One advance I think would catch on is a inconspicuous EVF that can be worn on the head like all that sci-fi stuff....so I can hold and point a camera in any position and see exactly what the lens sees.
As for touch screen controls.....it will be a long time before I use a camera where I don't move a control of some kind to make it work as I want.
joshadams wrote:
I agree if you're using EVF/OVF, but what if everything is via live view? Then you're touching the image you're looking at.
I need a viewfinder. Liveview is only occasionally practical. A 500 or 600mm lens needs to be usable handheld or balanced on a molar bag, etc. Holding even a smallish SLR at arms length with a 24-70 for example is just not an option.
mpmendenhall wrote:
That's not a silly consideration --- you just caught one of my personal camera use biases. Since I shoot exclusively with manual focus lenses, I think of selecting autofocus points by touch as an inevitable camera feature for other people to use, but not a critical feature for my own photography. I suppose if I was an autofocus user, I'd want eye controlled focus; as a manual focuser, I already have eye controlled focus with a good viewfinder . Perhaps an eye-controlled focus point magnification on an EVF would be a useful feature for me; but I suspect that a good implementation of focus peaking would be more practical. Showing a histogram for the smaller image area where I am looking might be a nifty metering feature --- though I hope that in 5 years, my camera sensor will have so much DR that I will rarely worry about making critical metering decisions at the time of shooting....Show more →
Considering that I live in South Dakota, where it gets double digit below zero in winter and gloves are a necessity if you wish to keep your fingers, you can guess how I voted.
The big issue for me is when it is middle of the night and I am wearing double gloves with heaters to keep my finger warm enough to press the shutter. I find buttons hard to find because there is no feeling. Many buttons are hard to see, so I have to turn on the headlamp which also has a button that only King Kong can push hard enough.
I recently tried and liked a 5DmkIII which has all basic controls visible on the LCD so I can see them without the headlamp. Not sure I could select them with gloves however. Probably have to still remove the outer glove and use the inner thin glove and hope my finger does not fall off.
jcolwell wrote:
Focus!
I did. It only served to accentuate my awareness of how my train of thought derailed and now careens wildly about the countryside.
Lasse Eriksson wrote:
I hope and believe it will be buttons
I'm happy with all buttons too, but I don't have faith that the engineers (or marketing) will leave well enough alone. I can totally foresee a Siri-like camera. Imagine a group photo shoot with five guys yelling at their cameras. "Camera, don't listen to him. I want f/8, not an 1/8th of a second." "I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that."
I did not vote, because the poll does NOT contain a choice that I want!
I want the camera can be operated without looking when my eye is to the viewfinder. I do not want to be forced to pull back from the viewfinder to find some damn electronic button (which takes the place of a thumbwheel or rotary control or actual pushbutton).
I want my finger to fall on a control via muscle memory so that I can shoot in a dark setting without having to stick my eye up to a viewfinder to find some electronic mouse control inside the viewfinder, when the camera is on a tripod.
Automobile controls already suck on new cars, where you have to take your eye off the road to look at a damn LCD control screen, to turn the heater higher or to control the fan speed, or to change the radio controls, or to navigate a damn multi-function menu system to dim the control panel more.
Camera controls haven't evolved all that much in the past 20 years. I doubt we'll see much evolution in the next 5. Buttons & dials work, that's why they're still there. I can see touch screens being used to review images on the back, but not controlling anything.
"I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that."