DPReview TV: Top five annoying camera quirks

File menu numbering on Olympus and likely OM Systems is just dumb and needs a rework. Please just increment the file numbers from 1-1000000. I don’t want to see any dashes or underscore characters, just something like DSC0000001.jpg on shot 1 and DSC0012345.jpg on the 12,345th photo.

I can pair a Bluetooth headphone easier than a Bluetooth or WIFI able camera to my smartphone and tablet Why is this and companion apps so hard to do for these camera makers?

I appreciate the chapters as it allowed me to see the topics. Based on that I did not watch the video.

I wish a script was available for those of use who don't like videos.

When I put the camera in 'M'anual mode, turn off auto ISO. At the very least, don't make me go through menus to disable / enable auto ISO.

Fujifilm's unforced errors. Placing the Q button right where your thumb rests on the X-H1. Too shallow grip depths on the X-T series (all of them). D-Pads, no D-Pads, which is it? Non-locking dials that constantly shift. Love the size, lenses, and the images I get, which makes this even more frustrating. I wonder if Fujifilm engineers ever put their cameras physically in the hands of real users before they lock down their ergonomics. Some of these issues are so obvious and the fixes, really simple.

I fully agree with Chris on the none locking rotary controls pain. I used to own a Fuji XT2 with the 16-55 F2.8, to use the programme mode you set the aperture ring on the lens to A as well as the shutter speed to A. The A position on the lens was none locking and I lost count of the number of times it moved to the next position f22. You could hear the flop of the resulting slow shutter speed and you knew the shot was lost. I told a Fuji rep at the Photography show and he said it wasn't an issue! Another problematic camera I had was a Canon 1D MK2 the exposure compensation ring was either unlocked which moved so easily when you held the camera to your face or locked whick meant having to hold away to unlock. You do wonder if any of these companies employed actual photographers ! Nikon is awesome by comparison, you can unlock the exposure compendation and adjust whilst looking through the viewfinder.

I never understood why no camera company put an extra cardslot in the optional grip/battery pack. That way you would sell more grips and nobody is dissapointed about the one card slot.

Small plastic bodies that don't properly fit in normal hands. Give us our magnesium alloy bodies. The 7D Mk II was absolutely perfection in the size/body/heft regard. If I can't fend off hobos trying to steal my stuff, then the camera isn't worth using.

1. Canon's Custom White Balance mode is a PITA to setup because of multiple steps required. Some reviewers have pointed this out for years.
2. Canon's Exposure Bracketing function requires you to hold the shutter button for the entire duration, making it impossible to use with gimbals for panoramas or other use cases.
3. Absence in most ILC's of a serious crop function mode aka digital zoom, very few people understand its value and its difference to crop-in-post. For video or stills.
And no, it is not meant to replace your zoom or macro.

Wait, did Chris Nichols bring up Squaresoft (or "Squeenix" after that merge) in reference to J-RPG's character customization? Wow.

Well, I def. agree about the square in focus colors.

My pet peeve with Nikon: still using two different control layouts across pro level DSLRs and mirrorless cameras (I'm talking about the mode dials, setting banks and so on). Practical example - I'm a current D500 user and I want to eventually move to the Z system, but I want so bad to stick to my photo and custom setting banks. A Z 9 would allow me to do that, but it's simply unjustified for a hobbyist/semi-pro like me. Same would apply for example to a D850 user wanting to shoot a Z 7 II as well. I agree with Chris about the lockable dials - locking should be on/off (possibly with the third option to press and turn without fully unlocking) - I've owned a camera with a non-lockable dial for years and have never had an accidental switch - so I shouldn't be forced to use an always locked dial if I don't need to.

A consistent user experience would be a good start.

How many times have we seen two different menu systems for the same function depending on how we got there?

My favorite one is the Fujifilm front-dial ISO, which opens a vertical menu when reached through a function button and wraps infinitely through the settings, while changing ISO directly from the front dial, it changes in place with a hard stop at base ISO, with auto at the far other high end. I'd like to be able to switch auto to base ISO quickly, not play a mini game every time.

Same for physical controls. Canon wants to introduce touch bars or weird vertical scroll wheels, Fujifilm can't decide whether to get rid of the d-pad function buttons or not.

Interchangeable mounts are nice and all but if I have to relearn every camera model (for example using two cameras at an event but the backup body is mid tier to save money) it gets tiring.

My camera annoyances:
- Low EVF res on so many cameras. 2.36m or whatever "dots" is unacceptable.
- Toggle on/off focus tracking. At least, my a6400 won't do that; you have to change modes. (Leaving it in Continuous can be problematic.)
- Selecting a subject for focus through the EVF with one center point, pushing a custom button to lock is WAY faster than fiddling with some annoying joy stick or trying to find the subject in a hard to see rear screen. But most AF systems are not really set up like this. I just don't understand, what I am missing here.
Thank you for listening.

"-SELFISH LOVER"

Yikes! You "kids these days"... Somebody needs to have an honest talk about either pleasing your partner, or, ...polyamory? Eesh.

biggest issue i have as a pure stills photographer is the "red record video" button on my Canon EOS M6 II placed exactly where my thumb rests when i pick up or hold the camera. lost quite a few shots due to inadvertently starting an unwanted video. AFAIK the darn button cannot be switched off or re-assigned by user. Very irksome. Very unnecessary.

