#1 Rick N.

No crystal ball on the announcements. What I would like to see is a good selection of constant f/4 zoom lenses,especially something in the 24-150mm range. Constant f/4's would be much more useful than the f3.5-5.6's and f3.5-6.3's that exist now and,in my opinion,strike a fair balance between speed and price. Yes,a good fast focusing 24/28-150/175mm f/4 lens. Is it asking too much?

4:54 pm - Saturday, December 17, 2005

#2 Itai

Based on a few announced hints and trends, my predictions are...

Konica-Minolta and Sony will produce at least a 10 MP DSLR (possibly using the R1 sensor), but they may go to 12 MP with an
APS size sensor to make it a higher end product.

Samsung will show a DSLR made by Pentax, at least 8 MP or 9 MP (Cypress CMOS sensor).

High-end fixed lens cameras of 10 MP will
be announced by a number of manufacturers to out-do Fuji's 9 MP cameras. Konica-Minolta is due for an update to their flagship line of cameras, so they will perhaps introduce an A3 or A300. They recently updated the A2 firmware, this is most likely the result of working on a flow-up. Probably 10 MP and longer zoom (10X+). Hopefully, with a very wide-angle lens (24mm), but not likely.

Fuji will have to replace the S3 Pro which is one of the oldest DSLR without an upgrade. Given the 5th generation SuperCCD, it wouldn't be supprising if we see a 12 MP APS sensor with ISO 6400.

Full-frame DSLR will come down in price as the result of Canon's 5D and lower prices for medium format cameras.

Now for the wishes...

Number one: An interchangeable lens camera with live-preview, high-resolution EVF, an APS-size sensor with at least 8 MP, high-resolution movie-mode, AA batteries and CF cards.

Number two: Improved compact cameras with wider-angle lenses, high-customizable menus and controls, higher usable maximum ISO (like the Fuji F10). Also for manufacturer to stop plaguing compact cameras with useless features and too many scene modes.

Number three: Good quality ultra-compact with full-manual controls. Sort of the Fuji F11 + full-manual mode.

That's about it!

5:40 pm - Saturday, December 17, 2005

#3 GARY POGODA

Low noise CMOS image sensors, from APS down to 1/2.5" sizes.

8:31 pm - Saturday, December 17, 2005

#4 Gordon Moat

Mostly for Photokina, another full frame top of the line Canon, and a new full frame for Nikon mount lenses. Price reductions from PhaseOne, Leaf, Sinar and Imacon on medium format digital backs.

Likely throughout the year is announcements of more medium format camera and digital back bundles, at very favourable prices. These will increasingly be more competitive with high end Canon and Nikon D-SLRs, especially with many featuring true 16-bit capture.

More 10-bit LCD monitors, but still very high prices. To go with that, some video card makers will finally offer the ability to fully drive that 10-bit display. Expect high prices here.

10:01 pm - Saturday, December 17, 2005

#5 nick in japan

Hard to predict, as economics drive sensor development and use, CMOS is probably at the top of the list for most of us. I expect that 16X9 may develop more, and after all the "Noise" comments, maybe a CMOS 16X9 aspect sensor. INTERNAL 1 Gig memory for consumer stuff, Image Stabilization and "Truth in Advertising" would be really nice!
Video cameras have advanced quickly,I wouldnt be suprised if the general public picked up on the new camcorders that have multi-megapixel stills, the sky's the limit with this area.

1:23 am - Sunday, December 18, 2005

#6 nicholas

Finally, an unknown manufacturer ( at present ) will introduce an ultimate wedding photographer's fixed lens camera that will enable them to carry one on their belt and one in their hand. This will have a 24-150 mm, 2.8 constant, IS, "L" quality type lens, 12 MP, Printable ISO 200 to 1600 ( no need for less than 200 ), Sync at all speeds upto 1/1000, built in radio shutter trigger, top quality built in flash, PC treminal. 3" LCD, Histogram, Focus and meter in .10 sec, in total darkness. 500 shot battery. Raw & Jpeg, burst of 3 to 4 raw for 20 shots, Wifi.

This camera would be the final nail in the partially built film medium format camera's coffin.

This camera will be followed by a 'Sports' 200-400 mm IS model. In two years, you will see them in those Canon Lens advertisements
next to all those bright color Canon lenes, then Canon will stop those ads.

The wedding model priced at $1200, sports at $1600.

All of this is just waiting for Chip Technology to make it affordable. 2006 will be the start of manufacturers trying to position themselves to capture this market.

A wild guess: Samsung will be the first to introduce such a camera in 2006.

I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it,

Regards, Nicholas

1:18 pm - Sunday, December 18, 2005

#7 Douglas

I would like to a digital stereo (3D) camera along with the supporting software to produce stereo prints.

I doubt if anyone is considering it, but I hope I am wrong.

3:28 pm - Sunday, December 18, 2005

#8 Itai

Someone mentioned about 10-bit LCD displays, that reminded me of some previous wishes:

It would be really cool if cameras could save images in a high-bit-depth standard file-format with lossless compression such as 16-bit PNG or 16-bit TIFF. This would not require processing like RAW images and would be viewable everywhere.

It would be fantastic if NEC reduced the price of their 10-bit LCD (currently the only one in existance, pirces at 6000 USD) and produce a 2K (2048x1536) or higher resolution version.

More higher resolution monitors, like the IBM T220 (3840x2400) and cards to support it.

Microsoft should prepare a 10-bit version of its graphics API. That would force Nvidia to support 10-bits (ATI and Matrox do already) and will stimulate the LCD display market to do the same. Apple should follow with OS X 10-bit support, but thats probably easy because X11 already supports it.

There's probably more but if 2 of these happen, it will be a great year!

7:22 pm - Sunday, December 18, 2005

#9 Arnold Miller

I would like to see a camera optimized for macro work: focus: 2 inches to infinity, internal focus, around 60 - 90 mm 35mm-equivelant four to six very small flashes or very bright LED's circling the lens, selectable for full shadowless or directional illumination. A flip-and-twist view screen is also vital for low-angle shooting. It should be capable of producing a high-quality 1:1 magnified image or better on a 4x6 print.

5:58 am - Tuesday, December 20, 2005

#10 Nick

I'd like to see Canon release a replacement to the EOS-1Ds Mark II. That camera is great, but for $7000, it's not as advanced as it should be. I'd like the replacement to be around 24 megapixels with faster frame rate (in the vicinity of 7 fps) while still maintaining the same EXACT design and ruggedness of the current EOS-1 cameras.

11:49 pm - Thursday, July 13, 2006