Originally posted by carrrlangas it still looks huge! If it isnīt getting any smaller, thereīs no doubt the modern design is much more versatile...
A k-5 without grip, pop up flash, top LCD, one or two fewer buttons, and smaller battery, (less functions to power up) would be nice... But how smaller, lighter would it be?
Don't get me started about size! The one reason these things are so massive is because 'bulk' = professional - there's no need for it. A clockwork MX had to find space for a film cartridge and equally a space for the wound out film. It also had to have all the mechanism for winding that film on and the space for the clockwork shutter and mechanical links. I simply do not believe that it's impossible to get a modern full-frame SLR down to the same size. The pressure plate and film lid holder on the back must take as much space as the whole sensor system alone. A quality camera has to be the size of a Twin-lens reflex to be taken seriously in the market - or does it?
It's time someone did what Olympus did with the OM-1 and turned the world upside down.
As for the modern design being more versatile - well yes, but is it just me that keeps moving dials and buttons inadvertently as I move the camera around in my hands or as I walk along? I spend more time looking at the bloody display in the viewfinder than I do the subject. I want f-stop round the lens throat, shutter dial on the top. Both with 'A' stops so you can get aperture/shutter/program there instantly and it'll stay put. Those are the fundamentals of shooting - just about every other parameter can be fiddled with after the shot is taken so you don't need a mass of buttons and dials and menus. Bury most of it in menus for those that want to play rather than take pictures and just have metering/focus/drive options on little dials as present. It could all be so much cleaner and more sexy.
I know I sound like a luddite, but cameras are becoming increasingly full of features that I don't want and which get in the way of the job in hand.
Last edited by Geoff H; 11-04-2013 at 02:21 AM.