Since AI has become commonplace in smartphone cameras and even the dedicated camera called Caira, photographers have been clutching our cameras that spit out un-generated images a little tighter. But here’s the thing: most mirrorless cameras already have AI inside.
I was reading an opinion earlier this week that predicted that AI would come to mainstream cameras, but that such a move would come with dramatic pushback by photographers. I agree to an extent…except that AI is actually already inside most mirrorless cameras.
See, there’s an important distinction in the AI era: AI and Generative AI are not on the same ethical playing field. AI simply means software that “learns” from a set of training data. Generative AI takes that ability to learn and “creates” something from that data: a photo, a video, a song, an essay.
Cameras already have AI built into them – and they have for years. The biggest culprit? Eye detection autofocus and subject detection autofocus are AI technologies. Canon’s in-camera upscaling and noise reduction is also AI; it’s just not generative AI.
But, using AI software to focus on the eye of a bird in flight isn’t the same thing as using AI to generate an image. A generated image doesn’t depict reality, whether or not it was generated on a computer or partially inside a camera.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that compact cameras are returning as smartphone cameras become increasingly reliant on computational photography and generative AI. I want to freeze memories, not generate them. And if my memories aren’t perfect, why should my photographs be? Give me a compact camera over a smartphone’s overly perfected images any day.
I have no qualms with an AI that can help me lock the focus in quickly on a camera that still freezes real memories. Such a system is built on real images, yes, but the tech doesn’t compete with or attempt to replace photographers – just makes the job a little easier.
But a camera that not only makes things up but does so as AI companies make billions of dollars on stolen images without paying the original creator? That I have a problem with, and I know I’m not alone.
The question that remains is this: will major brands eventually integrate generative AI into cameras? It's certainly possible. Canon and Panasonic recently invested in a generative AI startup that generates lifestyle product photos. A start-up has created Caira, a mirrorless camera that attaches to a smartphone and has Nano Banana built in.
But integrating generative AI into a camera from a major brand would alienate the very people who buy cameras: photographers.
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