Digital Camera Wish List

Large Aperture
Telephoto
Wide Angle
Sensitivity: High
Sensitivity: Low
External Flash
Burst Mode
Focus: Auto
Focus: Manual
Macro
TeleScope
CCD-Raw
Infra-Red
Bulb Shutter
Compact
Movie
Charger
35mm SLR

Canon
Casio
Fuji
Hewlett Packard
Kodak
Minolta
Nikon
Olympus
Panasonic
Pentax
Sigma
Sony

Large Aperture
Because digital camera imaging sensors are smaller, it is easier to make lenses with large aperture.
- natural light shooting in low light
- fast shutter speed for action
- low sensitivity mode for low noise
- shallow depth of field for subject emphasis
- sharp diffraction on high resolution small CCD
- large area flash
- burst mode flash
- fast auto focus
E.g.,
- f/1.8-2.6:
  - Olympus C-5050
  - Olympus C-3040
- f/2.0-2.4:
- f/2.0-2.5:
I wish to see f/1.4.

Telephoto
Because of the small size of CCD, it is easy to make long lens. E.g., a 50mm lens on a digital camera may be equivalent to a 300mm on 35mm format. In 35mm equivalent:

8.0MP
Sony F828	200mm	f/2.8	ISO	100-800
6.3MP
Fuji S7000	210mm	f/3.1	ISO	160-600
5.0MP
HP 945	300mm	f/3.1	ISO	100-400
Nikon 5700	280mm	f/4.2	ISO	100-800
Minolta A1	200mm	f/3.5	ISO	100-800
Sony F717	190mm	f/2.4	ISO	100-800
Pentax 555	188mm	f/4.6	ISO	64-400
Olympus E-20	140mm	f/2.4	ISO	80-320
3.9MP
Panasonic FZ10	420mm	f/2.8	ISO	50-400
Kodak DX6490	380mm	f/3.7	ISO	80-800
Olympus C-750	380mm	f/3.7	ISO	100-400
Nikon 4500	155mm	f/5.1	ISO	100-800
3.2MP
Minolta Z1	380mm
Fuji S5000	370mm
Olympus C-720	320mm
Minolta 5	250mm
Fuji S3000	228mm
2.6MP
Canon Pro90	370mm
2.0MP
Sony CD1000	390mm
Olympus C-2100	380mm
Casio 2900	320mm
0.8MP
Olympus D-500L	150mm
Sony FD-91	528mm

High quality tele converters:

Olympus TCON-300 3x f/2.8 420mm for Olympus E-10
Nikon TC-E3ED 3x for Nikon 4500
Olympus B-300 1.7x
Olympus TCON-14B 1.45x (62mm rear thread)

I wish to see 400mm f/2.

Wide Angle
It is difficult to make short lens for small imager.

Sony F828	28mm
Nikon 5000	28mm
Nikon 5400	28mm
Olympus C-5060	27mm
Minolta A1	28mm
Kodak 4800	28mm
Canon Pro70	28mm
Sony D770	28mm
Minolta Wide1500	28mm
Canon A50	28mm

High quality WA converters:

Nikon FC-E8 Fisheye 0.21x for Nikon 4500
Nikon WC-E63 0.63x for Nikon 4500
Nikon WC-E68 0.68x
Olympus B-28 0.8x

Macro
Digital camera imaging sensors are small, e.g., 1/5 the size of 35mm film. So it is easier to capture small objects. E.g., Nikon 4500 can capture an area of 20mm wide. This is about 1:3 with the CCD size of 7mm. To capture the same area with 35mm film, it would need to go beyond 1:1 to about 2:1.

5.0MP
Nikon 5700 29mm
3.9MP
Nikon 4500 21mm
High quality macro converters:
- Olympus B-Macro f=40cm
- Olympus MCON-35
I wish to see 1:2 macro at tele.
High Sensitivity
High sensitivity mode can use fast shutter speed in low light, can use small aperture for sharp lens imaging.

Sony F828 ISO 100-800
Fuji S7000 ISO 160-600
Sony V1 ISO 100-800
Minolta A1 ISO 100-800
Nikon 5700 ISO 100-800
Nikon 5000 ISO 100-800
Nikon 4500 ISO 100-800
I wish to see clean ISO400.
Low Sensitivity
Low sensitivity mode can produce low noise, can use slow shutter speed for motion effects, can use large aperture for sharp diffraction, can eliminate neutral density filter to improve optical path.

