What do you want?

[Dogman]

My working methods are pretty simple. All I really need is autofocus, aperture priority with an exposure compensation dial, one dependable central AF sensor, a bright viewfinder with 100% coverage, excellent eye relief and a choice of great lenses. I would like for it to be in a compact, ergonomic, dependable, rugged and durable package with a really good sensor. Maybe a few more features but not many.

I'm pretty happy with my Fujis. I like the easy access to controls. But if I were to change one thing about the Fujis--as well as other cameras I've used--it would be simplification by reducing options. I sometimes find myself having to pause for a moment because I've inadvertently pressed a button that has changed a setting in some way. For example (this has happened several times recently), I frequently depend on the histogram for exposure adjustments but it sometimes disappears because I pressed the display button without meaning to. When you think about it, you either use the histogram or you don't. You should be able to set the camera in the menu to remove it or display it permanently.

I like the way you can customize digital cameras. But I would like it better if you could set it and forget it. Multifunction buttons bother me. Multiple multifunction buttons bother me ever more.

 

[Axel]

...
I like the way you can customize digital cameras. But I would like it better if you could set it and forget it. Multifunction buttons bother me. Multiple multifunction buttons bother me ever more.

Yes - that could be a real advantage. A simple set of ergonomic buttons and wheels that you can configure on your own. Same for display-/viewfinderitems. Fuji is on a good way with their custom functions but there is still too much on the first level.

 

[zuiko85]

I want to unclip the film back of my OM-1 and clip on a D-back with say 18X24 sensor size. (don't want to be greedy and the sensor image plane must be at focal plane, so, smaller than 24X36) The power supply, card slot, and CPU are all housed in a box at the bottom of the camera that would be the size of an auto winder. The D-back would be the thickness of the old data back. A focusing screen with the sensor area marked out would be supplied with the outfit. This back would fit all OM single digit models. For pre 'n' models sync with the back would be provided through a ribbon connector to the PC connector.


Yeah right, about as much chance as I flap my arms and fly to the moon.

 

[Canyongazer]

NO complaints about my one year old Fuji X Pro 2....
in fact, last month I bought another!
Now I can leave the fabulous 35mm 1.4 welded on one of 'em.
Bonus: Two cameras, one menu. 🙂

 

[Out to Lunch]

I got off the 'what do I need/want' bandwagon.

 

[jsrockit]

I got off the 'what do I need/want' bandwagon.

Come on.... 🙄

 

[ColSebastianMoran]

First, I'm happier with today's camera gear than ever. Great AF, minimal shutter lag, lots of pixels. Auto WB. High ISO. Instant gratification, well instant checking anyway. Compare to photography in 60's–80's. Compare to early digital. I'm happier now than ever before.

OK, now I want to see in real cameras the innovations we have been seeing in smart phones:
- Flash that balances color temp to the ambient
- Hit the shutter. Get a burst that starts before and continues after. You pick the best.
- Synthetic bokeh for areas further away vs primary subject
- Auto upload

 

[ColSebastianMoran]

For the Sony a6000 I would like longer lasting batteries...other than that I love it...

Same here.

 

[RichC]

A digital camera with

• just the basic necessary controls
• dedicated buttons and dials for commonly used controls
• minimum plastic and maximum metal
• 50 MP
• a +10 year product lifespan for service and repair.

Basically, a mechanical late 70s / early 80s SLR (think Nikon F1-F3) but updated for digital.

I'm not a Luddite, so I'd insist on a hi-resolution screen (tiltable) for review and liveview focusing, excellent white balance, a well-designed touch-screen menu, and the like.

I use my Nikon D800E in manual mode only with manual-focus lenses, with a single focus point (granted I tend to move this around) and exposure set to centre weighted (so I make decisions, not the camera). The digital settings I use regularly are ISO (100-400), white balance (usually daylight - to replicate daylight film) and liveview.

Pretty much everything else on my D800E is clutter I don't use - my friend asked if I could video him, but I had no idea how, having never used video in the 5 years I've owned the camera.

I wish someone would make the Nikon F equivalent of the Leica M. It'd be amazing if Leica launched a new digital Leica R - but I'm not holding my breath!

 

[Ko.Fe.]

IMO:

News are taken with mobile phone. If it is taken by PJ with the rig, it is yesterday's news. More like documentary on assignment. Plenty of time to dig it on the menus.

Street photography is done by absolutely anything. It is most forgiving, easy accessible and democratic genre. I prefer it on film and with RF as scale by focus tab. No menus, because street photography is very simple from technical POV.

Portrait? It is slowest photography I could only imagine. As long as camera is not total fiasco it will handle it. Even Sigma cameras 🙂

What I want? I want Leica RF and Fuji X100, Pro cameras with OVF in the corner to be made and supported for long time. I see no problem with LCD, but EVF is meh, IMO. By the time I have my picture taken with OVF, EVF only stops jittering...
If you have time for EVF, you have time to dig the menu.

