Wildlife Photography across the Water: New camera annoyances

Tuesday 7 December 2010

New camera annoyances

There are a few things that bug me when getting the first of a new camera model, Take my D7000 for instance, I have only just managed to get a battery grip for it and they are still like hens teeth, The batteries are still thin on the ground and then we have the software issue, Phase One announced their RAW upgrade a few days ago at a cost and today Adobe released ACR 6.3 so i can now open the RAW files in Photoshop-its taken about 6 weeks since release to get the upgrade which i think is crap, Surely the software companies get word that the body will be released months before it actually does
Anyways rant over and plenty of reasons to wait a couple of months after release before getting one, I have made a mental note not to jump on the bandwagon when the D4 or D400 are released

Dave

6 comments:

NigelL7 December 2010 at 20:23
You could always go back to Canon, Dave, at least they come bundled with a RAW convertor ;-)
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WPATW8 December 2010 at 01:33
True Dpp us said to be very good these days but i would rather have the best cameras and wait for the software-lol
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mark wood8 December 2010 at 10:21
Surely Dave all part of the excitement of a new camera? LOL
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photopositive8 December 2010 at 13:51
Even if software companies do get news of new camera, that doesn't mean they can make software for it - they need some RAW files from it to do that, or indeed inside info from the manufacturer. Each RAW file is a bit different so they have to figure out how to decode it. That's where the delay comes from.
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WPATW8 December 2010 at 14:59
Hi Dave
I do understand that, I just think big companies like Canon, Nikon etc could work closer with the Adobe, Phase One software people, Preproduction models must be tested months in advance of a release and RAW files could be sent from these, Maybe its just a way of Canon and Nikon getting people to use their own RAW converters
Dave
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photopositive9 December 2010 at 09:33
Of course there are pre-prod models being tested, but it would represent a huge security breach, and leap of trust, for a camera manufacturer to give info on upcoming products to a third party company.
I know staff, involved in launching product, who don't find out what it is until two weeks before launch. To give those details and RAW files to a third party would be too much of a risk of a leak.
Third parties have no care over sales of cameras, so a leak to them is not a problem so much. It's all sales driven: imagine there is a product in the marketplace that is selling well and then a very credible leak occurs - like a software update for a third party company known to get camera data before launch - suddenly, the sales of the current model will stop as people will be anticipating the new camera's arrival. This is bad for the dealers and the manufacturer.
You may say that they know when they will launch a new product and could therefore embargo the company until then, however, launch dates do change for a whole variety of reasons. It would simply add another layer of complexity if there were more people to inform not to launch their software update until later. It could mean the software company is forever making changes because clearly, the ideal scenario would be for them to get the data from all the manufacturers, not just one.
Following on from that, the manufacturers would have to provide the data to al the major third party software labs or one would have an unfair advantage over the others....so the complexity levels of managing that and avoiding a commercially disastrous leak would be too much and that's why I suspect it doesn't happen.
Honestly, that's not a rant, even if it does look like one!
Dave
ps. new website design at photopositive.co.uk - comments welcome!
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Bio's

David Courtenay, a self taught wildlife and nature photographer, has been capturing images for over 30 years. He has had a passion for wildlife since early childhood and remembers being glued to the television whenever Survival, Wildlife on One and other natural history documentaries were shown. In the 2006 he swapped his established career for the life of a wildlife photographer, such a move demands a measure of uncompromising passion and commitment.

David has travelled extensively throughout Europe as well as spending more than 7 months in India working with local guides and trackers in search of Bengal Tiger, Asian One horned Rhino and Asian Elephant. He has also photographed Wildlife in Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Sumatra, Africa, Canada and America. Working closely with Conservation companies he tries to raise funds to help Wildlife that has been put on the endangered list by poaching and habitation loss

Martin Dyer has had a passion for avian wildlife since childhood, particularly raptors. Photography was also another keen interest and it was with the specific availability and control of the whole process that digital offers that Martin was then able to combine the two in 2003. Based in the UK, Martin is a regular visitor to Scotland, specifically the Isle of Mull to watch the Eagles resident there. Other trips to Europe and around the UK are usually part of Martin’s agenda in a typical year.

However, as a firm believer on making the most of the local patch, Martin has spent a lot of time and hard work creating a wildlife garden which is reaping the rewards with many new species and varieties of wildlife. A keen member of a number of wildlife photographic groups, Martin is keen to expand his portfolio into other areas of wildlife, and has already established a wide portfolio of images of fungi.