Early hands-on impression of Caira
My Caira order arrived on Monday 04-27, but it sat in its box until the end of the month as I was (and still am) overtaken by events. I gave myself a few minutes to set it up on Thursday 04-30, but only long enough to make sure the device worked properly. I scribbled a note to myself that day as a reminder to give Caira a proper goings-over before my vacation, though life kept interfering with these plans.
Today, after juggling far too many ongoing tasks at work and at home, I set aside 30 minutes to play around with Caira. Given the short amount of time at my disposal, the following is more akin to what happens at Apple events when various tech reporters are allotted a few minutes to get an early hands-on impression of whatever just released. I can't promise any room nicer than the Steve Jobs Theater, so my office will have to make do. Also making do is the "Getting Started" video from Camera Intelligence, as I recommend watching it before reading my piece. Time constraints prevent me from displaying the device any better.
Powering on and connecting
Caira recommends fully charging the device before you connect it to your iPhone, a task I accomplished last Thursday. Once the battery was topped up, I opened my Caira app on the iPhone, then paired it with the powered-on camera. The Power button on Caira is a bit difficult to reach, but it means any usage of it is intentional--I'm not going to accidentally power the camera down by brushing up against it.
Connections between Caira and the iPhone are both physical and wireless. The magnetic grip between Caira and my iPhone (courtesy of both having MagSafe built-in) is quite strong, even with my iPhone in a case. You have to forcefully twist the two items apart to separate them. I can see these devices separating were I to take a big fall, but then I'd have bigger problems to worry about. Meanwhile, the two devices communicate over a wireless network generated by Caira, which to me is a significant weakness of the camera. I often had problems connecting my phone to Caira's wireless network, particularly on the setup day last Thursday. Today, there were fewer communication issues, but they were still there. A modular device like Caira would strongly benefit from a docking station via the phone's USB-C port, as data transfer and battery life would both improve versus wireless. Sure, there are solid reasons why Caira went the wireless route, no doubt involving development costs, but in the future I would strongly push for a more solid connection.
Once Caira is magnetically attached to your iPhone, the ergonomics become apparent. The combination of the two are heavily biased towards the right side, which you can see at 1:04 in the Getting Started video. Your outer palm near your right thumb has nowhere to go except your iPhone screen, which can be an issue if your hands are sweaty, oily, or otherwise unclean in any way. Again, a docking station with a USB-C port would solve this problem of where your hand rests while shooting. Your lower palm near your wrist ends up supporting the full weight of the combined Caira and phone unit. It's not uncomfortable, but it's not not uncomfortable, if that makes any sense. Lens choices could worsen this level of moderate comfort, particularly telephoto lenses that can throw the camera's balance fully out of whack. Fortunately, Caira has a tripod screw opening on its bottom, so it is possible to mount it on a tripod for support assistance.
(A quick note about the lens: Caira doesn't come with one. The lens mount is Micro Four Thirds, with an 11 MP M43 sensor that has been rumored to be similar to the Panasonic Lumix GH5S, though I also wonder if it's similar to M43 sensors found in astrophotography cameras. As I was an early backer of Caira, I was able to add a Lumix G 25mm f/1.7 ASPH lens to my order, a lens that would be the 35mm equivalent of a 50mm prime lens. It's quite light, almost a bit flimsy in its build, but the focus rings smoothly rotate and its weight doesn't imbalance the camera any further than it already is.)
Quick takes on using Caira
I'm going to skip ahead and talk about what it's like shooting with Caira. Around 3:07 in the Getting Started video, you can see a mockup of what the Caira app looks like when you are in Photo mode. I rarely shoot video with my iPhone, so at this time I have no desire to fool around with the Video mode of Caira. The app has a Shutter button that duplicates the physical shutter button on Caira, and given their proximity to each other I don't see why you'd want to use the app's button. Underneath it is the Advanced Controls setting, giving you access to aperture, shutter speed, EV (exposure value), tint, and light temperature. These settings are adjusted by a slider, undoubtedly aimed at a casual camera user or a cameraphone user. Using a touch screen to adjust these values feels alien to me, but I'm coming to Caira from the perspective of owning DSLR's and mirrorless cameras, all of which have had various dials and pushbuttons to change settings. I am glad these settings exist, but from my perspective, they feel a bit dumbed-down and I wish there would be a "pro" setting that allows for a more fine-tuned experience akin to bigger cameras. Additionally, if you start fiddling with these settings, you'll again notice the camera's physical imbalance at work, since these settings exist on the right-hand side of the app. Having an option to flip the settings to the left side would be helpful here.
