Features the successor of the EOS-1(n) should have, in order of importance:

(at least one of those features should be present, or I will simply never purchase a new camera!....;-))

• A remote socket and connector that can be operated with one single, gloved hand. Period. The current polarized socket with screw mount ring is a nightmare, requiring two bare hands, preferable in a non-frozen condition....I vote this screw mount for the worst binding socket in the entire camera industry. And I am not even complaining about that ~!@#$%^&* cover crap^H^H^H^H cap. Not worthy to be on an EOS body!
  As for comparison: the Minolta 9000 had the almost perfect system; a sliding body mounted cover, a rectangular socket and an angled connector, almost impossible to remove by pulling on the wire. The Nikon system uses a large screw, also much better to operate with one hand....
  The perfect system for the current round T3 socket would be a bayonet style connector instead of this ~!@#$%^&* binding ring.
  Update 6 Feb 1998: It seems as if Canon took the above note (and the neverending ranting about it on the EOS Mailinglist!....:-)) serious; check Canon Remote Redesign .
• A Custom Function for autofocus with IR correction (a la Konica Hexar!). IMO the only thing that AF could do better than the human eye (besides being much faster of course).
  [the Konica Hexar can be set for either 750nm or 850nm, either as a built-in factory option on the camera (Hexar Classic), or as an upgrade option for the other Hexars. The distinction 750/850nm is neccessary since not all IR film shows the same spectral sensitivity]
• Option for delayed mirror flipback, shutter repositioning and film transport, both only after your finger is released from the button. With a pellicle mirror, like the former RT and the current 1n-RS, mirror flipback is not an issue of course. The RT had such a nice delay feature, the 1n-RS does not!....:-(( Update: With the release of 19 extra Custom Functions for the 1n and 1n RS (on top of the default 14), this deficiency is solved; for an overview check Additional Custom Functions .
• A Custom Function for extended bracketing, like 5/7/9 frames, instead of the current 3. [if you think that this is exorbitant, you have never faced the problem of correct exposing night time sceneries!]
• Extended exposure times, up to 1 hour at least.
• For long time exposures, I would prefer not only the ordinary B or BULB setting, but also a T or TIME setting, one that opens the shutter pressing the shutter release once, and closing when pressing it a second time. Older mechanical cameras had this, current Bronica SLR's and Fuji rangefinders still do. Think the F4 also has this T-mode.
• Third dial on Booster E-1, for vertical operation (like vertical grip on EOS-5/A2). [Probably requires more contacts between body and grip]
• More sophisticated databack, one that at least records shutterspeed and aperture value. Should print data between frames, not in them! Or, like in the Contax AX: all data in one or two frames, at the beginning of the film, inprinted at rewind. Other prefered data: exposure compensation (flash/existing light). Update: also GPS-data, like the digicam's can! [Probably requires also more contacts between back and body]
• Illuminated buttons, for easier operation in low light conditions. [Dialling a number on a cellular phone is currently easier than adjusting my camera!]
• Changeable viewfinder grid patterns, with option for a very faint illumination for night time use. The latter should include the outlining of the viewfinder also (so that you can see where the frame ends).
• Illuminated film chamber when loading film (selectable of course, otherwise there would be a problem with loading IR film (darkloading required!)).
• Smarter NiCd chargers for both the E-1 NiCd pack and the flash Transistor Pack. This means decharging before charging, and puls-modulated fast charging. [At this moment I go the rather inconvenient route of using a battery holder filled with NiCd's (for both the E-1 and the TP; the TP even benefits from this, I now have 7.2V/2200mAh, instead of the Canon NiCd pack of 7.2V/1300mAh!)] [Note: to make these smart chargers work properly, they should be able to contact each cell individually from the outside, instead of just one + and - terminal]

From: "Willem-Jan Markerink" 
To: eos@a1.nl
Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2004 23:39:30 +0200
Subject: EOS Symbiose between still & motion picture digicam's....
Reply-To: eos@a1.nl

....or why an EOS digi-SLR will never get the features of all the 
current cross-breed digicam's, which combine still- & motion- picture 
image recording in one camera....

Simply because that darn mirror is in the way with an SLR....:))

Unless of course Canon decides that this is yet *another* good reason 
to launch a pellicle-mirror DSLR, without moving mirror.
(my personal favorite argument is maximum silence, in particular when 
shutter recocking is delayed until finger is lifted from the release 
button ((S)CF on RT/1n/1n-RS, being analog cameras also delaying film-
transport)
(#12 in this list: http://www.a1.nl/phomepag/markerink/cf_eos1n.htm)


Or they could hold the mirror in the upward position on an ordinary 
DSLR, and use the TFT-screen as for realtime video-viewing.

Yet in both cases there is still a solution needed for AF, since with 
EOS camera's it needs the secondary-mirror (swung out of the way 
during exposure, even with the pellicle-mirror cameras!).

Would we ever see such a symbiotic step?....:))
All else has been invented/implemented already, so one day they might 
have to....there are simply not many options left to distinguish 
camera's from eachother....:))


--                 
Bye,

Willem-Jan Markerink

      The desire to understand 
is sometimes far less intelligent than
     the inability to understand


[note: 'a-one' & 'en-el'!]









Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2004 17:34:01 -0700
To: eos@a1.nl
From: Mat Hayashibara 
Subject: Re: EOS Symbiose between still & motion picture digicam's....
Reply-To: eos@a1.nl

At 12:22 AM 7/16/2004 +0200, you wrote:
>Unless of course Canon decides that this is yet *another* good reason
>to launch a pellicle-mirror DSLR, without moving mirror.
>(my personal favorite argument is maximum silence, in particular when
>shutter recocking is delayed until finger is lifted from the release
>button ((S)CF on RT/1n/1n-RS, being analog cameras also delaying film-
>transport)
>(#12 in this list: http://www.a1.nl/phomepag/markerink/cf_eos1n.htm)

I think since the speed of the CMOS sensors is really good up to around ISO 
1000 now, there is really no good reason NOT to make a pellicle mirrored 
DSLR. Nobody is going to miss the stop or so the pellicle viewing system is 
going to cause, although it might result in a dimmer finder. It is amazing 
how  much camera shake results from mirror slap, especially in the shutter 
speed range traditionally just below hand-holdable. Combined with IS, it 
would make a LOT more shots possible with existing light.

I would greatly simplify the camera mechanics as well. You could 
conceivably integrate the mirror cage, shutter, screen and sensor into a 
single, dust-sealed interchangeable unit, which might mean upgradeable 
cameras.

>Or they could hold the mirror in the upward position on an ordinary
>DSLR, and use the TFT-screen as for realtime video-viewing.

Any number of consumer digicams already do this (including my little 
Minolta Dimage Z1, which can record video with sound at 640x480 pixels!) 
Oddly enough, there *is* a swinging mirror inside that camera (Z1) to 
direct the output of the image generated by an internal TFT display to 
either an eyepiece, or a rear-mounted screen. Apparently the lens focuses 
(VERY quickly, I might add!) with the image formed on the CCD... there are 
no intervening mirrors or beamsplitters.