Comment by coldtea | Hacker News Reader

Comment by coldtea | Hacker News Reader

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>Can I just say that what I really want is a mirrorless that is shaped more like a pistol than a traditional camera?

I can see how that would be great for taking pictures at airports and major crowded events -- especially if one is black or middle-eastern...

Seriously, what would the improvement be? It would be tedious to hold pistol-like, and more shaky than current designs. And it's not like it hasn't been tried (e.g. old 8mm film cameras were like that).

>As has been cited elsewhere in this thread, smaller glass with higher density sensors is not a long term solution.

It has already eclipsed bigger glass. And not just smaller glass, but the tiny kind of glass in mobile phones (sub 1").

For most people, that's it, and bigger glass is only for specialists and enthusiasts (trucks vs cars -- for most people the mobile camera is their car, and pro cameras are trucks for limited people).

And of course it's only gonna get better -- an major mobile phone with like 1" sensors (plus all the processing advancements inside due to the crazily better than even a pro DSLR/mirroless processor) gonna wipe out what's remaining from the compact market too.

A pistol grip is more comfortable and more stable to me, so, that is my evidence. I was actually thinking of the RC car controllers or power tools. Your hand is strong in that configuration vs a standard camera.

We seem to have fallen a long way as a society though that I can’t discount your worry that the police will kill you for taking photos with an odd shaped camera.

Specifically, though, I was talking about high end cameras. There are some high capability cameras in bodies that really make them unpleasant to use. The a7r in particular. Great results, but terrible ergonomics. And, there’s a reason people still use canon lenses on Sony cameras.

I agree on mobile phones though, my iphoneX is where I take almost all non critical photos. If only I had a flash sync I’d be in good shape.

>I was actually thinking of the RC car controllers or power tools. Your hand is strong in that configuration vs a standard camera.

For the former, it doesn't matter if you're a little shaky, and for the latter, it's expected to be shaky (the power tool generates shake). So not sure if those are the best examples for camera design based on that (and power tools can tire your hands if hold for an extended period of time).

>Specifically, though, I was talking about high end cameras. There are some high capability cameras in bodies that really make them unpleasant to use. The a7r in particular. Great results, but terrible ergonomics. And, there’s a reason people still use canon lenses on Sony cameras.

That I agree with, but I'm not sold on the pistol grip.

Perhaps if it also has a shoulder mount -- like video dslr pisto-like grips to stabilize it.

Rifle grip would be nice. I’m certainly steadier with a rifle than a camera. So much for not getting killed by the police though.

Try mounting a handle to your tripod mount once or twice. I think you’ll be surprised how well it works. (Use a remote trigger in your left hand).

I use a body extension on my A7Rii, if that helps.

https://www.amazon.com/J-B-Camera-Designs-Grip-Base-A7RII/dp...

It does seem... nonsensical... for Canon to have shrunk the body on a camera that uses standard sized lenses. My daily carry lens is the 28-70 F2.8 and there's no way I could comfortably carry that without a body extension to grip.

You can trigger shutter via headphone button, so there's a way to also trigger a flash... would just be complicated. Or use slaves to detect the phone's built in flash, but cover it to dim the light. Then your off camera flashes will overpower the phone's flash.

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