Some Features to Add to the Fuji X-E4 - And Any Other Camera

I've been having problems using the Fuji CamRemote app on an iPhone SE2 with the X-E4. Using the remote view, the screen freezes intermittently. I've e-mailed the Fuji Support people, tried their suggestions and still get screen freezes. I suspect it's the app - Fuji are a camera company, not a user software developer. (The CamRemote app is... junk. Let's be honest.)

This got me thinking about what I wanted from a camera, now that I've been using one for a while.

Tl;dr - The Prime Directive of prosumer camera design is immediate use: pick it up, press the shutter and it takes a photograph. No prep, no remembering to do this and that. I want my camera to be situationally aware and behave accordingly. I also want it to have roughly the same level of security my iPhone has, and I want it to work with my phone. I have my phone with me all the time, and so does everybody else. Unless we're swimming. But then we wouldn't be using a prosumer camera.

My ideal camera has motion sensors, and knows how to use them.

It wakes up from low-power mode when I pick it up and bring it up to my face. Add in other circumstances when you would like it to wake up automatically. Pressing the shutter button, or release cable. Pivoting the back-screen (while the camera is stationary), for instance.

Put the camera down, it goes into low-power mode. (There's a setting in The App to tell the camera it's on a tripod and should stay awake.)

When the camera wakes up, it reads the its dial settings and compares them to what they were when it went to sleep. If there is a change, it gives me a message on the screen to tell me which dials have changed and the previous value.

Because I'm a normal person, my phone is on and in my pocket. When the camera is turned on, it connects to my phone by Bluetooth whether The App is running or not. It does not stop the music from playing. It plays nice with everything else Bluetooth.

There's a Bluetooth symbol on the camera screen: red when the camera isn't connected, and blue when it is.

When I start The App, and the camera is on, the camera date and time, and its location, are updated automatically. If Location Services are not running, The App and the camera just shrug and carry on. (It is ridiculous that I would need to say this, but Fuji's app has kittens if you don't enable Location Services.)

When I take a photograph, if The App and Location Services are running, the camera grabs the location data from the phone (via The App) and adds it to the image meta-data.

I can use The App to configure the camera. The App menus have the same structure as the camera menus. (Photographers have a lot of muscle memory invested in their camera's menu system.)

The camera has all the usual effects and features, and these are turned on / off and organised into configurations via The App or in-camera menus.

The camera has manual dials for configuration, shutter speed and exposure compensation. (Aperture is set on the lens, and the camera knows about it.)

Configurations include a full Auto mode, Aperture Priority (set shutter speed + ISO automatically) that use defaults for all the other settings, and eight (?) custom settings. Custom settings are differential: everything is default unless it is changed.

I can change and save new default settings. Because the custom settings are differential, we won't need to update all our custom settings.

If I turn the lens focus dial, that over-rules the auto-focus settings until I take a picture.

I'll get back to you about ISO.

There are three function buttons to set to do whatever I like.

The camera lets me look at my photos and zoom in on screen. There's no in-camera editing. Everyone has editing software on their laptop / phone / tablet.

I'll get back to you about Wi-Fi. Fuji's Wi-Fi is awful.

The camera connects to my phone / laptop / tablet by USB-C for image transfer. (There is a version of The App for tablets and laptops as well.) There is a setting to transfer the photos (RAW and / or JPEG directly to my device's standard Photo library, right after the files are written to the card in the camera. (May need some buffer for photos, depending on write speeds.) This provides rudimentary tethering on the cheap.

I can use The App to update the camera firmware over USB-C. Or I can update it from a memory card. Either way, when it updates it asks me for a passcode.

Far too often security makes life more difficult for the user, and doesn't trouble the bad guys at all. Dumb amateurs will steal a camera and throw it away if the security bricks it; smart thieves will know how to get round almost anything; and if I'm trying to keep stuff from the Three-Letter-Agencies I should probably not be using a prosumer camera. The only group of people who can be kept out are the casual snoops and prying eyes. A simple passcode stops them. Every time I tried to figure out what more to do than a passcode, the potential breach of the Prime Directive was too much. If you can do better, please do.

