Had this on the backburner for a little while, was waiting for the arrival of a certain piece of electronics.
I remember, shortly after tackling the processing of my own film, I caught wind of the Holga and Diana plastic "toy" cameras. Picked one up (when they were only $25 at Midewest Camera Exhcange in Columbus Ohio... had some fun with it, and eventually moved on. Some people though, could not leave well enough alone. They had to modify theirs... file out the 645 insert, add a flash, adjust/change the aperture, run 35mm film through it.. I even remember people duct/gaffer taping polaroid backs to them (granted, now you can purchase one set up like that already.) As digital marched forward, so did my attention, and I all but forgot about the little plastic box...
A few weeks ago, I caught wind of an exciting new camera on the horizon. Early reports/rumors noted that this camera would be manual focus, prime/non zoom lens with a 35mm equiv. of about 43mm, it would be pretty bare-bones with not a whole lot of control over image parameters. And, it would be marketed by Yashica. The Sp*$#!! talking began almost immediately.
Is this newest version of another company's DMD camera (decisive moment digital)? Would it be an affordable rangefinder? While no where near in the same class as a Leica or the Epson rangefinders - it would still bring that style of photography to the masses in an affordable package. Or, would it be a cheaply made kids toy/digital camera keychain sort of thing? Something that might be easy to modify; change lenses, adjust aperture, all the keen things people used to do on their "analog" Holgas... And almost most importantly - where and when would this be available?
Slowly, speculation gave way to fact. Not exactly "manual" focus... but fixed focus at (an assumed) hyperfocal distance... switchable between landscape and macro (sound familiar?)... It will indeed have a viewfinder. And a flash (Oh Boy!). And would that lens really be as red as it looks in the photos? Surely, that color had to be photoshopped....
And not too long ago, it began to ship from Japan.
And today, it arrived in my mailbox. :)
Looks pretty snazzy, don't it? Almost meaty enough to comfortably set in your hand, with a little weight behind it - heck, it might even be a little balanced too...
Well, not exactly, but... check out the intro from JapanExposuress.com: YASHICA EZ F521
Impressions from here: (after scarcely 6 hours with the camera in hand)
Well, it's pretty small.
Tiny,even.
It takes THREE AAA batteries, not Four. 3. Three is the number...
5 is right out.
The lens is really as red/orange as it appears in the photos.
It is very, very plasticy. Think Holga, then imagine that the Holga feels just a little solid, because, compared to this camera, a Holga does feel solid.
It does feel just like one would imagine a digital Holga would feel like. There.
It turns on not exactly as fast as my Eos 20D.
It has a mode to take photographs, or to take movies. The movies are VGA. I've not used that function yet.
Menus come in Japanese, but you can - with a little searching - figure out how to get them in english. thank goodness.
It has a macro mode, and landscape mode. There is a difference. and Macro gets you within a few inches. So far anyhow, I've not really gone in to it yet.
It is 5 megapixels. But, you can choose to shoot in a 12 megapixel mode too. It is up-sized by the camera's software though. Purists, should any actually buy this camera, will want to shoot at 5.
ISO is automatic - you cannot choose it.
There is a flash. I've yet to try to use it.
You can adjust how the camera shoots; black and white, green tint, red tint, blue tint, negative, color.
You can also apply those same changes to photos afterwards, and the camera creates a new copy of the image for every effect you authorize. and additional setting one can use after shots are taken is a high contrast b/w mode. fun!
Pretty much an untouched image from the camera.
Tweaked for colors, but the blur on the bottom is an artifact from how the camera shoots images. There really is no aperture/mechanical shutter. The camera's sensor scans from side to the other, from top to bottom, very fast. This has some unexpected, but keen results that I imagine people are going to get even more creative with.
You can also set white balance in the camera. I'm not sure I'm crazy about the white balance at all. Time will tell there. I do like the black and white mode though.
The camera is not very responsive, and suffers from a fair amount of shutter lag too. Not going to be getting the basketball team in action with this puppy!
