Surprises in 2020 have proven less than ideal more often than not, but a new bit of information might make one surprise in the photography world an anomaly from the rest. B&H has sent out an email notifying consumers the long-awaited Zeiss ZX1 camera is now available for pre-order for $6,000 and is ‘Coming Soon.’
The fabled ZX1 was announced all the way back in September 2018. At the time, Zeiss detailed the specifications of the Android-powered full-frame camera that features a 37.4MP sensor behind a fixed 35mm Distagon F2 lens. And while it isn’t the first Android-powered camera to come to fruition, it did set itself apart from the onset due to Zeiss partnering with Adobe to ensure Lightroom CC would run directly on the camera’s 4.3” 1280x720 pixel display. In Zeiss’ own words, the camera was designed to enable you to shoot, edit and share on the fly.
Zeiss said in its announcement the camera would be available in ‘early 2019.’ As we all know by now though, that wasn’t the case. In February 2019 we had our first hands-on with the ZX1 and in March 2019 we had an interview with Elliot Shih, Senior Product Manager of Zeiss, talking about the camera, but since then it’s been radio silence, despite multiple attempts to contact Zeiss for more information.
We have contacted B&H for more information regarding the listing and potential availability dates of the ZX1, but the shop is closed and its employees are on break through October 11, so it's unlikely we'll receive a response any earlier than October 12. We will update this article with more information as it becomes available.
I would rather have a camera with interchangeable lenses, set of lenses, a GPD 7" or 8.9" high resolution windows laptop for editing on the go and a cellphone to upload.
There must be a niche for this type a product, someone that does street photo and wants to share on the spot, but that also wants a better control over jpg or basic editing. It doesn't seem like a big niche, though. Why not buy a smaller camera, like the Q2 and either post later or post straight from camera.
I'm in that niche. I hate editing photos on computers, and the whole workflow. I like shooting photos. I sometimes want to edit them and share them right after I shot them. The concept of coming back to my computer and sorting through what I shot isn't fun, though. It breaks up the creative flow.
I'm not $6000 in that niche, but I'm definitely in that niche.
Alphoid, you hit the nail on the head. I think the concept of making a "smarter" camera is a great one, and I love the idea behind this.
I just do not love it for $6000. I cannot see anyone choosing this over a Q2, which almost certainly has a better lens, better sensor, and is far more attractive. I also have grave concerns about this kind of product coming from a company that does not have a track record in this particular space, as continual updates will be key. Finally, given this history of this camera it is very possible that the software will be outdated the day it ships (we shall see about that one).
I do wish mainstream camera companies took more risks like this though.
To be honest, not sure where the “learn to zoom with your feet” concept came from. If that were a panacea, all pro’s would always shot with a single lens, yet most prefer the Leica M to a Leica Q.
While I enjoy more shooting with (Zeiss) manual focus lenses on two cameras rather than with zooms, images from different focal lengths look different. You can’t add compression or nice looking bokeh to a wide angle lens, and sometimes 35mm is too tight too or you want a ultra wide angle effect.
OMG... more than 2 years to late. I say the design study on the Photokina 2018, as the Nikon Z6/Z7 came out... and as previous Nikon shooter ended up buying the Leica CL. For that price I would go for the Leica Q2 today if I would be for a 35mm prime lens travel camera with superp IQ. Zeiss still has to prove that they are up to par or even better than the Q2 in the IQ and the handling. The Leica Q2 has the latest Leica type menu system that you also find on the SL2, the m10R and the CL (with the firmware upgrade). Good luck. Zeiss tried to buy Leica but was obviously not convincing Dr. Kaufmann.
he probably means using the button to provide the 35 mm crop it provides (and the 50 and 70). I have the Q, and its sometimes nice to be able to press the button and crop in to 35 mm especially for 1 person photos.
That's what i do have into mind, at least since 2005. Contax produced the Worlds #1 ever Fullframe DSLR, the Contax Digital N1, albeit it used a flawed Philips 6 MP 36x24mm Sensor Design, and was very noisy above Base ISO, and other Firmware Flaws.
Zeiss still does hold the Brand Rights to CONTAX, but they don't resurrect it yet, it's such a shame. I wrote Zeiss more than once, the past Years about that.
Into 2032, it would being 100 Years of CONTAX, *if* the Management would being fair, intelligent enough, to develop, release new CONTAX Gear. But i fear...it wouldn't happen anyway...so i am shooting my Film Gear, and thinking about the glorious CONTAX Days from the Past...
