Next gen cameras

I tried to watch that.

It seems to consist of a wish for Sony to make cameras operate like smartphones. I think this could be a massive backward step. I'm not interested in a camera operated from the back screen. I want buttons and dials. I'm also not interested in connecting my camera to social media. It all looks just so... horrible.

If it happens I'll be using the cameras I have until they die and then looking for non android driven by the screen replacements :D
 
Couldn't be bothered to watch that, based on the very idea of "smart" MiLC's. I don't want computers to take photos for me, I want to use them to measure light and calculate exposure based on parameters I set, but composition and focus point selection are for me alone to decide, and likewise the selection of parameters for the exposure. There may be a market for making things as easy and automated as possible, but for a hobby user that detracts from the whole point of it. For the same reason, if I wanted a driverless car I'd catch a bus or train, because I actually for the most part enjoy driving a car, crazy as that may sound.
 
Certainly not my thing at all ! But I doubt very much it will have much impacted on my photography as it will most likely cost £xxxxxxx billions and I'm a cheap skate !
 
Sony have come up with some superb technology, but then killed it "protecting their rights"

Never had much faith in them
 
dkh said:
I do think that this is where cameras will have to head to provide what future consumers want.
Click to expand...
Another "didn't watch it" here, so thanks for the summary underneath :)

It'll never be about what photographers want. It'll be about what makes the most money, which is what I think you're alluding to here. And the smartphone photography market is probably far bigger than the amateur photographer market that isn't already using Sony. All those people needing likes to feed their narcissism but not having the creativity to do it themselves. Insta_repeat is going to be having a busy time if there is any substance to this.
 
Where does all these so called improvements end? Improvements. Ya don't have to be a good photographer any more at some point, just have to be good operating a computer and edit program. The quality of the photo you snap means nothing if you can fix it in am edit program! Thinking back to film, the vast majority of people couldn't edit their photo's so to get better photo's they had to learn to take better photo's! I know myself today I don't worry so much about composing the photo as I do getting everything in there to allow me to crop out what I don't want. Try to get the light right though as editting is actually over my head! had my old Nikon FG figured out pretty well but went with an upgrade to a Nikon F5. Never did figure out how to work all the stuff on the F5 and I didn't get any better photo's with it. Sure was a lot heavier than that FG though! As I read about stuff it makes me think photography is getting far away from photography and much more into learning to develope computer skills! Turning photography into a science!
 
Last edited:
I can't be bothered to watch it! ha In a sense, I think we've reached peak camera and the main developments will be in 'in camera ai' / computational photography and possibly the interface. It'll be just enough incremental updates for the fanboys to get excited and make folks want to upgrade ;)
 
I think they are great youtubers but do they actually take pictures for money? I went on their website and there is nothing about bookings
 
I do think though they should adopt android or something out the box for their menus, every single systems menu is an afterthought and itd cost less or just as much to outsource it
 
Don Fischer said:
Where does all these so called improvements end? Improvements. Ya don't have to be a good photographer any more at some point, just have to be good operating a computer and edit program. The quality of the photo you snap means nothing if you can fix it in am edit program! Thinking back to film, the vast majority of people couldn't edit their photo's so to get better photo's they had to learn to take better photo's! I know myself today I don't worry so much about composing the photo as I do getting everything in there to allow me to crop out what I don't want. Try to get the light right though as editting is actually over my head! had my old Nikon FG figured out pretty well but went with an upgrade to a Nikon F5. Never did figure out how to work all the stuff on the F5 and I didn't get any better photo's with it. Sure was a lot heavier than that FG though! As I read about stuff it makes me think photography is getting far away from photography and much more into learning to develope computer skills! Turning photography into a science!
Click to expand...
You’re falling into the trap and missing the point.

Photography hasn't changed, it still requires a photographer to point their camera at an interesting subject, in interesting light at the right time (there's no alternative to this).

AI can currently recreate that process very badly - as for changing lighting in software? It's possible - but bluntly, lighting it right first time is both easier and therefore cheaper.

So called AI processing is improving but still a long way from what I'd call 'intelligent'.
 
