Latest or all posts or last 15, 30, 90 or 180 days.
2024-03-18 19:10:31
877-865-7002
Today’s Deal Zone Items... Handpicked deals...
$3399 $2999
SAVE $400

$2997 $2997
SAVE $click

$348 $248
SAVE $100

$999 $699
SAVE $300

$5999 $4399
SAVE $1600

$1049 $879
SAVE $170

$4499 $3499
SAVE $1000

$999 $849
SAVE $150

$999 $799
SAVE $200

$5999 $4399
SAVE $1600

$799 $699
SAVE $100

$1199 $899
SAVE $300

$1099 $899
SAVE $200

$348 $248
SAVE $100

$1602 $998
SAVE $604

$3399 $2999
SAVE $400

$3997 $3697
SAVE $300

$5999 $4399
SAVE $1600

$1397 $997
SAVE $400

Connect and charge all of your devices through a single Thunderbolt or USB-C port.

Is There Room In Today’s Market for an No-Nonsense Workhorse Camera?

Expounding on APS-C is the new full frame, is there room in the market for a true honest to goodness photographer’s no-nonsense workhorse camera? Possibly APS-C, ideally full-frame, the same ideas apply regardless of size.

Every camera design on the market today exhibits design shortcomings, and usually outright glitches. No grip or poor grip, menus obfuscated with dozens of irrelevant settings, focus-reset and self-timer glitches, mangled or restricted Live View, extra parts just to apply a filter—you name it, each camera out there has what I consider things that should not have shipped.

The cause? Larding up camera design with kitchen sink checklist features, rather than thinking through the core usability issues and focusing on what should be ultra reliable (focus) and/or solve a real issue.

With APS-C now offering sensational image quality (D7100 sensor), consider the following camera (full-frame would be fine too):

  • True photographer’s camera; no concessions to anything but pure photography.
  • No hassle operation: every physical and operational detail scrutinized.
  • Raw only (DNG). No JPEG, no video, no app-store, manual and aperture priority only. Hence 2/3 of the menu clutter disappears. [Could be a concession to generate JPEG after the fact, but no options choosable].
  • Extreme accuracy spot autofocus (or manual focus).
  • iPhone-size 3.5-inch Retina display so that images can be critically evaluated (and enjoyed at the same time). Along with ultra high-res EVF which is built-in, zoom anywhere you like on the sensor for focusing, with guaranteed-best contrast detect AF at the precise location desired.
  • The minimum of buttons and dials needed for shooting: aperture, shutter speed, ISO, dedicated play and delete button, buttons that differ in size and offer great tactile feedback so that in pure darkness one never gropes. All operable with gloves on and/or with a single hand. Weather sealed.
  • Ultra high performance 28mm + 50mm bi-focal f/1.0 (APS-C, f/1.2 for full frame) flat-field no focus shift lens. It won’t be small and it won’t be cheap, but nothing else will touch it, peak quality by f/2. Possibly manual focus with bearings (cine lens style) for obscenely smooth focus control.
  • Double-resolution 48 megapixel sensor with in-camera downsampling modes so that 36 and 24 megapixel sizes are essentially true-color, completely free of digital artifacts.
  • Ergonomic built-in grip in which incorporates a battery. Small, but big enough to be stable with a great grip. Base plate already compatible with dovetail on common tripod heads, so no need to buy a camera plate.
  • True RGB raw histogram showing full sensor gamut and range for easy evaluation of having “nailed” the exposure .
  • Auto-ETTR aperture priority exposure mode that guarantees that the full potential of the sensor is used.
  • 15-bit dynamic range including dual-shot electronic low/hi sensor readout HDR that guarantees ultra-clean dark tones so that noise does not exist.
  • Built-in full-res or 4K time lapse feature that does not require shutter actuation.
  • Built-in GPS and built-in WiFi (I have my doubts on both of these, but they avoid the need for dongles).

And most important: when in doubt, leave it out.

Geoffrey writes:

A very thoughtful spec for a true photographer’s camera. So in your view, why is there no such thing on the market? Either the camera companies are woeful at market research, or that your spec list is a dream for only a tiny percentage of the camera buying market.

The shame is that for the digital cinema market there are all sorts of entrepreneurs releasing new cameras over the last few years, such as Red, Black Magic, etc. Where is the equivalent movement for still photography? We obviously can’t rely on the big Japanese camera companies to innovate in this space. We need some ‘Black Magic’ for still photography so to speak.

DIGLLOYD: My spec list is demanding and many compromises could be made, but at its core what I want to see solved is a focus on making the camera deliver on making images, and elimimate anything else not central to that mission. Yes, the core market is small, but it is also huge with the right combination of features: beginners benefit from simple and thoughtful design too.

A lack of real creativity runs through the C/N majors, along with a deep-seated cultural aversion to innovations which might not succeed, along with an established business to protect. Which over time means fiscal doom. These companies just don’t have any concept of a halo product, or that a “failure” of a truly innovative product might be the best marketing a company could buy. They are the anti-Apple, so seeing them introduce a really disruptive product into the market that would kill off their own existing product line... well if the queen had balls she’d be king.

In design, the hardest challenge is to cut back a design to its core, to its essence, and to throw away the first ten such designs by virtue of perfectionism. And to design such a product so well that it kills off its predecessors instantly. When that is combined with a fear of “failure” and a fast-evolving market, the result is to make incremental changes at these big companies: a focus on short term risk versus (no thought at all) on long-term existential risk (witness Kodak).

I give Canon and Nikon a “D” in terms of real innovation (more megapixels with essentially no change to form factor is not innovation). But I give Sony a B+ for its RX1, which breaks the price and sensor size mold for a compact, along with the RX100 which puts a lot of good stuff in one package together with an oddball size sensor. The point is that these two cameras came to market from Sony, and not Nikon or Canon. It shows a cultural willingness to break outside the mold, even if it’s only a big bulge and not a rupture. As I wrote some months ago, Sony vs Nikon and Canon — Lunch is Served, but WHO WILL EAT IT?.

It would probably take $5M dollars for a prototype camera to be developed along the lines I am thinking. But the cost barrier to entry are difficult: pricing for key camera parts makes it impossible to compete on price with the big guys (buying in lots of 1000 vs lots of 100,000).


View all handpicked deals...

Nikon Z7 II Mirrorless Camera
$2997 $2997
SAVE $click

diglloyd Inc. | FTC Disclosure | PRIVACY POLICY | Trademarks | Terms of Use
Contact | About Lloyd Chambers | Consulting | Photo Tours
RSS Feeds | X.com/diglloyd
Copyright © 2022 diglloyd Inc, all rights reserved.