This Would've Changed Photography Forever

Turns out the idea of smart cameras goes as far back as 1998. It all began with an obscure operating system called DigitaOS. It may seem like a small thing, but it was incredibly powerful for the time and still can do things most modern cameras cannot do. Fast forward a few years and we've seen attempts with Android on cameras, but nothing that has stuck. Will there ever be a time where our cameras run the same operating system, and custom apps can be made easily for them? Do we even want that? Curious on your thoughts.
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#photography #cameras #90s

[@drmanhat4483]

Seamless wireless connectivity between a camera and a phone seems like the way to go.

[@Perceivedshift]

Agree, there really should be no reason we need to buy something like the Camranger 2.

[@der94alex]

Something like the sony qx thingies

[@twodollarking8009]

I'm not much of a camera guy but my Canon connects to my phone and I can send images over to my phone. Not raw images tho sadly, just jpgs but still. Takes a minute to get images i want over to my phone

[@drmanhat4483]

@@twodollarking8009 same here with the cannon... And yeah basically I long for a little more in terms of features and optimization to reach the seamless point.

[@ddeml]

Same here with Sony A7IV. I can even monitor and remote control the camera.

[@colombianguy8194]

I was a Samsung technician back in 2010-2014, and I had the opportunity to try the NX camera in a technical meeting. I was blown away! The perfect mix of smartphone and professional camera, it even had a SIM slot. Unfortunately the high price and the company massive product diversification slowed sales of the NX system, marketing (at least in Colombia) was very little, they were more focused to selling TV's and cell phones, so soon after the digital camera division was closed.

[@velvetrooster5569]

You know, I have three of the Samsung galaxy digital cameras Galaxy Camera Galaxy Camera 2 Galaxy NX And those are really awesome cameras. I bought them in 2017 and 2018 and all I can say right now is that I wish there were more companies dedicated to making a high-quality digital camera that ran a full-blown, android operating system. I know there are two other companies that made android based digital cameras several years after Samsung pulled out of the market, but I also know those are very high, priced cameras, and very low production numbers and I know at least one of them is from a reputable company that supposedly somehow still made a piece of shit camera that just happens to run android and the other one which was shown in this video I just don’t know much about and that’s disappointing

[@Nearest_Neighbor]

I have to give Zeiss credit for attempting to establish a smart camera again. Unfortunately the price was way overkill and the development took soo long.

[@CianMcsweeney]

yep, and they also went with a weird ergonomic design that made the camera way too big, awkward to hold, and awkward to quickly change settings (touch only menu controls are always a bad idea on a camera). If they had made the body more similar to a Leica Q2 it would have been a success

[@unbroken1010]

​@@CianMcsweeney not at that price

[@CianMcsweeney]

@@unbroken1010 well yeah, they'd have had to undercut the leica slightly, but they still could have charged 3-4k for it and still been successful imo

[@unbroken1010]

@@CianMcsweeney adorama has them discounted and no one still buys them. It's not hard to put your card in you device. Btw we know it's your opinion 😂. Stop walking on eggshells

[@CianMcsweeney]

@@unbroken1010 dude, if you actually read what I've written, you'll see that I don't think it was just the price that was an issue, read my first comment and stop being such a prick over a camera lol, it isn't a good look

[@Aleksilausti]

The earlier Sony mirrorless cameras like Sony A7, A7ii, A7s, A7Rii etc are Android based and can run apps from the Sony Playmemories app store. There are even third party apps that some people coded for them.

[@Leo9ine]

I still can't get over how bad the name "playmemories" is

[@masadamofu]

My A6000 can load a third-party tweaker to remove 30 min limiter now the only limit is how to get the heat away

[@fedirshurkhal5044]

@@masadamofu custom Arduino-based little fan? Look in to that, it might be the solution!

[@masadamofu]

@@fedirshurkhal5044 good idea! for now I clamp 90mm fan using ulanzi phone holder, with stepup usb c that has led voltage indicator and small knob to control the speed, connect directly to npf970 that power the camera too! And I have small ssd heatsink attached to the back with thermal pad, this actually helping even without a fan lol

[@GABRIEL_CRAFT]

​@@masadamofu you need to start a KZbin channel!

[@d-hell]

Finally someone giving some attention to the Galaxy NX. I love these dorky cameras, but in fact I just recently sold one of my three NXs when I discovered that resetting it was a bad idea regarding apps and compatibility... The image quality is great though. Hope you will do a thorough review on it. Love your content!

[@ryandobal]

I think even after resetting you can get old apps back on there by using apk's of old versions of apps from third party sources... not 100% sure tho but I would guess that's possible

[@d-hell]

Maybe. I'm not familiar with apk, but thanks. Will look into it.

[@ThomasBryant]

@@ryandobal Yes you can sideload apps.

[@ryandobal]

@@d-hell no problem! hopefully it puts some new life into your cameras :)

[@gryphon.halley]

I could see this being popular for very casual photographers, however I struggle to visualize how I would actually use this in the field. The old technology is fascinating, and definitely worth exploring more. However, it seems distracting .Years ago, I sold all of my Nikon equipment and bought into the Fuji ecosystem so I could spend less time navigating LCD menus and just turn the knobs and dials on the top of the camera to get the correct settings i need in the moment - much like the analog experience. To me, the biggest gripe with more modern digital cameras is that they feel like computers instead of actual cameras. The experience of using a camera is almost lost in translation with advances such as this. I'm not discounting the amazing possibilities that could've come out of something like this, however for me personally I feel like it might have been a bit much had this taken off and become the norm.

[@LupusAries]