Nikon 5400 ISO 50
Canon G5 ISO 50
Olympus C-5000 ISO 50
Panasonic FZ10 ISO 50
I wish to see ISO 25.

Burst Mode
Fast continuous shooting is important for action.

5.0MP
Olympus C-5050	3.0fps	4 frames
Nikon 5700	3.0fps	3 frames
Nikon 5000	3.0fps	3 frames
Olympus E-20	2.5fps	4 frames
Sony F717	2.0fps	3 frames
3.9MP
Panasonic LC5	3.8fps	4 frames
Olympus E-10	3.0fps	4 frames
Canon G3	2.5fps	12 frames
3.2MP
Fuji S602	5.0fps	5 frames
1.5MP
Olympus E-100	15.0fps	10 frames	5 frames pre-capture

TeleScope
Because of small imager and lens, digital camera can shoot through optical instruments designed for human eye, e.g., telescope, microscope, etc.
- Nikon 4500 28mm filter thread
Auto Focus
Focus Speed

Olympus E-10 0.5sec
Sony F717 0.6sec
Minolta 7Hi 0.7sec
Fuji S602 0.8sec
Focus Lock
- Nikon 4500 AF Lock button can be seperate from shutter release
Focus Point
- Flex
  - Minolta 7Hi
- 5
  - Nikon 4500
Manual Focus
SLR optical view finder with focus screen:
- Olympus E-20
- Olympus E-10
CCD-Raw
TIFF is 3 times the size of CCD-Raw, with no extra information. A 3 times compressed JPEG is the same size as CCD-Raw, with some information lost. A 6 times compressed JPEG is half the size of CCD-Raw, with noticeable degrading sometimes. So CCD-Raw provides both the highest quality and small size. Further more, because it does not need to do interpolation and JPEG compression, CCD-Raw can also be fast.
Infra-Red
CCD is sensitive to infrared.
- Some camera's IR block filter is not strong. E.g., with an opaque 780nm filter, Olympus C-2020 can capture infrared at ISO100 f/2.8 1/30s under sunlight.
- Sony F717 has a removable IR block filter. But the exposure is limited to f/2 1/60s.
Bulb Shutter
Bulb shutter controls when to close shutter, not just a beforehand guess of number of seconds. This is important for fireworks, etc.

Olympus E-20 8min
Nikon 4500
Minolta 7Hi 30sec
Compact
Digital cameras' imagers are small, and lenses can be small. Digital cameras do not have large film cartridges and film driving motors. Digital cameras can be small. E.g.:

Sony T1 91 x 60 x 21 mm
Canon S500 87 x 57 x 28 mm
Minolta G500 94 x 56 x 30 mm
Kyocera S5R 92 x 58 x 33 mm
Minolta F300 111 x 52 x 32 mm
Sony P10 108 x 52 x 36 mm
Movie
There are not many camcorders that can do 640x480x30fps and use 1M-pixel for video. Some still cameras can do movie, e.g.:

Sony F828 640x480 30fps
Fuji S7000 640x480 30fps 13s
Kyocera S5R 640x480 30fps
Fuji F700 640x480 30fps
Olympus E-100 640x480 30fps
Nikon 4500 320x240 15fps 35s
Monitor
- Mitsubishi 930
Charger
Control the charging of each cell individually:
- Kodak K2000
- Quest Q2
External Flash
With external flash it is possible to do bounce to get soft light.
- TTL Flash:
  The camera automatically controls the flash duration according to the aperture and sensitivity.
  Nikon dedicated flash:
  - Vivitar 730AF
  - Sunpak MZ440AF
- E-TTL, A-TTL:
  Pre-flash to measure exposure. Eyes might close after the pre-flash.
- Automatic Flash:
  You need to manually set sensitivity and aperture on both the camera and the flash. Then the flash automatically controls the duration according to the subject reflection.
  - Metz 54 MZ
    
