The Perfect Camera

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Andy Grant
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I was just thinking, during a moments respite from my busy work schedule, what would be my ultimate, perfect camera.....:thinking:

I think a TLR with a top quality zoom lens, an accurate meter and the ability to change formats from 35mm through to 6x4.5, 6x6, 6x9 and maybe even a pano setting. Light enough to carry all day and with shutter speeds up to 1/4000 and a hot shoe. Not too much to ask I say, come on camera manufacturers get your fingers out....:D

Any thoughts on your perfect camera?

Andy G
 
A Carbon Fibre RB67 would do me nicely :thumbs:
 
Wouldn't be too hard, lenses are still too heavy though.
 
The tiniest possible MF AF SLR that would also be easily convertable to digital and fit in a pocket. Never going to happen though! ;)
 
Woodsy said:
a 5x4 folder that weighs less than 1KG and is sturdier than anything currently made.
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You forgot the ingenious addition to the ground glass that acts as a fresnel to aid when using wide angles but also helpfully makes everything 10 times brighter so that you can see easily, with some kind of AR plane of focus projected onto it. Also if it could then show you the wedge of acceptable sharpness (which can be refined by the user to determine what is acceptable) as you stop the lens down, all while not getting any dimmer. While we're in the realms of aids on the groundglass it should also combine with ND grads to show you where the grad area starts and ends. I guess really I want Jarvis in a groundglass :D
 
Something really, really small, that was perhaps built into my phone so that I would always have it to hand..
 
raathistle said:
You forgot the ingenious addition to the ground glass that acts as a fresnel to aid when using wide angles but also helpfully makes everything 10 times brighter so that you can see easily, with some kind of AR plane of focus projected onto it. Also if it could then show you the wedge of acceptable sharpness (which can be refined by the user to determine what is acceptable) as you stop the lens down, all while not getting any dimmer. While we're in the realms of aids on the groundglass it should also combine with ND grads to show you where the grad area starts and ends. I guess really I want Jarvis in a groundglass :D
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That too :D
 
Well I can't think of a perfect camera, but would like a 35mm colour neg film that would go to 12,800 ISO and have grain compared to a 100 ISO film...and cows might fly.
 
compulsivehordr said:
Something really, really small, that was perhaps built into my phone so that I would always have it to hand..
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Crazy fool....you'll be wanted a device that can store all your record collection on that fits in a pocket next....:cuckoo:
 
excalibur2 said:
Well I can't think of a perfect camera, but would like a 35mm colour neg film that would go to 12,800 ISO and have grain compared to a 100 ISO film...and cows might fly.
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Ooo, this is a good point! It goes the other way for me though... I want a nice ISO 1 film (colour and B&W) that has no reciprocity failure. Ever. Oh and also a perfectly flat wavelength response. Oh and be only £0.01 / sheet.
 
raathistle said:
Also if it could then show you the wedge of acceptable sharpness (which can be refined by the user to determine what is acceptable) as you stop the lens down, all while not getting any dimmer.
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Come to think of it, this is not impossible at all. All it would need to know is the distance from film plane to lens plane and the angle of tilt. The rest you could tell it (the computer). Focus distance into the frame can be calculated from lens focal length and film-lens distance. Aperture is simply a numerical variable in the calculation (thus meaning your viewfinder doesn't need to get darker in composing the image :)) and ground to lens distance you could measure as well. That is all you need to know. The technology for in-plane image projection is already proven (gun red dot sights and alike).

Shame there is really no real market for it eh! ;)
 
I already own my dream camera 6x7 Pentax ML11 kit
 
Here's a possibly slightly controversial (but eminently practical and maybe possible) idea... A TLR with one lens recording to film but the other recording to a digital (6x6) sensor. The digital sensor could also be sending to a screen as the viewfinder.
 
Nod said:
Here's a possibly slightly controversial (but eminently practical and maybe possible) idea... A TLR with one lens recording to film but the other recording to a digital (6x6) sensor. The digital sensor could also be sending to a screen as the viewfinder.
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Sounds very possible indeed.
 
I would love a camera where i didn't have to change film all the time. I could just take hundreds of images on the same roll, set at whatever iso i like, and then just plug the roll in to a computer rather than tediously dev and scan. Wait... Doh.
 
I all ready have the "perfect camera"

#1 Doesn't need batteries.
#2 Unlimited storage, however it may decay over time.
#3 Images do not need post processing.
#4 Optics can be enhanced, or corrected, by the addition of relatively cheap lens attachments.
#5 Normally operates in panorama mode however this may be instantly switched tpo something more "focussed".
#6 Images are always correctly exposed.
#7 Focussing is very fast, however it may degrade over time.
#8 The camera normally has the ability to learn
#9 The camera is waterproof

Downsides.

#1 Image storage is not permanent
#2 Images can only be direct viewed by the photographer

What I am looking for is an interface that allows images to be viewed externally and also for archival storage.
 
