Originally posted by mee Your way would function OK but would still be more limited.
I work with music synthesizers that have knobs for large parameter values and see it depends on the speed of the dial vs number on the screen -- one swipe of the knob could potentially jump by a large amount depending on the speed and distance the knob was spun.
Another option would be to simply allow one to program 100s 10s and 1s individually similar to the intervalometer. Very little scrolling (0-9). Could program with the 4 way pad and then allow one of the knobs to fine tune. IF you're setting a shutter time in the 100s of seconds then speed of programming wouldn't be an issue. Perhaps they could do both your way and my way -- provide a few extra long shutter speeds and then an X mode at the end that is programmable. There are a variety of ways to do this, but I'm looking at removing limitations in body vs pocketing another thing (to forget to bring) to the shoot.
Camera and synths need different interfaces. Synths aren't commonly used outdoors in the cold while wearing gloves, and lighted controls for synths don't have to consider preserving night vision.
Manual shutter works fine today. If 25 seconds is underexposed increase to the next breakpoint, 30 seconds. No one is clamoring for 26, 27, 28, 29 second settings. Jumps in the shutter speed are adequate when you're exposing for several minutes. I don't think any photographers would say "that 180 second photo looks a little underexposed, let me redo it with a 181 second shutter". If 180 is too short, 210 or 240 seems fine as the next step
Think about it. If shutter needs to be continuously variable, should the same be done with aperture and ISO? Do away with the 1/3 stops and allow us to set f/11.0, f/11.1, f/11.2, etc. ISO 6400 looks too noisy so I'll use ISO 6399. That seems like a user interface nightmare using buttons or knobs; we need thought-controlled cameras.