[Clavius]

Well, as I see, I am quite alone in my opinion. But, I can bet than in a few years, there will be such cameras, DSLR with touch screen... etc.

Again: When you look through the viewfinder of any DSLR, the LCD screen comes in contact with parts of your face. How should the camera distinguish between your finger using the apps, or your nose accidentally formatting your SD card?

[madbrain]

I don't disagree with you. Android probably isn't the right thing for a camera. But the point stands. The world is changing.

My point wasn't to advocate for freezing the set of features in the device, merely stating that Android is not the answer.
As long as what's being added to the camera actually enhances it without detrimental effects to the core functionality, I'm all for it.

I use the usb to load the photos onto my hard drive, raw, I select the decent ones, upload them to Google+ so I can show them on my andoid tablet. Someone is going to come up with a way to take a couple of those steps out of the process. And it will require more capability in the camera.

I think there is already one small shortcut - the Eyefi cards.

I'm somewhat skeptical about hardware integration directly from the camera to 3rd party services like google+ and facebook. These services change frequently. New ones appear and old services are obsoleted. I can see it in a disposable camera phone that gets replaced every 2 years as the software stack can get updated/rewritten with the new device. Not so much in a more expensive and durable DSLR.

I'm certain these issues are being seriously discussed at Pentax Ricoh. What will the world look like in a decade? Taking pictures is one thing, it needs to work very well. Then what? Are PC's with usb inputs going to be as common then as today? Maybe, maybe not. They had better be prepared for the eventuality, and many others as well.

The Pentax DSLRs and other cameras are not reliant on USB inputs. I almost never hookup my DSLR via USB. SD card readers, yes. SDXC cards might no longer be the medium of choice in new devices ten years from now, but there will certainly still be readers available in some form. Just like you can still get a USB floppy drive nowadays.

The simple camera mentioned above, a K1000 required that you remove the film, put it into a little can, take it somewhere to be developed. That world was great, but it is gone. What comes tomorrow may be unimaginable today, but if you are stuck with rewriting from scratch you are out of business.

And yes, I don't want a bunch of bells and whistles that get in my way. I want bells and whistles that do what I want easily, reliably.

Right. You just don't know what you will want , since it hasn't been invented yet

[Clavius]

SDXC cards might no longer be the medium of choice in new devices ten years from now, but there will certainly still be readers available in some form. Just like you can still get a USB floppy drive nowadays.

I agree with most of your post, except for what I quoted here above. Do you remember the smartmedia card? I've been looking for a replacement smartmedia card and reader for my 1999 Olympus 2020C for some time now. It can be found nowhere! SDXC could be a completely forgotten thing in 10 years time.

Strange when you think of it though. I can currently still buy the medium for my 1978 Ricoh Singlex, but not for my 1999 Olympus 2020c. Seem like standards are not so standard as they used to be.

[Alizarine]

Looking at past movies that talk about the future, it seems a lot of people wanted flying cars back then. And that by the 2000's, it will be a reality...

...looks like it's further off the future than the visionaries of the past have guessed.

[derekkite]

Not what I want, but what the market will buy.

There are dozens of ways the chain of actions from composing to a finished photo could be improved. And there are as many different ways it is done.

A full featured wireless remote where you can see, test and adjust everything in a studio setting, including real time display of a finished shot.

I for one would seriously look at a body where I could have one less cable cluttering my desk. Eyefi is a bit of a hack.

We forget that the old simple manual camera was only the first step in a rather complex series of procedures. Much was done by someone else that we didn't see. I think that most of us agree that the digital systems are so much better. We are probably only a step past where film was at its height in terms of iq.

I wonder how many of us shoot raw for the simple reason that the in camera processing is difficult to control due to the interface. Let me access that processing capability with a larger screen and decent user access.

I don't doubt for a moment that in short order my phone will have a better interface and workflow tools in a customizable and extendable interface. What it will lack are the sensor, shutter af and lens interfaces that make a dslr so great. Wouldn't it be great to have both?

[Clavius]

I don't doubt for a moment that in short order my phone will have a better interface and workflow tools in a customizable and extendable interface. What it will lack are the sensor, shutter af and lens interfaces that make a dslr so great. Wouldn't it be great to have both?

Nope, because that would make my DSLR the size of my desktop computer + DLSR + lens. That's a bit hard to hold.

