I have been using my IQ160 on a tech cam (Arca Swiss Factum) for a few months now, and I am loving it !
There are a few (small) things I would like to see improved in the back's usability, so I thought we could try to gather here the small (and big!) improvements we would like to see for IQ backs. Some improvements could probably be done in a firmware update (or are so well hidden that I haven't found a way to do it), some could be reserved for the next generation of backs.
I'll start:
1 - When I try to delete a picture while it's still being written on a card, I get an error message. It's like the back is saying: "Don't bother me, I'm taking my sweet time to write the data, come back later". What I want to hear is: "yes, Sir, I will not contaminate this CF card full of magnificent pictures with these unworthy pixels". So remove the stupid error message, and just erase the file after it's been written (or stop writing it altogether).
This happens mostly when I am fine tuning the framing, and take fast paced pictured and erase them if the framing is not 100% right. Of course, I could gather all those pics on the card, and erase them later. But I don't wanna
2 - Allow me to switch between two (consecutive) images in a fast way, without the "swiping" effect. On my Canon, I can do it simply by turning the scroll-wheel. This allows to quickly see the changes between two images. I do a lot of panoramas, and it's very helpful to see where the seam will be. With the swiping effect, the eye follows the picture as it is replaced with the next one, and seeing the seam (or small changes between two images) is much more difficult.
I do think the swiping looks sexy and is convenient when reviewing a large number of pictures, so I am not asking this mode disappears.
This "blinking" could be affected to one of the buttons (one would be forward, the other one backward), which brings me to the next point:
3 - Ways to customize the buttons. I'd like:
- A button to delete a picture, without using the "trash and star bar". I find the bar takes a lot of space and I can't see what happens at the bottom of the picture. So I constantly add the trash bar, then remove it, then add it again. If I could long press a button and get the "Are you sure you want to delete the picture" dialog, it would help a lot.
- The "flick back and forth without swiping animation" buttons
I am sure there are others who would want other functions in the buttons.
4 - Not a software feature, but pleaaaase : add a little metal ring to the back, so I can attach a safety lanyard to it. I had a real moment of terror, when for some unknown reason, the back detached itself from the camera (I suspect the little half-moon shaped locking mechanism between the back-adapter plate and the camera had somehow rotated too much while the camera was in the bag. Lesson learned: before picking up the camera from the bag, check the half moon is snugly in position)! Only my super quick reflexes allowed me to catch the IQ in flight, before it hit the rocks
Otherwise, I am loving the whole tech cam experience and the IQ160, there are just a few (small) annoying things...
What do you think ?
There are a few (small) things I would like to see improved in the back's usability, so I thought we could try to gather here the small (and big!) improvements we would like to see for IQ backs. Some improvements could probably be done in a firmware update (or are so well hidden that I haven't found a way to do it), some could be reserved for the next generation of backs.
I'll start:
1 - When I try to delete a picture while it's still being written on a card, I get an error message. It's like the back is saying: "Don't bother me, I'm taking my sweet time to write the data, come back later". What I want to hear is: "yes, Sir, I will not contaminate this CF card full of magnificent pictures with these unworthy pixels". So remove the stupid error message, and just erase the file after it's been written (or stop writing it altogether).
This happens mostly when I am fine tuning the framing, and take fast paced pictured and erase them if the framing is not 100% right. Of course, I could gather all those pics on the card, and erase them later. But I don't wanna
2 - Allow me to switch between two (consecutive) images in a fast way, without the "swiping" effect. On my Canon, I can do it simply by turning the scroll-wheel. This allows to quickly see the changes between two images. I do a lot of panoramas, and it's very helpful to see where the seam will be. With the swiping effect, the eye follows the picture as it is replaced with the next one, and seeing the seam (or small changes between two images) is much more difficult.
I do think the swiping looks sexy and is convenient when reviewing a large number of pictures, so I am not asking this mode disappears.
This "blinking" could be affected to one of the buttons (one would be forward, the other one backward), which brings me to the next point:
3 - Ways to customize the buttons. I'd like:
- A button to delete a picture, without using the "trash and star bar". I find the bar takes a lot of space and I can't see what happens at the bottom of the picture. So I constantly add the trash bar, then remove it, then add it again. If I could long press a button and get the "Are you sure you want to delete the picture" dialog, it would help a lot.
- The "flick back and forth without swiping animation" buttons
I am sure there are others who would want other functions in the buttons.
4 - Not a software feature, but pleaaaase : add a little metal ring to the back, so I can attach a safety lanyard to it. I had a real moment of terror, when for some unknown reason, the back detached itself from the camera (I suspect the little half-moon shaped locking mechanism between the back-adapter plate and the camera had somehow rotated too much while the camera was in the bag. Lesson learned: before picking up the camera from the bag, check the half moon is snugly in position)! Only my super quick reflexes allowed me to catch the IQ in flight, before it hit the rocks
Otherwise, I am loving the whole tech cam experience and the IQ160, there are just a few (small) annoying things...
What do you think ?