@@hundredfireify A unified camera OS would make a lot of sense for us customers, but I also see Gryphon's point of view. I love shooting my D300S, it gives such lovely colours and is just so intuitive to use, if you know how to photograph. In full manual I can just rip through the settings thanks to the two dials, and if I need a shutter speed+aperture preselect mode, like for aviation photography, I can just turn on auto-ISO. (Also for aviation photography, back button focus rocks!) Which is a lot more reliable for exposure than both Aperture or Shutter speed preselect mode. I like that I'm disconnected during shooting, as I can focus fully on the photographing and most of the time, I'd rather use my more powerful PC for the development of the image. Also the far larger and more colour correct screen that makes me able to see way more details than the screen on the back. Especially when it comes to noise removal. And if you are using the Nikkor 200-500 F5.6 or something like it, like the tamron/Sigma 150-600s or the Nikkor 200-400 you're also doing your own workout while photographing. An additional problem is that any kind of wireless connectivity kills your batteries flat in a hurry, an even bigger problem for today's mirrorless cameras. As well as requiring a different chassis construction method, with carbon reinforced fiberglass for the atenna to be able to transmit. You can't really build a full magnesium alloy body like with the D700 or D300/D300S with that anymore. Furthermore any device that is connected to the internet can be hacked, so having a device that is offline ads a literal firewall. And the cloud is not safe, especially for important data that your lifelyhood depends upon....like a professional Photographer's images. If you want backup, that's what the second card slot is there for. The only reason for the instant upload that he talks about that android pitched would be photojournalists or journalistic photographers (true ones, not the ones working for the MSM right now) that would need to instantly transmit their images out of a high risk situation. However what's usually the first target in War, unless you're Russia, and the first thing the Government shuts down in case of unrest or an uprising against it? Yep, the cell network! Now this also adds an a bit more sinister reason against connectivity, any cellular device needs to be registered, it needs to be linked to a name, adress and number. Now if there was such a thing as a smart camera for professional use, how fast do you think a government of a particularly authoritarian bent would require all their professionals to use such cameras? It would make it ridiculously easy for any such police state to then identify who was using professional level cameras or any other serious cameras to make arresting them much easier. Hell they could comb it for any user of any type of serious camera. And then lock them up! And snappiness has a point, my D300S has a firmware update, the second one it got in it's life and that update is from 2010 and yet it's still rocking. And it's still a fast camera, despite being on old hardware, because everything is focused on just running the camera. There is no overhead for any other applications. I also use an F65 (occasionally) and an FT2, I learned to photgraph on my parents Photomik Nikon F. Both of them are even older and yet still run fine, hell the FT has got pretty much no electronics, bar a lightmeter. I do use the FT2 more, as it gives me another fully manual experience than the D300S, the F65 is basically a D300s, but with film instead of digital. The problem with the Galaxy NX is that it's basically Semi-Pro to Professional pricing for the body, but it lacks the control scheme of a professional camera. It lacks the dedicated buttons and dials that you can use blindly like on any other professional camera, be they Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Olympus, Leica (if you're very rich)...... Which means none of the pros or serious amateur photographers is interested, due to the lack of features they need, and the casual photographers who would like it, are priced out of the market. Only if you're Leica and have it's mythos of Leica can you ask for ridiculous prices, have less features than the competition and still expect people to pay those ridiculous prices.

[@WhatDaFurk]

The Zeiss ZX1 runs on an Android OS. Something people usually miss

[@scotttucker9613]

Wanna hear a good joke? Zeiss ZX1.

[@WhatDaFurk]

@@scotttucker9613 😂

[@unbroken1010]

We know ,

[@chidorirasenganz]

@@scotttucker9613 bad joke but good camera 😅

[@elliotmarks06]

I think one major thing holding smart cameras from taking off is the speed of mobile innovation vs camera innovation. I currently use a camera from 2014, and it still works perfectly. There is no way I could say the same thing about phones. If I suddenly needed to upgrade my $1000+ camera every few years to keep compatibility with modern apps and workflows, it would end up doing more harm than good. Still a cool idea though, and I hope someone smarter than me can find a good solution!

[@GrannyBender]

I'm so damn glad to see someone talk about DigitaOS. I somehow wish that more people would fill this niche of old digital cameras, kind of the Lomo side of digital photography; embracing the clunkyness, compression artifacts and big pixels just like how folks embrace cheap plastic cameras with plastic lenses full of lovely chromatic aberration, distortion and wacky films with big chunky grain. I bought a Kodak running on DigitaOS a while ago to toy with it. Haven't yet managed to fully get into it, mainly for a lack of available ressources or scripts, and motivation. I'm a pixel artist by day, so my main goal with it is to make it into a proper 1-bit camera (only black and white, dithering for the other nuances and a few parameters to adjust the contrast and other parameters. Most of it can easily be done in photoshop, that's what I've been doing for a few years now but having it inside of a camera directly would be fantastic. I could probably get it done with some raspberry pie and some coding but it would be so much better with an already old and imperfect camera. DigitaOS is honestly an untapped potential rabbit hole of creativity, I just wished more people would try to toy with it.

[@TC-rv6sz]

Beautiful comment!! ❤❤ Love seeing others with a passion for alternative media tech 😊

[@editingsecrets]

Maybe the perfect thing to add to SLRs for nostalgic shooters.

[@resolution.photographer]

Regarding avoiding planned obsolescence, you should take a look at Pixii (recent French brand) 2023 camera (APSC sensor, true monochrome, 64 bits processor, etc). In fact they provide hardware update to improve your camera by having a new OVF, a new sensor, a new processor and so on.

[@problemat1que]

The issue of aging processors and systems was addressed separately by the Ricoh GXR, which has a base CPU and screen unit that plugs into a sensor and lens unit. That way, different mirrorsless interchangeable and non interchangeable APS-C and even small sensor compact zoom formats were supported from the same base, which could then be upgraded separately. Might be worth a follow up video. And of course custom ROM Android exists to support old smartphones and make them run like new again.

[@snappiness]

I owned the gxr and *almost* all the modules a few years (a few old videos on the channel). Would be fun to pick them up again!

[@problemat1que]

@@snappiness awesome, to bad that system didn't go anywhere, presumably due to price, as conceptually it solves a number of problems.

[@oackgourmandi6061]

The Zeiss ZX1 is actually a camera that integrates this concept but... it has only Lightroom and Instagram. It's a fantastic digital camera, a really serious digital camera, it's of course intended for a more professional market or... someone that has 6000 dollars to spend

[@weisserth]

And at some point in time both Lightroom and Instagram will stop working on that camera as it will not be maintained with the required Android updates to keep up with changes in Instagram and Lightroom updates. Anyone buying into an expensive Android powered device must be out of their mind.

[@jimhenderson6162]

Yes. They decide what features we should have when we buy the camera. When ways to connect or handle our pictures come along to meet my unusual wishes or yours, we can buy another camera instead of just installing software that will do it.

[@karmatraining]

I love this idea. Imagine how different the world would be if we developers could harness the processing power locked inside DSLRs. Imagine the crazy creative things that could be done.

[@distomos8118]

Crazy creative things like what…?

[@gerlosv]

@@distomos8118 motion based-trigger, focus stacking, advanced time lapses, custom onboard processing of images, automatic cloud backup, immediate delivery of the photos to your partners, so the can cull and process your photos. Without the need of third party hardware.

