Samsung's new TL9 point-and-shoot camera replaces the standard digital meters that show battery life and flash memory storage space with two pleasingly analog gauges. I hope this starts a trend!
Samsung fleshes out new digicam line with TL9, SL310W and SL201 [Engadget.com via Music Thing]
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this is totally awesome !!!! (darn .. have watched too many reruns of that 70's show ... usually i never use that word) ...
neat idea ... would make me buy a cam :)
What's old is new again.
Nikon did this on their 35Ti (35mm P&S; ~1993). The Epson RD-1 also has analog gauges. Both were very expensive cameras, though.
Linkies:
http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/35ti.htm
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/cameras/epson-rd1.shtml
On the one hand: DAMMIT! I just -bought- a new Canon SD1100.
On the other: I also don't want to wait until September to replace my dead camera, no matter how sexy those gauges are.
That is charming as hell.
Thank you for refraining from using the word "steampunk", which is too often done on this blog when something is analog.
@5: agreed. Samsung has a lot of nerve if they think these pathetically modern-looking dials will satisfy our lust for steampunk.
Put some brass rivets in the case, replace all the plastic with celluloid, put the shutter outside the lens, and make the gauges out of wrought-iron clock hands a foot in length, and then you'll have yourself a steampunk camera, by cracky.
-or by crankey, if you want to stay true to form. ;)
Good. Now, if you'll kindly give us back analog light meters, I will be satisfied.
STEAMPUNK!!!
Hahahaha!
That better not be the only memory indicator - it better still tell you how many shots you have left via the LCD display, even as inaccurate a guess as that number can sometimes be. So the dial tells me I have 50% of my memory "tank" left - so then I have to dig out the card to see whether I've got half of a 512MB card or a 4GB card - big difference.
Very cool! Can someone bring back LED screens? Seriously. I have an old LED calculator on my desk I use all the time because I also enjoy sunlight and nothing is more eyestraining than to try and read dark gray text on a light gray background.
What I'd like to see is a small (non-SLR) camera where aperture, zoom, and focus are controlled by rings on the lens barrel, and shutter-speed by a dial on top. Leica and Panasonic made one a few years ago, but it's way too expensive for the unremarkable image quality it offers. I don't see why no one's making a digital camera that looks, and is controlled, like an old rangefinder. Of course, like with a dSLR, you'd still need the option of using an automatic control system for each of those things (Even I use autofocus almost all the time and auto-shutterspeed a good deal of the time), but it would be cool to be able to go manual and use an old-school interface, on something smaller (and thus easier to take places) than a dSLR.
@#11: My dSLRs have plenty of watch-like LCD displays, and yes, it's great to be able to see all my settings, and how much battery and memory is left, without having to squint at a screen in the sun. Something else from the SLR world that could and should be used on smaller cameras.