GPS - Why I want it.

Well the A77 and NEX7 have been announced to an unexpectedly positive response. One thing that has drawn a few (well deserved) arrows is the apparent decision to leave GPS out of the NEX7. OTOH others have questioned the need for GPS at all. Well this is why I want GPS in all my cameras.

I am fortunate in that I get to travel alot for work and even more fortunate that I regularly get a day or two to squeeze in a little photography.

However, the down side is I now have tens of thousand of photos that I can sort of label but not really well. Yes I know that temple was in Colombo, Sri Lanka, but exactly where? what temple was it? what was the status across the street? Exactly what bridge is that across the Danube?

But its not just the exotic stuff. Five, ten, fifteen, fifty years from now do you think you, your kids, your grand kids are going to remember where mum and dad or grandma and grandpa were in that photo of a summer holiday, or a christmas, etc. As someone who just collected all my dads photos after his death and am trying to piece together a photo history of his life I'd kill for some decent exif and gps co-ordinates telling me exactly where that photo of he and my mum was taken on on their honeymoon.

We tend to be very short sighted with our ideas of what information is important. Years from now no one is going to care a jot what shutter speed, f number or iso you used for a shot. But where the shot was taken and when, that will be gold. (not to mention tags for faces - trying to get family members to even remember who was in a parents wedding party 50 years later is a nightmare).

Every camera I buy from now on will have GPS and it will always be on. I might strip that data from photos I make public but I will never run the risk of losing it for my purposes.

The cost of 'consumer' features.

A topic that surfaces reasonably often in fora across the net whenever new features emerge is "why do I have to pay for this when I dont want it?". In Sony land the latest cause of this cry seems to be the in-camera GPS included in the A55.

This one really caught my interest because in a strange twist, in camera GPS is actually one of the first of these 'new' features I'm really keen for. So I figured I'd like to run through some of the 'features' in my A700 I would happily do without. So here goes:

DOF preview. With instant review utterly unnecessary and compounds this by being inaccurate.

JPG engine. I only shoot raw.

DRO. Since it only works with JPG dont use it.

WB Button. Since I only shoot RAW I have never used anything but auto WB.

Exposure Comp Button. With two dials one is alway on exposure comp already or I'm shooting manual and its unnecessary.

Drive button. Some shoots are single shot, others use drive, others use the timer or remote. I have never, in five years of shooting with a DSLR moved quickly between drive modes shot to shot. Using a menu would make zero difference to my shooting.

PASM dial. Like the drive button, its not like I move from P to A to S to M modes between shots. Actually there would be months where I never move this dial despite taking 1000's of images. Complete waste.

SSS switch. I dont think I've ever used it in five years (combining A100 and A700 usage).

Video out. If I'm linking to a TV (which I do every now and then) I only use the HDMI - the video is pretty much wasted.

DC in. Really, whats that about?

I would probably say a lot of the flash functions too except I think I should probably use them more and that one day when I get of my arse and learn to employ them I'd regret ditching them.

Now my camera is nothing more than my camera and I suspect it would be an absolute flop in the marketplace. So despite the fact that I never use any of these redundant features I understand why they should be there and arent going to be asking for them to be dropped any time soon.

Arrogance, foolishness or just business

First, let me say that I think a lot of the angst over the NEX5 interface is overblown. No, the interface is not perfect, I would like one more button, I want some small alternations to the way the menus are structured and probably more than anything I want the ability to create some user customizable modes like the Memory Recall functions on the A700. But, I will admit that I am a pretty flexible camera user (in fact I'm pretty flexible in my use of most UIs) so I just dont get flustered by these things as much as most people. Similarly, I really do believe that for all practical purposes the IQ of the NEX at isos 200-1600 is so consistent that I've actually given up selecting iso and just keep the camera on auto-iso for everything except tri-pod work where I am deliberately seeking long exposures. I'm now convinced that both these traits dont make me a very good guide to what is (and is not) a good UI - I'm simply not demanding enough.

So, putting aside my own ambivalence its is clear that much of the interweb is anything but sanguine over the direction Sony has taken, not only with UI, but also with feature sets. Michael Reichman over at Luminous Landscape is perhaps the most vocal and direct critic of the recent Sony approach of both the NEX 5 stills camera and more recently with the NEX-VG10 combi-cam. And while I dont share his passion, even I am able to see that he has a point. These criticisms (taken from Michael Reichman but pretty common out there in the web) are certainly justified:

a) why the rapid descent into menus for obvious functions like changing an ISO setting?

b) why are the video options so limited?

c) why doesnt the NEX-VG10 shoot raw stills?

d) why cant Sony get simple things like histograms, manual focus support, exposure warnings sorted?

Its frustrating that these are issues at all. Why?

Because Sony has designed some of the great camera interfaces of our time in the A700/A900 and their various handi-cams why do they get this wrong now. Also,its not like the interface and functions of DSLRs, camcorders and new combi-cams arent well established. Sony could have spent a few thousand dollars, bought themselves a D3s and 7D and learnt exactly what photographers want from their cameras. Finally, with every camera since the A900, Sony has been bombarded with criticism of its relentless dumbing down and crippling of their cameras. Every site, every review, every blog, every test has said the same thing - that Sony camera lack the simple functions expected of cameras in that category and that the intefaces have been so simplified to actually be ore difficult to use rather than easier.

And yet Sony will not change direction.

Is this sheer arrogance. Does Sony hear but just think it knows better? Is this foolishness, does Sony just not understand? Or is Sony right and everyone else wrong?

Time will tell, but frankly whether arrogance or foolishness, I believe Sony is wrong and must stop this mindless stupifying of its own product.

We actually delight in being ripped off

Its been interesting to watch the press in raptures over the imminent (and now past) Leica releases, whether that Phil Askey over at DPReview or the otherwise pretty sensible Mike Johnston at The Online Photographer. For me the most interesting thing has been watching otherwise sane people willfully, almost gleefully, looking for opportunities to be ripped off.

Any way you look at the new Leica's they are ripping you off. I mean $US7000 for a manual focus camera, capable of just 2 fps, incredibly basic metering system and massive limitations in use. To me, I can only imagine how hard the Leica engineers were laughing when they decided to put a 230k, 2.5 inch LCD on the back of this camera. Can you picture that meeting:

Engineer. "ok, we are going to charge these dolts seven grand for a camera with less features than an iPhone lets at least give them a decent screen".

Manager. "Nuh, give them nothing, wait, no, even better, lets give them a screen but make it worse than anything fitted to the cheapest DSLR on the market today".

Engineer. "But we can give them a decent screen for nothing, we wont even notice the price, surely they'll hate us if we do this to them."

Manager. "You dont get it, the users will love us for it, people who cant afford the camera will scoff, sure, but those who can will make all sorts of excuses for us. They'll even use the fact that the screen is god awful as a reason to buy the camera, they'll say shit like 'real photographers dont need the screen anyway!"

Engineer. "Your kidding right?"

Manager. "Nah, trust me - just watch".

And already we are seeing exactly this reaction in fora across the internet.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, people can be such idiots. Yesterday Mike Johnston in his piece questioning what is expensive, was saying that the camera world was generally free of Veblen goods, well today Leica proved him wrong.