If you were to design a camera...

[LeicaFoReVer]

It is so nice that everybody has a dream!

Mine would be an M8 with a full frame cmos x3 sensor (similar to sigma) and with the sensor technology like in Fuji S5pro DSLRs (honeycomb shape with intersitial secondary diodes)

rest might stay the same...there can be no other reason for me to change to digital

[benlees]

Mine would be a FF digital Fuji GA645 but with true manual focus (the lens would still retract) and AEL. And full manual control: none of this f8 and smaller with 1600iso! Solar recharging might also be useful. Wi-fi would be good too. Perhaps its own server aswell...

[CK Dexter Haven]

1. A Contax T3 body, without the built-in flash. Instead, it would have a huge straight-through viewfinder like a Rollei 35. The lens would be the same lens as is currently in the Leica CM. Chrome body, with a walnut brown leather grip.

2. 6x4.5 SLR. Like a Pentax 67, but the size of a Nikon F4. 80mm 2.8 lens with the imaging characteristics of either a Rolleiflex TLR Planar, or the Nikkor on the Plaubel Makina.

3. Contax G2, but with a viewfinder like a Zeiss Ikon, even if it required some sort of magnifier, as long as the optical components were top notch.

4. Canon EOS 4d: Eye-control focus. The 5DMkII's sensor. Body the size of an FE2.

[rphenning]

2 cameras: first would be an M4 that never needs a CLA. Second would be a Mamiya 7 type camera that took 4x5 sheet film holders. Thing would be practical joke big though.

[bgb]

If I was to be sensible i would say an OM-1n with a digital back and no other changes at all. It was perfect then and nothing has changed that much since those days.

HOWEVER if i was to dream of a camera i would want one that is the size of one of the patches you use to stop smoking and have it stuck to my skull with a direct connection to my brain
Every thing that i see, it sees and when i want an image i get the one i saw with my own eyes and maybe i get the sounds and smells too... but i would want to switch off the smell option

No more changing lenses or wondering what f. to use ... just capture the image as you see it.

[Kip_S]

i have several
1. 4x5 view camera that takes 4x5 roll film (a boy can dream right?) in a separate film pack like what you would use with a hasselblad (sans cost)

2. modern leica iiig with famelines for 35 and 50, new leitz elmar 3.5 lenses with regular f stops. it would be cheap and save the leica camera company.

[gho]

Earlier today I was thinking about what kind of camera I would design.

My thoughts:

- Rangefinder camera with lens mount.
- Sould be usable with a wide range of old and classic lens (adapters).
- TTL lightmeter.
- Combined optical view- and rangefinder with selectable framelines.
- large, bright, contrasty rangefinder patch.
- long rf base.
- Hot shoe and pc socket.
- No menu fiddeling during operation.
- Crucial parameters (Shutter speed, ISO, Exposure compensation) should be accessible fastly and ergonomically through knobs and wheels.
- Good, secure and comfortable grip.
- Configurable projection of basic shooting information into the viewfinder.
- Basic exposure information on top of the camera.
- Sturdy construction. Build to last.
- Easily seviceable. Modular design.
- Digital, there are already excellent film RFs out there.
- Large quality sensor with reasonable low light performance and high dynamic range.
- No internal flash. No movie mode.
- (P), A,( S), M, no scene modes.
- Buttons with assignable functions.
- Fast operating characteristics. Camera should not lock up between pictures.
- If it fits in the budget: fast autofocus for compatible lens!
- A reasonable solution for sensor dust.
- Excellent battery life.
- Smart marketing.
- Digital tamagochi in the camera (starves, if you do not use the camera regularly).
- Interface for data exchange.
- Body not more than $500! (Think about netbooks)

[shadowfox]

I'll just summon my recently awakened thoughts about my dream "camera" design

- The same size as a film cartridge (uses a small lithium battery)
- A fast memory buffer say 4GB (no removable memory cards for the sake of size)
- Two dials: ISO selection, and IS mode
- Only shoots RAW (no messing with white-balance)
- Par with Nikon D700 in terms of sensor quality and resolution
- No LCD, of course

and ...

- Can be put into any darn film camera body I want!

[gho]

Originally Posted by shadowfox

and ...

- Can be put into any darn film camera body I want!