Oh.. there's like 32 mb of internal memory, and you can slide an SD of up to 8gigs up in there too. No raw format (yet), just jpg. It fits nicely in a jacket pocket or cargo pocket if you are in to such pants.
The files hold up okay to post processing, but there is a fair amount of noise, chromatic abberation, and halos around high contrast areas. Perfect! beware, the files look rough, especially if you used to looking at your keen, glass smooth iso 400 images from your favorite dslr.
And a funny thought struck me...
If this camera came out 5 years ago. Wow. Other than the fact that it will interpolate the file size up to 12mp, this thing would have flopped. absolutely no features - no face detections, no pano stitching, no raw (yet), slow functioning (even by 2004 standards).... But it LOOKS keen, and it does just enough, just barely good enough - it almost challenges the user to make a usable image. And there's something in that, that makes it very fun to mess with.
There are not a lot of electronics floating around inside the wee camera body, there's little room in there. I would expect, as these become more prevalent - that people will figure out how to hack the software like they did for some of the Canon point and shoots - I would expect to be able to shoot raw with this at some point too. As for modifying physically, its being done now. I ready about a guy today that has figured out to get the camera to shoot with a vignette....
(his site is actually a pretty good intro to the camera, much better than mine ;)
The lens comes off, with the removal of two screws. Careful what you ask for though. The crop factor on this camera is something a 6X crop. So, even a 50mm lens put on here would quite the super zoom if you were able to mount it. But that's another challenge to the camera, and I can't wait to see what people come up with for lenses. It might not happen right away, but...
There are no filter threads on the lens, so if you want to use filters or adapters, you'll have to be creative and industrious.
Yeah, so there it is... the Yashica EZ F521 digital camera. Digital Holga. Only, it's not really a Yashica....
Look familiar? It's actually an Aomijia TDC-5010. It unbranded and for sale to the best bidders ;) I sorta like the blue/silver motif... Personally, I think Holga/Diana/Urban outfitters missed out on this one. I do still thing that people are going to catch on to the Yashica version like mad, and mods and a little sub culture will develop around this little camera... Just would have been cool to see a "real" digital holga.
Okay, here's some specs:
I dunno, I like the camera. By about any standards - it basically sucks. But I knew that when I ordered it, and again, just owning is like owning a challenge to make
a good photograph wtihout relying on the latest space-aged tech.... I hope it catches on a bit. If you made it this far, thanks! Have a great week!
peace.
Oh - damn - forgot... the camera is available here:
JAPANEXPOSURES.COM - YASHICA/DIGITAL HOLGA
My order took roughly 10 days to process and arrive, give or take a day or two. I was surprised to get it so fast...
:peace:
I remember, shortly after tackling the processing of my own film, I caught wind of the Holga and Diana plastic "toy" cameras. Picked one up (when they were only $25 at Midewest Camera Exhcange in Columbus Ohio... had some fun with it, and eventually moved on. Some people though, could not leave well enough alone. They had to modify theirs... file out the 645 insert, add a flash, adjust/change the aperture, run 35mm film through it.. I even remember people duct/gaffer taping polaroid backs to them (granted, now you can purchase one set up like that already.) As digital marched forward, so did my attention, and I all but forgot about the little plastic box...
A few weeks ago, I caught wind of an exciting new camera on the horizon. Early reports/rumors noted that this camera would be manual focus, prime/non zoom lens with a 35mm equiv. of about 43mm, it would be pretty bare-bones with not a whole lot of control over image parameters. And, it would be marketed by Yashica. The Sp*$#!! talking began almost immediately.
Is this newest version of another company's DMD camera (decisive moment digital)? Would it be an affordable rangefinder? While no where near in the same class as a Leica or the Epson rangefinders - it would still bring that style of photography to the masses in an affordable package. Or, would it be a cheaply made kids toy/digital camera keychain sort of thing? Something that might be easy to modify; change lenses, adjust aperture, all the keen things people used to do on their "analog" Holgas... And almost most importantly - where and when would this be available?
