Bonzart Ziegel
The Bonzart Ziegel[1] is a novelty digital camera made from 2022 by Global DC, owners of the Japanese Bonzart brand. It appears to be based on a phone camera.
The camera has an 18 million-pixel sensor (4896×3672), but can be set to lower image sizes (5 or 3 MP) via menus. The native aspect ratio is 4:3, and the camera can also make images in square, or 16:9 ratio. It has a fixed-focus, five-element 1.4mm f/2.8 lens. It allows up to 4x 'digital zoom' (i.e. crop) with the buttons on the back. It has a single (electronic, not physical) shutter speed of 1/60 second. The sensitivity can be set to ISO 100, 200 or 400, and there is an exposure compensation function of ±2 stops, in steps of one-third stop.
The camera body is curiously styled, and Bonzart's publicity for the camera stresses the pleasure of carrying, operating and being seen operating it: BONZART ZIEGEL is not just a "tool for taking photos". This is a camera that allows you to enjoy all aspects of carrying around, operating, and taking pictures... The camera deliberately avoids the shape of a typical camera, and the front of the camera has a simple yet elegant feel, like a piece of art. The back is designed to arouse curiosity about operation by arranging many operation buttons and dials.[2] Seen from the end, the camera has an almost-upright leaf-shaped cross-section, with the cylinder of the lens emerging from this at the front. On the back, the view-screen occupies the top half of the rear face, and below this there is a wedge-shaped projection from the leaf profile, containing the battery compartment, and with a row of buttons along the top. On the front of the camera is an interchangeable curved front-plate; this can be black, turquoise, or 'rose', and can be changed by the user. The camera is supplied with a sheet of kitsch stickers for decorating the front if desired. Also supplied is a tiny stick-on mirror, to allow framing for selfies. The front plate has two holes in the top corners, for the attachment of a strap.
Like the Bonzart Ampel, the camera has several built-in rendition styles, selected with one of two dials to the left of the view-screen:
- Standard;
- Vivid: strong contrast especially of blue-orange;
- Emerald: with a green cast, reminiscent of cross-processed film;
- Retro: washed-out, yellow cast;
- Black-and-white: with fairly strong contrast and a slight vignette;
- Sepia: again with a slight vignette;
- Comic: the image flattened into black, white and just one intermediate grey;
- Duo Blue: a monochrome image but in blue-green.
An effect is available which superimposes a frame around the edge of the image, like the edge of a film frame. This can be 35mm pattern, with a pattern of black 'perforations', which can optionally have a frame number and 'BONZART' printed below in either yellow or white. For the 4:3 aspect ratio only, a slimmer 'medium format' frame-pattern without perforations can be selected, with edge-text in yellow, white, or absent.
There is a double-exposure function.
The camera can make 720-pixel (1280x720) video at 30 fps, by holding the shutter button down. This allows any of the eight renderings listed above.
There is an LED ring-light surrounding the lens, giving two levels of lighting (i.e. half of the 20 LEDs, or all of them). The light is switched on with the upper dial to the left of the view-screen. Bonzart's publicity warns that the ring-light is not a strong light like a flash. A set of coloured filters (red, yellow, green and blue) is supplied, to colour the ring-light.
A wide-angle accessory lens is available, which attaches magnetically to the camera lens. The rear component of the accessory lens can be unscrewed and used on its own as a close-up lens. The ring-light can be used with the close-up lens, and is presumably particularly useful.
The camera uses three AA batteries, or can take power from an external power supply via a USB cable. It uses SDHC memory cards; the card slot is in the right side of the camera body. Menus can be set to Japanese, Chinese or English. The camera measures 92(h) x 80(w) x 53(d) mm, and weighs just 175g including batteries.
Notes
- ↑ 'Ziegel' is German and can mean 'brick' or (more likely here) 'tile'; the name presumably refers to the curved shape of the front plate. Bonzart also named the Ampel in German.
- ↑ Bonzart Ziegel at Bonzart (system-translated at Google Translate).
Links
- Bonzart YouTube videos:
- Exchanging the front plate (31 seconds).
- Video samples (21 seconds).
