Nikon's new bodies should include AI like Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra

donaldejose

Watch for reviews of the soon to be released Samsun Galaxy S23 Ultra. It has a 200mp sensor, pixel binning, Adobe Lightroom photo editing, AI, ability to capture high dynamic range and low light conditions, etc. Imagine what could be done if the this software were to be included in a Nikon Z body. And why not? If 200mp sensors can be useful in cell phone size because of AI how much better would it be to put AI software into a 62 or 100 mp Z8? "Computational photography" (which is what I think this type of technology will be called) must be the future of camera technology and it seems to me if Nikon can get there before Canon or Sony they will have a competitive advantage. Right now there is no reason for Canon or Sony users to switch to Nikon. If Nikon offered the type of technology in the Samsung S23 there would be a good reason to switch. Why are camera manufactures so far behind cell phone companies?

mhedges

I think the main reason is volume. They sell many more cell phones than Nikon sells cameras so they are able to spread the cost out over many more units.

Also cell phone users typically aren't really interested in image fidelity, meaning having an unaltered RAW file available. Whereas ILC users often are - just look at the grousing about the built in lens adjustments in lightroom etc. that can't be disabled.

donaldejose

Yes, but Nikon can buy software from Samsung and adapt it. The software doesn't have to edit from RAW, just edit from jpeg which is what such shooters will be shooting (they can shoot RAW + jpeg and just edit the jpeg in camera and the RAW images on their computer when they get home). Also, add software to e-mail or post the in-camera edited image through your linked cellphone. Basically, give Z body users the option of using their camera like a Samsung S23 with that much larger sensor. A shooter can scroll through their images, pick a few they like, simple edit the jpeg file of that image and shoot it off to post on instagram, etc. None of this would take away for all the things which can be done with Z bodies as we do them now. It would only add a feature bridging the Z body to the cell phone. I know I am a voice crying out in the wilderness because we are all too snobbish about full frame cameras and don't think highly enough about cell phones. But I suggest "computational photography" and quick link to the internet is a feature which would sell well for the first camera company to build it in. It could even be added later with software updates. Someday some company will try it and we will find out.

pluka471

I belive that it's a matter of R&D cost, expertise, and available processing power. Samsung and Apple have tremendous chip development R&D and much of the computational photography is done on custom chipsets. Nikon, and likely no one but Sony, has anything close to that skillset. Nikon is estimated to be using a 12nm process for the Z9 Expeed chip and Apple's current iphone is using a 5nm process - that's a huge computational advantage for Apple. The other issue is use case related - I can't see anyone doing Samsung or Apple type computational photography at multiple frames per second. That said, agreed, it would be great to have some of that capability in a pro level body.

NSXTypeR

Samsung's phones have vastly better processing power than Nikon cameras. I would welcome computational photography on Nikon cameras, the night shot mode can be incredible.

https://flic.kr/p/PPY6Jn

This was taken in 2018 on a Pixel 3.

mhedges

My Z6 does pretty well at night but I agree support for computational photography would be nice.

Ton14

Snapbridge and Luminar Neo and you are on your way. You even have layers, masks and AI.