Submitted 3 weeks ago by Showroom7561@lemmy.ca to mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world
https://lemmy.ca/pictrs/image/ae546467-2ecb-4c13-a0cd-c8aa59188437.jpeg
Chrome is one of the first things I disable on my Android devices, and I hate the idea of signing up for any accounts just to access local files.
But Canon welcomed me with a big surprise, and a fuck you, too!
“Yes, I’d like to return this camera because it’s an invasive piece of shit”
I have returned printers for requiring an internet connection out of spite.
Yes indeed, I just wrote a rant about this in the Canon community on there.
The two edges of this sword: All of the functionality worked in the previous edition of the app without the “mandatory” account. The upshot of this is, if you grab an APK of the previous (3.2.40.36) version of the app it still works just fine sans account, because the requirement is completely artificial and your camera’s hardware has not changed.
That’s what I did for now, but given that I only ever used the damn thing as an overwrought remote shutter button when doing macrophotography (you’ll never guess the subject), I just bought $6 aftermarket remote release and moved on with life.
All apps are crap.
you’ll never guess the subject
Close, but it could arguably be something compensating for the same!
The two edges of this sword: All of the functionality worked in the previous edition of the app without the “mandatory” account. The upshot of this is, if you grab an APK of the previous (3.2.40.36) version of the app it still works just fine sans account, because the requirement is completely artificial and your camera’s hardware has not changed.
Thank you for confirming! I do this with the GoPro Quik app, and I’d have no problem doing it here.
I have a Sony compact camera with built-in GPS. The newer models require the app for live geotagging. These are the games I refuse to play.
Thanks for the heads up. It’s version code 77 when downloading manually from Aurora Store in case anyone else is wondering. Please blacklist Canon Camer Connect after installing it to avoid further updates.
I use it to transfer images to my computer so I don’t have to pull out the sd card. But the tip with the apk is good, will do that too
Thank you for the version number! I was just lamenting not being able to find it.
Canon is on my personal blacklist for decades. I bought a printer from them, not just a normal A4/legal, but a professional, wide one that uses rolls of paper, etc. I was unhappy with the state of the driver under Linux, so I called and asked for a programming documentation to write my own printer driver. Their opinion on Linux/open source was that “open source is theft of intellectual property”.
I wonder how many open source libraries their driver codebase relies on, it had best be zero with that attitude.
They had no Linux driver back then at all, but there were some rudimentary from the community that printed Ok. They just did not support special printing modes, which i wanted to add.
Their opinion is stupid, but I’m also not sure what you expected when you asked some random sales rep for deep technical info.
I contacted both technical support for commercial systems and later their booth on a big technical trade fair (CeBit Hannover), and got basically the same opinion both times. The first was definitely no “Sales Rep”, and the people at the booth were a manager and an engineer.
But I agree, their opinion is stupid.
Well, in a commercial space, at least if you’re big enough, asking sales reps for deep tech info is the norm. They are supposed to find an engineer and get them to answer.
If you’re a big enough customer, you set the norms.
Yup, sucks. What I do is just take out the card a plug it into a little USB dongle thing which I can plug into either my phone or laptop.
Also faster than the app too. The app uses WiFi or Bluetooth. Its also annoyingly finicky to connect tk the camera.
What I do is just take out the card a plug it into a little USB dongle thing which I can plug into either my phone or laptop.
What’s wild to me is that anyone would do it any other way. I’m astounded that this is somehow a “tip”.
Not even 10 years ago it was simply the way to do it.
Depends on your workflow.
As an example, if I’m in a studio and have a camera set up a certain way, it’s highly inconvenient to have to turn it off, pull the card out (which can mean removing it from the tripod if the card slot is on the bottom of the camera), plug it into a phone or laptop, copy the image, load the image for review, eject the card, reinsert the card, set the camera up again…
I mean, holy shit.
Why do that when you can tap the gallery through the app (already connected because you’ve got live view going), click on the photo, open it for review, keep shooting.
Of course, if you’ve shot a big day and have to offload 100gb of photos and video, an external card reader is the only way to go.
But for studio, live sessions, or quick shots, app transfer is so much easier. Some cameras have NFC, so you just tap your phone and start the transfer.
None of this has ever been a problem. It’s the requirement to have a connected account that makes it a problem.
Yeah but the app also does remote control / viewing. The transfer is a bonus of being able to quickly do the transfer and text it to someone right away.
