Olympus registered a new camera feature which automatically takes a picture when your son/daughter splashes the water. Apparently Olympus considers this as a very important “moment” no parent wants to miss 🙂
Absurd or Genius idea to patent?
via Egami.
63 Responses
It’s not as silly as it might sound. There are broader uses that this could be applied too.
Now if Oly can patent a “disable” feature on the shutter release button anytime someone makes a duckface that would be awesome! 😛
Absurd. Oly camera sensors are too small to capture the full dynamic range of a baby splash
Maybe. But a turd hitting the water should be no problem.
Just like this feature.
It would be better if they repackaged an epm2 with a specialized tripod to remake this: http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Konica_Kanpai.
It’s so absurd, it’s genius.
Oh, yes, the child’s first splash… I missed my older one’s first splash, but I remember the younger one’s first splash so clearly in my mind… I wish I had a camera that could have captured the moment…
nor genius neither absurd, it’s a skill with many intriguing possibilities…
Given how internet photographers are obsessed with taking pictures of splashing water drops, this features seems like quite a natural idea imo.
“Absurd or Genius idea to patent?”
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Absurd or Genius idea to post this news?
How about retarded.
They need to send their engineers to ergonomics and usability school, not mess this this sort of drivel.
We should expect this from a land where they have electronic toilets!
If you’d ever used one of those things you’d bow deeply…
Main difference over DSLR is that CSC can analyse real live situation with sensor. For focus on smile, focus on eyes, get movement, grenn landscape, …and now splash.
DSLR can’t because mirror is in front of foto sensor.
Ever heard of mirror lock-up? There’s absolutely nothing that prevents a DSLR from doing the things you mention.
Well, it’s pretty pointless to buy a DSLR and use it in mirror-lockup in everyday situations (like this one).
Almost no DSLR has usable live-view AF to begin with.
Indeed in livemode a DSLR has very slow AF and no capacity for real time picture analysis. Their prozessing capacity is to slow.
Have you ever seen an Olympus face detection feature following the person in real time?
At every mirrorless announcement it’s becoming more and more silly to have a mirrorbox inside a camera. Even more if you use it locked up.
Not for photographers, not yet. Gadget collectors and fauxtographers are welcome to the big m43 marketing farce.
Nice joke… LOL. Are you a photographer?? Or just a mirror nerdie..?? BTW I also use a mirror, but to comb my hair…
lol, egg-celent!
Except the thing is so bulky, it’s left at home.
May be there is a waterproof m43 on the way?
This would be genius!!
Yes, I’ll take two, please!
Hey! Leave some on the shelves for the rest of us! 😉 Real, weather sealing, including submersible, would be awesome.
I’m thinking about the model every year I shoot while she walks in the waters near Venice, during Venice Film Festival. This could come handy.
an improved version of the Anita Ekberg scene in La dolce vita please Marco 🙂
Give me the Ursula Andress on the beach from Dr. No Edition. 😉
if we gonna be picky then i would choose Asia Argento to pose for the remakes , should be easy for Marco. but yes I can dig the Ursula one too
Wow, an automatic record for posterity when I fall to my death from the deck of a cruise ship!
If only it could be programmed to CAUSE the deaths of cruise ship passengers. THAT would be pure genius and doing the world a great service as well. 😉
Didn’t think that funny. (Am not a cruise ship passenger either.)
+1
There should be a burping-taking feature.
Soon, there will be Photo-bomb prevention features that blurs out the intruders~
lamest thing to spend development bucks on since smile detection. Sure, push it to the mass compacts if you think it’ll sell, but don’t waste a singe line of firmware code on it in the MFT cameras.
Smile detection is useful for two things for me.
1. It allowed me to hold the camera further away for selfie shots with my wife and I because I don’t have to keep my finger on the shutter release.
2. It was great fun to sit down next to someone, set the camera down on a table and point it at them then let go and say “As long as you don’t smile, this camera won’t take your picture.” 🙂
“It allowed me to hold the camera further away for selfie shots”
Thank you. I can now identify you as an imbecile.
