Alice camera.

[woof woof]

I found this interesting, it's a MFT camera that you clip your smartphone onto...

MFT ‘Alice’ concept camera promises smartphone AI with interchangeable lenses

The Alice Camera intends to shake up the photo market and introduce the new technology the major manufacturers have failed to implement. It combines a MFT sensor and lens mount with a clamp for your smartphone, and an app and lots of AI to create the pictures

www.dpreview.com

Here's a link to the Alice site...

Alice Camera

Content creators, we built this for you. Alice is an AI camera that works with your smartphone to shoot and share better content in a fraction of the time

www.alice.camera

I like that it's British and I wish them well. It's not something that I'd like to use maybe the smartphone generation could take to it? It may be a big hit for all I know.

We've seen the gear change in recent years. Those of us old enough will have seen the rise of the SLR, the introduction of auto focus and of course the move from film to digital. Now optical DSLR's are arguably heading into history and mirrorless is beginning to take over and we're seeing a convergence of stills and video in the same camera body too and all the while the smartphone marches on and has decimated parts of the camera industry. Big changes indeed.

Maybe this Alice isn't the future and just an interesting little branch off. Who knows what direction photography may take but maybe until something truly groundbreaking comes along this Alice could be a way of getting smartphone users into a system with a much larger sensor and better lenses whilst keeping the ease of use, processing and connectivity that smartphones offer.

One drawback for me is that you're back to carrying two devices, the Alice and your phone and if doing that why not carry a small MFT camera like the Panasonic GX9, a small APS-C like the Sony A6xxx or even a small FF camera such as the new Sony A7c? Well, those things don't have the smartphone interface, processing and connectivity. I can see this being popular with some if not being an industry changing product. Good luck to the makers, I hope they find many happy buyers.

Anyone tempted to get one?

 

[HoppyUK]

It's been tried before, and failed. Sony QX1, Olympus Air, and DxO One - all the same concept.

Sony were first I think, eight years ago. TBH I thought the QX1 had legs, because it came quite early in the phone-camera era when image quality was seriously lacking. But it was an extra lump to carry and clunky to operate, not integrating seamlessly with the phone. So arguably the worst of both worlds.

IMHO Alice has zero chance. Smartphone image quality has come on in leaps and bounds, and continues apace with massive resources invested by huge companies, so that business opportunity no longer exists. Also, Alice looks even more cumbersome and expensive than previous failed attempts.

 

[woof woof]

I've seen nothing from any smartphone yet that comes even close to MFT image quality, probably even 1". They look good on phone and tablet screens but IMO when you look closer it just all falls apart. Teeny tiny sensors and lenses and sledge hammer processing only get you so far.

I'm happy for people who are happy with smartphone cameras and I do see pictures just about every day which can look even stunning on the smartphone or even tablet screen but when looking closer? Hmmm. Maybe that's just my experience as a nit picking ocd suffering amateur.

I don't know how the Alice will work or how much integration there is with the phone but in a best case scenario and if the MFT sensor is what takes the picture via a decent lens I find it hard to imagine anything else than in an image quality fight it'd mash a camera phones jaw and leave it unconscious on the floor with no need for a count of 10. Just IMVHO.

If that's enough to justify carrying an extra thing I don't know, possibly not, but I do know that many people who are welded to their smartphone won't entertain a "camera" as we know them. Maybe they won't be tempted to an Alice either but if the Alice makers have learned from past failures maybe it will have something to offer. If they haven't learned from past failures then as you say, zero. Maybe they'll sell enough to find a niche.

 

[ancient_mariner]

It's dead in the water. The only advantage would be sending of images by phone compared to M43 where you'd need to transfer to phone first. I'd rather have a conventional camera.

 

[gman]

Slightly different, but the DJI Osmo Pocket is something I could get onboard with. It's more video oriented but it's very compact and only needs a phone to enhance it so to speak. But the 3-axis stabilisation, which is very good in my opinion, gives it a big enough edge to make it worthwhile over simply using a phone on its own.

 

[Retune]

'The idea was born out of an experience where a smartphone took a much better picture of a campfire scene on the beach than a professional photographer using a professional camera could manage. The project intends to combine the sort of image processing we see in smartphones with the technical quality achievable with the Micro Four Thirds system. The team behind the Alice Camera says the main camera manufacturers are losing ground to smartphones because they have failed to innovate and to introduce significant changes to their technology over the last ten years.'

Hmm...

Sounds dubious. Even if smartphones do something clever with (say) integrating data from their multiple built-in cameras these days, are they likely to be able to do anything with a single sensor like this you couldn't just do in your favourite image processing software?

 

[nandbytes]

Did see that last week and I really do want to support a British company but finding it hard to agree with this camera on many levels.