[@distomos8118]

@@gerlosv Hmm.., don’t qualify for me as crazy stuff, pretty much ordinary things that can mostly be achieved with nowadays tools as well. Onboard processing of images: who would want to do that on tiny screens? It might fit social media needs, but serious photography? The same goes for focus stacking. If you want to rely on so called AI to get the job done, good luck with that one, if you want to have your images reflect your creativity.

[@alexamderhamiltom5238]

​@@distomos8118 folding screen exist,

[@distomos8118]

@@alexamderhamiltom5238 If these suffice your image quality standards then by all means use them.

[@ColtonMatocha]

This video was legit cool! Great work!

[@Nedski42YT]

I'm sort of glad that Android for cameras didn't pan out for two reasons. #1 The state of Android updates for electronic devices is STILL fractured. Every Android device manufacturer has different update policies. Many Android phones get only one Android version update if they get any at all. Just imagine, wait you don't have to, if a camera manufacturer didn't update their Android version. #2 (Most?) Camera manufacturers offer remote control apps that run on both Android and iOS phones/tablets. You only have to update your phone/tablet and not worry too much about your camera manufacturers updates, just update the phone app. BTW I'm Android/iOS agnostic. Each platform has its pros/cons.

[@awesomeferret]

1. This is actually an embarrassing argument, and I cringe more every time I read it here. "regular" cameras have significantly less features and signficantly more firmware fragmentation. You're literally complaining about an unprecedented LACK of fragmentation (the idea that it runs Android at all makes it a bad faith argument to complain about fragmentation, since every other camera is significantly more fragmented BECAUSE IT RUNS AN OS DESIGNED FOR ONLY A FEW CAMERAS. People are turning off their brains here for some reason. "Just imagine that a camera manufacturer didn't update the Android version". Yeah, I can, because it's so common for other non Android cameras to not get very many firmware updates. Yeah, I can, because it's common for newer Android versions to slow things down. It's scary that people would rather have a new Android version for the sake of it, even if it means that it would make their camera worse. 2. My Canon Eos M6 mark II does have this feature, but it's furutrating not being able to use it for more than half an hour without the camera overheating (in the downstairs basement, no less). A camera that runs Android uld allow full remote control, and it wouldn't shut down whenever it wants to because it would be engineered to deal with overheating in a more appropriate way (it's still pretty shocking that such a modern camera just kicks out out with no warning, that's just not how you do thermal management anymore, add a tiny fan or something).

[@jackkraken3888]

@@awesomeferret Not Op You have some valid points but I think battery usage will go down fast, I think we need some middle ground between the extremely limited firmware of camera and the full fat and more power hungry android OS. And one important concern is that it is first and foremost a camera, meaning that UI must be designed to work whether you have a Google account or not and it should need the Internet at all. I'm saying this because some manufactures have made smartphones that are a pain to use when you don't have an account

[@NPJensen]

I do in fact have a Kodak DC290 (I got it for the Kodak sensor). It's an interesting camera, that's for sure - it's just very close to being a brick. I can only shoot in warm weather or it seizes up on me, but the colors are beautiful. I sometimes wish, digital camera design would have continued in the same direction rather than getting so much inspiration from analog cameras, but I do recognize the fact, that analog camera design got it right in the first place, so digital going in the same direction makes a lot of sense.

[@CodHumors]

Just bought one of the last Epson R-D1's. Turned out I had written a blog about the perfect film sim camera last year. Little did I know it was attempted by Epson back in 2004. It's amazing. Amazing RAWs. An amazing experience.

[@ofthenearfuture]

This was an awesome video, super interesting!

[@CAMSMORE]

As always, great video y information! 👏 greetings from Spain

[@Hellamoody]

Excellent video, had to sub!

[@Gj_frames]

I bought a Kobo Forma for reading, it’s not just a e-ink device. It’s also a device that’s not connected to the rest of the world. That means, when I want to read I don’t get an email, insta notice or a call, I can focus on that book. I think the same with cameras. It sound super cool. But in the reality, for people that takes photos, searching for that zone/focus (not zonefocus), an Android device is the last thing you want in your hands. I guess analog photography has been popular by a reason, kids finds a way to disconnect from the digital world and work just here and now. And, using a proper camera, and then edit the photos on 4” … why? I almost think 15” is to small on my macbook pro.

[@snappiness]

Great response!

[@photo1416]

I use an old phone for the same function, reading books

[@photom3]

I suspect the camera companies don’t want to give up control of their distinctive view. The phone has caused the industry to splinter, we can only hope that one of those splinters will take us back to the heyday of making pictures. I think there is a segment that loves photography but maybe not as big as it once was.

[@user0K]

Camera companies are VERY bad in software departament and like to be control freaks (i.e. whole system control). Canon regularly breaking third party flashes with software updates and copyright striking third party companies who try to use their new mount. Basically, each external monitor has more monitoring features than a camera (Waveform? Spectroscope? Usable controls?). And DJI gimbal app is much better than any app Sony made to control their cameras (wtf)

[@photom3]

I think camera companies are missing a lot of marketing opportunities. We can now mindlessly snap away which is not helping.

[@user0K]

@@photom3 yeah, I think custom apps was just marketing. They ditched it away once they checked how many people use it actually.

[@slr7075]

There's so much potential for these cameras but unfortunately... kzbin.info/www/bejne/faKwhIqriMp3hqM

[@Timoleon87]

I think it's better to have a more solid connection between camera and phone. Just automatic connection, ability to transfer RAW, no lag live view and so on. Just a seamless extension.

[@regalwalnut]

Very cool! Did not know this.

[@WhoIsSerafin]

So happy it never took off! I don’t want my camera to be a cellphone! I leave my phone behind when I go out and photograph for a reason.

[@jeroddunn]

I would love to see a nice sized sensor and lens mixed with some of the pixel phone camera magic. What could the compositing post processing that smartphones do with a real camera?

[@ano_nym]

One thing to consider is battery time. If we would have software as big as phone OSes running on phone processors we would not get very good battery times. But if I were to guess we may in the future get some apps on the cameras. Unfortunately it will probably still be only a few proprietary apps for still non-open camera software. Like an Instagram app were you can directly post stuff to social media, to not get out-competed with phones, perhaps a Ligthroom or similar app for editing too.

[@melody3741]

People are fine charging their phones everyday or twice a day.

[@definedphotography]

not to mention, the "boot" time for camera would be horrific. they need to be near-instant on

[@ano_nym]

@@definedphotography Yeah, didn't even think about that. Guess you would have to have it always on pretty much, even when in your bag, further increasing standby battery drain.