Of course, none of this matters because I don’t have Chrome on my new phone and can’t even create the stupid account if I wanted to.
Also, can’t find information about which version they rolled that out in and get an older version.
Advantage of using the app: Remote shutter/control.
Very convenient if you take lunar photos.
Cables are better but they have a minimum time to setup and can be inconvenient if you do it while traveling. If you just need a quick transfer then using an app or wireless transfer is better.
Dude. I needed to use this app the other day for the remote shutter function, and I was somewhere with no signal and no internet. Only to discover that the app had updated and now required me to create an account to use it. I was pissed.
Same thing!! It sure steamed my broccoli.
mmmm steamed broccoli. drools
on my camera i can plug it directly into my phone and transfer it with a usbc cable
You’ll end up with better quality images this way compared to transferring them to Canon servers where they’ll likely be compressed or altered.
Not to mention likely cataloged by geotag and used for “targeted marketing” by Canon and “select partners”.
That shit is just creepy.
They’re not being transmitted to canon before downloading. The camera starts a (slow) local WiFi network that the phone can connect to and it directly transfers that way. This means you still get full quality RAW files
magiclantern.
Jailbreak your shit. You own it don’t you?
Magic Lantern is awesome!
Unfortunately, it’s for higher-end cameras, not my old point-and-shoot cameras. And it doesn’t magically give your device GPS for geotagging images :(
The app was fine. The enshittification of the app is not.
Can you not just find and use an old version and disable updates for it?
Jailbreaking locks you out of banking apps.
I don’t think people are out here doing their banking on their Canon DSLRs
Maybe on Apple (?), bur GrapheneOS supports my banking apps just fine. The only thing missing is Google Pay, which I don’t use anyways
This is a useless comment.
Says the person who randomly brought up phones when the other person was talking about a camera jailbreak.
And isn’t that just exactly what they count on?
I’ll never buy products\brands that do this kind of shit. Never.
I worry a day will come it’s all of them.
The problem is, you don’t always know thwy will do this until after you pay your money for them.
True. But doing your homework prior to a purchase is more important than ever.
I’ve been running across sites that demand I use Chrome on PC too, a non-starter since Google “upgraded” Chrome to prevent adblock use. I’ve occasionally used User Agent Switcher for Firefox: addons.mozilla.org/en-US/android/…/uaswitcher/. Works on both PC and phone.
The Canon app calls on the Chrome app to be there. It’s more than just the user agent, unfortunately.
So Chrome is sharing way more than the user agent with Canon? That’s just ridiculous. I hope someone with the time will take a good look about what information is being sent.
Like Nvidia forces you to create an account to download your DRIVERS. Why??
They dont? I’ve downloaded Nvidia drivers many times and never had to create an account.
This actually made me curious enough to dig just a little deeper down this rabbit hole, so I did a little Googling Ducking on it. There’s quite a few articles regarding this, not sure how much it does or doesn’t pertain to AI rules and regulations though 🤷♂️
Though it’s been forever since I’ve used anything Nvidia, I have heard something about that.
Since Nvidia has jumped full force into Artificial Intelligence, governments are requiring information on who owns and uses such hardware, and it most likely also comes with spying on what you’re using it for.
We truly live in a fucking dystopia now. ☹️
Are you sure? Thats not acceptable for most professionals so i doubt there is no way around it. Whats the modelname of your camera?
Are you sure?
100% Canon announced this last month, ironically on April Fool’s Day!. Funny, that they say it makes the experience “more convenient and enjoyable”.
Yeah, it was fine before, when you’d open the app, connect to your camera, and download the images.
Whats the modelname of your camera? How are you trying to access the files?
We’ve got several Canon cameras, and you cannot proceed to use the app unless you log in. This isn’t to allow for cloud storage or anything like this. This is to do ANYTHING through the app, including location data tagging, live view, etc.
In order to access my tax and benefit accounts on the Government of Canada website I can only use Chrome … making sure to wipe all cookies, etc afterwards.
I freaking hate shite like this.
Is that through the CRA website? I’ve been able to access it on Firefox (through Linux) without being hassled.
But yeah, websites that force you to use Chrome would get on my nerves. I’d be sandboxing that entire browsing session, too. LOL
I’m pretty sure that duckduckgo browser is based on Chromium. That should work in Chrome’s stead.
Chrome or chormium?
