Puzzle: Ming Thein's Mystery Camera

[Solarflare]

Review The mystery camera Ming Thein Photographer

This is quite fun to read and guess what this camera is.

- Not available yet
- Professional’s camera "ne plus ultra"
- Small, portable, "class of its own"
- "it’s also not just cheap, but very cheap for what it is - much in the same way the 645Z really shook up the MF market"
- "this is not something that any of us would normally consider owning; it comes way out of left field"
- 5x zoom 28-140mm equivalent
- Not small format/full frame/35mm film equivalent/36x24mm
- Very few controls; one is exposure comp
- CCD Sensor, or at least looks like one
- Bad low light performance, ISO 400 is cutoff (its Ming Thein, so he has quite high standards), so that supports the CCD theory
- Very aggressive color styles
- Leaf shutter (duh, its a compact)
- No image stabilization
- Ugly, bad design
- "Carry one of these and nobody will mistake you for being a mere amateur photographer"
- "this is probably going to be my Camera Of The Year"

Conflicting information:
- You could post process the files, but why bother? It’s difficult to make them better than what already comes out of the camera.
- assuming you convert from color afterwards, not use the in-camera preset (which is far too heavy-handed and turned up to 11, as are all of the presets – but this is to be expected to satisfy the wider consumer audience)

Also, in the "fantalk" section, so this might not be accurate:
- "even better than last year’s model" - So ... there was a model of this before ?
- "can use many different types of batterys" - Hu ? (and I think its "batteries" ?)

Whow. I cannot think of any camera that can possibly fit this. I think the "even better than last year's model" is really just fanboy talk, because I dont know any camera remotely like this.

 

[unpopular]

Sigma? Maybe a medium format DP??? The hell?

 

[unpopular]

"Soon, and it’s Japanese and a mainstream brand. I can’t say anything more than that."

The rumored Mamiya rangefinder?

 

[photoguy99]

It's a small sensor camera of some sort. Pixel pitch of 1.7 microns or so and not a crazy number of pixels. So a 1" sensor or smaller. Like a Nikon 1. But CCD?

 

[unpopular]

It says that it's not small format and that ""it’s also not just cheap, but very cheap for what it is - much in the same way the 645Z really shook up the MF market"

So I don't think so.

 

[photoguy99]

Not sure where he's getting 300 lp/mm then.

This sounds a lot like a Panasonic LUMIX to me. They have a number of cameras that are quite close to these specs already.

 

[unpopular]

"How does the shooting envelope of this compare to the Sigma Merrill / Quattro? Perhaps if this works for me the Sigma would also be an option…"

"Similar on the sensor side, more flexible on the lens side."

Panasonic has a new sensor similar to Sigma's - Lumix makes sense.

 

[unpopular]

The image quality is interesting. Not really like anything else i've seen.

 

[Solarflare]

After a LOT of thinking:

... I still have no clue.

Theres just too many conflicting pieces of information in this article.

My best guess for one of the wellknown japanese companies is "Ricoh". The price point (cheap as Pentax 645z) is typical for Ricoh, as is "exclusive for photographers" and "great for black and white conversions", and I have a Ricoh GRD4 with a CCD-Sensor, that by the way also ends at ISO 400 for unseable sensor speeds and manages HD 1280x720p video, so the return to CCD isnt completely out of the question, at least not as much as for Sony, Canon, Nikon or Samsung (which IIRC are korean, not japanese, anyway).

The limited controls however do not point to Ricoh, neither do the aggressive color schemes, and how on earth would any non-photographer know that a camera like the Ricoh GR would be a photographer-only tool ? Thats the very point of that camera, to NOT reveal this piece of information.

 

[photoguy99]

It's clearly a little p&s of some sort. Which exist in droves. So, ultimately, who cares?

 

[Designer]

The thing we're probably supposed to glean from this story is that it's more about the photographer than the camera.

The one thing that you cannot have for your very own is Ming Thein's eye.

 

[photoguy99]

Yeah, I don't know if it's entirely satire, but when you clear away the hyperbole he's clearly reviewing a fairly ordinary (albeit perhaps distinctively styled and extra-ugly) p&s, and using this as a teachable moment. The commenters are going nuts, which is hilarious, but a few of them seem to have cottoned on.

 

[Solarflare]

I dont think its satire.

A CCD Sensor IS a fairly weird sight nowadays. Unless its an cooled astro CCD, of course.


P.s.: Well I cant rule out satire for sure, either, but I think its unlikely.

 

[Derrel]

My guess is that it is a nice smartphone with a very good sensor. Perhaps something with a really high-MP count. The fact that it shoots video, has simple controls, and all the sample images he shows in his tease page look kind of semi-wide-angle-y makes me think it's a phone cam.

 

[waday]

The thing we're probably supposed to glean from this story is that it's more about the photographer than the camera.

The one thing that you cannot have for your very own is Ming Thein's eye.

I agree with you. It's more about skill than GAS.