design

Been musing lately.

We all know who Oscar Barnack was and who the Gandolfi Bothers were but who designed these cameras we all love?

It seems to me that Pentax have been so innovative over the years yet I have never heard of any of the engineers and designers by name.

Any clues or pointers anyone?

Ken

other than one Mr Takumar who I believe was a lens designer, I can't say I've heard any names at all.

I suppose the thing is that anything as complex as a modern SLR will have been designed jointly by a group of people numbering hundreds.

With the K10D for example, who do you shake by the hand first? the man who sculpted its shape to fit the hand so nicely? the one who came up with Sv mode? perhaps the firmware designer for that lovely interface? or someone who was in charge of getting the PRIME engine to go fast enough to do 3FPS until the card is full?

Fair enough, but I really believe someone was in charge of the overall concept - think ipod or motor cars, no one would dispute that Ian Callum designed the new Aston Martins and that team would have an awful lot more people than a camera's (I have to own up here to having a degree in Product Design). Thinking back to the Spotmatic, there probably weren't so may people involved then as there are now.

Essentially, there are NO names of any particular designers who had great vision where the SLR camera is concerned.

The Ihagee Company in Dresden were the first commercial operation to make a miniature SLR in any volume,...The 'Exacta' in 1936.

After WWII japanese companies started to put together elements of German cameras from before the war. Thus, the Leica layout was copied for both rangefinder AND for better SLR cameras. Leica launched it's first lever wind model, the M3, in 1954 and this layout of lever, shutter button and shutter dial all under the easy access of the right index finger and thumb was repeated across most japanese cameras in the next few years including the emerging and constantly improving, Asahi models.

So, the 35mm SLR is a mongrel,...a hybrid of convenience. like the humble diamond frame bicycle it is NOT a conceptualised design based on a particular insight of an individual such as Oscar Barnack.

The current obsession with the black plastic 'blob' style of DSLR,...being essentially the same old 35mm SLR with sensor instead of film and no straight edges or corners to be seen, owes it's appearance to the original work completed for the Canon Co., by Luigi Colani in the late 70's.

Colani's work was ground breaking, visionary and totally revolutionary. He saw hand cameras as smooth funtional sculpture which extended the human body into instinctive camera handling unhampered by the need to cycle the film in the camera, or turn the camera for a verticle shot etc. Unfortunately, his vision was not matched by the confidence of Canon who threw out most of his best ideas but kept the black plastic 'blob' which became a cheap outer for the same type of camera that Canon had been making for 30 years.

Because Canon had a distinct cost advantage with their plastic injection moulded 'blob' designs such as the T90, all the other makers were forced to make similar cameras,.....it's this camera which we largely see today in DSLR form,..an unimpressive mongrel with some very fancy fleas!!

Hopefully, one or other of the main makers will eventually have the courage to 'break the mould' and move on with a true digital camera designed from the ground up as a fully fledged digital imaging system, with all the features so glaringly missing from the current 'blobs', and the 'black plastic blob' will pass beyond the veil of history, where it should have been for some time.

Rumours on the web suggest that Canon may have struck out in a new direction with experimantal cameras now being tested by top US pro users. This camera is 22 mil pixels with a unitary 'system' body and half the weight and size of their current cameras. Styling is linear and angular rather than the 'blob' look.

The bad news for all current Canon users is that this new system will use a new lens mount and current users will yet again be disfranchised from their lens investment,........the third, non-continuous lens mount change by Canon in 30 years

Hi Viewfinder,

I'm interested to know what you consider these to be.

Cheers,
Dan

IMHO cameras are not so much designed, but more evolved, and I for one happen to like the 'black plastic blob'.

Consider the main criteria for a human to be able to use a camera for a moment.

1: It needs an interface to the human eye. Adequately provided by the universal viewfinder and its accompanying dioptre adjusters, etc.
2: It needs (mostly) to be comfortable when hand held. The 'blob' is most definitely comfortable, especially with a grip.
3: The user needs to have immediate access to the main controls that determine the captured image, a) shutter speed, b)aperture, c) ISO setting, d) focus, e) zoom (if equipped), f) shutter release, and all this without having to take one's eye away from the viewfinder. All other controls are a convenience rather than a necessity.
4: It needs to be easily transportable. A modern SLR/DSLR satisfifes this and the preceding criteria.

Other criteria to be included would be operating temperature range, power source etc. etc.

Viewfinder, perhaps you would share your insight as to exactly how you would redesign a modern SLR/DSLR camera to improve its execution of the above criteria. And I mean you, not what you have read about Canons efforts.

If it's interchangeable bits 'n bobs you're after, don't buy a 35mm/APS-C SLR/DSLR, instead, spend lots more money on a hasselblad or similar system.

The modern (anything made in the last 30 years) 35mm SLR camera and it's APS-C digital succesors fulfils my photographic needs 100%, as I suspect it does for 99.999999999% of the rest of the worlds camera wielding population. Why are you less than impressed with it's evolution?

Takuma Kajiwara was a photographer, lens designer, and relation of the founder of Ashai Optical.

G

I feel very comfortable with the continuous design ethos of the Pentax SLR range. I would describe it as having both beauty and ergonomics - beauty in its quality of manufacture and ergonomics in its outstanding design.

I wouldn't describe it as a blob or a mongrel at all....And to be honest I have always found Canon cameras to be large, unwieldy and graceless by comparison.

However, no doubt there are plenty of others out there who will have other views.

Thank you George, I thought it would be you who corrected my almost right statement

/me bows before the font of most knowledge other than that proffered by Matt

I for one am very happy with the current design of SLR cameras and can see no real benefit to be had from changing it. Quite the opposite in fact, if a serious departure were attempted I suspect the general reaction would be that it was not a "proper" SLR and therefore it would not sell. If the camera were indeed better, this would be sad, but I suspect it would still be true. Photographers as a group are a traditional lot.

IMHO the real design genius of the last 30 or 40 years is Maitani at Olympus, who undoubtedly also influenced Pentax. He is responsible for: Pen F half frame SLR series, XA series and the ground-breaking OM series. This set Pentax off in the direction of the smaller, lighter M series cameras we know and love.

The three lead engineers on the K10D were I. Hirai, T. Hotta, and S. Morishita, all plaudits to them and their collleagues!