NanoSnap: A 19g, 5x3cm camera with 4K photo and 2K video | Hacker News Reader

NanoSnap: A 19g, 5x3cm camera with 4K photo and 2K video

dc.watch.impress.co.jp

45 pointsthrowaway29053 comments

I'd like to see some actual photo comparisons from this camera.

"4K photo" means absolutely nothing except the pixel count. There could be a 32x32 photosensor and software upscale to 4K. The lens could be made of recycled Styrofoam.

True. But on the other hand the best camera is the one you have on you. And this one seems very easy to have on you. Unless you lose it, also easy...

Why would I carry a camera when I have my phone. If I cam going to consciously carry a camera then why would I choose something worse than my phone.

Ask all those people who switch to film cameras and old digital compacts lately

The refractive index of transparent polystyrene is actually pretty high so that's a neat idea.

Here's one on AE that's 4 mm thinner but 1 mm taller, full HD& @ 30 fps. Battery is 180mAh.

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805296215288.html

& HD is 1920x1080, 2K is 2048x1080 (native variant)

Nice find. It looks like the exact same camera? Promotional materials are 1:1.

LMAO! I didn't even look at them together. Nice catch. :) It's good to know.

There's probably 1 or 2 originating manufacturers in China. Chinese generic products are often semi-open source amongst design/engineer and manufacturing people. The disposable nonsense brands end customers see are invented either by an intermediate wholesale reseller or the seller themselves, sometimes inconsistently.

> Chinese generic products are often semi-open source amongst design/engineer and manufacturing people.

As greatly commented a decade ago by Bunnie Huang, calling it "gongkai" [0]

[0] https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=4297

I think I saw a collab video with Strange Parts once. Gongkai makes it easier to create consumer hw products at the expense of some/total loss of IP control. Starting from scratch is very difficult. It's what make Shenzhen so efficient and nimble.

If interested in small cameras then the Insta360 Go 3 might be relevant: https://www.insta360.com/product/insta360-go3

It's about the same size (without the attachble screen), a bit more weight at 35g but much more versatile and higher quality. Plus easily obtainable.

It's also $400.

It looks like a great piece of tech, but the markup in this segment of products is insane.

I have a Go 2. It’s interesting but the workflow is pretty tedious. I find that unless something is shot and on my phone, or shot on a proper camera for a client and thus worth ingesting and editing, anything else is just painful. GoPro, Osmo Pocket, Go, etc.

There's no point in having 4K res if your lens isn't sharp enough. Just sayin'...

Actual product page is here: https://modern-g.com/products/nanosnap

As expected the sensor's image quality is terrible and in line with a typical webcam, but the compact size and use of microSD storage could possibly redeem it as a bit more than just a novelty gadget.

The difference in quality between the second (inserted, obviously professional) picture and the third (original from the nanosnap) in hilarious. Though it does look like a neat bit of engineering.

I actually like the third one. It's not for high quality stuff anyway, it's for slice of life snaps. Worse is better

Good definition brings a lot of value to street photography in my opinion - for the moment right then and there, and for the history it documents.

slice of life snap is very different from street photography... it's the blurry unfocused faces or other parts of your friends being in the moment feeling doing things

That just sounds like a ridiculously narrow and specific subcategory of street/flâneur photography.

it's not generally done in the street for one and flaneuring has nothing to do with it.

no need to keep making guesses, it's okay to not know something.

Street photography does not have to be in the street. The name never really had a mandatorily fixed connection to the practical expressions of the genre, or the artistic phenomenon that it is. It's about moments in passing, casual observations etc. I write this (and previous comments) as someone with a profound love for photography and that genre in particular, not as someone throwing random guesses. But thank you for the quip retort.

Sorry. You are talking about some kind of photography where "definition" is important. I am not talking about that kind of photography. I am talking about the kind of photography for which people use cheap film cameras, expired film, disposable cameras, cheap digital compacts. "Definition" is of very little importance.

> Street photography does not have to be in the street.

Well that's another can of worms I guess. People tagging random non-street shots as street photography is my personal pet peeve...

Reminds me of my old GSmart Mini 2, fantastic little credit-card sized camera. No screen was part of the fun

https://www.productindetail.com/pf/mustek-gsmart-mini-2

I got scammed a few too many times on these cheap high-spec cameras on DealExtreme/AliExpress etc. 4K? No problem, just take your generic 640x480 sensor and upscale the heck out of it, usually with dodgy, buggy upscaling algorithm at that. And there has to be a special art to making audio microphones as dysfunctional as I encountered. These scamcams are everywhere, even at Costco and Home Depot once in a while, in the form of action cameras that, as usual, claim 4K though recently the real resolution may be as high as 720p, though now with horrible rolling shutter artifacts.

Not that any of this matters anymore when everyone carries a pretty decent camera in their pocket as part of their smartphone.

