![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
walkitoutMy husband owns cameras. He has a big bag full of lenses and shit. He takes very nice pictures. I don’t generally get involved in those pictures, altho one of my favorite pictures to take while traveling is a picture of him taking a picture. I also like taking pictures of my friend I. while she takes pictures. She says other friends do this to her too.
Some years ago — possibly buried in this blog, even — I’ve ranted a big about the PC and how it was the center of a gadget / peripheral universe. And then smartphones ate all of it. Apps and cloud based services and the device itself replaces personal navigators, PDAs, cameras etc. I figured all of that gadget universe was on death watch. My own gadget universe shrank to my phone, various ear buds and headphones, bluetooth keyboards (and other), an iPad, a series of e-ink e-readers. There was a FitBit for a while, replaced by the Watch, both peripherals of the phone.
Anyway. Speaking of I., she had this amazing optical zoom camera. 40X! Not even a crazy amount of money! Simple to use! Didn’t even include a RAW mode, so no temptation to sink into that black hole of photo geekdom. I went looking for one on Amazon, and wound up buying one with 60X zoom. And then, because I’d recently bought disposable waterproof film cameras (ack!) for my son to take to camp, I started shopping for a waterproof camera. I bought one of those (TG-5, for those keeping track; the 60X is a Lumix), too.
I have now bought _2_ cameras! And they were not too crazy a price, but they weren’t cheapie point and shoots, either. What the hell!?! I put this entire category of product on deathwatch.
Recently, the Boston Globe published a piece on whether you should buy a camera.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/2018/07/30/you-even-need-camera-anymore/THwHdRYKYeR8Tf3E2MHrYJ/story.html
Just to be clear: the entire article compares a smartphone camera to an SLR. The date on it is July 30, 2018.
NOWHERE does it mention that amazing waterproof cameras that will take awesome stills and digital while scuba diving exist for under $400. With impact and sand resistance, presumably they will survive a beach vacation or a trip to a water park as well.
NOWHERE does it mention the zoom camera that I. had that took incredible wildlife photos at Yellowstone, and are the first toy that made me even _think_ about becoming a birder.
This is the non-smartphone camera that Timmins envisions in late July 2018:
“Are you a serious photographer confident with manually manipulating aperture and shutter speed? Do you have the money for a variety of lenses to give you the greatest variety of options? Do you mind carrying a bulky camera and the gear that comes with it? Is photography your passion? If this is you, a digital SLR camera is the better choice.”
Fuck that noise. You can buy a stupid-proof camera wrapped around a massive lens. You can buy a waterproof camera and take Cousteau type movies of your kid underwater at the lake. Nowhere is this mentioned.
I’m not entirely certain _why_ we pay journalists. I know there are good ones. (And of course, I want my journalist friends to be able to have nice places to live, food to eat, the ability to have kids, etc.) This article is not particularly inspiring.
ETA:
Bloomberg coverage of GoPro, another category of camera that the smartphone can’t really co-opt, but which is constantly fighting commodity hell. I have no idea what any of the models in question do. Maybe I’ll try to figure that out. I think some of these are to attach to your helmet while you engage in Xtreme type activities (sports or otherwise) and others of these are drone cameras.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-02/gopro-beats-estimates-on-renewed-demand-for-action-cameras
The Fusion 360 seems to be panoramic video for the slap it on your helmet type camera.
https://shop.gopro.com/cameras/fusion/CHDHZ-103.html
(ETA: $700, includes audio, so looking to serve a VR market.)
The HERO line seems to be very small, very easy to use (?), waterproof in the current incarnation (33 ft), designed to go with a ton of different mounts / accessories, controllable by voice. This would seem to be playing in the same space as the TG-5 I bought (50 ft), but at a lower price point, and with a lot more things to attach it to.
High frames per second seems to be the next thing that is happening, altho at 250 FPS and above, the cameras are still costing a large fraction of / more than a thousand dollars, which is kind of more than an impulse buy for even a fairly dedicated gadgeteer. Give it a few years, and this will probably become normal.
