NOPE.
Kodak sell film and photo papers. The company was way too slow to embrace digital.
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Apple Working on Standalone Point-and-Shoot Digital Camera?
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NOPE.
Kodak sell film and photo papers. The company was way too slow to embrace digital.
The pragmatic in me says, yeah, just let me hook an iPad up to my 7D and control it from there.
But that's not a money-maker for Apple. People are already buying iPads, they're not going to sell me a second one. The allure of a Camera is the opportunity for Apple to take the profits away from Canon that are being spent on all those Rebels out there.
Again, I'm not saying I think Apple will do this, but I can see the reasoning.
Yeah, everyone has a cameraphone. But Canon's still selling a lot of Rebels...
This is for the person who is currently taking photos with his iPhone and using all those editing apps before uploading them. The Facebook/Instagram guy. Giving him a 200 mm lens is an upgrade.
You don't sound like the person who "owns an SLR and leaves it auto" that I was talking about in previous posts. Am I right?
Makes absolutely ZERO sense to me. Smartphones are killing the point & shoot market. Who buys a point and shoot anymore when all they need to carry is their phone? The iphone 4S has an 8mega pixel camera for crying out loud.
If anything, the big two(Canon & Nikon) are shifting from the point and shoot market to the DSLR and Mirrorless market with interchangable lenses. Since the quality of smartphone cameras makes point & shoots pretty much obsolete...the trend is leaning towards more professional and creative control when purchasing a camera.
I cannot see Apple entering into a market(point & shoot) that is dying and being phased out. I really don't.
How about putting an 8 mega pixel camera in the ipod touch first???? Seriously. I call BS on this rumor.
If anything, the big two(Canon & Nikon) are shifting from the point and shoot market to the DSLR and Mirrorless market with interchangable lenses. Since the quality of smartphone cameras makes point & shoots pretty much obsolete...the trend is leaning towards more professional and creative control when purchasing a camera.
I cannot see Apple entering into a market(point & shoot) that is dying and being phased out. I really don't.
How about putting an 8 mega pixel camera in the ipod touch first???? Seriously. I call BS on this rumor.
The standalone point and shoot camera is on its last half decade. Most consumers are becoming satisfied with the cameras on their phones -- and advances in camera technology are making them better and better -- while others who seek more are turning to consumer SLRs. The standalone camera is being pinched in the middle as an increasingly niche product.
Trying to enter this market is like trying to enter the MP3 player market today. There are buyers but its heyday is over and its days are numbered. If Apple is to attempt to release a camera, they would need to be prepared to compete with the consumer SLR. Those consumers are looking for an entirely different experience, one that involves allowing advanced photography techniques and options offering users limitless creativity potential. This doesn't jive with Apple's "keep it simple" ideals.
I keep a pretty open mind to Apple but I just don't see where this would fit in. It's far more likely that Apple will continue to develop the iPhone iSight camera. There are technologies in the pipe that will allow previously unthinkable density of pixels on a sensor the size of which can fit in a phone. With advanced optics and digital enhancements and effects, soon we'll have a smartphone camera better than what is offered in standalone point and shoots and even on the lower end of consumer SLRs.
Trying to enter this market is like trying to enter the MP3 player market today. There are buyers but its heyday is over and its days are numbered. If Apple is to attempt to release a camera, they would need to be prepared to compete with the consumer SLR. Those consumers are looking for an entirely different experience, one that involves allowing advanced photography techniques and options offering users limitless creativity potential. This doesn't jive with Apple's "keep it simple" ideals.
I keep a pretty open mind to Apple but I just don't see where this would fit in. It's far more likely that Apple will continue to develop the iPhone iSight camera. There are technologies in the pipe that will allow previously unthinkable density of pixels on a sensor the size of which can fit in a phone. With advanced optics and digital enhancements and effects, soon we'll have a smartphone camera better than what is offered in standalone point and shoots and even on the lower end of consumer SLRs.
That would be great, except take care of the situation where a person takes multiple shots of the same thing with the intent of selecting/merging/editing them into one good shot (where people don't have their eyes closed, not blurry, etc.).
Right now, all the photos you take on iPhone end up in Camera Roll and Photo Stream, and then you have to manually delete the bad copies from 2 places (instead of 1).
What? How is that going to work? You would attach one of these,
http://www.juzaphoto.com/shared_files/articles/test_canon_sigma_100-400/full_comparison-large.jpg
by cable to the iPad? What are you going to do, hold the iPad in 1 hand, and the large lens in the other and point it like a handheld telescope? I don't understand this idea at all.
If it had retina, was as thin as the film models, had still a better sennsor, I would buy a Leica M.
