What is your dream camera?

K

KrocanX

Well-known member
With recent announcements it looks like we are getting closer to "perfect" camera. BUT we all have different needs, and manufacturers probably will not give us what exactly we (all) want ever. So what is you dream camera?

My wishlist:
- Fullframe
- IBIS
- FS5 style body camera
- great AF
- 1080p240
- 4k60p
- some form of 4k120p (burst?)
- great selection of codecs
- RED like raw
- awesome battery life
- high brightness OLED screen - at least 4"
- usefull EVF
- HDMI and SDI raw output
- electronic ND
- SD+CFast card slots
- two XLRs+3.5mm jack (4 channels of audio)

(don't care which brand)
 
I'd like either:

- An Alexa LF with the Sony Venice's ND system, boot time, power consumption and size and weight.

or...

- A Sony Venice, with the Alexa LF's integrated wireless FIZ and Video, high frame-rate capabilities, and 12-bit Prores recording options.

or...

- A Panavision DXL2, with the Sony Venice's ND system and boot time.


Any one of those unicorns would satisfy my needs perfectly.
 
KrocanX said:
With recent announcements it looks like we are getting closer to "perfect" camera. BUT we all have different needs, and manufacturers probably will not give us what exactly we (all) want ever. So what is you dream camera?
Click to expand...



I agree with him, in the photography still world the technical performance has plateaued out, with only incremental improvements now.

When will we reach this in the video world?

I reckon the BMPCC4K could be the beginning of the end.

ecause with 4K 60fps raw, and even greater HD slow motion, and pretty high DR and good lowlight, what really is left?

Of course just like the folks in the stills world there is a never ending list of "more" wanted!


But I reckon just like the stills world we might get soon to point we can worry less about the technical quality of the image, and more about everything else. (such as ergonomics, or having built in NDs, I/O options, TC, wireless, or focus tracking, etc)
 
Every camera is a hassle

Ok obviously 8kRaw at 2000fps 50,000 ISO through to 25iso

But what I really want is cameras designed for using..

Wireless headphone transmitter
Wireless monitor
Lav receivers inbuilt
Wireless FIZ receiver

Scrap wires for one.

Then small and light and modular and built to be used in rugged environments

And a zoom that is not toilet with a 24-150 ff range f4 would do..
 
Mine would be an FS5 body with the Venice sensor, ibis, autofocus of the A9, internal ProRes RAW.

At this point I’d buy an A7III in a FS5 body any day though...
 
I like my URSA Mini 4K. I just wish it was smaller, had a full frame sensor, was better in low light, and the EVF was included.
 
Dream camera, you say?

Well...(cue harp and ripple cross-disolve)

-Prism 3-chip Cmos sensor (VV or s35\4:3) for full RGB without relying on CFA dyes...for the best color, of course.
-Gold sensor circuitry for better transmission and lower noise floor.
-Internal NDs, and customizable filter trays where you can add your Glimmer Glass, ProMist, LowCon or whatever filtration you'll need for the shoot...behind the lens, of course.
-Mechanical shutter would be great. But a fast read-out will do.
-Dual read out technology like the Alexa, for highlight roll-off.
-Lenses by all major manufacturers with internal motors that can be controlled by the camera (or wirelessly). Short of this, next item.
-Internal FIZ, Video and audio receivers/transmitter, for full wireless operation.
-Venice size and weight.
-All flavors of RAW and compressed codecs, with LUT support and proxy recording...including sending highly compressed h265 compressed proxies via wifi to designated computer, for on-set editor. These must be actual proxies so on-set edits can be carried through to editorial.
-Motion sensors accurately recording every motion, shake and movement of the camera, for VFX and matching MOCO. So you can do a handheld run and repeat it exactly with a 7-axis robot, for example.
-All exposure tools, and onion-skinning. Just have onion-skinning, already! haha
-Auto-focus for documentary use, not limited to lenses since the camera either drives motorized lenses or drives the FIZ motors.
-Programmable operation between camera marks and internal operation. Since camera knows where it is at all times, if operator hits a mark, the camera can raise ISO and close aperture of lens to change depth of field...or and automatically zoom the lens between one mark and another...or change the shutter angle with a designated mark or camera movement...even hand-held.
-Sturdier version of a v-lock system on the bottom side of the camera, so it can go from shoulder rig to steadicam to remote head without needing to balance since it's not a sliding dovetail connection but a fixed locking mechanism that goes on the exact same place, every time. So once balanced, you can unclip from the steadicam, and clip to shoulder rig...or to tripod plate, or to remote head, without needing to balance it every time.
-Interchangable sensors and internal boards, a-la-Venice.
-Internal temperature controlled version, for minimizing performance variations in extreme conditions.

Phew...that was fun.

