[FullertonImages]

Still not possible if you need 1000ws power and the flashes to be 300m away unless you got unlimited cash.

I would love to see pentax opening up x-sync lock and allow you to sync faster than 1/180 also maybe add pocket wizard hypersync function which allows you to finetune when camera syncs flashes to push x-sync.
Like Canon 1D Mark3 has 1/250 x-sync but when using Pocket Wizard Hypersync you can get full lit frame with 1/500! And Canon DOESN'T shut off hotshoe when you exceed x-sync speed...

Yeah, I really wish you could exceed the sync limit. It's really useful. I think they should team up with Elinchrom and offer Skyport technology built into the next body and a new flash unit. That would be sweet.

[rawr]

I'd stick a Nikon badge on it.

Then I'd be able to charge twice as much for it.

It would also increase the chances of me actually seeing it in stores.

[PolishMike]

I would make the LV and RAW buttons user-customizable. Those are my main gripes, along with the behaviour of the top LCD and the status display - all easy fixes in a new firmware (pretty please Pentax...). Manual control in movie mode and a better HDR algorithm also seem like obvious changes.

As for actual changes, I would like Pentax to rework their shutter mechanism for higher X-Sync and FPS next model. The dead hotshoe above X-sync is a bit of a bummer as well. In fact the whole flash system needs an update (make the flashes communicate through 2.5Ghz wireless and you will be miles ahead of anyone else! or at the very lest copy Canikon's systems). A dedicated bracketing button needs to come back. Dual SD slots that can actually RAID together for either speed or backup would be nice.

As for ergonomics - I just received my 16-50 back from repair, and I find it sits very well on the K-7. I can use both the e-dials and reach the green button with the camera in one hand, which is something you wouldn't ever really do with such a heavy lens. The body could be just a smidgen taller and the grip just a tiny bit more protruding to be perfect for my hand .

[MikePerham]

My USER mode IS TAv mode!! (with a few tweaks)

Well there you go ...perhaps Pentax should put the TAv and Sv modes into the menu and allow 3 USER modes on the dial so you can configure the camera to those settings, with tweaks, or any other of 3 configurations one choses.

ps: When Pentax put the shake reduction in the menu as opposed to the dedicated switch, I was a bit put off. However, I am now glad as it allows me to employ the USER setting to configure several settings, including turning off the SR, for a specific application such as tripod use, and accomplish all this with one mode dial setting.

[Robert Barnett]

I would put in a powerful enough processor and enough memory so that you could buy, download and install imaging applications in to the camera. Applications like proper HDR with control over the merging process. Applications like full on pano stitching, improved image editing, directory control so that I can have the camera put pano images in to a pano directory, hdr images in to an hdr directory, etc. These directories would be choosable via a button on the camera.

I woudl put on a 4-inch swivel LCD screen of the highest resolution and color depth currently available.

I would improve the video so that the camera would auto-focus and meter as the video was being shot. I would include a nice little stereo microphone in the box and remove the mono-one from the body.

I would make the LCD screen a touch screen and design the cameras interface and OS to make the best possible use of this. This would remove the need for so many physical buttons on the camera (they could be on the screen) and this would allow for a much larger LCD screen.

I would develop new battery technology for it so that you got 5 times the life from a charge which would make the more powerful processory, LCD screen and touch screen interface possible.

I would open the application development to third parties and setup an App store ala Apple.

I would offer user kits where they user chooses up to three Pentax lenses that they can buy along with the body and get a nice discount (like rebate amount discounts) I would also allow them to get accessories with the kit at discounted prices like flashes, remote releases, tripods, etc. The more the buy with your kit the better your price. All Pentax lenses and flashes would be available to choose from as well as third party items (a more limited selection would be fine for the third party items.)

I would boost the sensor resolution to 24.6MP while developing new technology both in the sensor and making use of the more powerful processor to handle any increase in noise (a noise reduction application like Noise Ninja for the Pentax could be an option.)

Robert

[PolishMike]

I would make the camera weigh 15 pounds and need power from a micro-fusion reactor

I don't get the need for in-camera image processing at all. Even a 4 inch touchscreen with an amazingly powerful processor for a mobile device has got nothing on a netbook or 13 inch laptop with a dual-core processor, SSD drive and 4GB RAM.

Take a look at good HDR or panorama compositing software - look at how many options you have to take control of to make the image you want - you have multiple projection mapping modes, feature fitting algorithms, exposure smoothing options, options dependent on field of view, the tilt angle of the camera, and so on... The iPhone app design approach can produce some pretty complex apps controllable via a touchscreen, but it's not right for the complexity and amount of numerical settings necessary for advanced image editing. No matter how good screens ever get, 4in is not enough to display a photo and related data in true detail. I think image taking and processing need to be kept very much separate.

Also, a touchscreen-driven dSLR would be terrible. Sticking a touchscreen on for changing menu settings and reviewing images is ok, but removing dedicated controls is going to be a disaster. A dSLR's shooting controls need to have very defined haptic feedback (people are complaining that the K-7's AF mode switch doesn't "click" firmly enough in the APS-C position, making it hard to tell what mode you're in) and need to always be in the same place.

I know you are describing a very pie-in-the-sky future, but it's honestly one I would rather not see happen. You are describing a camera that's not a tool but a toy. A camera with an "upload to facebook" button. A camera with a "LOLCAT" and "FAIL" image macro maker application. A camera all about instant gratification and gadgetry rather than photographic craft.


