I have written off my D90 body as a lost cause, which means I am in the market for a new body. I probably will buy something when I get my annual bonus in the winter. Between then and now, Nikon is expected to make several product launches, to say nothing of the other manufacturers. Rather than shop for bodies now, I'm going to figure out my requirements and see what best satisfies them in 2013.
Requirements:
Catriona-approved. I suspect this means primarily quality glass with a manual focus ring with decent throw attached to a body that isn't uncomfortable for her to grip. Perhaps the manual focus ring requirements goes away if she can be persuaded the AF system is usable. Anyway, TBD.
At least 11-point AF which works in low light. Preferably something which fills up more of the frame than the AF system on the D90, and which is usable for real stress cases (probably verified through Trial By Indoor Cat Shoot). Having an AF system which just works fast and reliably is a key to repeatable results. Being able to control the AF easily is important. Good continuous tracking performance is important, too. Reviews will help, but just taking the camera home and shooting for an afternoon will be crucial. This is definitely the area where Implementation Matters.
f2.8, 1/100s @ ISO 6400, ~100mm film equivalent focal length. f4 at ISO 12800 would also be acceptable.
f5.6, 1/50s @ ISO 6400, 50mm film equivalent focal length with IS/VR. I would like IS/VR around that 80mm-125mm range, too, but it isn't a requirement. Probably 1/100s @ ISO 12800 without IS/VR would work, too.
Hot shoe for triggering speedlights or strobes. I think this is the only thing that would stop me from considering EVIL systems. As I understand it, they have a shoe for adding external accessories, but it isn't compatible with anything in the SLR universe. Perhaps if someone has an especially well-stocked EVIL accessory lineup, EVIL systems would be useful.
Considerations:
Price. I have about $200 of working Nikon lenses and all my friends who are willing to lend me equipment shoot Nikon. I am not committed to Nikon but there is definitely black in the ledger for Nikon. There's also some consideration about what lenses are available once I have the body for a while. However, these are more tiebreakers than not. Fundamentally, I am looking for the cheapest way to meet my requirements.
Image type. I prefer not to shoot jpg, both because of the color depth and the compression/processing artifacts. White balance is nice to tweak later, but one can get pretty decent results on jpgs. Exposure is much more difficult to adjust later on jpgs. I wind up adjusting exposure on a lot of photos. I tend to view all of those as failures, more or less, and wish I could just meter correctly. For now, though, I have been shooting RAW exclusively. I am somewhat concerned about the file size of some of these really high pixel count sensors. Even using a compressed RAW format, there's going to be a lot of data lying around on my storage media. I haven't seen any mention of an intermediate format with minimal processing and fewer pixels, but I would totally shoot that in most situations if it existed.
Connectivity. It will be 2013 when I buy the stupid thing. Why don't they talk Bluetooth or WiFi or WiDi or something useful?
Weight. Lighter is better. Yeah, sturdy things are heavier and can take getting dropped. I have yet to actually damage any camera equipment, only lose it.
Fps. I would peg this as "I need more than 2 fps." Probably everything I consider will meet this requirement. I would prefer a higher framerate to a lower framerate, but I am willing to make some tradeoffs here for price and other reasons.
Metering. Don't suck, please.
Lens outside the normal range. I'm not going to buy any lens apart from my requirements in 2013. Having some good choices available won't hurt a manufacturer's chances, though.
Don't cares:
Sensor size. You know, if a small sensor gets me the performance I want, then I will buy the small sensor and its associated cheap light glass and actually be very happy. I do not need the extra width that full frame sensors give.
Live view & video. I have used both of these features in my D90. They're pretty limited on the D90. On a newer body they'd be much more useful. I still don't think I'd shop for those specifically. If it's there, I'll use it, but I'll accept any compromise in implementation they care to throw at me.
Mount. Like I said, I am willing to look outside the Nikon family for this. I might buy a Nikon simply on the merits, of course.
Megapixels. My mother has printed quite a few of the photos on my website, some of them quite large (16x20 or larger in a couple cases). They look fine at 12MP and frequently look fine at resolutions less than 12MP. I can't see myself needing to print larger than that but maybe once in my life, and I'm not prepared to invest money chasing that once-in-a-lifetime print. I would be perfectly happy with 8MP and could even make do with 6MP, although I do not think anyone will sell me such a sensor any more. (As an aside, 300 dpi screens are supposed to become pretty common over the next ten years, so web quality will catch up with print quality sooner or later for the vast majority of photos I don't print. Thus, I do want at least 8MP on everything I shoot.) I have no interest in chasing pixel counts higher than 8MP. Everything out there is plenty good enough.
In-camera image processor. You know, I put this in the don't care column, but if there was a machine that was more
Frankencamera-like, I would care. Hackable systems, such as the WRT54G router, are far more useful than closed systems. If I don't have the option to change the algorithms in the camera, though, I will continue to use my PC and ignore the built-in capabilities.
GPS. Nifty. Don't care.