Open standards in digital photography

Question

I'm interested which digital camera models and brands are most open standard friendly. I'm more an open source fan than a photographer, so I can be picky about openness and tolerant with performance and image quality. I suppose there won't be analogy of OLPC computer in digital camera world, but there shall be some models that meet more open standards than others.

Here is a list of standards I know about (I'm not 100% sure about this, feel free to correct me):

• ¼" tripod mount is free to implement
• 4/3 lens mount is more open than others, like Canon or Nikon mounts. It's not fully open, but at least interested third party lens manufacturers don't have to reverse-engineer camera electronics.
• SDHC is more or less open
• AA batteries are a standard factor compared to proprietary Li-ion batteries
• Adobe DNG open raw format is supported by some cameras from Pentax and other manufacturers

So, any other recommendations?

Asked by user713303

Answer

There are literally thousands of "standards" used in digital photography, but few address what you seem to be asking: open standard hardware, os/file systems, etc. ASA/ISO film speed is a standard, as are APS-C and 35mm sensor sizes.

Sadly, all of the consumer oriented brands (Nikon, Canon, Sony, Olympus, etc.) are totally locked into a philosophy of locking you into their "system" with their hardware, software in the camera, software to decode the RAW files, etc.

And, IMHO, much of their proprietary software is second rate.

I have no hope for the DSLR business, perhaps cell phone cameras can take over P+S

Answered by Pat Farrell

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