While the WLV-01 is fully functional and a ton of fun, there are a few things to consider before jumping in. Here are some of them, in no particular order:
No Stabilization
There is no power provided to the lenses, so lens-based stabilization will obviously not work. Lenses with stabilization are also almost certainly focus by wire, so they’re not likely to be usable anyway.But
But I didn’t realize how fully I’ve begun to take in body image stabilization (IBIS) for granted. I love using my manual focus lenses on my Sony, and having them stabilized has been amazing. So amazing that I forgot I was getting a hand!
(Near) Full Spectrum Sensor
Not only does the WLV-01 not have a color filter array, it doesn’t have an IR-cut filter. For some of you, that may be exactly what you want! Or maybe it’s sometimes what you want. For the rest of the time, having a visible spectrum response is important, so you’ll need to use an IR-cut filter.
I’ll make a full post on this later, but I learned the hard way that not all IR-cut filters are not the same. To truly get a response like a “normal” digital sensor, you’ll need a hot mirror IR-cut filter.
Mono Sensor
Right. Of course. This is what we’re here for, so why call it out?
When you want to post-process your images, you will only have one channel of data to work with. That means if you want to make your blue skies really pop, you can’t just grab that blue slider in the B&W Mixer and add some easy drama only to the blues.
You can do it, but it needs to be at capture time. This is not news for anyone who used B&W film, but if you’ve only used digital it may be a new concept. You can use color filters of various colors to selectively change how the colors of the scene get recorded. There are several good articles on this topic out there, so I won’t rehash it here.
That Crop Factor!
The WLV-01 uses a 1/1.2-inch sensor, which is an outdated name that doesn’t really describe the size of it at all; it’s actually only 12.84mm diagonal.
That’s pretty small!
It can make beautiful images, so don’t worry about that. But if ultra wide angle images are your favorite thing, this may not be the right camera for you.
On the flip side, your medium telephoto lenses will have a huge reach! But, see above about the lack of stabilization – you’ll need some support to use those focal lengths.
I will also do a separate post about the crop factor in the future.
Electronic Shutter
This may be a familiar topic, as many small cameras have only electronic shutters. No flash sync is possible. If you’re not familiar with this, see any of the many articles online about electronic shutters or rolling shutter.