[@ano_nym]

@@definedphotography and updates and stuff. "Sorry, you have to update before you continue taking photos." XD

[@unbroken1010]

Battery life on nx galaxy is very good actually

[@MrDman1331]

Great video, but you left out a very important point and shoot/cellphone camera. The Samsung Galaxy Camera/cellphone. This camera runs the Android OS and came in 2 models, one with a broadband modem and one without. However both had Wi-Fi. Introduced in 2012, this camera still out performs most cellphones because of it optical zoom. The camera was introduced in 2012 and I retired it from my lineup about 2 years ago. When I used this camera I configured it to write to my google drive as I was shooting, stills and video. It is light weight with a built in flash. If Samsung introduce an updated version today it would dominate the social media space, no doubt. Because it has the capability to upload high quality stills and video to any social media sight. BTW I have the Kodak DC290, it was a good camera for it's time. Peace

[@Lama-it6rk]

The android camera should be tried again by a big brand. Since 2013 i've always thought about the potential of having the capabilities of a full-frame sensor and an advanced OS such as android with the 5g connection. I mean, the photos could be sended directly on a server and then downloaded and edited from the smartphone and immediately posted/sended. That would be such a terrific workflow for many. And there would also be the other big piece of cake: the videos. Today an android app supported by a good soc can record 8k videos without big problems. But in general, we could bring around a complete and powerful streaming setup, witch today is a very popular and remunerative activity. Of course, the camera should be designed in a smart way at 360 degree starting from the size, the battery, the soc, the screen, the connection, the lenses, AF and other important aspects. If an iphone can create great videos with a tiny sensor, i can imagine a real camera with a computational camera app that can create amazing videos in 4k with many different modes. This is still a product with potential, not a dead idea!

[@davescott3920]

@2:47 “oh wait.. how did this get here?” Haha love it man! Super entertaining giving this a watch👍🏼

[@SianaGearz]

One of my favourite old cameras is Sanyo VPC Z400. It has some remarkably low tech solutions to common problems. Most cameras at the time were based on the same chipset and base firmware by Sierra Imaging. They didn't detect reliably whether the batteries are running flat, especially when it was a little chilly, and if you have an extending lens system, it might get stuck in an extended state, making the camera lens prone to take damage. Solution: they spring loaded all the lens elements, so even if it was extended when the camera lost power, you can just put a cap over the lens and it would retract the lens and protect it. The display backlight was a CCFL which consumed a lot of power and didn't make a lot of light, so it was completely useless in sunlight. Transflective LCD weren't available yet. Solution: they made a window on top of the camera which guides the sunlight into the backlight prism. When you open the window, the backlight shuts off, saving power. You just point the top of the camera straight at the sun and you get a little green tinted but otherwise perfectly legible picture preview. It's of course one of many funny cameras of the 90s when manufacturers were super inventive, before things became sane and relatively more boring. But ultimately a transflective LCD as used by later Fuji and Pentax is better, and periscope lens is plain better on a compact point and shoot than an extending one.

[@jg374]

On certain canon branded point and shoot cameras and DSLRs it is possible to run scripts on them and gain manual control / play games using the CHDK and Magic Lantern tools. They also can enable raw format support. I used to use this to get manual control on a point and shoot with only automatic modes and wrote and used timelapse and motion detection scripts on it. These aren't officially supported of course and I'm not sure what their support is like with newer cameras.

[@otm646]

This already all exists, as soon as cameras had Wi-Fi / Bluetooth all of your image processing, sharing and back up can be done on one device. That's your cellphone. I use Olympus IO share on a 2016 camera with a 2023 phone daily.

[@JaronHorst]

Boy does this bring back memories! The first digital I camera I bought was a HP PhotoSmart C500 with DigitaOS on it. I saved for what felt like forever to get that camera (I was in high school at the time)! Was a fun camera to use and took pretty good photos -- at least as long as I had batteries to feed it! Sadly, I ended up selling it for my next camera (Fuji FinePix S602Z) after I became sick of the poor battery life.

[@matteocsepeli409]

An incredible channel!

[@davefoc]

We're roughly with cameras where we were when IBM thought it could save its computer business by slowing down development of IBM PC's and where we were when Kodak thought it could save its core film business by not developing digital cameras. Except instead of one company trying to implement that strategy we have five major camera producers all attempting that strategy. The big elephant in the room might be Google and maybe Sony. Both of those companies have most of the technology to introduce an android style camera. Sony might not be interested because it is already showing signs of becoming the dominant camera manufacturer without trying something as radical as an Android camera. But what's stopping Google? ETA: I like the idea of a joint venture between FujiFilm and Google. FujiFilm is working hard to stay relevant but it is not quite succeeding. A FujiFilm/Google joint venture might be good for both companies. ETA2: How about a joint venture between Olympus and Google? Olympus might be giving up on the standard camera market. A joint venture between them and Google might save the Olympus camera division and with Olympus Android might find its way into microscopes as well as cameras.

[@carlosencarnacion9667]

Yo, Pentax! That tiny camera shown at the beginning could have been a derivation of the Pentax 110 system or the Q system, a tiny pocket DSLR with a docking port for editing and viewing. It could use the 110 or Q lenses. Just a thought...

[@jasongold6751]

My Pentax Optio has a battery charge docking and also a spare battery point! The cord gotta be 10 feet (3,3m)..

[@marktibbetts3799]

Amazing information

[@dtebarrett]

The Samsung NX line is still a very affordable camera system. Despite the other models not having real Android, they originally had some functioning apps that had stuff like remote viewfinder. The pinnacle of the Samsung NX line is something like 28MP which is not bad considering how much you can get them for. I got a NX1000 for £100 and a 50-200 for it for another £100 and you wouldn't be able to tell.

[@67comet]

Dear Pentax: Please make a K1D (D for Full Frame DSLR), using the K1 body (knobs > touch screen for field photography), with adjustable full touch screen Android ecosystem, Pentax K mount, all the bells and whistles that the K3 Mkiii has (but built in GPS like the K1 mkii), and of course, include options for cellular (built in). Sounds simple :).

[@RileyJohnson37]

You should also check out the Nikon S800C. It predates the Samsung and was available in August of 2012. It was a small point and shoot that was 16mp. I purchased it to be able to do exactly what you said in the idea of connecting to WiFi and backing up photos of my trip to google for family to view.

[@isaackingvideos]

I wish I had that camera it would be cool to do videos on.

