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Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing

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Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing

#271

Post by nradov »

Here's another dumb thing. The camera companies make things harder and more expensive for underwater photographers by making minor changes to size, shape, and control positioning in every new model. Much of this is just change for the sake of change and doesn't actually improve functionality. Every little change means photographers need a completely different waterproof housing. These are quite expensive, often more than the camera itself. So you see a lot of underwater photographers still using old cameras because even if they could afford a new camera they can't afford a new housing for it. The camera companies are missing out on those potential upgrade sales.

And one more dumb thing. They don't include internal GPS receivers or electronic compasses for geotagging even in fairly expensive models. The chips cost <$10 now so this is just a silly limitation. Add-on GPS receivers tend to be bulky and fragile.

Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing

#272

Post by IgorPartola »

dguaraglia wrote: post #207
IgorPartola wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand. A phone that's 7mm thick and the size of your hand can operate for like 16-24 hours on a charge. A 1.5 lb hunk of plastic that's nearly a cubic foot in volume can't? Maybe we need better camera batteries.

A lot of the "hunk" and weight in the camera comes from needing a certain amount of room for the mirror and sensor, plus a solid coupling mechanism for the lenses, plus a good amount of surface to provide comfortable grip, plus a number of slots for all kinds of connectors (for your tripod, for you external flash), etc. I'm not saying the design can't be improved, or that every empty recess couldn't be filled with ex…

Totally agreed. My point was that making the camera 75 grams heavier by adding a little more battery capacity to run Android wouldn't make a noticeable difference to most users. I would assume some pros would want the lightest possible body, but most photographers wouldn't care that much. And worst case scenario, yeah just swap batteries.

Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing

#274

Post by stordoff »

fhood wrote: post #201
Piskvorrr wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And now you're up to your neck in a networking swamp that also drains the battery like it's going out of style. But yeah, it's easy .

Quick google search tells me that I can power a model 2 b rpi for 5 hours off of a camera battery. And you can better than an rpi for power consumption. I could be missing something here, but I used to do a lot of work that boiled down to building linux control units for machines and it genuinely isn't that difficult most of the time.

I used to cover long events with my DSLR - on a single charge, I could do two back-to-back 12-hour events, taking hundreds of images at each with the camera on the entire time, and still have some charge in reserve. Five hours isn't a lot by comparison.

Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing

#275

Post by heartbreak »

Animats wrote: post #270

The camera people described are living in the past. They're talking about rigid mounts and tripods, not active stabilization. They're talking about aiming the camera, rather than taking a full spherical picture and selecting from that. Here's a 360 degree camera on a gimbal mount [1] and a video taken with a similar rig.[2] View the video in 2160p, and click and drag the image to change the direction of view. No need…

That channel is ridiculously over-sexualized.

Also 360° video is as much a gimmic as 3D video.

Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing

#276

Post by ringaroundthetx »

jwr wrote: post #269

The problem is the lack of competition. Yes, you read that right: even though we have several "major competitors", they have reached a state of equilibrium, where they try to preserve the status quo as much as they can. This isn't much different from the automotive market. All the cars are pretty much the same, except for Teslas. The DSLR world is waiting for their Tesla.

Sony's alpha series came out and disrupted this in some ways, breaking Canon and Nikon's duopoly of releasing the same camera every year even though the technology allowed for what they release 10 years ago prior.

I think Sony will continue innovating here, as long as people keep calling out the user experience problems.

Otherwise they will go into the incremental improvement phase too.

Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing

#277

Post by Animats »

heartbreak wrote: post #275
Animats wrote: post #270

The camera people described are living in the past. They're talking about rigid mounts and tripods, not active stabilization. They're talking about aiming the camera, rather than taking a full spherical picture and selecting from that. Here's a 360 degree camera on a gimbal mount [1] and a video taken with a similar rig.[2] View the video in 2160p, and click and drag the image to change the direction of view. No need…

That channel is ridiculously over-sexualized. Also 360° video is as much a gimmic as 3D video.

That's just the capture phase. You pick 2D images from the stream when editing.

Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing

#278

Post by alecdibble »

nradov wrote: post #271

Here's another dumb thing. The camera companies make things harder and more expensive for underwater photographers by making minor changes to size, shape, and control positioning in every new model. Much of this is just change for the sake of change and doesn't actually improve functionality. Every little change means photographers need a completely different waterproof housing. These are quite expensive, often more…

While GPS chips might seem like an obvious addition, it might negatively affect other camera functions like battery life.

Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing

#279

Post by nradov »

wazoox wrote: post #164

As said in this [1] article, one of the worst thing camera makers are guilty of is not slapping Android on their cameras to open up th instant publication, photo manipulation, etc. It's a shame that a professional camera is 90% of the time simply not as useful as a smartphone, even ... as a camera. [1]: https://mondaynote.com/memo-to-camera-makers-put-android-in-...

The camera doesn't need to run Android itself, and Android is probably too slow and power hungry to make sense in dedicated cameras. Instead think of the camera as a peripheral to the user's existing smartphone. There is a lot of room to improve connectivity and usability for that mode.

Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing

#280

Post by tertius »

alecdibble wrote: post #278
nradov wrote: post #271

Here's another dumb thing. The camera companies make things harder and more expensive for underwater photographers by making minor changes to size, shape, and control positioning in every new model. Much of this is just change for the sake of change and doesn't actually improve functionality. Every little change means photographers need a completely different waterproof housing. These are quite expensive, often more…

While GPS chips might seem like an obvious addition, it might negatively affect other camera functions like battery life.

Many cameras have had GPS modules and none have suffered from this problem.

It's easily solved by polling infrequently (you don't move a lot when taking photos) and only polling when you're actually using your camera.

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