Standardizing Photography, Again

Scott Bourne has a small rant up about Olympus and the non-standard connecting cables they ship with their latest cameras. I have to say, I agree completely with him. While everyone thinks they have a better way of doing things, sometimes the standard way is a standard because it works for the largest number of people out there.

Compromises suck. But what is even worse is when almost everyone does something one way and you choose to do it another way. And then your way stops working – and no on else can help you out. There’s a reason 35 mm film was the choice for so many people for so long – widely accepted and standardized, everyone used it and the market flourished. Going into a good camera store 20 years ago yielded dozens of film choices.

So, really, do we need manufacturer specific cables? It makes sense, to some extent, in lens mounts and maybe highly-marketable areas like TTL flash control. But in connecting cables?

(Of course, this still has quenched my lust for an E-P2 … I’ll just be sure not to lose the cable.)