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Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing

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Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing

#331

Post by matwood »

dguaraglia wrote: post #167
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-...

Battery life could be a concern. While using my Nikon DSLR I won't turn it off at all until I'm done for the day and that seems to barely affect the battery. I can leave it in a drawer for months, pick it up and snap a hundred pictures and put it back in the drawer for a few more months and the battery is still fine. In fact, I'd be surprised if I charge it more than once a year (mind you, since phone cameras became…

> While using my Nikon DSLR I won't turn it off at all until I'm done for the day and that seems to barely affect the battery.

FYI, for the most part Nikon DSLRs are always 'off' until you hit the shutter or some other button. The on/off switch just disables all the buttons so you don't accidentally hit anything. This is why people measure DSLR battery life in shots taken, not time with the camera on.

Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing

#332

Post by matwood »

nradov wrote: post #288
ghaff wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I wrote the other day in a different context, when prices got low enough, a lot of people bought DSLRs with cheapo kit lenses, turned the control dial to Auto, and lugged them around to take snapshots for posting to Facebook. For the most part, smartphones have gotten good enough that, if that's how you use a DSLR, you should mostly leave it at home. Many people do have a number of lenses and use DSLRs for creativ…

I'm mostly one of those people, but I still often lug the DSLR because even the best smartphone cameras still suck at shooting distant subjects. They may have a lot of megapixels, but the lenses and sensors are so small that once I crop the shot down I end up with something I would be ashamed to even post on Facebook. Even the cheapest DSLR kit zoom lens produces dramatically better images.

On a recent vacation I found myself leaving my 70-300mm on my dslr for times I need reach, and using my iPhone7+ for other shots. Worked out pretty well.

Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing

#333

Post by zfedoran »

snowwrestler wrote: post #259
brudgers wrote: post #149

I love 1/4-20 sockets. Attach my camera to a flash bracket? Yep. Attach an eyebolt to attach a carabiner to attach a neck strap? Yep. Attach a hand strap or a 40mm, 80mm, or 200mm Arca Swiss plate. Yep. Yep, Yep and Yep. There's nothing stopping a photographer from permanently attaching an Arca-Swiss plate to the bottom of a camera body with a bit of cyanoacrylate or some screws if it makes better photographs. For me…

I think you're missing the point. If camera manufacturers just molded an Arca Swiss dovetail into the bottom edge of their cameras, then you could have both solid, easy QR compability and the 1/4 socket--simultaneously. The way it works now, you have to use the 1/4 socket to get QR compatibility.

I'd prefer dual 1/4 threads on the bottom of the camera, then you could add the Arca Swiss dovetail and it wouldn't have the rotation issues. Also, the aesthetics and feel of the camera body wouldn't change.

Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing

#334

Post by monksy »

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-...

That's dead on. There is a video on Digital Review where they compared someone using their iphone to post an instagram photo vs a good camera and copying it via wifi to the phone to post.

With my LX10 you can batch transfer the photos so that it makes it easier. But it's still a pain. (You have to manually connect with the phone etc)

There should be a service connection on Panasonic's side to say: this camera id is configured for these services and accounts and I should be able to view the photo on the camera and post directly to say imgur. (No phone needed)

Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing

#335

Post by nradov »

brians wrote: post #329
alecdibble wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I don't accept that. Many cameras, even some cheap point-and-shoot cameras, do include GPS receivers. I have an old Canon Powershot S100 with GPS that was sold all over the world for less money than a smartphone. So obviously the import/export and shipping implications aren't that massive. There's no valid reason to exclude that feature from DSLRs any more.

Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing

#336

Post by ghaff »

CrystalGamma wrote: post #88
bryanlarsen wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that you're often hand holding a camera, being lighter is a significant advantage, it can often be the difference between a stable or a blurred shot. And good plastics are plastic in the traditional sense of the word: if you drop them, they'll absorb the force by deforming and then spring back into place. Metals deform permanently. In a car that's an advantage, you can just hammer it back into place. With a pre…

> And good plastics are plastic in the traditional sense of the word: if you drop them, they'll absorb the force by deforming and then spring back into place. That's not what I was taught plastic meant. I was taught both plastic and elastic materials deform under force, but the elastic ones (not the plastic ones) return to their original form once the force is gone …

In mechanical engineering, plastic deformation does refer to permanent/non-reversible changes (as opposed to elastic deformation) past the elastic limit. That said, plasticity is more commonly used to suggest malleability.

Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing

#337

Post by NegativeLatency »

TheRealPomax wrote: post #300
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-...

I don't want android on my camera. I just want it to be able to send all data that it's curating to my android device (which has an actually useful screen size and powerful enough cpu/gpu to do real editing) in a browsable fashion where I can see what's on the camera, and pick what to transfer. Kind of like, say... FTP over bluetooth/wifi? (or sFTP, of course). And of course, a full input mapping for all "buttons" on…

Bluetooth might not be great. The max transfer rate is something like 24 Mbit/s (3 MB/s), and say a single RAW file is 20 MB, then you'd be looking at about 7 seconds of transfer time for each photo.

With high quality jpegs ~5MB it would be closer to 2 seconds per picture.

I think you'd need some kind of direct cabled connection for good perf for professional photographers.

Not to mention getting all the camera and app providers to standardize on a protocol and set of features.

Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing

#338

Post by michrassena »

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-...

I've actually seen a camera which runs some flavor of android. It was a few years ago at Best Buy, maybe it was a Samsung, but I'm not certain. My first impression was turning it on and waiting for it to boot which took some seconds. If you've never used a digital SLR, that might seem acceptable. My Nikon D80, from a decade ago, takes some number of milliseconds (like 400) to become fully functional from a cold start. Here's an article from 2007 touting the D3s startup time of 120 milliseconds. https://www.dpreview.com/articles/9148811427/nikond3 That's a cold start, pop in a new battery and go times. Waiting seconds, puts the camera into the toy category.

The other factor is updates. I've had that Nikon D80 for 10 years, never had to worry about updates and never had to hook it up to a computer. Why trade in something with a offline, baked-in firmware for a constantly moving security target, or worse, as we see in the mobile space, an OS and app landscape that will be abandoned after two or three years and left vulnerable.

Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing

#339

Post by [deleted] »

sliverstorm wrote: post #204
fhood wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

A DSLR can "sleep" with the power switch on, waiting for a shutter press for weeks. I actually have no idea how long it can go, because the drain seems to be practically zero...

[deleted]

Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing

#340

Post by headcanon »

askafriend wrote: post #7

I could only imagine if Apple took all of their camera expertise from the iPhone and all of their existing Chip expertise and all of their Operating Systems expertise to create a Semi-Pro Mirrorless camera. Imagine full iOS integration, super fast A-11 Bionic chip (same as iPhone), high throughput wireless components, custom OS (like WatchOS), developer API, W2 chip for Bluetooth pairing, OLED screen, and beautiful l…

An alternative - a partnership with Canon on Nikon where they would build a shell around the iPhone that would accept DSLR lenses, and build an iOS app to have all the DSLR features, with deep integration (like panorama, could make use of the other lens, AI, etc). They make more money on lenses anyway, let apple sell razors while they continue to sell razorblades. Furthermore, the case itself would cost $100-$200, which coupled with the phone would be > $1000, while the "normal" DSLR sensor shell is already about $600, so it still leaves room for both products. Also, it would even lower the barrier to entry to purchase DSLR lenses for current iPhone owners, which would increase lens sales. Assuming it works from a technical perspective, I don't really see a downside with this business model.
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