Things that piss me off

Camerawise I really hate bad design.  Not just in cameras.. Any bad design.  Design is a process of thinking what is good for others to touch and use.   To put this into perspective let me quote Dieter Ram's 10 design "tips".  Dieter was the design guru ar Braum, and the inspiration behind Jonathan Ives. Anyone know what Jonathan has designed? iMac, iPhone, iPad..

From Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieter_Rams)
Rams introduced the idea of sustainable development and of obsolescence being a crime in design in the 1970s. Accordingly he asked himself the question: is my design good design? The answer formed his now celebrated ten principles.
Good design:

• Is innovative - The possibilities for innovation are not, by any means, exhausted. Technological development is always offering new opportunities for innovative design. But innovative design always develops in tandem with innovative technology, and can never be an end in itself.

• Makes a product useful - A product is bought to be used. It has to satisfy certain criteria, not only functional, but also psychological and aesthetic. Good design emphasizes the usefulness of a product whilst disregarding anything that could possibly detract from it.

• Is aesthetic - The aesthetic quality of a product is integral to its usefulness because products are used every day and have an effect on people and their well-being. Only well-executed objects can be beautiful.

• Makes a product understandable - It clarifies the product’s structure. Better still, it can make the product clearly express its function by making use of the user's intuition. At best, it is self-explanatory.

• Is unobtrusive - Products fulfilling a purpose are like tools. They are neither decorative objects nor works of art. Their design should therefore be both neutral and restrained, to leave room for the user's self-expression.

• Is honest - It does not make a product more innovative, powerful or valuable than it really is. It does not attempt to manipulate the consumer with promises that cannot be kept.

• Is long-lasting - It avoids being fashionable and therefore never appears antiquated. Unlike fashionable design, it lasts many years – even in today's throwaway society.

• Is thorough down to the last detail - Nothing must be arbitrary or left to chance. Care and accuracy in the design process show respect towards the consumer.

• Is environmentally friendly - Design makes an important contribution to the preservation of the environment. It conserves resources and minimizes physical and visual pollution throughout the lifecycle of the product.

• Is as little design as possible - Less, but better – because it concentrates on the essential aspects, and the products are not burdened with non-essentials. Back to purity, back to simplicity.

Now I don't want to go into the detail of these "rules".  Rather mine is a very subjective issue with bad camera design.  For me bad design really shows how some manufacturers couldn’t give a stuff about their customers.  One such culprit is Canon.  They make cameras. And lenses.  And printers.  And other industrial stuff.  Let’s look at their camera stuff, seeing that is what I am interested in (the Blog title “Fotografics” is a bit of a giveaway..).  They make many different models, so in order not to be two nit-picky and maybe go for their cheapest camera to pick on, let’s go straight to the top, to the pinnacle of “perfection”, their top-tier camera.  The Eos 1DX is the latest incarnation of the Eos cameras which began way back in 1998 with the Eos 3 film camera and then later the Eos 1V.  The camera has a Canonesque philosophy about it.  Button placement has largely remained unchanged throughout it’s long run (Eos 1V, 1D, 1Ds, 1DMkII, 1DsMkII, 1DsMkIII).   

The ergonomics likewise have changed very little, maintaining a philosophy of considered simplicity and complete hard-headedness that is difficult to fathom.  Simple because one you have mastered the very complicated system, you can use almost any of the Eos1 cameras without too many issues.  The hard-headedness because to this day the vertical grip, which became integrated in the 1D versions, is simply as useful as a spade handle made in the 19^th century, which is in no way different to the same spade made in the 16^th century.  It’s round. You hold it. Design be damned!  To comprehend how offensive this “design” element of the 1D series cameras is, and the film versions before it (the separate vertical grip has exactly the same shape), one need only look at how other camera makers have dealt with the same question.  

Nikon has a nicely contoured vertical grip that has some passing resemblance to the main grip.  In fact Nikon took design to a whole new level when they called in Giorgetto Giugiaro to design their first AF camera, the F4, which started it's life with an altogether interesting integrated (but removable) vertical grip.  He'd also done their F3 before that, and continues to make designs for them for newer camears.. However perfection is not the exclusiveright of one designer or another, and so others have looked at the problem of the vertical grip and found more interesting solutions..

Enter Minolta. Minolta (then Konica Minolta and now Sony) outdoes EVERYONE by proposing an EXACTLY THE SAME vertical grip to its horizontal one.. same button placement, same shape grip.  The only different bit is the viewfinder which is now in a different orientation. 

One could imagine a zen-moment when the camera disappears from perception as the photographer frames his subject and instinctively takes his picture in such a scenario.  What amazes about Minolta’s design is not that it is so radical or strange, but that it is so LOGICAL.  Why would it be any other way??? Why does Canon insist on adding their ergonomically uncomfortable and bizarre vertical grip when they could try, attempt at least, something just a little bit more user friendly?!

And in the words of noted motoring journalist and polarizing TV-Personality, Jeremy Clarkson, "How hard can it be?!?!".

Some of this is down to simple pig-headedness as Marketing gurus espouse their peculiar "design Philosophies".  Canon is basically saying.. f^&%k you.