Firefox doesn’t support WebUSB, Web Bluetooth and several other integrations, so applications that need to connect to other devices need some kind of Chrome application. Massive dick move by forcing account creation tho.
Firefox doesn’t support WebUSB, Web Bluetooth and several other integrations, so applications that need to connect to other devices need some kind of Chrome application.
If those features in the browser were needed, I could be a little less infuriated (they didn’t have to break previously working features, though).
However, Chrome was needed only to sign up and log in. Once that was done, I was able to disable chrome, and the app continued to work after restarting it.
Why they couldn’t implement a log in directly in the app, or use the device webview api, is beyond me.
I’m just waiting for that WebAntivirus support to land in chrome, for all those websites that tell you to install an antivirus.
I rolled back the app to an older version before this was required and blocked it from network or updating. The only feature I use is the gps data over bluetooth and remote shutter. Canon can go F*** themselves with this nonsense
I don’t have much experience with cameras but isn’t it usually sd cards that you can pull out and transfer using a sd reader? Does the camera have internal storage that needs an account and app?
For data transfer only, yes, you can eject the SD card and copy your files.
But the app is used for other features, too. So you’re inconvenienced no matter what feature you use.
Shit, no more Canon then.
Fuji makes some really nice SLRs, and their glass is exceptional. Also, you don’t need to install software if you don’t want to.
Seconded! All the photos I’ve posted on Lemmy are shot on Fuji.
How are you transferring these files? I understand it’s less convenient but could you maybe take the sd card out and plug it into a laptop instead?
Much like every telehealth experience I’ve had in the past 3 years.
Oh that’s too bad. Guess I’m not buying that shit.
Vendor software is always a pile of shame. Can’t you just copypaste images or use something like Shotwell’ import for convenience?
Well, shit. I was planning on getting a Canon for my first camera because it’s hard to beat them for astrophotography, but I’m less sure now.
Enshittification at its finest
Hey fellow canon man - lemm.ee/post/60130414
Canon still exists? People still use dedicated cameras? I found Canon hardware to be overrated, scanners to cameras to printers. All shit in one way or another. And their software, my god, the cruft.
A tip: you can build your own camera using a Raspberry Pi. There are kits. There are lenses and sensors which impress.
Oof, that is new, the camera connect app used to work without an account before.
bye bye Canon. You were once the light of my photographic life - now you’re dead to me for pulling this bullshit.
Looks like someone needs to wore an app that doesn’t have these requirements.
Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Forward it to Louis Rossman. He’ll make an entire video about it and add it to the wiki tracking these scummy companies.
Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
I agree with pretty much all of that guy’s takes, but he REALLY sketches me out for some reason. I don’t know what it is.
throwawayacc0430@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
He’s a libertarian with the “Democrat and Republicans are the same picture” vibes to him.
BackgrndNoize@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Maybe cause he’s on the spectrum and you are picking up on that
brax@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
I agree with him on a lot of the tech stuff, but there’s some subtle hints of shit that I can’t consciously place that really bother me.
I really started to notice it when he was looking for a new location - the way that he talked to and about some people and things in those videos bothered me. Likewise, the way he moved to a red state because it meant he could pay less in taxes and shit. There’s something more but I can’t put my finger on it.
Jimmycakes@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
He’s a new Yorker
Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 3 weeks ago
Glad I’m not alone on that. I love reading about him, but I can’t watch his videos.
AdrianTheFrog@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
The youtuber Adam Something is like that too imo
malin@thelemmy.club 3 weeks ago
I’d say the only thing ‘sketchy’ about Rossman is that he’s a normal human being.
It’s rare to see someone independent in our homogenized society. It makes sense that someone like you would be afraid of them.
shadowedcross@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Same, not sure why. Maybe I heard something about him I didn’t like, but have since forgotten.
noxypaws@pawb.social 3 weeks ago
He acts like a somethingawful/4chan veteran. Every now and then something along those lines slips out and rubs me the wrong way too.
Like he’s often the good kind of libertarian, but occasionally also the bad kind.
BURN@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I cannot stand him. I agree with the broad idea of his message, but Jesus he’s insufferable and constantly feels like he’s talking down to his audience
joveice@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
There is a wiki for tracking these?
dean@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks ago
consumerrights.wiki/Main_Page
Siresly@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
I heard he was entertaining the thought of turning his role in Tropic Thunder into a full spinoff movie.
Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
That’s Les Grossman.