Andrew Fildes
afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
On 14/09/2008, at 7:19 AM, Moose wrote:
> I love twist and tilt displays, but this one is weird. Although the
> sensor and EVF are 4:3, the LCD is 3:2. I can imagine two reasons.
> First, I can imagine marketing considerations demanding a 3.0" LCD,
> while size and design constraints - including the EVF - limit the
> vertical space available for the LCD.
The different LCD format would not only allow the use of standard
display modules but the 'dead space' allows for an information bar at
top or bottom. That was one thing I liked about the Leica M8 -
instant readout of the shutter speed, aperture and ISO on a strip
across the top of the review would be nice.
> Dpreview says it clearly "From the outside it looks for all the world
> like a conventional SLR (albeit a very small one) - we're told that
> the
> design (complete with faux prism 'hump') is deliberately conservative;
> Panasonic's research has shown that its target market (particularly in
> Japan) still prefers a camera that looks like a camera is supposed to,
> and wasn't going to risk falling at the first hurdle by producing
> something too radical."
Designs have gone very conservative in recent years - in effect,
almost all the cameras now available are VERY similar to the last of
the film cameras, in both SLR and compact designs. The exception are
the handbag compacts like the Oly mju 1040 sitting on my desk right
now and I suspect that the ultraslim large LCD designs are acceptable
to the public because of the prevalence of devices like cell phones,
Palm Pilots and iPods which are not dissimilar.
This is one of the reasons that I'm collecting (rather haphazardly)
the weird designs of the mid-nineties to early noughties - I do not
think that we'll see their like again. The opportunity to really
rethink and redesign the camera as we know it has perished under the
storm surge of consumer market conservatism. If there is to be
something clever done with micro-TwoThirds, a rangefinder is my last,
best hope.
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