If you do decide to go out and buy one of these things, make sure you get a fast SD card — don’t use one that is just lying around the house, or the video won’t work very well.
ETA: OK, I got an SD card into the TG-5 and took a picture and even managed to access the picture by connecting the USB cord. I don't currently have an SD card reader, altho there are some in the house. I decluttered mine, when I stopped having things that took SD Cards. I keep reminding myself that it is okay that I decluttered all that. First of all the various SD cards and memory sticks went mostly to R., and some of those sped up an install process in his group at work -- and all of what I gave away was way too slow to use in the new cameras anyway. As for the card reader, well, I ordered a USB-C one, which the old one wasn't, so that's all good, too.
Now I just need to go swimming in a pool or something and remember to bring the camera with me so I can find out if this thing really does what it is supposed to. Probably later this month.
ETAYA:
As long as I'm making fun of bad journalism about gadgets, check this out:
http://nymag.com/selectall/smarthome/very-happy-article-about-smart-homes-waste-and-obsolescence.html
Basically, the widgets built into his "smart" TV from 2012 have gradually gone away (surprise). Obviously he should get an Apple TV or Roku or similar.
"Sure, there are backwards-compatible doohickeys like Apple TV or Roku that we could hook up to our television, but those seem like Scotch tape on a broken rearview mirror. It’ll hold, but for how long?"
The only widget left that works on his TV is Netflix, which he anticipates will also stop working at some point in the future, when Netflix decides that supporting 2012 vintage Vizio's doesn't make a helluva lot of sense. What will he do then?
"In the meantime, I’ll wait for our TV to finally delink from the internet for good, to mirror my own brain’s deterioration from “smart” to “dumb,” and to finally have an excuse to use all those DVDs I’ve been hoarding."
I have to say, I can't quite figure out why hooking up a Roku or an Apple TV (or a Kindle Fire stick -- my money is that that's why he ultimately winds up buying) is Scotch tape on a broken rearview mirror, but hooking up a DVD player isn't. *shrug* To each his own, and I hope he gets lots of enjoyment out of those DVDs. Disc rot is a risk, but this suggests that he'll probably die before his collection of movies does:
https://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub121/sec4/
Some years ago — possibly buried in this blog, even — I’ve ranted a big about the PC and how it was the center of a gadget / peripheral universe. And then smartphones ate all of it. Apps and cloud based services and the device itself replaces personal navigators, PDAs, cameras etc. I figured all of that gadget universe was on death watch. My own gadget universe shrank to my phone, various ear buds and headphones, bluetooth keyboards (and other), an iPad, a series of e-ink e-readers. There was a FitBit for a while, replaced by the Watch, both peripherals of the phone.
Anyway. Speaking of I., she had this amazing optical zoom camera. 40X! Not even a crazy amount of money! Simple to use! Didn’t even include a RAW mode, so no temptation to sink into that black hole of photo geekdom. I went looking for one on Amazon, and wound up buying one with 60X zoom. And then, because I’d recently bought disposable waterproof film cameras (ack!) for my son to take to camp, I started shopping for a waterproof camera. I bought one of those (TG-5, for those keeping track; the 60X is a Lumix), too.
I have now bought _2_ cameras! And they were not too crazy a price, but they weren’t cheapie point and shoots, either. What the hell!?! I put this entire category of product on deathwatch.
Recently, the Boston Globe published a piece on whether you should buy a camera.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/2018/07/30/you-even-need-camera-anymore/THwHdRYKYeR8Tf3E2MHrYJ/story.html
Just to be clear: the entire article compares a smartphone camera to an SLR. The date on it is July 30, 2018.
NOWHERE does it mention that amazing waterproof cameras that will take awesome stills and digital while scuba diving exist for under $400. With impact and sand resistance, presumably they will survive a beach vacation or a trip to a water park as well.
NOWHERE does it mention the zoom camera that I. had that took incredible wildlife photos at Yellowstone, and are the first toy that made me even _think_ about becoming a birder.
