Invidious camera comparisons?

[Clactonian]

I am still waiting to find the perfect camera. It needs to do macro, portraits, wide angle, sports and wildlife,be discreet, light, idiot proof to operate, have superb IQ and fast optics, be easy to focus for glasses wearers like me, not take ages to download, have built in backup, not require my name to be Rockerfeller or Onassis, and look cool at at all times. This seems like a pretty straightforward brief to me: I can't understand the delay in delivery.

I suspect you've missed the boat and it was a Box Brownie, but then you're probably not old enough to remember those!

[Manfred M]

The only thing that I would have added to the camera, and this has been a long term niggle about a number of models, is that there is no viewfinder blind, which means you have to fiddle about with a little rubber cap attached to the camera strap to fulfil this function.

They know it's a requirement which is why they supply the cap, so why not include a simple blind like my old A1 used to have?

I strongly suspect that this goes back to my original posting; price point and user profile for the device are one of the first considerations for any design team. Let’s explore the viewfinder blind that you mention. My Leica R3 has one and so does my Nikon D800; but both of these are pro cameras. My Nikon D90, which is a high-end consumer camera, does not. It has this easy to lose clip that attaches over the viewfinder using the hot shoe to mount it.

I expect that having this feature was considered to be important by the people working on the product spec for all of these cameras, but the price point consideration was probably what drove the design decision for a less user friendly solution on the D90. The Leica and Nikon internal viewfinder blind are fairly complex. A two part thin metal blade arrangement plus an external weather sealed lever and internal cam mechanism, guide channels, etc. The D90’s device is an injection moulded piece with a stamped piece of spring steel that has been moulded right in. It doesn’t take much of a guess to figure out which one costs less to design, manufacture and install…

The other part is the issue is the user profile. I remember reading an interview with a member of the Nikon camera design team where he mentioned that a very high portion of entry level DSLR users buy their camera with a kit lens and never buy any additional lenses, so this is taken into consideration when this type of camera is designed. I suspect a similar analysis was undertaken for the viewfinder blind on a consumer level DSLR. I know I’ve discussed this feature with a number of amateur shooters and even the ones that should know better either were unaware of the viewfinder cover or seemed unsure what it is used for. The cynic in me suspects that this might be part of a ploy to drive advanced users to buying higher end gear.

[Wayland]

Too true.

There are a couple of features that have been deliberately disabled compared to it's big brothers using the same processing chip.

The ability to save an internally generated HDR with the frames that produced it for example.

It's a shame because I think they missed an opportunity to produce almost that "perfect" camera for one genre at least.

I guess I'll just have to wait for the "Magic Lantern" firmware extensions that will probably come along.

[jcuknz]

I suspect you've missed the boat and it was a Box Brownie, but then you're probably not old enough to remember those!

I took my first 'self motivated' photo with a box brownie back in 1940 ...earlier that summer a nice french lass had asked me to press the trigger for her on a beach in Jersey, Dinard?, ... that was my first photo It was another woman who started me on my life long interest in 'sponsoring' some movies I shot for her organisation. She just paid for the film and I shot for the free experience .... It COST to shoot film, four rolls equalled the cost of my 2/h camera That was about five minutes of recording

[Wayland]

It COST to shoot film, four rolls equalled the cost of my 2/h camera That was about five minutes of recording

I reckon the film I haven't shot since I went digital has probably paid for all my equipment since...