[@user-xe3bi8bm6f]

I worked for Minolta in the noughties, selling their 3D scanners. Someone had the great idea of using the Damage EX with an extra module between the camera and lens. This projected a structured light pattern on the subject such that the images captured could be converted to 3D models. It worked really well on certain subjects but the plug was pulled just as the product got going.

[@MatthiasPitscher]

wasn't there an attempt to make a fully open-source camera some years ago? Actually, I think it was a videorecorder but I liked the concept of being able to customize both hard and software. I really loved what Magic Lantern could do on Canon cameras

[@906MediaProductions]

​@@hundredfireify kinda, the cameras it can run on are all getting outdated and Canon has the new ones locked down tight.

[@MiladJP]

With the ongoing changes in photography, I have actually decided to deliver my last job in June in color and shift to something Else. Smart Autofocus, computational photo editing and predictive analytics are killing the joy of taking pictures. Since I want to keep it digital, I have decided to go back in time. Monochrome Sensor, no autofocus, no AI.... looking forward to seeing how cameras will adapt or even pivot into another direction since technological improvements are making the old process obsolete.

[@weisserth]

Have fun with your Leica M11 Monochrome then! Certainly a fantastic photographic device!

[@MiladJP]

@@weisserth M11 ? Have you seen the price? 😭 I’ll start with the M246 monochrome and the voigtländer lens.

[@joetrent4753]

@@MiladJP The M Monochrom is actually quite a decent camera and does produce film like quality to the results. From what I've seen, the M11 just looks too clinical for my tastes, would probably suit fine art style photography. I do feel the M11 is the first Leica that has moved too far away from the original. Whilst I don't own a Leica I have a Sony A7III and Voigtlander 40mm f1.2 and agree with your original comment. It's nice to be able to manual focus and not have too many modern features doing the work for me.

[@MiladJP]

@@joetrent4753 100% agree 😁 and I just bought the 40 mm voigtländer today.

[@bondgabebond4907]

I'm itching to buy expensive monochrome film for my Nikon F2. The cost of film is too much, not like how it was in the 1970s on. You know you can go full manual with a digital camera. I can set my Sony A7R3 to manual, hit a switch and go full manual focus and treat it like a yesteryear's camera, which I do often.

[@SokolHazizi]

Where do you find these?! Hey James, always enjoying your videos here! The concept was abandoned I think because of the complexity it represented, let alone the technical difficulties. I mean what we all love about our "classic" cameras is how responsive they are. It becomes almost second nature. Can you imagine your camera freezing because a certain android app is not responding? On your line of thought though, I would like to see the link between the devices be improved. Personally, I rarely use my android phone to edit my K1's files, and when I do, I try and limit the number of files to download, otherwise it'll take all day. And when I do so in camera, editing the files while holding a 1kg camera attached to the screen is such a pain. Keep up with your investigations into the past, they're amazing!

[@snappiness]

Thanks, and good thoughts!

[@BrianHallmond]

Amazing feature. Should come back! That cuatomisability would be awesome now

[@cellphonehistorian1491]

I had my eyes on this one a long time ago, and suddenly this with reasonable price tag all gone on eBay, now I see, it is your video again. 😢😢😢

[@flickeringgreenflame8493]

Great video essay -- keep 'em coming. I'm intrigued by that camera that can split and be used with a cable. If the cable ends are standard, maybe someone with electronic skills can fabricate one for you?

[@nikytamayo]

I actually have an S4 Zoom that I was gifted last year by my mother. I was actually going to buy it from her for work back when it was relatively new, back in 2014-2015, when I was changing cameras, because the picture quality was acceptable enough, the Android phone system it was built on had cool sharing capabilities and apps, and the form factor was convenient. Didn't push through with buying it because, after testing, response was too slow for serious coverage work, and the slow menu system and glacial gallery app response was frustrating. Ultimately, I did get the camera last year, when it was too old and slow for her to stay interested in it, and as a backup phone, it is nice to pull out for the occasional zoom shot. I still haven't found a GCam that works on it, and I'm searching through apk sites for older versions of Snapseed, but Open Camera can actually talk to the mechanical zoom, and works swell. With the built in Samsung processing, image quality is decent, almost no color noise, detail is high without the sharpening of newer phones, and the grain of the noise that is there is subtle and pleasant. No patch on a modern cellphone main camera, but it's so much better optically than any cellphone zoom.

[@JimmyHuynhdesign]

Its such a good idea, i hope companies continue to try and make it better.

[@velvetrooster5569]

I bought my Samsung Galaxy NX Camera in 2017 and it’s still awesome. Yeah, I understand that some of the apps don’t work very well on it anymore like Instagram which does load and you can scroll but it crashes every time I try to upload a picture directly from the camera. It’s easy to remove the SD card and put it into my computer so I don’t really mind. Still, it’s just the fact that the camera is supposed to be able to do these things that is the most disappointing because I’m sure back in the day when all phones were on android jellybean that this worked fine and I wish this camera would’ve gotten more updates considering, what Samsung was trying to do with the camera and the type of market they were trying to tap into. I do still use Samsung cameras exclusively and I do have a couple of other Samsung android based consumer cameras, but those two are fixed lens pocket dial cameras, and they are awesome but it does disappoint when you know that it’s supposed to be able to upload to these apps, and because of how old those apps are and compatibility with newer versions of websites and apps that are supposed to be compatible and your camera crashes when it’s trying to upload a picture to Instagram. That can be very disappointing. I’m also very minimalist when it comes to editing digital photos so much so that I don’t even use editing software sort of. Basically I go as far as putting the pictures and videos on my iPhone and then go on into the iPhone gallery and click and edit and you can edit and then copy the edit and add it to several other pictures at the same time after editing your first picture. That’s a cool feature because then you don’t have to go through every photo making the same exact edits for 500 photos. So glad I figured out that was possible. All that being said, I do agree that we should start putting some of these top-of-the-line mobile chips into our cameras. I know that the ability to take photos and the quality of those photos is a huge reason that a lot of people buy particular smart phones, and it would be interesting to see, what kind of pictures photographers could capture if they had the same image processing technology as the latest top-of-the-line Samsung phone or the latest top-of-the-line iPhone, or latest top-of-the-line Sony phone. It’s because these companies put so much time and effort into making the best image processors and choosing the best camera for their smart phones. I know photographers want to get the most information out of their smart phones in the purest pictures, with the least amount of manipulation between processing and the actual creation of the digital file that is a picture and I’m sure we can still do that but it would be interesting to see how much these cameras could handle if they had the top-of-the-line snapdragon seven GEN two chip. It’s not just the picture quality but some of the quality of life things in the camera will be interesting to have with these mobile computer chips like better battery management. Cameras have never been known for their longest lasting battery, so it will be interesting to see how much more battery time we can get just by using more battery efficient chips. It would be interesting to see how fast we could take pictures and how many frames per second. We can capture pictures with these much more powerful and efficient. Mobile chips. It would also just be interesting to see, some of the little processing improvements that smart phones have when taking pictures and professional/consumer, digital cameras don’t have like how digital cameras are able to clean up blurry photos just with the processing of taking a picture and it becoming a viewable photo. It’s like when you know that your camera has that three times zoom on your smart phone, but you can do 10 times zoom after that and even though it’s digital zoom and you will lose quality every time you try to digitally zoom in a photo, smart phone technology has done a great job with camera processing technology that can really smooth out and clean up those pictures and take away all of the blur and the digital noise and the digital artifacts and make it a pretty nice photo when it comes out and becomes viewable in the gallery. I say this because I’ve taken pictures with my iPhone from a distance and I zoomed in far beyond just the three times zoom lens which had me heavy into the digital zoom and the picture looks bad when I snapped it on my phone and I didn’t know how well it was going to turn out because I didn’t know what the digital photo processing on my brand new iPhone I was going to do with it but when I go onto the gallery and I look at that photo, it looks really sharp really cleaned up and accurate to what I thought I was saying, and so much better than what the live view on my phone screen was showing me when I actually snapped the photo. I can tell that it really made a nice picture of the Bluejay bird that I was taking a picture of, even though, when I actually captured the picture, it didn’t look that great, and I had initially considered deleting all the photos until I went back to look at them because of the way it looked in the live viewfinder of the camera app when I snapped the pictures. I really do think that that type of technology along with the battery efficiency and the speed of what you could capture photos could be very much improved by allowing us to use top-of-the-line mobile chips.