Maybe for the planets to align, camera manufacturers have to fix the gap between their big senor cameras and the 4K/8K TVs people now have in their living rooms - and pay less attention to sharing photos to tiny phone screens.
I think Flickr has an app on Apple TV, but that's it, as far as I can see. And that hasn't exactly broken through.
Photo sharing to an appropriately big, hi-rez screen hasn't really taken off, but wish it would.
This camera is the solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. A 37.5mp sensor to capture images posted to the web that are downsized to what, 2mp? Editing on a still tiny 720p screen? This horrible anti-ergonomic Teutonic brick is the most wrong of all wrong answers to the question of a connected camera. It makes the DXO ONE look like pure genius - 12X cheaper and still a commercial failure. Just let your camera talk to the phone you already have, that’s a much better solution.
Does the fact that it has this capability, render its other virtues negligible? That is a query rather than snark. My quibble is less with what it can do, but with the fact that other devices do it well enough for considerably less. Even the Q2 is close to 30% cheaper, the X100v considerably cheaper still.
The iOS version won't record you're every click, button press and GPS coordinates and sell them for advertising, however you'll have to connect it to iTunes to download your photos.
Me too. Look, I too think it might be overpriced, and maybe it took too long from it being announced to launch, etc. But if this is successful, it could lead to similar innovation that could really jumpstart this industry again, and that could hopefully trickle down the benefits to us. Well, you'll say, I don't want android in my camera, and computational photography possibilities that this promises is not for me- fake photography and way too expensive! But hey, any success that leads to more money put in R&D is good for us because it can, at least, keep the gear and accessories we crave in the marketplace.
FullHD evf is more like 6 million dots, which is the common measurement. So while a few new camera have more dots, namely the A7S3 with 9 million, it’s still a respectable resolution
Its smartphone chipset. Make it a smartphone. Unlocked android pure. Vendorlockin. No. Adobe on board? 1000% no. No lensring? Not going to buy. 6000$ for a 130$ chipset with licenses? Hell no. This is wrong on many levels and is halfa$$ed.
Great idea for a built in SSD and using an off the shelf OS provides great connectivity. It looks way too bulky though... I'll stick with my Sony RX1 until the RX1 mk3 arrives, and hopefully it will be a worthy upgrade.
Yes, it's an interesting concept to have built-in SSD, Lightroom compatibility etc, but this really is something that should have been tried out in the "affordable" market first, as it's likely only to appeal to smartphone photographers and tech-crazy early-adopters.
I just can't see it appealing to rich enthusiasts, or to professionals, in fact it's difficult to see just who it's aimed at.
If Canon or Sony had made it, and sold it as a niche product for about $1400, it might have had a few takers, but at $6000 Zeiss are kidding themselves if they think they can compete in the Leica market.
It may not be perfect but this is to me the kind of innovation that camera makers should strive. Imagine a powerful processor and coprocessor with android or ios and the kind of AI powered software that has elevated mobile phone photography like clever ways to do night photography.
Wow, DPR deleted my Comment, because it was with reasonable doubt against the ZX1.I wrote it within the past 2 Hours, simply became deleted. That happened first on 18.11.2019, when a whole Threadline was simply being deleted, about Sony, all Comments.
Sorry, my bad, i take it all back, what i've said.
This comment couldn't being found here into my entire History. Very weird. Never happened before. Latest Firefox ESR and Win10, always to the latest Patchlevel.
Wow - I hope it doesn't set a new trend as it truly might endanger the existence of the camera business even more if they start practicing rental earning models into hardware devices.
Who wants to own a camera that you first need to buy for its hardware and then needs to rent to actually be able to make use of all its features?
There are things to like and dislike about this camera. But I find it hard to understand why Zeiss thinks it will sell many of these cameras.
Its price is not for the mass. The choice for Android as an OS is doubtful (eg. due to power drainage). Due to this choice the camera will last only 250 shots per charge ( 3190mA battery) Another thing to doubt for its its fixed lens design. Also the fact that you can not install 3rd party apps yourself make it a 'design' flaw and make the use of Android for its OS kind of obsolete.
I think the development costs will never outweight the number of cameras they are going to sell and I expect it to fail.
Now for the 'good' thing: I like the fact that they use a 500GB SSD. I rather see cameramakers start using .m2 slots than using CF or SD cards.
An SSD is also a faster and more reliable storage option. It is also more feasible now video becomes more and more mainstream on high end cameras.
It is a nice concept, but not a practical camera imho.
If Leica worked with Sony (sign), a stocked 40MP full-frame sensor could easily fit in their price tag. Just imagine Qs line, a weapon for the streets with an a9 level of AF in Q package.
