Bonzart Ampel
The Bonzart Ampel is a novelty digital camera made by (or for) Global DC of Tokyo, from 2012. The camera is arranged to resemble a Twin-lens reflex camera; it has two lenses one above the other on the front, and an electronic viewing screen under a folding hood on the top. However, both of the lenses are 'taking' lenses. The lower one (with the green surround) is tilted to give shallow focus and unusual perspective (a 'diorama' effect, whereby a real landscape is made to resemble a close-up view of a model).
The lenses are 9 mm f/2.8 with fixed focus. Each is served by a separate 5-megapixel sensor, and there is a button on the front to select which lens is used. The shutter button is also on the front. The depth of field (with the untilted lens) is said to be from 0.5 m to infinity.[1] The image format is selectable between 4:3 and square format.
The LCD display is a two-inch screen in 4:3 aspect ratio.
Continuing the mimicry of a TLR, there are two knurled knobs on the right side of the body. The upper one of these selects between still photography, video, and playback. The lower one selects between a number of colour-rendition modes: standard, 'vivid', black-and-white, sepia and 'refreshing'.
There is a self-timer function with a delay of 2 or 10 seconds. The camera has a tripod bush. It requires three AA batteries, and uses SD or SDHC media, up to 32 GB. The dimensions of the camera are approximately 102 mm (h) x 65 mm (w) x 61 mm (d).
Auxiliary lenses (for wider angle, or close-up view) are available, and attach by a magnetic ring around the lens.
Notes
Links
- Ampel Instructions (pdf) at Global DC (archived).
- Bonzart Ampel blog entry at Aiba Daisuke's Gajetdaisuke (text in Japanese, with many pictures illustrating the effects available with the camera). He has also made a YouTube video (Japanese language) explaining the camera.
