LOL. Yea, I suppose that a digital camera is just a lens with a coputer built around it...kinda the same way that a Gulfstream GV is just a jet engine with an airplane built around it!
I'm not saying that Apple couldn't make digital cameras, I'm just saying that it's very, very different than making computers.
And I can't believe that you said "There are loads of cheap webcams out there and USB is sufficient for the quality they offer." Substitute the phrase 'MP3 player' for the word 'webcam' and you have the exact arguement that people made when Apple first released the iPod!
Just a thought. If a digital camera came with a firewire connector, then I think it would be very simple to include the ability for downloading images to the iPod.
Why? The most useful purpose would be for people on vacation. Instead of buying extra smart media etc., or having to take a laptop on vacation to download pictures, just download to the iPod, while listening to your favorite tunes. Not a whole lot of utility, but shouldn't be to difficult to implement without Apple having to design or have a contract company design a camera.
[quote] You are thinking from the wrong angle; the aquasition (spelling, sorry) side of digital media is well taken care off; its the PRESENTATION side that still sucks and that's where iPod's future lies.
<hr></blockquote>
I think you nailed it here. Firewire digital cameras are probably coming soon, with the ever-increasing quality of the pictures (etc., etc.).
The key for Apple, is to be in the best position for acceptance of such FW enabled cameras when they hit the ground running.
It would be intensely cool to have a 3+ MegaPixel digital camera with FireWire and an iPod that can accept the pictures from the internal memory of the camera when it gets full.
I envision digital cams moving to more high speed solid-state internal memory to improve camera response times. This, unfortunately, is expensive and not expandable. A laptop is not always available to move 32-128 MB of pictures to. An iPod could be. With 10 hours of battery life, it would last far longer than most camera batteries, with 5+ GB storage, it far exceeds the size of my Pictures folder on my laptop (that has all of my digital pics for the last 3 years in it).
The iPod could become a no-compromise, high speed portable storage solution for our digital lifestyles. The fact that it plays music as well is just icing on the cake.
I dunno about the whole digital camera thing, but I'm wondering why APple doesn't make the iPod (or this iCam, or an adapter, or a PDA, or some other peripheral) use AirPort. It could be like a node on your network.
Think about it, soon AirPort will be standard on every Mac, and it'll be cheap enough to shove in the $400 iPod too. Then you can access it like a network drive, wirelessly sync, etc. Of course then you have the problem of charging.. hmm. Plus it won't be as fast as firewire. But it would be an improvement for stuff like digital iCameras (you could be taking pictures while your partner is copying them off of the iCamera mounted on his desktop via AirPort), and for Power Mac users whose FireWire ports are on the floor under their desk Just a random thought.
Does anyone recall the technical details of the OfflineRT format in Final Cut Pro? 40 minutes of footage per 1GB of storage?
Now, with a chip (ASIC? I'm no engineer) in the camera body to natively record in this format, would a 5 or 10 GB iPod now make sense as the hub storage for a camera?
The camera body could be similarly styled to one of the higher end digicams or even similar in size/shape to traditional 35MM cameras, have a molded area for the iPod to snap into in the back to make use of the firewire connection.
So,
1) Snap iPod into iCamera device. Shoot still photos at several MegaPixel resolution or DV footage.
2) Remove iPod and connect via FireWire to PowerBook or G4 desktop and download images with Image Capture or Video footage with iMovie or Final Cut Pro. Render, and burn to SuperDrive.
3) End-to-end Apple experience.
Other options could be Pro-sumer to Professional grade Digicams like the Canon shown prominently on the Final Cut Pro main page. The professionals among the group might have more to say about the speed of transfer related to the iPod, but...
shred away......
{edit:spelling}
Just noted on the Final Cut Pro page the following quote:
Introducing the musical hard disk
Collaborating on a project? If you need to carry three or four hours worth of footage with you to and from a shared computer, here?s a nifty solution: store your footage in OfflineRT format on your iPod?s 5GB hard disk, and carry your part of the project around with you in your shirt pocket.
Seems Apple has already thought of the iPod as a video transport device. Prelude to the above...
