8 Features or Ideas that Canon's Competition does Better - A Point in Focus S6E7

[@ZadakLeader]

Canon really needs to invest more into their camera's software...

[@PointsInFocus]

Fortunately that's the least expensive thing they can invest in. The hardware and lenses are far more expensive...

[@mikede2464]

1000% The software running my R1 seems like it is built from a 1999 baseline.

[@mikede2464]

With the R1 it's about getting back to basics: How about real time zebras in photo mode??? Customization options that are not bizarre in their implementation and restrictions??? With my R1 it is like 90% of the camera is from the year 2050 and the other 10% is from 1999.

[@JohnSwen-p6b]

As someone who has used Sony, Nikon, and Canon each manufacturer has their benefits and areas of improvement.

[@Twobarpsi]

Excellent commentary! On a semi related note, what is your opinion on adding some security to bodies and lenses? Add a lock screen to the bodies, and then pair each lens via S/N to the body so they wouldn't work anywhere else? This would take any possible attempt of theft irrelevant. All of which could be disabled in the menu if not desired.

[@PointsInFocus]

I think that's a very bad idea, in fact I think it's one that's well along the "road to hell is paved with good intentions." There are just so many problems with the idea that it's hard to even start to address them. How do you deal with lenses that are separate from cameras (e.g. your lens is stolen but not the camera)? The lens also needs to know what bodies it's locked to, not just the other way. How do you deal with rentals? What happens when someone rents a lens and locks it to their camera then returns it without unlocking it (may not even be malicious, maybe they forgot they had the feature enabled)? How does the rental company override and release the lock? If a rental house can release the lock, what's stopping thieves from doing the same? The idea of a secrete master key that doesn't ever get leaked or stolen is laughable at best. Keep in mind, the only way you can securely pair lenses and cameras as you suggest, and not make it trivial to remove/release would be to have a lot of encryption going on everywhere in them. Plus, aren't several smartphone brands supposed to be doing something similar? Hardware reported stolen is prevented from reactivating rendering it useless. Stolen phones just get shipped to China and rooted or parted out. I can't find exact statistics readily, but the general gist I'm seeing is that smartphone thefts aren't declining. How many cameras/lenses does the system allow to be paired? Oops that new lens you got is just one too many for you to have. What happens with about old cameras that don't support the system? Does the fancy new lens that I locked to my R5 mark 3 just not work on my R5 because it doesn't know how to unlock it? How does this help when the camera and lenses are stolen together? What about random failures and glitches? Nothing is perfect. Hidden technical complexity more often than not doesn't lead to increased or even equal reliability. And finally, it doesn't really protect my investment. It's not going to stop a thief from grabbing my backpack and running off. Only when they discover its worthless camera gear, they just smashing it out of spite or throwing it in a river so as not to get caught with it --- they're not just going to carefully bring it back and return it. The "locked" gear they couldn't see didn't stop them from stealing the bag it was in. And it doesn't stop them from damaging or destroying the gear leaving me with the loss anyway.

[@kentkarlsson6277]

More AutoISO modes like Fuji has. There i 3 in my EX4. Being able to shift easy between different max ISO and min shutterspeed

[@Kxng5Jeevy]

I think Panasonic should try to buy Blackmagic... Imagine a S5iix & Pyxis in one body 😍

[@PointsInFocus]

That would likely be an interesting development, though I'm not sure I want to see more consolidation in the camera industry as it stands. Getting any individual company to do anything that's new, novel, and beneficial for photographers/filmmakers is already a hard enough with the competition that currently exists. I don't think fewer companies would make things better.

[@pedzsan]

