5 ms·

I don't understand why Google / MS / Amazon etc don't buy either of Nikon or Canon? It'd give them credibility and they'd immediately improve the DSLRs. Imagine

I don't understand why Google / MS / Amazon etc don't buy either of Nikon or Canon? It'd give them credibility and they'd immediately improve the DSLRs. Imagine a decent Nikon with the Google Photos processing? Decent wifi? Regular updates?

jonknee 8y ago
Google / MS / Amazon don't need any credibility and Nikon and Canon already have it? It's a niche business without a ton of growth potential? Google already got into the pro photo market by buying Nik and decided it was not worth the effort. https://petapixel.com/2017/05/30/google-abandons-nik-collection-popular-photo-editing-software/ https://petapixel.com/2017/05/30/google-abandons-nik-collect...
fetus8 8y ago
What credibility are Nikon or Canon missing? Both companies have a level of brand recognition unrivaled in the Photography world...? Only in recent years has Sony and maybe Fujifilm developed more respect due to some of their advancements where Nikon and Canon have lacked. Their DSLR's are market leaders still. Again, only in recent years have Mirrorless cameras have started to catch up with the DSLRs Nikon and Canon have been releasing. Based on current rumors, both Canon and Nikon are supposedly working on their first serious Mirrorless cameras to compete with the likes of Sony's A7 series... EDIT: Personally, I would avoid any camera that had Google integration built in. Part of the reason I still carry around a DSLR today is because I like knowing that the photos on my camera, and then stored on a local HDD at my house. I don't think I'm alone in this thought either. Computational Photography is cool and all, but I don't need to provide all my photos into a server farm to be analyzed.
- sofaofthedamned 8y ago
  Good points, but the market is dying for DSLRs. I wince each time I use mine for the terrible wifi capability, the awful OS, etc. Why can't it be modernised? Because Canon and Nikon won't do it.
  - bootloop 8y ago
    Its dying because the mechanical mirror in the DLSRs is not needed anymore with todays tech. So mirrorless cameras will make the game once ppl learn to not miss the click sound. They will simply get replaced with less complex and cheaper cameras.
    - ghaff 8y ago
      Optical viewfinders are still better. And I say that as someone who has a Canon DSLR but shoots more with a Fujifilm X-E3 because it's a lot smaller and lighter. The day will certainly come when electronic viewfinders become dominant but there are still advantages to mirrors today.
      - roywiggins 8y ago
        Optical viewfinders are great, but the tiny ones in consumer DSLRs are no fun compared to full-frame ones. Moving from a full-frame optical viewfinder in my film camera to the much smaller viewfinder in an APS-C DSLR was painful.
        ghaff 8y ago
        It's not necessarily the sensor size. I never liked the Canon Rebel viewfinders but, as I recall, the higher end APS-C models were fine. (Personally, I didn't go to DSLRs before full-frame was relatively affordable and have a 5D MarkIII today.)
  - toomanybeersies 8y ago
    DSLRs have terrible WiFi because there is little demand for it. SD cards are interchangeable, and slot into your computer for a reason.
    - BeetleB 8y ago
      I want to view the photo on my phone while on site - not when I get home.
- BeetleB 8y ago
  >What credibility are Nikon or Canon missing? Lots of stuff when you start thinking about it. Automation, as an example. Say I want my own custom metering algorithm - I can't currently upload that to my camera and try it out. Take a look at what you can do when you can program your phone: https://ai.googleblog.com/2017/04/experimental-nighttime-photography-with.html https://ai.googleblog.com/2017/04/experimental-nighttime-pho... A phone's sensor is much worse than in Nikon/Canon. Yet if I want to reproduce the results in that post it's a fair amount of manual work to do so on a DSLR. Say I want to shoot a photo of a tourist spot, but with no people in the photo. A standard way is to take several shots seconds apart, and then on the PC merge them using the median. All the people disappear. Why can't I program my DSLR to take 20 photos every 5 seconds and do that computation, and discard the 20 images and just keep the processed one? Once you start thinking this way, you suddenly realize you're holding a product whose interface resembles something from 1980's DOS.
msbarnett 8y ago
The challenges of integrating with the very conservative and traditional Japanese corporate culture of a Nikon would be enormous. Google had enough trouble with Motorola. Canon has all the same challenges and also about $47 Billion USD in equity. They're a huge multinational.

