Panasonic phone Apps (click bait title edited)

cba_melbourne said:

Sam Bennett said:

cba_melbourne said:

Sam Bennett said:

cba_melbourne said:

bluevellet said:

... With phone apps. Notably Lumix Image App and Lumix Sync.

My daughter likes the GM1 I gave her but man, to transfer her pics to her phone, the way Panasonic intended it. Absolute garbage. I remember toying with it many years ago on my own. But setting it up again, for her, absolute nightmare. Slow, full of errors and failures. After a quick web search, I can see my experience is not unique at all.

I can force the phone to connect but then the app doesn't think it's connected and tries to connect again... Leading to failure, obviously.

Panasonic is not alone in this and all apps from camera manufacturers that I have tried so far have been from bad to worst (Nikon Snapbridge is the least bad).

From early Lumix S9 impressions, it looks like got it's act together on the software/app front.

Click to expand...

The mere idea of wanting to transfer image files from a GM1 via wifi sounds absurd to me.

The GM1 was made 11 years ago. How many new routers have you bought since, how many phones, and why did you replace them? How did your phone look like 11 years ago? Has it ever occurred to you, that the GM1 is the smallest digital ILC camera ever made, and it is a marvel of technology that they even managed to squeeze a basic wifi in there too, and despite it being an all metal camera without an external wifi antenna stick?

GM1 wifi was intended to remote control the camera with a phone over a few meters distance. And as a mere side effect of this, to transfer the occasional jpg picture to the phone or to a printer in a pinch. To transfer several jpg images or the much larger raw files, you have to use the special USB cable that came with the camera. It is much faster and more reliable. Or you can use an SD card reader.

Click to expand...

This is nonsense. The WiFi connectivity was one of the reasons I loved my GM1 and dragged it all over the world. In my recollection it worked fine if you connected directly to it. It's a bummer to hear the app support may not be the best anymore, but that's another matter.

Click to expand...

Likely this is because back then, your expectations wrt wifi speed and connectivity were much lower.

Click to expand...

No, it's probably because I was shooting JPEG and usually only transferring and handful of files at a time.

Click to expand...

Yes a handful jpegs is reasonably fast. I guess 5 to 10 seconds or so for a jpeg.

cba_melbourne said:

cba_melbourne said:

Today nobody wants to disconnect his phone from wifi internet just to establish a direct connection to a camera, and then back....

Click to expand...

I do this all the time - it's really not a big deal. It's the foundation of my concert workflow, since I shoot, pick my favorites, transfer to my phone for quick edits in SnapSeed and send to the marketing team for the club I work for who post literally while the show is still going on.

cba_melbourne said:

And to connect a camera to a wifi network, you need some safety in place else everybody on the network can see or delete your pictures - the GM1 does not have any such safety built in, and even if had it would be obsolete as the last GM1 firmware update was 10 years ago. It would be pretty much as safe as running a laptop with a windows 7 version and no updates ever

Click to expand...

I only ever connect directly to my cameras, so this is a total non-issue.

Click to expand...

It is a big issue for "content creators". But it is not easy to solve.

There are already a few m43 cameras that can do this, Youngnuo has a range of Android m43 cameras, and there is the Alice camera. However they all suffer from a delay after power-on to first load their operating system. The thing is, they receive constant safety and OS updates, just like a phone or tablet or laptop. This is why they can connect to a wifi network safely and with ease. Whereas our conventional cameras only receive sporadic firmware updates when new, and none after a few years old. Making them too risky to allow a shared connection to a wifi network. That is why they can connect point-to-point only.

But I am sure many photographers would love the possibility to transfer their images to the cloud directly from the camera (and even whilst taking more pictures). You would love it too. Right now you have to make a point-to-point connection camera-to-phone. Whilst that is active, your wifi connection from the phone to the internet must be disconnected. Only after you break the camera connection can the phone reconnect to the internet and you can transfer the pics to the cloud (or to your employer or client waiting for the pics to do the post processing).