When it is powered up the very first time, the camera will ask you to set a passcode. Access will last for a time that can be set in The App (default 24 hours), after which the passcode screen will re-appear and the camera won't work until it gets a passcode. The passcode can be changed via The App, but not via the camera.

A special memory card comes with the camera. It and the camera share an ID number nobody knows. If the OS on the camera goes, put this card in the slot and power up. It will re-load from scratch and then you can re-update online. (If the camera BIOS gets corrupted, send it back to the manufacturer.)

If you use the power switch to turn off the camera, it will ask for a passcode when it next powers up. (But not when it wakes from low power within the passcode window time.)

So we have a camera which has all the photography features of your favourite camera, won't work unless you sign on (like your phone), will save battery when it's not being used, will take photos when you click the shutter button without you having to do anything else, can be configured from an App or in the phone, and can tell you that a dial got jogged while you were not using it. It has a discreet but visible logo to indicate it is a "secure camera". The dumb thieves will still steal it, but the smarter ones will find an easier target. If stolen, it will be useless within a day no matter what happens.

And one more thing: The App and the camera software are not written by anyone who has ever produced user software of any kind for Fujifilm. Or possibly any other camera company. Dear camera industry: get your apps designed and written by people who understand how to do this stuff.

North Bank, Approaching Blackfriars

Sometimes only colour will do. Handy that I can flip between colour and B&W with a couple of button-pushes.

View from Tower Pier

 

This is part of a larger and much less interesting photograph. Sis saw all these lines in the middle of it, and the close-up is much more interesting.

A Happy and Prosperous 2023 To You All

Have another cup of coffee.

Lollipops at The Wigmore Hall

The live music experience experiment ended in December with two recitals of what are known in the trade as `lollipops': short, familiar favourites. First up was Gautier Caucon (Cello) and Jerome Ducros (Piano) with a selection ranging from Barber's Adagio For Strings to My Way and Singing in the Rain. I was sitting eight rows back in the middle (cheap seats Saturday lunchtime). Someone had turned the volume of the piano down (or those other pianists really were ham-fisted) so I didn't have to rush to the exit to protect my hearing. Monsieur Capucon prefaced each piece with a little explanation or story, and the two of them played together as well as if they had been rehearsing to make a CD. Oh. Wait. They had. The sound was still louder than I would dare at home: one forgets how loud even acoustic music is. The performances were well-judged and nicely emotional.

Next up was what I thought was a jazz trio: Martin Frost (Clarinet), Roland Pontinen (Piano), and Sabastien Dube (Double Bass). They even had two pieces by that well-known Baroque composer Chick Corea (1655 - 1702). The only piece I knew was the Poulenc Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, which they did in a spirited manner (which is a nice way of saying `a bit fast for my taste'.) Forst enjoys playing the clarinet ("an ill wind nobody blows good") and seemed to be doing most of it from memory. This time I was at the back on an aisle seat, but I didn't have the feeling that I was hearing reflections (as long as the reflection paths are less than 12 metres shorter than the direct path, you won't. The Wigmore is a long rectangle, so it's not likely.). perhaps I had had enough practice at listening to live music by now, because I got carried away by the whole thing. I didn't even listen to any music on the way home, but used the ANC on the in-ears.

So in summary (so far)

The concert hall sound experience is not the hi-fi experience. Hi-fi is quieter, the soundstage is clearer and more defined, and the sounds are more precise. The live sounds don't have a sense of reflection or echo, but that 35ms buffer gets used, with the result that the sounds are very open and slightly blurry round the edges. Soundstage is not really a thing unless you're right in front of the players, and for acoustic chamber music, it was never intended to be. The music should come as one piece. Nothing involves quite so much as volume - as long as it stays below wince level - and live music can and is be played at more involving levels than I can get in my 'umble mid-terrace house, where I tend to listen at around 60dBA, which is less than the volume of my acoustic guitar or the human voice.

Will I be listening to more live music in 2023? Almost certainly. Orchestral rather than chamber, I suspect, and since I need to defend what's left of my hearing, I won't be going to see Above and Beyond at Printworks in April.

What Black-and-White Excels At

 A kid, his Dad, a bloke walking down stairs, some random lines... in colour it would be... meh. For some reason, in black-and-white, it really works. The people are more significant than they would be in colour.

Happy Christmas