[yucatanPentax]

All I would want in a photo camera if I would have the choice to build my own camera is this:


With a nice FF sensor on it.
No back screen, no video mode, nothing else! Just controls for aperture, shutter speed, ISO and white balance...

One can only dream...

I like your camera proposal and the looks of your prototype as well!

That would be all I needed to make me happy. Maybe all the fancy stuff could be worked by a touch-screen which had an "off" switch for full manual operation, as you mention. Then the squeezers and stretchers and touchers could turn it on and enjoy it too.

[richandfleur]

Oh the negativity...


A touchscreen would be a much better interface for reviewing photos, pinch to zoom, drag to navigate around a zoomed in image to review focus/sharpness and exposure etc.
In video mode it could be useful for directing autofocus to different parts of the frame as required, when working with a narrow depth of field.
Selecting multiple files for deletion if that's your thing.
Entering dates, text etc is all much easier.


A touch screen should supplement the physical controls, but should not replace them.
That's where others have failed in their implementations.
As with everything you should be able to turn the extra features off if you don't want to use it. No biggy.

[clackers]

A touch screen should supplement the physical controls, but should not replace them.

+1. I have a Samsung Mini NX, and the touchscreen is great for the various tasks listed above and terrible as a replacement for dedicated dials and buttons.

That's the price I paid for such a small form factor, but I would hate that to be inflicted on DSLR owners.

[jatrax]

No, because it's not a 'cool' factor, it's a 'stupid' factor.

Ouch.


So so far I have:
- set focus point in live view or video
- deleting or sorting files on camera
- entering text
- reviewing images on the camera, zooming etc.
- menu operation
- custom functions?? not sure that is

What else? Come on there has to be some really compelling reason to add a touch screen.

[Scintilla]

What else? Come on there has to be some really compelling reason to add a touch screen.

How about specifying multiple points that must be in focus for an auto-DoF mode?
Could something like that be seen as a cool enough feature to grab the smartphone generation's attention?

(Admittedly, I never used that mode on my Canon Rebel T3/1100D. Just tossing out a crazy idea.)

[Kunzite]

A touchscreen would be a much better interface for reviewing photos, pinch to zoom, drag to navigate around a zoomed in image to review focus/sharpness and exposure etc.
In video mode it could be useful for directing autofocus to different parts of the frame as required, when working with a narrow depth of field.
Selecting multiple files for deletion if that's your thing.

Is it, really? (note that I removed 'text entry' from the quoted text)
Again, how would you do that? Holding the camera with one hand and the other busy operating the touchscreen?

[richandfleur]

Ouch.


So so far I have:
- set focus point in live view or video
- deleting or sorting files on camera
- entering text
- reviewing images on the camera, zooming etc.
- menu operation
- custom functions?? not sure that is

What else? Come on there has to be some really compelling reason to add a touch screen.

Not really. These things are very cheap these days and the above gives a nicer interface. End of.


Seriously, my $100 NZD cheap android cellphone has a bigger touch screen than cameras, wifi and GPS, and it's 4 years old!
As of right now that's around $77US and £50 GB. Lets not pretend this technology is evil and is going to add so much more to the price.


You don't inadvertently press touchscreen buttons on a cell phone when you put it to your ear, so it can switch off when you put the camera to your eye/face.


Whilst we stay in APS-C land the sensors aren't getting much better, and it's the add on features that are separating the models.
Mostly better CPU's give faster responses, better buffer sizes and speeds, and better next attempts at autofocus etc.
IQ hasn't improved remarkably in several generations now, so get used to the add on features being the point of difference.

[Quicksand]

My crazy touchscreen idea?

Well, for a loooong time I have wished for a straightforward way to annotate a shoot. For example, if I'm using manual lenses, I'd like to be able to say "last shots at f5.6" or "upcoming shots at f11" or "prior shots were at 200mm, focal length set wrong," or say something about light stand positions, polarizer/ND filters, external flash power settings, or whatever. (Or even "dust spot noted in upper right above treeline.")