I think again, if this product was to come out, it would be more then a point and shoot. It would be a higher end camera with the ability to shoot higher end video. This wouldn't be for the family person going out on holiday. This would be for the prosumer who needs something better then an iPhone for doing local commercials, ads, music videos, indy films, etc.
The big boy 'pro' industry is dying out. I see it everyday where I work and what customers are bringing to us.
Exactly, how quickly we forget.
I found a mockup of the new iCamera online though, from a double downed secret source:
It seems that most people who are criticising this don't understand the concept of a light field camera. Yes, shutter speeds etc are legacy concepts in a light field camera because all that is done post taking the picture in software. I can perfectly see why Apple would be interested in this - most people are really bad at taking a picture in the moment when a picture needs to be taken. A light field camera allows you to take the picture and worry about focussing etc after it's taken.
If Apple could successfully bring a camera to market that took fantastic pictures that you didn't need to focus or set exposures on *before* you took the picture, would that be a success? Yes, I think it would. People here need to look at the concept behind a light field camera first, before simply jumping to the old notion that one needs more megapixels to take a better picture. Yes, light field cameras are untried technology in many ways and it may not be the photographic paradise that some evangelists think, but if it is...it will be a game changer.
Point and shoots are basically dead in the water... They are being canabalized by Smartphones.
I dont think photography is a business that is worth being in. Even the high end market is pretty small...
I dont think photography is a business that is worth being in. Even the high end market is pretty small...
Yes, and leave the computer industry to IBM, the music player industry to Sony, the phone industry to Nokia, and the tablet industry to Microsoft. amiright?
The problem with cameras is the most important part is something Apple doesn't produce, and never has produced the lens. All the software in the world can't make up for a crappy lens. The lens is why, by and large, the companies who made good pre-digital cameras make good digital cameras.
Making a P&S with better camera software is not on the same level as changing the entire cell phone industry. Maybe their new semiconductor research has given them the idea for a much improved sensor, but that's only one part of the picture.
Does anyone remember what Steve said when the iPhone was announced? How so many people just hated their cell phones? How they could be hard to use, confusing, didn't play well with other hardware, etc.? How many people do you know who hate their cameras that same way? Memory cards are standard, USB ports are standard, and cameras aren't multifunction devices like phones.
I agree. A vastly-improved camera would be a big selling point in a next-gen iPhone or iPod. Being able to shoot from my phone and edit with iPhoto on the same phone before sending it off was a great thing for me on a recent vacation. A better camera would make that, well, better.
The key item I see here is Apple working with Lytro. Light field cameras are different than anything else on the market and give you an almost infinite level of flexibility once the file is in the computer. This is not taking a standard P&S with its tiny sensor and limited optical zoom, this is something else entirely. The light field system is not ready for prime time yet, but it can get there with support from someone with money to spend on R&D; like Apple.
Phone cameras have gone about as far as they can. The sensor and the lenses can't get much bigger and there is no practical way to incorporate an optical zoom with the push is toward ever thinner phones and tablets.
Phone cameras have gone about as far as they can. The sensor and the lenses can't get much bigger and there is no practical way to incorporate an optical zoom with the push is toward ever thinner phones and tablets.
A better iPhone camera - even an photographer's edition of the iPhone...
This wouldn't make any sense.
The no-brainer camera market is already crowded enough, and shrinking.
Why is it shrinking? Because people prefer the iPhone as a simple camera. The most important camera is always the one you have on you.
Whoever started the rumor has not a lot of knowledge about cameras and the camera market.
Instead, offering a photographer's version of the iPhone would be nice
MORE, not less, options, and maybe a better lens and a small zoom? Many photographers would accept a thicker iPhone for the simple reason that you'd just like to have a real camera with you all the time. The iPhone's camera is fun, but the lens is too much a wide angle to, for example, take proper location shots or even portraits.
There are add-ons that prove the need for a higher end iPhone camera.
Last update, the iPhone camera got a dedicated release button.
What will be next? And this is a question that is much more interesting than all those leaked front panels, home buttons or whatever minutiae is already regarded an iRumor at this time.
This wouldn't make any sense.
The no-brainer camera market is already crowded enough, and shrinking.
Why is it shrinking? Because people prefer the iPhone as a simple camera. The most important camera is always the one you have on you.
Whoever started the rumor has not a lot of knowledge about cameras and the camera market.
Instead, offering a photographer's version of the iPhone would be nice
MORE, not less, options, and maybe a better lens and a small zoom? Many photographers would accept a thicker iPhone for the simple reason that you'd just like to have a real camera with you all the time. The iPhone's camera is fun, but the lens is too much a wide angle to, for example, take proper location shots or even portraits.
There are add-ons that prove the need for a higher end iPhone camera.
