A new form factor for an old friend…DSLRs are the “high end” tools of amateur and professional photographers. While many believe their form factor is the perfect product of decades of refinement in ergonomics and function, it also means it might be stuck in the past. The way people are using these cameras has changed. A modern DSLR or mirrorless camera is not only used for still photography, but also used for video and film production and an entire ecosystem of accessories has emerged to augment the emerging fundamental flaws of its architecture. This is a brief exploration of what is possible when we part with tradition and design a system around these new realities.Exposure is Not a TriangleExposure (how much light is allowed to reach the camera sensor), is the result of shutter speed, aperture size, and sensitivity (ISO). This is often presented as a triangle. This is a misnomer. Exposure is a 3-dimensional space best visualized as a cube with aperture size as the x axis, shutter speed as y, and ISO as z. This seems at odds with current camera controls, which typically require us to push individual buttons to change settings disparately, masking their relationships to each other and hiding the true nature of the trade offs between different settings. We should be able to navigate and “fly” within the exposure cube with one control, picking settings continuously and organically. Creating a paradigm for this could be a project on its own, but as a start, how about a trackball that allows us to navigate x (aperture) and y (shutter speed), surrounded by a jog dial that moves exposure in z (ISO)?
Dustin Brown – DSLRUOK
