Designing an "ART" camera?

chip j · Jul 6, 2013

After many decades of 35mm cameras designed for Pros and the "common folk", how about a camera for Artists? I, for one, would like to see autofocus sensors in the corners and around the edges of the focusing screen. Any other ideas? Chip

Bill Burk · Jul 6, 2013

A TLR with Night Vision technology built in so you can focus and compose in dark settings (especially if you are going to shoot flash).

cliveh · Jul 6, 2013

An electronic digital preview of depth of field at your working aperture, but as the finished bright image may appear. Also a viewfinder that will at the press of a button show your viewfinder image X 4 with each one rotated 90 degrees.

Chris Lange · Jul 6, 2013

A Leica M series camera.

A Nikon F series camera.

A Hasselblad 500/200 series camera.

Any large format camera.

Fuck it, any camera.

They make pens designed for artists too, but my friend Adam does these drawings with a garden variety Sakura ink-liner.

MattKing · Jul 6, 2013

A camera that will pay your rent/mortgage for you?

chip j · Jul 6, 2013

I've had Leicas, pro Nikons, Contax G, but none of them is a Tool that really does the job (I shoot cars from a few inches away and like to focus in the corners of the viewfinder). My idea for this thread is realy a Hail Mary to Nikon & Cosina.

Chris Lange · Jul 6, 2013

chip j said:
I've had Leicas, pro Nikons, Contax G, but none of them is a Tool that really does the job (I shoot cars from a few inches away and like to focus in the corners of the viewfinder). My idea for this thread is realy a Hail Mary to Nikon & Cosina.

Fair enough...I can agree with you on that point as far as AF is concerned. If we can have 5000 AF points clustered in the center, would it kill them to put one more in each far corner?

TheFlyingCamera · Jul 6, 2013

I've got what I need - a pair of Rolleiflexes. Those, and for when I really really really just have to change lenses, large format cameras. Everything else is either icing or a distraction. If I could get my hands on a ground glass back and a trio of film holders for 12x20, I'd make myself a dedicated vertical portrait 12x20 sliding box camera.

jp498 · Jul 6, 2013

chip j said:
After many decades of 35mm cameras designed for Pros and the "common folk", how about a camera for Artists? I, for one, would like to see autofocus sensors in the corners and around the edges of the focusing screen. Any other ideas? Chip

Get a holga and focus differently; definitely an ART camera.

erikg · Jul 6, 2013

A camera that would allow you to swap as many lenses as possible regardless of make would be great. Variable picture formats too.

cliveh · Jul 6, 2013

May I say that the title of this thread - ART CAMERA has great commercial possibilities should anyone design such a camera and market it under this name.

jp498 · Jul 6, 2013

erikg said:
A camera that would allow you to swap as many lenses as possible regardless of make would be great. Variable picture formats too.

My 8x10 cameras let me use many lenses; 150 years worth at least, and I can change backs to have different picture formats. Most of the LF cameras have these capabilities.

erikg · Jul 6, 2013

jp498 said:
My 8x10 cameras let me use many lenses; 150 years worth at least, and I can change backs to have different picture formats. Most of the LF cameras have these capabilities.

Yes. True. I think the OP was going for something along the lines of a miniature format camera.

TheFlyingCamera · Jul 6, 2013

Well, check out Miroslav Tichy's home-brew contraption if you want an "art" small format camera.

dpurdy · Jul 6, 2013

It seems to me that Holga users think they are using an art camera. For the rest of us... how about a digital camera with nipple recognition focusing.

spatz · Jul 6, 2013

A camera who's viewfinder has the ability to very accurately judge which point on the ground glass you are looking at and use that as an autofocus point. i.e. say you making an exposure of a band jamming in a park and your eye catches a unique movement by the drummer, the camera would track where your eye is looking on the ground glass and focus the lens on that point the moment before you release the shutter.

MattKing · Jul 6, 2013

spatz said:
A camera who's viewfinder has the ability to very accurately judge which point on the ground glass you are looking at and use that as an autofocus point. i.e. say you making an exposure of a band jamming in a park and your eye catches a unique movement by the drummer, the camera would track where your eye is looking on the ground glass and focus the lens on that point the moment before you release the shutter.

Canon made a few cameras that included Eye Control Focusing:

[h=3]Eye-controlled focusing[edit][/h]Through the tracking of eyeball movements, EOS cameras equipped with eye-controlled focusing (ECF) are able to choose the appropriate autofocus point based on where the user is looking in the viewfinder frame. ECF comes especially useful in sports photography where the subject may shift its position in the frame rapidly.
EOS cameras equipped with ECF are the EOS A2E (U.S. model names are shown; see the table below for equivalents in other countries), EOS Elan IIE, EOS IXe, EOS-3, EOS Elan 7E, and EOS Elan 7NE.
Canon has not continued its use of eye-controlled focusing with its digital SLRs, however. The EOS Elan 7NE is the last EOS camera to have this function.

That excerpt is from the Wikipedia page for Canon EOS.

The actual focus points are limited to a finite number of points.

The real problem with the Eye Controlled Focus systems is that the function didn't work for everyone, and for those who could use it, it might work when they weren't wearing glasses, but would stop working when glasses were put on.

It works for me on two of my cameras (both with and without glasses) and I really like it.

jp498 · Jul 6, 2013

spatz said:
A camera who's viewfinder has the ability to very accurately judge which point on the ground glass you are looking at and use that as an autofocus point. i.e. say you making an exposure of a band jamming in a park and your eye catches a unique movement by the drummer, the camera would track where your eye is looking on the ground glass and focus the lens on that point the moment before you release the shutter.

Done.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_EOS#Eye-controlled_focusing

spatz · Jul 6, 2013

thank you both. my ignorance has been resolved!

jp498 · Jul 6, 2013

All the gadgetry is a fun part of the deal with photography.

chip j · Jul 7, 2013

How about a SLR viewfinder that shows you more than you"re getting on film, like a Leica M?

erikg · Jul 8, 2013

http://www.thephoblographer.com/2013/07/07/build-your-own-3d-printed-camera/

John Koehrer · Jul 8, 2013

Can't you just put a Dymo label over the name plate of your current favorite camera? You know, "ART". When you tire of that replace it with one that says "Bruce".

ref: Monty Python

chip j · Jul 8, 2013

I just want a camera that does what I want it to do--it's not rocket science. Why should I be content w/what Joe Pro Shithead uses? Most pros do the same few things all the time.

Poisson Du Jour · Jul 8, 2013

Any camera on the planet can be an 'art' camera.
The important bit is how well you learn to see with the camera, not just through it. Skill, experience and knowing what you set out to achieve and how is far more useful than hollow dreams.

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