Nikon patents a new kind of image stabilization system

There is abrand new Nikon patent application that shows a new way of creating an in camera stabilization system.

Currently Sony, Olympus, Panasonic, Ricoh and Fuji do implement mechanism to stabilize the entire sensor. In this patent Nikon has a different approch. The sensor stays fixed while the lens array on top of the pixels is moving on four axis to stabilize the image. On the images you can see the lens array marked with the number 202.

Nikon writes:

The LF camera 100 of this embodiment is endowed with a VR (Vibration Reduction) function that suppresses influence of shaking (so called “camera-shaking”) generated when image capture is performed while the camera is being held by hand. 

 

Let’s see if this is something we are going to see implemented in a future mirrorless camera. Of course, this is only a patent for now which is no guarantee that we will ever see this tech used on any camera.

Tamron says their 28-75mm f/2.8 FE lens design “could work” for the future Nikon FF mirrorless camera

On top you see Tamrons 28-75mm f/2.8 lens for the Sony FE system. And today Tamron managers told this at Dpreview:

Everybody is going to mirrorless. Canon and Nikon will launch full-frame mirrorless cameras, probably in the near future. When this happens, we can easily make Canon and Nikon versions of our [native] E-mount lenses. The same design could work for [multiple mirrorless mounts].

Would be nice!

New US patent application shows Nikon is working on a phone-camera hybrid

Nikon patented a surprising new kind of camera. It’s a Smartphone-Camera hybrid. As you see from this brand new patent application image the device has typical physical camera buttons. But it also has a “send and receive button” plus LAN status LEd’s. Nikon describes this as:

A portable telephone equipped with a camera.

Just like any smartphone this Nikon camera is connected to the Internet and can send the images directly via email:

I can imagine such a camera running apps like 500px and Instagram. You could instantly share your images to the world.

Samsung and Panasonic attempted something similar in the past and they failed. Could Nikon finally succeed?

Of course, this is just a patent application and they may never release such a device after all.

Nikon patents sort of Dual Pixel AF sensor for future mirrorless cameras

This week Nikon published two new patents describing a Canon similar Dual Pixel AF technology and time of flight tech (similar to new Sony sensor). This autofocus system would be used on future mirrorless cameras.

The google translated patent says this:

There is known a time-of-flight (TOF) measurement method for measuring a distance to an object by receiving reflected light of light irradiated to the object (for example, Patent Reference 1). When measuring the distance to the object by such a method, it is difficult to obtain the image of the object at the same time.

It has a set part which sets up the range which detects a focusing state from the information about the exit pupil of the aforementioned imaging optical system, and the information about the aforementioned pixel for focus detection, and a transmission section which transmits the information about the aforementioned range set up by the aforementioned