if you were king of the cameras...

[Axel]

...
Artists don't just use a one-size-fits-all general purpose paint brush.

So I'd always prefer specific tools optimised for specific tasks, with some standard modularity (mount type) where practicable...

Yes and so I would like to design many cameras for many tasks.
The variety of challenges brings up a variety of tools. It is a dynamic process and how deeper you describe the purpose the
more specialised can be the tool.

 

[Rick Waldroup]

Have you tried a Df Rick? I haven't, but I must say that I think about it from time to time.

I like your new avatar.

I seriously thought about a Nikon DF. I even went to my local camera store and played around with one, and I liked it a lot. However, the thought of changing back over to Nikon gear from m4/3 made me put that idea on the back burner. Still, you never know.....

Thanks about the avatar. My wife says it makes me look like the old curmudgeon that I really am.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Neither: I would decree a manufacturing system to produce exactly what you--the photographer--wanted. Sort of an ultimate A la Carte/print (CNC) on demand.

Rob

Dear Rob,

Have you ever tried designing a camera and putting it into production? It's not as easy as it looks. I know, I've tried.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Roger Hicks]

I quite like the idea of a modular camera with different sensor and film backs and different lens mount modules, like a more developed and smaller version of what Rollei tried to do with the SL 2000/3003. Differrnt optional hand grips and flash mounts too. I think there were some design exercises recently from Samsung(?) or someone. I think the Ricoh GXR wasn't quite there with the modularity idea but could nearly have been. Dials, simplified menus, build quality and all those good things too of course.

Spot the flaw in this pipe-dream...

Cheers,

R.

 

[rbiemer]

Roger,
I do have a fair idea of how tough it must be--I'm still sorting out a 120 film pinhole camera and that's giving me lots of head scratching as I try and figure out how I wanrt to build it.
But, since I am the "King", I don't need to design any thing...We shall decree and then await Our subjects' obedience...
Rob

Dear Rob,

Have you ever tried designing a camera and putting it into production? It's not as easy as it looks. I know, I've tried.

Cheers,

R.

 

[burancap]

But, since I am the "King"

Thanks for the refocus! I quite like your CNC idea!

 

[Out to Lunch]

I'd ask Leica to upgrade the M-E to market standards and lower the price. The world needs a functioning digital rangefinder camera.

 

[FrozenInTime]

Digital Barnack with OVF and fixed lens collapsable scale/manual focus 50mm.

 

[abo_1970]

I would have Fuji design a full frame X100, which size wise would not be much bigger than the current X100 and which would have similar controls/ layout and a fast fixed 35mm lens.
I would not allow them to put on a zoom or something fancy like a flipflop screen and force them to rip out the movie functionality... and they HAVE to keep the OVF/ EVF!
Finally I would mandate that it should be so good that in 15 years it would still be a good camera and that during this period it would still be serviceable and that it could communicate with whatever computers we use then...

Is this too much to ask? Maybe add some weather sealing as a final touch?

 

[Roger Hicks]

Roger,
I do have a fair idea of how tough it must be--I'm still sorting out a 120 film pinhole camera and that's giving me lots of head scratching as I try and figure out how I wanrt to build it.
But, since I am the "King", I don't need to design any thing...We shall decree and then await Our subjects' obedience...
Rob

Dear Rob,

Fair point. But how will you know if they've got it right?

Cheers,

R.

 

[nongfuspring]

Digital cameras seem to be on the cusp of being able to convincingly do just about everything in a single body with few tradeoffs anyway. Cameras like the A7 can do well at nearly any task with the exception things needing of fast AF and so on, and that'll change in a few months no doubt too.

I think/hope the next step in the progression of digital camera technology will be further towards build quality and handling instead of competing for DxO marks. For me personally, I'd just like a ruggedised fuji x-e3 with better AF.

 

[Jack Conrad]

One Camera to rule them all, One Camera to find them,
One Camera to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

 

[jsrockit]

I couldn't have just one....even though I may just use one for the most part.

 

[Roger Hicks]

One Camera to rule them all, One Camera to find them,
One Camera to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

Dear Jack,

IR flash, eh?

