I have a fond nostalgia of old cameras. Today’s digital versions will never me as romantic. Photo Credit: Flickr Creative Commons | uploaded by Aghman
Christmas 2009 will certainly be very interesting because in many ways it is so different. ’09 is the first year that social media will truly be integrated in with the holiday season (click here for an article on Christmas Twitters, lol). And with disappointing consumer spending figures bringing sad faces to economists month-after-month, I don’t think we’ll be rushing to the mall and maxing out credit cards as often as in the past.
Still, camera manufacturers still want to make a profit, so they’ve added some way cool features this year. I’m totally in love with the Nikon COOLPIX S1000pj. It has a little projector built inside so you can instantly display your photos on a wall (or any flat surface). No more crowding around the person holding the camera or spending anxious minutes waiting to see pictures! Finally there is an easy way to instantly broadcast pictures to a group of friends. This also works with video!
Then there’s the Samsung DualView TL225 and the TL220 that feature a smaller LCD screen on the front of the camera. This can be used to either give subjects a live preview of the shot or display an image (could help with trying to get kids to smile). The cameras’ main LCD screen has some iPhone swagger, which is definitely cool.
While I love these features, I have to ask the question, what’s next? I’ve often felt that digital camera technology has been kind of stagnant for a few years. I’m sure there are lots of under-the-hood improvements going on, but I haven’t observed any radically new features like these — things that truly change the way users can interact with the device.
If I were the CEO of Nikon, Kodak, Samsung, or Fuji, I’d like to see some better social media integration. For example, I want to be able to instantly flag pictures and upload them to Facebook/Flicker/etc., straight from the device (after some sort of “autofix” that crops, balances color, then recognizes, and automatically tags familiar faces. While this sounds pretty intense from where digital cameras are now, I don’t think its all that complicated and impossible. Many other mobile devices have wifi, autofix concepts are already present on computer software, and digital cameras already have facial recognition software. What’s stopping camera manufacturers from putting these things together?
What do you want to see in digital cameras? | What’s your favorite feature already available?
Post inspired by:
Digital Cameras That Do Different Tricks
2009′s Hot Digital Cameras On Parade