Focus Bracketing: Yes, the depth of field priority was nice. I used it often and would use it often still if it existed even for non-macro shots. The interface focus stacking Canon currently has is ok except it doesn’t know when to stop so what I do is set the number to 10 and then take multiple stacks since where the last image is focused of the previous stack is where the first image needs to be focused of the next stack. So I just look at the last image and press the shutter again if I need more DOF. Pixel Shift: never used it… don’t want it … not even a little bit. If you want huge pixel counts, then do a panorama with a tighter shot. Agree that AI makes this mute except of you want to do huge wall sized prints. Then you probably want a lot of real pixels, not faked ones. Panoramas provide this. Frame Averaging: That sounds nice. My only comment is it seems like if you were desperate enough, you could do the frame averaging yourself post process. I’ve done this with things like one hour “exposure” but really it is multiple exposures at (say) 1s. Extended Shutter: Ehh… I do some astrophotography but usually I have some device controlling the camera. Seems like it would be simple to implement. But, what I really want is zero time delay between images (or as close to zero as they can make it). For example, with the timer mode, I can put 2s exposed every 2s but it doesn’t work. It actually starts the next frame 4 seconds later instead of 2. Also, if the camera actually isn’t going to do what I’m asking it to do then it should not allow me to enter the settings. If they can capture 30 frames per second and they have enough processor power to stuff that onto a card, why can’t they capture a frame every two seconds and be able to stuff that onto a card? Last… you mentioned it but display the actual time. If 30s is actually 32s, then display 32s - not 30s. Battery issues: I will have an R1 and R5 but I’m ok with two chargers. I get the frustration but, so far, I’m not frustrated with it. For my shooting, one battery frequently lasts me the whole day. In the old days, that wasn’t the case. Remote Control: I haven’t explored this much. I noticed the R5m2 has two new interfaces for remote control but I haven’t checked them out. With the phone app using Wi-Fi, it seems like even with the phone all, everything could be managed remotely. Real S&F Motion: Well… for me, all of the “in camera” features like up resing images is a total wasted effort. Features like real S&F motion would give me much more utility than many of the things Canon chooses to implement. In camera ProRes: I’m a total Apple bigot but I believe if Canon did this, they would need to pay money to Apple so the price of the camera would go up. For most uses, that would be wasted expense probably. Other desires: I would like to have a “star focus” mode. I’ve been told that some cameras have that. I would like other buttons like “Rate” to be programmable. BUT… my #1 desire is to make it obvious what settings do *not* apply to RAW mode. This is for video as well as still images. I would like to see some star in the documentation that effectively says “he no effect when shooting in RAW mode”. And, for that matter, it may was well be greyed out in the menu if shooting in RAW if it will have no effect. Criticism: This is my first video of yours that I’ve watched I believe. It has interesting content but the presentation style, to me, seems lacking. I think if you wrote a script and tightened up all the pauses and stray thoughts, it would be much more enjoyable to watch and I think it would help with subscribers.

[@PointsInFocus]

*Re: Frame Averaging* The challenge with averaging frames in post is the large memory and data requirements. Achieving a 10-stop ND filter effect needs 1024 frames, which can consume significant card space. Programs like Photoshop or ImageMagick require loading all images into memory to average them. Even with today's system increased RAM, handling 1024 45 MP 16-bit RGB images requires around 257 GB of RAM, which most systems lack. In-camera averaging is vastly more memory efficient: it only requires memory for an accumulator image and a counter. A 32-bit accumulator supports up to 262,144 14-bit frames, and uses just 172 MB of RAM; plus another 4 bytes for the frame counter. The result is a single 45 MP image, stored in RAW or JPEG format on your card which is also a lot less data to take home and manage. In-camera averaging also benefits from adjusting the rolling shutter readout speed to minimizing gaps and make use optimal use of the available bandwidth. *Re: Interval Timing* The actual interframe gap is already comparatively short, there’s just no way to tell the camera’s intervalometer to include it. Even if it was only a microsecond, you’d still have the shot skipping problem since the camera if the exposure time and interval time are exactly the same. The simplest solution though is to not use the intervalometer at all. Set your exposure time in manual mode (e.g. 2s), set the camera to continuous drive (low is fine), and use the long exposure time setting on an external intervalometer, or the shutter release lock on a cable release, to set the total recording time. This will shoot the next frame as quickly as possible after the previous frame is completed. Alternatively, building your own intervalometer isn’t terribly difficult if you accept having only minimum functionality necessary. It’s quite simple to hook an Arduino up to a camera through an opto-isolator, and the needed code really isn’t complicated. It’s just a bunch of delays and digital writes in a while loop. *Re: The Format:* This is a podcast, and like most podcasts, I have talking points (and do research) but there’s no script and never will be (every other video on this channel is scripted and edited FWIW). I use this as a venue to talk about things I find interesting in photography, videography, or camera engineering. I consider the tangents part of that discussion. The only consideration I place on these podcasts is to keep them under 60 minutes, and preferably under 30-45 minutes if I can. Anyway, thanks for watching and the feedback.

[@sebastianberes]

Canon growing to be similar to post-Jobs Apple. Gradually offering lower quality products for higher prices. The price of the new 70-200 2.8 is egregious.

[@PointsInFocus]

The new hybrid one is $200 more expensive than Canon's smaller one and Sony's; and $300 more expensive than Nikon's. Sony's is the closest is obvious features, but neither it or Nikon's support power zoom and neither are direct physical matches for another lens in their respective product lines --- both of which are features that I'm sure Canon will argue warrant the higher price. The only internal zoom reasonably priced 70-200/2.8 is Panasonic's.

[@80-80.]

I think Panasonic has the best implementation of hi-res mode. They compose a single raw file in camera and it handles motion very well, but not camera motion (you have to use a tripod). small movements in water and leaves are perfectly fine. Replacing this feature with AI generated fake made-up details is just sad and it's not about anyone seeing the difference or not. It's about the meaning of photography.

[@PointsInFocus]

Looking over Panasonic's implementation, you're right, it does appear to be better than Fuji's and Sony's. It's too bad I never remember Panasonic has a lot of solid implementations.