Wasn’t the first ever webcam just a regular camera that took shots of the office coffee pot? I’m pretty sure it was a bespoke script
I also remember the dude who made a homebrew app for his DS to control his Canon DSLR for long exposure shots because the alternative was to drag a fat laptop around or buy a $300 Canon PDA.
Is there an open source solution? I actually stopped using my Canon camera as a webcam because the software was so shitty, now they want me to pay to use it 🤣 All they’ve done is stopped me from ever buying another Canon camera again.
Until consumers learn to reject proprietary software this will be the case
Remember that GNU was founded after RMS had to deal with proprietary software on peripherals
Was it more than just a printer?
I found a way to use my old Nikon as a webcam using an HDMI capture card. Hooked it up to the camera’s mini HDMI port and wham! had a working webcam!
But after thirty minutes, it would always switch off the live view, so i was left with a camera feed of the menus. Turns out this is an import restriction so it can be imported as a “still camera” and not a “movie camera” for significantly less taxes.
Enter some wonderful soul who found a way to hack the firmware to allow live view to stay on continuously, so now it works great as a webcam!
I hope you’ve paid the difference in taxes for a video camera.
Why? A material change was made to the item after the point of import. This would be like taxing a timber importer as though they were importing furniture.
Why? The thing is a webcam now.
Panasonic provides the software for free for their cameras. Still only 720p but at least you’re not paying for it.
Sony gave us that webcam feature for free. Please don’t get any bright ideas, Sony.
You start to feel badly for legacy tech manufacturers like Canon.
Then they do things like this, and suddenly I am happy to see them die.
You can’t treat your customers with contempt and not expect them to return the sentiment.
I have such fond memories of shooting on my old Canon DSLR.
It’s been 20 years since I bought my last DSLR (life, you know?) and I recently started thinking that maybe I should buy another before they close out the DSLR product line.A huge disappointment to see this enshitification.
There’s a reason mirrorless is here to stay, the autofocus is basically cheat mode compared to a DSLR. I do miss some aspects of the optical viewfinder though.
Yeah, I know. And I know there’s way more market demand for mirrorless, as well as simpler mechanicals, so they have less failure points, but do I ever love the sound and that subtle feeling of a mirror slapping up and the shutter flicking out of place.
The feedback that offers when you capture a photo feels like you’re doing something ‘real’ when you take a photo. Everyone knows that you captured that moment. Those photons are yours forever, trapped in your little art-making box.It’s kind of romantic, in a way. I feel like modern tech is great, but tends to be inscrutable.
Absolutely, while being able to silently capture a 30FPS burst is kinda magic, it just feels wrong. I still shoot with mechanical shutter (at least second curtain), basically for the feels (and the extra bit depth).
Canon camera sales are actually going up.
Well this policy seems like a good way for them to nip that in the bud. Customer contempt is toxic to brand loyalty.
I’d be surprised if most people knew or cared, sadly.
Especially if most big companies are moving in that direction, people get used to the suck and think of it as our new normal.
It’s not even a $5 one-off fee, it’s a $5/month subscription!
I need to buy a camera for recording some easy shots indoor (explainer videos, tutorials, vlogs etc…). I already have an old basic canon for photos. Does anyone have any tips?
Are you asking what camera to buy or how to use your old camera?
Fuji xh1/xh2 is the best bang for buck mirrorless video camera right now I think
A new camera yes, the old canon is not fit for this, but maybe i could reuse the lens? Idk, my understanding of cameras and lens are not great tbh. I’ll check fuji thx.
the lens is likely incompatible with newer hardware.
I would recommend looking used. you can get a few generations old micro 4/3rds camera for very cheap. let me look through options tonight when i get home and I’ll probably be able to find you something for under $200 that will shoot modern looking decent quality video.
a mic to go with it would be very important. there’s so many ways to go about that.
-you can get a cheap on cameras shotgun that will sound decent, but pick up a good amount of room noise. this will be the easiest to use option.
-you could get a lavaliere of some kind, but that takes a second to set up and will require additional tools unless you want to tether yourself to the actual camera. there’s also options that plug in to a phone, but that would require a phone with a headphone jack…
-you could get a usb stick mic to record voiceover after the fact. this would give the highest fidelity Audio bang for the buck, but is the most cumbersome to use.
additionally, a light will go very far for making things look nicer. most homes are not set to to have good video lighting at all. you can totally get away with a cheap lamp that you bounce off the wall or something. as long as you don’t have a lightbulb directly shining on you creating hard shadows.
I wouldn’t put any more money into Canon and just sell that stuff. I sold all my Canon gear a few years ago and no regrets
Geez, during the pandemic Sony released its functionaltiy for free! It was really nice.
I used that to turn an HX into a church service streaming cam. The zoom and quality were fantastic! It was far better than that knock off webcam they had before. Literally saved thousands of dollars thanks to Sony releasing that software!
I missed that one, thanks for the link 🙂
That has to be an easy hack or workaround though, right?
This reminds me of when I tried to buy an insta360 camera, only to learn after the fact that it requires an app to function. And that the app isn’t even compatible with all phones and tablets.
Maybe it’s buried on the store page somewhere that installing the app is a requirement, but I was pretty annoyed to learn that I had just bought a plastic brick unless I also wanted to upgrade my phone.
Oh wow…wtf. I was about to buy it, thanks. Is there an alternative?
I don’t know, I kind of gave up trying to buy one after the first one didn’t work out. Mapillary recommends the GoPro Max (this was why I was interested), but I couldn’t tell you if it needs an app to work.
Man a one time fee, like fine I’d suck it up I guess but a subscription? Just why
Salesforce, that’s why. It started with them and now it’s the first thing regarded MBAs from Ivy league “top” universities consulting on behalf of McKinsey, PwC, EY, KPMG and Deloitte recommend to any Ctype position as soon as they are onboarded. If there was a virus that deleted consulting and marketing firms from the face of the earth, I’m positive we could end war and world hunger in a decade.
Your disposable income, such as it is, belongs to them. That’s why.
Draining working class with bug bites. Every sub is another swarm of insects in need of blood. You’re not supposed to notice.
Shareholders will surely love it when we treat high end professionals like shit
Ah… Proprietary hardware and software. Ugh.
