Why Can't I Buy A Digital Camera The Same Way I Would Buy An Automobile?

Saving Lives. Jacksonville Beach, Florida.  As beaches around the U.S. finally start to reopen,
these men and women return to their lifesaving roles.  (click to enlarge)
Olympus E-M1 Mark II; 12-100mm f/4 PRO lens @ 61mm; 1/400th sec. @ f/11; ISO 200

Very recently, I bought a new vehicle.  I am very thankful I have the means to do so. Many don't.  Normally I keep a vehicle for about 10 years so I choose carefully and pick one that is safe and reliable.  Our old vehicle had served my wife and I very well, flawlessly taking  friends, family as well as the two of us completely across the U.S. and back several times, out and back to the Rocky Mountains from Virginia several times, to Florida and back about a dozen times and twice up and back to Maine with the last trip all the way up to Halifax, Nova Scotia.  Then throw in many, many shorter trips such as to my hometown in Pennsylvania, etc.  Never a single problem.  Not so much as a hiccup.  Over 110,000 miles (177,000 km). But, I was ready to move on.  Times and circumstances have changed and so has the intended uses of our vehicles.

Researching (really over researching) and eventually buying a new vehicle generated the thought, "Why can't I buy a camera the same way I buy a new car?"  When I buy a new car, I first pick out a manufacturer and model that closely suits my planned needs.  I can choose a compact car, a mid-sized sedan, an SUV, sports car, convertible, a pickup truck, etc.  Whatever meets my needs and top priorities.  Then I can add strategic options according to the specific uses I may have for the vehicle.  If I plan on going off road, I can opt for 4WD or AWD.  I can add high tech electronics and/or navigation if I so choose.  I can add leather seating.  I can add a larger, even turbocharged engine, if needed.  I can stay at that base model if I don't need all of those things.  It's largely an à la carte process.  I don't have to buy a car that has a billion bells and whistles or tons of features I don't want or will never use.  I can pretty much get exactly the vehicle that fits my needs.  I can't do that when I am looking to buy a camera?  But why not?  Is there a good reason?  Is there a substantial business case that can be made to maintain the current status quo in this extremely versatile, electronic, firmware driven digital photography environment?  I don't know.

It seems almost all camera manufacturers have chosen to stay with one very traditional business model when it comes to the design, execution and marketing of digital cameras. Of course, the manufacturers research, design and market cameras that they think will sell in the marketplace.  They build cameras that will appeal to the widest audience so sales are maximized and return on investment (ROI) is quickly realized.  To you and me, that means putting lots and lots and lots of features in the cameras to appeal to the greatest number of users.  

As an example, all cameras now have video although a substantial portion of the photographers out there have no interest in in video.  You may not want certain features or video, but you are forced to pay for them anyway.  Why can't I buy a basic camera model that meets my needs (hardware capability), then pay for the features I want (firmware additions)?  I think it is possible (at least partially) in today's electronic and burgeoning AI environment.

Another example in the automobile business is that manufacturers have adopted "global" platforms on which many of their various automobile and SUV models are now based.  That saves them a lot of research, design, engineering and manufacturing costs.  One platform serves many models and many markets.  Can the camera business benefit from using a "global" platform of their own?  Can they base their cameras on a single chassis design, then allow us to pick and choose how we want to build our camera from there?  Sony seems to have adopted the single chassis design, but still makes you buy different cameras for different purposes.  They used to allow you to go online and buy additional firmware features to add to your camera.  I believe they have now stopped that(?).  Why?

In general, instead of giving us choices that make sense to us, the camera companies build a multitude of separate models tailored to different audiences.  You can't buy a single model and build upon it to increase the camera's capabilities as your skills improve or as your photographic needs change.  You are forced to buy a new camera!  No secret in that marketing strategy, is there?  

Complicit with that marketing strategy is to have their brand "influencers" really hype how great the next model is to psychologically get you excited to "want" the new model and to get you to purchase it rather than upgrade your existing model.  That being said, Fujifilm (and now Olympus, Sony and Nikon but to a lesser degree) has been giving free firmware upgrades, adding features and making improvements as a business strategy to let their buyers know they will continue to support them, even after their camera has been superseded by a newer model, which develops a solid loyalty base.  This has worked very well for Fujifilm.  Fuji call this Kaizen.  I would like to see all camera manufacturers adopt this philosophy.

