Canon development question...

[Leadfingers]

Im an amateur, but...based on my understanding there are 3 main elements in the body of any given camera...

Sensor - To gather light data
Processor - To move data around the circuits and storage media
Operating System - To manage traffic flow


Here's my question. In this day and age, why is Canon bothering with the Processor and Operating System part of this equation? Why have they not simply ported the OS to Android, and taken advantage of all the advances in low power processor technology? There's some amazingly powerful processors from the likes of nVidia and other companies.

Is the Canon hardware so awesomely optimized that no one else can compete? I'd be very skeptical of that claim.

Anyway... thoughts?

 

[tpatana]

I can guess couple reasons. For one it's heavily optimized for the DIGIC they make. Getting another OS would not necessarily make it faster and especially stable.

So it could be great, but it could fail too. I'm sure Canon has prototypes running Android.

 

[privatebydesign]

Im an amateur, but...based on my understanding there are 3 main elements in the body of any given camera...

Sensor - To gather light data
Processor - To move data around the circuits and storage media
Operating System - To manage traffic flow


Here's my question. In this day and age, why is Canon bothering with the Processor and Operating System part of this equation? Why have they not simply ported the OS to Android, and taken advantage of all the advances in low power processor technology? There's some amazingly powerful processors from the likes of nVidia and other companies.

Is the Canon hardware so awesomely optimized that no one else can compete? I'd be very skeptical of that claim.

Anyway... thoughts?

Why? They have developed the OS for a specific task from the word go in tandem with the custom in house processors. They have an R&D team specifically working on that one set of functions that no generalist team could touch.

 

[IglooEater]

Rumors say canon's working on it.
http://www.canonrumors.com/canon-eos-6d-mark-ii-talk-cr1/
Apocryphal at best.

I personally wouldn't want it, seeing how crashy it is. Imagine having your camera freeze for no particular reason, and it taking 5 minutes to restart.

Also, you'd have the choice between the camera taking a few minutes to power on, or the camera running out of battery in a few days even when turned off. No thanks.

I'm sure it's not quite so white and black as that, but goes to say that there would be a *lot* of potential issues that would need to be resolved before even considering it as an option. QNX might be little further along there than Android. Were I canon, that's where I'd be looking.

By the way, you missed one of the key elements in a camera: battery. That is the MOST important specification. Without it everything else breaks down. A camera with a dead battery has zero specifications and zero image quality. That would be the Achille's heel of an Android system I fear. It would take a much more powerful processor, running all the time.

If however, Canon could get such a system up and running with no impact on stability, security, or battery life, I'd go nuts over it, whatever the platform!
Cheers!

 

[Valvebounce]

Hi Leadfingers.
I'll just give one scenario.
Device message, 'operating system has downloaded an update, instal now or later?'
Photographer, 'hell no I'm in the middle of a wedding, get off my screen!' whilst trying to hit the later button.
Device message, 'device will now install and restart, do not switch off device! Whilst displaying the hamster wheel thingy.
Photographer, 'aaarrrghh no they are just doing the (pick one from the list)
1 placing the ring on her finger,
2 the kiss,
3 the toast,
4 best man speech has them laughing
5 other unmissable shot.

I'll stick with the dedicated OS written to make sure that photos are the most important thing rather than some third party cludge that is "optimised" for performance which includes security updates where the later button always seems to make the device wait about 2 seconds and decide to do the update anyway.
Or worse where it is written for so many devices it bricks the camera because it didn't expect you to be using back button focus whilst having AI Servo selected!

Cheers, Graham.
Edit.
I forgot to mention you already told it to only download the updates when it is connected to wifi, so it has ignored that and used up your data allowance too.

Rumors say canon's working on it.
http://www.canonrumors.com/canon-eos-6d-mark-ii-talk-cr1/
Apocryphal at best.

I personally wouldn't want it, seeing how crashy it is. Imagine having your camera freeze for no particular reason, and it taking 5 minutes to restart.

Also, you'd have the choice between the camera taking a few minutes to power on, or the camera running out of battery in a few days even when turned off. No thanks.

I'm sure it's not quite so white and black as that, but goes to say that there would be a *lot* of potential issues that would need to be resolved before even considering it as an option. QNX might be little further along there than Android. Were I canon, that's where I'd be looking.

By the way, you missed one of the key elements in a camera: battery. That is the MOST important specification. Without it everything else breaks down. A camera with a dead battery has zero specifications and zero image quality. That would be the Achille's heel of an Android system I fear. It would take a much more powerful processor, running all the time.

If however, Canon could get such a system up and running with no impact on stability, security, or battery life, I'd go nuts over it, whatever the platform!
Cheers!

 

[cold_penguin]

The DIGICS are custom ASICs that likely run Canon's home grown RTOS. This is quite common among larger companies. There is probably no need to look at an alternative OS, the one they've developed does what it needs to do and will be optimized to run a camera. I would be extremely amazed if they have given any thought to switching to a commercial OS, including any number of RTOS's.

 

[unfocused]

On the other hand, working with a software developer like Adobe, they might someday offer mobile photo and video editing apps that could give greater flexibility to their wireless functions. Not third party, but rather letting some third parties write custom apps for the Canon operating system.

 

[retroreflection]

The "three things" description of a camera is wrong. There is an image sensor, exposure sensor, autofocus sensor, all those buttons, etc.
The data from the sensor(s) is not just moved around. It goes through amplification, digital conversion, conversion to jpeg (if you want to save that, or preview the image), and is used to drive systems.
Hey, let's just let some strangers handle most of what this machine needs to do. That's a great idea.
I'm not against letting others have some access, even if I've never used it I think Magic Lantern is a good thing. But, the camera company needs to control the core functionality and deliver a fully functioning device on day one.