 

[johannielscom]

Nothing for me either.
Very happy with my two A7s in terms of performance and layout.
My Leica lenses are more useable and flexible on the Sony body by virtue of the EVF focussing.
For me it's perfect as I suspect the SL would be.

Happy to read the A7 models fit the bill with you, Michael. Glad I recommended it to you.

I shoot the A7 with five Canon FD lenses and a Tamron 51B 17mm wide angle. Don't own an AF lens.

Button set-up:

• Aperture is on the lens.
• Shutter speed is on the rear thumb dial.
• ISO is on the rotating dial on the back.
• The EVF zoom function is under the AF/MF push button since I'm not using that anyway.

The only thing I ever need to access in the menu is the format function. That's a three push action since I never browse anywhere else in the menu! 😀

The whole camera kit with 3-4 lenses, a flash and batteries fits in a single Domke shoulder bag.


In short I don't want anything I haven't already got except maybe a bit more health and a travel budget.

 

[David Hughes]

Trouble is, they are all electronic. Once they fail, the die a horrible death unless you are rich and lucky(!) enough to have it fail when bits are available.

So I'd like more film labs please...

Regards, David

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Adding some "I want technicalities". EVF could refresh in RT if something partially is changing. Higher resolution is, more computing is involved.
I want EVF with adjustable resolution, refresh rate. Less resolution might solve entire frame refreshing problems then EVF camera is in panning, brining it quickly to face modes.

 

[tbhv55]

Honestly... I just want an ISO-less sensor... meaning I can just shoot at any shutter speed and aperture combo in any light with maximum clarity and dynamic range.

I get where you're coming from with this, jsr, but I'd qualify it by adding an over-ride switch, too.

I really wouldn't want a 'perfect' 😉 exposure every time, that was outside of my control - and I'm talking much more latitude than +/- 2-stops on an EC dial.

If that additional feature were included in the spec., then I'm in! 🙂

 

[Michael Markey]

Trouble is, they are all electronic. Once they fail, the die a horrible death unless you are rich and lucky(!) enough to have it fail when bits are available.

So I'd like more film labs please...

Regards, David

Not necessarily so
My first digital is still ticking along after ten years.

 

[jsrockit]

I get where you're coming from with this, jsr, but I'd qualify it by adding an over-ride switch, too.

I really wouldn't want a 'perfect' 😉 exposure every time, that was outside of my control - and I'm talking much more latitude than +/- 2-stops on an EC dial.

If that additional feature were included in the spec., then I'm in! 🙂

Yeah, I thought about that too, but I figured I could mess it up in post processing (but maybe not enough). Maybe a true ISO-less sensor would be too perfect. I'm ok with what we have too... I just want a little more leeway in handheld night shooting (the way I typically do it bright light... with a high shutter speed).

 

[RichC]

Trouble is, they are all electronic. Once they fail, the die a horrible death unless you are rich and lucky(!) enough to have it fail when bits are available.

Could be around for a long time though - I still use my very first calculator (a Sinclair Cambridge Scientific), and it's now over 40 years old! Quite a lot of my 30-year-old stereo is still going too, as are various other ancient electronic gadgets (including film cameras). Parts may indeed be impossible to get - but if you're sentimentally attached to a digital camera, you can always cannibalise another. In some ways digital cameras are easier to fix than mechanical ones since they're modular...

 

[Puggie]

A full frame sensor block for my old Ricoh GXR. The A12 M mount sensor was great, but if a full frame had been available I'd have probably stuck with it rather than traded up to a Sony A7. Saying that if the original A7 could have phase detect AF for manual lenses and the manual focus zoom of the Ricoh (EVF is set to zoomed for critical focus, than a half press of the shutter gives you the full image to compose and take the shot, lifting off zooms back in. It is SO fast and intuitive to use) then I would happily settle for that. I just want 2 little software tweaks!

 

[Hogarth Ferguson]

Quite frankly, and a direct answer to your post title, I'd love it if every one of your threads didn't have your story at the top, I find it distracting.

 

[David Hughes]

Could be around for a long time though - I still use my very first calculator (a Sinclair Cambridge Scientific), and it's now over 40 years old! Quite a lot of my 30-year-old stereo is still going too, as are various other ancient electronic gadgets (including film cameras). Parts may indeed be impossible to get - but if you're sentimentally attached to a digital camera, you can always cannibalise another. In some ways digital cameras are easier to fix than mechanical ones since they're modular...

I guess I'm bitter as yet another failed a week or so ago. So now I have a U/S camera and a selection of bits for it that don't fit anything else.

And I'm I'm having to learn the ways of the replacement which has moved on a bit and uses different batteries and everything else. If batteries, releases, remotes and cases were standardised I'd be a lot happier.

And the replacement's instruction manual runs to 180 pages and I don't like having to keep looking at it.

Regards, David

PS In a nutshell, I'd like to replace like with like but if they fail, roughly and for the sake of the argument, after 10 years then the replacement will be on the verge of failure...