jonknee 8y ago

Google / MS / Amazon don't need any credibility and Nikon and Canon already have it? It's a niche business without a ton of growth potential? Google already got into the pro photo market by buying Nik and decided it was not worth the effort. https://petapixel.com/2017/05/30/google-abandons-nik-collection-popular-photo-editing-software/ https://petapixel.com/2017/05/30/google-abandons-nik-collect...

fetus8 8y ago

What credibility are Nikon or Canon missing? Both companies have a level of brand recognition unrivaled in the Photography world...? Only in recent years has Sony and maybe Fujifilm developed more respect due to some of their advancements where Nikon and Canon have lacked. Their DSLR's are market leaders still. Again, only in recent years have Mirrorless cameras have started to catch up with the DSLRs Nikon and Canon have been releasing. Based on current rumors, both Canon and Nikon are supposedly working on their first serious Mirrorless cameras to compete with the likes of Sony's A7 series... EDIT: Personally, I would avoid any camera that had Google integration built in. Part of the reason I still carry around a DSLR today is because I like knowing that the photos on my camera, and then stored on a local HDD at my house. I don't think I'm alone in this thought either. Computational Photography is cool and all, but I don't need to provide all my photos into a server farm to be analyzed.

sofaofthedamned 8y ago
Good points, but the market is dying for DSLRs. I wince each time I use mine for the terrible wifi capability, the awful OS, etc. Why can't it be modernised? Because Canon and Nikon won't do it.
- bootloop 8y ago
  Its dying because the mechanical mirror in the DLSRs is not needed anymore with todays tech. So mirrorless cameras will make the game once ppl learn to not miss the click sound. They will simply get replaced with less complex and cheaper cameras.
  - ghaff 8y ago
    Optical viewfinders are still better. And I say that as someone who has a Canon DSLR but shoots more with a Fujifilm X-E3 because it's a lot smaller and lighter. The day will certainly come when electronic viewfinders become dominant but there are still advantages to mirrors today.
    - roywiggins 8y ago
      Optical viewfinders are great, but the tiny ones in consumer DSLRs are no fun compared to full-frame ones. Moving from a full-frame optical viewfinder in my film camera to the much smaller viewfinder in an APS-C DSLR was painful.
      - ghaff 8y ago
        It's not necessarily the sensor size. I never liked the Canon Rebel viewfinders but, as I recall, the higher end APS-C models were fine. (Personally, I didn't go to DSLRs before full-frame was relatively affordable and have a 5D MarkIII today.)
- toomanybeersies 8y ago
  DSLRs have terrible WiFi because there is little demand for it. SD cards are interchangeable, and slot into your computer for a reason.
  - BeetleB 8y ago
    I want to view the photo on my phone while on site - not when I get home.
BeetleB 8y ago
>What credibility are Nikon or Canon missing? Lots of stuff when you start thinking about it. Automation, as an example. Say I want my own custom metering algorithm - I can't currently upload that to my camera and try it out. Take a look at what you can do when you can program your phone: https://ai.googleblog.com/2017/04/experimental-nighttime-photography-with.html https://ai.googleblog.com/2017/04/experimental-nighttime-pho... A phone's sensor is much worse than in Nikon/Canon. Yet if I want to reproduce the results in that post it's a fair amount of manual work to do so on a DSLR. Say I want to shoot a photo of a tourist spot, but with no people in the photo. A standard way is to take several shots seconds apart, and then on the PC merge them using the median. All the people disappear. Why can't I program my DSLR to take 20 photos every 5 seconds and do that computation, and discard the 20 images and just keep the processed one? Once you start thinking this way, you suddenly realize you're holding a product whose interface resembles something from 1980's DOS.

msbarnett 8y ago

The challenges of integrating with the very conservative and traditional Japanese corporate culture of a Nikon would be enormous. Google had enough trouble with Motorola. Canon has all the same challenges and also about $47 Billion USD in equity. They're a huge multinational.