ive aways liked my good old mamiys 645 pro (back in the film days), but have never gelled with the plasticy molded, all in one afd. but i think the afd is almost a good camera, it needs improving in quite a few areas to even be close to be concidered for me.
heres my wish list, although the design of the phase/mamiya is probably far too down the track to have any thing changed- i can only hope.
these things are not super high tech, or expensive to produce. just basic, important features (imho)
brighter larger viewfinder.why does the h1 seem to have the monopoly of bright finders. even the newly developed zd camera was like looking down a tunnel.
vertical grip.or at least leave the connectors to add an accessory one (and have it hold batteries).
if you shoot all day vertical, is a pain to hold a horizontal camera vertically. it can be one of those money making add ons that everybody would buy soon after the purchase of the camera body.
removable finder/ add a waist level.another thing they definately went backwards on since the 645pro. all the good reasons for having the removeable finder still exists in the future as it did in the past. i am aways shooting from the ground, or along a wall, or even some times with the camera above my head - the waist level finder is the only way you can go in many of these instances. a professional system should have more options, not less.
the other reason to have a removeable finder,is that you can draw on the focusing screen layouts, and formats. this is important for many page layouts, advertising shoots.
a decent eyecup.the h1 has a decent eye cup. i shoot along with cine crews quite a lot, and im jelous of the eye cups (and other accessories) they have on the arri cameras. its large and comfortable, with removable leather covers.
the phase/mamiya doesnt have to go that far, but a eyecup that effectivly removes light when shooting in the sun, and is comfortable enough to have stuck against your eye for long shoot days would seem like a no brainer.
leaf shutter lens option.this has been hinted on- great. they had that feature with the good old 645 pro. even the old pentax 645 had a few leaf shutter options. i want to have the option to shoot with flash outside with one lens, then have a really fast shutter speed on another shot, and use a super fast lens for
a tiny dof.
weather proofing.it dosnt have to be as extensive as the canon, but should have had some though into it.
i had my p25 written off by the tinyest drops of water that splashed onto me and my camera when shooting off the side of a boat. a drop of water entered the FW hole, and shorted the back.
it wasnt worth repairing, a total write off. that could have been fixed by having a cheap rubber bung covering the hole.
the arri cameras are my dream design example of what stills camera should be like. i would would pay twice as much for a medium format camera that had that kid of modularity and build quality.
ultimate lightness isnt a super important thing for me either, it more important to have ruggedness, and shooting options. i guess most peolp that can afford digital backs, use assistants- i do. get them to carry the bags.
it should look professional- this is important, when you spend top dollar, it should look the part.
look at this as a piece of design-
http://retrothing.typepad.com/photos/uncat...zed/arri416.jpgpaul