Slowly, speculation gave way to fact. Not exactly "manual" focus... but fixed focus at (an assumed) hyperfocal distance... switchable between landscape and macro (sound familiar?)... It will indeed have a viewfinder. And a flash (Oh Boy!). And would that lens really be as red as it looks in the photos? Surely, that color had to be photoshopped....
And not too long ago, it began to ship from Japan.
And today, it arrived in my mailbox. :)
Looks pretty snazzy, don't it? Almost meaty enough to comfortably set in your hand, with a little weight behind it - heck, it might even be a little balanced too...
Well, not exactly, but... check out the intro from JapanExposuress.com: YASHICA EZ F521
Impressions from here: (after scarcely 6 hours with the camera in hand)
Well, it's pretty small.
Tiny,even.
It takes THREE AAA batteries, not Four. 3. Three is the number...
5 is right out.
The lens is really as red/orange as it appears in the photos.
It is very, very plasticy. Think Holga, then imagine that the Holga feels just a little solid, because, compared to this camera, a Holga does feel solid.
It does feel just like one would imagine a digital Holga would feel like. There.
It turns on not exactly as fast as my Eos 20D.
It has a mode to take photographs, or to take movies. The movies are VGA. I've not used that function yet.
Menus come in Japanese, but you can - with a little searching - figure out how to get them in english. thank goodness.
It has a macro mode, and landscape mode. There is a difference. and Macro gets you within a few inches. So far anyhow, I've not really gone in to it yet.
It is 5 megapixels. But, you can choose to shoot in a 12 megapixel mode too. It is up-sized by the camera's software though. Purists, should any actually buy this camera, will want to shoot at 5.
ISO is automatic - you cannot choose it.
There is a flash. I've yet to try to use it.
You can adjust how the camera shoots; black and white, green tint, red tint, blue tint, negative, color.
You can also apply those same changes to photos afterwards, and the camera creates a new copy of the image for every effect you authorize. and additional setting one can use after shots are taken is a high contrast b/w mode. fun!
Pretty much an untouched image from the camera.
Tweaked for colors, but the blur on the bottom is an artifact from how the camera shoots images. There really is no aperture/mechanical shutter. The camera's sensor scans from side to the other, from top to bottom, very fast. This has some unexpected, but keen results that I imagine people are going to get even more creative with.
You can also set white balance in the camera. I'm not sure I'm crazy about the white balance at all. Time will tell there. I do like the black and white mode though.
The camera is not very responsive, and suffers from a fair amount of shutter lag too. Not going to be getting the basketball team in action with this puppy!
Oh.. there's like 32 mb of internal memory, and you can slide an SD of up to 8gigs up in there too. No raw format (yet), just jpg. It fits nicely in a jacket pocket or cargo pocket if you are in to such pants.
The files hold up okay to post processing, but there is a fair amount of noise, chromatic abberation, and halos around high contrast areas. Perfect! beware, the files look rough, especially if you used to looking at your keen, glass smooth iso 400 images from your favorite dslr.
And a funny thought struck me...
If this camera came out 5 years ago. Wow. Other than the fact that it will interpolate the file size up to 12mp, this thing would have flopped. absolutely no features - no face detections, no pano stitching, no raw (yet), slow functioning (even by 2004 standards).... But it LOOKS keen, and it does just enough, just barely good enough - it almost challenges the user to make a usable image. And there's something in that, that makes it very fun to mess with.
There are not a lot of electronics floating around inside the wee camera body, there's little room in there. I would expect, as these become more prevalent - that people will figure out how to hack the software like they did for some of the Canon point and shoots - I would expect to be able to shoot raw with this at some point too. As for modifying physically, its being done now. I ready about a guy today that has figured out to get the camera to shoot with a vignette....
(his site is actually a pretty good intro to the camera, much better than mine ;)
The lens comes off, with the removal of two screws. Careful what you ask for though. The crop factor on this camera is something a 6X crop. So, even a 50mm lens put on here would quite the super zoom if you were able to mount it. But that's another challenge to the camera, and I can't wait to see what people come up with for lenses. It might not happen right away, but...
There are no filter threads on the lens, so if you want to use filters or adapters, you'll have to be creative and industrious.
