What I Want In My Next DSLR

What’s missing from the typical DSLR, anno 2010? What could be improved, using simple established technologies, to make the DSLR a better picture-taking device? And why don’t the major DSLR manufacturers do some of these things, which might help sales?

The modern DSLR is a great image making machine, and I don’t want to change it’s core paradigm. But as I use my cameras in different ways, I recognise a number of lost opportunities and frustrations which have yet to be addressed. Now is the time to divert a small fraction of that enormous engineering effort from the hunt for ever more megapixels to the development of software and mechanical features which will make the DSLR a more flexible and better-integrated photographer’s tool.

In this article, I suggest a round dozen ways in which DSLR manufacturers could easily improve the product, mostly through simple software or mechanical refinements, to ease the process of taking and processing photos.