Cheers,

R.

 

[xenohip]

A lawyer once asked me during jury selection, "If you were philosopher king for a day…" to which I responded, "Philosopher king, hmmm… sounds like grand day!" Needless to say I was not selected for the jury. (Though I did see one of the attorneys on the street years later-- he did a double take, said hi, let me know that they were able to select a jury, and that this led to a settlement; he thanked me for my service).

So then, why not some fun as camera king?!?

First I'd decree that different camera models be fundamentally different, not fundamentally the same.

Then there would be the monochrome decree… maybe not as strong as "every camera must have a monochrome twin", but certainly more than a few. A monochrome GM5, a monochrome iPhone, a monochrome DSLR, a monochrome x100M (or equivalent), a monochrome Leica X, and more.

For those worried about the inability to recover highlights in B&W only, we'd build monochrome sensors with two different pixel sizes integrated in a semi-regular pattern. Small pixels for the highlights and resolution, large pixels for sensitivity.

How about a fixed lens Leica with a bi-summicron? Add a one-element (possibly doublet) extender lens to the front, turn a ring, and the lens goes from well-corrected 35mm f2 to well corrected 75mm f2 (equivalent).

Then what about the shape of these things? Why the flat slab shaped brick in the back, when there is no longer a film cassette and film stretched across and behind the lens? We'd try a tube digital: round lens, transitioning to round sensor section, transitioning to round battery section, transitioning to round EVF section, so that you hold it up to your eye like a telescope or monocle. Rings for aperture, shutter, focus and ISO.

Okay, as long as we're discussing control schema, photography should be FAST (focus, aperture, shutter, take your time)… unfortunately I can't provide reference to the originator of that pithy observation. In that spirit, how about a digital that shoots RAW only, with no screen, no controls other than focus, aperture, shutter, ISO and take the picture. Maybe Leica has already done this? Then we just need it to be affordable

 

[xenohip]

Oh yeah, and as people are mentioning in the pocket camera thread…

We need fixed lens cameras with 28, 35, 40, 50 and even 75mm equivalents, that go beyond the GR, coolpix A, and merrill cameras.

 

[Steve Bellayr]

If I were King I'd hire you to take my pictures and not worry about what camera you were using.

 

[rbiemer]

Dear Rob,

Fair point. But how will you know if they've got it right?

Cheers,

R.

Roger,
I have been being a bit silly so far, but, I think that in the not too distant future, there is a viable model in my original post.
A few things come to mind about it:
First, just about any kind of "bespoke" camera or lens is not likely to be inexpensive but that isn't why I see this as a good idea. For those people who either want or need something that regular production cameras/lenses don't offer, this would be a way for them to get those needs sorted.
Second--and this is the big sticking point, I think, there would be lots of intellectual property concerns. Unless there is some way to pay the various owners, I don't think it would be realistic to expect that a customer could ask for, say, Pentax's in body IS combined with Sony's 24 mp sensor in a Leica body.
If, on the other hand, this putative company were to use expired patents/design trade marks and have some good engineers on staff, then things become more interesting, I think. Again, not cheap but, possibly, viable. Possibly it would play out something like the many many companies in the US that started making copies of the Colt 1911 in the 1970's when the original patents expired. The vast majority of those companies are long out of business but there are a few that are still making those "clone" guns and, presumably, still making money.
Clearly this is an exercise in wishful thinking but I do think that with the right combination of current technology and exceptional employees, this custom, extremely short run production is possible. And, just maybe D), the folks that carp on those "too expensive" Leicas will have something else to blather about!
Rob

 

[Vince Lupo]

A 36mp full-frame Google Glass-type camera, and all I have to do is wink to take the shot. Perfect photo every time, of course!

 

[xenohip]

How about a digital camera that is native square format, making the most of the lens coverage and sensor area? Or even a circular (disk shaped) sensor?

How about a digi-film hybrid TLR, with the viewing/focusing lens being part of a digital camera, and the optionally linked shutter in the lower lens recording an image on film?