Notice something about most of the new DSLR releases?

"RichA" wrote in message
...
NO major body design changes. Lots of internal stuff, very little
exterior. So, have we reached some kind of ergonomic plateau? I
don't think so....

Quite apart from the potential customers liking for something familiar,
there are a few design constraints on a SLR that mean its shape is unlikely
to change in the near futu -

1. The lens is at the front.

2. The user and viewfinder is at the back. Some early SLR's and most TLR's
had the user above looking down on a screen, but recent photographers prefer
to look through a viewfinder*.

3. The tripod screws in at the bottom, which means this plane needs to be
flat.

4. For a short internal focal length the mirror needs to tilt on a long
edge, which with 3 restricts the prism to the top.

5. The flash shoe is on top of the prism otherwise the camera will feel
lop-sided.


I think 2 is the most likely to change with electronic viewfinders and / or
just an image panel on the back as in a lot of non SLR cameras. Which means
the mirror and prism can be ditched and the camera made smaller. Better
sensors mean the resolution can be maintained - hey presto 4/3. Strictly
speaking these aren't SLR's, but just behave like them.