Touchscreen, "a la iPhone", on Nikon DSLRs

AC016

Senior Member
Canon has just come out with the 650D, with a touchscreen. I have seen a reveiew on it and the touchscreen is very much like the one on an iPhone. What do you think? Would you like to have a touchscreen on your DSLR??
 

Eduard

Super Mod
Staff member
Super Mod
I think the novelty will wear off when your nose pushes against the screen and especially when the battery life to power it stinks.
 

AC016

Senior Member
I think the novelty will wear off when your nose pushes against the screen and especially when the battery life to power it stinks.

Mmm, well, i am sure you can make it go off when not in use, just like on Nikons; therefore, avoiding battery drain. You can also disable the touchscreen, reverting only to button input. Hitting your nose on it?? I don't think i have ever hit my nose on my D5100 LCD - i view with my right eye. I guess left eye viewers would be at a disadvantage. Anyhow, there are plenty of touchscreen-only devices out there - iPhone and hundreds of other products - that have done well. Don't see why this would not be a good selling point. We will see...
 

Eduard

Super Mod
Staff member
Super Mod
As long as you can disable the screen. . . one of the shortcomings of the Nikon 1 is that it always previews the last shot. There is no way to disable it.
 

emoxley

Senior Member
Why would you need a touch screen on a DSLR? For menu choices? Once set, I hardly ever use the menus. Are we getting so lazy, we can't use the menus the regular way any more? At, first, with it being new, people will play with it. They'll change settings, and then change them back. When the battery dies from playing so much, they'll say, "well, I won't be doing that any more!"
 

Obir

Senior Member
I actually like having the dedicated buttons on my d7000 that I can use and find just by "feel".
I already have an issue with nose prints on my screen, I can't imagine having it all smeared by having to touch it all the time:)
But that's just me...
 

AC016

Senior Member
Why would you need a touch screen on a DSLR? For menu choices? Once set, I hardly ever use the menus. Are we getting so lazy, we can't use the menus the regular way any more? At, first, with it being new, people will play with it. They'll change settings, and then change them back. When the battery dies from playing so much, they'll say, "well, I won't be doing that any more!"

I'm not sure it is being lazy, since you are still using your finger to go through the menus, just as you would be pressing buttons to go through them. It is jsut a different way of doing it, but by the same means. I think most people will go back and forth through the menus to get the right settings. Not every camera has a display on the top of the camera like a D90 for example. Therefore, if you really want to see if you have changed the aperture or the iso of the... you have to look on the LCD screen, that is what it is there for. I don't think it would really drain the battery anymore than a normal LCD screen. If anything, it is LV that really drains the battery.
 

jdeg

^ broke something
Staff member
I was about to say, just about every touch screen phone now has a sensor to turn off the screen.

I much rather have GPS and/or wifi built into the camera than a touch screen though.

Better yet, base the camera software around Android and allow certain apps to be run, like ones that upload to online photo albums. Or root the camera and allow it to play angry birds. haha

FYI, Android has support for all kinds of sensors, like bluetooth, compass (determine what direction the camera was facing when taking a pic) gyroscope (camera tilt when taking a pic), temperature, etc.
 

Obir

Senior Member
I was about to say, just about every touch screen phone now has a sensor to turn off the screen.

I much rather have GPS and/or wifi built into the camera than a touch screen though.

Better yet, base the camera software around Android and allow certain apps to be run, like ones that upload to online photo albums. Or root the camera and allow it to play angry birds. haha


LOL...then go the extra step and add cell phone capabilities and the circle will be complete..:cool:
 

AC016

Senior Member
I was about to say, just about every touch screen phone now has a sensor to turn off the screen.

I much rather have GPS and/or wifi built into the camera than a touch screen though.

Better yet, base the camera software around Android and allow certain apps to be run, like ones that upload to online photo albums. Or root the camera and allow it to play angry birds. haha

WiFi would be cool. Have you ever tried the EyeFi memory cards? Are they any good? Only problem i would have with a touchscreen, is all the cleaning i would have to do, lol. Though, i think someone upgrading from an older camera or for someone just getting into DSLRs, it would be a great selling point.
 
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