.  The owner is a really great guy and we had some nice conversations when I asked my camera hadn't come despite that he said they were caught up on orders (turned out that their tool to collect shipping information lost a bunch of responses so he had to go manually collect them from a lot of people).

 

So anyway - for me, Caira is a hard no.  I'm basically the opposite of their target market, though.

[anax276]

That is a very good analysis! Thank you!