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Comment by cyberax | Hacker News Reader

> There have been a few different attempts that look like this. Samsung Nx, Samsung Galaxy Camera, Sony has tried phone add on accessories. Basically they all sort of flop in the market.

There was exactly ONE attempt. One. And it was pretty successful, at that: Samsung NX1. I had it, it was pretty good, but with a first-gen teething issues.

Phone add-on accessories don't work because they're clumsy and connectivity just sucks. And ultra-professional $6k cameras from Zeiss miss the mark entirely, you need to target a prosumer market (i.e. me).

> I wouldn’t say that camera design is stuck in the 80s, either. The form factor is necessarily constrained by needing a tubular lens projecting in front of a flat imaging plane.

But why do you need a large protrusion on the right? You don't have a film canister anymore. I already wrote about a myriad of physical controls. Just make it large enough to hold the camera.

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There was one interchangeable lens attempt, and multiple non interchangeable ones. As mentioned, the Samsung galaxy camera, as well as Polaroid branded android cameras.

You need the large protrusion on the right because you have to hold the thing. It’s a handle. It needs to be somewhere, most people are right eye, right hand dominant. It makes a lot of sense to have it that way. The primary hand holds the camera, the other hand holds and supports the lens.

In the olden days, the film canister was physically stored on the left in almost all cameras (and certainly in all SLRs), so the protrusion on the right isn’t really a remnant of film designs.

Older film cameras actually have smaller less ergonomic protrusions on the right (look at a Nikon F2 vs. the modern Z8). The big ergonomic protrusion on the right has been an evolution of newer modern technology and expectations.

You can get a camera with gps, wifi, Bluetooth etc. do they have you screens that don’t have multitouch? It’s pretty hard not to get all that TBH. I can do crops and color treatments on my Nikon if I don’t want to just transfer directly to my phone and do the editing there. Yeah, the camera doesn’t automatically put it all in my iPhoto, but that is literally just a few taps.

There are MILC cameras that have minimal physical controls and touchscreens so I’m not really sure what you’re looking for? The sigma FP is pretty minimal, and you just strap on what you need.

> You can get a camera with gps, wifi, Bluetooth etc.

No, I can not. There are no cameras cheaper than around $7k with GPS. I checked.

> There are no cameras cheaper than around $7k with GPS

false. E-M1X, K-I, K-1II, 6DII, 5DIV, SLT-A55V, SLT-A65V, SLT-A77V all has/had it well under $7k. There are also few compact models intended for construction and/or field research purposes that has Wi-Fi && GPS.

> SLT-A55V, SLT-A65V, SLT-A77V

2010-2011

> 5DIV

2016, etc.

I tried this site: https://cameradecision.com/features/Best-Mirrorless-cameras-... - and it's a bit cheaper than $7k for new cameras, only around $5k.

Are you aware of any recent-ish cameras with reasonable price and GPS?

You can get a Ricoh G900 II, which was released earlier this year, for sub-$800.

It's also fully automatic and doesn't require you to do much with knobs and dials. And it's waterproof!

I suspect you'll complain about it though.

No changeable lenses and not a full-frame sensor, does not support RAW.

I'm seriously interested in buying a reasonably-priced modern mirrorless camera with GPS. I'm not joking, I've been looking for a while to replace my old Sony Alpha.

I recommend Olympus for that. They're reasonably priced, generally more technologically progressive than bigger brands like Nikon, Canon, or Sony, have a small form factor owing to their Micro Four Thirds sensor, have GPS, and still have a decent set of modern and legacy lenses (which are also commensurately lighter and smaller than similar lenses on APS-C or full-frame systems).

I tried to check and it looks like the only model that fits is Olympus E-M1X ($2k on clearance sales). And it's 6 years old by now :(

Anything newer is $5k+. Or does not have replaceable lenses.

Is the 6 years old point relevant to you?

Kinda? I want to replace my 7-year old Sony Alpha with something out of this decade.

Sony DSC-HX9V had GPS built-in.

Others are connecting their cameras to their phones over Bluetooth which gets all the images tagged with GPS location too. Eg. a sub-$1000 Sony ZV-E10 with an iPhone according to a user on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/SonyAlpha/comments/17sco5v/comment/...

> Sony DSC-HX9V had GPS built-in.

Not a full-frame changeable lens camera.

> Others are connecting their cameras to their phones over Bluetooth which gets all the images tagged with GPS location too

It requires Sony's crapp running on your phone when taking a picture. Right now, it has 1.8 stars in the Play Store, which should tell you how well it works.

Well over a decade ago, compact cameras like the Lumix DMC-ZS7 for a few hundred $ added GPS.

You must not have checked very thoroughly, because these cameras absolutely exist, they're just not popular because of the limited utility of GPS in a camera compared to the battery drain and time it can take to resync an outdated almanac if your camera's been turned off for a few days.

I'll note that that's a limitation not of how powerful cameras are or aren't, but one of most GNSS systems architecturally; the almanac in these situations communicates to client devices information about any updates the satellite constellation, broadly speaking, and because this is a low-bitrate system in GEO, there isn't much client devices can do to speed this up.

See here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cameras_which_provide_...

Of the top 10 most recent entries on that list, only one (the Hasselblad) weighs in at over USD$7k, though others like the D6, Z9, and EOS-1D are high-end cameras that clock in around $5-6k new on B&H.

Olympus's offerings all fall under about $2500 with most of those options available under $1000.

That large protrusion on the right makes it easy to hold the camera. It's a convenient place to put a battery and a bunch of controls, too.

As a matter of fact, there are accessories for smartphones providing that protrusion and a physical trigger.

> And ultra-professional $6k cameras from Zeiss miss the mark entirely, you need to target a prosumer market (i.e. me).

Zeiss is generally not a camera maker, at least not these days; the ZX1 is more of a halo product than anything. They're much better-known for their optics, which are often niche, but usually worth the money if it's your niche.

In any case, a better example of a professional camera would be something like Nikon's Z8 and Z9, Sony's A7/9/1 models, or Canon's newer EOSes. They're also a good amount cheaper than USD$6k, in most cases.

    > But why do you need a large protrusion on the right? You don't have a film canister anymore. I already wrote about a myriad of physical controls. Just make it large enough to hold the camera.

Because that's where your right hand goes. Most people are right-handed, and having a comfortable grip is nice. Your left hand will usually go under the lens (or at the base of the lens for short or light lenses).

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