Updating stats for cameras.

[BruceMcL]

Let's make it a little less confusing for people new to photography to understand how cameras work and how each model differs from the next. I think changing some ways that cameras are talked about would be helpful.

Sensor size. How about a diagonal measure, just like with the size of LCD screens? 4:3 aspect ratio could be assumed, and 3:2 or 16:9 could be stated or abbreviated in some way. Perhaps T for traditional and W for wide screen.

Magnification of lenses: 35mm equivalent is becoming more and more irrelevant as more people are coming into photography having never used a 35mm camera. Let's go with magnification here, just like a telescope or binoculars. Wide angle can be expressed as negative magnification. My Panasonic FZ5, for example, would be (very roughly) -.72x to +8.4x magnification. Using magnification numbers would allow doing away with the zoom number.

Aperture: A smaller number means a greater amount of light gets to the sensor. Hmmmm. At least the number compares well between sensors of different sizes. Maybe that one should be left alone. I don't know what a replacement would be. Light intensity per second? I don't even know what unit would be appropriate.

ISO: Easy enough, bigger numbers mean more sensitive.

Megapixels: Good enough.

I like that there is a new statistic for battery life, I think that is a step in the right direction. Of course it didn't replace an old stat, which makes it easier to adopt.

Any comments, any other camera stats that could use a change?