Apple Digital Camera?

iCamara

Sounds really cool but it may not make it in todays SONY market.

I think is cool the thing about the camera, strange too Apple doing cameras now.

I do not think Apple is gonna get in to troubles selling a camera, specially because there is not a standart in the market, every body is doing something different and every year the manufatures chage things, specially with storage (smart media, floppys, the memory stics, etc) and connections (video out put, mac seria, pc serial, flash cards, usb, fire wire...).

In my case I have an Agafa digital camera, my surprise last week (if any body had the chance to read my post) was that Agfa discontinued the camera and they took away from their site the entire support , I meand that I can not download the extensions or drivers, not even for OSX. They do not reconize their product any more. And that one thing Apple sould be proud of, endless suport in discontinued equipmnet. So, I had to buy some other connectors to make the camera work againg to be able to sell it to a PC user.

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The thing with Apple building cameras is that there are not too many variables in the product. Apple just made a very good MP3 player (a bit expensive I think) and the camera would be in the same standar.

I guess the reason of so many cameras in the market is because any of them would give you a complete solution. The iPod was solution to the user. Right now there are too many cameras with too many features but the user have to adapt to the product and should be the other way around.

Hope they use the new foveon x3 chip.

that would be sweet!!!!!

not likely

i think this is complete BS. Apple would not go into the digital camera market. It is already too saturated as it is. Whats next? DV Camcorders? DVD Players? No fxxking way. 5 GB hard drive on a camera is a waste. People will not see the benefit of it since most people cant even fill up a 128 MB compact flash card. I hope apple doesnt do it. It would flop like a fish out of water.

dcameras

yes there are way too many digital cameras, but most of them look cheesy and dont look or feel commensurete with the price.
Anything decent costs more than an iPod. So if Apple couldput something together with a hard drive and firewire it would rock. If it had the quality feel of a iPod . . .

But I think the post is wishful thinking, although just exactly what I am looking for, a digital camera that doesn't look and feel like a cheap peice of cr#p.

not surprised

Don't be surprised if they DO unveil a digital camera. Look what they did with the iPod. I'm not saying that it is going to happen but I think that it could happen. Another point...Apple could make a digital camera that is a step ahead of the current consumer level digital cameras as far as storage goes. We all know that if they did put out a digital camera that it would be easy to use.
my 2cents

No way

When people think cameras they think Nikon, Canon, Minolta, Olympus, even Kodak, Fuji and Sigma. They do not think Apple.

How would Apple do a great camera? who'd they buy the sensor from? Sony? Who'd they buy the lens from? Canon?

A camera such as the one described would be inferior to the good cameras from all the manufacturers listed above. Hardly the image Apple is after.

What I would like to see is an advanced iPod that can store and maybe display images. Ideally it would be compatible with iPhoto and would be able to play USB master when connected to cameras. You'd connect the device to your camera, press a button and the device would such the images off the camera. Sort of like Digital Wallet, but no need for PCMCIA adapters. The Terapin mine can do this. I'd bet apple can do it better.

Here's what we need: A mobile storage device that has special handling for image files (unload a camera, display in a video out, connect to printer?) and sound files (play mp3) and also acts as a USB disk for easy trasportation of all files.

hopefully not another digital camera

Yes I think Apple can do something cool with the digital camera but it's a pretty damn crowded market. And most cameras work well with Macs out of the box. My Canon G2 rocks. And it works seemlessly with OS 9.2.

It's definitely not like the mp3 market which was lacking big time before Apple entered. Plus, digital cameras are a lot more complicated than mp3 players.

Maybe not just a run-of-the-mill digicam but something hybrid, like a digicam-camcorder-mp3 player like the one promised by Archos. It'd be great to have a simple 2 mpxel camera that doubles as a webcam (to take advantage of Apple's new quicktime technology). Something that shoots 320 x 240 video and compresses it directly to quicktime.

A $499 iPod with a 10GB HD and with a built-in 2 mpixel digicam/camcorder would fly off the shelves. The complete media solution for the average consumer. Take pictures, shoot movies, listen to music, and record sounds (via some sort of digital stereo-in connector)--all working seemlessly with Apple's iApps. The total solution: digital appliance, digital hub, digital editing, and digital output.

Re: not likely

Originally posted by udannlin
i think this is complete BS. Apple would not go into the digital camera market. It is already too saturated as it is. Whats next? DV Camcorders? DVD Players? No fxxking way. 5 GB hard drive on a camera is a waste. People will not see the benefit of it since most people cant even fill up a 128 MB compact flash card. I hope apple doesnt do it. It would flop like a fish out of water.