Click to expand...

bluevellet said:

[...] Panasonic is not alone in this and all apps from camera manufacturers that I have tried so far have been from bad to worst (Nikon Snapbridge is the least bad).

Click to expand...

bluevellet said:

Fuji.

Relatively hassle free

You start the app but you have to go deep in the settings to get the camera going too. No pairing otherwise.

Once connected, it works. But file transfer is super slow. But that could be because my camera (XA3) is just slow. It's even slow at taking pictures (something DPReview also complains about in their review). I don't own any other Fuji camera so maybe file transfers are faster with newer, more powerful models. If that assumption is right then I'd rate it better than the Olympus/OMDS app.

Click to expand...

yslee2 said:

bluevellet said:

Fuji.

Relatively hassle free

You start the app but you have to go deep in the settings to get the camera going too. No pairing otherwise.

Once connected, it works. But file transfer is super slow. But that could be because my camera (XA3) is just slow. It's even slow at taking pictures (something DPReview also complains about in their review). I don't own any other Fuji camera so maybe file transfers are faster with newer, more powerful models. If that assumption is right then I'd rate it better than the Olympus/OMDS app.

Click to expand...

Does this include auto transfer? That's what I'm most interested in right now.

Click to expand...

Sam Bennett said:

bluevellet said:

... With phone apps. Notably Lumix Image App and Lumix Sync.

My daughter likes the GM1 I gave her but man, to transfer her pics to her phone, the way Panasonic intended it. Absolute garbage. I remember toying with it many years ago on my own. But setting it up again, for her, absolute nightmare. Slow, full of errors and failures. After a quick web search, I can see my experience is not unique at all.

I can force the phone to connect but then the app doesn't think it's connected and tries to connect again... Leading to failure, obviously.

Panasonic is not alone in this and all apps from camera manufacturers that I have tried so far have been from bad to worst (Nikon Snapbridge is the least bad).

From early Lumix S9 impressions, it looks like got it's act together on the software/app front.

Click to expand...

I don't recall if the GM1 does this, but my observation working with both Olympus and Lumix bodies/apps is that often times the problematic piece is with the Bluetooth handshake that occurs, ostensibly, to make it easier to establish a WiFi connection (which is needed to transfer files). So you can try to work around this by "manually" enabling WiFi on the camera, and then"manually" connecting to the camera through the smartphones system settings and only then launching the App. I find this generally works better, more often.

Thankfully this is an area where the latest cameras seem to do a bit better.

Click to expand...

cba_melbourne said:

bluevellet said:

... With phone apps. Notably Lumix Image App and Lumix Sync.

My daughter likes the GM1 I gave her but man, to transfer her pics to her phone, the way Panasonic intended it. Absolute garbage. I remember toying with it many years ago on my own. But setting it up again, for her, absolute nightmare. Slow, full of errors and failures. After a quick web search, I can see my experience is not unique at all.

I can force the phone to connect but then the app doesn't think it's connected and tries to connect again... Leading to failure, obviously.

Panasonic is not alone in this and all apps from camera manufacturers that I have tried so far have been from bad to worst (Nikon Snapbridge is the least bad).

From early Lumix S9 impressions, it looks like got it's act together on the software/app front.

Click to expand...

The mere idea of wanting to transfer image files from a GM1 via wifi sounds absurd to me.

The GM1 was made 11 years ago. How many new routers have you bought since, how many phones, and why did you replace them? How did your phone look like 11 years ago? Has it ever occurred to you, that the GM1 is the smallest digital ILC camera ever made, and it is a marvel of technology that they even managed to squeeze a basic wifi in there too, and despite it being an all metal camera without an external wifi antenna stick?

GM1 wifi was intended to remote control the camera with a phone over a few meters distance. And as a mere side effect of this, to transfer the occasional jpg picture to the phone or to a printer in a pinch. To transfer several jpg images or the much larger raw files, you have to use the special USB cable that came with the camera. It is much faster and more reliable. Or you can use an SD card reader.

