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Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing

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Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing

#371

Post by collinmanderson »

brudgers wrote: post #342
nradov wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GPS can be turned off.

GPS based on solely on satellite signals tends to require several to tens of minutes before it can provide an accurate location. Cell phone geolocation tends to much much faster because it utilizes terrestrial radio signals from cell towers and wifi networks and who knows what else...a database of such signals is part of the what else.

Laptops (and phones) use the mac addresses of nearby wifi networks to approximate location (especially inside buildings where GPS signal is low.)

Though it requires an internet connection an online database to actually compute the location. So, probably not as useful for a camera.

skyhookwireless.com is one example of a wifi location database.

Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing

#372

Post by wl »

dkrich wrote: post #292
jfindley wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> this guy's rants sound to me like a super demanding, high-end user. Yes. He is. He's a respected professional photographer, and most of his readership are also serious photographers, with many pro or semi-pros among them. His site is largely read by people looking to optimise for the best IQ their equipment can deliver, and he doesn't really write all that much that's targeted at more casual photographers. > First…

Okay, fine, that's exactly what I said- that I'm sure his points are valid for his use case, which is the upper, upper end of the market. But surely he must understand that what's good for him and his very particular use cases isn't necessarily good for the other 98% of camera customers out there. I engineer advanced web applications for a living. There are lots of things about OSX that would make my life easier for…

The other 98% of camera customers are better served with their smartphones. Making concessions to folks who aren't buying these cameras and have no use for them doesn't make much sense.

Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing

#373

Post by snissn »

Synaesthesia wrote: post #250
snissn wrote: post #241

I bought a GoPro - HERO5 Black 4K for $400 for a vacation - wanted to transfer my videos to my laptop and i'm hit with USB2.0 speeds.. So what do I do? Set up my camera as a wireless access point and use wget to transfer my files. ugh.

And was it faster?

Oh yes - I should have included that - 2mbs on usb vs 40 mbs on wifi

Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing

#374

Post by snissn »

kgen wrote: post #257
snissn wrote: post #241

I bought a GoPro - HERO5 Black 4K for $400 for a vacation - wanted to transfer my videos to my laptop and i'm hit with USB2.0 speeds.. So what do I do? Set up my camera as a wireless access point and use wget to transfer my files. ugh.

Yeah, I found the same with my GoPro, but you don't have to go to the trouble of setting up an AP, just get a UHS sdcard and pop it out and into a compatible reader.

Totally! I do that now, but couldn't on vacation and had to free up space for the next day of underwater videos!

Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing

#375

Post by djrogers »

sunsetandlabrea wrote: post #126
mysterypie wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

I think this is slightly changing at Apple, and in my opinion will slowly make things much worse. One of the first things Steve Jobs on returning to Apple did was to cull what he felt were unnecessary products, and product groups. You could argue that Apple is large enough now to have thousands of products, but what was clear is that Jobs had the defining vision and no single person can have a single defining vision…

>I'd like to see Apple re-focus, make single models of .. MacBook, iMac

Apple made multiple models of iMacs and MacBooks (and PowerBooks) under Jobs - I think this would be a horrible idea, for computers specifically you just can’t address everyones needs with one size of laptop/desktop screen.

Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing

#376

Post by djrogers »

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…

No - what Apple will do is evolve the iPhone camera(s) and computational photography, over and over every year, pushing it further and further until most of the needs for a mirrorless camera are gone.

Rather than disrupt the high end consumer camera market with a camera in 2 years, they’ll do it with iPhone in 5 or 10 years.

Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing

#377

Post by ekianjo »

mark-r wrote: post #315
ekianjo wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Full Frame and above DLSR market is not really shrinking though. It's certainly not a huge market, but it's ripe for disruption since the pace of innovation of the current incumbents is very, very slow.

The DSLR market is shrinking, simply because everyone who wants one already has one and there are no compelling reasons to upgrade. There was a golden period of a few years where if you wanted a decent camera a DSLR was the best option, so the market expanded quickly. Those days are over. Adding the features identified in the post would cure the "no reason to upgrade" problem, at least temporarily. But the market for…

I was talking about "Full frame and above" please don't just my comment about DSLRs in general. APS-C size sensors DSLRs do not fit in my description, and that is the category that is shrinking the most.

Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing

#378

Post by odbol_ »

> camera with Bluetooth

Enjoy your Blueborne security vulnerabilities. Because I'm sure you'll easily get a firmware update from Nikon from your 5 year old camera.

Also, since Apple breaks Bluetooth in pretty much every iOS release, something tells me you're not going to have fun trying to use your iPhone with your camera. Especially since cameras are designed to last decades, not a 2 year max like phones.

Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing

#379

Post by snowwrestler »

brudgers wrote: post #301
snowwrestler wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

When I use my flash bracket, I bolt the flash bracket to the camera. When I use the camera with flash bracket with my tripod, I bolt an Arca Swiss compatible plate to the flash bracket using another 1/4-20 hole in the bracket. A third 1/4-20 hole allows me to leave the $0.75 1/4-20 eyebolt (stainless steel no less) I use for a carabiner + neck strap on the flash bracket. That said, from an engineering perspective the…

The QR dovetail would be metal. Most high end cameras have metal shells on the bottom, and that's really what Thom is writing about: high end cameras.

EDIT: and it would not stick out awkwardly on the bottom. It would be engineered as part of the shape of the camera itself, while keeping a flat bottom that sits level, with the 1/4 threaded socket.

Re: Dumb Things Camera Companies are Still Doing

#380

Post by snowwrestler »

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.

Exactly.
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