It would be nice to be able to very quickly type or draw something on the touchscreen that immediately gets inserted into the photo sequence, visually, and that will subsequently show up in Lightroom without further action, and adjacent to the photos the note applies to (so I don't need to meticulously record sequence numbers). So if I don't get around to raw processing for a week or two I haven't forgotten everything.

Right now my workaround is to write something on a piece of paper and take a picture of it, but if I have everything set up "just so" for a shot that's a poor compromise.

[WPRESTO]

Generally the exposure settings (ISO, TV, AV, flash used, exposure compensation) are automatically recorded in the exif data. Way back in the film era, magazines wanted film type used, f-stop, shutter speed, filter, lens etc. before they'd publish a photo, but if I recorded such data back then, I'd probably have gotten only a quarter of the pictures I did. Some photo buffs did record, saying they learned from the info how to take future pictures and looked back on their notes later. But, when is the light and subject exactly the same? Only in a studio. And who can remember where to look for the exposure used last time they got a perfect picture of a sky 21/2 minutes after the sun went down along a beach, and who would carry such data with them, and if you could remember when/where you recorded such data, you're memory should be good enough to remember the exposure. Auto bracketing obsoletes 90% of such data gathering. Don't mind if my all pencils are not perfectly parallel.

[jatrax]

And who can remember where to look for the exposure used last time they got a perfect picture of a sky 21/2 minutes after the sun went down along a beach, and who would carry such data with them, and if you could remember when/where you recorded such data, you're memory should be good enough to remember the exposure.

I bought a Spotmatic kit off ebay with little info or pictures but took a chance. Best buy I ever made, practically new Spotmatic plus 28, 50, & 135 Takumars, but that's another story. Taped carefully to the inside lid of the camera bag was a note card with precisely lettered instructions on what settings to use for sun, evening, cloudy etc. I can just imagine the original user taking out the camera and checking the instructions. Hmm cloudy, OK set aperture to.................

It looked like the card was written by someone else, maybe at the camera shop for someone who wanted to be a photographer. Based on the wear on the camera & lenses it did not work out well, they were all in 'like new' condition.

But I would second that annotating the shot is useful, I carry a notebook and try to make notes. Not so much the camera info as that will be recorded but the location, what was important in the shot, maybe names of people in it if possible. I usually forget but I do try.

[clackers]

It can be email addresses of people in the shot who copies need to be sent to, all kinds of things. Nothing wrong with touchscreens, only the ones on cameras where important physical controls have been dispensed with eg all phones.

[jatrax]

It can be email addresses of people in the shot who copies need to be sent to, all kinds of things. Nothing wrong with touchscreens, only the ones on cameras where important physical controls have been dispensed with eg all phones.

Good point. I think the problem for many of us is that I cannot type fast enough on a phone (or camera) to make it worthwhile. I would just record those things in my notebook. Younger people who grew up texting, well that is different. My DIL can text faster than I can talk.

[derekkite]

Ouch.


So so far I have:
- set focus point in live view or video
- deleting or sorting files on camera
- entering text
- reviewing images on the camera, zooming etc.
- menu operation
- custom functions?? not sure that is

What else? Come on there has to be some really compelling reason to add a touch screen.

Avoid tennis elbow. Instead of holding the body by the grip and scrolling through the images you would have to put it down or hold it with your other hand. Takes the strain of the right arm.

[clackers]

Good point. I think the problem for many of us is that I cannot type fast enough on a phone (or camera) to make it worthwhile. I would just record those things in my notebook. Younger people who grew up texting, well that is different. My DIL can text faster than I can talk.

Sure. A camera is always at a disadvantage anyway since its screen is only about 3" for reading and typing while for a phone these days it's 5" and up.

[richandfleur]

The new GoPro Hero4 Silver has a built in touch screen. It's tiny, like postage stamp size and it works really well. For interests sake only...