I’ve had this conversation before with my colleagues at Canon and Nikon. Both companies are interested in our thoughts and expectations for new equipment, and I’m thrilled they’re listening. I’m excited to see what Canon will unleash with the next 5D variant. Hopefully it will have a video option and an external mic port (the fatal flaw with the D90 is the absence of a mic port) plus a clean file at 6400 iso for dark courtrooms and night sports.

What kind of options would you include? I think an iPhone-esque touchscreen instead of the traditional (and newer VGA) LCD could be a possibility. Think about reviewing your photos with finger movements or changing settings on the fly instead of navigating multiple menus. You could enter captions and tag files for wireless transmitting. A manual lock keeps your nose from changing settings when looking through the viewfinder.

How much video in a DSLR do we need? Full HD? Web-size only?  What’s the intended application? Is the video a sign of future integration or just a tech fad?

With declining budgets in the newsroom, will we be able to continue buying the highest end camera bodies? I think a weather-sealed 5D is the perfect application for a news photographer. It costs less and you can always keep some 1D Mark III (or whatever comes after that) cameras around for sports apps. Full-frame is important (to me), and a sweet spot 12-14 megapixels is perfect for spot news enlargements. For pure flexibility, let’s condense all of the variety RAW formats into one (think DNG) format for an easy workflow. On any day I’ll deal with CR2 and NEF files, and it becomes tiresome to switch back and forth from converters.

So, I’m genuinely interested in your feedback. Be aware that friends from the “big two” are readers of uncommons (thank you!) and open to suggestions. What would make your “perfect camera?”

Before going off on a tangent, there’s some news. The Joop Swart Masterclass selected their participants for the upcoming workshop. Here’s the news straight from the email:

Twelve young photographers will come together with a group of masters
for the 15th annual World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass to be
held from 8 to 13 November 2008 in Foam_Fotografiemuseum, Amsterdam.
The 12 participants were selected among 132 candidates who had been
nominated to submit their portfolios. During the masterclass meeting
in November, the participant photographers will interact with six
prominent experts, discussing technical, journalistic and ethical
aspects of their work.
The following 12 photographers were selected to participate in the
2008 masterclass:
- Peter van Agtmael, The Netherlands/USA
- Martina Bacigalupo, Italy
- Massimo Berruti, Italy
- Andrew Biraj, Bangladesh
- Michael Christopher Brown, USA
- Agnes Dherbeys, France
- Iñaki Domingo, Spain
- Philipp Ebeling, Germany
- Clemence de Limburg, Belgium
- David Magnusson, Sweden
- Jehad Nga, Libya/USA
- James Pomerantz, United Kingdom/USA

There are some names I’ve never heard and there are some names that I consistently hear about. Take Michael Brown for example — he’s on his way up since the beginning of his internship work in Springfield, IL.

Hopefully this group will have an opportunity to illustrate a story which will be featured in (most likely, since it was the same this year) book and online form. Last year’s theme was centered around the term “fragile,” and the work featured in the galleries at times can be a little stretch from the topic. Others, however, a bit more centered around the theme. Take a look.

Hey, don’t forget — Sam Abell is releasing a new book in October. It’s on pre-order now from Amazon. Go get yours.

The book, ‘The Day to Day Life of Albert Hastings‘ just arrived today. There is a beautiful sense of humanity judging quickly from the first few pages. The first few lines are tender.

I prefer baking my own cake, tart, plum pies, etc., I know what I’m eating then.

It may sound rather trite out of context, but in the setting of this gorgeous little book, it brings a warm smile. This is going to be nice, I can tell.

Here’s a photo from today to leave you with. It’s something from a failed feature hunt this morning. Somehow it reminded me of tributaries flowing into a larger body of water.

Suson Park, St. Louis County, Missouri

Rosary, Cardinal Rigali Center, St. Louis, Missouri.

This is shot with a borrowed Nikon D3, which showed up in the office the other day courtesy of Carol Fisher of Nikon and Anthony Souffle of the Post-Dispatch. This camera is insane…look for more posts soon from some test assignments we’re working on. I’ve said it before Nikon — send one!