Features seen in the past and absent today

[NancyP]

Feature which doesn't exist, to my knowledge, but which would be easy enough to write: LCD split screen image: pick two points in image at 1x, hit button, get those two points magnified 10x. Handy for checking depth of field, rather than having to cruise the 10x box all over the image by 8-way button.

I admit that I miss the split prism screens but they play heck with AF and metering. I use the extra-fine screen on the 6D, one of the few perks the 6D has over the 5D3, user-exchangeable screens.

A broad-brimmed hat takes care of the LCD image washout in bright light. It does look a bit geeky, but it also shades neck and face from sunburn.

 

[risc32]

hush your mouth PWP! i had a 30d, xti, and still use a 5d and 5dmk3. i have shot a good deal of 120-220, 135, and some 4x5 slides, and your statement does not align with me one bit. If one was to even take a quick peek at a slide on a light table or even just held up to a light source i can't see how you would be so willing to throw film under the bus. scans, i have no idea. i don't know nuthin' about no scanning. i'm not even going to speculate. so, do you have a Mamiya that you don't need anymore ;D
now i'm going to say damn right PWP! eye focus! give it to me!! I bet if they came out with it now, most consumers would think that it's the newest thing and would marvel at it. i'd much rather have eye focus on a digital body due to the fact that if it wasn't 100% i would just over shoot to compensate. no big deal as PWP just pointed out, we have memory card space.
no really, so you looking for a caregiver for that mamiya?

Hah! Yes the original transparencies looked brilliant through a lupe on the lightbox, but to be commercially useable means scanning. Drum scanning delivers the highest achievable quality.

The Mamiya RZ67? As an early adopter of digital, I haven't even owned a film body since around 2002 when I got the FF Canon 1Ds, so the Mamiya is now a very distant unsentimental memory. Dropping film made complete sense commercially. In an average year my film and processing bill was around $40,000. With digital, that dropped instantly to zero, yet I was sending out bigger invoices.

-pw

understood. it's one thing to fool around with film as a hobby (like i do) and something else entirely when it's work. i don't shoot film for work. i wouldn't dream of shooting a wedding all film. but i do happen to have right next to me a little box of sleeved film rolls that i shot of my kids that somehow looks better than anything i've done on digital. i don't know why that is, and i guess it doesn't really matter.
Now bring on that eye control focus!!

 

[Mr Bean]

* A-DEP mode -> automatic depth of field. I would want the 3-step method [as implemented e.g. in EOS 3], not the latter 1-step procedure [as e.g. in 40D, 50D]. I'd be willing to pay up to 25 €/$ extra for that feature, since it reuqires a minor firmware change only. http://www.vad1.com/photo/autodof.html

Yes please. I used it on occasion with my EOS3. While not perfect, it was another tool in the kit

* Focus trap -> automatic shutter release, as soon a moving object gets into [pre-set] focus. To my knowledge, this feature was never implemented in a Canon EOS - but on some/many Nikon DSLRs. I'd be willing to pay up to 25 €/$ extra since it requires only a minor firmware change only.

Ah, yes, this would be interesting to have for some of the wildlife shots I do. I have a feeling that Magic Lantern on the 5D3 can do this (not 100% sure).

 

[Jim Saunders]

Feature which doesn't exist, to my knowledge, but which would be easy enough to write: LCD split screen image: pick two points in image at 1x, hit button, get those two points magnified 10x. Handy for checking depth of field, rather than having to cruise the 10x box all over the image by 8-way button.

I like it; also if the live view AF box could be made to zoom in and leave the rest of the frame as per normal then you could check focus and composition at the same time.

Jim