© Courtesy of RE-35
Plug-in digital film is not a new concept but a forgotten one.
I never heard of any actual product that shipped with flexisensor; one major reason I think is the actual cost of production and the actual sellable price point the market can bear. Nonetheless, a half-baked, 2-page website with a ‘coming soon’ placeholder has just popped up on my radar screen this morning:
The RE-35 cartridge replaces the film in your classic analog 35-mm camera. Set the ISO to 400 and your done — your camera will now take high quality digital pictures. […] RE-35 will be availlable later this year. Check this site regularly for more infos.
None other than an apple-esque product teaser & an impressum that leads to a website of what looks like to be a design firm responsible for their initial web teaser are available at this point, so I wouldn’t hold my breath to it. Alas, it would be a kick-ass competition to the broken digital imaging industry if a) they ship, and b) they ship an incredibly usable product with a lucrative price point.
They seem to have got the design right, but I’m not too sure about the RE-35 name (nice domain name, though) — there’s a reason why the iPad is not named TB-123, and the iPhone is not named Re-Phone, easy to pronounce, catchy word is as important as the product’s design & packaging.
Film fanatics would have a woo-hoo-nostalgic party night when it happens, and I would be thrilled to see an actual product ship. (Thanks Bimo!.)