this post was submitted on 29 Nov 2023
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Photography
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There are just two insightful comments on the PetaPixel article:
Allen Mac:
Mick:
100%, I guess they’ve got some large corporate client who has asked for this feature, so they’ve done a deal with the patent owners and offered it as the patent licensing fees they wanted, plus development costs. I doubt Sony is making a profit on this feature, they’re doing it to sell more cameras.
That would make a lot of sense. I hope it is the case and not just milking it. On a body that expensive adding upcharged soft/firmware without a good cause is repulsive. Sony took a huge share of the market by dropping FF mirrorless, but with their competitors showing up ready to fight I don't think they can afford to pull this stuff off unless they get into a cabal together...
A patent makes no sense here, an overlay on a screen is something computers have done for decades. I certainly can't imagine how anyone could have a patent for something done by the bespoke hardware of each camera manufacturer.
You'd be amazed at the ridiculousness of patents. Apple has a patent for detecting phone numbers in text.
This makes the most sense to me. Assuming this is true,it would be idiotic of Sony to pay even $1 to those trolls on every camera they sell for such a niche feature. Better to pass the cost on to the people that desperately need it and pay for it out of corporate coffers anyway.
Seems like that particular patent has expired due to the non-payment of fees in 2014:
Meh, every time there's a company that makes a greedy or stupid move there's someone to comment "it's probably because of patents", but it's almost never the case.
Sometimes companies are just greedy.