    GN 177 ft @ 105 mm
    GN 151 ft @ 85 mm
    GN 144 ft @ 70 mm
    GN 131 ft @ 50 mm
    GN 112 ft @ 35 mm
    GN 102 ft @ 28 mm
    GN 92 ft @ 24 mm
  - Vivitar 285
    
    GN 140 ft @ 105 mm
    GN 120 ft @ 50 mm
    GN 100 ft @ 35 mm
  - Vivitar 283
    
    GN 120 ft @ 35 mm
  - Sunpak 383
- Canon E-TTL
  - Canon 580EX
    
    Focal Length (mm) 105 80 70 50 35 28 24
    Guide Number (ft) 190 174 164 139 119 99 92
  - Canon 550EX
    
    Focal Length (mm) 105 80 70 50 35 28 24
    Guide Number (ft) 182 165 152 139 119 99 92
  - Metz 54 AF
    
    Focal Length (mm) 105 85 70 50 35 28 24
    Guide Number (ft) 177 151 144 131 112 102 92
  - Sigma EF 500 DG
    
    Focal Length (mm) 105 85 70 50 35 28
    Guide Number (ft) 165 157 151 132 115 98
35mm SLR
- To use 35mm lenses, the digital sensor size must be close to 35mm film. This is much larger than other digital sensors. The resulting per pixel area is 10 times larger. So the sensitivity can be 10 times higher. I wish to see clean ISO800.
- Prime Lens: Large Aperture, Low Flare, High Contrast, Fine Resolution
- Fast Auto Focus: Phase Detection
- Slow Flash Sync: Focal Plane Shutter
- Canon
  - Canon 350D: 8MP
  - EF-S
    - Canon 10-22/3.5-4.5
    - Canon 17-55/2.8 IS
  - Variable Aperture Zoom
  - Small Aperture Zoom
  - Large Aperture Zoom
  - Small Aperture Prime
  - Medium Aperture Prime
    - Canon 28/1.8
    - Canon 50/1.4
  - Large Aperture Prime
  - Canon 1.4x
  - Canon 2x
- Nikon
  - Nikon D50: 1/500s X Sync
  - DX
    - Nikon 55-200/4-5.6
  - Small Aperture Prime
  - Large Aperture Prime
    - Nikon 200/2 VR
- Minolta
  - Minolta 5D: Anti-Shake
  - Minolta 20/2.8
  - Minolta 50/1.4
  - Minolta 85/1.4
  - Minolta 200/2.8
  - Minolta 300/2.8
- Pentax
  - Pentax DS: TTL Flash
  - Pentax 14/2.8
  - Pentax 24/2
  - Pentax 50/1.4
  - Pentax 85/1.4
  - Pentax 200/2.8
  - Pentax 300/2.8

Sony F828	ISO 100-800
Fuji S7000	ISO 160-600
Sony V1	ISO 100-800
Minolta A1	ISO 100-800
Nikon 5700	ISO 100-800
Nikon 5000	ISO 100-800
Nikon 4500	ISO 100-800

Nikon 5400	ISO 50
Canon G5	ISO 50
Olympus C-5000	ISO 50
Panasonic FZ10	ISO 50

Olympus E-10	0.5sec
Sony F717	0.6sec
Minolta 7Hi	0.7sec
Fuji S602	0.8sec

Sony T1	91	x	60	x	21	mm
Canon S500	87	x	57	x	28	mm
Minolta G500	94	x	56	x	30	mm
Kyocera S5R	92	x	58	x	33	mm
Minolta F300	111	x	52	x	32	mm
Sony P10	108	x	52	x	36	mm

Sony F828	640x480	30fps
Fuji S7000	640x480	30fps	13s
Kyocera S5R	640x480	30fps
Fuji F700	640x480	30fps
Olympus E-100	640x480	30fps
Nikon 4500	320x240	15fps	35s

GN	177 ft @	105 mm
GN	151 ft @	85 mm
GN	144 ft @	70 mm
GN	131 ft @	50 mm
GN	112 ft @	35 mm
GN	102 ft @	28 mm
GN	92 ft @	24 mm

Focal Length (mm)	105	80	70	50	35	28	24
Guide Number (ft)	190	174	164	139	119	99	92

GN 140 ft @	105 mm
GN 120 ft @	50 mm
GN 100 ft @	35 mm