Keep in mind that the OfflineRT format is just a lo-res version of DV format used for editing purposes. You can't really finish in it. When you're ready to finish you have to re-capture the video again at the hi-res level (about a four minutes per GB).
Just add a USB port to the iPod (or a Firewire/USB adaptor of some sort), and update the firmware so that it can download pics from any digital camera on the market. No need for a new product here, just add some functionality to the iPod.
This opens up the market to anyone with a digital camera who wants to have enough storage to last an entire trip, but doesn't feel like carrying along their laptop. The iPod can serve as a digital reservoir for any digital camera.
<strong>Just add a USB port to the iPod (or a Firewire/USB adaptor of some sort), and update the firmware so that it can download pics from any digital camera on the market. No need for a new product here, just add some functionality to the iPod.
This opens up the market to anyone with a digital camera who wants to have enough storage to last an entire trip, but doesn't feel like carrying along their laptop. The iPod can serve as a digital reservoir for any digital camera.</strong><hr></blockquote>
That makes a lot more sense than creating a digital camera that requires an iPod which requires a Mac.
[ 12-12-2001: Message edited by: Bozo the Clown ]</p>
Maybe you are on the right track, but maybe the DV part is the bit that is slowing you down. As I already own a hitachi DVDram camera I can tell you that you can store a lot of MPEG2 (.vob) files on a 2.8gig dvd-ram disc. (1 hr of dvd quality footage, or 2000+ 700k jpegs)
OK, that is different technology and a different direction to what you are talking about, but what if an apple photo device used MPEG2 directly..... and the downstream was that Apple finally announces support for MPEG2 directly in Quicktime (www.softarch.com have a press release about a conversion product that does just that for release on 10 Dec - they are a bit late already), then we might be talking.
That would mean that your iDevice captured MPEG2 movies could be stored on iPOD (or in the device if it has its own HD), then used directly in QT pro/iMovie/Premiere etc. at 5Gig we are talking about more than 2 hours of DVD quality footage, or 1000s of large jpegs, or a good combination of both if the device could do stil and motion images. it is just a hop skip and jump from there to burning you own iDVDs (as is the case for my DVDram camera).
This is where Firewire would fit in nicely as described above. Just bring the ipod/idevice back to the mothership and go for a quick download.
So, MPEG2, not DV ? You have to admit that Apple have really been draging their public feet on MPEG 2 support in QT (and their story that licencing it is expensive is BS because even small PC software companies like uLead and cyberlink [PowerDVD etc] have it).
Anyway - I know this is 'a bit out there' but what do you think...... MWSF is shaping up as having lots of new goodies.... maybe this is one that blends new hardware and updated old software.
Comments
I'm not saying that Apple couldn't make digital cameras, I'm just saying that it's very, very different than making computers.
And I can't believe that you said "There are loads of cheap webcams out there and USB is sufficient for the quality they offer." Substitute the phrase 'MP3 player' for the word 'webcam' and you have the exact arguement that people made when Apple first released the iPod!
<a href="http://www.theapplecollection.com/design/macdesign/hicam1.html"; target="_blank">http://www.theapplecollection.com/design/macdesign/hicam1.html</a>;
Why? The most useful purpose would be for people on vacation. Instead of buying extra smart media etc., or having to take a laptop on vacation to download pictures, just download to the iPod, while listening to your favorite tunes. Not a whole lot of utility, but shouldn't be to difficult to implement without Apple having to design or have a contract company design a camera.
<hr></blockquote>
I think you nailed it here. Firewire digital cameras are probably coming soon, with the ever-increasing quality of the pictures (etc., etc.).
The key for Apple, is to be in the best position for acceptance of such FW enabled cameras when they hit the ground running.
It would be intensely cool to have a 3+ MegaPixel digital camera with FireWire and an iPod that can accept the pictures from the internal memory of the camera when it gets full.
I envision digital cams moving to more high speed solid-state internal memory to improve camera response times. This, unfortunately, is expensive and not expandable. A laptop is not always available to move 32-128 MB of pictures to. An iPod could be. With 10 hours of battery life, it would last far longer than most camera batteries, with 5+ GB storage, it far exceeds the size of my Pictures folder on my laptop (that has all of my digital pics for the last 3 years in it).