Back to earth, though, Alexa LF sensor, read-out tech and wireless modules, with mechanical shutter, Venice-sized and DXL-like operation of motorized lenses would be a dream as well.

Fun thread!
 
Dream you say? The Fincher Custom Red Xenomoph. But really I would be happy with a bitchin’ set of 2x anamorphic lenses for my gh5.
 
morgan_moore said:
.......Wireless headphone transmitter......
Click to expand...

THIS would be super cool. After using airpods for some time I always forgot take out my headphones when not filming and I ended up with going away from camera with plugged headphones :)).


And yeah, I forgot to add "keep it real" :)).
 
morgan_moore said:
Every camera is a hassle
Click to expand...

This pretty much sums it up. In 15+ years have any of us ever bought a camera that didn't have us scratching our head at something seemingly stupid easy to fix, or some limitation that just boils our blood, etc.? It actually puts me at a loss that after SO MANY CAMERAS and attempts, so many small things that seem obvious remain.

All these tech specs look great... most of all, give me a camera that doesn't have that "if only it did" or "if only it had fixed" issue. You know, the things that seem like they could be fixed in a firmware patch within a week that the community moans about for 3 years until the next version comes out and finally fixes, whilst introducing 4 new issues that everyone who actually uses it spots within a month... rinse, recycle, repeat...
 
Convergence is the name of the game now. Most everything we want is already out there, split between 6 different cameras and 12 different accessories.

The real challenge is now for manufactures to converge and implement. SD quality pre-amps built into camera. SmallHD quality screens built in. Super intuitive UIs in camera. etc.
 
filmguy123 said:
This pretty much sums it up. In 15+ years have any of us ever bought a camera that didn't have us scratching our head at something seemingly stupid easy to fix, or some limitation that just boils our blood, etc.? It actually puts me at a loss that after SO MANY CAMERAS and attempts, so many small things that seem obvious remain.

All these tech specs look great... most of all, give me a camera that doesn't have that "if only it did" or "if only it had fixed" issue. You know, the things that seem like they could be fixed in a firmware patch within a week that the community moans about for 3 years until the next version comes out and finally fixes, whilst introducing 4 new issues that everyone who actually uses it spots within a month... rinse, recycle, repeat...
Click to expand...

I came from stills.. started on a nikon FM2..

-ran off a watch battery for three months
-vistavision fully filmic look and DR
-no trailing cables
-simple manual controls, knobs for ISO and shutter angle, iris and focus on lens
-no menu at all.
-built to work in any environment, for ever.
-switched on by cocking the shutter -effectively as soon as you put it in your hand it is on.
-instant roll upon hitting 'record'
-fits in a smaller pocket than the BMC pocket2
-focus rotated the right way
-global shutter
-zero moire
-6k resolution
-zero compression artifacts
-user upgradable sensor, IR, colour, 10 levels of ISO and B+W options
-$300

I guess that set my bar
 
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Not exactly my dream camera, but related...

1. All professional level video and digital cinema cameras SHOULD have some sort of industry standard color science/LUT/HDR setting that when engaged would ensure a 100% seamless integration of at least color science and relative contrast response between any pro camera. Technically impossible but if there was a feasible way to do it...Matching all manner of cameras is a PITA and gives lots of users lots of issues. You wouldn't have to use the setting except when shooting multiple cameras. Obviously high end cameras would have to be downgraded and restricted to match up with low end mirrorless and phones but if that option existed, lots of people would use it.

2. All video and digital cinema cameras get audio by Apogee or even Sound Device, or Lectrosonics. (OP said it was a dream) I mean the entire audio chain, custom designed by a manufacturer who knows what good audio is, just outsource camera manufacturers, you guys are clueless about audio. Headphone and monitoring output included, KILL crap audio in cameras. Imagine if a camera existed that recorded four channels of 96kHz, 24 bit audio that sounded as good as an $6,000.00 Sound Devices recorder, of course with analog inputs as well as AES/EBU inputs like the C200 has. Not going to replace sound mixers with SDs and full bags, but there is zero excuse why almost every camera has terrible audio. It's unacceptable to buy a $50k RED that has terrible audio. It's unacceptable to buy a $2,500 Fujifilm X-H1 that has terrible audio.

3. To piggyback on what Morgan asked for, since this mythical new camera is going to have a world class audio chain, 100% work with Lectrosonics and integrate bulletproof, miniaturized mil-spec wireless audio receivers into the camera that work with affordable and accessible Bluetooth-sized wireless microphone transmitters. No more wireless mic receivers, Comteks, Hops hanging off of cameras, cluttering everything up and sucking down batteries, it's all seamlessly integrated into the body and was conceived and engineered by the best wireless microphone company in the business. Wireless earbud option, but keep the 3.5mm output still for us fuddy duddys who prefer a cable on our headphones.