Click to expand...

Of course, if it shot digital video as well, the 5 gb drive would be very sweet....

cameras

I live near Osaka we have a new big store, Yodobashi camera, well I am sure everyone knows how insane it is in Japan about cameras. This place is like a future shop or bigger, but 4 -5 floors downtown Osaka.
If there is a idgital camera made it is in there , from 25-50$ up to 5000$ and more. But except for the really high end pro stuff they all feel like junk, I don't care if it is Nikon or Sony. The same was true for the various kinds of MP3 players, few had a quality feel.
It is like the difference between a Sony and a new iMac. I havent bought a camera yet because I dont trust them. Now that iPod, it feels comepletely different. and I dont have to deal with all those different storage systems.

Apple camera = new breed?

I hate to say "me too", but I think it's very unlikely that Apple would enter the digital camera market right now. It's really crowded and the cameras that are out there a pretty good and they work well with iPhoto. Heck, Sony seems to be releasing so many models that they've alone crowded the market! (Of course, I think that's one of Sony's fundamental problems right now, but that's another thread...)

The only way it would make sense to introduce a camera with the 5GB hard drive is if the camera was really intended to be a cross between a still camera and a video camera.

This "new breed" of camera could have a niche, since there are a lot of folks who don't like lugging around a big video camera for the 10 minutes of video that they'd like to shoot *and/or* they don't like plunking down the cash for a digital video camera required to be used with iMovie.

So... maybe...

Question is... what would the price point be on such an item? Would the quality be good enough to satisfy the theoretical niche?

Re: Re: not likely

Originally posted by jayscheuerle


Of course, if it shot digital video as well, the 5 gb drive would be very sweet....

Click to expand...

When Apple released iPod it was widely criticized by immediate critics as being too expensive, overkill and generally a one trick pony. Apple has since sold a satisfying number of them, has received good general press reports on them, has improved their brand name in the field of general consumer products and generally succeeded.

If Apple comes out with a high resolution DV camera with internal 10gb drive (up to 20gb might be available to Apple), it will be compatible with all computers via firewire. My brother has a USB camera stated to be for PC's only. I hooked up to my Mac and BOOM, instant access to all photo files as a visible drive. I decided to not rename his files for him

Since Apple has a digital hub strategy and a desire to sell cameras in their educational packages it makes sense to have an Apple branded product to include in those systems. I suspect the camera internals are the same as or OEM'd from those camera makers anyway. That's how things are done these days. Sony or Cannon or Panasonic might just be rooting for Apple all the way to the bank.

A superior camera would attract people to the retail stores. Apple only needs to increase sales conversions by 1% of store visitors to DOUBLE its market share. Any product that contributes to that will be released independent of if it is profitable or a mass seller.

2U Apple servers and 4U 4 board Apple servers wanted.

Rocketman

Should do well but not number one on most people's list

Yea, a 10 or 20 gig HD with a firwire port would be VERY INTERESTING but the CCD and lens are what makes the camera. It would be sweet to shoot a mixture of video and stills, both at high quality.

Seems today if you want to do both you need two devices. An all in one device would tie in nicely to Apple's hub.

But I'd rather better server software and a nice Mac box to plug a broadband home connection into and serve both Internet services (mail, web, news) and multimedia to my home net (wire and wireless) and to the world.

Sounds like this :


By Jason Prini
From Apple Mock-Ups

Apple Digital Camera

You know what? I think an Apple Digicam would be great!! I sell these things every day, and here are the biggest gripes about them:

1. Media expense. People don't want to spend $70 on 128mb of storage for a 4 megapixel camera. It really cant hold as much as most people want.

2. Battery power. Most of the digital camera out there dont come with rechargable batteries, and the few that do mostly come with NiMH instead of LiION ones. It's very expensive to get batteries and a charger.

3. Card readers. People dont want to spend $20 on a card reader, but they don't want to waste the camera's battery by using it to download. Most of these cameras don't come with a wall charger.

4. Simplicity. Most of the 4 megapixel cameras are very complicated to use, and lack style. People want the hi res, but with a simple interface while still having aperture, film speed, exposure, and shutter speed adjustments.