Click to expand...

cba_melbourne said:

Sam Bennett said:

cba_melbourne said:

bluevellet said:

... With phone apps. Notably Lumix Image App and Lumix Sync.

My daughter likes the GM1 I gave her but man, to transfer her pics to her phone, the way Panasonic intended it. Absolute garbage. I remember toying with it many years ago on my own. But setting it up again, for her, absolute nightmare. Slow, full of errors and failures. After a quick web search, I can see my experience is not unique at all.

I can force the phone to connect but then the app doesn't think it's connected and tries to connect again... Leading to failure, obviously.

Panasonic is not alone in this and all apps from camera manufacturers that I have tried so far have been from bad to worst (Nikon Snapbridge is the least bad).

From early Lumix S9 impressions, it looks like got it's act together on the software/app front.

Click to expand...

The mere idea of wanting to transfer image files from a GM1 via wifi sounds absurd to me.

The GM1 was made 11 years ago. How many new routers have you bought since, how many phones, and why did you replace them? How did your phone look like 11 years ago? Has it ever occurred to you, that the GM1 is the smallest digital ILC camera ever made, and it is a marvel of technology that they even managed to squeeze a basic wifi in there too, and despite it being an all metal camera without an external wifi antenna stick?

GM1 wifi was intended to remote control the camera with a phone over a few meters distance. And as a mere side effect of this, to transfer the occasional jpg picture to the phone or to a printer in a pinch. To transfer several jpg images or the much larger raw files, you have to use the special USB cable that came with the camera. It is much faster and more reliable. Or you can use an SD card reader.

Click to expand...

This is nonsense. The WiFi connectivity was one of the reasons I loved my GM1 and dragged it all over the world. In my recollection it worked fine if you connected directly to it. It's a bummer to hear the app support may not be the best anymore, but that's another matter.

Click to expand...

Likely this is because back then, your expectations wrt wifi speed and connectivity were much lower. Today nobody wants to disconnect his phone from wifi internet just to establish a direct connection to a camera, and then back....

Click to expand...

cba_melbourne said:

And to connect a camera to a wifi network, you need some safety in place else everybody on the network can see or delete your pictures - the GM1 does not have any such safety built in, and even if had it would be obsolete as the last GM1 firmware update was 10 years ago. It would be pretty much as safe as running a laptop with a windows 7 version and no updates ever.

Click to expand...

Sam Bennett said:

cba_melbourne said:

Sam Bennett said:

cba_melbourne said:

bluevellet said:

... With phone apps. Notably Lumix Image App and Lumix Sync.

My daughter likes the GM1 I gave her but man, to transfer her pics to her phone, the way Panasonic intended it. Absolute garbage. I remember toying with it many years ago on my own. But setting it up again, for her, absolute nightmare. Slow, full of errors and failures. After a quick web search, I can see my experience is not unique at all.

I can force the phone to connect but then the app doesn't think it's connected and tries to connect again... Leading to failure, obviously.

Panasonic is not alone in this and all apps from camera manufacturers that I have tried so far have been from bad to worst (Nikon Snapbridge is the least bad).

From early Lumix S9 impressions, it looks like got it's act together on the software/app front.

Click to expand...

The mere idea of wanting to transfer image files from a GM1 via wifi sounds absurd to me.

The GM1 was made 11 years ago. How many new routers have you bought since, how many phones, and why did you replace them? How did your phone look like 11 years ago? Has it ever occurred to you, that the GM1 is the smallest digital ILC camera ever made, and it is a marvel of technology that they even managed to squeeze a basic wifi in there too, and despite it being an all metal camera without an external wifi antenna stick?

GM1 wifi was intended to remote control the camera with a phone over a few meters distance. And as a mere side effect of this, to transfer the occasional jpg picture to the phone or to a printer in a pinch. To transfer several jpg images or the much larger raw files, you have to use the special USB cable that came with the camera. It is much faster and more reliable. Or you can use an SD card reader.

Click to expand...

