The only thing over-reliance on built-in Wi-Fi in a camera guarantees is potential obsolescence
Whenever a new camera is launched with a strong reliance on built-in Wi-Fi… I’m afraid to say, I’m out. Built-in Wi-Fi and reliance on an app on a phone means only one of two things is going to happen. Either the app will stop working, or you’ll find yourself limited in some way if you try and use the camera without the app.
At some point the app will stop working – rendering your camera lacking – either lacking in controls or features, or entirely lacking, and then it will become an old fashioned camera again, as though it never had Wi-Fi in the first place. This is almost inevitable because:
- The developer or company goes bankrupt or simply stops updating the app.
- OR the app could be updated, and simply stop working on your phone (if your phone is deemed too old)
And if you think this will never happen, you do remember Casio used to make cameras with Wi-Fi, and they simply stopped making digital cameras – do you think they still bother to update the apps anymore? Ditto Samsung cameras with built-in Wi-Fi… try getting the apps needed for these to work now… I bet you can’t.
It doesn’t take much to see this happening with other brands too, Kickstarter companies and cameras particularly are setup down this path entirely, they raise a whole lot of money to get off the ground, sell hundreds and thousands of cameras, along with developing an app to go with it. Once the camera run is finished, where is the money going to come from to continue developing the app?
Eye-Fi cards (memory cards with built-in Wi-Fi), numerous key finders (Iristag) and even security cameras (Neos, and I’m sure there are others) are now almost entirely useless due to the apps no longer working. What about the OMG Life Autographer, 360Fly, Get Narrative, or even Nikon’s own “KeyMission” cameras?
Own a Pentax or OM/Olympus camera, or another smaller camera brand? Who’s to say what will happen in the future…
Remember Lytro… the system they used would put your images on their website for viewing. That website no longer exists, and unless you made numerous backups of your photos (along with all the depth data), your photos are now completely gone, or potentially unrecognisable by a modern computer.
This is where it’s essential that camera companies offer a product that can still function without Wi-Fi, without an app, so that despite what happens to the company, the app, or the phone you are using, you’ll still be able to use the camera or product you’ve bought. If I wanted to take pictures with something that relies on an app to do it, I’d just use my phone in the first place.
Unfortunately many products rely heavily on Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and an app to control them, and if you do have to buy one of these products, if you try and go for one of the bigger brands, such as Apple’s Airtag, Tapo cameras, and Tile finders, then you should be safer than some of the other brands, but as always, there are no guarantees in life… not anymore.
I suppose one way of avoiding all of these issues is to stick to an analogue shooting experience, by shooting with a film camera, but that is perhaps an article for another day…
Related reading
- Whatever happened to Casio cameras?
- The Worst Digital Cameras Ever Released
- Vintage digital cameras you should actually buy
The views expressed in this column are not necessarily those of Amateur Photographer magazine or Kelsey Media Limited. If you have an opinion you’d like to share on this topic, or any other photography related subject, email: [email protected]
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