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Updates

You know, every morning when I wake, there are seven $0.99 apps on my phone telling me that they have updates. iOS gets large updates once a year, with many bugfixes and incremental updates. I’m told that Android gets regular updates, although not everyone gets to install them. OS X and Windows on my $3k laptop, $5k desktop, and $1.5k desktop update monthly if not weekly. No charge.

Yet the $Nk DSLR I bought from Nikon, along with god-help-me $$$ on lenses, got one firmware update in the six years I’ve been using it. And it didn’t fix anything commonly used, like auto-setting a minimum shutter speed based on ISO and zoom lens position, or making the settings banks useful.

Do they really think that I’m going to upgrade to another $Nk camera through the method of annoyance (“the new camera has the old bugs fixed so I’ll spend the same amount again even though this one works fine!”) rather than pleasure (“wow, they’re really good about giving me new useful features, so I think I’ll tie my whole $$$$ lens ecosystem into this manufacturer!”).

Or will I just use my smartphone for everything and wish it would give me RAW files?

Sorry, that’s a rhetorical question. The invisible hand of the market is fixing that one. Too bad, because there really are times when you need a better camera, but I wonder if there will be such a thing in a decade?