Zeiss announce the ZX1 - fixed 35mm lens compact

Johnmcl7

Zeiss have announced their own ZX1 compact with a fixed 35mm F2 lens lens and their own in house developed 37.4MP sensor:

Zeiss announces ZX1 full-frame compact with fixed 35mm F2 lens

So far seems like it's aiming at the Sony RX1/Leica Q market however it has a couple of unique features, first up is the onboard 512GB storage (no mention of expandable storage) and then there's the 4.3in rear touchscreen with Lightroom CC builtin along with OTA updates.

512GB onboard storage seems a bit overkill particularly when manufacturers generally charge a huge premium for onboard storage and I do like being able to just stick an SD card in a reader rather than go through the camera.  The onboard Lightroom seems particularly strange though as I'm not keen on editing on a small device and if I was, I'd rather use my mobile phone screen which is a good bit bigger at 6.3in (most phones will be a lot bigger than 4.3in).

I'm also thinking the camera can't be that compact given the size of the screen and the fact the viewfinder is on top of that.

snerkler

That’s one strange looking camera.

Johnmcl7

Yes and it's a strange camera specs wise, if I hadn't seen it was Zeiss I would have guessed it was Samsung or the likes of Huawei or similar that had produced it.  I guess it's all the Apprentice ads at the moment but I can't help feeling it's like one of their products.

AMc

The ability to stand it up in portrait "looking up" suggests they're looking at the high end selfie market
It's running Android which could be interesting too as is the ability to directly load images to the Internet - I'm assuming WiFi on an synching with Adobe cloud?
Looking at those pictures they're stretching the term "compact" and I'm not even going to guess at the price
Still nice to see someone trying something different rather than chasing the specs of their competitors.

Johnmcl7

I'm not sure it's really trying something different as there's been a few companies that have attempted cameras using Android onboard which hasn't gone well and I think this is an odd camera to try it with as Zeiss have little experience with it (unlike Sony/Samsung who have huge experience making tablets/phones) plus the market for it I'd have thought is less likely to be those wanting fancy tech features.

Either way I think it's going to be a very niche camera given the RX1RII and Leica Q cameras are already pricey and with the onboard processing features and 512GB ram, this is going to be a lot more.

Bl4ckGryph0n

I love the minimalistic look of it, I am a bit scared to learn the price

12harry

It's all about price - if you have money to burn, it is an excellent product... but for many folk the fixed fl lens and small editing-screen is spec gone mad.  Many will wish to enlarge part of the frame, so the sensor-count is much reduced.... whereas a simple zoom would cover most domestic needs.... while giving the photographer a better idea of the result before taking.
I do wish companies would bring out something that was really BETTER, rather than just more-or-less the same-again.
The internal memory may be to facilitate the Editing feature ( if you use it), as it's just possible SD-cards might object . . . . SD=Really essential for any safari-trip. But then the lens is hardly suited to wildlife.
Cheers.

Johnmcl7

What makes it an excellent product?  Even putting aside the price it looks much larger and heftier than the existing premium fixed lens compacts which on its own would be a deal breaker for me (and I'm sure many others) as the whole point of this type of camera is the compact size.  It doesn't need 512GB for onboard editing as it could easily use a small amount of fixed memory with an SD card slot, no SD card slot particularly long term is a really bad idea as unlike a phone this is not the type of device to be replaced every couple of years.

I'm a huge fan of the RX1 series and was hopeful for the Zeiss when I saw the headline announcement but very disappointed by this, after reading many discussions on the RX1/Leica Q I've never seen anyone want a much heftier version with no SD card slot and onboard Lightroom.  Even if this was particularly cheap, I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole as it looks like a poor effort especially compared to existing rivals.