17 04 | 2012

Camera with a standard USB cable?

Written by Tanguy

Classified in : Homepage, Debian, Miscellaneous, Lazyweb

Digital camera icon

Since some years, there has been a movement towards standardization: mobile devices are now using Micro-USB for data transfer and charging, and SD or Micro-SD for storage extension (except Apple of course).

One piece is lacking to this perfection, however; as far as I know, digital camera producers did realize that SD won for storage, but they do not seem to have acknowledged the Micro-USB standard yet.

Now, since manufacturers and resellers do not indicate the connector type, I have no way to be sure that this is still the case. So, dear lazyweb, do you know if, by chance, there exists a compact digital camera that would use SD cards and a Micro-USB connector for data transfer and integrated charging?

Tags : camera, standard, cable, USB, Micro-USB

9 comments

tuesday 17 april 2012 à 20:07 Andrew Shadura said : #1

Why Micro-USB? I prefer Mini-USB, for example, because of purely æsthetic issues :)

tuesday 17 april 2012 à 22:13 rjc said : #2

Same here, most of my devices, i.e. smartphone, camera, SheevaPlug, etc. have Mini-USB connectors. My fiancé had to buy a replacement Micro-USB cable for her phone as the phone end connector (Micro-USB) broke. Micro-USB is simply too flaky IMHO.

wednesday 18 april 2012 à 00:24 Blars said : #3

My kodak easyshare m23 camera is the first thing I have that is microusb. Everything else I have uses miniusb or usb a or b.

wednesday 18 april 2012 à 10:22 Joh said : #4

My Samsung ES80 (simplistic low-cost model) uses SD cards and a micro-usb plug. It also works perfectly well with shotwell.

wednesday 18 april 2012 à 10:49 Tanguy said : #5

@Andrew Shadura, @rjc : Well, technically I prefer Mini-USB too, but the fact is that Micro-USB won as the standard for current mobile devices, and in practice I prefer to have the same connector for all my devices. Mini-USB is still far better than a proprietary connector anyway!

wednesday 18 april 2012 à 16:59 Eduard Bloch said : #6

When I saw Micro-USB in the wild for the first time, I was kind of sceptical. That impression changed after a couple of almost new Mini-USB connectors started getting loose very soon while none of my Micro-USB suffered from any contact problems ever.

friday 20 april 2012 à 17:18 Jay said : #7

The Motorola mini<->micro adapters are available in both directions. They have a nice lanyard to attach to your existing cables of choice. I don't know what you would be carrying, but in a bag with other cables and chargers etc already present I like 'em OK.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004BBJNHK/

Sacrificing, say, picture quality for the sake of a connector seems like a poor tradeoff; if I want crappy pictures, I'll use my cellphone. If I'm carrying a camera it's because I think photos will be SRS BZNS and one adapter is epsilon.

friday 20 april 2012 à 18:10 Tanguy said : #8

@Jay : Yes, with such an adapter, Mini-USB would be fine (although I would prefer a tiny adapter with no cable part). I just want to avoid bringing several cables, and I would by no mean buy another camera with a non-standard port.

Now, since there are really many models available for buying, having a standard port (preferably Micro-USB, Mini-USB acceptable) is just one criteria that can help me reduce choosing among a more human number of models. Just like requiring non-locked digital books, on another topic.

monday 02 july 2012 à 11:51 tablet pc said : #9

Certainly something a bit more rugged is a good idea in case of a drop. Large buttons and simple operation is key, the youngest of users don't need multiple shooting modes, extensive editing, and manual controls for focusing, lighting and so forth.

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