Different GS models question

[Sabe]

Jokiin, can you tell me how this goes.
There is this camera called GS1000 and it has that certain look.
But how it is possible that there is so many different versions and manufacturers of GS1000 camera?
I mean who owns the copyrights to this camera, or can anybody just make it and call it GS1000?
And i see this is the case with newer GS series cameras too.
Can you explain this, please.

 

[jokiin]

Jokiin, can you tell me how this goes.
There is this camera called GS1000 and it has that certain look.
But how it is possible that there is so many different versions and manufacturers of GS1000 camera?
I mean who owns the copyrights to this camera, or can anybody just make it and call it GS1000?
And i see this is the case with newer GS series cameras too.
Can you explain this, please.

the housings (the outer casing) are available in a few different varieties, with/without LED's, slightly different buttons etc and from a couple of different suppliers, again with the mainboards and components there are several different versions and suppliers, all these are what's known as public models meaning anyone can buy them and assemble their own camera, in Shenzhen alone there are more than 300 factories that assemble cameras, I'm sure there's more in other parts of China as well but they are predominantly made in the Shenzhen area, of the 300 or so there's probably around 100 that exhibit at trade shows (the 3 biggest shows are on next month)

this same situation exists amongst pretty much all Chinese camera models as China is about mass production, the very vast majority of cameras have mainboards supplied by solution companies, these are the designers of the mainboard and have a generic software solution that they use which may contain some minor adjustments as needed, language options, menu colour, screen logos, adjustment to suit different component models etc, that sort of thing, for most of these factories getting any firmware fix is very difficult, if someone gets a big order and has some improvement requested they can often get a fix and this generally flows through to others as it gets incorporated into the base firmware version going forward but trying to get this for older versions doesn't happen unfortunately, for most cameras I would suggest that how you get it is often as good as it will get, occasionally they may encounter a show stopper bug in a new model, something that is considered epidemic failure rates would get a priority firmware fix from the solution company, adding features or minor tweaks rarely happens unless the customer does a lot of business

 

[Sabe]

Thank you for explaining, that cleared things.
Of course most of western cameras are made in china too, but they have very strict control of label and all products under the same name are equal.
That's why it was difficult to understand what is the story behind GS cameras.

Edit.
But this reminds also if you looking let's say new GS9000 camera, that there is no original camera or manufacturer to look for.
Then you have to wait when somebody else buys one, and learn from his or hers experience.

 

[jokiin]

Thank you for explaining, that cleared things.
Of course most of western cameras are made in china too, but they have very strict control of label and all products under the same name are equal.
That's why it was difficult to understand what is the story behind GS cameras.

same goes for any Chinese camera, not just the GS series

some have better QC processes than others, factories that do OEM work usually have better systems in place, you can get factories that make good product for customers that still make rubbish of their own, depends who is calling the shots, Chinese can make very good product, too many are trying to make for lower cost all the time and this impacts quality more than anything else

 

[jokiin]

Edit.
But this reminds also if you looking for let's say new GS9000 camera, that there is no original camera or manufacturer to look for.
Then you have to wait when somebody else buys one, and learn from his or hers experience.

yes this is very much the case, further to this problem though is that the stock one vendor may have now might be different to what they had last month, things change far too often

 

[Sabe]

Edit.
But this reminds also if you looking for let's say new GS9000 camera, that there is no original camera or manufacturer to look for.
Then you have to wait when somebody else buys one, and learn from his or hers experience.

yes this is very much the case, further to this problem though is that the stock one vendor may have now might be different to what they had last month, things change far too often

I can see this is bigger problem if one can't trust old supplier.

 

[jokiin]

Edit.
But this reminds also if you looking for let's say new GS9000 camera, that there is no original camera or manufacturer to look for.
Then you have to wait when somebody else buys one, and learn from his or hers experience.

yes this is very much the case, further to this problem though is that the stock one vendor may have now might be different to what they had last month, things change far too often

I can see this is bigger problem if one can't trust old supplier.

sometimes it's not even a trust issue, components can change and vendors can be unaware of this until things end up in the hands of consumers and problems crop up, can happen to anyone unfortunately