What should a new high end film camera look like?

Make mine with a pellicle mirror. I bought a Canon EOS-RT from a fellow RFF member a few years back and have grown to really like this camera. Like a mirrorless digital, there's no mirror blackout, so you always see what you’re photographing. Great street photography camera with the 40mm pancake lens mounted on it.

Jim B.
 
An augmented reality hybrid optical viewfinder film camera, in the form factor of an M camera, with:

  • autofocus lenses
  • eye detection
  • optical viewfinder that overlays the focus area electronically
  • zebra for peaking
  • nothing else in the viewfinder, just an OV with frame lines and overlays for focus and peaking. Don't distract me with info that I don't need (like f/stop, exposure time, battery life, etc), keep it clean and uncluttered!

Optional: instead of a shutter click, I want to hear soft applause with a sexy female voice in a French accent whispering "What a master shot!" :D
 
SPn? SPa?

This may be heresy but should they keep the S mount? Or adopt the M or LTM mount for the huge lens choice?

It’s a Nikon; haven’t run down the numbers, but an F mount would probably give even huger number of lens choices than M mount.
I’d love a new SP bodied modern-ish camera more than most anything mentioned so far, but that’s more of a personal desire than a high end film camera. Though the cost of such a thing would be high end.
 
I still like a nice G-Shock myself... people buy Apple Watches in droves. Garmin, Samsung, etc.

First, an Apple Watch ain't $100 (or even close). Second, I think a smart watch is about as relevant to a G-shock (in the marketplace) as an smart phone is to a Nokia 3210. Yes, they're called a 'phone' and a 'watch', but that's not why people buy them...

I genuinely wonder how many G-shocks sell nowadays?
 
Optional: instead of a shutter click, I want to hear soft applause with a sexy female voice in a French accent whispering "What a master shot!" :D
That could easily be added to any mirrorless camera with an electronic shutter mode! That would be purely a software thing so just add it into the next firmware update and we're good to go. I would personally prefer the voice of Gilbert Gottfried praising me, but that's just me.
 
I was thinking about this when I should have been working. If someone was going to step up to the plate and release an all new high end film (35mm) camera, what should it offer?
I say they need to dump the optical viewfinders (whether rangefinder or slr) and release one with an EVF. It actually makes far more sense to have an EVF on a film camera than a digital camera. Because with a digicam you have a zillion shots on that memory card, so can afford to mess up some exposures (or bracket).
With a film camera, you have 36 exposures. So you really have to make them count and what would really help would be able to view the actual exposure real time with an EVF.
Fuji already has jpeg film presets. That idea can be expanded (but doesn't really as exposure is more important than 'look' if you catch my drift).

So what say you? Should the upcoming Nikon F7 have an EVF? Because let's be honest, my F6 is really long in tooth now and what other changes can they make that actually are meaningful?
And Leica with the Q2... slap that design onto a QM/QF? Keep that hardware but toss that sensor for a roll that 36 individual sensors..

Sort of impossible. I like my Fujica ST901 and its selection of lenses and accessories. I also like my Contax 167mt with its three zooms and the 50mm f/1.4.

How do I sell that idea to anyone else? Why should I even want to? I know you want this to be light hearted, but I think you didn't present that idea well. But good luck.
 
It's been said already, but a new high end camera looks like a Leica M3, but digital... a Leica M10... and then an M11... and then another MP... and then an M12... ad infinitum....


Or it looks like an iPhone X... but not an iPhone 11 <shudder>... so perhaps like an iPhone 12....



Scott
 
It's been said already, but a new high end camera looks like a Leica M3, but digital... a Leica M10... and then an M11... and then another MP... and then an M12... ad infinitum....


Or it looks like an iPhone X... but not an iPhone 11 <shudder>... so perhaps like an iPhone 12....



Scott

The topic is film cameras.
;)
 
In episode 142 of the Sunny 16 podcast, Bellamy Hunt explains that he can't make a high end P&S (e.g., Contax T3, Ricoh GR, etc.) because the manufacturing infrastructure and know-how has been lost. I'm not sure how that squares with the fact that camera companies still make things like the Nikon F6 and all sorts of digital P&S cameras, but let's assume there's stuff he knows that we don't.

Anyway, I don't think there should or can be new high end film cameras. They're too sophisticated to be repairable in the long term. No more autofocus, motor drive, and matrix-metering. Don't even think about EVFs, WIFI, and app control.

I think the most sophisticated that a new film camera should be is something like a Bessa R2a or Zeiss Ikon, or the GF670. Center-weighted aperture-priority AE (or even just manual metering with no AE) and manual film advance. If we're talking about P&S cameras, I think scale focus and manual exposure with a light meter is fine, like the Rollei 35. At the most, add a rangefinder next to the viewfinder like a screwmount Leica (mechanical or electronic, like Nikon's green dot focus confirmation). It will become easier to manufacture spare parts for mechanical cameras, so we should design cameras to take advantage of that. My guess is we'll be heading back toward "adjust and fit" manufacturing and repair, and away from "correct or replace."
 
...
If we're talking about P&S cameras, I think scale focus and manual exposure with a light meter is fine, like the Rollei 35. At the most, add a rangefinder next to the viewfinder like a screwmount Leica (mechanical or electronic, like Nikon's green dot focus confirmation). It will become easier to manufacture spare parts for mechanical cameras, so we should design cameras to take advantage of that. My guess is we'll be heading back toward "adjust and fit" manufacturing and repair, and away from "correct or replace."

Lomo still makes those:

https://shop.lomography.com/en/cameras/lomo-lc-a-family/lomo-lc-a

https://shop.lomography.com/en/cameras/lomo-lc-a-family/lomo-lc-wide-25th-anniversary-edition

https://shop.lomography.com/en/cameras/lomo-lc-a-family/lomo-lc-a-120
 
Those are zone focus and only have AE. No manual exposure or “continuous” focusing! What’s the repairability of them?
 
Those are zone focus and only have AE. No manual exposure or “continuous” focusing! What’s the repairability of them?

Zone focus is scale focus. I have the nicer Cosina CX2 version and it has zone focus symbols on the top with measured distance/scale focus underneath.
You manually set the ISO so that gives you a bit of exposure control.
They are current production kameras w warrantys so repairabilty and parts availabilty is not an issue.
 
Manual exposure control is MANUAL, independent selection of shutter speed and aperture, preferably with dedicated controls. Fooling around with an ISO control is not manual control.
 
SPn? SPa?

This may be heresy but should they keep the S mount? Or adopt the M or LTM mount for the huge lens choice?

I wonder why Nikon doesn't keep the outside of the SP or S3 pretty much the same and make newer innards. Better metering, titanium shutter, dang they missed the mark by not following on with the reissue.

B2 (;->
 
Manual exposure control is MANUAL, independent selection of shutter speed and aperture, preferably with dedicated controls. Fooling around with an ISO control is not manual control.

Sure it is. You do that manually and it affects exppsure. Better that than nothing.
 
I wonder why Nikon doesn't keep the outside of the SP or S3 pretty much the same and make newer innards. Better metering, titanium shutter, dang they missed the mark by not following on with the reissue.

B2 (;->

If you read the story I posted that showed the insane and incredibly dedicated effort Nikon went through to recreate the S3 2000 (and later SP), they must have kept all that tooling and info.
Of course it would not be easy to add a meter, but definitely doable plus they now have all the other details down.
Nothing is sexier than a black Nikon RF. And I have black Leica Ms.

https://imaging.nikon.com/history/chronicle/history-s3/index.htm
 
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