What Are Your New Camera Non-Negotiables?

High and dry. (click to enlarge)
Fujifilm X-T2, 50-140mm f/2.8 lens @ 98mm; 1/1000th sec. @ f/8; ISO 200

The other day as I was driving around town running errands, I was also catching up on some of my photography podcasts. Listening to podcasts makes driving a more valuable experience.  One of my of my favorite podcasts is Lenswork by Brooks Jensen, who is the publisher of Lenswork magazine and other fine publications.  He seemingly has produced podcasts since before podcasts existed.  I've been a listener from the beginning.  One particular podcast of his I listened to was #1124 entitled, "The Non-negotiables," which provided the idea for this post.  The Lenswork podcast is really a "photography as art" podcast but on occasion Mr. Jensen records his thoughts about gear and gear issues.  You can go to his site here to find his podcasts or get them on iTunes.

As an aside, Jensen is an M4/3 format camera user and he has made the point in one of his previous podcasts that on the printed page, in his publications, you absolutely cannot tell the difference in images made with a M4/3 camera from full frame camera from medium format camera.  He also has stated in a previous podcast that when looking at an unedited RAW image file from a larger sensored camera versus a smaller sensored camera there are differences.  However, we all edit and process our images so looking at an unedited RAW file is essentially meaningless as today's editing software is a great equalizer.  After editing, the difference is much less, if any.  Just passing along two comments from him I found interesting.  If you want to read more about his opinions, I suggest you subscribe to his podcasts.

Back to Lenswork podcast #1124...

After giving some background in what his non-negotiable features were for his film cameras, he moves to the present and talks about the four non-negotiable features his digital cameras must have or he simply isn't interested in buying a camera without them.  They are a) an fully articulating LCD screen, b) IBIS, c) availability of good zoom lenses and d) programmable custom settings (C1, C2, C3, etc.).  He goes on to explain why each of the four are necessary for him and his way of photographing.

After listening to Mr. Jensen, I started thinking as to what my non-negotiables are, if any, that must be included if I were to buy any future camera.  I think I've come up with a few and a few "really nice to haves" but are not deal breaker items.

I would say that a mirrorless camera is a non-negotiable for me now.  I don't believe I would buy another digital SLR.  I've come to really enjoy the benefits of mirrorless cameras.  There are just too many advantages to mirrorless cameras to go back to a digital SLR.

I think one of the most important things about a camera body to me, and a non-negotiable, is a) how the camera feels in my hands, b) what controls are where and the types of controls provided and c) the structure and ease of use of the menu system.  If I don't like picking up and using a camera, if it doesn't feel "right," if it doesn't "fit," great image quality and the other whiz bang features really don't matter.  I probably won't use it.  

Along with that is the menu system as well.  If things are too hard to find when I need to find them NOW, I get very frustrated.  Sometimes I need to find and change a setting very quickly or the image may be lost.  If things are too difficult to find and not logical in their layout, I probably will end up using a different brand camera.  I'd rather have a well designed camera with great haptics and few features than the latest and greatest camera with loads of features and a terrible menu system.

Another feature that has become a must for me is a tiltable LCD screen.  Not a fully articulated one (flippy screen).  I use the tilting feature quite a bit, ether for "over my head" photography or "down low" photography.  This feature has become repeatedly valuable in many circumstances for me.  I have no use for flippy screens in my still photography.  Nice for videographers, not so nice for still photographers.  Those flippy screens make tilting the LCD screen unnecessarily difficult when mounting a camera on a tripod with an L-bracket.  It is almost impossible to tilt out one's LCD screen when using an L-bracket when mounting your camera on a tripod.  One has to rotate the screen out to the left, then the L-bracket prevents it from tilting.  Even worse if you rotate to the vertical.  Trying to tilt your LCD screen becomes a real hassle and it is unnecessary.  I really dislike it on my Olympus E-M1 Mark II and may be a deal breaker for me for future cameras.  Again, nice for those of you who like to video yourselves, but not so nice for photographers.  Fujifilm created the perfect 3-way tiltable LCD screen as far as still photography is concerned, again IMHO.  

One feature that I find myself using often is auto exposure bracketing.  I don't think I would buy a camera that didn't have this feature as I find it very valuable to make three consecutive images at different exposures, handheld, at a very rapid rate.  A non-negotiable, I believe.  When I feel that the contrast of a scene may exceed the capabilities of my sensor and image processor, I quickly engage auto bracketing, make three exposures in less than half a second, then turn it off.  Done.  I later blend the exposures during editing and fulfill my vision of what I was trying to capture.

A feature that I use quite often and I don't think I would buy a camera today without it is the ability to use exposure compensation when in manual mode and auto ISO.  In other words, many times based upon the situation, I set a specific shutter speed and aperture that is optimum, move the ISO dial to auto and then as the light or other circumstances change, the ISO varies to give me a correct exposure.  But what happens when the light meter gives you a less than optimum exposure, i.e., the light meter is fooled?  I want the camera to allow me to use the exposure compensation dial to bias the ISO either up or down from what the camera originally set and not have to change my shutter speed or aperture to compensate.  Many cameras don't allow you to do that.  My X-T2 and X-T3 cameras do allow this and I use that feature often.  That feature is very desirable to me.  Deal breaker if not on a future camera?  Potentially, but not definitely.

Another feature upon which I have come to rely is a bright and highly detailed EVF.  If you have ever used an old mirrorless camera with a low resolution EVF, you know what a miserable experience it is.  I think that I would not buy any mirrorless camera with an EVF that has a resolution of less than the current standard, 3.6 million dots.  The next generation should be indistinguishable from an optical viewfinder.  It needs to refresh quickly as well.  Less than 3.6 million dots in an EVF is deal breaker.  Non-negotiable.

Lens selection.  Non-negotiable.  If there isn't a sufficient lens selection, mainly excellent zoom lenses, so I can accomplish my photographic work, no deal.  I'm not interested in adapters, legacy lenses, cult lenses, lenses from little known manufacturers, etc.  I want a good selection of top quality OEM lenses.  Without them, I wouldn't consider buying that camera brand.

I used to think IBIS was a non-negotiable.  I'm not so sure now since I've been using my Fujifilm cameras without it and am getting along just fine.  It is a "really nice to have" but not an absolute must for me.  Not a deal breaker now but might be as I continue to age.

As much as I like the analog style controls and menus on my Fujifilm cameras, I can get along with pretty well with the newer style controls.  For example, I had no issues with the controls, buttons or menus on my previous Nikon full frame cameras.  At first, I had issues with the menus on my Olympus cameras, but then one day it all just "clicked" for me and I can now find anything pretty easily.  It just took a little time.  The analog controls on my Fujifilm cameras are "really nice to have," but newer styled controls are not a deal breaker.  A bad menu system would be more of a deal breaker than the types of controls a camera has.

Other than those items listed above, I'm pretty flexible about additional features.  There may be another one or two that I am not currently thinking of, but the ones mentioned are the important ones to me.

If you have some non-negotiable features for future cameras, please comment and list them.  That might benefit all of us.

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Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

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