[1]: https://mondaynote.com/memo-to-camera-makers-put-android-in-...
It is many seconds faster, making shots possible that I never would have taken with my mirrorless body.
And of course, a full input mapping for all "buttons" on the camera so that I can "press" any of them from my android device. Don't even bother labeling them appropriately, just have a button signal protocol that says "the following numbers will work, and have the following N-step granularity" and then simply supply the relevant profile both on-camera (it's a USB device after all) and as download for each camera model that can be used to resolve "number" to "name of actual button on the camera".
In fact why stop there: I want that standard to be so open that any windows, linux, osx, raspi, android, iphone, etc. user can communicate with any camera. Got a Sony and a Nikon? Why would you care, just switch profile, done.
While Android on the camera itself would be a terrible idea (it would only be useful in such a stripped down config that user apps would be pretty much impossible), seemless interoperability backed by at least two open standards would be fantastic.
I guess we'll see how long it takes IKEA to make a good camera. None of these things are new, they've all been around for decades, camera makers just can't be bothered to make cameras for people. They purely make them for money.
With high quality jpegs ~5MB it would be closer to 2 seconds per picture.
I think you'd need some kind of direct cabled connection for good perf for professional photographers.
Not to mention getting all the camera and app providers to standardize on a protocol and set of features.
I love Android (I've only had Android phones since my first smartphone), but battery efficiency is definitely not its strong suit, even on a clean install on a flagship phone.
I think people are missing the point of DSLR to some extent. They aren't meant for this sort of thing. If you want onboard editing, don't use a DSLR. It is meant to be very good at one thing. It doesn't /want/ you to edit photos in place. It wants you to load them up onto a secondary computing system. I like my D90 the way it is. It can sit for weeks and not need a charge, and it is an instantly responsive camera, that happens to have a computer.
I'm not saying the design can't be improved, or that every empty recess couldn't be filled with extra battery capacity, but personally I find the current state of affairs (where you can just get an extra battery for $20 and throw it in your camera bag) better than a phone-like model with non-replaceable batteries.
I used to get around a thousand shots out of my Canon 5D3 per battery; there's a lot of mechanical power and ~25GB of processed data going into that usage. That could be either over 2-3 hours (event coverage) or over days (landscapes). So DSLR battery life isn't really measured in hours.
I don't think the batteries need to be better, particularly since you can install a grip to let you have 2 in the camera at once, and it only takes a second to swap them.
That said, adding a separate Android subsystem (that doesn't always have an LTE radio on) shouldn't add too much drain. You could easily get 4-5 hours of screen-on time to use for photo editing and processing.
Except your DSLR (probably) isn't trying to drive a 6" 570ppi display with a bunch of always-on wireless hardware constantly being used. That 3" 270ppi on my D5300 is consuming almost nothing by comparison, and my camera is also very aggressive at turning the screen off.
It's like when people reminisce about battery lives in their old Nokia phones and forget that they didn't stare at the screen for 5 hours a day surfing Facebook. As long as the camera manufacturer limits some background services and continues doing the same aggressive display management, it should be fine. Until the day Nikon lets you install Facebook on your camera, that is...
FYI, for the most part Nikon DSLRs are always 'off' until you hit the shutter or some other button. The on/off switch just disables all the buttons so you don't accidentally hit anything. This is why people measure DSLR battery life in shots taken, not time with the camera on.
And who would want to edit photos on a big, heavy DSLR when they have a much more convenient smartphone, or iPad with a better screen?
The battery drain is also an issue. DSLRs use a mechanical shutter, which is sort of antiquated today. But it means one camera battery can last for hundreds or thousands of shots, and days of standby since the main screen is rarely on.
30 minutes on the plane produced an awesome little 90 second clip I could show everyone without boring them to tears.
While my A6000 doesn't have bluetooth, it supports NFC and wifi and I can easily transfer photos to my phone. Sony's PlayMemories Android app is actually pretty cool. You can use it as a remote control - seeing exactly what the camera sees. You can adjust aperture, focus, set a timer, etc.
