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juancn 2 hours ago [-]
Optical viewfinder cameras see through a lens and force-align your eyes, so when you change the lens, what you see is different but highly aligned to what the sensor sees.
Here, depending on where you place the thing you see a different thing than the sensor does, the optical path is completely uncontrolled, unless they're doing eye tracking and post processing?
This seems somehow worse than a cell phone camera.
makeitdouble 1 hours ago [-]
You're right on the principle, and this camera is purposefully aimed at a subpar viewfinder experience.
As a comparison point, many people shoot street photography "from the hip", aiming the camera at the rough spot they want to get with a forgiving aperture setting (around 8 or more). This help either for speed, or engage with the scene without having to stick a camera on one's face.
I think this camera is basically aimed at the same crowd, those who will want some idea of what the camera is pointed at, but want to stay "in the moment" and no fully focus on the capturing process. This is pretty close to a phone camera perhaps, but I'd assume it's a lot more fun and carefree.
I'd totally love to play with one.
juancn 41 minutes ago [-]
I still don buy it.
The from-the-hip cameras typically have a waist-level viewfinder, which still is a good approximation of the optical path or you don't and you shoot completely blind. In that case any camera does the trick and so does a phone.
Usually the hip part is so you get a better, more candid, portrait due to being inconspicuous. There's some composition advantage due to the perspective difference too.
1-6 2 hours ago [-]
Transparent viewfinder cameras aren't anything new. If you've ever used a disposable camera in the past--congratulations, that is it.
oliculipolicula 2 hours ago [-]
This seems to be a Shenzhen ahem "fair-use" of Escura's much better looking (imho) 2025 camera. That was more obviously a self-referential "joke" on these disposables that you refer to.
I literally cannot see the point to this thing. The transparent display is cool I guess. They don't state the camera specs on it though which seems odd for a camera.
monitron 3 hours ago [-]
Waitasec...wouldn't you have to hold it at a very specific distance from your eye for the "viewfinder" to be accurate?
omoikane 2 hours ago [-]
It's probably not that different from rangefinder style cameras[1]. I don't think the problem with this one is with its transparent viewfinder, it's more that its output quality just aren't that great according to someone who tried it[2]. Seems like a neat toy at $45 though.
Correct me if I am wrong here, but isn't this just a low-quality camera sensor attached to a gimmicky transparent LCD? This is an interesting novelty, but as others have mentioned already, the function of the viewfinder doesn't make a lot of sense.
dcrazy 2 hours ago [-]
Yep, but in fairness I paid more for a version of this in the mid-2010s. The Fujifilm X20 was a rangefinder-style camera with an optical viewfinder with embedded LCD. Based on the focal length of the integrated zoom lens, it would attempt to illustrate the parallax using the LCD.
Here, depending on where you place the thing you see a different thing than the sensor does, the optical path is completely uncontrolled, unless they're doing eye tracking and post processing?
This seems somehow worse than a cell phone camera.
As a comparison point, many people shoot street photography "from the hip", aiming the camera at the rough spot they want to get with a forgiving aperture setting (around 8 or more). This help either for speed, or engage with the scene without having to stick a camera on one's face.
I think this camera is basically aimed at the same crowd, those who will want some idea of what the camera is pointed at, but want to stay "in the moment" and no fully focus on the capturing process. This is pretty close to a phone camera perhaps, but I'd assume it's a lot more fun and carefree.
I'd totally love to play with one.
The from-the-hip cameras typically have a waist-level viewfinder, which still is a good approximation of the optical path or you don't and you shoot completely blind. In that case any camera does the trick and so does a phone.
Usually the hip part is so you get a better, more candid, portrait due to being inconspicuous. There's some composition advantage due to the perspective difference too.
https://petapixel.com/2025/03/04/escuras-50-instantsnap-toy-...
It's skeuomorphism, too? Lol
Same Thai(-HK?) design shop has other hits, like
https://happeningandfriends.com/article-detail/136?lang=en
(Is that the same font as on Mastrena espresso machines at Starbucks? Which reminds of classic American cars of 1950s)
How it looks like in action https://youtube.com/shorts/kJ8xUSTcOaY
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rangefinder_camera
[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/Godox/comments/1urlp8u/first_test_s...