DPReview TV: Our USB ports should do more!

It's more than USB ports: the 1980-mindset of the camera developers must be changed in order to realize that their cameras are specialized computers, not "devices" that happen to include various computer-related things haphazardly.

Love the "halo" behind the head of the wise old man.

Again, thanks to Chris and Jordan for another great episode.

I don't like this idea... I LOVE it! Keep it coming!!! Camera manufacturers are WAY behind the curve vs what Smartphones offer in terms of ease and enjoyment of use when taking pictures/videos. For casual pictures/videos, I find myself using my Samsung 9+ 95% of the time. It's just so much more convenient and fun!

You missed a BIG potential use of the USB-C port though. Why not allow a WIRED connection to a smartphone for full screen, full rez previews during shooting & playback. This way, EVERYONE would have an external LCD screen in their pocket that could be used at anytime. Wireless smartphone camera apps suck due to their low quality video previews. It's time for manufacturers to wake up to the new reality of smartphones and include some of that ease of use and fun factor into their high quality yet unoriginal/stagnant camera designs.

Indeed. There are 128 GB USB 3.0/3.1 THUMBNAIL drives that would not put any torque on a camera port. Nikon, Canon et al can't figure out how to have the camera be able to copy the SD/CF files to this drive-or better yet, simultaneously save files to the internal card and this external drive. Come on, Nikon, parent of the WiFi adapter.

Yes, the USB-Port needs some more support by the Camera Companies. But there is one Feature that is far more important to many of us i hope.
Why can´t they just build in a Sim-Card slot, some cellphone (Data) electronics and an antenna? No hassle with Blutooth or Wlan connections, no waiting for pairing or transmitting the pictures to your cellphone.
Just mark the Pictures, auto-add IPTC and then just send them in the Background while continue taking photos.
In the Class of the 1DX II or the D5 there should be enough space in the Bodies. Those are the innovations i hope to see sometimes. The Camera Companies should adopt the speed the internet demands delivery. I mean the Action-Cameras of course, not necessarily the Landscape ones.
Can it be so difficult merging a camera and a cellphone?

Great to have suggestions for potential improvements generally. Appreciated the one one waveform scopes etc, which seemed very sensible. Unfortunately I'm not really on board with this though. Yes manufacturers should probably standardise on USB-C now, and yes they could probably do a bit more with it, but personally I'd rather manufacturers just concentrated on making their cameras great photographic tools. If you ask for compatibility with this, that and the other you're just adding to the complexity. There are still a lot of basic issues with camera ergonomics which seem to linger - even with the likes of Canon - never mind Sony. I'd like to see these addressed rather than effort going into making the camera some kind of digital hub. No doubt I'm in the minority though.

dongles suck .... stop promoting them guys

[ love your show]

the growing market are the vloggers i guess, they have needs too.

I would like an android OS on my camera or better smartphone integration, maybe a cellular data. I think samsung had a smart camera phone once, but it was too early.

was that the first episode of "megapixels CSI" ?? camera scene investigation]the new cop buddy show starring jordan and chris? as they battle against stupidity . lost features , and ...whatever

fighting photographic crimes wherever they rear their ugly head

id like to see more dramatizations , and less of a doc style .... just saying

anyway kudos for season 1 episode 1

Nice thoughts, but where are the USB-C ports in general?

Rather than wish for enhanced functionality of the port, I'd settle for manufactures simply putting the port on every new camera. I believe the only 2 cameras below $1000 with USB-C are the X-T30 and the GRIII.

Small travel cameras, like the just released TG-6 and every small MILC released going forward, could really benefit from having that port. Phones and Laptops have moved on from micro-USB. Camera makers have not until recently, and even then only at the high and middle-end of the spectrum.

On the flip side since I'm a gear hound, and my wife is always looking for ways to limit my G.A.S, we determined that a USB-C port would be a good limiter. So, no more cameras for me unless it has a USB-C port + charging at the very least.

I am (im)patiently waiting for an X-E4 (X-E5) with all the cool tech from from the X-T30 including that USB-C port. Until that body happens (or other mount delivers a similar body), I'll wait.

i thought it said "#donglife" until i put my glasses on......