It's like wanting a printer inside your phone, it would suck. Let separate machines do what they do best. I agree though that communication between all machines could be better.

[madbrain]

I agree with most of your post, except for what I quoted here above. Do you remember the smartmedia card? I've been looking for a replacement smartmedia card and reader for my 1999 Olympus 2020C for some time now. It can be found nowhere! SDXC could be a completely forgotten thing in 10 years time.

Strange when you think of it though. I can currently still buy the medium for my 1978 Ricoh Singlex, but not for my 1999 Olympus 2020c. Seem like standards are not so standard as they used to be.

Yes, I remember the SmartMedia cards. Most of mine died an early death. I think reliability is one of the key reasons why the format died.

But still, I don't think you have looked very hard for the SmartMedia readers and cards.

Readers :

Amazon.com: smartmedia reader Computer Memory Card Readers

Looks like the cards themselves can also still be found, though the prices are rather outrageous.

Amazon.com: smartmedia reader Memory Cards

I agree that SmartMedia is not commonly found anymore, but it's still possible to access the media. This might have something to do with the number of SmartMedia cameras that were shipped. It is likely far less than the number of film cameras that were shipped in the many decades before digital cameras became consumer devices.

In the very early digital days, SmartMedia was one of many players. Nowadays and for the last few years, it's hard to find a camera that doesn't feature an SD slot of some sort. There are still a few new cameras left with CompactFlash and MemoryStick slots, but they are usually paired with SD slots.

I think the volume of SD cameras and cards makes it less likely that SD will be as unpopular 10 years from now as SM is now. Maybe I will eat my words. Maybe cameras will have such huge built-in memory and fast wireless connectivity that nobody will be using memory cards of any sort anymore.

[marinb]

Hello, guys. It seems that finally, in the last posts, We started to talk, to discuss. Thank You. The first replies was only No! No! No! Thank You for the last ones that started to think before showing only emotions. I just wanted to create another discussion about dreams, about what we want in our DSLRs. Jules Verne dreamed about submarines, about spaceships etc. Do we have it now? Yes! Was he considered kind of crazy in that time? Yes! Was he really crazy? Nope. He was a dreamer. Most of You, only see problems: Android will slow the camera, the nose will format Your SD card, the OS needs restarting, etc. You just took nowadays problems and put them all together in our beloved Pentax. Of course it seems like a sh...it. ;-) There are a lot of excellent engineers in the world. Don't You think that they WILL find solutions for all Your problems? Dream!!! Open your minds. Admit new things. What if... then I would like... Don't tell us what You don't want. Let us know WHAT YOU WANT? English is not my native language. So, at least for Pentaxforums, I DREAM for a spell checker that will accept as CORRECT the words like PENTAX and DSLR. Is that to much? Or my nose will erase Your data?

[marinb]

Oh, by the way, I dream about a TTL radio flash trigger/receiver for Pentax. Should I ask Yongnuo to do that?

[madbrain]

Most of You, only see problems: Android will slow the camera, the nose will format Your SD card, the OS needs restarting, etc. You just took nowadays problems and put them all together in our beloved Pentax. Of course it seems like a sh...it. ;-) There are a lot of excellent engineers in the world. Don't You think that they WILL find solutions for all Your problems?

I guess there are too many experience engineers on this forum to not see the problems.

I own a treadmill with an LCD screen and a computer that runs Android. I have to say I'm not impressed with it. The touch screen is not really usable with sweaty hands. Try typing URLs that way ! And yes, the software stack on it does crash. At least the mechanical part of the treadmill is fine.

Can these software problems be solved ? IMO, only to some degree. Large software systems are very hard to stabilize.
To get the software stable for an embedded system, you have to reduce the code size and minimize it it to only what's truly necessary.
Not try to put everything and the kitchensink in it which can actually detract from the main purpose of the device.

I can think of many other examples besides the treadmill of devices with integration of additional features of dubious value.

My Yamaha AV amp has what is called a "DLNA" player . It also supports something called HD radio, which doesn't really sound all that great, and which I bet will not be around on the airwaves anymore 10 years from now.
The navigation system in my old car could play DVD movies.
Many Blu-ray DVD players and even TVs can play Netflix content, or stream video from other providers. Who knows if any of these companies will continue to exist ?

