I note in passing that the makers of smart phones are far ahead of camera makers when it comes to making the capture and sharing process easier for users.
Things I have not found useful
* JPG capture. Whenever I use JPG capture I find myself spending much more time trying to achieve satisfactory post capture output than is ever the case with Raw files and the result is almost always less pleasing.
* HDR (high dynamic range) strategies either in camera or in post processing. I just never find these HDR strategies give me a result which is as good as a well exposed and processed Raw file. In extreme cases there may sometimes be value to exposure bracketing and managing the light and dark parts of a scene using layers in Photoshop. But I rarely find I need to bother with this.
* Focus bracketing and subsequent stacking either in camera (where so enabled) or in Photoshop. This is one of those features which seems as though it would be a good idea but in practice falls short. There are various problems the main one being that unless camera and subject are both completely immobile there will be parts of the scene which are double imaged or otherwise incorrectly rendered.
* Sensor shift pixel count expansion. I have used cameras with this feature and not found it to be useful in practice. The gain in image information gathered is at best slight and the potential for subject and /or camera movement to mess up the process is very high.
* Adobe Super Resolution. This feature introduced to Camera Raw in 2021 gained some initial favourable reviews but my experience with it has been less positive. I have tried it on many different types of image and found that
a) Resolution and rendition of fine details can be slightly improved with some subjects but the final output is on my tests not significantly better than simply upsizing the file in Photoshop.
b) The process produces gigantic DNG files and
c) Creates false and visually distracting pseudo-details on areas of smooth texture.
* X-Trans sensor filter array, as found in some Fujifilm cameras. I have used and tested several of these with mixed results. There are benefits and costs with the net outcome unclear to me. Of interest is that Fujifilm does not use the X-Trans filter array on its high end medium format models. Fuji execs have also indicated that X-Trans is not beneficial when the pixel count on APSC crop sensors reaches or exceeds 32Mpx which I think one can reasonably expect will be the case in 2022 year model releases.
Things which could be useful in specific cases
* This includes tele-converters (Extenders in Canon-speak). I have seen positive, negative and in-between reports about these.
I think the answer is that each specific body/extender/lens/usage case needs to be tested thoroughly before a determination can be reached.
Things which I have found useful
* Raw capture followed by processing through Adobe Bridge, Camera Raw and Photoshop. Every week or so I read about some other raw converter/image editor which someone extolls as being better than Adobe but next week it will be a different one. They bob up then fade away while Adobe just keeps improving.
* Canon CRaw. This delivers all the benefits of compact size with no deleterious effect on image quality that I have been able to see even after manipulation in Photoshop. And if I can’t see it then I can’t see it.
* Canon dual pixel autofocus (DPAF). I bought into the Canon film SLR world in 1990 then moved on to DSLRs when they came along. But I abandoned Canon a few years later because of their chronic failure to achieve consistently accurate autofocus in consumer and enthusiast models.
But the shift to mirrorless and DPAF changed all that. I now find Canon’s autofocus among the best available for still and moving subjects.
* Canon human/animal/face/eye tracking autofocus using artificial intelligence. This has revolutionised the way I and many others use the camera. It is not yet perfect but is a big step forward and I expect it will get better with successive iterations.
* The focal plane shutter closes when the camera is powered off. Such a simple thing but after seven months use and countless lens changes I have not yet had to clean the sensor on my R5.
A feature which I really wish Canon would implement
* Some makers do offer pre-burst which if well implemented could be extremely useful especially for bird photographers wanting to capture take-off sequences. The problem with conventional capture systems is that medium sized birds operate about 10x faster than humans.
As a result by the time our human brains have registered that the bird is taking off it has gone.
Pre-burst allows events to be continuously recorded in a loop while the shutter button is held half pressed then when the button is fully depressed events occurring in the second before and the second after button press are written to the card.