Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Big-screen camera wanted

It suddenly struck me that I hadn't even tried the cameras yet in my iPad 2... So I did. And it's true, they are not great cameras. Barely useable for anything but video chat. (Adjoining pic is from the front camera, less than one megapixel.) Probably because of the thinness of the device, no space for a good lens or sensor.

But: I really like composing the pictures on such a large screen!

So I hope somebody will make a really good camera (say a lens and sensor in the class of the Fuji X100), and put for  instance a seven-inch screen on it. It will be no pocket camera of course, but I think people will find that they pay a lot more attention to what's in the frame, and composing becomes a lot easier.
The user-interface on a 7-inch touch-screen could also be a LOT better than the interfaces we have on today's 3-inch screens on cameras.
And of course it must have focus by touch-screen, and shoot by touch-screen, like the new Panasonic Lumix cameras, that works really well.

3 comments:

Ian said...

It would be interesting to combine the structure of a field camera with the large screen of a tablet. All control would be electronic from the screen. Still have to sort out the sensor size and protection though.

Still, you'd be able to check email while waiting for the perfect cloud formation to appear in your landscape!

Timo Lehtinen said...

This is a great idea. A large format digital camera! :-)

Of course you would then want to make it stereo too.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

And you could play Angry Birds while waiting for the bear to come out.

BTW, large format digital cameras have existed for many years, only they use scanners instead of sensors, because there are no sensor that large. BetterLight cameras are the best known, I think.