A central question, apart from budget limitations, will be whether you have the confidence to focus the camera lens or if you require auto focus?
Next question will be how you perceive images through your eyes in terms of what you consider to be a natural angle of view. I suspect the answer to this may vary slightly but is likely to fall within the range of 24, 28 or 35mm for a full frame 35mm equivalent. Different folks have a different take on this and the answer will be influenced by the subject matter you wish to photograph.
Cameras which spring to mind are the Leica M10 if you can stretch to the body and lens costs. This would leave you with the option to have more than one fixed focal length lens. The latest Sony RX1 has a fixed 35mm lens with great optics and a large high definition sensor. The latest Leica Q offers a fixed 28mm lens whilst the more compact Ricoh GR III provides the same at a more affordable price point.
There are many more options available but key to this is you getting a good feel and understanding of which focal length best captures your aspirations. If you already have an SLR with a zoom lens a good way of experimenting is to limit yourself to a single focal length for half a day’s shooting. Review the results. Try again with a slightly different focal length. Repeat until you find your spot. Hope this rambling is of some help!
I think quite a few of us share your obvious frustration.
IMHO you are right. The camera you are looking for doesn’t exist.
Bear in mind, the eye isn’t the only organ involved in what you are seeing when you look around. The old brain is also involved ! and a few head movements. I guess that wooly thing called “emotion” is also involved.
When you look at pictures taken by other people, especially of places and things you have never seen before, you don’t have any real pre-conception of how they looked to the naked eye. You accept them for what they seem. i often think other people’s pictures look really great. but i can’t judge them against the reality of the original scene.
Mine often appear as you have described, washed out and out of focus. No drama. No “wow” effect which caused me to take the picture in the first place ! But I am judging that 2-dimensional photographic rendition, with limited colour gamut, against that naked eye + brain + head movement + emotion.
In most of my photos, the image doesn’t stand a chance against reality !
I should add, that other people do seem to be able to manipulate their camera in such a way as to deliver something that resembles the original scene and contains a definite “wow !” factor as well.
A maybe dumb suggestion here, but I have a (to be replaced) Sony A-58 and I did some experiments with manual operating the camera.
To get realistic pictures having no blur, a high depth of field is needed, so a high f-stop, e.g. f/8 or f/11. Then, the shutterspeed was set to automatic.
This gave me pretty realistic photo’s.
I did this a year ago, so if is something wrong, please be nice
Also there is an obstacle which stands in the way of developing my magic camera in that we all see slightly different shades of the same colour. Often I have come across arguments by different person when looking at the colour of a wall saying its yellow colour, no its brown, no its a green colour…!
It is like my experience of never getting it quite right, being a member of a camera club, where, to the inexperienced ear all the talk of which Rollei lens was best, the only 35mm camera worth owning was a Leica, led me to saving and buying a “posh” outfit. My picture taking skills did not improve. It was when children came along, the gadget bag, tripod etc became an encumbrance and I bought and carried for many years an Olympus Trip, the point and push nature meant I concentrated on composition, my feet worked the filling the frame and pictures improved.
Technology has changed and the computing power in a digital camera essentially produces average exposure, average contrast, average colour balance until the user interferes. This is where practice and experiment come in.
Somewhere, I have a set of pictures taken with a phone camera, where I attempted to record what I saw. Exposure could be varied plus or minus two units, there were five colour temperature/white balance options. Not one picture looks right.
Every spring you will find articles in photography magazines where there are hints and tips about taking pictures of bluebells. As far as I am aware, there isn’t a camera that will perform this seemingly simple task.
So practice, be prepared to spend time and possibly start a thread “how could I make this a better picture?” Although it might take a brave soul to do that.