[@ThomasBryant]

I just wanted to add that I have this Galaxy NX camera and I was able to download Facebook to it from a 3rd party app store and sideload it. It was an older version of Facebook.... BUT.... I was able to log in and seamlessly post images I've just shot from the camera to FB. You can sideload other photo editors as well and get them working without a problem. Also... Google Photos is working on my camera, so when I take a picture and I am within Wifi range, it'll automatically sync to my existing Google Photos Cloud storage. So even if I didn't want to edit the photos on my camera, I can simply automatically find it on my phone of choice for editing.

[@snappiness]

Yes, I have Google Photos working as well which is pretty cool actually. That's a workflow I use quite often between cameras and sharing pics with family. I'll need to try out sideloading apps...

[@sjenkin88]

This is a good video, as I wasn't aware of these cameras and it's alway cool to learn about new/old tech. While the idea of a semi-smart camera is exciting, I know for sure that I wouldn't want to edit on the back of a camera, and sharing to social medias it's what defines a photographer. Sure lots of people love uploading to socials and enjoy editing on mobile, so there is a market. I just think the solution is cameras that connect and work seamlessly with the users existing mobile phones. You pointed out - which I never thought of 'til you mention it - how the lack of software support can brick a device. I'd much rather have to upgrade my phone than my camera system...

[@tomjohnson3728]

Can you do a vid on the CCD sensors from Kodak? What cameras...? I like your vids because you go right to the point about items and issues! Keep it up!

[@glidephotos]

Dude. Those cameras are a trip

[@jw48335]

Have a look at the DMC-CM1 for another crazy unique option. It's an Android phone with a 1" sensor Panasonic put out in 2014-ish 😁

[@emiliaganchorre]

I’ve been wanting this for a long time, automatic cloud backups to Lightroom so that eliminates the need to shoot both Raw and Jpg and just Raw. Instant instagram crop presets (through Lightroom) and maybe tethered Client Gallery’s so your clients can see the photos near instantly. And if software bogs down the camera overtime, just have a physical switch that turns it into “dumb mode” so it that turns off the smart features. Maybe support for interchangeable SSDs, calculator for quick calculation of crop factor, maybe extended monitor output like Samsung Dex. A camera, cloud backup, and editing machine all in one device and if you pair that with esim… 😮

[@doolittlegeorge]

GoPro changed the game with their GoPro App absolutely. Not an expert on DJI but lots of noise from that crowd too. I loved using power director and adding music to making an actual Movie but camera work and set design go hand in glove absolutely. 3d printing, fast fashion, "setting the stage" (#drama) absolutely all is possible now at the Fantasy Factory and *WAYYYY* better than reality at the moment. Or is it?

[@jimhenderson6162]

Yeah! I don't want the same additional features you want, and that's the point of having a computer that allows users to do whatever odd thing we want. As we do with our smartphone, except it's also a real camera.

[@samgregg]

This reminds me of the ZEISS ZX-1. It's also an android camera like this and has a lot of fast internal storage. Its downfall also came down to the insane price for what you got.

[@snappiness]

Yeah I looked at that camera too. Yikes 😳

[@stimpy13131313]

The most interesting point in my opinion is that such a smartphone camera system can rely on an immensely larger sensor compared to smartphone sensors. Just imagine what would be possible with all the software improvement of the current smartphones with teeny tiny sensor? I once read something along the lines that Sony could perhaps realize something in this direction with the RX10 Mark 4 successor. That would be very interesting and have incredible potential.

[@definingslawek4731]

Computational photography is totally overhyped.

[@glidephotos]

This video got me to subscribe 😊

[@p4ul.f708]

Having the ability to auto sync a camera with a photo cloud like google photos would be so cool!

[@jimrodney4797]

As someone who tracked down two Mamiya ZDs last year, I eagerly await what project you have in the works for it!!

[@snappiness]

Wow, cool!

[@Zillagod100]

I have the Samsung Galaxy NX camera and I still enjoy using it and get good results. I also have the Samsung Galaxy Camera mk 2. I won't ever try to put them back to factory settings as I may not get many of the apps back on.

[@velvetrooster5569]

True I have them both too

[@stowgood]

Would be cool if things worked better with each other. One thing I'd like to see is DJI drone controllers work with gimbals and cameras so you could remotely control a gimbal and or attached camera with the drone controller you already own.

[@derarchinaut]

I actually had a Samsung Galaxy NX camera once. I sold it two to three years ago because there were no more updates. And for me that is the core problem with cameras that are equipped with complex operating systems. A "stupid" camera does not have the problem that it becomes obsolete after a few years. Cameras that are pure cameras (with as few smart add-ons as possible) are the devices that work the longest.