And you sound like someone who has never been hiking and either didn’t have people around or looked at the shot they just took and it sucked (which is almost always). With a front facing screen, I can frame a shot far better than almost anyone I’ve come across. If you actually care about photo quality and creativity, you’ll take your own shots, and guess what, many times, you won’t have a tripod.
So sure, just because someone uses the word “selfie,” judge them.
Even before the word selfie existed – “oh this is me in front of x”, “here’s me in front of y”, “that’s me in front of z” has always struck me as egocentric and narcissistic. Whether you use a tripod, a wall or a selfie pole – same thing IMHO.
Must suck to be you, not having family. Sorry, I didn’t realize.
My family aren’t idiots – they don’t do selfies either
Cmon. Really? I mean really? You are calling his family idiots indirectly as well as making a preposterous statement. Here is a family selfie in the ocean in Dubai. For my family it is one of the more “fun” pictures fom the trip… I also use it frequently when my son and I are out and about as i am sure pictures of him and his father will mean more to him than just looking at himself… I also have friends that use the technique very well while travelling etc.
So here is the selfie… oh and the splash tech would be great in getting around the shutterlag on point and shoots.
That may be but I see both kids are doing their best to avoid being in a dorky picture (especially the little guy in the middle who is doing an excellent job with his hat!).
🙂
Exactly, and for my wife and I the picture is perfect and better than none at all 🙂
Sorry forgot the pic
I think it’s a hard match here, if you want to be the imbecile of the year.
Flagged for abuse
David, egocentric and narcissistic may not be in your
vocabulary, but they are real words
That was really unnecessary…nasty day at work?
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Selfies are a way to get the whole family into a picture when you’re usually the one on the other side of the camera. No apologies necessary for wanting to capture memories of yourself WITH the family or even just of yourself. Van Gogh made “selfies.” And Miss Aniela is building a career on them: http://www.missaniela.com/self-portrait
the timer’s fine for that, smile detection is so flawed. What if one of you smiles before the other?
The message I see is: Olympus always trying to innovate.
It looks like Olympus is determined to GTFO market for professionals.
they should continuously improve AF … I have epl3/em10 and can say that happen to me often that i mis focuss with pana 25mm …my next camera will be panasonic as overall I like 25mm f/1.4 lot
This is a patent, not an in-camera development.
If anyone thinks that this is anything other than a step towards a more significant goal, where they are patenting the technoloy without giving the game away, then you really need your head examining.
Isn’t this simply an audio trigger for the shutter? That could be useful! Maybe a “splash” triggered shutter is not as useful as:
* TripD
* Pen lineup reimagining
* Ultrawide primes
* REAL weather sealing for everything
But an audio trigger option is better than none. I think. But maybe not. 🙂
I agree with you Doug,
Perhaps the trigger is done by sensing a sudden change in image, or motion, with a small delay. This delay may be a byproduct of the processing.
If the delay were programmable, from lightning fast, to .2 sec, the options for creative control are interesting to consider.
Capturing water droplets or bullets exploding through Apples springs to mind 🙂 but I’m sure there are other applications. This feels like something in the line of the feature called “Live Composite Mode,” which allows you to see previews of long-exposure shots as they’re being captured. Specialized, for sure. But innovative. And presumably, something that could be rolled out retroactively via firmware, should Olympus decide to support existing customers with new features and not just fixes 😉
As a consumer feature it is brilliant and useful.
Ordinary consumers do not use burst mode or the fancy settings pros or passionate enthusiast would. Parents and non-pros like to take vacation pictures in or near water. Splashes frozen in space make the dramatic images these parents eat up. They are not going to spend a grand on an ultra-wide lens, preprogrammed focus pull in video or other pro features.
+1. It is a great idea!
Great innovation, this will teach those horrid FF trolls a lesson.