CES 2014: Hands-on with Kodak's M43 Pixpro S-1 and 'Smart Lenses'

It has its target market, and with this is mind, providing its pricing is OK, it could do quite well.

What I was not expecting to see was someone copying Sony in the add-on lens for your phone market.

"whose name doesn't quite mean what it used to"
It used to mean good film crappy cameras, what does it mean now?

Anything over wifi and mobile is gonna suck. I feel cellular carriers do strange things with firmware for wifi to throttle it and make it drop packets so that people use more wireless data. Until this practice stops, this setup will always be clunky. They should jack into the usb directly with a builtin USB OTG cable.

The Sony Sensor in the latest Olympus models already does produce decent 6400 iso pics.

But I am glad to see Kodak's entry in MFT. The more vendors, the merrier.

It'll be amazimg if the bsi sensor is true. The rx10 has quite good 3200 iso pictures. So does the pentax q7. With a micro 4/3s if it can produce decent 6400 iso pics cos of the sensor, this would truly be a game changer. It'll also accelerate development of bsi sensors in larger formats. Really exciting times indeed.

Who's OEM?

Hmm... I thought JK Imaging's gameplan was to focus (no pun intended) on the Chinese market, where Kodak is still a well known brand (and an American brand at that), and there is a lot of anti Japanese sentiment? The idea being to hoodwink the Chinese public into believing they are buying an "American" camera and none of that nasty Japanese stuff, when in reality they are selling either a modified Japanese camera made side by side in the same factory that said Japanese company uses, or a Chinese knockoff of something that was a Japanese idea in the first place.

now we have a new line of m4/3 lenses to choose from .

Some people use black tape on Leica to hide the name. You can use white tape here - it will serve the same purpose even if for different reason :)

I would not expect much from it, but the body shape looks actually quite nice.

Too bad Kodak can't have a decent funeral with a stately graveside ceremony... it was a great American company that passed into history (it's photographic div. at least). No, instead we have to deal with this zombie "Walking Dead" creature that looks a bit like our dear friend, but isn't. Will someone please put a round through its decaying brain... or maybe a bolt from Darrel's crossbow?

I looked it up. A booth at the CES show is north of $150,000.00. Link http://www.inc.com/ilya-pozin/what-it-costs-to-exhibit-at-ces.html

Interesting read.

I really like the film emulation idea too. And would be way cool if final assembly was in the USA. I can see the Chrysler-like ad: "Imported from Rochester". Needs to have Ektar-quality lenses though to really make it work.

Show us a view from the front with the lens off,
i.e. show me the sensor.

I actually like the camera body design and nice lens bodies of this camera better than the Nikon 1 J series (I know Nikon 1 is not m43 but it is competing with it to a degree in mirrorless) and also like the tilt screen of this new camera. If the sensor and image quality is good enough, and reasonable price, this could get interesting with JK Imaging /Kodak entering m43 arena of cameras out there or ILC in general.

The kit lens of S1 shows Aspheric ED Lens at 12-45mm. After using the collapsible lens of Oly, I stopped using it, and prefer the non-collapsible in other m43 lenses on my EPL. So these lenses I like. I would use primes for short lenses over collapsible ones.

I'm curious about the 800mm telescope lens - might pick one up for birding with my GX7 if it has decent image quality at an attractive price.

Those smart lenses need some kind of easily-removable square framing so you can set them on a table, etc. and take remote pics without having to handhold and try to level them. Even better would be a built-in electronic level that would take a level picture regardless of how the cylindrical lens is tilted (come to think of it, that would be a nice option in many regular cameras!).

I have used Kodak camera before they are very good and I agree that a Kodachrome emulsion would be amazing!

Hope Kodak can come back...I am Kodak generation !

If the camera has faithful Portra, Ektar and other Kodak film emulations, than they can sell this, if they market it right.

While I have my doubts about this particular camera being useful for me, I think JK Imaging has a good direction overall. This will be a nice inexpensive step up camera for people who are ready to transition to more "serious" cameras and who don't have a lot of confidence in their ability to know how to select one. (Lots of people like that). It can only help 4/3s in general.

I might be personally interested in a slightly different configuration though.

Decent looking and some interesting products. Wish them good luck.

Looks like a Pentax Q (which is a good thing), with a tilting screen (which a lot of people want), m43 sensor (which is another good thing) with a very usable and attractive FL. JK is doing everything right for their first try! Hopefully they would sort out the FW and this could be a good seller, competition is always good for consumers.

They are working on the right focal length, size and styling. Nice try on putting a 400mm telescope on m4/3 to grab attention (but does it really has to be that long?) Every other things, however, require much testing and verification.

Am I the only one genuinely interested in the lenses? The 12-45mm is definitely more interesting than the plethora of 14-42mm lens options on the m43 system. The 42.5-160mm also looks nice and compact.

To really penetrate the market, a more reasonable zoom (28-60) with good IQ, not too much noise until ISO 1600 and a 1/4000th shutter speed would be needed.
Those extreme zooms will be perceived as gadgets very quickly

Having said that, I like the concept.

Patent infringement from Kodak here? Sony QX...

looks a bit like a pentax Q

JK must solve the lag problems before releasing it.
Maybe adding the memory size, tweaking the firmware and others

If jk did not solve it, they will not sell good enough

Neat.

The most interesting thing by far is the back side illuminated sensor. No one has one this big, they've been confined to tiny sensor P&S.

A more useful range than most kit zooms, starting at an EFL of 24mm.

This looks to be a pretty cheapo made BY china rather than made IN china camera though. $600 for a twin lens kits? Imagine the price 6 months after launch!

"JK doesn't have a booth at the show, but we visited them in a hotel suite..."

Pssst. Hey kid, wanna see some top quality camera gear? Meet me in the back alley behind the Rio Hotel. I'll cut you in on a good deal.

That 12mm could be interesting.

The camera (S-1) is basically Oly E-PL6 in different body and with slower processor, right?

But the all-new lenses... 12-45 looks like a very nice kit lens, 12mm certainly more attractive than all those small kit zooms starting from 14mm, while seems a little shorter than Oly 12-50.

Maybe DPR will do a first impressions review when they get a production unit in. Never know what quality will turn out to have. Thanks for the first look. It looks quite a bit larger than a Q, though. Maybe that flash tilts back for bounce?

Pentax Q with m4/3 mount? :)

Is this the same company that got sued for blatantly copying the Nikon 1 series? It seems they have now blatantly copied Sony's QX?

Does JK actually do anything other than copying designs?

I'm going to assume this will come in around the $499 mark with kit lens. But then the question is, why by this off brand camera vs say a Fuji X-A1 that will most likely yield better IQ and looks better to boot?

@DPR - According to DPR's news story earlier today the S-1 has a 16mp BSI-CMOS sensor. Is that correct? (would be a bit surprising to see the largest BSI sensor yet in a Kodak camera)