Recently, the photography community was abuzz about onOne’s DSLR remote application for the iPhone (in a Lite and Pro edition). But while that is a nifty application for photographers, it is a very good example of why the iPhone 3.0 hardware SDK, which allows you to communicate with accessories, is to photographers the most intriguing part of iPhone 3.0.
To understand why, let’s look at the onOne DSLR remote setup: In order to remotely snap a DSLR picture from your iPhone, connect your Canon DSLR through a USB cable to a netbook running onOne’s free DSLR remote companion software. The netbook then transmits over a Wi-Fi network to your iPhone where you can set all the camera controls (speed, ISO, aperture, aso.) and in case you set the camera to Bulb mode, you can also snap the picture.
Apart from the fact that you need WiFi to execute this (if you are not in a WiFi hotspot, you can create a WiFi Bubble with a Verizon MiFi device), you also need a netbook or a laptop, since the companion piece has to run on something. However, once the iPhone 3.0 upgrade is out, onOne or any DSLR maker could create an accessory that connects to your iPhone directly that takes over the functionality of the netbook. Similarly to the demo that Apple showed during the iPhone OS 3.0 preview where the iPhone worked as a blood pressure reader, there’s no reason why the iPhone could not remotely trigger a DSLR through an accessory. Even better, since the iPhone has GPS, it could capture the GPS coordinates of your location (OK, your iPhone’s location, but it won’t be more than 100 feet away from your DSLR) and send them back to the camera to be embedded into the metadata of the photo as you take it. Very compelling!
Am I dreaming? I hope not. I hope that Canon, Nikon, Sony and the other DSLR manufacturers are already working on iPhone accessories. As onOne proved, third parties are thinking about how to integrate the iPhone with DSLRs and if the camera makers will not step up, they will for sure!
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Great site and good article – keep on going!
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