Last update, the iPhone camera got a dedicated release button.
What will be next? And this is a question that is much more interesting than all those leaked front panels, home buttons or whatever minutiae is already regarded an iRumor at this time.
One big response to the many that have blindly attacked my original post without understanding the meaning of my point, so I will be a little more clear.
No, I do not think things should be needlessly complex, and yes I also hate the "gatekeeper" mentality (no pun against Apple there) of things needing to be inscrutable so a select few can know how something works and the rest are clueless. I absolutely believe in simplicity where simplicity works best, but I also believe in productivity where productivity is needed.
However, that is not what is going on here, and with Apple in general. That is not what this mock up is aping. It is the us vs. them mentality, the mentality that anything with just a little complexity borders on "evil". Labeling important camera features as "legacy" is a hostile comment aimed at the current pro market. Why can't it just be a camera aimed at non enthusiasts? Why does it have to also paint the more serious tools in a negative light? That's the problem. Apples war on tools. Hence the terms like "Post PC" (sorry Apple, incredibly productive tools aren't going anywhere) insinuating that all of a sudden the tools we use and need to make a living and produce things for the world are no longer important. Everyone just needs an iPad to peck at apparently. And cameras that are a one button affair and do everything for you. And recording software with song templates built in, just push one key and get an entire chord progression.
We don't need to learn anything. We don't need to spend a day or two figuring out something we love. We just need to buy Apple products and spend the rest of our time tapping and touching.
And before anyone tries to comment, I completely understand this ad isn't made by Apple. But it is the road that Apple is trying to take everyone down, it is certainly what inspires this kind of thing.
Oh well. At least there are still alternatives. I just find it incredibly ironic and disappointing that Apple has done a complete 180 on how they used to position themselves.
No, I do not think things should be needlessly complex, and yes I also hate the "gatekeeper" mentality (no pun against Apple there) of things needing to be inscrutable so a select few can know how something works and the rest are clueless. I absolutely believe in simplicity where simplicity works best, but I also believe in productivity where productivity is needed.
However, that is not what is going on here, and with Apple in general. That is not what this mock up is aping. It is the us vs. them mentality, the mentality that anything with just a little complexity borders on "evil". Labeling important camera features as "legacy" is a hostile comment aimed at the current pro market. Why can't it just be a camera aimed at non enthusiasts? Why does it have to also paint the more serious tools in a negative light? That's the problem. Apples war on tools. Hence the terms like "Post PC" (sorry Apple, incredibly productive tools aren't going anywhere) insinuating that all of a sudden the tools we use and need to make a living and produce things for the world are no longer important. Everyone just needs an iPad to peck at apparently. And cameras that are a one button affair and do everything for you. And recording software with song templates built in, just push one key and get an entire chord progression.
We don't need to learn anything. We don't need to spend a day or two figuring out something we love. We just need to buy Apple products and spend the rest of our time tapping and touching.
And before anyone tries to comment, I completely understand this ad isn't made by Apple. But it is the road that Apple is trying to take everyone down, it is certainly what inspires this kind of thing.
Oh well. At least there are still alternatives. I just find it incredibly ironic and disappointing that Apple has done a complete 180 on how they used to position themselves.
doubt it
This is doubtful, as Apple has been slowly discontinuing its professional line, starting with XServe; it also discontinued its printer business several years back. Making the camera smaller for 'point-and-shoot' status is akin to ignoring the fact that every smartphone camera has one of these now, but a pro-level camera would just look silly.
Apple does release a number of pro-level applications sporadically, and the closest Mac Pro server seems to be the only consistently shipping model available, although it's a 2010 model (suck).
This is doubtful, as Apple has been slowly discontinuing its professional line, starting with XServe; it also discontinued its printer business several years back. Making the camera smaller for 'point-and-shoot' status is akin to ignoring the fact that every smartphone camera has one of these now, but a pro-level camera would just look silly.
Apple does release a number of pro-level applications sporadically, and the closest Mac Pro server seems to be the only consistently shipping model available, although it's a 2010 model (suck).
Not really sure of the point here. Hasn't Apple's main goal been to make the iOS camera even better to get away from P&S? I know a smartphone camera isn't as high of quality as a professional camera, but who uses those? For people like me that photograph family vacations, the iOS camera's do more than enough to satisfy those needs
Try to take pictures of your kid's soccer game with the iPhone. You need some kind of decent zoom lens.
The iPhone's camera is always going to have a responsiveness problem. The home screen slider and volume button shutter is an improvement, but you still have to wait for the subsystem to initialize, so you still fumble around with it and I often miss the shot I want.
A standalone camera is single-purpose and can be designed to be ultra responsive. It would still run iOS but it's top priority would be instantly responding to that shutter button.