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Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing

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Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing

#321

Post by p-funk »

oasisbob wrote: post #312
Finnucane wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's like the old phone jack that Apple wants to be rid of--a common and cheap standard that attaches to every known thing in the universe already. And replace it with what? A proprietary system that may be better in some ways, but reduces your choices. Now, I also use the Bogen hex pads--which means if I am out with my Nikon, or my Hasselblad, or my Fuji 6x9, or even my Wista VX, I am good to go.

Comparing the 1/4"-20 tripod mount to the 1/8" TRRS jack isn't a great comparison. The tripod mount has been a standard for decades and decades. The phone headphone jack fractured into competing standards years ago. Works fine for listening, but once you want to use a microphone you're dealing with different pinouts for different manufacturers, balkanized auto detection and signaling, incompatible plugs sizing, groun…

>once you want to use a microphone you're dealing with different pinouts

This is true, but ultimately they are all variations on the 1/4" phone plug, which has been a standard across multiple industries since the advent of the telephone. Adding another ring to a TRS, or changing the pinout, is a minor variation compared to Apple's alternative. The phone plug is so ubiquitous that I think the comparison is valid.

Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing

#322

Post by ksk »

FireBeyond wrote: post #268
ksk wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They made sense to me. Practically, it would be easy for camera makers to add these features on their pro bodies as they're not intended to be appealing to amateurs/casual shooters. >Sure, this might not pass the "smack the lens and there shouldn't be a single iota of movement test", but that's a very narrow use-case, That is a mainstream usecase for pretty much every single professional! A more secure interface betw…

> Bluetooth LE devices can have upto a year of battery life ! Bluetooth LE is highly unsuitable, if not impossible, to use with high bandwidth applications (like dumping a 40MB+ file to a remote destination potentially dozens of times a minute or more).

It is eminently suitable as a signal for remote shutter release, which was the context of my comment.

Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing

#324

Post by kayfox »

beezle wrote: post #293
smileysteve wrote: post #244

I disagree with this article in a lot of ways; the tripod mount is about the closest thing to mattering to a field/wedding/studio photographer. - IR Remote; Works in the studio (or in the field) because your lighting is to the sides or front (if it's behind the camera, you have shadow) - USB/Wifi version. The typical pro is taking 300-3000 clicks before uploading to lightroom for post; between this there are many oth…

D500 owner. Clearly the original post was directed at the high end and reads much like first world problems and to the extent that much of his wish list is not on all cameras can be attributed to profit margins. I agree with the raw stuff and perhaps the focus as well (though what he asks is just a function of modern day laziness). I disagree with the wifi and usb issues. I can count how many times I have used wifi.…

Agree on battery drain, I can leave my D300s on for days and it still has battery left.

If it had WiFi it would be a matter of hours.

Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing

#325

Post by dpark »

brudgers wrote: post #310
dpark wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Drilling into the body of a camera that costs multiple thousand dollars to add a second screw seems like a risky maneuver and definitely warranty-voiding. I would personally advise against this. Adding Velcro doesn't seem to me like it would do much for vibration or slippage (large rotation, yes, small scale rotation, not so much), since Velcro is not a rigid connection. Rubber or similar spacers can help but it's st…

To me, the degree to which a camera is likely to see a built in Arca Swiss plate is inversely proportional to the degree to which it costs multiple thousands of dollars because the higher the price the more modular the design. The reason for more modular designs is that the variety of systems with which high end cameras are designed to integrate tends to be higher. Or conversely the more likely the camera is to be de…

I think the inverse proportionality is probably wrong since entry-level cameras generally never get mounted on anything. Arca Swiss mounting on my mom's camera wouldn't be particularly useful.

I don't think a multiple-thousand dollar camera body is a good target for invasive modifications unless it's already out of warranty, regardless of whether the change is being made by someone with the appropriate skills. I also doubt that the result of such a modification would be very good anyway. Without being part of the initial design (e.g. a captive nut embedded in the base), the best aftermarket modification would likely be based on either threads tapped directly into the body or a nut essentially glued in place.

Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing

#328

Post by phinnaeus »

ricardobeat wrote: post #314
ISL wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A dovetail would change the way a camera feels in-hand. For all the non-Arca-Swiss users, a dovetail would forever be caught on things without adding utility.

It doesn't have to stick out - think two ridges on the underside, but the whole bottom is still flat.

I wish the author had explained this better. It seems obvious now but initially I was having the same confusion as some of the ancestor comments.

Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing

#329

Post by brians »

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.

That has massive import/export implications, changes how you can ship them, all sorts of nonsense. As always, when a group of hundreds of smart engineers are doing something superficially inexplicable, it's actually either:

a) complicated, and a good idea, or b) complicated, because of the government.

Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing

#330

Post by jstarfish »

hyperbovine wrote: post #304
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-...

Yes that's what cameras need... Java. Ever used Android TV? Or Android for that matter? Lags and crashes on the camera OS would absolutely bug the shit out of most photographers.

Ha!

One of the biggest reasons I still lug a DSLR around is because of how unpredictable the Android camera can be. After I click the shutter button, I never know how long it's going to be for it to finish auto-focusing on every object at once, balancing colors, downloading updates, reticulating splines and whatever the hell else it's doing in the background.

By the time it finishes my kids have started wandering and come out as smears on a landscape.

iOS seems to be a little better at this.

Versus the DSLR-- Set exposure, push button, take picture. Fix errors in post.

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