It's not a DSLR, but that's part of why the GH cameras are awesome. Panasonic, full-stop, makes really good gear that feels pretty modern; it has a couple of things I'll beef with, like what feels like really flimsy mini (GH3) and micro (GH4) HDMI connectors, but for the most part, I love 'em.
The other factor is updates. I've had that Nikon D80 for 10 years, never had to worry about updates and never had to hook it up to a computer. Why trade in something with a offline, baked-in firmware for a constantly moving security target, or worse, as we see in the mobile space, an OS and app landscape that will be abandoned after two or three years and left vulnerable.
I expect my cameras to be mechanically fast. I don’t want software getting in the way.
The argument reminds me of Polaroid film. There were two primary use cases. Ordinary snapshooters could at one point buy a new Polaroid camera for about $10. High end photographic systems accommodated Polaroid backs. A third use case was addressed by a few specialized camera models with robust high quality construction and dedicated Polaroid film paths. But for most people, 126 or 135 or 120 or sheet film was the a happy path.
The situation is similar today. Cameras running Android are ubiquitous and popular and widely used and the happy path for many many people. High end camera systems should probably be seen as including a laptop/desktop computer as part of the pixel pipeline. And there is an increasing middle ground of dedicated quality instant publishing camera equipment with a variety of engineering priorities (drones, gopros, point and shoots, and APS-C and fullframe DSLR/mirrorless).
The most useful feature of a cellphone camera is that it is always with people.
One of the biggest reasons I still lug a DSLR around is because of how unpredictable the Android camera can be. After I click the shutter button, I never know how long it's going to be for it to finish auto-focusing on every object at once, balancing colors, downloading updates, reticulating splines and whatever the hell else it's doing in the background.
By the time it finishes my kids have started wandering and come out as smears on a landscape.
iOS seems to be a little better at this.
Versus the DSLR-- Set exposure, push button, take picture. Fix errors in post.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodak_DC_Series
[1] http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/DC220/DC220Acgi.HTM
I'm almost certain my first digital camera wrote to floppies.
With my LX10 you can batch transfer the photos so that it makes it easier. But it's still a pain. (You have to manually connect with the phone etc)
There should be a service connection on Panasonic's side to say: this camera id is configured for these services and accounts and I should be able to view the photo on the camera and post directly to say imgur. (No phone needed)
Android isn't required for those features, anyway. My Nikon allows quite a bit of manipulation and pre-processing before generating a JPEG.
For some context of what a big name pro photographer might be working with, check out [1]. He's spending a lot of money, and he's not manipulating pictures on camera and sending them to Instagram in real time.
[1] https://petapixel.com/2017/05/06/heres-one-photographers-cam...
Rather than junk up my camera with Android, why not just enable it to easily sync with the smartphone of choice, and I can Instagram/Fb the pic from there?
Sadly, the Hasselblad camera mod available for the Moto Z is widely considered an overpriced joke, but it demonstrates how you can make a "have your cake and eat it too" design using the Mods concept.
To be honest, I don't know if putting Android on DSLRs would've helped that much. Samsung tried a bit of that, too, and it didn't really work. Panasonic did, too. Eventually the smartphones just ate them up, from the bottom up. It's what disruptive innovations typically do. Incumbents usually can't win by slapping parts of the disruptive tech onto their older incumbent tech and call it a day. That doesn't seem to work usually.
So DSLRs makers becoming lens, sensor, ISP, etc makers for the smartphone industry would've probably been a more successful approach. But they were too afraid of "cannibalizing themselves". But what disrupted incumbents who fear cannibalization always seem to miss is that the cannibalization will happen whether they do it or not. Staying out of the market won't help them that much in the long term.
But Canon and Nikon never had a mobile division to realize that they need to do that, too.
What you really need is an API set that attaches to each function of the camera that third-party developers can use process/publish photos.
So, instead of turning on the camera and seeing a grid of apps, each one you have to figure out separately, you should turn on the camera and see the camera interface. Apps can then add additional functionality to this interface. And when it comes time to review the photo, a third-party app can enhance this section as well, perhaps to post on Instagram or other effects.
But the grid-of-apps is a horrible model for a fixed-function device like a camera. You're ALREADY in the camera, don't need to add another separate layer to interface to it. Just add the ability to enhance these sections.