This is nonsense. The WiFi connectivity was one of the reasons I loved my GM1 and dragged it all over the world. In my recollection it worked fine if you connected directly to it. It's a bummer to hear the app support may not be the best anymore, but that's another matter.

Click to expand...

Likely this is because back then, your expectations wrt wifi speed and connectivity were much lower.

Click to expand...

No, it's probably because I was shooting JPEG and usually only transferring and handful of files at a time.

Sam Bennett said:

Today nobody wants to disconnect his phone from wifi internet just to establish a direct connection to a camera, and then back....

Click to expand...

I do this all the time - it's really not a big deal. It's the foundation of my concert workflow, since I shoot, pick my favorites, transfer to my phone for quick edits in SnapSeed and send to the marketing team for the club I work for who post literally while the show is still going on.

Sam Bennett said:

And to connect a camera to a wifi network, you need some safety in place else everybody on the network can see or delete your pictures - the GM1 does not have any such safety built in, and even if had it would be obsolete as the last GM1 firmware update was 10 years ago. It would be pretty much as safe as running a laptop with a windows 7 version and no updates ever

Click to expand...

I only ever connect directly to my cameras, so this is a total non-issue.

Click to expand...

cba_melbourne said:

Sam Bennett said:

cba_melbourne said:

Sam Bennett said:

cba_melbourne said:

bluevellet said:

... With phone apps. Notably Lumix Image App and Lumix Sync.

My daughter likes the GM1 I gave her but man, to transfer her pics to her phone, the way Panasonic intended it. Absolute garbage. I remember toying with it many years ago on my own. But setting it up again, for her, absolute nightmare. Slow, full of errors and failures. After a quick web search, I can see my experience is not unique at all.

I can force the phone to connect but then the app doesn't think it's connected and tries to connect again... Leading to failure, obviously.

Panasonic is not alone in this and all apps from camera manufacturers that I have tried so far have been from bad to worst (Nikon Snapbridge is the least bad).

From early Lumix S9 impressions, it looks like got it's act together on the software/app front.

Click to expand...

The mere idea of wanting to transfer image files from a GM1 via wifi sounds absurd to me.

The GM1 was made 11 years ago. How many new routers have you bought since, how many phones, and why did you replace them? How did your phone look like 11 years ago? Has it ever occurred to you, that the GM1 is the smallest digital ILC camera ever made, and it is a marvel of technology that they even managed to squeeze a basic wifi in there too, and despite it being an all metal camera without an external wifi antenna stick?

GM1 wifi was intended to remote control the camera with a phone over a few meters distance. And as a mere side effect of this, to transfer the occasional jpg picture to the phone or to a printer in a pinch. To transfer several jpg images or the much larger raw files, you have to use the special USB cable that came with the camera. It is much faster and more reliable. Or you can use an SD card reader.

Click to expand...

This is nonsense. The WiFi connectivity was one of the reasons I loved my GM1 and dragged it all over the world. In my recollection it worked fine if you connected directly to it. It's a bummer to hear the app support may not be the best anymore, but that's another matter.

Click to expand...

Likely this is because back then, your expectations wrt wifi speed and connectivity were much lower.

Click to expand...

No, it's probably because I was shooting JPEG and usually only transferring and handful of files at a time.

Click to expand...

Yes a handful jpegs is reasonably fast. I guess 5 to 10 seconds or so for a jpeg.

cba_melbourne said:

cba_melbourne said:

Today nobody wants to disconnect his phone from wifi internet just to establish a direct connection to a camera, and then back....

Click to expand...

I do this all the time - it's really not a big deal. It's the foundation of my concert workflow, since I shoot, pick my favorites, transfer to my phone for quick edits in SnapSeed and send to the marketing team for the club I work for who post literally while the show is still going on.

cba_melbourne said:

And to connect a camera to a wifi network, you need some safety in place else everybody on the network can see or delete your pictures - the GM1 does not have any such safety built in, and even if had it would be obsolete as the last GM1 firmware update was 10 years ago. It would be pretty much as safe as running a laptop with a windows 7 version and no updates ever

Click to expand...

