Twenty First Century Camera Ideas

Looking over my current working camera bag it was hard not to think about how much money can get spent on gear over the course of a couple decades. The purchases were calculated for the most part. Buy a good camera body and it would last 7 to 10 years before it’s retired to “Bag B”.  Buy a new a lens when the need matched it’s ability to pay for itself. Buy a new motor drive when one wore out, that was until the motor became incorporated into the camera. Replace the on camera strobes about every three years. I had a pretty much had it worked down to the month until the digital era hit.

Today cameras become obsolete fast. It’s not that the camera stops working, it’s because the resolution, sensitivity and noise ratio of the camera’s sensors are improving at a breakneck pace. Why couldn’t camera manufacturers in the 35 mm (DX or FX) digital format take a page out medium format cameras game plan? I’ve got Hasselblads that date back to the mid 1970s and a Mamiya from mid 1980s and I can order a digital back to replace the film magazines. Two different manufacturers that were thinking forward decades instead of years for how long they expected their cameras to be in service.

When I knew a camera body was going to be working for ten years I had no problem spending the extra money for the dependability. Knowing that made it possible for me to purchase higher end lenses. If camera manufacturers would start building the sensor and recording assembly as a back that could be attached to a separate camera body then a photographer could simply upgrade when resolution or ther oimprovements warranted the upgrade. This would return the market to the time when higher priced lenses were selling at a higher rate.

I know the biggest obstacle to overcome will be to create a two piece unit of camera and back that has the handling of a 35 mm camera, a style that dates back to 1936 with the Kine Exakta (translated from German via Google). Some may remember the Rolleiflex SL 2000 F from 1981. The SL 2000 was a masterpiece of German engineering as a 35mm camera with removable film magazines and two viewfinders in it’s design. Commercially the camera was a failure. It was overpriced and had small dealer network that prevented the camera from ever receiving mainstream acceptance. Today’s manufacturing accomplishments and the shrinking of the integrated circuit with million of transistors on square inch it is possible to design and manufacture such a camera.

If I could tell the camera makers what I wanted a new digital to be it would be a Nikon FM2 (n or T) with digital back that has the sensor of the Nikon D3x. A reliable mechanical shutter and mirror box mashed up with a 24.5-megapixel FX-format (35.9 x 24.0mm) CMOS sensor (5.94µm pixels) digital back that I could upgrade when they reach the 40 megapixel benchmark. This would be the perfect marriage of an old school 35mm with Star Trekkish tech where it counts. And if someone would invent a Postscript sensor that would be even better, just think megapixels would go the way of the floppy.

That’s my opinion on where I think camera design should go. What improvements would you tell the camera makers to bring to market?