Gotta photograph that plate before the beans get cold
January 17, 2022 10:33 AM Subscribe
If I were to replace my smartphone with a cellular smartwatch and camera, what camera and software/service would be the best replacement for the phone? By that I mean: it quickly takes photos, fits neatly in my pocket, syncs photos to a computer or cloud service automatically via wifi, and automatically does some processing for quality in the photo software. The goal would be to capture the same everyday things that phone cameras are good at and not have a new job processing and editing photos. Googling has failed me; apologies if the answer is obvious.
Unfortunately camera makers are astonishingly bad at making this type of feature. The cameras that do have wifi built in generally require you to run a dedicated (and often bad) app and select items to import, etc... generally to the local disk, where you can edit and upload to cloud service yourself.
As far as I know, no camera does what you ask, or if they do something like it, they do it via smartphone. There were a few smart SD cards that did something like it too but it wasn't nearly as seamless as what you describe.
To be clear I don't think your request is unreasonable or weird - it would be super useful. But the fact is 95% of what you're describing is accomplished by a smartphone for most people. Camera makers avoid conflict with smartphones wherever possible because they always lose.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 11:45 AM on January 17, 2022 [4 favorites]
As far as I know, no camera does what you ask, or if they do something like it, they do it via smartphone. There were a few smart SD cards that did something like it too but it wasn't nearly as seamless as what you describe.
To be clear I don't think your request is unreasonable or weird - it would be super useful. But the fact is 95% of what you're describing is accomplished by a smartphone for most people. Camera makers avoid conflict with smartphones wherever possible because they always lose.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 11:45 AM on January 17, 2022 [4 favorites]
I'd get an ipod touch. All the functionality of an iphone without the phone. Ebay can be a good place to source these.
posted by hydra77 at 11:54 AM on January 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by hydra77 at 11:54 AM on January 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
The iPod Touch is the right call, but the current incarnation of it is on its last legs. Apple is either going to refresh that product or kill it soon. You might consider a rugged point and shoot instead, which has wifi auto-upload these days and takes better pictures.
posted by mhoye at 12:01 PM on January 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by mhoye at 12:01 PM on January 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
I believe that Nikon linked above requires either an iPhone or Android phone with an app to transfer photos.
posted by COD at 2:17 PM on January 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by COD at 2:17 PM on January 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
Step 1, the watch:
As far as I can tell in Canada/US there's no option to have a cellular smart watch without also having a cell phone plan (I'm like 75% sure of that). Both the Apple Watch and the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 require a phone with existing service to get setup in the first place and use eSIMs (so there's no option to just stick a regular old phone plan SIM in there without telling your provider what you're up to, which used to be an option).
Assuming for the sake of argument you're ok with owning a phone and just don't want to carry it, I would suggest he iPhone/Apple Watch combination, as that seems to have the best support for the watch still working when the phone isn't nearby.
Step 2: the camera
By far the best pocket sized cameras that offer built in image quality adjustments are the Google Pixel and Apple iPhone Pro smartphones, they do the image enhancement at the time the photo is taken.
What BlackLeotardFront said is on point, this product category doesn't really exist. The makers of good cameras assume you want manual control and what limited software they have is usually bad because if people wanted smart cameras they would likely have bought a smartphone already. Also the camera definition of pocket sized is about 10x thicker than most phones. Real cameras get much better image quality than top tier phones eventually, but not before they get a LOT bigger.
Have you considered a phone without a SIM card? Google Pixel (Google Photos) and Apple iPhone Pros (iCloud Photos or Google Photos) will both provide auto photo uploading on WiFi and just because it's a phone doesn't mean you have to use it as one.
Ok so after pointing out why it's impossible, to try to answer your question as best I can....
