Comment by MattCruikshank
13 hours ago
I'm surprised there aren't Android Cameras? At a reasonable-ish price?
Like a Pixel 6a is $249 new right now.
So, where's that same caliber of hardware, but as a camera-first?
13 hours ago
I'm surprised there aren't Android Cameras? At a reasonable-ish price?
Like a Pixel 6a is $249 new right now.
So, where's that same caliber of hardware, but as a camera-first?
Handheld cameras aren’t meant to be interacted with a lot. The interface is supposed to get out of the way and get photos to the SD card as fast and predictably as possible.
Sony camera firmware is Android based, but without the Android UI.
Some of the camera makers have added apps and app stores and they haven’t been popular.
Most users don’t want their dedicated camera to be a full Android phone. The specs of the CPU don’t matter as long as it shoots fast enough and does what you need when you press the button.
The touchscreens are a common point of complaint as they are. Many photographers want physical controls and a viewfinder. The screen is only there to review photos quickly.
I also want to upload to Google Photos automatically. And have the ability to share to Facebook Messenger, post to Facebook Wall, live stream to Instagram or Youtube or whatever... It adds up, pretty quickly.
It sounds like you want the photos to be accessible from your actual phone, which is something that most of these already support. Some of the apps will even automatically upload to cloud services for you.
Most of the use cases you describe like sending FB messages or live streaming on Instagram do not warrant a $3000 camera body attached to a $3000 lens. They’re perfectly served already by actual phones and their built-in cameras.
The people buying these professional units don’t buy them to send straight to FB messenger.
> Handheld cameras aren’t meant to be interacted with a lot. The interface is supposed to get out of the way and get photos to the SD card as fast and predictably as possible.
Yeah, sure. If you want a great shot in low-light conditions, you often need to tweak the color balance and exposure.
My usual test is taking a picture of the full moon. Most cameras on automatic settings result in a white blob.
I also frequently want to review a couple of previous photos to see if I messed up anything.
> Some of the camera makers have added apps and app stores and they haven’t been popular.
Camera app stores were never popular because the SDKs for cameras were obscure and buggy.
> Yeah, sure. If you want a great shot in low-light conditions, you often need to tweak the color balance and exposure.
Exactly. That's the type of interaction they need to support, not all of the Facebook Messenger and other app interactions the parent commenter is looking for.
Those functions are also the ones most frequently requested to appear on physical controls.
Samsung made one
https://www.classiccameradatabase.com/blog/the-mirrorless-ca...
It’s just another point of planed obsolescence. Your Android camera with direct to Facebook upload will stop getting updated in a few years and be useless junk. Meanwhile 2008 digital cameras work just as well as they did back then.
And exactly _one_. In 2013. I had it.
This camera was great. I could take pictures and upload them directly to Picassa without screwing around with SD cards. The camera UI was also a step up from the regular morass of menus, all alike.
Technically all the Sony cameras run on Android. Older models (e.g. the a7 II) allow you to install specially built "PlayMemories" Android apps.
Nowadays Android is mostly a hidden implementation detail, but I did recently see someone Claude+ADB some neat stuff for their Sony camera.
I’m really keen for the future of modded firmwares on cameras. One feature I’d love to have is starting an SMB or ftp server on the camera so I can just copy files over the network rather than having to move sd cards or plug anything in.
So Android is finally back to its root, a camera firmware.
>I'm surprised there aren't Android Cameras? At a reasonable-ish price?
https://th.hkyongnuo.com/products/yn455
Same. Mobile phones have excellent image processing, displays, and interfaces, but small optics and sensors. Dedicated cameras have big optics and sensors, but bad/limited image processing, displays, and interfaces.
The market is just not demanding it. People buying these full frame cameras opt to shoot in raw and have a desktop program with significantly more compute and control after the fact do the processing.
Whatever denoising algorithm they put on the camera, your laptop will do it better. Stripping back the processing means you can take photos at 60fps with minimal battery drain.
This is it for me. I don't want phone technology or operating systems anywhere near my cameras - I need them to be reliable and predictable.
Most of the 'image processing' on phones involve AI processing to make all pictures look 'nice' but same-ish, which is not really what the market wants from dedicated high-end camera with big optics and sensors.
But a very small sensor paired with a good telephoto lens is an interesting option. You can get away with much less glass for the same zoom but the downsides of a small sensor. So you get something like the Nikon Coolpix P1100 which has 2000mm full-frame equivalent magnification, but only 16MP and terrible low light performance.