Camera rumors for 2016?

If FS7II doesn't have, at least, all the features of A6500, it's either a crippled product or a result of some nefarious back door collusion. Just by scanning the features of the hybrids much lower in price, it ought to have a 15-20 MPX oversampling and backside illuminated sensor, that 4D auto focus that works with Sony - and hopefully off-brand E-mount - lenses with touch screen focusing and 5-Axis IBIS.

It also should have either faster intra quality XAVC bit rate or, preferably, compressed in-body Raw in X-OCN, much improved rolling shutter, center crop options, 12-bit Raw out to the external recorder via the latest HDMI, compliance with the latest and fastest SD cards (fat chance) and a lower price tag.
 
NorBro said:
DLD...with all your knowledge about the industry...maybe you should build a camera?
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A guy goes on vacation to Miami and tries to find a cheap, cheap hotel. He checks out his first, second, third, forth options. All seem far too expensive. Finally, he enters one that seems priced to his budget. "Great deal", he tells the counter clerk. "Is there a catch?" - "The only catch is that you have to make your own bed", replies the counter clerk. "No problem. I can handle that just fine", replies our hero. The counter clerk then reaches under the said counter, "You'll need a hammer and some nails".

Well, that's how I'd be building that camera. With hammer and nails.

(PS. This "hammer and nails" joke goes back, at least, to the 1950's. The first time I heard it was in Woody Allen's "Broadway Danny Rose", where a bunch of real aging comedians - Sandy Baron, Jackie Gayle, Corbett Monica, Howard Storm, et al - are talking about the biz and what jokes work and what don't for them)
 
I put a year of work into making my own camera. I bought a big FPGA and learned to program it using VHDL, rented the CMV12000 test bed to see how that sensor works and get all the docummentation, etc. I got stuck at trying to implement a wavelet codec for RAW images (VC5) (the FPGA simulations weren't behaving as I expected, and I had a hard time finding the bug), then decided making shorts was more fun than making cameras, and the sensor wasn't that good either. With the sCMOS 4.6K sensor out, I wondered making a simple camera that just stores uncompressed RAW out of that, at 24fps, would be good enough. But still: I'd have to spend 6 or 12 months without shooting anything or basically doing anything else besides my actual work, and I don't know if I want to play "making cameras" THAT MUCH.
 
NorBro said:
Well, if we can't build our own, let's vote to build one!

https://www.cinema5d.com/vote-to-help-manufacturers-create-a-dream-video-dslr-or-mirrorless-camera/
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The problem isn't that the manufacturers don't know what people want but that people in charge of those companies have to offset that with the pricing structure/budgetary concerns. In other words, people want an Alexa for an URSA Mini price (and, had it not been for the magenta cast and the QC issues, they pretty much had it). Johnnie's test, at least, showed the users rank of preferences, though a given feature will have a different production/R&D cost than other and the manufacturers have to make sure they hit the sweet spot with their offerings.
 
Making a camera is like making a car is like making anything : everything is a matter of trade-offs and compromises.

Or not. But then you will need a lot of cash to produce it or to buy it.

We all want a camera with a lot of Dynamic Range, low noise and high sensitivity. High frame rates, slow motion. RAW and compressed recording with a lot of bit depth. Small size and lightweight. Good thermal management with no overheating. Global shutter or fast readout sensor. Great ergonomics and all the full format A/V outputs we need (OK, this ones should be a given). No fancy, expensive recording medias for on-board recording. A high quality viewfinder and/or monitor with exposure and video assist tools. Accurate color reproduction and great color science. Sensor stabilization.

And of course we want all that for cheap.

Some cameras, I'm thinking about FS7/FS5 and somehow the URSA 4.6K ticks all those boxes, more or less.

Of course we never run out of UN-satisfaction and always want more but I think we reached, since the release of the aforementioned cameras, an important milestone, unthinkable a dozen of years ago.

The best is (as always) yet to come.
 
Samuel H said:
I put a year of work into making my own camera. I bought a big FPGA and learned to program it using VHDL, rented the CMV12000 test bed to see how that sensor works and get all the docummentation, etc. I got stuck at trying to implement a wavelet codec for RAW images (VC5) (the FPGA simulations weren't behaving as I expected, and I had a hard time finding the bug), then decided making shorts was more fun than making cameras, and the sensor wasn't that good either. With the sCMOS 4.6K sensor out, I wondered making a simple camera that just stores uncompressed RAW out of that, at 24fps, would be good enough. But still: I'd have to spend 6 or 12 months without shooting anything or basically doing anything else besides my actual work, and I don't know if I want to play "making cameras" THAT MUCH.
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Basically Samuel, you've been trying to do what Apertus is doing with the AXIOM. But unlike them, you stopped toying around and you are not using European tax payers money either to keep doing it.
 
In fact we started the project at around the same stuff, but I had to learn a lot of stuff before getting my hands dirty (it took me about 6 months to learn the basics of VHDL). I had some talk with them at the time, but we were aiming for completely different goals: I wanted to get rich, they didn't XD
 
PLEASE DO
(it shouldn't be news anyway: I was sure I could find the email where I told exactly this to one of you, and well, it was to precisely to you, 3-jan-2013)
 
There's a new Fuji XA-3 camera coming out in November. Entry level X-system. $600, with the 16-50 lens.
 
DLD said:
21,000 fps for $2,500. Chronos super high speed camera.

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This is pretty cool. Not exactly a pro level HS camera but good enough for certain things. 1280 x 720 at 1,507 fps is pretty cool and usable in 1080 production. Excited to see where this goes. HS photography is so fun, especially slowing down bullets and explosions.
 
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