jaccuse

Rain Coming. San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. March, 2012
We've all seen it. A new and usually much anticipated camera hits the market and it isn't long (several nanoseconds, usually) before reviewers and users start complaining about design flaws, usually related to handling or operations. Typically these are minor, but sometimes not. Sometimes they are quite significant flaws.
Then, months later, there may be a firmware upgrade. Sometimes not. Sometimes a hardware fix is needed and its 12–24 months until the next model addresses it. Sometimes not even then. Why is this the case, and what can be done about it?

Another Industry
I'll try not to belabour the analogy, but let's consider the automobile industry. World-wide the car industry probably releases as many if not more new car models each year as the photo industry does new camera models. How many have glaring design flaws that require a recall, or make the car difficult or unpleasant to drive? Not that many, considerin...