Would this be totally out of the question? It seems to be necessary due
to the rather strange attitude of the major camera manufacturers.
IAC, some thoughts.
1. It should support 24 bit color JPEG2000 (both lossy and lossless)
compression. JPEG is basically obsolete and I can't help but wonder why
it is still the standard format for digital cameras since the artifacts
seriously degrade images -- actually worse than lower resolution would be.
2. The so called RAW format should be Adobe DNG and/or "OpenRAW" (which
isn't actually a format).
3. Communication with a computer should be an open standard. This seems
to be a large issue with gPhoto. This appears to be the classical
problem that a standard exists [PTP/IP; ISO 15740:2005] yet the
implementations don't follow it. Since the standard is only 189 CHF, it
would seem that it should be purchased and followed.
4. Then there is the problem of remote control of the camera; it appears
that there are no standards here. A computer connected by Ethernet,
IEEE-1394, or USB (a camera would probably have only one of these)
should be able to display the live preview image, obtain exposure and
focus information, and control all aspects of the camera that can be
controlled on the camera.
I also have a lot of issues with digital still cameras:
1. They seem to all be designed to emulate film still cameras. For some
reason, digital video cameras don't have these problems so I presume
that they are design issues. Is there some reason that you can't set
both the aperture and the shutter speed (within limits) and still have
automatic exposure control?
2. It is presumed that to have interchangeable lenses that it must be a
high end SLR. OTOH, the high end SLRs all seem to come with large (but
questionable quality) zoom lenses. In either case, the possible
advantages of a compact camera and lenses are lost. Nobody (except
Sigma) makes a fast normal lens.
3. Most of them have an optical viewfinders. Video cameras don't seem
to have this problem since an EVF is considered to be a feature.
4. There is probably an analog to Moore's Law for sensors. So, they
come out with a new sensor every year or two and you have to replace the
whole camera, and your old camera isn't worth much used for the same
reasons.
5. For some reason, 24x36mm and smaller formats don't have coolers.
6. For some reason, there isn't a digital only 48x36mm camera available
and there aren't fast lenses available for this format. A 60mm f/2.0
doesn't seem like an unreasonable request. The available cameras are
designed for 6x4.5cm at the smallest and fast lenses are not normally
used for 120 roll film due to film flatness issues.
7. Autofocus has its uses, but it shouldn't be at the expense of usable
manual focus. That is, digital SLRs have viewfinders that are not
really suitable for manual focusing.
8. The nature of light means that for smaller formats, you need a faster
lens and you can't stop the lens down to f/22 like you can with 24x36mm
without having diffraction degrade the image.
9. I'm not certain of the reason but most digital cameras have a minimum
ISO of 100. A few are a little lower but not by much.
--
JRT
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