Contax Japan announces N Digital ship-date! (UPDATED)
By
Mike Tomkins
(Thursday, May 9, 2002 - 15:04 EDT)
Specifications get refined slightly as the long-awaited digital SLR with its full 35mm frame-sized sensor approaches Japanese launch...
Kyocera Japan has today posted an announcement in Japanese on its website regarding plans for the upcoming Contax N Digital SLR digital camera. First described to the Japanese market in July 2000, the camera provoked much excitement thanks mostly to a full 35mm frame-sized sensor that promised to offer low noise (thanks to a much larger cell size) and true wide-angle digital photography. The N Digital was initially expected to ship in May 2001 at a price of US$9000, and subsequently pushed back to February 2002 at a rumored price nearer $6500. Just before PMA, this was again revised, with the Japanese Photo Electro News reporting that "production delays" were to cause further delays.
Today's announcement from Kyocera begins by apologising for the delays, and notes that several specifications changes have been made since the camera was first described in detail last fall. The changes described are as follows (with our best efforts at translating the reasoning behind each change): - Recorded image size
- Previous Spec: 6.13 megapixel, 3040 x 2016 pixels
- Updated Spec: 6.04 megapixel, 3008 x 2008 pixels
Reason for Modification:
Because of color filtering, most digital cameras use values from surrounding pixels to calculate the actual color of each individual pixel. Because of this, along the edges of the imager where sufficient 'partners' do not exist to calculate missing colors for each pixel, interpolation quality decreases somewhat. Taking this into consideration, Kyocera has excluded the periphery of the image which is affected from the final image area. The number of pixels effective in capturing the image remains the same (6.29 megapixels), but the recorded image size is reduced from 6.13 to 6.04 megapixels.
- Image Adjustment
- Previous Spec: Tone Curve, Sharpening
- Updated Spec: Tone Curve, Sharpening, Saturation
Reason for Modification:
After the announcement, prospective customers asked for the ability to alter the saturation of images captured with the N Digital, so a three-step saturation adjustment was added. Because of the ability to change the saturation of images, photographers will be able to fine-tune the camera to match their tastes, and improve the final output.
- ISO Sensitivity
- Previous Spec: ISO 50 - 1600 (1/3EV steps)
- Updated Spec: ISO 25 - 400 (1/3EV steps)
Reason for Modification:
When a digital camera is processing image data and the sensitivity is increased, this also brings an increase in image noise. Because of the use of the world's first 35mm frame-sized CCD sensor which has much larger cell sizes than conventional digital cameras, the Contax N Digital can provide an image with little noise. This was taken advantage of as much as possible, and in order to provide images with low noise and high quality not seen in other digital cameras, it was decided to apply a restriction to the maximum ISO rating. Furthermore, high-quality long exposures were made possible by extending the minimum ISO rating to 25.
- Battery Life
- Previous Spec: 500 shots or more (at normal temperature, JPEG mode, with Kyocera's standard testing rules)
- Updated Spec: 300 shots or more (at normal temperature, JPEG mode, with Kyocera's standard testing rules)
Reason for Modification:
Characteristics of Nickel Metal Hydride rechargeable batteries vary considerably with external environmental conditions. In order to reassure photographers, Kyocera's testing standards were made more severe than had formerly been the case. Consequently, although the power requirements of the camera haven't changed, the claimed battery life has been reduced.
- Weight
- Previous Spec: 990 grams (including battery)
- Updated Spec: 1000 grams (including battery)
Reason for Modification:
Kyocera continued to look for potential improvements to the camera's circuitry to offer better image quality. Because of this, new components were added to the circuit boards which increased the weight to 1000 grams from the previous specification of 990 grams.
According to Yamada Kumio of Japanese website digitalcamera.jp, pricing for the Contax N Digital in Japan is now expected to be ¥800,000 (approximately US$6,237 / €6,864 at current exchange rates). Kyocera USA could not immediately offer comment on the Japanese announcement.
UPDATED 2002-05-11 13:58ET: The conversion to British pounds of the price quoted in Japan above has been removed at the request of Kyocera Yashica (UK) Ltd., as it was causing some confusion. As noted in a separate news item, the Japanese price does not include the same bundle as will be offered in the UK, and also does not include British import duties and taxes. See the other news item for details of British pricing and bundle for the Contax N Digital...
Source:
Kyocera Japan
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