WVIL - the Future? ( but no Pentax mount)

I found this concept camera. It is being presented in a couple of weeks at the Business Forum Imaging in Cologne (organised by the same folks as Photokina).

Looks interesting, but as I said no K mount .

Concept design is just so easy.

The really hard part is turning the concept into any form of reality.

It looks like a great little (full frame! :twisted mirrorless body... but i do not see any point in divorcing the lens from the body / screen. Having wifi link-up to a separate remote screen, yes that makes sense, but that would be acheivable with a more normal looking camera.

yep.. I couldn't agree more.
Would be nice to see wifi or bluetooth tethering with full smartphone/tablet controls in a standard d-slr or non reflex camera.
it would be even nice to see p-ttl upgraded with bluetooth... for wireless flash control... as well.

Interesting link! My reaction was that it looks uber cool but reminds me of something B&O might do (the expensive hifi people) Style comes before performance.

It also made me think that if they go down this concept route the logical thing would be to enable their lens module to communicate with a smartphone instead of their own dedicated "display unit" Then they really would have something that'd sell to the Apple fanboys.

As they say in Yorkshire "A bit Heath Robinson"

Having been a design engineer, in a previous life, I couldn't help but start thinking about the practical problems this represents and trying to think what problem it solves.

You would need a sepperate battery for the screen and lens mount.
Constant wireless coms = high battery drain
The detachable screen has limited use - self portrait
1 hand holding screen & 1 hand operating touchscreen &1 hand moving lens to frame photo - dosnt work.
If it were easy to design a lens mount that accepts multiple lens fittings someone would have done it already
How is the lens mount going to ballance on a tripod?

Its a nice idea but too impractical to impact the current market, however I could see cameras coming out with WiFi and an app to allow controls and liveview to be used from a smartphone

and that I believe was something Apple saw as well... Steve Jobs was in negotiations with Lytro to licence lightfield cameras.... lytros also included a wi-fi chip in thier cameras.... I believe weel see a similar set up in future frimware in the lytros cameras that integrates the camera controls, and teathers these cameras to an iphone ap..