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

10 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.

thursday 26 march 2015 à 19:27 David Balažic said : #10

I have 3 photocameras currently. None of them uses micro or any other standard USB socket. They all have proprietary connectors.

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