Comment by tristor | Hacker News Reader

Comment by tristor | Hacker News Reader

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Video features are manufacturer and model dependent. Nowhere in my comment did I say that they use UVC vs requiring software. My Nikon Z8 as an example can be used with OBS over USB very easily, but you must install a driver and utility.

Regarding Canon, true enough, they gimp their products to be greedy. That's why https://www.magiclantern.fm/ exists.

Your general rule of thumb is irrelevant. There are many optics tests done of available modern cameras, including phones. Phones get nowhere close to the photographic quality of a proper camera, but are totally fine for viewing on another small screen or small prints.

My wife has had prints of photos taken with her phone hanging in galleries, but even she (who prefers a phone as an artistic style preference) would never dream of printing anything larger than a 5x8 from a phone. My photography prints on the small side tend to be 12x18, and I often print as large as 40x60. A photo from a phone is simply unusable for me.

Then you have issue with reading comprehension. The whole point of the discussion was this:

"The time to do this was about a decade ago. Apps, open formats, open USB protocols, open wifi / bluetooth protocols, and semi-open firmware (with a few proprietary blobs for color processing, likely) would have led things down a very different trajectory."

And the rest of your posts also misquote what I said and, ironically, just as often, what you said. There are also minor technical errors: diffraction limits are basic physics. It's a simple relationship between (a) the radius of the circle of confusion (in units of angle); (2) the frequency of light (in linear units, typically nanometers); and (3) the radius of the aperture (in linear units, typically mm). There is no voodoo with "sensor size, pixel pitch, and the lens optics." Most of your post is taking statements like a basic rule-of-thumb of what you need for decent photos and exaggerating to statements like "diffraction doesn't affect sharpness." Of course it's easy to beat up a statement if you misquote it. That's called a strawman.

So I think I'm done here. Give me your downvote, and I'll argue somewhere else.

> misquote what I said and, ironically, just as often, what you said.

I haven't misquoted you, or myself, at all. Your original complaint was around the need for adapters and additional cables. I never even mentioned UVC in my reply, and you are now rejecting my clarification that you can do USB video (yes, with a driver not UVC) on pretty much any modern mirrorless camera.

Diffraction limits of the optics /alone/ are not the only thing that affects sharpness as it relates to aperture, which is why I pointed out the impact of stopping down on light gathering, and light gathering is most certainly affected by sensor surface area and pixel pitch. Additionally, as I pointed out sensor size also affects the diffraction limit because sensor size influences the size of the circle of confusion. I don't think either one of us has any misunderstanding of the basic physics of light in a digital camera, you're just being obtuse.

We cannot downvote each other because the system prevents it since we're replying. I wouldn't downvote you anyway, I don't consider a downvote to be a form of disagreement, nor an upvote a form of agreement. Even though I don't think you're interacting with me in good faith, you have made valuable contributions to the conversation for a 3rd party reader to learn more, and that's good enough that I upvoted your replies to me even while I disagree.

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