[Aristophanes]

All this unbounded 'latest hot gadget' technology optimism without any thought of the problems - reliability, speed, security...

Speed is improving. Try WiFi ac coming down the pipe as in right now.

Reliability is better than ever.

Security is not a problem with proper precautions. 99.9999% of photographs have no commercial or anything but sentimental value, mostly to the person who took them.

What's worse, the 'hot gadget' that simplifies unnecessary steps or the the process I outlined above of shot-SD card-trek to PC-upload-edit-export-share/print, or;

Shoot, in-camera edit, share. Take the real keepers back in RAW and do post if needed for print or long-term display.

A systemlike that forces better up-front editing as opposed to endless shooting followed by huge file dumps. PersonallyI suspect a lot of the slowdown in DSLR sales is because people have caught on that that DSLR photo is awesome on the 24" monitor Grandma has, but there is NO WAY I am going to spend 3 minutes per photo of a 40 shot family picnic editing those things.

As in the film era, most people bypassed their darkroom. In order to do that DSLR's and prosumer cameras have to be tooled less like pro devices and more like consumer devices, and that means simple, built-in connectivity.

Eye-fi is a kludge. Not a bad one, but still inadequate.

[mamethot]

All this unbounded 'latest hot gadget' technology optimism without any thought of the problems - reliability, speed, security...

Most of the problems you mention are non-issues. WI-FI and GPS should already be part of the current camera line-up. Pentax is lagging in that regard. They could be leaders.

I am an optimist, they will pick-up...

[DaveBlack]

What's exactly the problem with SD card?
Wifi enabled cameras would bring what except more battery drain ?
How could we manage GBs of pics on LR using a phone or tablet?
Is it about posting these photos on facebook or equivalent social media?
I am just curious.

Nothing wrong with the SD card, but wifi connectivity is still needed. To reduce power drain the wifi can be turned off most of the time and just turn it on when you want wifi connectivity. GBs of photos can be uploaded to a cloud storage and manage there with an smartphone/tablet app. The main use of wifi on a camera is to upload to Facebook or equivalent social media.

The Q with wifi would be really nice for a social media camera. The image quality is better than a smartphone. The ergonomics is better. It is small enough to be pocketable. So when you want to take a photo for social medias just pull out the Q and take the photo. Transfer the image to your smartphone by wifi and then on to the social media site by G4 on the phone.

[rawr]

What if I don't have a Facebook or twitter or tumblr? All I have is a flickr and my own sites.

I don't need wifi or gps or 4G in my camera to replace my SD card or a simple USB cable.

[mamethot]

The idea of Wi-Fi and GPS in the grip was a good one, in my opinion.

Of course not everybody needs, it comes down to a business decision, either impose it on everyone or make different models.

I think we all can understand that the sales might not justify making 2 models. The nice part is that if the equipment does not correspond to your needs, you can refrain from buying it.

[Mehlsack]

On longer panorama sessions i use my Eye-Fi-Card to send the pictures to my smartphone and can spot flawed/ missing images in time and correct the mistake before retaking the whole panorama.....
So it does have its use.

I think that Wifi or other connectivity things ( its gonna be......wait for it...... te....thering) or UHS I or II SD-compatibility.
Just image something like a "highspeed" write-mode where the DSLR starts to write pictures into two different SD-Slots for minimized buffering times !!

The idea with GPS etc in the grip has been mentioned by me last year or the year before that obviously pentax is not listening to me.....

[mamethot]

Just image something like a "highspeed" write-mode where the DSLR starts to write pictures into two different SD-Slots for minimized buffering times !!

As in RAID 0, but then you have a higher risk of corruption or you simply risk loosing all your photos if one of the units fails. There are ways around it but why not make the equipment compliant to UHS standard instead...

[Mehlsack]

? Raid 0 ?

What ?

Just make 2 SD-Slots with UHS and start writing pictures , the slot with first signals "ready" again gets the next picture. Maybe it wount be alternating etc. but it would work with different cards ( and speeds) and at the end you just merge the two folders in windows or mac.

[Uluru]

;

Shoot, in-camera edit, share. Take the real keepers back in RAW and do post if needed for print or long-term display.

What you practically demand is that a modern DSLR runs on a software like the iOS7 and has at least 4-8" screen.

A camera manufacturer does not need to go that deep because it's a waste of time and resources to do things that already exist and which others do better anyway.

A good wireless communication with a mobile phone and a tablet / computer is all what is necessary for a modern camera, and rest is solved through the more powerful services and software that mobile phones and tablets are running on.

Seeing on a bigger screen if the picture is fine, tagging pictures, naming, cropping, editing, sharing to hundreds of services, emailing, etc. is much better done on a tablet than on any camera.

And it is more practical for a camera manufacturer to create awesome cameras instead of fiddling with software "solutions". Camera manufacturers must reclaim their DNA, or, ensuring no tablet or phone can duplicate their part of image taking job — taking awesome images using awesome lenses and sensors. And then, they can co-exist with tablets and phones by emphasising their strengths. A mutual respect in things that one party does infinitely better yields in interdependence, not in substitution.

