Do NEX and m4/3 cameras have focusing problems? I haven't been watching closely.Greg Beetham wrote:Hmm maybe a foldout revolving rear screen that has the screen on one side and the EVF on the other, so you use it either/or.
The lens you want would be possible I think, the action of turning the camera on would cause the lens to go out to min zoom and the rear element reaches register at the same time, in anycase modern zooms don't have a fixed rear element register, it moves in and out as other elements move to get focus at any zoom position, and those aren't cheap. The only thing I'm not sure on is how small it can be made and still produce an IQ advantage over some of the other smaller sensor cameras available now. Also focus accuracy is more critical with larger sensors with the much shallower dof, it's not much use having more potential IQ and then waste it on focus gremlins, again getting that critical focus accuracy in a small package with a large sensor will not be cheap.
Actually, I don't expect a camera for any price will be made that is similar to what I have suggested so it is all moot. It seems that cameras that are small enough to fit in a pocket, even relatively large pockets, will have no vf and a small sensor. Some of the small sensor (but larger than typical) cameras such as the Canon S95, Panasonic LX5, and Olympus ZX-1 look pretty good, but they don't have a vf. I have quite a lot of experience using a rear LCD on the 5 digicams I have owned. I know that although the rear LCD works quite well for some things and in some situations/lighting conditions, it is very poor in many others. Sometimes it is so poor it is pretty much unusable. But, camera companies, in order to save costs at their end, have convinced a whole bunch of people that a vf is pointless and, in fact, is old-fashioned. Oh well, someday a hotshot will have a brainstorm about putting a small little eyepiece on a camera that you can look through instead of at the rear LCD and how that little eyepiece can solve a few of the problems in some situations that people have had to struggle with for a long time using the rear LCD. People will be amazed that no one ever thought of that idea before.Greg Beetham wrote: Henry I think you will have to start thinking of doubling your projected outlay, at least, because in the end it will still be a niche camera as it won't compete at the coalface with smaller sensor cameras with a much larger zoom range.