Now this is a smart idea. Digital film cartridges with sensor. Definately a technical challenge.

[buzzardkid]

I would like a Fujica G690 RF, an M3 and an M5 combined.

• 120 roll film in 6x9,
• curtain shutter,
• M5 style light meter visible in the viewfinder,
• framelines for 35mm-50mm-90mm equivalents and ditto lenses,
• bright RF patch,
• shutterspeeds up to 1/1000th and visible in the viewfinder,
• double stroke no problem (like in the G690).

Preferably black paint, but (black) chrome would do nicely too.

A metered Leica M3 DS on steroids, basically.

I'd burn film like crazy with a camera like that.

Not sure whether Cosina would be interested building a camera like that with the Fujica G690 Breech lock mount?

Nah, this will never happen...

[sevo]

Originally Posted by CLE-RF

I would like a Fujica G690 RF, an M3 and an M5 combined.

Seconded, but forget that curtain shutter (beyond the lens change aux curtain). I have a Makiflex. which was one of the few (and the most recent) 6x9 FP shutter cameras ever built, and its shutter run-down time is about 1/10s - i.e. even if I dial in 1/500s, it is no camera for handheld shooting or moving objects, as the image will get wavy or distorted.

More modern technology might bring the run-down time down to 1/30 or even 1/50, but that is not entirely handheld yet, and the shorter it gets, the heavier and more complex it would be.

[giellaleafapmu]

There are so many camera that I don't need to design mine but...

One thing I would indeed like, a camera with a very short sensor to mount distance and some focusing mechanism (either moving the sensor or a bellow or screw system) which would allow to:

(a) mount any lens from the screw mount Leicas to processing lenses;
(b) focus them all the way to macro without using the lens focusing system;
(c) tilt and shift.

I know that would be against any reasonable sale politics and probably quite cumbersome if at all possible to realize but that is one of the few things I miss and that would finally allow me to use, say, Zuiko lenses on a FF digital or processing lens for field macro without carrying a tripod or landscapes with shift a tilt without a view camera or...

GLF

[giellaleafapmu]

Addenda.

I finally found where had I seen a concept similar to what I am speaking of.

Go to the Nikon Kenkyukai Tokyo home-page

http://www.nikonhs.org/nikon_society_tokyo.html

and look at the meeting of July 2009 and at Hatsu's E-P1 with the Asahi Bellowscope mounted (sorry I could not find a way to link to the page directly)... Well that is a camera and an adapter and is 4/3, also I don not believe it can tilt/shift and does not have a proper prism to accurately focus but that would be the kind of stuff I would like in a better form, i.e. with adapters for the major brands of lenses, the tilt/shift thing and a FF sensor...

GLF

[benmacphoto]

I would design a digital M3 with an M2 viewfinder.
Add 75mm frame lines with the 50 frame lines though.
It would be FF and have the new Sony Exmor R CMOS sensor.
The top plate would be just like the M3, traditional engraving with the frame counter and batter life on the right side.
A BUILT IN GRIP!
Optional extended battery, would look like the leicavit.
Black paint and chrome.

[BillBingham2]

The only camera I would want to build right now is a Ricoh GRD IIIT. Put a 75mm f3.0 equilivant in the GRD III body and improve the autofocus speed by say 2x or so.

There are enough good DSLRs out there and the FF thing to me really is a lens issue, not a body issue. CV needs to start building some KICK A55 wide lenses for the C class sensors and bring them out in a CV SL III series of lenses (Nikon and Pentax of course).

Now if I were forced to build an interchangable camera I would have a choice between an accessory shoed optical, accessory shoed low res (lower cost) or high res (Monkey Bucks) EVF, a smaller LCD that only shows a histogram and an LCD. Both types of EVFs plug into the back of the camera the same way but the LCD also attaches via the hot shoe. Lens-wise I would say mounting would be an option for either M, S (internal and external), F and OM.

I've always said all digital should power a small (now 3") LCD pannel that you could hold in your hand for shooting above obstructions (over the hedge). In a perfect world it would be a small pannel that would allow you to have the same controls you might find on the back of a camera. It would also perhaps have a grip (to help hold it) and a shutter release. Are you listening Nikon?

B2 (;->