Understanding Your Perfect Camera

ohnewton35

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May 10, 2015
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Greetings to all,

My name is Nicco and I am an Industrial Designer currently attending the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, GA, USA. I am a long time member of APUG as I have shot film for a few years now and love the community.

Im conducting a survey to better understand photography equipment users and gain a little bit of insight into the demands that have yet to be fulfilled by the photography industry. While some of this has overlap with digital photography (and yes I have posted to DPUG as well) the survey really just seeks more broadly to understand photographers both professional and amateur. I would love it if I could have a few users to take a few minutes of their time to answer my survey which aims at understanding what it is photographers demand of their equipment and and its features. After answering the survey feel free to spark up conversation within the thread so that I can really begin to understand and discuss how to design a truly revolutionary camera for a design project of mine.

Thanks so much for your time and I look forward to your response.

Click Here To Submit A Response
 

Alan Gales

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I replied but I don't think there can be one perfect camera for any individual and especially not for everyone. This is why most of us own several cameras.
 

Alan Gales

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Just watch Sirius Glass get on here and tell you that he all ready owns the perfect camera.
 

wiltw

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The only thing I thing has been totally neglected is DIGITAL PROJECTION OF IMAGES. In the days of film, photographers would oooh and aaah over the majesty of medium format slide projected images.

The digital camera of 2004 cannot be equalled with even the best of digital projectors today! Even unaforddable (for the hobbyist) 4K (3840 pixels × 2160) projection is insufficient to fully project what the 8Mpixel (3504 x 2336) camera recorded...the 4K projector falls short vertically.

I cannot think of a 'neglect' in the film camera world...and now we are regressing in that regard, with the obsolescence of processing chemistries and emulsions as time goes on.
 

RichardJack

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My answer will reflect what I was looking for pre-2003. My professional work is digital now, film is for nostalgia and fun.
Lets say it's the year 2000.
What I looked for in a camera was versatility. First I would have to choose the format, in my case it was Medium. The availability of lenses to cover my subjects and their quality came first. Then ergonomics was a factor, the camera had to handle nicely with good balance and not too much weight. The viewfinder was very important to me, if you can't see the entire frame clearly what is the sense. Auto-focus and metering were secondary, MF cameras were not AF then but all had metering options. A motor drive was of no importance to me but might be to others as well as AF. And of course...the cost was a factor.
Once DSLR's reached 12mp in full frame my photographic world changed. My answer if this were DPUG would be very different.
 

RichardJack

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My answer will reflect what I was looking for pre-2003. My professional work is digital now, film is for nostalgia and fun.
Lets say it's the year 2000.
What I looked for in a camera was versatility. First I would have to choose the format, in my case it was Medium. The availability of lenses to cover my subjects and their quality came first. Then ergonomics was a factor, the camera had to handle nicely with good balance and not too much weight. The viewfinder was very important to me, if you can't see the entire frame clearly what is the sense. Auto-focus and metering were secondary, MF cameras were not AF then but all had metering options. A motor drive was of no importance to me but might be to others as well as AF. And of course...the cost was a factor.
Once DSLR's reached 12mp in full frame my photographic world changed. My answer if this were DPUG would be very different.
 

Kino

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Regardless of format or media, I want a camera that can be used in a manual mode in a straightforward way, without fighting automation to obtain the desired result.

I flatter myself in that I think I know what I want to shoot and the camera should not resist...
 

fstop

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Actually you would do good to look backward to what the industry has stopped fulfilling.
 

StoneNYC

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It's called "M" mode...
 

Laurent

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didn't submit my reply because bigger sensor or more megapixels are equally useless and I can't leave the answer blank
 

Sirius Glass

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Alan Gales said:
Just watch Sirius Glass get on here and tell you that he all ready owns the perfect camera.
Click to expand...

I am just sitting back and enjoying the cat fight.
 
OP
OP

ohnewton35

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May 10, 2015
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I'd like to thank all of you that took the time to reply and respond in the comments. This information will greatly help me as I am working on a camera design myself. Your contributions are greatly appreciated and gave me alot of insight. Stay golden APUG community.
 
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