Originally posted by Quicksand Well, these devices ARE complicated and have to deal with a lot of asynchronous inputs and tasks. Every couple of years a new processor comes out with new capabilities and new quirks and errata. And fairly recently, the Milbeaut line switched from a Fujitsu RISC architecture for the microcontroller module to ARM, and I have to imagine that interfacing with the image processor portion of the chip is different in various ways because of it.
This isn't to make excuses, because it CAN be done right, and there should be a complete suite of rigorous testing protocols to identify problems BEFORE the product hits the market.
I just don't think it's all that simple as you suggest, and I for one am not surprised there have been some issues. Disappointed, sure, but not surprised.
But what really bums me out is the corporate response, or more accurately the complete lack thereof. The camera has been out for like eight months now, and finally NOW we are hearing that engineers are looking into the problems?
DSLR's may not be simple, but they're certainly not as complicated as some folks think. Smart phones are every bit, if not more complicated than your camera, they don't share the same lock up / freeze problem cameras do!
I have friends that shoot CaNikons, most have 3 or more bodies, none have ever had freeze / lock up trouble. Personally, I have 3 DSLR bodies and a handful of different P&S cams, only my K20 had problems, and that was hardware related.
I agree that these "bugs" should be worked out before a product is released. But my thought is: if the problem is merely software or interface related, it would affect all of a particular model, not just some, and not randomly with varying problems. Those things signal, to me at least, hardware deficiencies.
Perhaps the slow response is due in part to users just accepting that electronics have bugs, and failures are ok! Again, I'll use the car analogy, if you had to pull your car battery, just once, to reset your vehicle so it would start, would you just chalk it up to "buggy electronics"? No, you'd haul ass to the dealer to get it fixed! If more people sent their cameras in, instead of turning a blind eye when they failed to operate properly, maybe the manufacturer would do a tad more testing before releasing their newest (read most expensive) photographers toy!
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.