Cameras and Connectivity

The right balance, FZ1000

Where is the camera industry going or failing to go ?

This post  has been prompted by my observations of  a 12 year old family member on  recent outings.

He has an interest in photography.

On the first outing he borrowed an  i- Phone,  figured out how to use it in a few minutes  then proceeded to snap photos which he immediately forwarded to his friends.

On the second outing he borrowed a Panasonic FZ1000, figured out how to use that in a few minutes   and was soon snapping away with the zoom lens at full stretch.

The two big drawcards for the FZ1000 were:

1. That long zoom which enabled photos not possible with the smartphone.

2. The built in EVF which enabled him to easily see image preview and playback  on a bright sunny day when the monitor was just about useless.

He actually managed to get a couple of in focus shots of birds in flight at the free flight show at the zoo.

But then he hit a roadblock. The FZ1000 cannot be used to transmit its own photos to the internet. It may have been  possible to do so with a smartphone app.  But he had no interest in this level of gadget complexity and frankly, neither do I.

It seems to me that most camera makers are not paying attention to their customers desires regarding usage practices.

I think camera users in the digital era probably fall loosely into the same two groups as they did in the film era.

The Majority

When film was king, there was a large group of camera users who made their snaps then took the exposed film to a mini lab for processing and printing.

In the digital era I think that this same group snaps pictures with a smartphone then uploads them to social media, cloud storage, email or other online virtual place.  A few of these people visit a photo booth where they can have prints made of a small number of special photos.

I think most people in this group will not be interested in a camera which cannot communicate like a smartphone.

Professionals and enthusiasts

A very much smaller group of film users developed and printed their own film in a personal or shared or hired darkroom. Professionals paid someone to process their film and supervised someone to print it.

In the digital era this same group shoots RAW, downloads photo files to a computer, converts and edits them in Photoshop or similar software and may even own a printer, although printing is mostly done by a Pro Lab.

People in this group might not mind that the camera cannot communicate directly with the mobile phone network.

However I bet that if it did so that feature would get plenty of use.

It seems to me there are unlikely to be enough professionals and enthusiasts in the world to buy enough cameras to support the existing camera industry if it continues to make products without built in, native wireless communication which works just like a smart phone.

Most camera makers are dragging their heels on this issue.   Sales figures for most camera types have been in decline for several years.

I suspect that if most camera makers continue producing minor variations on their established camera themes year after year then they will go broke.  Just like Kodak, an employee of which actually invented the digital camera,  presenting Kodak with a huge new technology which it failed to develop.

Plenty of  ordinary peoplewould like to have a camera with advanced (but easy to use) capabilities, especially a long zoom lens.

Many of them don’t realise it yet, and therefore will not request one when asked, but when they do get that long lens they will also need a built in EVF to aid in holding the camera steady at the long end of the zoom and to obtain clear image preview and review in bright sunlight.

Very few of them have much interest in all that tedious business of RAW capture, conversion and   editing. They also have no interest in the egregious ergonomic burden of  changing lenses.

So, what is required ?

Basically a hybrid camera/zoom lens/EVF/smartphone device which performs all image capture, filing, editing and communicating on a single piece of ergonomically designed multifunctional equipment which is easily portable.  Preferably one which does not require 350 pages of operating instructions.

Is that so difficult ?   All the requisite technology has already been invented and is in regular use.

Can you get one of these things ?

I think the answer to that question at the moment is…………….almost………….but not quite.

The Samsung Galaxy Camera was described on release of version 1 as a true hybrid zoom compact camera/smartphone. It has a long zoom lens and runs on the Android Jelly bean operating system.

It has not had particularly good reviews as a camera and it has no EVF and apparently the version 2 does not offer 3G/4G so presumably it cannot make phone calls.  So it falls short on all functional measures.

However Samsung appears to be heading more or less in the right direction.

The Panasonic Lumix  CM1  is a hybrid camera/smartphone which runs on Android 4.4. It provides phone functionality and features a very large (for a smartphone) camera sensor of 15.9mm diameter. 

The lens has a fixed focal length and there is no EVF.

So  this device also falls short of my proposed specifications, but shows that Panasonic is also thinking about ways to merge the functionality of camera and smartphone.  

Would it not be ironic if  Samsung or Panasonic became the camera market leader, and in the process redefined the concept of a camera. ?

I think it could happen.

Ken Olsen of Digital  Equipment Corporation is often quoted as having said in 1977  “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home”

He got it wrong and Kodak got it wrong and I think that most camera makers are getting it wrong at the moment also.  They appear to be focussed (pardon the pun) on making cameras with ever increasing pixel count and  video performance (4K….8K…in a world full of 2K TV screens) which few people need or want.

They missed the current craze for “point of view” video popularised by Go Pro,  millions of whose  products adorn a multitude of skate boards, helmets, bikes, selfie sticks and almost everything else.

Perhaps they need to pay more attention to the technology usage practices of 12 year old children.

In due course, we shall see how this plays out in the market place.