I’ve been very stressed lately and have been doing some window shopping to calm down. I’m interested in gadgets, but a lot of things can just be replaced with apps. I realize a phone won’t replace very large appliances like refrigerators or washing machines so I’m trying to scope my question to portable devices. So what are some portable devices or gadgets that their specialization hasn’t been replaced by smart phone apps? Extra points if they’re super useful and reliable.
Yowsa. That’s an old camera!
I have a point-and-shoot Canon from around the mid-2010s that’s still perfectly functional. It starts faster than I can get to the phone app on my phone, and takes pictures faster. The video is worse.
My Fuji T-10 takes a couple of seconds to start from cold, but less than a second if it’s in stand-by.
The only digital camera I ever owned that took double-digit seconds to start was my very first - I don’t even recall the brand, but it was before smart phones and the resolution was pathetic, like 800x600 or something. And it was so. Slow. Starting, and snapping.
Maybe I’m overly dramatic and it actually takes less than 10 seconds, but it feels like an eternity…
I wonder why you “can’t” have a camera that is ready instantly.
You can; they’re called film cameras.
Like I mentioned, my Fuji is pretty darned fast if it’s in sleep, and most of that I think is just powering up the back screen. I might try some timing with the screen off, and see if just using the SLR has it wake faster, but it’s so fast I don’t know if I’ll be able to get useful estimates.
It’s when it’s fully powered down, with the physical switch, that it takes a second to turn on.
But now I’m curious; I’ll do some time-to-shot guestimates, from full off and sleep. DP Review used to include time-to-shot, but I think as cameras have gotten better the times are so negligible now they stopped measuring it - even for little point-and-shoots.