My biggest complaint is that they keep thinking we want Wifi more than we want GPS on high end cameras. Really, hooking up to a wire at home is far easier than adding on GPS data in the field. If I can only have one, give me GPS.
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Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing
281–290 of 393 posts
Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing
#282Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some cameras do have this. The Fuji X10/X20 (and probably X30) had a focusing distance indicator on the screen, and I loved that feature. I can't speak for the other Fuji X models since I only had the X10 and X20. I really miss this feature on my other cameras.
X100 cameras do too. I never find myself using it, personally, but I understand why some people would.
I use the focus display all the time in "action shot" scenarios – kids and pets. The auto focus is too slow (at least on the X100, X-Trans was supposed to fix this) to capture these, and I can't manually focus quickly enough through the LCD either. It's similarly useful for low-light shots.
The 3rd-party CHDK firmware for Canons has a focus display as well. Loved it when I had a Canon for the same reasons.
Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing
#283Earlier quoted context omitted.
Would that "extra processor" not be better off just being your phone?
Sure but you'd wanna duct tape the phone to the camera so you don't have to hold two devices simultaneously. I can see the merits of putting android in the actual camera.
Why would you duct tape them? My phone and camera establish a wireless connection with an NFC touch point to activate it. From there I can transfer photos or use it as a remote viewfinder and shutter.
Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing
#284Here'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.
GPS can be turned off.
Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing
#285Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The bodies of modern DSLRs are jampacked with every kind of knob, control, button, dial, and dongle that you can possibly think of. ... But in practice, 95% of users aren't using 95% of these adjusters 95% of the time. Amen. I've been casually shooting with a Nikon D70 and now a D7000 for around 15 years now. Here's an illustrated guide to every single physical control on the D7000, which isn't even a high-end came…
> But in practice, 95% of users aren't using 95% of these adjusters 95% of the time. Not a snark: maybe 95% of users didn't need a semi-pro DSLR and should have gone with a smartphone or a point-and-shoot instead? The remaining 5% need those knobs and controls, and would be left with a less useful camera if they were removed or simplified.
I want long lenses for taking pictures of my kids playing soccer. The phone on my camera just isn't going to work for that. Nor will point-and-shoot telephotos because they're too slow to focus.
Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing
#286I 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…
No kidding on standard components. When we have family gatherings and want to take a self timer group shot and I don't have a tripod, the shade attachment screw at the top of a lamp usually fits into my camera's tripod socket. The shade mount is sturdy enough to hold A small camera in place while also allowing enough pivoting and turning to frame up the shot.
Update: clearly I am not the only person to notice this:
https://books.google.com/books?id=nRsTBQAAQBAJ&lpg=PA57&ots=...
Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing
#287Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sounds like an iPhone with a bigger camera chip. I don’t think Apple will venture into dedicated camera equipment. The iPhone camera is one of the big selling points and keeps people upgrading. Apple will not sacrifice their cash cow for a comparatively niche market. A dedicated device also goes against the unification that Apple seems to pursue.
> Apple will not sacrifice their cash cow for a comparatively niche market. I never understood that reasoning. As an individual, I can't simultaneously develop 10 different products, but a large company sitting on billions in cash could develop 1000 niche products simultaneously. In fact, some large companies (Procter & Gamble, 3M, General Electric) have thousands or tens of thousands of products. To use your Apple e…
They only have so many people, and they’re already having trouble delivering the products they have now. I think the airpods are just now available in stores as of a couple weeks ago. And the same thing for the iPhone X, most people probably won’t have them until 2018.
Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing
#288Earlier quoted context omitted.
but these don't look like substitute goods I know lots of people who used to carry DSLRs everywhere but who now only carry their iPhone.
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.
Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing
#289As 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 shutter lag on my Nikon is 40ms. Can Android do that?
Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing
#290As 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 pro photographers and photo journalists who spend the most money on "pro" cameras don't care about instant publication and on camera manipulation because they already have better workflows for those.
Android isn't required for those features, anyway. My Nikon allows quite a bit of manipulation and pre-processing before generating a JPEG.
For some context of what a big name pro photographer might be working with, check out [1]. He's spending a lot of money, and he's not manipulating pictures on camera and sending them to Instagram in real time.
[1] https://petapixel.com/2017/05/06/heres-one-photographers-cam...