A team of engineers, data scientists, and content creators have come together to produce a camera that it says marries the quality of Micro Four Thirds with the artificial intelligence of a smartphone to ‘change and challenge the concept of the digital camera for the next decade’. Alice is a camera that uses an MFT sensor and lens mount, and which is controlled by a smartphone app, and thanks to a thicker body and an ergonomic handle it provides better hand placement and stability than the smartphone alone. Alice is in the concept prototype stage and will be available on Indiegogo in Autumn 2020.

Artificial Intelligence is transforming photography in the 2020s like digital technology did back in the 1990s. Alice has been designed from the ground up to harness AI and computational photography for modern content creators, offering you new capabilities and techniques for autofocusing, autoexposure, color science, and more.

The idea was born out of an experience where a smartphone took a much better picture of a campfire scene on the beach than a professional photographer using a professional camera could manage. The project intends to combine the sort of image processing we see in smartphones with the technical quality achievable with the Micro Four Thirds system.

The team behind the Alice Camera says the main camera manufacturers are losing ground to smartphones because they have failed to innovate and to introduce significant changes to their technology over the last ten years. This has left ‘content creators’ in an endless search for the perfect camera. The team conducted interviews will 1000 photographers and videographers to hear their gripes so that they could ensure the Alice Camera addresses them.

The specs are not final yet, but it seems the Alice Camera will be using Micro Four Thirds 11MP Quad Bayer HDR image sensor and those 4.63um pixels size are claimed to offer better low light performance as well as an extended dynamic range.

The camera body will be made out of aluminum and there will be one MicroSD card slot for storage. Charging will be done via USB-C connection. The Alice Camera will also have a 3.5mm jack to connect external microphones.

The full price of the Alice Camera will be 975$ for body only, but early birds and Indiegogo users will be able to pre-order at 585$ and 715$ with a deposit of 65$. The finished camera is expected to be delivered in Summer 2021.

More info on the Alice Camera website.