How about an app store for EOS cameras?

[dilbert]

Now that cameras are dedicated imaging computers, why not have an app store where you can download certified apps for your camera that are written by 3rd parties?

That would make it possible for people to write their own zebra stripes app or develop their own apps to deliver better bracketing support ... - make it possible for the camera to support more features without Canon having to do all of the research, development and testing.

[wickidwombat]

you mean to say add in firmware functions?

such as buy decent bracketing for the 5Dmk2
the ability to set the rate button on the mk 3 to be a bracketing selector or any other customisation

as long as the prices were reasonable ie similar to iphone apps $2 - $10

I would be all over that system

[JR]

+1.  I like this idea.  a lot could be done there.  The only challenge is this might mean Canon would also need to give the source code of their fireware to third parties for this to work.  No sure if this is aligned with the company culture...I guess under NDAs it would be possible...

[Mt Spokane Photography]

I assume you talking about apps that run in your camera?
 
Canon does give out a SDK to develop external applications on PC's.  However, they do not make the internal workings of a camera public even though some clever people have figured out some of the commands and what th returned code means.
 
I could certainly come up with some neat ideas to include in the camera, like automatic AFMA for near and far distances as well as different focal lengths for zooms.  It could use the contrast detect and selected focus point to feed back corrections to focus and then save them.
 
I'll bet there are tons of good ideas.  The Apps could perhaps be stored in a separate partition on your memory cards. Focus stacking is another I'd like.

[JR]

I would so love an application that when used in Live View, Highlights the portion of the image that is in focus, making it easy to manually focus on the small back screen when shooting video.

[Christian_Stella]

I was thinking of this earlier but thought I'd be laughed off the site. I don't even think we need third party apps, but Canon could implement "modular features" that allowed you to pick and choose what you wanted.  Let's face it, these are expensive machines and I would gladly pay through the nose to see Canon innovate and update the firmware. How much would I pay for the addition of focus peaking in video mode?  Well, I'd pay $100. If you don't need that, you wouldn't have to buy it. Remapping the RATE button?  Maybe that will cost $20. This isn't like the iPhone, the market is far too small in comparison, so the prices would have to reflect that.  Most people would cry foul and say that Canon purposefully held back features to charge later, but I would kill to finally see feature-packed firmware updates like the 24p and manual video mode for the 5d2 become normal and constant.

[JR]

I was thinking of this earlier but thought I'd be laughed off the site. I don't even think we need third party apps, but Canon could implement "modular features" that allowed you to pick and choose what you wanted.  Let's face it, these are expensive machines and I would gladly pay through the nose to see Canon innovate and update the firmware. How much would I pay for the addition of focus peaking in video mode?  Well, I'd pay $100. If you don't need that, you wouldn't have to buy it. Remapping the RATE button?  Maybe that will cost $20. This isn't like the iPhone, the market is far too small in comparison, so the prices would have to reflect that.  Most people would cry foul and say that Canon purposefully held back features to charge later, but I would kill to finally see feature-packed firmware updates like the 24p and manual video mode for the 5d2 become normal and constant.

I would gladly pay $100 or even a bit more for that feature and I am sure it is possible...  Good suggestion to have Canon run this...

[wickidwombat]

THe beauty of the app store not being in house is it allows the inovation of many more people that the host company dont have access too ordinarily. So if canon were in overall control but allowed people to submit their mods for review and implementation it would spawn a much more rapid inovation curve than we currently see out of designs. Unfortunately I cant see it being cheap

I would like to buy additional 1D features to add into my 5Dmk2 and 5Dmk3 though

[sarangiman]

"I could certainly come up with some neat ideas to include in the camera, like automatic AFMA for near and far distances"

EXACTLY. I've been wondering for a while now why this isn't a bigger gripe from everyone shooting fast primes. Nothing from Canon about it... instead we get MA for different ends of the zoom... which is also important, but there aren't any f/1.2 or f/1.4 zooms... and accurate MA is especially important for those fast primes.

Instead we're told to just adjust MA for subject distances 25-50x the focal length.

Well, my 85/1.2L requires a +11 MA on my 5DIII body for 25x focal length subject distance. This worked great for a shoot this weekend, but it's completely off (highly repeatable) for subjects at infinity, where +0 MA works great.

Now, I don't know exactly what MA is doing in the internal workings or mathematically, but I'd imagine the camera could set 2 endpoints (near/far) & interpolate in between. That's, of course, assuming a simple linear relationship between distance & MA... which I don't know is the case.

This has also made me wonder: is it possible to find a fast (f/1.8 or lower) lens that focuses perfectly at MFD (minimum focus distance) AND infinity at a MA of 0?

In other words, when buying a lens, is it better to keep trying copies of the lenses until you find one that works with your body at MA +0, b/c then it'll focus perfectly both at MFD & infinity? Or is there always this discrepancy between focus at MFD & infinity in these AF systems that don't use a constant feedback loop + phase detection system to get optimum focus (but rather use phase detection data to calculate an offset to move the focus element).

At the heart of these questions is the question: how does the MA offset work? The subject distance scale on the lens is not linear... it's more logarithmic (you have to rotate the lens more to change focus distance at closer subject distances). So is the MA offset just a certain distance offset for the focus element that the camera adds after determining how much to move the focus element from the phase detection data? If so, such a focus-element-distance-offset would have to be corrected for depending on subject distance... since you have to move the focus element less & less to change focus at further & further subject distances...

[Chewy734]

angry birds?

[Janco]

angry birds?

Hahaha, only this time it's us shooting birds...

[Wild]

I just want to be able to use Instagram. I think a good filter will make my photos look way better.

[LetTheRightLensIn]

Now that cameras are dedicated imaging computers, why not have an app store where you can download certified apps for your camera that are written by 3rd parties?

That would make it possible for people to write their own zebra stripes app or develop their own apps to deliver better bracketing support ... - make it possible for the camera to support more features without Canon having to do all of the research, development and testing.

canon is too old school for that, but I hear rumors that Samsung is planning to do more or less just that, maybe they can shake things up enough below the DSLR level to wake up the big DSLR players into the new school way of acting

[dr croubie]

As it is at the moment, my camera is kind of limited in the pictures it takes. I can only get one view at a time, I can't get really wide angles and I can't get close up photos of things far away without walking there. Sometimes I can't get photos of things when it's really dark because I can't get enough light into the camera.

How about a system whereby I can somehow change the thing that focusses all the light onto the sensor, so I can choose whether to have a really wide angle shot or a really zoomed in shot. How about we combine those two into the same thing, to save on money, so by just turning a dial or something I can go from really wide to really zoomed in in seconds. How about another type of thing, where I'm limited to the same view all the time, but I can let a lot more light into the camera for taking photos at night.
Wow, I'm a genius.

But then how about a store that sells those sorts of things? Then I can choose what to put on my camera depending on whether I want to take photos of big things, or small things far away, or things at night.
One of those stores would be great.

[dilbert]

Yes, apps that would run on the camera.

A more detailed example would be an app that let you take 9 photos, from -3 to +3 in 1/3 steps given a particular exposure setting.

Another example is being able create better automatic modes where ranges can be set for each of aperture, shutter speed and ISO, including being able to set shutter speed as a minimum using the focal length as an input.

Other examples would be other features that Magic Lantern have developed. Make what they do properly supported rather than force them to rely on hacks.