Comparing cameras

On the left is a 2003 marvel of technology. The quick rundown is that it is 3 megapixel, one of the first image stabilized super zooms and did VGA video.

On the right is a marvel of 2012 technology. The quick rundown is that its is 12 megapixel, has image stabilization and high definition video.

The camera on the left cost $500 from Best Buy. The camera on the right I paid $60 for the camera, $60 for the lens, $10 approx for the strap, lens cap and polarizing filter. New, I'm sure that lot would have cost about the same as the Best Buy purchase.

What has all this technology done in the intervening decade? Not much to be honest. The image size is bigger but that's really about it. They've tinkered with ISO speeds raising a 400 max to 12,800, tinkered with image size and gone from standard AA batteries to some funky-ass lithium firebomb. That's it. That's all a decade of development has produced. It's as though camera companies have been happily sitting on their thumbs for a decade.

I can take a video with the Canon and publish it on YouTube and it will be indistinguishable from a video taken with the Olympus. By the time the video has been viewed at VGA resolution, there's no discernible difference. To be honest, who wants to spend the time downloading high resolution videos anyway? The content quality just is not worth spending the time on, even on professionally produced commercial videos. They're just moving wallpaper.

I can take a photo with the Canon and compare it with one taken on the Olympus. While the size is larger, that's the only difference. Viewed and shared online there is no difference. Who wants to spend the time downloading a high resolution image of Machu Pichu? We've all seen it - a grey stone ruin on top of a green hill surrounded by forests. No point in downloading yet another image and spending the bandwidth nor the storage space.

Photography in the last decade has become disposable. Nobody wants to lug a camera around and why should they? The photo of the two cameras was taken with my tablet. Even I don't use a camera very often now. Sure, I'll use one if I go on a special trip but 90% of the time even the worst photo from the cheapest cellphone will do.

Look online and you'll find cellphone images everywhere. A photo of aunt Maud and Uncle Albert standing in front of the pizza house or the White House or their own house. It's a matter of personal family record and that's it. No more, no less. There's no need for a high quality image.

When people pass away, what are the images their heirs treasure? Not the 50,000 photos of a perfume bottle standing on a table but the family photos. Content trumps everything.

The change in focus of photography toward disposable imagery has pretty much killed the passion many held for photography. That and the fact it's no longer a challenge. When it was harder to take good photos, there was an interest and a challenge. Now that every camera from the last decade can take well saturated, well focused, blur free images and in fact so can just about every cellphone and tablet, the interest has gone for most. That leaves me feeling somewhat of a dinosaur!

I'm going to have to say there's no difference really between any of the cameras/phone cameras produced in the last decade. I'll get pundits arguing against me but that's par for the course online. They will show me pretty pictures and explain at length why they think I'm an arsehole. The reality is that a picture is a picture; content is still king and every camera from the last decade will produce an equally acceptable image.

Four months onward

In May last year, my last Android tablet committed suicide. Unlike the other tablets, the charging port didn't break. This time, the operating system corrupted itself. It got slower and slower then finally ceased functioning so I gave it a factory reset which effectively turned the thing into a brick. Thus I went for an iPad.

The iPad has been pretty good. The software available is more limited and limiting but the user experience is excellent. Apple is somewhat miserable about the storage available online with 5GB as opposed to Googles 15GB and connectivity to other devices is hopeless. A camera memory card reader is available at about $30 or around the price of a cheap Android tablet that will connect easily to my existing card readers. As a pure consumption only device the iPad is excellent. The clunky connectivity is what kills it.

Sometime last year I went over to using an Olympus mirrorless camera. I still have not upgraded from the single lens I bought at the same time nor have I purchased an eye level viewfinder for it. I have found the iAuto setting is pretty good and covers most of the situations I need, most of the time. In fact, I've not found a single situation it hasn't handled superbly.

About four months ago I switched to my current flip phone having used smart phones for the previous 7 years. In all practical purposes I can find nothing that I'm actually missing with this setup. In fact I find my time is more mine as I am not continually checking for messages or notifications. I'm not getting all excited about an email arriving only to find it's another breast enhancement or penis enlargement message.