While the speculation has moved about 10 years into the future, here's what I want from my future cameras:
- An advancement of the foveon or similar sensor, with each photosite being able to capture all incoming light in all colours (preferably a true array of microspectroscopes, capturing wavelength information).
- Advancements in the sensor technology allowing more DR - advanced amplifier circuits to prevent the sensor from ever clipping to white.
- A reworking of the sensor gating technology to alleviate the need for a physical shutter.
- Better processors and buffers that allow for entirely uninterrupted operation of all camera features.
- An optical viewfinder technology with integrated transparent display for optional histogram, focus point and info display in the VF.
- Wi-Fi driven tethering and flash control, along with APIs enabling advanced functions (allow the computer to provide location/setting metadata to the camera or carry out advanced pTTL metering based on positions of strobes etc...)

[Vertex Ninja]

1x magnification, 100% coverage viewfinder! Even if it meant the flash had to removed to fit the prism.

Better highlight dynamic range. I'm tired of having to choose between noisy shadows or blown highlights when shooting scenes where a ND grad filter won't work(i.e. dark forest with sun light breaking through the canopy). A sensor that behaves like negative film would be great!

[song_hm]

Use the SR system to provide focus bracketing.

[thenessie]

concerning the timer controlled shots:
It would be nice to have the possibility to lock the mirror up, so that if you shoot for example pictures for a 24h time-lapse-video you don't get 1440 releases per 1 hour time lapse video.
That should be easily possible with a firmware update, since during the live view the mirror is locked also. The overheating problem could be avoided by simply switch the picture processing during waiting time off.

[Lowell Goudge]

Having used one now since they were first introduced in canada at the end of may, I think the biggest things I would want are:

- high speed sync with the in body flash (my lowely *istD can do this)
- TTL flash metering sensor (Again like *istD)
- pentax supplied split image finder
- uncrippled K mount would be nice but might impact the package a little. I would settle for some form of intelligent metering with non A lenses based upon comparative metering between wide open and actual stopped down setting, with knowledge of maximum aperture (user input)

Aside from that, for me a continued evolution of some form of 14MP sensor with HIGH ISO improved.,

[GeneV]

Having used one now since they were first introduced in canada at the end of may, I think the biggest things I would want are:

- high speed sync with the in body flash (my lowely *istD can do this)
- TTL flash metering sensor (Again like *istD)
- pentax supplied split image finder
- uncrippled K mount would be nice but might impact the package a little. I would settle for some form of intelligent metering with non A lenses based upon comparative metering between wide open and actual stopped down setting, with knowledge of maximum aperture (user input)

Aside from that, for me a continued evolution of some form of 14MP sensor with HIGH ISO improved.,

Good suggestions.

The uncrippled K mount is requested with every new Pentax body. I don't think it is coming. I'm not sure I understand what your alternative proposal is.

I don't understand why we can't get a Pentax screen with focus aids, even with the caveat that spot metering won't work.

[Lowell Goudge]

Good suggestions.

The uncrippled K mount is requested with every new Pentax body. I don't think it is coming. I'm not sure I understand what your alternative proposal is.

I don't understand why we can't get a Pentax screen with focus aids, even with the caveat that spot metering won't work.

My alternate suggestion for the un-crippled K mount is as follows.

For P-TTL flash to work, it needs to know the maximum aperture and the set aperture. or at least the difference between the two. You could in theory let the camera meter the light with lens wide open and lens stopped down, and the difference is the number of stops you have selected, but life is never as simple as theory. the modern focusing screens used do not seem to behave linearly, and there is an error in the metering, which is largely based upon the actual lens aperture. as a result, just measuring the change in light, open to stopped down is not enough because this change is also a function of maximum aperture.

This issue first arose on the K10D with it;s focusing screen, and I plotted the exposure error for the K10D compared to my *istD, with an SMC Pentax 50mm F1.4 lens,

the results have been posted many times.

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-dslr-discussion/84676-k10-k20-k7-b...us-lenses.html

As a result, I suspect pentax programms the non linearity into the camera metering routine, and it makes adjustments for each different maximum aperture lens based upon a curve like what I have shown.

If this is the case, then you could presume that if you enter maximum aperture as well as focal length for K mount lenses there is enough information to allow a stopped down metering test for use with P-TTL flash as well.

You could also make Av mode work although it might be slow. Meter wide open, then stop down lens meter again, set shutter speed and then raise the mirror to shoot.

[GeneV]

My alternate suggestion for the un-crippled K mount is as follows.

For P-TTL flash to work, it needs to know the maximum aperture and the set aperture. or at least the difference between the two. You could in theory let the camera meter the light with lens wide open and lens stopped down, and the difference is the number of stops you have selected, but life is never as simple as theory. the modern focusing screens used do not seem to behave linearly, and there is an error in the metering, which is largely based upon the actual lens aperture. as a result, just measuring the change in light, open to stopped down is not enough because this change is also a function of maximum aperture.

This issue first arose on the K10D with it;s focusing screen, and I plotted the exposure error for the K10D compared to my *istD, with an SMC Pentax 50mm F1.4 lens,

the results have been posted many times.

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-dslr-discussion/84676-k10-k20-k7-b...us-lenses.html

As a result, I suspect pentax programms the non linearity into the camera metering routine, and it makes adjustments for each different maximum aperture lens based upon a curve like what I have shown.

If this is the case, then you could presume that if you enter maximum aperture as well as focal length for K mount lenses there is enough information to allow a stopped down metering test for use with P-TTL flash as well.

You could also make Av mode work although it might be slow. Meter wide open, then stop down lens meter again, set shutter speed and then raise the mirror to shoot.

Thanks for that explanation. I have seen many threads on the metering issues. I wonder if that suggestion would work. It seems to me, that metering all K and M lenses would behave the same way at the same EV if the only problem were the nonlinearity of the screens. Is that the case?