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0 pointsthih91y ago0 comments

I also recall Zeiss ZX1. There was a Nikon Coolpix S800c. Another comment mentioned RED cameras. With what you listed, that’s already a handful of products that flopped - I’m not surprised manufacturers aren’t eager to continue this way.

Interestingly, Android was originally meant to be a camera OS, until they pivoted because mobile phones were a larger market[1].

[1]: https://www.androidauthority.com/android-history-digital-cam...

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3 comments · 1 top-level

cyberax1y ago· 2 in thread

> Zeiss ZX1

For a cool $10k? Not going to be popular in any case, as are the RED cameras. These are all pro-level cameras.

> Nikon Coolpix S800c

A useless toy, that happened to have a just barely better image quality than built-in phone cameras at that time.

If you try to find mirrorless cameras with Android, with a reasonable price ($1k-$3k), then there's only NX. Nobody else even tried that seriously.

NX was great, I had it for a while (it was stolen). It suffered from Gen1 diseases, that could have been fixed. But _nothing_ comes close in usability ever since. I have Sony Alpha, and it's UI/UX is just shit. I don't use it at all anymore, I don't want to spend time categorizing and manually geotagging its photos.

thih9OP1y ago

But that’s my point. There were pro level and entry level devices, as well as something in between like the NX. Camera manufacturers tried, people just didn’t like it and chose smartphones.

cyberax1y ago

> as well as something in between like the NX

There was ONLY the NX. There were _no_ other mid-level Android cameras. And Galaxy NX was produced by Samsung, which is not known for their cameras.

So there was a grand total of ONE model of mid-level Android cameras. And it was fairly successful, but never got any improvements.

> people just didn’t like it and chose smartphones.

Most people haven't heard about Android cameras and never had a chance to try them.

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