I only ever connect directly to my cameras, so this is a total non-issue.

Click to expand...

It is a big issue for "content creators". But it is not easy to solve.

There are already a few m43 cameras that can do this, Youngnuo has a range of Android m43 cameras, and there is the Alice camera. However they all suffer from a delay after power-on to first load their operating system. The thing is, they receive constant safety and OS updates, just like a phone or tablet or laptop. This is why they can connect to a wifi network safely and with ease. Whereas our conventional cameras only receive sporadic firmware updates when new, and none after a few years old. Making them too risky to allow a shared connection to a wifi network. That is why they can connect point-to-point only.

But I am sure many photographers would love the possibility to transfer their images to the cloud directly from the camera (and even whilst taking more pictures). You would love it too. Right now you have to make a point-to-point connection camera-to-phone. Whilst that is active, your wifi connection from the phone to the internet must be disconnected. Only after you break the camera connection can the phone reconnect to the internet and you can transfer the pics to the cloud (or to your employer or client waiting for the pics to do the post processing).

Click to expand...

NicolaesP said:

I disagree, although GM1 is a very old camera, works only with Image App, not Lumix Sync (officially not supported, might work).

Lumix Sync. Maybe, initial setup is cumbersome. Make sure Bluetooth and Location is enabled on your phone:

+

Wake up camera (bluetooth)

Sleep camera (bluetooth)

Automatic connection to wifi (first bluetooth to wake up then to wifi).

Priority to phone (menu) gives you access for C1 C2 C3-1to3.

You can connect through router to extend range 50 meters (2.4GHz).

You access ALL important cameras parameters.

Zyfon yt-500 remote control pan and tilt 433MHz can take up to G9+Sigma56mm f1.4 1000 grams (433 MHz doesn't interfere with 2.4 GHz wifi)

-

You access ALL important cameras parameters, except Mechanical/ Electronic Shutter (Custom C1,C2, C3 workaround).

They removed the ability to delete photos remotely (wi-fi).

Takes from 30 seconds to 50 seconds to connect 2.4GHz via travelrouter (start: wake up bluetooth using the phone, but all is automated).

I've read manuals on other brands, but Panasonic Lumix Sync is imho the best out there, in terms of options what you can do with your smartphone.

Now they added a LUT library

Click to expand...

ticket919 said:

NicolaesP said:

I disagree, although GM1 is a very old camera, works only with Image App, not Lumix Sync (officially not supported, might work).

Lumix Sync. Maybe, initial setup is cumbersome. Make sure Bluetooth and Location is enabled on your phone:

+

Wake up camera (bluetooth)

Sleep camera (bluetooth)

Automatic connection to wifi (first bluetooth to wake up then to wifi).

Priority to phone (menu) gives you access for C1 C2 C3-1to3.

You can connect through router to extend range 50 meters (2.4GHz).

You access ALL important cameras parameters.

Zyfon yt-500 remote control pan and tilt 433MHz can take up to G9+Sigma56mm f1.4 1000 grams (433 MHz doesn't interfere with 2.4 GHz wifi)

-

You access ALL important cameras parameters, except Mechanical/ Electronic Shutter (Custom C1,C2, C3 workaround).

They removed the ability to delete photos remotely (wi-fi).

Takes from 30 seconds to 50 seconds to connect 2.4GHz via travelrouter (start: wake up bluetooth using the phone, but all is automated).

I've read manuals on other brands, but Panasonic Lumix Sync is imho the best out there, in terms of options what you can do with your smartphone.

Now they added a LUT library

Click to expand...

Honestly this is all way too cumbersome. Camera makes will have to skip all this if they want to remain relevant.

Click to expand...

Sam Bennett said:

ticket919 said:

NicolaesP said:

I disagree, although GM1 is a very old camera, works only with Image App, not Lumix Sync (officially not supported, might work).