Actually i would ike to have a choice of "pure stills" cameras. I have not recorded a minute of video with any of my cameras ever. Total waste.

Why not ask us what our top 5 annoying things we find on dpreview.com?
Here's one, that you ding a camera's overall rating when there's no in-body charging (that no one uses). Then cameras switch to that, and leave us without a charger in the box and charge up to $70 for one.

How about starting to ding them for not including a charging port ON THE BATTERY, and thus, nudge them toward that. I've seen some AA batteries with that...awesome!

Okay, I am old school since I am able to track moving subjects even with vintage manual focusing gear (okay, not too speedy ones, to be honest), but: what if you shoot horse riding and the automatic subject detection decides for the horse's eye but you want the rider's eye in focus? That would really annoy me personally ;)

The most annoying isn’t even mentioned the connectivity between camera and smartphones and tablet, poor app and a complete idiotic procedure to get those cameras to connect. give me a button I can push and it connect with my device, heck let me open my app on my device and it connect immediately with my camera.. every one else can do this why dos we need to go through such a hassle to connect and let me control everything and I mean everything from my smartphone as a remote control, even power zoom.

Something that has always annoyed me is poor design in the lens unlock button placement. Both Canon and Nikon do this wrong, at least on their SLRs, and I assume that's carried over to their new mirrorless mounts. Lens unlock button should be at the bottom right of the mount as you hold the camera pointing away from you. That way you simply extend a finger from the grip to unlock while the left hand, which was already on the lens, does the lens switch. All the camera systems I use - Pentax, Fujifilm and Lumix L-mount - have this setup, and it's perfect. Looking at Sony's E-mount I think they're the same too.

For Canon and Nikon you need to alter your grip on the camera and lens in order to mount or unmount a lens.

The lack of in-body RAW development is one of the main things that ruled Sony out for me when I got into FF mirrorless. It's a massive benefit and easy to implement because all it needs is an interface for processing that the camera can already do.

I posted about it on the DPR forums and a bunch of ignoramuses (and presumably Sony fanboys/apologisers) came along to pooh-pooh in-camera RAW processing and anyone who uses it.

Security - since photographers are now targets for their cameras, why not put a pin code or fingerprint reader on the camera. The ability for the owner to brick a camera would cut down on the thefts. Phones have been doing this for years. The chips they use today, it would not be a problem.

Agree with most all but why no internal memory in camera? Even a couple hundred MB for when you forget to load a memory card and there's a once in a lifetime shot in front of you. I know a few cameras have this, but why not all.

My top and first annoyance is that I still cannot click on the DPR TV videos to go to YouTube, which works even on the crappiest websites anyone can imagine. Just not on dpreview. What's going on, is that so hard to fix?

Great dialogue. You guys are such eloquent nerds.

I have to say something about the "enable" versus "enabled" discussion. This problem is the curse of all gizmo users. When a button is labelled "High Speed", does it mean that the speed is now high or this is the button to make it so? There is no standard; developers are free to see things in either direction. Or, just get it wrong entirely, such as when the button labelled "Enabled" enables. You just have to suck it up and stay on your toes, and maybe pray when it really matters.

A few for Canon:-

Still only 2s and 10s for the self timer on their ILCs. Please add a custom timer to allow us to set from 1s to 20s. For tripod shooting with extended column, 2s is not always long enough, 10s takes an age. With stable tripod, 1s may be enough. So easy to add this - my 2012 S95 has it - why not the serious cameras?

Too slow to access auto bracketing on R5/6 - why can't you assign a button for this? You have to press INFO several times to bring up the status panel, press Q, navigate to the exposure comp icon and then turn a dial - or go into the menus. It should be easier than this.

RATE button is not customizable for anything except Rate or voice notes. If you don't use these it's a waste of a button - please allow customization.

My gripe: all cameras with touch screens should allow you to use the touch screen as an input device to move the focus point while composing through the viewfinder (or rear screen for that matter). I appreciate there could be issues with the user's nose touching the screen, but perhaps that could be resolved by using a subset of the screen area.

Totally agree about the auto ISO minimum shutter speed. I have rarely used auto ISO because it's just not flexible enough. It has the potential to be very helpful in reducing the amount of thinking you have to do about settings on a shot-to-shot basis, but there isn't really one divisor of focal length which is ideal in all situations. 1/focal length might work well with the camera to your eye, but then if you are holding the camera up high and using the screen to compose, stability is much reduced. Being able to easily push the shutter speed higher but still have it linked to focal length as you zoom would really help.

On three-dial cameras like the R5/6 etc, you could even have one dial set to change this full-time whenever you're using auto ISO, or just have an instant access button, then dial-turn. Having to go into the menu, even if it's in 'My menu', negates the convenience benefits of auto ISO.

Full HDMI for Canons, Focus stacking for Sonys, PDAF for Panasonics and so forth.

1st world problems...please...

Great Video, funny on top of everything else.
Thanks so much, Chris and Jordan !