Apple can hit the nail on the head with a 5 gig, firewire, stylish, simple 4 mega pixel digital cam. They could capture both the pro market and the highend consumer market with one. People would never have to buy media, never worry about battery power because the 10 hour battery is great. (probably less in a cam) They wouldn't have to buy a card reader because it charges and transfers files all through the firewire port. If Jonathan Ives really puts his mind to it, I think that we could see a very simple yet powerful digital camera with all of the pro features, yet aimed for high-end consumers.

I SAY GO FOR IT!!! I'LL BUY ONE!!

As for the price...even if they made it a hundred more than other 4 megapixel cameras, the fact that you dont have to buy card readers or cards EVER, is firewire, and has a great battery in it would substantiate the price.

-Pete

One thing is for certain - there's no point in Apple getting into the Camera fracas unless it's going to be either best-of-breed or new-breed. Specifically new breed, in this case, since best of breed is so subjective.

That said, a small, 5GB+ hard-drive based digicam designed for both stills and video that integrated tightly with iPhoto and iMovie/iDVD would make the most sense. Using a hard drive would allow you to save a LOT of power versus a tape, conserving battery life. It would however need to have some sort of onboard high-quality MPEG4 compression, or you would run out of HD space too quickly. And unlike tapes, you can't swap drives, although you could download them to another drive easily - such as an ipod, or your laptop, or your desktop. From there you edit your video and distribute (the key factor being that only superdrive-equipped macs can make things for distribution - I see a need for iVCD). The great potential is that this could be not too much larger than an iPod, making it a medium-sized digicam and an extremely small videocam.

And here's my idea - what's the biggest problem with any camera? You never have it on you when you need it, and even if you did getting pictures quickly to other people is a hassle with anything except a polaroid. So what we need is a low-rez digicam/mobile phone combo. There are a couple of ultrasmall VGA resolution image recievers, some small enough to fit in a package the size of a credit card or a pack of gum - or the inside of a cell phone. Not only do you carry your cell phone with you all the time, modern networks are designed to send packet-switched data alongside traditional voice. You could happen upon a scene, whip it out, snap a picture, and send it to your account or the appropriate person. One with a well designed interface would be incredibly useful. Reporting accidents and crimes could have unambiguous photo records, tagged with location and time data. The potential is endless, the only limitations are cost, network capacity, and miniturized technology.

Apple QuickTake?

Remember the Apple QuickTake. It's not a new market for Apple. They must have previously had a source for all the parts like lens, CCD/CMOS's etc, and also, they must know the market.

Interestingly I did a quick search for "Apple QuickTake" on Google, and the first site it listed was Apple Japan!

Maybe it isn't that far fetched a rumor, especially if Apple think they can bring something different to the market. And with Apple's design knowhow, I'm sure they could bring out something infinitely better looking than 95% of the stuff already available...

Apple shouldn't waist it's time with a digi camera. It would be pricey for most people and only really obssesed Apple users would buy it over a Sony with the same specs, but being $200 cheaper. Apple should only worry right now on the iPOD, and bumpin up thier computer lines. Just take a break eveyone. Their's all this hype about, iwalk, a digi camera. GOD calm down. They cant make everything at once.

Dualburn001

5 gigs is a lot, especially for a 4 megapixel cam. I've had a hard time filling up my 1 gig card with my D1x, although I always shoot using NEFs which only use 7 megs. either its going to have fabulous features, or some kick ass glass to justify that 4 megapixel CC. I rented a normal D1 once pitting it against a 950...my 14mm f/2.8 sure kicked that wide angle attachment up and down....not to mention the interface was a billion times better (so I got a D1x )

I doubt this is on target.

The iPod's HD is/was $399, alone, retail (clearly that's going to drop as the 10GB 1.8" drive is released, etc.). But I have a 3.2MP Canon PowerShot S30 and a 128MB card. I can take just about 80 pix at highest res / quality. I paid $45 for that CF card (new). Apple would be much wiser to just bundle 256MB of flash storage in the camera and be done with it. You _really_ do not need 5GB of digicam pix, unless the camera is capable of taking moderate res, high quality motion video.

Thus, I think it's not true.






blakespot

That's hilarious!

Can't you just picture it? Another 5 years and every Mac user'll be able to just whip up their MP3 player and video tape that guy getting beaten by Cops.Morbid but funny.

g4 ibooks???

they mentioned something about g4 ibooks on the website with the letter on it, g4 ibooks i dont see coming for a while and if they do it would only be 300Mhz to 400 Mhz most for a while so that the powerbook still has value but still, why by a powerbook if the ibook is just as good, or they might pull the imac deal again, but i dont want my powerbook to become useless, also they just updated the ibook to 14 inch screen.