[@TheJoshuaJames]

My galaxy camera 2 was amazing, but sadly received very little in the way of updates, now the camera sensors themselves are so outdated that it’s really not useful

[@qwertykeyboard5901]

I love my old digital cameras! My favorite being a Kodak DC3200, second being a HP Photosmart 635.

[@onemanband3579]

I've just bought one of these, it should arrive next week. It cost me the equivalent of 88 USD. I collect all sorts of old, cheap cameras but of them all, I totally love the Samsung nx system....RIP. Love your videos!

[@BriManeely]

Have you ever come across a Pentax K5-IIs? It's the most intelligently designed camera I've ever come across. It doesn't have cross compatible software, but in camera it has a fully functioning photo editor, Wi-Fi connectivity (if you buy an additional piece of hardware), and enough editability in the menus that it looks open source. Mix that with it's impressive IBIS, and the fact that it used the same lens mount they've been using since the 70s (I believe), you can straight mount legacy glass and have it functioning like an IS lens. I don't use mine very much anymore, but it's still my favorite camera I've ever used and I'll never get rid of it.

[@snappiness]

Yes, I'm a big Pentax fan. I owned a k5iis for a while. Very fond of the k5/k3 series of camera. Best ergonomics I've ever used.

[@BriManeely]

@@snappiness Shortly after submitting the comment, I noticed your whole Pentax playlist 😅 Should have looked first! Anyway, great videos!

[@snappiness]

@@BriManeely we'll get more Pentax love in the future. I just play with a lot of different cameras. But Pentax is my first love :)

[@loochan325]

Samsung top of the line in 2014-2015-2016 was NX1 announced in september 2014. It has 28 MP BSI CMOS with fast hibrid AF and fast AFC with 209 points with 205 phase detect points, 4K RAW, Tizen OS, 15 fps photo burst with AFC, 3" AMOLED touchscreen and EVF, Wi-Fi, USB3, 1/8000s, 1.04X viewfinder magnification @ 100%, optional battery grip, etc, and can use 17 diferent Samsung NX mount lenses, plus third party lenses.

[@POVwithRC]

Neat.

[@HomeroAGonzalez]

You can run scripts in many Canon cameras using CHDK (Canon Hack Development Kit), even play games, all without modifying the firmware. Running it from the SD card. Apart from scripts you can add a lot of photography/video functionality to older cameras. It is awesome!

[@productguru8323]

I think if Apple decides to make cameras, they may get a huge trunk of the market share. I bet they can bring us some great and interesting products. I know that they tried that in the 90's and failed, but things are different now.

[@ledheavy26]

They pretty much already dominate the camera market with the iPhone though, which does photo and video well enough for the vast majority of people to not want or need a dedicated camera and it has the OS and apps to do anything your heart desires while being connected to the internet.

[@awesomeferret]

Yeah, different in the sense that nobody would buy it. It's Apple, so obviously people would buy it, but it would be like the Homepod. It's not bad, it's just very overpriced, sub par and doesn't really need to exist. It would obviously be a great device, it would just have to cost under 100 bucks to make sense for most people (since they already spent 1000+ dollars on a device with a handheld device with a great camera that has even more capabilities), and that's impossible.

[@spamllama]

Sony for a brief time had camera apps that you could download onto your camera to add capabilities. In camera HDR, multiple exposures, editing etc. They never really supported the system and never opened it up to developers, and their newer cameras haven't supported using the apps.

[@kidcosan]

I remember this camera! I saw it in Best Buy. I picked it up and thought, this is awesome.

[@DhavidClaudiusGunawan]

Running it on some kind of custom rom would be wild (and make it usable again) :)

[@hellfireclub86]

That font in the menus though XD

[@guy_de_photographie]

New to your channel🎉 will be regular❤

[@snippingtool7810]

Having a camera with an OS that can support modern smartphone apps seems to be a great idea at first, but I imagine it will not get any more benefit compared to having a simple wireless data transfers and then doing the immediate editing/sharing via a smartphone/tablet/pc. But I guess, Android os (and modern image processing chips) can still be implemented on prosumer camera for better image processing, e.g. imagine a camera with full frame sensor and access to a wide array of high grade lenses yet having an image processing capability akin to Google Pixel phone.

[@awesomeferret]

So, you'd rather have to manually copy things instead of automating sync over a network share, got it. If you're going to think outside the box then... Actually do it?

[@gagec6390]

@@awesomeferret In the situation where you only have a couple photos then automatic sync sounds mildly useful. But who is buying a camera to take a couple photos? When you've got 80+gb of photos to transfer, there's an already existing brilliant way to getting those photos onto another device for processing. It's called a memory card. I don't know why people are trying to reinvent the wheel on this one. Cameras don't need and will hardly benefit from "smart" features, and it'll never catch on

[@awesomeferret]

@@gagec6390 I truly don't understand your thought process. With Android, you can move the files (copy them to your pc, delete from camera). You're accidentally saying "I don't like that because I'd rather deal with a memory card that I don't need to deal with". The more photos I have, the more sense it would make for an app to move the content I captured to a NAS overnight (as opposed to your recommendation that I always remove the card and copy the long way). I'm pretty sure you'll take back some of what you laud after some more thought. You're having a very very narrow view of the possibilities, and it's pretty silly because it's made you accidentally write off something for an invalid reason. I bet if you had thought about this a bit longer, you would have realized that being able to move photos automatically to a backup device is a huge BENEFIT for people who take tons of photos, not a hindrance. Edit: yeah your comment was really nonsensical. I put way more effort into this than I needed to to convince you. All I really needed to say was "being able to move photos automatically to a backup device is a huge BENEFIT for people who take tons of photos, not a hindrance". I'm very sure that you'll realize that there IS a place for smart (and very ironically, for some of the reasons you yourself gave) considering how outlandish it is to claim that the ability to throw together an automatic backup system makes it less appealing to people who take tons of photos. It's exactly because I'm that kind of person that a camera running Android is so appealing, because I DON'T have to mess around with ejecting an SD card many times a day. Edit again: you claimed smart cameras will never catch on, yet you probably typed that comment on what is effectively a smart camera (just with a much worse sensor, much thinner package and many more features). If you didn't then you probably own one, and if you don't, then you know more than one person who does. These kinds of hybrids failed because everyone has a smart camera in their pocket, and I think you know it, hence why I suspect I may have fallen for a joke here.

[@jmd1743]

The lenses module you can connect with a cable is so ahead of it's time with the Sony Venice film camera.

