Digital cameras are... meh.

[Don Simon]

Thought that might get your attention.

I'm not complaining about the quality of images you can get with a digital camera. Or the workflow. No, I'm referring to the fact that most cameras now are... meh. :meh:

Not technologically. I mean aesthetically. Now I don't mean fixed lens super-zooms, they tend to look reasonably unique, which is interesting because the same was true of APS film cameras of the same type. They always seem to have more of a 'sci-fi' thing going on.

But all dSLRs look the same (or very very similar) with the exception of Olympus' which look a bit different. I don't doubt that the standard body shape with the big right hand grip is a decent functional design, but surely we can have a bit more variety?

The worst offenders though... point-&-shoots. In fact the thing that prompted me to make this spectacularly pointless thread was seeing this... not the new Nikons, look down... Olympus have not one, not two but eight new silvery point-n-shoots. And each of them, for want of a better word, is entirely meh. This from the company that came up with the Mju/Stylus (both film and digital) and before that the XA series - IMO the greatest designs not only of any camera but of any anything, ever... and now they produce meh. I look at all the other companies and their point-&-shoots are all equally meh.

Canon IMO have the right idea with the G9, a camera that not only is nice but looks nice... prior to that their S70/S80, the Olympus Mju-Mini aka Stylus Verve, Pentax waterproof WP models, the (square!) Nikon Coolpix SQ... are among the few that get my :thumbup: for design (which is of course in no way subjective...)

So Dear Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Olympus, Sony, Fuji, Sigma, Ricoh, Panasonic, etc... please can we have a bit more :crazy: :Joker: in our :camera:, and a bit less :meh:.


Over and out.

 

[terri]

ha ha ha! You're so right. I don't have that problem, since I shoot with all film cameras and most of them are at least 20-30 years old - immaculate and beautiful pieces of equipment to work with. Forget the MF cams, I'd sooner pick up my old Pentax ME than one of those things - or my Holga.

Those pieces of crap already have "landfill" written on them, like cheap cell phones. :mrgreen:

 

[Alex_B]

Not technologically. I mean aesthetically. [...]
But all dSLRs look the same (or very very similar) with the exception of Olympus' which look a bit different. I don't doubt that the standard body shape with the big right hand grip is a decent functional design, but surely we can have a bit more variety?

An SLR is a tool, nothing more.

I am glad my dSLR fits in the same shaped bag as my SLR! If it had some fancy silly shape it probably would not fit I want it to be balanced, to have the buttons and wheels in the "right" places and I want to be able to operate it in the dark. That is all!

Also, most of my lenses are larger than my cameras anyway, so most of the look stems from the lens. And I am happy the lenses do not come in silly shapes either

I would suggest pimp-up-my-cam kits like they exist for mobile phones ... just for those who want some more individualism

 

[Apex]

 

[Alex_B]

eeek!

 

[Don Simon]

An SLR is a tool, nothing more.

Not for fetishists such as I! :mrgreen:

I'm not necessarily asking for mad sci-fi designs... and definitely not for pimped cams (ewwww Apex)... just that I don't believe we've reached a point where the standard SLR design is perfect, and if it's not perfect then why is everyone doing it other than lack of other ideas... to give some examples, I like what Olympus did with their 410; came up with a camera that has the more classic 'flat' design and is also very small. Of course it's not for everyone but for some it's ideal... and if it took pancake lenses then it would be one that I would buy and carry all the time. Designs like that might not be a bad idea in a market where there are no digital rangefinders that are remotely affordable for most of us. Not only with SLRs but with compacts which are the ones I really dislike... I think it's possible to come up with designs that are not only not silly but are in fact very sensible... sorry to mention it again but the old XA/XA2 was one of these... now Canon's S-series seem to be the only ones now that have that very practical clamshell design. There must be other ideas that haven't been tried, or haven't been implemented properly yet. There are plenty of different ways to design a camera but everyone seems to go for the same ones.

In terms of creating the image, of course the camera is only a tool. But I personally appreciate good cameras on their own terms as well. By the same token you could say a car is only to get you from A to B, but that doesn't stop people who drive a Focus from looking admiringly at classic sports cars.

I think Terri had it about right... the average point-&-shoot is basically disposable. After a year the warranty runs out, it costs as much to repair as to replace, and you have no incentive to do the former because something newer has come along. Who's really going to fill shelves with old Cybershots in the way that some here do with F2s, Mamiyas etc? Seems to me that one of the consequences of this planned obsolescene is this... because the products themselves aren't designed to last beyond a few years, no-one can be bothered to produce designs that last.

I'm just a nostalgic (not so) old man... ldman:

 

[morydd]

I secretly want flames on my camera. Kind of like Alton Brown's Kitchen-Aid Mixer.

 

[Funky]

lmao! i wouldnt mind some air brushing on my camera. maybe theres a market! hmmm

 

[Apex]

and then they would start combining things with the camera like a phone or something.... hmm that has great potential.:crazy:

they could make the camera-phone-espresso machine

 

[Don Simon]

Or they could just leave out the espresso machine and have a device that largely replaces compact cameras for most people and even has implications for the business of journalism...

... oh wait, that one really happened.

 

[neea]

I would want some retro 70's flowers.
FLOWER POWER BABY!

Bleh.. no way.
I love the shape, look, feel, and color of my camera very much.

The black makes me feel like I'm on CSI : ) (grr. except that CSI only uses nikon)

 

[Don Simon]

Huh? You mean there are cameras that aren't black?
Oh, you mean unpainted metal, right? ... right?

Whaaaaat? They paint plastic silver?!?! ale: