There’s something odd about the “Shutter Button”. Not bad or good, just odd — and transparently so.
A two-stage shutter button is a practical interface. It delivers function, familiarity, and intuitive operation. The half-press to focus and full-press to take a picture is simply an understood paradigm of digital photography. This is especially true of photo and video professionals, whose expertise were a particular focus this year.
So, how did the shutter button launch without this? This is not a condemnation, but pure bewilderment.
I’ll explain:
It is baffling that in the course of development around this interface, with a directive it be a literal shutter button, that it doesn’t actually function as a typical shutter button at launch. And not because Apple found a better solution. It is simply delayed. This makes no sense!
In a reasonable development environment this would have been the first feature Apple engineers implement and refine. It is the one function that defines what we know as a modern shutter button. Everything else is “innovation” or whatever.
But Why?
This has me wonder if it was truly intended to be a “Shutter Button” at all, or at least initially. It’s not a stretch to guess this is actually the tech behind the rumored capacitive volume button that didn’t materialize.
It would be on-trend for Apple to look into making the volume rocker a more useful interface. This mirrors the Action Button as an improvement in functionality for the mute switch. Increasing the utility of the remaining external controls is a reasonable design decision. Improving it around the camera was especially so, as we already use the volume button as a capture button.
However, somewhere they ****ed it up. This is likely because the button was too finicky for such an important function. Volume has to just work and be obvious to adjust, complicating it with accidental long presses or slide gestures probably annoyed and confused test users. The extra touch functions also likely didn’t work as well with gloves or wet hands.
So, it just wasn’t functioning superior to a traditional button, and maybe got repurposed into a shutter button to prevent all that R&D from going to waste. It also makes this iPhone revision more palatable to consumers.
For its current functionality and purpose the button seems over-engineered, and also like it complicates a product that was meant to become simpler not more complicated to use. Apple likely has bigger plans for this button as an interface. They can’t have all this tech to just let it poorly function as a shutter button, especially as we they didn’t prioritize this function from the primary missing feature.
The upcoming Google Lens-like feature may point to an option that cropped up as an impromptu benefit in repurposing the tech — this becomes Apple’s Bigsby button: an interface dedicated to AI features with the benefit of also doing camera stuff.
Alternatively or additionally, this also functions as a test of the tech on a wide scale. Apple may collect analytics, refine the button, then get it ready to replace your volume rocker and call it an all-in-one design. Basically, creating something to later refine away and call it innovation.
I don’t know, but I can’t help but feel like there’s more to the story than Apple just adding a dedicated Shutter Button. Thoughts?
A two-stage shutter button is a practical interface. It delivers function, familiarity, and intuitive operation. The half-press to focus and full-press to take a picture is simply an understood paradigm of digital photography. This is especially true of photo and video professionals, whose expertise were a particular focus this year.
So, how did the shutter button launch without this? This is not a condemnation, but pure bewilderment.
I’ll explain:
It is baffling that in the course of development around this interface, with a directive it be a literal shutter button, that it doesn’t actually function as a typical shutter button at launch. And not because Apple found a better solution. It is simply delayed. This makes no sense!
In a reasonable development environment this would have been the first feature Apple engineers implement and refine. It is the one function that defines what we know as a modern shutter button. Everything else is “innovation” or whatever.
But Why?
This has me wonder if it was truly intended to be a “Shutter Button” at all, or at least initially. It’s not a stretch to guess this is actually the tech behind the rumored capacitive volume button that didn’t materialize.
It would be on-trend for Apple to look into making the volume rocker a more useful interface. This mirrors the Action Button as an improvement in functionality for the mute switch. Increasing the utility of the remaining external controls is a reasonable design decision. Improving it around the camera was especially so, as we already use the volume button as a capture button.
However, somewhere they ****ed it up. This is likely because the button was too finicky for such an important function. Volume has to just work and be obvious to adjust, complicating it with accidental long presses or slide gestures probably annoyed and confused test users. The extra touch functions also likely didn’t work as well with gloves or wet hands.
So, it just wasn’t functioning superior to a traditional button, and maybe got repurposed into a shutter button to prevent all that R&D from going to waste. It also makes this iPhone revision more palatable to consumers.
For its current functionality and purpose the button seems over-engineered, and also like it complicates a product that was meant to become simpler not more complicated to use. Apple likely has bigger plans for this button as an interface. They can’t have all this tech to just let it poorly function as a shutter button, especially as we they didn’t prioritize this function from the primary missing feature.
The upcoming Google Lens-like feature may point to an option that cropped up as an impromptu benefit in repurposing the tech — this becomes Apple’s Bigsby button: an interface dedicated to AI features with the benefit of also doing camera stuff.
Alternatively or additionally, this also functions as a test of the tech on a wide scale. Apple may collect analytics, refine the button, then get it ready to replace your volume rocker and call it an all-in-one design. Basically, creating something to later refine away and call it innovation.
I don’t know, but I can’t help but feel like there’s more to the story than Apple just adding a dedicated Shutter Button. Thoughts?