One of Caira's big selling features involves Generative Editing, though that gets a Hell Naw from me at this time. I plan on sticking with the Smart Styles that are built into Caira, and if you are familiar with iOS Photographic Styles, you'll feel comfortable with what Caira offers. At this point, Caira offers Neutral, Vibrant, Film, Chrome, Gold, and B/W, all of which can be tweaked in-app to increase or decrease exposure, or to take sunny or cloudy skies into effect. iOS offers more Photographic Styles out of the box, including additional black-and-white settings that you could use as-is without tweaking. Caira's B/W Style is by far the weakest out of the box, as the default settings appear to have low contrast and high exposure. The Film setting is my favorite as-is one right now, but I have given myself a future homework assignment to test all of these Smart Styles, then tweak them to see what they're capable of producing. I will share more photos once that assignment has completed, so for now, all I feel comfortable sharing is the photo of Spunky and friends.
How do you shut down Caira? Well, it's not exactly like turning off your digital camera, nor is it exactly like powering down your smartphone. While the MagSafe connection remains quite strong between the iPhone and Caira, it's still possible to separate the two. During today's test, I accidentally generated my first false connection as Caira was still running even though I had twisted the iPhone off of it. To avoid this fate, here's how I would disconnect Caira when you're done using it:
- Exit the Caira app on your iPhone.
- Use the Power button on Caira to shut down the device.
- Detach the iPhone from Caira, making sure the lens cap is on.
- Place Caira somewhere safe for storage.
The Getting Started video says you should power down Caira within the app itself, but I'd rather use the physical button on the camera to do so.
Final thoughts?
I will need to spend more time with Caira once I'm back from my vacation. So far, my feelings are 😐. It's not something that would ever replace a mirrorless camera or DSLR, and I don't believe Caira was built to be as such. It can serve as a supplement to your iPhone's camera, though given the ergonomic design, it's not designed for longer photographic sessions. I would view Caira as a modular take on a digital rangefinder, as a camera where you have to make deliberate choices for focus, for subjects, and for the overall scene. It's not a camera for sports or wildlife, but it is a camera for events, for street photography, for portraits, and even for landscapes.
The heavy skew towards the right-hand side is my biggest ergonomic complaint with Caira. Shooting with longer Micro Four Thirds lenses will be uncomfortable unless you use a small tripod, and even then you still may still have to ensure the contraption doesn't tip forward. If you aren't using a tripod, you will have to learn two-handed shooting, which isn't a problem for me personally as I've been doing that with my regular cameras for years. If you're coming to Caira from a smartphone world, however, this will be a new skill to learn. Moving some of the Advanced Settings to the left side of the app when in use may encourage Caira users to shoot two-handed, thereby aiding them in stabilizing their shooting without a tripod.
If I had to sum up Caira right now, I would call it a proof of concept. You can make a modular add-on to your smartphone's camera, giving you further shooting possibilities with a larger sensor and lens choices. There's no option to swap lenses or sensors with your smartphone, but that's not a problem with Caira. Right now, thanks to the MagSafe mounting option, Caira is locked into the Apple ecosystem, but I have to believe a similar type of adhesion could exist for Android phones. I also have to believe that the wireless data transfer is a similar proof of concept to show you can communicate between your modular add-on and your smartphone. It's not a great connection, but it's far cheaper than a hardware dock would be. I'd still look into having a physical connection or hardware dock in the future for reasons mentioned earlier; however, if Caira weren't willing to go down that path, I can think of one current camera manufacturer who would. They already think outside the box with their cameras, so why not add another charming oddball to their Σ collection?