Back to earth, the threat is about Zeiss. Yes, it is an interesting statement, but there is not even the slightest chance of the Q line's level of success.
I admire this camera as a concept. Never going to buy one at this price point, but it looks like what the entire industry has been waiting for: a tool to rival smartphones in utility and social media integration while topping them in terms of IQ.
The trickiest thing here is, Zeiss has to design every last tiny thing just right. Supposing this camera has built-in social network apps, cloud services and plenty of connectivity options, it might just be the revolutionary product we've been waiting for.
Even then, I wouldn't be surprised to hear reviewers mentioning various network-related issues, slow wake-up times, fiddly interfaces, cut features and the like. If it ticks any of the above boxes, it will still fall short of the usability of a smartphone. Which would be a shame; it's a long overdue kind of innovation.
@YuryVilin, I agree. I am not equalling "Android" with "poor choice of OS" here, it's a fine OS that I enjoy using. The question is whether Zeiss can produce a custom camera-focused version of it and get the UI/UX right. All camera interfaces tend to feel outdated compared to those of modern smartphones.
@YuryVilin Time, money, expertise AND acknowledgement of importance of good UI/UX by the company management, in my opinion. My Sony A7 III handles just about well enough for my purposes, but I can see why people bash its menus and ergonomics. And it's not like Sony didn't have the time or the money to improve things drastically since 2012.
@Jones Indiana, Thank you for the suggestion. I will try to get my hands on one and see how it handles. Could be tricky to find one where I live, though.
Interesting design choice of using Android. I have seen this in high-end DAPs (AK, Sony, etc.). The drawback of a full android usually outweigh the benefits. I cannot say that Zeiss had made a great choice in the OS. Even a customized Android would drain a lot of power and distract from camera experience. I would be nice if both processor and OS of ZX1 are modular swappable.
I must say the 512 internal SSD and USB-C are a really great idea. Hope other camera companies follow the lead. An 512 NVME probably cost $50, but way faster than external cards.
The unfortunate thing about ZX1 is delayed release. The electronic side (memory, android, etc.) stuff would have been impressive two years ago. Hopefully, Zeiss would revise the camera with more impressive features to justify the $6000 sticker price. Q2 simply seems much better in very way, and it is cheaper.
It's much more practical and simpler to transfer the RAW file to tablet and edit there :/ Cost much less and much more convenient to edit with big screen, and it's not like you are going to upload it straight on your camera anyway
Why zeiss make things more complicated, and expensive : /
If they want to do something like this imo better off to make adobe create special version of lightroom, and make the raw only downloadable via wifi with adobe app like canon do :/
It processes images, which your phone can do better. Your phone is more powerful, has a better screen and you carry it anyway.
I'm surprised Zeiss released it (well it's not released yet) because this is going to hurt their bottom line even though many will pay through the nose for it.
I suppose every possible angle has to be explored. The chances of hitting a winner are slim but the rewards are incalculable with a world population of 7.8 billion.
$6K plus taxes, Adobe subscription and accessories. Why not $8K or $10K actually ? Looks like a random price choice for an outdated camera .Why on earth someone would buy this thing when there’s a Leica Q2 with f1.7 lens or even an old Sony RX1R2 which sells used for 1/4 of this price, already with taxes included and some accessories purchased by the owner?
Clearly a statement camera, and it's pretty nice. I've come to dislike Lightroom pretty strongly, so its claim to functionality fame is a no from me. The six grand, that's a hard no. I'd be getting the Leica Q2 ahead of this one.
Leica shows that there is a market for a $6k fixed lens statement camera, Zeiss Distagon is another famous brand so maybe this could work as a "statement within the statement" that Leica is for people with money but the ZX1 is for real photography connoisseurs. At least I think that's what they're going for, it's hard to understand the luxury market because it's all about snobbery but it sounds like the kind of points you'd want to score at the country club. Which is where you'd be, not actually using it for street photography...
To be marketable this should have used an APS-C sensor and cost maximum $2K. Even if it works, the "edit and share off the camera" thing is a gimmick aimed at the consumer class and I think $600 is a fair upcharge over the best premium APS-C fixed prime lens camera which is the Fujifilm X100V.
HOWEVER, this isn't meant to be a competitive, marketable product, just like the Milvus lenses and the Otus lenses aren't meant to compete with Canon L and Sony G Master lenses. It's a company that makes the bulk of its profits in other segments that's using it's incredible R&D budget and expertise to flex, and power to them.
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