Phil V said:
You’re falling into the trap and missing the point.

Photography hasn't changed, it still requires a photographer to point their camera at an interesting subject, in interesting light at the right time (there's no alternative to this).

AI can currently recreate that process very badly - as for changing lighting in software? It's possible - but bluntly, lighting it right first time is both easier and therefore cheaper.

So called AI processing is improving but still a long way from what I'd call 'intelligent'.
Click to expand...
No I don't think I'm missing any point. All you need to take a photo that is considered acceptable is a computer and editing program!
 
gman said:
I never been a fan of them either. Can't quite put my finger on it... maybe they don't seem sincere or something?
Click to expand...
Only ever watched one Northrop video. They think it's a good idea that Sony plan to sell cameras, then charge extra to have different features activated on them. They just came across as Sony salesmen and put me off watching them again.
 
Don Fischer said:
No I don't think I'm missing any point. All you need to take a photo that is considered acceptable is a computer and editing program!
Click to expand...
All you ever needed to take an acceptable photo is a camera.

To make a ‘good photograph’ requires the ‘photographic skills’ I posted above.

The phrase when photoshop became widespread was ‘you can’t polish a turd’; and no matter how clever the technology gets, that still remains the case.
 
I think there’s another angle to this and that’s the computational photographic elements that ‘Smart’ photography can bring, we’ve all heard for a long time how good mobile phones are quality wise for imaging and really it’s physically impossible for them even to come close to a big sensor camera yet they do, so something is going on in the computation/software to level the field.

‘What if’ we were to add that layer into a proper camera?

Possibilities are endless but the gap in image quality between proper cameras and phones would widen again significantly.
 
  • Like
Reactions: dkh
garry71 said:
Only ever watched one Northrop video. They think it's a good idea that Sony plan to sell cameras, then charge extra to have different features activated on them. They just came across as Sony salesmen and put me off watching them again.
Click to expand...
It'll take someone ten minutes to hack that system and turn all the fetures on. Black Magic alredy does it on some cameras.
As someone else said I want a camera, not another smart phone type camera, heck I'm not even going mirrorless...
 
If the Northrup’s are to be believed then I don’t think that Sony are doing anything that Apple haven’t already done by designing their products to integrate and work seamlessly with each other. If you are a company that manufactures both cameras and smartphones then it stands to reason to standardise the technology and software that operates both of those products. By doing so it would encourage people who own Sony phones to buy Sony cameras and vice versa as the user interfaces and menus would be very similar and familiar to the users.
 
Do people even want these next-generation cameras, there has been a resurgence in pocket digital cameras, and seemingly the hottest camera of 2023 is the 3 year old, retro-styled, Fuji X100V. People seem to want simplicity.
 
Brazo said:
we’ve all heard for a long time how good mobile phones are quality wise for imaging and really it’s physically impossible for them even to come close to a big sensor camera yet they do, so something is going on in the computation/software to level the field.
Click to expand...
But they don’t.

They can produce a small image that looks ‘ok’ to most people. But if you view it larger, or with a photographers eyes it unravels quite quickly.

I do believe there’s a future for AI in photography, but right now we’re still at PlayStation 1 levels of technology.
 
Burying you head in the sand is not going to mean that technology stops marching on. Nobody is forced to move from film to digital (DSLR) or to mirrorless. Many do to take advantage of 'extras' that these latest systems bring such as eye focus or tracking.

I don't follow anyone on YT. I do, however, find it fascinating how people try to predict the evolution or demise without fully understanding what's happening.

Mobile photography allows very simple uploading or sharing and easy menus - something which Sony still severely lacks. Touch screens are something of an evolution on a smartphone - ever tried replicating that on a DSLR / Mirrorless? Best I have personally seen to date is the Canon R6/5.

The camera market either evolves or dies - thinking of Kodak etc.
 
Last edited:
steve_lyt said:
Photography is having the skill of getting it right in camera, and more realting on post processing to sort out the image
Click to expand...
That's a photographers view but the average consumer couldn't give a sh!t about getting things right in the camera - they expect the camera to correct their mistakes and make it right for them. In their mind they are a photographer.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top