4. As far as color science, just give it up everyone and make Arri the king. Panasonic and Canon are good, RED has a nice, digital look but overall, Sony ain't even in the same ballpark (although I haven't REALLY seen the Venice output other than that one web short) there is no better color science and realistically, nothing else is even equal. Just get Arri to license it to everyone, they'll make hundreds of millions alone in licensing fees. Even if all of the competition still wants to keep their own secret sauce, it would be cool if every digital cinema camera, mirrorless and even phone just had an Alexa setting that exactly replicated the Arri color science, right?

5. My ideal camera has an S35 imager. Take the idea of a full frame imager for video or digital cinema out back and shoot it in the head and bury it in the cold ground where it belongs. Sorry I still disagree with those think that filmmakers somehow need FF. S35 forever, its really all that is needed. Let the stills shooters deal with it. Nothing has convinced me that the world needs Monstro, Venice, C700FF, etc. Just not needed, ploy to sell new gear.

6. Create an industry board and to use any form of anamorphic, you have to fill out an application, be vetted by a committee of cinema educated cynics. Yes, you should need a license to shoot anamorphic, make it a controlled substance.

7. My dream camera is arbitrarily 6k or 8k. But not for the reasons you think. STOP the resolution wars. It's done, over, end of story. You pick the cap, it's either 6K or 8K. Then it's done. For at least 50 years. Make all of the manufacturers sign a treaty, no more resolution increases, at least in most of our lifetimes. It's stupid, pointless, cynical, hypocritical and has become a crutch for subverting true innovation. Upping the resolution in each camera line up each year or so is beyond lame. Cut it off and wow, camera manufacturers will be forced to truly innovate or nobody will buy new cameras anymore, they'll go under, just as Capitalism intended. It already happened in still cameras mostly, nobody really cares about or needs more megapixels anymore, make it the same way in video/digital cinema.

8. Since we're stopping resolution gain for half a century, that should give all of the camera manufacturers the drive, budget and resources to make every camera a Phantom. I want 8K at 100,000 fps. No more renting Vision Research cameras, all cameras are Phantoms, even Smartphones (once again DREAM camera)

9. All on camera touchscreens are 2,000 nits now. Period, done, end of story. Oh yeah, my dream camera has a non-glare screen. Zero glare at all in any lighting condition. Get on that. No more EVFs needed, just 4" and 5" included OEM touch screens that are 2,000 nits.

10. My dream camera has a new SDI-based 25th Gen connctions for video. HDMI is banned and no other wired connections will be allowed other than 25G SDI. If manufacturers don't like it, they need to come up with a wireless connection, cables are so last century anyway.
 
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Don't get me started lol. This will be long. I’ve thought about this before.

First I would start with the recording media. That’s going to determine a lot of what the camera can and can’t do. We’re dreaming here so let’s see what we can do.
I think I would create a physical media that is the size of a typical credit card or business card. Big enough that you wouldn't easily misplace it or lose it, also big enough it’s easy to handle and big enough for some artwork or a written label. I would look at it not just as a recording format but also a distribution format for the masses. What comes after UHD Blu-Ray. But still relatively small enough you could put it in a DSLR/Mirrorless style body potentially. Maybe even a 5 inch smart phone.

This would have to be a very high capacity format, maybe one to ten Petabytes. With high transfer speeds in the hundreds of Gigabytes per second, if not a Terabyte or more. Think about this not just as a video card format but something that can potentially store fully realistic VR worlds for future VR games. We just happen to be using it here for video recording.

It would have to be high longevity. Hundreds of years or more. Maybe DNA based memory storage or something. I want to be able to record some video on one of these cards, put it on a shelf or in a card folder and come back to it 50 years later without any read errors. Maybe have great descendants view it hundreds of years from now. A true digital archival solution.

It also has to be inexpensive. I’m talking DVD-R cheap. Like buy a stack of one hundred of these cards for $20.

It needs to be a format itself like DVD video or Blu-ray video. Yeah it can be used for general data storage, but there is something to be said about being able to pull a card out of a camera and put it in a set top player most people own and hitting play. Standardized menu and remote controls.
To satisfy both the shooter and watcher, it has to be some kind of low/no compression raw format that can tell a set top player how to render the image for proper viewing so it looks the same on all set top players and other devices but is still super flexible in the edit. With so much cheap memory storage, shooting raw is not an issue anymore

——Camera ——

I don't think I have one dream camera.
Sometimes I would love to shoot with something that's like an old super8 pistol grip camera with a c-mount lens, because that would be fun.
Sometimes I think it would be handy to have a shoulder mount camera for doing out in the field interviews without a tripod.
Sometimes I would love an old-school palmcorder/handycam style camera with a zoom rocker and a built in 10x parafocal lens.
Sometimes a DSLR/mirrorless style camera is ideal if I want to shoot photos and videos. It's what I use right now.

