Unfortunately, Samsung’s lost camera prototypes that appeared on their website back in May were developed for “internal purposes” only, but one of their product managers has confirmed that the boxy model was a digital medium format camera.
Medium format is a term generally associated with film cameras, though digital medium format models do exist (other than Samsung’s prototype.) Sitting somewhere between 35mm and large format film, medium format film produces higher resolution images than 35mm captures, due to its 6.5cm width.
Sung-rok Kim, Samsung’s regional product manager for Digital Imaging (middle east and north africa) told Megapixel that “we have the technology to develop a medium format cameras but we are not going to do that because this is not our market. Samsung is a manufacturer that focuses on a broad market – we are not a niche manufacturer like Hasselbald or Lieca [sic] . What you see in the image was developed for internal purposes in order to look into future technologies. At this point we have no plans to release it to the public. We have done similar things with lenses – for example we developed a 1000mm lens for astronomical use – but again just for internal purposes.”
Even if these products are purely for internal purposes only, I think they should be proud of their developments, and show them off to the public. They might worry that competitors could steal their ideas, but as they say, most of the camera manufacturers now operate in that broader, more mainstream market and wouldn’t have any need for these crazy, perfect little creatures. [Megapixel via PhotoRumors via PetaPixel]