Here are my thoughts about one possibility in buying a basic camera model, then tailoring it to your specific needs. I’ve written about this before.  What I’m presenting here is not completely thought out, however, you will understand the concept.  I believe some of this could work well and some may, technically, may not be possible.  I don't know for sure.  But the idea is attractive to me.

First, all hardware based choices are made at time of purchase.  Those attributes that have to do with things that can’t be later changed through firmware are initially selected.  Attributes such as:

Body size (small, medium or large); You get to choose if you want a small body, such as current mirrorless, a medium sized body such as the current DSLRs or a large body (with extra batteries) such as the Nikon D5, Canon 1DX or Olympus E-M1X.

Mirrored or mirrorless (your choice)

Sensor resolution (for example, 16mp, 24mp, 36mp, 45mp, 61mp)

Image processor (It would be like choosing an Intel i3, i5, or i7 processor for you laptop)

With or without IBIS

Auto Focus or manual only focus.  If you choose autofocus then you could have an additional choice of focus characteristics (faster or more accurate, quickest for subject tracking, face tracking or contrast based for maximum accuracy)

Choice of maximum frames rates (single exposure only, max of 3 fps all the way up to 60 fps)

Video or no video

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (Yes/No)

ISO range (choose from ISO 32-ISO 6400 or ISO 200-12,800 or ISO 3200-ISO 108,000 or all inclusive ISO 100-108,000)

Color or black and white sensor sensitivity

Single or dual card slots

There may be more (or fewer) choices that have to be made at point of purchase but these are examples.

After you take delivery of your camera and install the manufacturer's app on your phone, tablet or computer, you can then go to the manufacturer’s online photography “Features” store and pick out those features à la carte, that you wish to add to your camera to personalize it to your specific needs.  Those features can include but certainly aren’t limited to:

AI based features

Simple matrix style internal light meter or several choices including spot, center-weighted, highlight biased, shadow biased, etc.

Custom modes (C1, C2, C3, C4)

Manual only or P, A, S, M availability

A variety of picture styles

Film Simulations (color, black and white, slide film, negative film, tintype, etc.)

Image aspect selectable (Yes/no)

Internal digital tele-converter

Auto bracketing (AE, Aperture, film simulation, WB, etc)

In-camera HDR

Multiple exposure capability

In-camera perspective correction

High resolution imaging

In-camera focus stacking

Automated focus bracketing

Live time exposures (watch the dark image appear on your LCD)

Live composite

Art Filters or Specialized images characteristics

I'm sure there would be proprietary features that are developed, manufactured and patented by each company that would not be available to other brands.  

Another consideration is that only certain features would be available in combinations.  In other words, you can't choose a camera with a maximum 2 or 3 frames per second then choose high speed tracking focus as another option.  You would have to choose a faster frame rate. 

This list is certainly not all inclusive and would have to be researched and well thought out to provide personalization and flexibility.  Each camera company would develop their own list of features they could add according to their abilities.  I have no technical knowledge about what can and cannot be added by firmware and am just trying to provide conceptual examples.  On thing that would not be feasible and that is infinite choices.  There would have to be a practical limit.  I do believe, if this concept were to ever come to reality, the manufacturers would provide "option packages" of various popular options which could be included at the factory for a discounted price.  The automobile industry provides these same types of option packages.

Now I don't think this would ever happen, but who knows the future (besides Tony).  I would like the see the ability to later send your camera back to the manufacturer and have the existing sensor and image processor swapped out for the latest ones available.  That would be the icing on the digital camera cake, so to speak.

Finally, would it also be possible for the manufacturers to open up their engineering to outside developers?  I'm thinking the Apple Store and Google Play Store as an example.  Opening up the code for outside developers would generate a lot of creative additions that the manufacturers would not be interested in creating because they might be such as small niche market.  You could even make the customer buy the independently developed features through the manufacturer's store and the manufacturer could, at the time, determine if the features will work as promised and not compromise any other camera functions before listing them as available.  They could also take a cut of the price as compensation for their internal engineering checks on those features.  The EBay model.

So, there you have it.  A rough idea, but one that has floated around in the back of my head for some time.  I know it won't happen anytime soon, maybe not in my photographic lifetime, but photographers deserve better than we have had it over the past 50 years.  

The cheese has been moved.  Manufacturers take notice.  Your year-over-year business viability with your current business models is not working any longer.  However, with the versatility of today's electronics, this model could be adopted, at least in part, if the camera manufacturers want to survive and want to move into the future.

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Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

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