cameras and industrial designers

[msbarnes]

I was reading up on the Contax RTS today and I read that they were stylized by the Porsche design group; similarly, the Nikon F3 was stylized by Italian designer Giorgetto Giugiaro.

Are there any other cameras stylized by high-profile industrial/automobile designers?

And not really related to the above but I think that Maitani's designs (Pens, OM's, Epics, XA's) are really cool.

 

[petronius]

Schlagheck design, Munich worked for Agfa.

 

[Godfrey]

I guess that's one reason the F3 was such a beautiful camera... 🙂

G

 

[Vince Lupo]

Raymond Loewy - Anscoflex and Anscoflex II.

 

[Dan Daniel]

Marc Newson, Pentax K-01

http://www.stevehuffphoto.com/2012/...era-review-design-masterpiece-or-design-fail/
http://www.hardwarezone.com/review-pentax-k-01-designer-camera

Something tells me he won't be doing another camera for Pentax.

 

[furcafe]

Walter Dorwin Teague worked on many Kodak cameras, most notably the Bantam Special, IMO the most beautiful camera ever made.

 

[pvdhaar]

Also by F.A. Porsche; the Rollei 35QZ .. http://www.submin.com/35mm/collection/rollei/cameras/qz.htm

 

[MiniMoke]

Must have been some raving lunatic working on the Hasselblad Lunar..... 😱

 

[sevo]

Personally I do not think design bureaus ever did a camera any good. At the very best, it survived with little damage. The Nikon F3 was nice, but it was not nicer than the F2, nor that different from the FE - the only designer contribution the Nikon in-house designers probably would not have arrived at themselves seems to have been its most ugly and unnecessary element, namely that purely ornamental red line.

By the F4, the Giugiaro impact (plus the bulging postmodernism of the eighties) even began to erode universal usefulness - not only did that silly red line survive, but the F4 is also much worse to tripod-mount than its predecessors, and with ergonomics geared at the giant-pawed, it is more like a statement of racing-car inspired machismo than a sample of good ergonomics. Besides being strictly geared towards handheld press work, small or female photographers must have hated it - I am above average male height, and the AE and AF locks still are slightly outside comfortable fingertip reach.

 

[pvdhaar]

Must have been some raving lunatic working on the Hasselblad Lunar..... 😱

Designed in Hasselblad's very own Italian design center in Treviso.. http://photorumors.com/2012/10/10/hasselblad-opens-new-design-centre-in-italy/

 

[thegman]

Personally I do not think design bureaus ever did a camera any good. At the very best, it survived with little damage. The Nikon F3 was nice, but it was not nicer than the F2, nor that different from the FE - the only designer contribution the Nikon in-house designers probably would not have arrived at themselves seems to have been its most ugly and unnecessary element, namely that purely ornamental red line.

By the F4, the Giugiaro impact (plus the bulging postmodernism of the eighties) even began to erode universal usefulness - not only did that silly red line survive, but the F4 is also much worse to tripod-mount than its predecessors, and with ergonomics geared at the giant-pawed, it is more like a statement of racing-car inspired machismo than a sample of good ergonomics. Besides being strictly geared towards handheld press work, small or female photographers must have hated it - I am above average male height, and the AE and AF locks still are slightly outside comfortable fingertip reach.

Probably right. The thing is that designers are no more likely to be good at their job than anybody else. Secondly, just because you can design a car, does not mean you can design a camera. Thirdly, just because you can make something look good, does not mean it works well. Finally, often a designer has to work within limits already laid down. i.e. he won't be able to design the software, as that comes from the rest of camera range, he won't be able to simplify areas as it's already been decided that the camera must have a cat-detection mode or something.

 

[simon8201]

Sixten Sason-designed the original Hasselblad and the Saab. Not sure what he'd make of the Hasselblad Lunar!

 

[Roger Hicks]

Personally I do not think design bureaus ever did a camera any good. At the very best, it survived with little damage. . . .

Seconded!

Cheers,

R.

 

[Rodchenko]

Does anyone know if Maitani designed the Olympus rangefinders? I mean the SP, RC, RD, ED, DC, ECR, and the associated compacts (Trip, EC). The aesthetic seems remarkably similar to both the Pen and OM series.

 

[Sparrow]

... designer and stylist have two different functions, and both are required in any products' creation

 

[Roger Hicks]

... designer and stylist have two different functions, and both are required in any products' creation

Not necessarily:

Land Rover Series 1?

Opinel pocket knife?

Screw-mount Leicas?

"Style", in the sense of something glued on to design, especially by an external agency that knows nothing about function (Porsche, etc.) is normally an abomination.

Cheers,

R.

 

[sebastel]

luigi colani had some influence on the canon t-series up to the first eos'.
the common joke at that time was: with colani design, they fall faster (being a bit more streamlined)

 

[Sparrow]

Not necessarily:

Land Rover Series 1?

Opinel pocket knife?

Screw-mount Leicas?

"Style", in the sense of something glued on to design, especially by an external agency that knows nothing about function (Porsche, etc.) is normally an abomination.

Cheers,

R.

em .... somebody had to pick the colour and finish, not that you'll generally find this designer defending stylists.

... in the same way a proper writer wouldn't defend rhetoric I expect 🙂

 

[Roger Hicks]

em .... somebody had to pick the colour and finish, not that you'll generally find this designer defending stylists.

... in the same way a proper writer wouldn't defend rhetoric I expect 🙂

Why can't the designer choose it? Why farm it out to someone who almost never knows what they're doing? I've been a Fellow of the RSA (Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) www.thersa.org, for maybe 30 years, and while the society's Journal has a LOT of discussion of design it has virtually no discussion of styling, which is, as I said, normally glued on by an incompetent. Styling is the idiot b*stard son of design.

Rhetoric is fine when it's used by someone who knows what they're doing. It's only with the rise of those who don't understand its noble origins, and are in any case totally incapable of deploying language elegantly, that it has become a term of opprobrium

Cheers,

R.

 

[dave lackey]

Why can't the designer choose it? Why farm it out to someone who almost never knows what they're doing? I've been a Fellow of the RSA (Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) www.thersa.org, for maybe 30 years, and while the society's Journal has a LOT of discussion of design it has virtually no discussion of styling, which is, as I said, normally glued on by an incompetent. Styling is the idiot b*stard son of design.

Rhetoric is fine when it's used by someone who knows what they're doing. It's only with the rise of those who don't understand its noble origins, and are in any case totally incapable of deploying language elegantly, that it has become a term of opprobrium

Cheers,

R.

^ +1..what he said!🙂 Unfortunately, so many people think the two are the same.