Patent: The Next Prosumer DSLR to Get Illuminated Buttons?

[symmar22]

What no one seems to commend on is that this seems to imply there is not going to be a titly flippy screen on the 6D mark 3.. this has me disappointed a little

My guess is the 6D3 will keep the tilty screen but won't have the illuminated buttons, they'll make the feature available on higher end models only (7D, 5D, 1D). That means that these cameras won't have a tilty screen either, unless Canon found a way to combine tilty screen and button illumination.

 

[KeithBreazeal]

Those of us that do a lot of night photography know where the buttons are.
Knowing your camera is part of the fun.

 

[zim]

With a properly designed touch screen I'd expect (want), top plate excluded all those buttons to disappear to make room for a bigger screen. No need for backlight.

 

[applecider]

Those of us that do a lot of night photography know where the buttons are.
Knowing your camera is part of the fun.

This.

 

[Memirsbrunnr]

What no one seems to commend on is that this seems to imply there is not going to be a titly flippy screen on the 6D mark 3.. this has me disappointed a little

My guess is the 6D3 will keep the tilty screen but won't have the illuminated buttons, they'll make the feature available on higher end models only (7D, 5D, 1D). That means that these cameras won't have a tilty screen either, unless Canon found a way to combine tilty screen and button illumination.

Dammit typo I meant of course 7D mark 3, rather have the flippy then illuminated buttons

 

[vjlex]

It would be even nicer if they offered this as a hardware upgrade. This is long overdue, and not enough of a selling point in and of itself to upgrade from a 5D IV to a V. But I would be willing to pay a reasonable price for the upgrade.

 

[slclick]

I have never had an issue with this after 28 years with Canon dslrs. Now, any other mfg? Yeah, no one has the ergonomics and sensible layout that Canon has. Don't get me started on menus either.

 

[djack41]

Nice but a tilting LCD touch screen would be far more useful. Get with the program, Canon. The 7D3 had better match or exceed the features and performance of the awesome Nikon D500.

 

[Ozarker]

I wonder how you can patent illuminated buttons? There must be some fancy stuff going on in there - a miniature genetically engineered glow worm, perhaps?

German manufacturer Leica has a patent on illuminated controls of superresolution microscopes, prohibiting the competition to e.g. use illuminated keyboards (standard market components) or wheel controls... anything is possible in the F_____ up world of patent rights.

I highly doubt other manufacturers can't incorporate illuminated keyboards or controls on their products. They just have to be designed differently enough to not infringe on Leica's design.

Look at all the different mice, keyboards, motherboards, memory chips, batteries, cpu's, or a million other products that are similar, but with different patents held by many different companies and sold on the open market.

I don't see how that is messed up. A person or company that designs a product ought to have their intellectual property protected. This does not stifle the market. Instead, it breeds variety and competition and creativity. Allowing somebody to pirate a design destroys those things. Does Leica manufacturer the controls? Does Leica have an exclusive license to all manufactured illuminated keyboards? I doubt it. Just look at all the hundreds of choices of tires for your car. Each choice is patented. Every design is a little different. Patents are held by dozens of different manufacturers for thousands of different designs.

It isn't that Leica owns all patents to all illuminated keyboards. It sounds more like the competition is lazy or unable to innovate.

Closer to home, just look at all your lens choices. That is made possible in large part due to patent protections.

 

[Ozarker]

Get with the program, Canon. The 7D3 had better match or exceed the features and performance of the awesome Nikon D500.

Or what? Gonna jump ship? : : :

Something some folks are missing is that the patent is for the way Canon designs the hardware and implementation of the buttons. As such, the patent doesn't need to show which body they are on or even where they are on the body.

 

[eosuser1234]

I want the focusing scale to light up.

 

[rrcphoto]

Get with the program, Canon. The 7D3 had better match or exceed the features and performance of the awesome Nikon D500.

Or what? Gonna jump ship? : : :

Something some folks are missing is that the patent is for the way Canon designs the hardware and implementation of the buttons. As such, the patent doesn't need to show which body they are on or even where they are on the body.

doesn't need to. agreed. however this patent definitely shows a 7D or 5D camera body because of the button layout and the AF joystick.

 

[SkynetTX]

Those of us that do a lot of night photography know where the buttons are.
Knowing your camera is part of the fun.

Have to agree. There's no need to illuminate the buttons if you know your camera and know where they are. If Canon adds this feature to any cameras it should be turned off by default and turned on only in the settings menu. By the way, are you sure that the illumination won't disturb you in composing the pictures?

 

[Don Haines]

Lit up buttons at night? I’d use that.....

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

Those of us that do a lot of night photography know where the buttons are.
Knowing your camera is part of the fun.

While I agree, I also have little feeling ability in my fingers, zero is a better description, so I sometimes hit the wrong button or just lose the right one, and find myself wishing they were lighted.

 

[James Larsen]

I'm really hoping they start to implement this. Would LOVE to see it!

 

[Hector1970]

I'm sure it will drain batteries a little but i'd welcome illuminated buttons.
If its a 7D3 hopefully they'll focus on image quality first.

 

[whothafunk]

I'm sure it will drain batteries a little but i'd welcome illuminated buttons.
If its a 7D3 hopefully they'll focus on image quality first.

with the 7D3, they need to focus on AF and ISO. D500 (albeit newer) smokes it out of the water, too many people had issues with 7D2's AF inconsistency, including myself and I'm really glad I got rid of that body. Not looking at crop sensors anymore, but would love to see 7D3 really become the king of crop sensors.

 

[Ozarker]

Those of us that do a lot of night photography know where the buttons are.
Knowing your camera is part of the fun.

Have to agree. There's no need to illuminate the buttons if you know your camera and know where they are. If Canon adds this feature to any cameras it should be turned off by default and turned on only in the settings menu. By the way, are you sure that the illumination won't disturb you in composing the pictures?

There's no need for rubber tires either. Just ride the rims. Gets the job done.

 

[Mikehit]

There's no need for rubber tires either. Just ride the rims. Gets the job done.

Rims are designed to have tyres on them so no, it won't get the job done.