Camera Talk

This time, I don't mean a new camera from Panasonic or Olympus. I mean a new camera from a little know company.

Yi Technology's Y1 M1.

The camera is a bit unusual. It uses a very minimalist approach. Just two dials and the shutter release on the top deck and two buttons on the back.

This is Live View only - no electronic viewfinder.

The prices seem low -- if the specs hold up, the 42.5mm lens sounds like a pretty good buy.

I remember when I first handled a Werra. I was completely stymied by its minimalism. I had no idea where anything was. But the Werra was all mechanical and I eventually liked it.
This one, the Yi M1, has that touch-screen for (almost) everything and touch-screens drive me nuts. . . .

I like its size and general shape, and I do favor the minimalist approach.

If I haven't used a digital camera in a while, it takes me a while to remember what all of the buttons do. I had accidentally set my camera to b/w once, and I couldn't remember how to get out of it.

I'd rather that this was an APS-C camera instead of the 2x Micro Four Thirds. The fact that it uses a Sony sensor is encouraging. The sample photos look good, but they're samples, and they're supposed to look good.

I'd also like an EVF option. I'm not a big fan of Live View photography, except for video shooting and some close-up work.

Love the Werra - working on one of the green models right now.

No EVF on my Nikon P7700 is what drove me to finally get an APS-C DSLR. But I haven't abandoned the P7700, as it has a good movie mode, while my D80 has none. I like the minimalist way this Y1 looks, as too many buttons is why I wouldn't think of buying a Nikon Df. The D80 has too many as it is, but that's a factor of being digital, you have so many choices of how to control the image capture.

PF

There are lots of nice m4/3 cameras with excellent eye-level viewfinders. I like minimalism, but the lack of a EVF and no means to add one makes this one a loser for me.