The iPod could become a no-compromise, high speed portable storage solution for our digital lifestyles. The fact that it plays music as well is just icing on the cake.
"But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong..."
-Ender
Think about it, soon AirPort will be standard on every Mac, and it'll be cheap enough to shove in the $400 iPod too. Then you can access it like a network drive, wirelessly sync, etc. Of course then you have the problem of charging.. hmm. Plus it won't be as fast as firewire. But it would be an improvement for stuff like digital iCameras (you could be taking pictures while your partner is copying them off of the iCamera mounted on his desktop via AirPort), and for Power Mac users whose FireWire ports are on the floor under their desk
Does anyone recall the technical details of the OfflineRT format in Final Cut Pro? 40 minutes of footage per 1GB of storage?
Now, with a chip (ASIC? I'm no engineer) in the camera body to natively record in this format, would a 5 or 10 GB iPod now make sense as the hub storage for a camera?
The camera body could be similarly styled to one of the higher end digicams or even similar in size/shape to traditional 35MM cameras, have a molded area for the iPod to snap into in the back to make use of the firewire connection.
So,
1) Snap iPod into iCamera device. Shoot still photos at several MegaPixel resolution or DV footage.
2) Remove iPod and connect via FireWire to PowerBook or G4 desktop and download images with Image Capture or Video footage with iMovie or Final Cut Pro. Render, and burn to SuperDrive.
3) End-to-end Apple experience.
Other options could be Pro-sumer to Professional grade Digicams like the Canon shown prominently on the Final Cut Pro main page. The professionals among the group might have more to say about the speed of transfer related to the iPod, but...
shred away......
{edit:spelling}
Just noted on the Final Cut Pro page the following quote:
Introducing the musical hard disk
Collaborating on a project? If you need to carry three or four hours worth of footage with you to and from a shared computer, here?s a nifty solution: store your footage in OfflineRT format on your iPod?s 5GB hard disk, and carry your part of the project around with you in your shirt pocket.
Seems Apple has already thought of the iPod as a video transport device. Prelude to the above...
shred away...
[ 12-12-2001: Message edited by: dr_ianman ]</p>
This opens up the market to anyone with a digital camera who wants to have enough storage to last an entire trip, but doesn't feel like carrying along their laptop. The iPod can serve as a digital reservoir for any digital camera.
<strong>Just add a USB port to the iPod (or a Firewire/USB adaptor of some sort), and update the firmware so that it can download pics from any digital camera on the market. No need for a new product here, just add some functionality to the iPod.
This opens up the market to anyone with a digital camera who wants to have enough storage to last an entire trip, but doesn't feel like carrying along their laptop. The iPod can serve as a digital reservoir for any digital camera.</strong><hr></blockquote>
That makes a lot more sense than creating a digital camera that requires an iPod which requires a Mac.
[ 12-12-2001: Message edited by: Bozo the Clown ]</p>
OK, that is different technology and a different direction to what you are talking about, but what if an apple photo device used MPEG2 directly..... and the downstream was that Apple finally announces support for MPEG2 directly in Quicktime (www.softarch.com have a press release about a conversion product that does just that for release on 10 Dec - they are a bit late already), then we might be talking.
That would mean that your iDevice captured MPEG2 movies could be stored on iPOD (or in the device if it has its own HD), then used directly in QT pro/iMovie/Premiere etc. at 5Gig we are talking about more than 2 hours of DVD quality footage, or 1000s of large jpegs, or a good combination of both if the device could do stil and motion images. it is just a hop skip and jump from there to burning you own iDVDs (as is the case for my DVDram camera).
This is where Firewire would fit in nicely as described above. Just bring the ipod/idevice back to the mothership and go for a quick download.
So, MPEG2, not DV ? You have to admit that Apple have really been draging their public feet on MPEG 2 support in QT (and their story that licencing it is expensive is BS because even small PC software companies like uLead and cyberlink [PowerDVD etc] have it).
Anyway - I know this is 'a bit out there' but what do you think...... MWSF is shaping up as having lots of new goodies.... maybe this is one that blends new hardware and updated old software.
cheers
adam
[ 12-12-2001: Message edited by: Adam11 ]</p>