[@ryanngat]

I like HDR+ like google camera, this kind of app combined with a good sensor and bright aperure lens would be so awesome for HDR and low light

[@hyde_official]

I was at the NAB show, and i did play with the yongnuo smart dlsr. They said to me it's vastly used in china than the rest of the world and more optimized for live streaming so you don't need anything else.

[@WAVtbl]

maybe a phone accessory case that incorporates a grip and lens that you can attach to your preexisting phone I don't know how they'd best adapt this to different phone sizes, but there's probably someone somewhere working on a concept

[@v000000000000v]

i think alice camera is what you're looking for, it's a M43 sensor that straps onto your phone, it should continue to get better with software and hardware upgrade (when you upgrade your phone)

[@JustKatoh]

I am a software developer and can't help myself but to suggest you jump in the world of free open source software, what you were talking about with the script for different brands, that is totally possible without the need for the same OS on all cameras, it's just standards that need to be implemented by manufacturers. Look in the world of 3D modelling, blender is an actual industry standard and it's 100% open source and free! How did they manage? Well they have the backing of everyone through donations! No corporate greed, it's all contributed by people! If only cameras could do something similar, with a shared language, maybe a standard picture format, etc.. It would be amazing, would love to have a video of you talking about this :)

[@KajiRider1997]

I have the HP Photosmart camera you showed in the beginning. No battery though. I tried putting AAs in there but they need some sort of adapter to fit

[@drgw1506]

The Light l16 was also android based. It was also quite a peculiar camera with folded optics and 16 lenses. In a way it was the hardware equivalent to digitafx in that it paved the way for using multiple lenses and folded optics on smartphones these days. It’s tech was even used in a Nokia phone

[@unusedTV]

There was the Galaxy S4 zoom, which was also some kind of point-and-shoot+Phone hybrid.

[@djmfilms1999]

I know this camera has more professional manual settings like a normal DSLR, or Mirrorless but have you seen the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom? Basically like this but it’s a point a shoot but has some manual options but the cool thing about that was you could use it as a regular smartphone as well

[@DeeB1345]

The answer to why is exactly what you spoke to earlier. Wifi protocols change, cellular protocols change, etc. but cannon os has been almost the same since 2010 for example.

[@chaoringmeister]

For years I thought this would be a great idea, however I’ve kept on realising it’s not a practical idea, the same reasons you’ve mentioned about software support and also battery life. There’s also ergonomics, the products look clunky, and I’ve settled on transferring files onto my phone as a good solution. What might work quite nicely would be a bracket that mount a phone and an app that allows the use of that as a monitor, similar to the world of filmmaking.

[@Crispy_Bee]

Proprietary camera software isn't such a bad thing: it works and you can basically do whatever you want on cameras these days anyway. I don't know of any essential feature that would be missing from even the cheapest APSC cameras from a few years ago. The only real hurdles are hardware related - and I'd rather have decent firmware upgrades with stable proprietary operating systems that have a low battery usage and are optimised for the specific hardware requirements than anything else. And if I want a specific look to my images... I'll just apply that to the RAW files afterwards.

[@fxckrio]

depends how far you go back - my 500d doesnt have af microadjustment, which would’ve been nice

[@Crispy_Bee]

@@fxckrio Well - nice perhaps but really not essential. I can't remember the last time I've used (or had to use) AF MA on any camera. I think there's a general misconception on the AF adjustment. That's just something you can do for certain situations - but generally if your AF doesn't hit you should sent the lens and/or camera to be adjusted/aligned by the manufacturer. I've done that with all my gear and never had to resort to AF MA.

[@fxckrio]

@@Crispy_Bee I agree, however the one time I needed it was with a cheap third party lens I had no hope of getting support on, and I would’ve loved to have it then lmao

[@Humungojerry]

built in computational photography could be a game changer. however i don’t think the market for it is big enough (most people are fine with their phone)

[@jackkraken3888]

Great point. Now if they can only improve the WiFi and add sim support..

[@lekters9215]

Having bluetooth/wifi connection between camera and phone is definitely the better way to go. It's safe to say that when you're shooting out there with a camera, you already have your phone with you, therefore it's a waste of resources and money to have redundant phone functions on the camera.

[@SuperNicktendo]

I transfer my photos to my phone via wifi and post from there so it's a good go-between. I also have a light 16 camera which runs android and it is still pretty beefy for Android 6 but it's been abandoned and the company even took down the updates which would have added video.

[@kll.switch]

I use an SD-to-Lightning-Adapter because it's faster and more reliable than Wi-Fi and the crappy apps made by Sony or Fujifilm

[@ano_nym]

Well that sure looks like a trypophobia inducing thing lol XD

[@mindstorms8888]

I remember seeing this in an airport a while ago and I’m so sad they haven’t taken off because it would be so sick to have scripting capabilities to seamlessly connect video to some local server. From an electronics perspective, adding the required arm cores to their image processing asics (or fpgas) would cost a lot in licensing which maybe doesn’t justify the payoff in features as samsung proved.

[@doolittlegeorge]

Huge fan of Palm Pilot and Sony because, well...Palm Pilot was and still is *TRULY* awesome. As to why my phone sucks at making great photography and why my camera sucks at being internet enabled absolutely spot on.

[@Patiboke]

If you have a Nikon with Snapbridge it's kind of the same, although in 2 devices. Also now smartphone cameras are so good that if you want to beat the image quality you have to spend a few thousand $, shoot raw, spend time editing... and upgrade the camera every year or two. For this reason I used to own SLRs but I don't anymore.

[@Ventrux]

Hey. I have a Samsung GC110 which is kind of point-and-shot camera and runs on Android too. Finally what you say is true and working, behind the scenes. My main camera is a Sony A6000 and underneath runs in Android, when you buy an extra module is an APK file and the skin and menus is a subsystem over Android. I'm pretty sure many Sony Alphas should be the same. You can even hack it and make your own apps.

[@editingsecrets]

I would guess that Sony engineers trimmed Android to discard all APIs not needed for their implementation, breaking a lot of standard apps.

[@notdroidbot2348]

Light L16 runs Android under the hood. Snapdragon 820, lots of RAM, big storage capacity. Used the Hexagon image processor in the 820 combined with a custom FPGA to process images from multiple cameras and form composites. Was designed and built by Foxconn FIH who make phones for Nokia, Sharp, HP and many more.

[@snappiness]

Oh wow. That is a camera I have completely missed... what on earth...

[@gdjaybee742]

Tony and Chelsea had some theories that Sony's latest innovation is something similar to this camera. We hope so.