My A6400 is still firmly stuck in 2000 with USB 2.0. l may I live vicariously through your camera?

A great video with very nice ideas!

Yea great ideas ..... what about , a plug in USB beard trimmer - for when the summer arrives and the birds have finished nesting . You could plug it into your Panasonic G5 and trim the growth before going on camera :)

USB Type C is a form factor that describes the connectivity of the port. Multiple protocols and functions can happen over the same form factor thanks to USB Alternate Modes. This is how Thunderbolt and DisplayPort work over Type C. Chris' features will face a few roadblocks from a technical standpoint (though not for the reasons I mention above).

1. I could see the elimination of HDMI ports and use the Alt Mode to provide video in various formats. From a tech standpoint this is the easiest one to do.

2. The camera COULD act as a USB Power Delivery host (much like a Macbook Pro) but the camera may have power delivery limitations internally that would prevent it from doing that. Battery grips (as suggested) could fill in this bit by allowing accessories that are PD compatible to draw from the battery.

3. The extra SD card / SSD attachment is a natural idea but there may be limitations based on the processor of the camera. (cont)

One very important and very desirable feature to wish for is a significant increase in buffer size.
I have lost too many shots, and waited in total frustration for my Sony A6000 to dump its buffer contents to the SD card. Yes, I use very fast SD cards.
When you, Sony, make a camera that shoots at 11 frames/second, make a buffer that matches that speed, not a buffer that fills up after a couple of bursts, and, PLEEEEEEASE, do not use cheap and slow memory. It'll show up in camera "responsiveness" in the reviews. Chris and Jordan will get you.
Memory is not that expensive nowadays anyway.

One thing I would really like is a wired hand held control like many of the cameras have with cell phone, that does NOT use wifi. The problem with the current cell phone support is you have to turn off your phone's wifi in order to connect to the camera's. Now with some cameras you can do this with the HDMI out jack, but that tends to require more expensive monitors.

I find at times, I want a wired shutter release, and that would be a natural for this dongle. For example if I'm shooting fireworks, I mount the camera on a tripod, manually focus to infinity, and then sit down and have the wired shutter release button in my hand. That way I don't even have to look at the camera or a cell phone screen to shoot, and I can enjoy the fireworks more simply.

Though one big issue is you are eventually going to want to combine dongles. At the very least you will want to power a camera and use a dongle at the same time. You need it to work with a USB switch.

Well, there is a little issue having to do with the host vs. peripheral "ends" of the older USB standards and what happens to the C negotiation protocol to resolve that, but let's assume that's handled carefully....

Sony has been using Linux inside their cameras for many years, and Linux fully supports USB3, so Sony cameras with USB-C hardware could easily allow everything. Canon runs a little RTOS with a DOS environment layered on it, so they don't have any fancy USB support integrated; the same is true of their wifi, which didn't stop them from layering support of wifi, but explains a lot of quirks in Canon's wifi implementation.

The big problem here is getting camera companies, and people in general, to realize that digital cameras ARE computers and should be treated as such in allowing application programs, etc. Of course, I'm biased: I've been teaching a grad/undergrad "cameras as computing systems" course for years.... :-)

Great video and excellent suggestions. The ability for a camera to act as a USB host and directly address attached USB storage devices is called OTG, short for "USB On The Go". Details can be read here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_On-The-Go. This is supported by most Android phones, and even on the iPhone in a more limited role.

While I'd love to see OTG implemented in cameras I'm not sure there's enough demand to justify the R&D. Also, the absence of a second card slot is not always a technology issue - many times it's a marketing segmentation decision. Providing an OTG solution workaround to that segmentation may not be in the cards.

Another issue with existing camera USB implementations is transfer speed. While many are rated for USB 3.x signaling and operation, their effective performance is really USB 2.x. For example the recently released Nikon Z cameras max out at around 21 MB/s (https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/61871907), likely from slow embedded CPUs.

How about a sensor curtain for mirrorless, to keep dust off the sensor when changing lenses. I know Canon have done it, but this should be standard on all mirrorless cameras.