Lumix Sync. Maybe, initial setup is cumbersome. Make sure Bluetooth and Location is enabled on your phone:

+

Wake up camera (bluetooth)

Sleep camera (bluetooth)

Automatic connection to wifi (first bluetooth to wake up then to wifi).

Priority to phone (menu) gives you access for C1 C2 C3-1to3.

You can connect through router to extend range 50 meters (2.4GHz).

You access ALL important cameras parameters.

Zyfon yt-500 remote control pan and tilt 433MHz can take up to G9+Sigma56mm f1.4 1000 grams (433 MHz doesn't interfere with 2.4 GHz wifi)

-

You access ALL important cameras parameters, except Mechanical/ Electronic Shutter (Custom C1,C2, C3 workaround).

They removed the ability to delete photos remotely (wi-fi).

Takes from 30 seconds to 50 seconds to connect 2.4GHz via travelrouter (start: wake up bluetooth using the phone, but all is automated).

I've read manuals on other brands, but Panasonic Lumix Sync is imho the best out there, in terms of options what you can do with your smartphone.

Now they added a LUT library

Click to expand...

Honestly this is all way too cumbersome. Camera makes will have to skip all this if they want to remain relevant.

Click to expand...

Even when these system works well, they don't work well enough to see mass adoption. I'm a geek, I develop mobile apps for a living and love the technical aspect of photography - but most people are not.

Unfortunately, "solving" this problem requires cooperation with Apple and Google to come up with a more formal protocol for transferring files between a camera and a phone.

Click to expand...

Sam Bennett said:

It will inevitably involve the same the same technologies - a combination of NFC/Bluetooth/WiFi - but with a much tighter integration between the phone Operating System and the camera's Operating System.

Ideally, it should be as easy as interfacing with any other Bluetooth device such as a speaker.

Click to expand...

Sam Bennett said:

After an initial pairing (initiated from the phone, not through a third party app), users can simply choose "Lumix G9" as a source when using photos anywhere in the operating system - directly from SnapSeed, Lightroom, uploading to DPReview forums, whatever. It should ultimately be as easy as choosing from the device's camera roll.

But it will never happen. It's not in Apple or Google's interest to make it easier to use a third party camera when there's already a sophisticated camera in their phone, which the vast majority of people are perfectly happy with.

Click to expand...

Sam Bennett said:

So unfortunately you have to sort of pick your poison. Which system works the best for your workflow, the smartphone you have, etc. Between the S5 II and the OM-1 Mark II that I use for events the Lumix system currently has the lead - once photos are rated, I simply turn on WiFi and wait for my phone to connect (since I'm typically in situations where I haven't already joined a WiFi network), then the app usually picks up that the camera is there, I go to "Import Photos" filter for "3 star", make my selections and do the import. The only downsides to it are that the iPhone app doesn't remember your filter selections (the Android version does) and it doesn't distinguish between photos you've already imported, or not. I typically do multiple import per event, so OM System's resettable "Share Order" works a bit better in that regard.

Click to expand...

cba_melbourne said:

Sam Bennett said:

ticket919 said:

NicolaesP said:

I disagree, although GM1 is a very old camera, works only with Image App, not Lumix Sync (officially not supported, might work).

Lumix Sync. Maybe, initial setup is cumbersome. Make sure Bluetooth and Location is enabled on your phone:

+

Wake up camera (bluetooth)

Sleep camera (bluetooth)

Automatic connection to wifi (first bluetooth to wake up then to wifi).

Priority to phone (menu) gives you access for C1 C2 C3-1to3.

You can connect through router to extend range 50 meters (2.4GHz).

You access ALL important cameras parameters.

Zyfon yt-500 remote control pan and tilt 433MHz can take up to G9+Sigma56mm f1.4 1000 grams (433 MHz doesn't interfere with 2.4 GHz wifi)

-

You access ALL important cameras parameters, except Mechanical/ Electronic Shutter (Custom C1,C2, C3 workaround).