Like that, camera manufacturers have a much better prospect for the future. Create less junk, but more truly outstanding cameras and lenses, with great handling, enjoyable to use and built specifically for an image taking purpose.

[mamethot]

I just see things in an overly complicated manner :P (but it would be even faster lol)

[Mehlsack]

complete wireless tethering and image transfer, that would be AWESOME!

Edit:
Sure Raid 0 would be faster, but more complex, needing more processing power/ ernergy maybe even hardware AND wouldn't be so compatible with different hardware. ( you would almost always two similar SD-Cards) and you need some specilized software if you dont want to use the camera as the card reader in the Laptop/PC

[DaveBlack]

What if I don't have a Facebook or twitter or tumblr? All I have is a flickr and my own sites.

I don't need wifi or gps or 4G in my camera to replace my SD card or a simple USB cable.

I don't need the movie mode but having it does get me a good liveview for macro work. Also the processor in the camera is better to handle movies so it makes the camera better for stills.

Anyhow, wifi in cameras is going to be a standard feature, You can use it or not it is your choice. In your case if you are traveling I can see you going into a cafe with wifi and upload your photos to Flickr for a backup to the memory cards. It will save you from having to travel with a laptop and USB cable.

[tclausen]

This is what it's all about. Your camera should be set-up to have instant acces to your FaceBook, Pinterest and what more to just put an image on it.

Are those really /pro/ features?

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy my WiFi SD cards, it's just that I am not convinced that a large number of pros would do "direct-to-facepintgram" without any kind of inspection on a larger screen and PP.

I'm no pro, and I don't use "direct-to-facepintgram" but simply the WiFi cards to dump the data off the camera to a secondary storage (for backup & upload to my personal WebDAV off-site backup). I'd imagine that an integrated non-hosted solution for that would be more in the veins of what a pro would need (backup to home, ship off to image/news editor automatically).

[mecrox]

What you practically demand is that a modern DSLR runs on a software like the iOS7 and has at least 4-8" screen.

A camera manufacturer does not need to go that deep because it's a waste of time and resources to do things that already exist and which others do better anyway.

A good wireless communication with a mobile phone and a tablet / computer is all what is necessary for a modern camera, and rest is solved through the more powerful services and software that mobile phones and tablets are running on.

Seeing on a bigger screen if the picture is fine, tagging pictures, naming, cropping, editing, sharing to hundreds of services, emailing, etc. is much better done on a tablet than on any camera.

And it is more practical for a camera manufacturer to create awesome cameras instead of fiddling with software "solutions". Camera manufacturers must reclaim their DNA, or, ensuring no tablet or phone can duplicate their part of image taking job — taking awesome images using awesome lenses and sensors. And then, they can co-exist with tablets and phones by emphasising their strengths. A mutual respect in things that one party does infinitely better yields in interdependence, not in substitution.

Like that, camera manufacturers have a much better prospect for the future. Create less junk, but more truly outstanding cameras and lenses, with great handling, enjoyable to use and built specifically for an image taking purpose.

The IT folks are gorging themselves on patents and reeling in outfits like Nik Software. Developments in sensor technology may mean that stunningly good images can be acquired from "cameras" compact enough to fit into tablets and phones. Add in some clever new lens tech and the bar on what is "good enough" for the vast majority" of users just got higher. These are the ones for whom immediate connectivity how and where they like is a basic requirement.

That leaves traditional, old school camera companies. Yes, there will still be a place for them. But it might become an increasingly beleaguered one. Imagine being able to go on vacation with a tablet-like device and take images as good as today's K5 but with, perhaps, twice the dynamic range - and with corresponding excellent video to match. In fact there is no longer any distinction between stills and video. The users captures a datastream and decides how to present it using the device's software. Focus points and bokeh can be changed in software after the shot. Telephoto effects can be done using a digital zoom/crop because the sensor pulls in a huge amount of detail which is retained or discarded depending on the user's final choice of image. A lot of this stuff is already sketched out or in labs. Of course it may never pan out or become a reality for all sorts of reasons. But those old school camera outfits still pottering around in the last century are going to have a most unwelcome surprise if any of this stuff does begin to emerge. And when they think about competing they may find they can't. During those long years when they ran down their R&D departments and stayed fast asleep, they ceded the patents for most of the whole darn thang to the IT folks. Which is all a long-winded way of saying that, imho, they cannot stay removed from the world of IT and comms and expect to survive. In some cases, i think we are still in the denial stage. In others - Sony, Canon - the message has cleared got home.

[Aristophanes]

What if I don't have a Facebook or twitter or tumblr? All I have is a flickr and my own sites.

I don't need wifi or gps or 4G in my camera to replace my SD card or a simple USB cable.

You are missing the point.

Most people in the market will have only a tablet or smartphone in the future. Their limited storage means connectivity to the network is a must. Or the camera will not sell. Making cameras reliant on the PC darkroom is a path to shrinking sales.