This is the non-smartphone camera that Timmins envisions in late July 2018:
“Are you a serious photographer confident with manually manipulating aperture and shutter speed? Do you have the money for a variety of lenses to give you the greatest variety of options? Do you mind carrying a bulky camera and the gear that comes with it? Is photography your passion? If this is you, a digital SLR camera is the better choice.”
Fuck that noise. You can buy a stupid-proof camera wrapped around a massive lens. You can buy a waterproof camera and take Cousteau type movies of your kid underwater at the lake. Nowhere is this mentioned.
I’m not entirely certain _why_ we pay journalists. I know there are good ones. (And of course, I want my journalist friends to be able to have nice places to live, food to eat, the ability to have kids, etc.) This article is not particularly inspiring.
ETA:
Bloomberg coverage of GoPro, another category of camera that the smartphone can’t really co-opt, but which is constantly fighting commodity hell. I have no idea what any of the models in question do. Maybe I’ll try to figure that out. I think some of these are to attach to your helmet while you engage in Xtreme type activities (sports or otherwise) and others of these are drone cameras.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-02/gopro-beats-estimates-on-renewed-demand-for-action-cameras
The Fusion 360 seems to be panoramic video for the slap it on your helmet type camera.
https://shop.gopro.com/cameras/fusion/CHDHZ-103.html
(ETA: $700, includes audio, so looking to serve a VR market.)
The HERO line seems to be very small, very easy to use (?), waterproof in the current incarnation (33 ft), designed to go with a ton of different mounts / accessories, controllable by voice. This would seem to be playing in the same space as the TG-5 I bought (50 ft), but at a lower price point, and with a lot more things to attach it to.
High frames per second seems to be the next thing that is happening, altho at 250 FPS and above, the cameras are still costing a large fraction of / more than a thousand dollars, which is kind of more than an impulse buy for even a fairly dedicated gadgeteer. Give it a few years, and this will probably become normal.
If you do decide to go out and buy one of these things, make sure you get a fast SD card — don’t use one that is just lying around the house, or the video won’t work very well.
ETA: OK, I got an SD card into the TG-5 and took a picture and even managed to access the picture by connecting the USB cord. I don't currently have an SD card reader, altho there are some in the house. I decluttered mine, when I stopped having things that took SD Cards. I keep reminding myself that it is okay that I decluttered all that. First of all the various SD cards and memory sticks went mostly to R., and some of those sped up an install process in his group at work -- and all of what I gave away was way too slow to use in the new cameras anyway. As for the card reader, well, I ordered a USB-C one, which the old one wasn't, so that's all good, too.
Now I just need to go swimming in a pool or something and remember to bring the camera with me so I can find out if this thing really does what it is supposed to. Probably later this month.
ETAYA:
As long as I'm making fun of bad journalism about gadgets, check this out:
http://nymag.com/selectall/smarthome/very-happy-article-about-smart-homes-waste-and-obsolescence.html
Basically, the widgets built into his "smart" TV from 2012 have gradually gone away (surprise). Obviously he should get an Apple TV or Roku or similar.
"Sure, there are backwards-compatible doohickeys like Apple TV or Roku that we could hook up to our television, but those seem like Scotch tape on a broken rearview mirror. It’ll hold, but for how long?"
The only widget left that works on his TV is Netflix, which he anticipates will also stop working at some point in the future, when Netflix decides that supporting 2012 vintage Vizio's doesn't make a helluva lot of sense. What will he do then?
"In the meantime, I’ll wait for our TV to finally delink from the internet for good, to mirror my own brain’s deterioration from “smart” to “dumb,” and to finally have an excuse to use all those DVDs I’ve been hoarding."
I have to say, I can't quite figure out why hooking up a Roku or an Apple TV (or a Kindle Fire stick -- my money is that that's why he ultimately winds up buying) is Scotch tape on a broken rearview mirror, but hooking up a DVD player isn't. *shrug* To each his own, and I hope he gets lots of enjoyment out of those DVDs. Disc rot is a risk, but this suggests that he'll probably die before his collection of movies does:
https://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub121/sec4/