The only thing that really comes close is the GoPro Hero series, which has auto uploading to the GoPro's cloud ($60/year) via WiFi without a phone under certain circumstances (while charging, on WiFi you have previously connected it to at least once while using the Android/iPhone phone app). I'd note the GoPro is an action camera with a specific use-case in mind (video) and while it is a pretty decent camera in general it's not meant for general purpose photography, nor does it offer any sort of quality processing after the fact. It's pretty bad in low light and has no AI night-mode as compared to the Pixel or iPhone. The batteries also last a very short time (like ~1.5 hours) and while they are replaceable, unless you carry a half dozen you're going to need to keep the camera off when not in use, and by the time it boots up you're going to miss any time-sensitive photos you might want to take.
posted by tiamat at 2:26 PM on January 17, 2022 [3 favorites]
As far as I can tell in Canada/US there's no option to have a cellular smart watch without also having a cell phone plan (I'm like 75% sure of that). Both the Apple Watch and the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 require a phone with existing service to get setup in the first place and use eSIMs (so there's no option to just stick a regular old phone plan SIM in there without telling your provider what you're up to, which used to be an option).
Assuming for the sake of argument you're ok with owning a phone and just don't want to carry it, I would suggest he iPhone/Apple Watch combination, as that seems to have the best support for the watch still working when the phone isn't nearby.
Step 2: the camera
By far the best pocket sized cameras that offer built in image quality adjustments are the Google Pixel and Apple iPhone Pro smartphones, they do the image enhancement at the time the photo is taken.
What BlackLeotardFront said is on point, this product category doesn't really exist. The makers of good cameras assume you want manual control and what limited software they have is usually bad because if people wanted smart cameras they would likely have bought a smartphone already. Also the camera definition of pocket sized is about 10x thicker than most phones. Real cameras get much better image quality than top tier phones eventually, but not before they get a LOT bigger.
Have you considered a phone without a SIM card? Google Pixel (Google Photos) and Apple iPhone Pros (iCloud Photos or Google Photos) will both provide auto photo uploading on WiFi and just because it's a phone doesn't mean you have to use it as one.
Ok so after pointing out why it's impossible, to try to answer your question as best I can....
The only thing that really comes close is the GoPro Hero series, which has auto uploading to the GoPro's cloud ($60/year) via WiFi without a phone under certain circumstances (while charging, on WiFi you have previously connected it to at least once while using the Android/iPhone phone app). I'd note the GoPro is an action camera with a specific use-case in mind (video) and while it is a pretty decent camera in general it's not meant for general purpose photography, nor does it offer any sort of quality processing after the fact. It's pretty bad in low light and has no AI night-mode as compared to the Pixel or iPhone. The batteries also last a very short time (like ~1.5 hours) and while they are replaceable, unless you carry a half dozen you're going to need to keep the camera off when not in use, and by the time it boots up you're going to miss any time-sensitive photos you might want to take.
posted by tiamat at 2:26 PM on January 17, 2022 [3 favorites]
Have you considered a phone without a SIM card?.
I came to recommend this. We built a little airplane mode camera/movie machine for my kid, with no SIM card, no apps, no internet, no anything (that they can get to - it's all there but hiding/locked out). It's a camera and photo album and VLC. The one we did was a Tracfone-locked Motorola, which is a nice but probably not nice enough for you camera. But the whole thing cost $60 and has been great.
posted by AgentRocket at 4:41 PM on January 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
I came to recommend this. We built a little airplane mode camera/movie machine for my kid, with no SIM card, no apps, no internet, no anything (that they can get to - it's all there but hiding/locked out). It's a camera and photo album and VLC. The one we did was a Tracfone-locked Motorola, which is a nice but probably not nice enough for you camera. But the whole thing cost $60 and has been great.
posted by AgentRocket at 4:41 PM on January 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thanks, all. I might have to go in that direction (locked-down phone, or locked-down iPod.) As some of you guessed, relying on the Apple Watch is all about getting that distracting black rectangle away from me.
posted by michaelh at 7:30 PM on January 17, 2022
posted by michaelh at 7:30 PM on January 17, 2022
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by jon1270 at 11:27 AM on January 17, 2022 [5 favorites]