They removed the ability to delete photos remotely (wi-fi).

Takes from 30 seconds to 50 seconds to connect 2.4GHz via travelrouter (start: wake up bluetooth using the phone, but all is automated).

I've read manuals on other brands, but Panasonic Lumix Sync is imho the best out there, in terms of options what you can do with your smartphone.

Now they added a LUT library

Click to expand...

Honestly this is all way too cumbersome. Camera makes will have to skip all this if they want to remain relevant.

Click to expand...

Even when these system works well, they don't work well enough to see mass adoption. I'm a geek, I develop mobile apps for a living and love the technical aspect of photography - but most people are not.

Unfortunately, "solving" this problem requires cooperation with Apple and Google to come up with a more formal protocol for transferring files between a camera and a phone.

Click to expand...

Camera makers are the problem, not the phones. Camera makers are too secretive and protective of their camera operating systems. Android is a fairly open and well documented operating system, whereas camera operating systems are the exact opposite of open and well documented - they are secretive and proprietary.

Click to expand...

cba_melbourne said:

Example: why do cameras not have an inbuilt device webpage? You could access the whole camera menu system with your laptop, using its keyboard and monitor. Instead of fiddling with a few buttons and a minuscule backpanel display. You could have a one page overview of all camera settings, modify it quickly and comfortably to your needs, assign commands to buttons etc. You could run hardware tests. You could manage firmware updates. Etc etc etc. Including your connectivity setup. You could configure your camera exactly to your tastes and needs.

Click to expand...

cba_melbourne said:

cba_melbourne said:

It will inevitably involve the same the same technologies - a combination of NFC/Bluetooth/WiFi - but with a much tighter integration between the phone Operating System and the camera's Operating System.

Ideally, it should be as easy as interfacing with any other Bluetooth device such as a speaker.

Click to expand...

You see, wifi/BT speakers work well, because the makers of these spend the R&D money to make sure they work well with all sorts of phones out there. They realize that no phone makers is going to do this job for them.

Click to expand...

cba_melbourne said:

cba_melbourne said:

After an initial pairing (initiated from the phone, not through a third party app), users can simply choose "Lumix G9" as a source when using photos anywhere in the operating system - directly from SnapSeed, Lightroom, uploading to DPReview forums, whatever. It should ultimately be as easy as choosing from the device's camera roll.

But it will never happen. It's not in Apple or Google's interest to make it easier to use a third party camera when there's already a sophisticated camera in their phone, which the vast majority of people are perfectly happy with.

Click to expand...

Two billion phones are sold each year. Compared to 7 million cameras. That is 200 times more phones than cameras.

Why should the phone makers care? The onus is on the camera makers, they should care and make their cameras better compatible with phones and tablets and PC's.

Click to expand...

cba_melbourne said:

cba_melbourne said:

It will inevitably involve the same the same technologies - a combination of NFC/Bluetooth/WiFi - but with a much tighter integration between the phone Operating System and the camera's Operating System.

Ideally, it should be as easy as interfacing with any other Bluetooth device such as a speaker.

Click to expand...

You see, wifi/BT speakers work well, because the makers of these spend the R&D money to make sure they work well with all sorts of phones out there. They realize that no phone makers is going to do this job for them.

Click to expand...

cba_melbourne said:

cba_melbourne said:

After an initial pairing (initiated from the phone, not through a third party app), users can simply choose "Lumix G9" as a source when using photos anywhere in the operating system - directly from SnapSeed, Lightroom, uploading to DPReview forums, whatever. It should ultimately be as easy as choosing from the device's camera roll.

But it will never happen. It's not in Apple or Google's interest to make it easier to use a third party camera when there's already a sophisticated camera in their phone, which the vast majority of people are perfectly happy with.

Click to expand...

Two billion phones are sold each year. Compared to 7 million cameras. That is 200 times more phones than cameras.

Why should the phone makers care? The onus is on the camera makers, they should care and make their cameras better compatible with phones and tablets and PC's.

Click to expand...