Based on this thread and my own corroborating experiences, this feels like a field ripe for harvest—if anyone sold a camera with DSLR-grade optics and smartphone-grade usability and computational abilities, they'd be rich! For those in the know, what makes this more difficult than it seems? Why has nobody done this yet and what challenges are standing in the way?
People needing and wanting DSLR grade optics, or mirroless as optics are more less the same thing, don't want or need shiny clicky smartphone apps. They need and want a professional tool that produces the least edited picture possible for post-processing later on. I wouldn't touch a camera that runs on Android with feet pole.
Yeah well, you're right, but some new features would be welcome, like, for instance, the ability to immediately send images out of the camera. Yet even with recent DSLRs and mirrorless top-end cameras it's still a hassle.
I recently made a photobooth from an old Canon DSLR and a rPi running gphoto: a script takes the images out of the camera and posts them on a server, and people can see them in almost real time.
It's really great, but it would be even better if it was all done in camera.
This. I'm going to do any editing on my PC, not the picture-taker. Far bigger screen, far better control.
The brains I want on the camera are for things that actually involve taking the shot. Give me intelligent capture of images for stacking. That entails two things:
1) HDR exposure. Point the camera at something, select HDR. It takes the exposure and examines the frame for any pixels near the extremes of the sensor. If there are any pixels near the top it reshoots exactly the same shot but with a shorter exposure time. Repeat until there are no really bright pixels. On the other end, if there are any really dim pixels reshoot with a slower exposure, repeat as needed.
2) Focus stacking. Manual focus, pick a point. Pick another point. The camera shoots a sequence of exposures moving the focus between the two points.