Note that this web pages is in Japanese. I haven't tried putting it through Google Translate, but I'd be curious to know how this camera compares to the Insta360 Go 3, which I've recently seen some reviews for,

Here's the text. Price conversion in US dollars: 12000 = $82.86, 9000 = $68.40

------------------------------

Ultra-compact and lightweight camera weighing 19g "NanoSnap"

Gloture Co., Ltd. released the digital camera "NanoSnap" on June 26th. The price including tax is 12,000 yen. It will be handled on the company's EC site "MODERN g". Also, at the time of writing, it is being sold for 9,900 yen including tax as a release commemorative sale.

A compact and lightweight digital camera with a weight of 19g. Equipped with a 0.96-inch rear monitor, it supports still image shooting and 1080p video shooting.

It features easy operation that allows you to shoot with one button, and assigns the power on / off and shutter button to one button.

In addition, 8 types of effect filters are built in. You can choose to match the shooting scene, such as emphasizing the retro atmosphere and colors.

Supported media is microSD. External dimensions are 40 x 47 x 36 mm.

main use shooting mode

・Still images/movies Maximum resolution/format

・Still image (JPEG): 3,760×2,128 ・Video (AVI): 1,920×1,080 30fps storage

・microSD card (supports up to 128GB) battery capacity

・180mAh operating time

・Continuous shooting: about 1 hour ・Standby: about 100 minutes connection port

USB 2.0 Micro-B

That sounds fantastic.

It would be awesome if it had some kind of external trigger, since the very low weight and small size means it should be very easy to integrate into other things (model train, drone, r/c car, robot, whatever). I guess chances are low, if the only interface is the USB port (and SD card socket).

sounds like the simplest of mods to me

Check out gphoto2. It allows controlling cameras through USB, take photos and videos, modify parameters, etc. The list of supported cameras is quite large, and while this one (still?) isn't, should it accept commands from USB then support could be easier than writing the entire software from scratch.

http://www.gphoto.org/

Less battery but longer runtime than Go 3. This one looks also very raw, without all the features Go 3 has.

Battery Capacity: 180mAh Recording time: ~ 1 hour Standby: ~100 Minutes

バッテリー容量・180mAh 作動時間・連続撮影：約1時間・待機：約100分

On the page is an "English" button, for me.

This is a good example of straight-to-trash e-waste camera. If I had a kid, I would maybe give it to my toddler to take apart, but given how small it is, it's more of a choking hazard than anything.

Buy something good that takes quality pictures or use your phone. Don't contribute to e-waste and demand for this garbage.

Cheaper, Smaller, and higher resolution - and with wifi:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002664675613.html

It's not a "GoPro", it's a static spy camera requiring external power. And 2K is just 128 more horizonal pixels than HD.

Choose the "with wifi, 4k" variant. Still requires external power tho,

Those bastards. Smart sellers default the most expensive option. Although I am bit disappointed it doesn't say "Perfect for spies, parents with lowest bidder childcare, sex criminals, and grandparents wondering who's refilling the vodka bottles with water."

Sounds like you’ve got some good (and bad) stories

Nawh, just how Saturday Night Live would market it.

Korea has/had a spycam problem.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-57493020

https://spyassociates.com/spyfinder-pro-hidden-camera-detect...

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=spycam+finder

Resolution means nothing without a sharp lens and a decent sized sensor.

AliExpress is full of kids toy cameras similar to this - small, crappy quality, cheap but technically working.

I would assume that's a car hash cam hidden in the enclosure.

Anyone else confused by all those fingers holding the camera? Is that one hand? 2? More? AI?

Do you not have an index finger and thumb on either hand?

Two hands, both pinching. One pinching vertically and one horizontally, thumbs are at the bottom and the right.

AliExpress photoshop hands are the best.

AI hands are usually missing digits and have webbed fingers.

Would love for someone to integrate this with NVME storage somehoe

Why? What purpose would that serve?

Perhaps filming the blinking RGB LEDs inside the PC case? You know, for more FPS?

When you have to download a keyboard manual to find the Konami codes to turn off the ground effects, you know you're officially old.

PDF: https://assets.website-files.com/63b6412d4ef17b35c8b5f9d5/64...

This keyboard has Kailh Box White switches, the configuration is mostly sane, and the price was okay. I also have an WASD V3 (MX Blue), Realforce R2 (Topre), and (PC, PS/2, non-PC) Northgate Omnikey/ULTRA (Alps SKCM White).

Switch guide: https://www.mechanicalkeyboards.com/switches/index.php

I am guessing for a low power, long term, offline, security camera.

For a low-power device, a microSD card draws something like 300 mW while writing (less than 100mA at 3.3V) , versus something like 8-10W for an NVMe drive (up to 3A at 3.3V).

???

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