The future of SLR cameras in dive photography?

[Nemrod]

Most of the phone stuff is magic, not real. A tiny sensor has it's limits thus the magic AI. Fake images. But I used to think that of digital compared to film. Regardless, at least when I push the shutter button, the RAW data is what I (thought) I wanted, not what AI thought I wanted. The much larger pixels of a camera digital sensor are not replaceable without AI fakery. Phones just are not the same, sure you can produce bokeh, but it is fake, it is all fake but with an actual camera it is optical physics.

Someday, probably not far away, I can send my robot servant to the Red Sea or Cozumel. It will take the pictures with it's eyeball cameras in stereo and drink the margaritas and smell the salty sea and then return and plug into a data jack built in to my head and download the experience and it will be as if I went to the Red Sea but actually never went, fake, fake, fake (Seinfeld). More likely it will just upload to the web and I can download to my brain while sleeping (Running Man).

 

[arew+4]

Do you want to sell tens of thousands at relatively low prices and margins, thousands at mid price and margin, or hundreds at high price and high margins?

If I were going to do it I would focus on smart phones, and fully integrated compact systems. Cases that would end up in large tablet form factor, attached strobes on telescoping stalks, embedded lipo battery power for phone, large screen, and strobes. Target a no screen version around 1k, a large screen more powerful strobe version at 2k

 

[Barmaglot]

The problem with strobes is that you need either a mechanical shutter or a global electronic shutter to sync with them. The former is just too bulky to fit into a modern phone - there were some phones with Xenon flashes and mechanical shutters a very long time ago, but the camera humps on those were very impressive - and the latter, at least at present tech levels, seems to rob a sensor of about half its light gathering capability, which is a reasonable tradeoff for a full-frame camera like A9III, but would really bite at phone camera scales.

 

[arew+4]

The problem with strobes is that you need either a mechanical shutter or a global electronic shutter to sync with them. The former is just too bulky to fit into a modern phone - there were some phones with Xenon flashes and mechanical shutters a very long time ago, but the camera humps on those were very impressive - and the latter, at least at present tech levels, seems to rob a sensor of about half its light gathering capability, which is a reasonable tradeoff for a full-frame camera like A9III, but would really bite at phone camera scales.

Many phones do preflash which can be intercepted and transfered to strobes.

 

[Barmaglot]

Many phones do preflash which can be intercepted and transfered to strobes.

That's not the point. Electronic sensors are read out line by line, and without a mechanical shutter in front, they're exposed all the time. The Xenon strobe pulses are extremely brief, usually in the low single digits of milliseconds, so with most sensors, you have to drain the sensor's capacitors while it's covered by the shutter, turn it on (i.e. start collecting light), then open the shutter, flash the strobe and close the shutter, then, while the sensor is in darkness, you can read it out at your leisure. If you don't do this, then while you're reading your sensor out line by line and the strobe flashes, it will illuminate only part of the frame - the part that was being read out while it flashed. It is possible to sync Xenon flashes with an electronic shutter, but this requires either a very fast sensor that can read out its entire area in the duration of the pulse, for instance like on Nikon Z8 and Z9, or a global shutter sensor, which replaces half the photosites by capacitors, which buffer the read-out process on the entire sensor simultaneously and then allow the camera to read it out, like on Sony A9 III. Neither of those technologies appears to have made its way into phone cameras yet - as I understand it, iPhone cameras are among the fastest-reading in the industry, and yet not quite fast enough.

 

[arew+4]

That's not the point. Electronic sensors are read out line by line, and without a mechanical shutter in front, they're exposed all the time. The Xenon strobe pulses are extremely brief, usually in the low single digits of milliseconds, so with most sensors, you have to drain the sensor's capacitors while it's covered by the shutter, turn it on (i.e. start collecting light), then open the shutter, flash the strobe and close the shutter, then, while the sensor is in darkness, you can read it out at your leisure. If you don't do this, then while you're reading your sensor out line by line and the strobe flashes, it will illuminate only part of the frame - the part that was being read out while it flashed. It is possible to sync Xenon flashes with an electronic shutter, but this requires either a very fast sensor that can read out its entire area in the duration of the pulse, for instance like on Nikon Z8 and Z9, or a global shutter sensor, which replaces half the photosites by capacitors, which buffer the read-out process on the entire sensor simultaneously and then allow the camera to read it out, like on Sony A9 III. Neither of those technologies appears to have made its way into phone cameras yet - as I understand it, iPhone cameras are among the fastest-reading in the industry, and yet not quite fast enough.

I'm not sure you are correct about the manner in which the sensors are read.

 

[Barmaglot]

I'm not sure you are correct about the manner in which the sensors are read.

I glossed over a lot of technical details, but that's the general overview of the process. The same effect creates rolling shutter when shooting video.

 

[scubadada]

I invested in a Canon G7X and Nauticam housing 10 years ago. As a casual photographer, mostly interested in photos for family and friends and for reviews, this has been a great choice. I only shoot ambient light. The one button white balance shortcut is fantastic. I mostly shoot in aperture mode. The vacuum system has at least twice saved me from flooding. I have used the system very hard, the housing is nearly indestructible. I have had it serviced just once, a couple years ago. This is the right system for me, not sure what I would do if the camera failed. I have many photos in trip reviews, see Bonaire, Red Sea, Cocos, Galapagos, Revillagigedos, Malpelo, Caymans, Belize, Roatan, Bahamas...