Yeah, so there it is... the Yashica EZ F521 digital camera. Digital Holga. Only, it's not really a Yashica....
Look familiar? It's actually an Aomijia TDC-5010. It unbranded and for sale to the best bidders ;) I sorta like the blue/silver motif... Personally, I think Holga/Diana/Urban outfitters missed out on this one. I do still thing that people are going to catch on to the Yashica version like mad, and mods and a little sub culture will develop around this little camera... Just would have been cool to see a "real" digital holga.
Okay, here's some specs:
Sensor | 504 pixel CMOS image sensor 1/2.5 type |
Number of pixels: 504 million pixels | |
Internal memory | 32MB flash memory capacity x 1 |
External storage media support | SD Memory Card (SDHC Memory Card) |
Capacity for: SD Card 128MB ~ 2GB / SDHC card 4GB ~ 8GB | |
Save Format | Still Image: JPEG Exif 2.1 compliant / Video: AVI |
Size still | 12M: 4000 x 3000 pixels x 2 / |
5M: 2592 x 1944 pixels / 3M: 2048 x 1536 pixels / | |
1M: 1024 x 768 pixel / VGA: 640 x 480 pixels | |
Select Quality: Superfine / fine / standard | |
Video size | 640:640 x 480 pixels / 320:320 x 240 pixels |
Number of shooting: 30fps / 15fps | |
Codec type: MotionJPEG (picture) / PCM (audio) | |
Monitor | 2.4 inch (inch) TFT color LCD |
Lens | Fixed-focus lens / glass layer 1 layer of plastic +3 |
F3.0, f = 7.0mm (35mm camera equivalent 42.53mm) | |
Range | Normal shooting: 1.5m ~ ‚ Macro: 20 ~ 40cm |
Zoom | 4X digital |
Shutter | Electronic shutter speed: 1 / 2 to 1 / 2000 sec |
Exposure Compensation | -2.0EV ~ +2.0 EV (1/3EV units) |
ISO sensitivity | Auto |
White Balance | Auto / Daylight / Cloudy / Fluorescent / Incandescent |
Flash | Off / Flash / Auto effective range: 2.5m |
Metering mode | General / Multi / Spot |
Shooting mode | Still / Video |
Continuous Shooting | Yes |
Color Effects | Normal / Grayscale / Sepia / Negative / Red / Green / Blue |
Self-Timer | Off / 2 seconds / 10 seconds |
Auto Power | After 1 minute / 3 minutes / 5 minutes |
Output | USB2.0 x 3 |
TV Signal System | NTSC / PAL |
Microphone | Internal |
Power | 3 alkaline AAA batteries this x 4 |
Power Life | Still about 190 shots (CIPA standard) / Approximately 1 hour 30 minute video |
x 5 when using alkaline batteries | |
Environment | Temperature 0 x ~ 40 x (no condensation) |
Dimensions | Approximately (W) 110mm x (H) 66mm (D) 48mm |
Weight | Approximately 125g (excluding batteries) |
I dunno, I like the camera. By about any standards - it basically sucks. But I knew that when I ordered it, and again, just owning is like owning a challenge to make
a good photograph wtihout relying on the latest space-aged tech.... I hope it catches on a bit. If you made it this far, thanks! Have a great week!
peace.
Oh - damn - forgot... the camera is available here:
JAPANEXPOSURES.COM - YASHICA/DIGITAL HOLGA
My order took roughly 10 days to process and arrive, give or take a day or two. I was surprised to get it so fast...
:peace:
Thanks for the nice writeup! It looks like at least mine is stuck at ISO 100 permanently, both in the exif and when comparing exposures against a known entity (one of my Canon DSLRs). Have you found that to be the case as well? The un-branded camera you link to indicates it goes from 100-400 but I am wondering about that. :)
ReplyDeleteThe one thing I wish was different is the shutter lag; with some tweaking it's such a fun little camera, and the only nuisance is the seemingly endless wait before it fires.
Nice review and selection of pics.
ReplyDeleteI ordered one a few hours ago, but can't wait :)
Am.
Nice write up, Thanks
ReplyDelete