A further downside is blurred/double images when the camera owner has had a few too many beers :)

RichardTaylor said:
I all ready have the "perfect camera"

#1 Doesn't need batteries.
#2 Unlimited storage, however it may decay over time.
#3 Images do not need post processing.
#4 Optics can be enhanced, or corrected, by the addition of relatively cheap lens attachments.
#5 Normally operates in panorama mode however this may be instantly switched tpo something more "focussed".
#6 Images are always correctly exposed.
#7 Focussing is very fast, however it may degrade over time.
#8 The camera normally has the ability to learn
#9 The camera is waterproof

Downsides.

#1 Image storage is not permanent
#2 Images can only be direct viewed by the photographer

What I am looking for is an interface that allows images to be viewed externally and also for archival storage.
Click to expand...
 
The Matt said:
I would love a camera where i didn't have to change film all the time. I could just take hundreds of images on the same roll, set at whatever iso i like, and then just plug the roll in to a computer rather than tediously dev and scan. Wait... Doh.
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You forgot..."and still retrieve the shots in 50 years time" :lol:
 
The Matt said:
I would love a camera where i didn't have to change film all the time. I could just take hundreds of images on the same roll, set at whatever iso i like, and then just plug the roll in to a computer rather than tediously dev and scan. Wait... Doh.
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There was always going to be one! :bonk:

A medium format sensor in a camera barely bigger than the sensor would be wonderful, especially paired to a fast lens.
 
The Matt said:
I would love a camera where i didn't have to change film all the time. I could just take hundreds of images on the same roll, set at whatever iso i like, and then just plug the roll in to a computer rather than tediously dev and scan.
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That will never happen!


Steve.
 
surely the perfect camera is the one that you have with you? ;) that point of view certainly helps with GAS :lol:
 
Now don't say that :lol: i don't need any encouragement!
 
Sectionate said:
I think a digital TLR would be a great thing
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...but digital guys don't consider" will all their JPGs be around, or last, or can be used, in the future"...an archival problem around the world and libraries etc are microfilming.
 
excalibur2 said:
...but digital guys don't consider" will all their JPGs be around, or last, or can be used, in the future"...an archival problem around the world and libraries etc are microfilming.
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Sadly microfilm as a distribution and archival format is pretty much dead, no major journal (in science at least) can still be obtained on it, and the British Library have discontinued their microfilm service for Newspapers, Journal Issues etc in their archive.

Supposedly digital archiving is better (which truth to to told it probably is regarding storage space etc), but at least with microfilm you know it will work in the future (apart from the fact that I seemed to be the only person in the university library last year that actually used the Microfilm viewer/scanner [or indeed knew how to use it apart from one member of the library staff])!
 
The jpg and Tiff formats have been around for 20 odd years though. This is forever in digital terms. I wouldn't worry. The file formats aren't the issue. It is whatever they are stored on...
 
The Matt said:
I would love a camera where i didn't have to change film all the time. I could just take hundreds of images on the same roll, set at whatever iso i like, and then just plug the roll in to a computer rather than tediously dev and scan. Wait... Doh.
Click to expand...

I would love a camera where I could change the sensor for every shot - so not worry about dust, Could take lots if images in changing light conditions knowing I wasn't going to blow out the highlights and not have to plug it into a tedious computer to see my pictures. Wait... Doh!


Steve.
 
A digital back that I could use with my m/f Nikons.
 
A SLR capable to give the same definition and size of a large-format camera, a film which can change at will from 12 to 12K ISO but always maintaining the image quality, and a lens capable to shot the best macros of insects as well as close-ups of the Lunar craters with a f/0.98 all the way, but all this in the size of an OM-1 camera and a Zuiko 35mm lens. :P
 
srichards said:
The jpg and Tiff formats have been around for 20 odd years though. This is forever in digital terms. I wouldn't worry. The file formats aren't the issue. It is whatever they are stored on...
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Having spent much of the last nearly 20 years on the fringes of digital preservation and curation, this is absolutely spot on!

Mind you, the film world isn't entirely without risk. Among my several thousand packs of negatives, there are 3 from the early 70s where the coating is coming off. It's not as if I stored them in environments varying from sub-zero to >45 degrees C, 0-100% humidity... oh, hang on...
 
ChrisR said:
Having spent much of the last nearly 20 years on the fringes of digital preservation and curation, this is absolutely spot on!

Mind you, the film world isn't entirely without risk. Among my several thousand packs of negatives, there are 3 from the early 70s where the coating is coming off. It's not as if I stored them in environments varying from sub-zero to >45 degrees C, 0-100% humidity... oh, hang on...
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...but I'm posting shots 50 years old scanned from negs\pos :shrug:
 
As said above though, the digital file format is not the problem, what they are stored on is. I personally like it how one person in the documentary 'Side by Side' (which examines various film vs digital cinematography arguments) put it:

"If you don't boot a hard disk up enough then they go click... click... click...., but if however you do it too much then you get click... click... click"

The problem is that there is no real archival digital storage format, which creates the ironic situation of a film master being struck from digitally shot films, to be stored for the purposes of insurance reasons!
 
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