If I had to pick an ideal camera form factor for most of what I do, it would be some kind of box that is 5.5-6 inches long and 3.5-4 inches tall and wide. It would have a removable adjustable DSLR style side grip with a typical shutter/record button and in front of that an Xbox style analog trigger that can be used for either slow motion speed ramping from my timeline speed to something higher or to rack focus between two preset focus points.
That whole grip would be removable and replaceable with a handycam style grip with zoom rocker on the top if desired. There would also be a pistol grip option for the bottom of the camera if desired.

The left side would have a 4 inch flip out touch screen, which can be removed using a couple hex screws. Above that would be four knobs running front to back of camera. All the same size and style. Under each knob would be a high resolution electronic ink display. Black text on a white background showing me the results of each knob. In the menu you could set each knob to do something different, but by default they could come set front to back as ND, ISO, White balance, frame rate. In the order of what I would use most to least while shooting. But again you could rearrange these in the menu and set the frame rate knob to shutter speed if you're shooting stills for example or adjust shutter speed on the grip dial.
Each knob would click as you turn it, unless you push in the center button, at which point they will smooth roll. If you pull the knob out, it will lock.

A tilt-able high res HDR EVF would be on the top back of the camera, but also removable with a couple of hex screws (same size hex screws across the whole camera) and with extra hardware could be mounted on the side.

The front would have a removable plate for putting different lens mounts on (with full electronic control for some mounts like EF and m43 and E). Underneath that plate would be an 80x80mm sensor of which up to 72x48mm is usable for motion pictures at 24k resolution. The rest of the sensor would be used for 3-axis electronic image stabilization (X, Y and roll). If you're shooting stills could use up to 70x70mm or set to various defaults like 6x4.5cm, 6x6cm, 6x7cm.

This would be a global shutter full RGB per photo site sensor. Maybe it’s made out of some kind of graphite composite material as I hear graphite is good for high signal and low noise. Anywhere from 10-20 stops of dynamic range depending on which digital film stock you are shooting with. Each digital film stock completely changes the color science of the camera and the sensitivity of the sensor. They are more than LUTs or image profiles, they can control how the electronically controlled optical low pass filter actually filters light and how the electronic ND filter reacts. They can also introduce grain and gate weave and other effects that are included in the recorded file but not baked into the image.

The electronic ND is adjustable per photo site. From completely transparent to full black. It can be used as a shutter but also an ND at various strengths. With smart ND turned on, the camera can filter only the photo sites that are being blown out. Be it one window in the background or the entire sky above an otherwise well exposed scene.

Why 24K? Only so that you can use the sensor in various windowed modes down to a super8 sized 2K image or 16mm sized 4K image, super35 at 8K, full frame 35mm at 12K, etc. Don't quote me on those resolutions at those image sizes. I think they are close but I could be way off. Most won't line up but the idea is the camera can downsample to the proper resolution. So if 16mm ends up being something weird like 4328xSomething the camera would downsample that to 4096x2160 or 3840x2160 and record that. Same would be true for 24K at 72x48mm, while you could record at that resolution you're more likely to have the camera auto downsample it to 8K or 6K or 4K and record that.

Wireless built in.
I don’t want to deal with wires. Ideally the camera has multiple channels of wireless support built in. Some kind of new wireless standard that uses quantum space electron teleportation instead of radio signals. A no delay no interruption wireless format that can also send electricity back to the accessory devices like lapel or shotgun mics or wireless headphones. Also send a full video signal to augmented reality/safety/sun glasses I’m wearing so I can have a nice big high res virtual monitor floating in front of me an not have to use the tiny 4 inch screen or EVF. I’d also like to teleport that video signal to my home and/or editing computer as a backup or so that another editor can start working on the footage right away. If I can also power the camera by teleporting electricity from some kind of solar satellite that is circling the sun directly to the camera, then the battery on the camera is really only a backup should something happen to that connection. I could shoot all day without swapping that battery once.

Lenses.
Ideally, I want CinemaAF lenses that cost as much as your typical kit photo lens. But this will never happen with our current manufacturing processes. We first need to come up with some kind of new 3D printers. Some big floor standing box you keep in your garage that can be used to make all kinds of things. Just go to Home Depot and buy some blocks of different raw materials. A block of aluminum, glass, steel, wood, plastic, a few bottles of some different chemicals. some magnets, whatever. Put it all in this machine, give it a 3D file and have it manufacture what you need. In this case, a series of cinemaAF lens with either a modern or more vintage multicoating.
 
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I have to say it but I'm pretty happy with every camera I've used in the last 5 years. Great colour, large sensors, nice sizes and I think they all have pretty great images. I try to get everything in camera and keep the grading simple...... but I do like the free idea.

I just think back to the huge varicam or the 35mm adapter days :) .... we've come a long way in a short time
 
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