These are all secondary purposes. The main purpose of the AV amp remains switching audio & video sources, and amplifying the sound. The main purpose of the Blu-ray/DVD players is to play those discs. The main purpose of the TV is to display the content from external sources, not the built-in ones. The main purpose of the navigation system is to assist the driver, not distract him with a movie. And so on.

One really has to draw the line somewhere IMO. Just because a DSLR might have an H.264 encoding/decoding chip, a crummy speaker, an SDXC slot, and a 3" LCD screen doesn't mean I want to watch Hollywood movies on it. Not anymore than I want to watch them on a tiny cell phone LCD.

So IMO one has to be really careful not to put the cart before the horse.

Dream!!! Open your minds. Admit new things. What if... then I would like... Don't tell us what You don't want. Let us know WHAT YOU WANT? English is not my native language. So, at least for Pentaxforums, I DREAM for a spell checker that will accept as CORRECT the words like PENTAX and DSLR. Is that to much? Or my nose will erase Your data?

Well, the question that was asked was about running Android on the camera. Not about what new features we want on the camera, which may or may not be implemented with Android.

[Alizarine]

Oh, by the way, I dream about a TTL radio flash trigger/receiver for Pentax. Should I ask Yongnuo to do that?

I think this is more of a need than a want... Once Pentax gains footing in the market, I guess third-party makers of all sorts from lenses to accessories will make products for Pentax.

As for Android and web apps... I just really think it would be difficult to implement on the small screen on DSLR's. The most I can imagine my Pentax having is a sort of sub-feature that lets you do upload to cloud or online storage. Nokia just introduced a phone (or was that an app?) that "chooses the best face" in a series burst and puts that in the best angle, I think. As much as I find it innovative, I also find it actually insulting to my skill and preference as the person who took the photo. I won't let any AI or algorithm decide which shot I made is "best".

It's not that I don't want to "imagine more" but maybe because I'm more focused on taking the photo, with the camera, than what I can do with it in the camera after taking it. Hybrid AF, yes. Other-light-wavelength sensing, yes. Conversion to 3D, or taking in 3D, maybe.

On the other hand I see this: Zooming in through touchscreen would probably come true in the coming years, to eliminate the need for "moving mechanical parts" outside the lens barrel that will degrade in time, and also decrease manufacturing costs. The aperture ring was removed in modern lenses because it saves money right? Though that's a different thing altogether. It was removed because it costs extra, and anyway there's in-body aperture control already. Removing the zoom ring on zooms or even the focus ring may save some, but that would mean making them all internal or [IF], so I dunno if that will actually help save on cost. So, I'll screw that development and keep my old-timer glass.

[selar]

Ok, I confess that this thread made me buy a flucard!

[jake14mw]

I don't think it's really necessary for my camera to have android on it, but I wish it would more easily integrate with android, ios, or other os apps/devices. I think that touch screen control is inevitable, even voice control, it's just a question of who does it best.

a post from another forum from a Canon user. I'm jealous.

There is an inexpensive app for Android called DSLR Controller that I use to control and shoot with my Canon 5D2 and 7D cameras. It transfers the image to the tablet after shooting. You can see a live preview and change camera settings from the tablet. I use an ASUS Transformer Prime tablet which has available SD and USB adapters as well as a keyboard dock which has these ports. I don't know if it will work with your Nikon but you can check on the website.
DSLR Controller :: Home

[Anvh]

I don't think it's really necessary for my camera to have android on it, but I wish it would more easily integrate with android, ios, or other os apps/devices. I think that touch screen control is inevitable, even voice control, it's just a question of who does it best.

a post from another forum from a Canon user. I'm jealous.

There is an inexpensive app for Android called DSLR Controller that I use to control and shoot with my Canon 5D2 and 7D cameras. It transfers the image to the tablet after shooting. You can see a live preview and change camera settings from the tablet. I use an ASUS Transformer Prime tablet which has available SD and USB adapters as well as a keyboard dock which has these ports. I don't know if it will work with your Nikon but you can check on the website.
DSLR Controller :: Home

It's still in beta but they are planning to also add Pentax support and Pktether is making an android version.

[Alizarine]

It's still in beta but they are planning to also add Pentax support and Pktether is making an android version.

Now that's some good news.
Though the idea of having Facebook on my camera is still a no-no. And I'll say that again and again.