How to design a realy useful camera

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Leen Koper
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How to design a realy useful camera

Post by Leen Koper »

Maybe I am just only an extremely old fashioned photographer. Maybe I am just someone lonely, shouting in the desert of modern equipment. Maybe it is due to my age.
But there is something I don't understand. Why does every camera have that awful lot of buttons I don't need in any way. Why does every camera have that annoyance of video and a lot of other extras built in while I -probably old fashioned- don't need these at all. I understand it comes as very little, or probably no cost since it has been developed, but that does not automatically imply that it really should be there...

I just want -and need- a simple camera. Just one that has a P, A, S and T setting, ISO setting and some other things, immediately related to photography. I don't need a manual of 400 pages, or even worse, an extremely extensive manual on CD or DVD that in an very ridiculous translation by Google from Chinese to Japanese to English can hardly be understood. This all because a lot of people are drowned in the middle of so many features they never use or will use. Now they think we can understand how to use these things we, serious photographers, will never use.

In the past Minolta understood these photographers. If a camera needed an extensive manual, they started with something that explained in a few pages how to use it and if you wanted to know more you might consult the next pages. You did not have to read those extra pages, you just might do it to learn something extra when you need it. Just that.

Now I have to wrestle through an endless sea of information to find something I need. All this due to the too many features they have built in. I don't need that! And, how could I find something that is on my computer on the CD when I am out in the fields? Or worse, when I am out on a job and something unexpected comes up?

I want a simple camera. A camera I can use immediately without reading for hours the manual. Just five minutes would do. Not the way I was confronted with it, when I bought my new camera and together with an experienced photographer we had to delve in the manual and found out how to program it in a simple way. I don't need to know how I can limit the ISO setting to a maximum or how to program the five buttons to situations that hardly occur or any other useless information. And I don't like the buttons that I automatically, but unintentionally push when using the camera, due to their placement, and have to delve in the manual on CD when I am in the fields and cannot use my computer at all.

I want a simple, well translated manual, with buttons on the camera I can switch off. A camera I can use immediately when I know how to use a camera, when I know how to use my aperture, speed and ISO setting. It might cost a little more, but I don't need video at all. They sell video cameras and "telephones" for that. Just a camera for photographers.

I am sorry for this rant, but I am fed up with all these extras. Just a plain, simple instrument for people who know how to take a photo. No toys. That is all I ask for.
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Stany Buyle
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Re: How to design a realy useful camera

Post by Stany Buyle »

Nikon Df? Small, light, simple, and very high IQ...
kindest regards,

Stany
I like better one good shot in a day than 10 bad ones in a second...
http://www.fotografie.cafe
Leen Koper
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Re: How to design a realy useful camera

Post by Leen Koper »

Yes, you are right. It is the result of engineering I like. But the price of about 2500 euro is just too steep for me. I can afford it, but I have other priorities. :lol:
Moreover, for me personally, it is a little too heavy. Not just the camera, but the weight of the lenses is killing me.

In my opinion it should be possible to produce such a camera for limited extra costs. Just make a way to switch the extras off so I can use the camera without pressing buttons unintentionally. This switch should producing a camera at 1/3 of the price of the Nikon Df make a viable option and a lot of users very happy. Moreover, printing a limited manual and the rest on Cd would be very welcome, both from a lot of users point of view as the manufacturers. They might even sell the completely printed copy as an extra!
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Stany Buyle
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Re: How to design a realy useful camera

Post by Stany Buyle »

Dag Leen,
Probeer deze link eens...
Graag opmerkingen of het werkt...
Heb nog wat vertaalwerk maar dan kunnen we starten.

Groetjes,
Stany
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