Having been using my Olympus camera, I find it's much more user friendly than my Canon digital SLR. In fact, comparing the two makes the Canon look like a Fisher-Price sized toy. Big chunky cameras and big chunky lenses for toddlers hands to grasp. The Olympus I can put in a single jacket pocket. Best of all, instead of spending $1000 like I did on my Canon camera and then watching it depreciate down to $10 on eBay, I spent $50 on a used Olympus.

The problem with the Olympus is that I can't get the images off it without using somebody else's computer. The software won't run on my elderly MacBook. My elderly MacBook can't be upgraded any further in terms of operating system and the battery is dead. A replacement battery from eBay turned out to be fake and worked for two weeks before quitting.

So, photographically, I'm pretty much on stop for the moment unless I borrow somebody else's computer - which I am loathe to do. The way forward is limited by money. The options would appear to be:

• Buy an overly expensive gizmo for my iPad and hope the iPad lasts longer than a couple more months. The longest I've had from a tablet before it broke is 14 months. Cost $25

•  Buy a new battery for my MacBook and hope I can cope with just jpeg images since nothing will read the orf image files.  Cost $100-$250 (Apple refuses to say how much exactly)

•  Buy a cheap android tablet for uploading images only. ($40)

•  Buy a new Apple laptop and pray it lasts as long as my old one. ($800-$1500)

There really seems little to choose between the first and third options. They allow me to handle jpeg images but not orf images. That's pretty much a killer for serious photography as is the inability to store the images locally. A laptop would have a good hard drive. There is of course the other option if using just memory cards for storage. Use a card and store it. That would work pretty well and to be honest, I think this rotating magnetic disk idea has had its day.

The big stumbling block is of course money. How much I can afford to spend out of how much I have while leaving a little behind to copewith an emergency. Being out of work from March to September of 2014 depleted my funds terribly. Then continuing to stay in a hovel that cost more than my income for a further 7 months put my funds on the critical list. When I say a hovel, I do mean a hovel. I was in a house with drug dealers to the left and right, not far from the jail. I'm not sure what kind of pigs lived in the place before me but they left it in an awful state. I never got my deposit back but then I wasn't expecting to when they asked for it. Any landlord that would rent out a nasty place in a nasty area isn't going to be too honest.

So since then I've been double bunking while also converting an old schoolbus into a home. That has been a painfully slow progress due to lack of funds and having to do it all while being paid effectively less than minimum wage. $9 an hour sounds ok until there are no benefits and only 4 hours a day and only for 180 days a year. To save you working it out, that's $6,480 a year gross. Barely enough to get to and from work etc. I was stuck on that for 2 years until I got my current position which still leaves me eligible for food stamps, rent assistance etc - if I applied.

As I'm now earning a shade more money though not enough to need to file taxes, I feel I can afford a little improvement. The last 3 years have been very rough! Indeed life hasn't been rosy for longer than that even. Without too much risk, I might be able to splurge up to the price of a cheap tablet.

Nikon and Canon to merge

News comes of a planned merger between Canon and Nikon. It seems that declining profits in a world where just about everybody can produce good quality images from their phones, be they flip phones or smart phones has led to a decline in the number of real cameras being purchased.

Reading the joint companies pre press release documentation they agree that while Nikon's smaller left hand lens mount might be problematic for Canon users, mounting a bigger Canon lens onto a Nikon will be harder. It seems that some product realignment is going to occur.

1 Canon and Nikon will not be called Canikon but rather Guandong Cameras since that's largely where the components are made.
2 The Nikon 1 line and Canon M lines will disappear.
3 Nikons bayonet will be used solely for mirrorless cameras and Nikon mount DSLR production will cease as of April 15th.
4 Canon DSLRs will continue to be made under the Guandong brand.
5 New cameras from Guandong will be internet connected meaning instant uploads of both jpeg and raw files.
6 Guandong Cameras will use the Adobe DNG file format rather than Canons CR2 or Nikons NEF.
7 In an attempt to make cameras cheaper there will be a trial line of internet connected cameras that carry advertising. In order to take a picture a 30 second advert must be viewed.

The future for the merged companies looks bright according to the current Presudents of both Nikon and Canon who met to seal the historical deal yesterday. Both will head off to retirement as soon as their successor is appointed.