Is the 'Retro' look the new fashion now for cameras?

[c.poulton]

After the news about the Fuji X100, I came across the Vivitar vivicam t327. From the vivitar website "The Vivicam T327 designer camera is inspired by 70 years of Vivitar heritage. Old fashioned on the outside, it's packed with all the modern features in the inside, optical and digital zoom, flash with red eye reduction, and a rechargeable battery. Features include: 12 Megapixel resolution, 2.7" preview screen, 4X dgital zoom lens, SD card support up to 32 GB, Pictbridge ready, Moview Mode, Face and Smile detection Antisahke Technology and red eye Reduction.

 

[flip]

Once you saturate one market, you seek to capture the next.

 

[gshybrid]

After the news about the Fuji X100, I came across the Vivitar vivicam t327. From the vivitar website "The Vivicam T327 designer camera is inspired by 70 years of Vivitar heritage. Old fashioned on the outside, it's packed with all the modern features in the inside, optical and digital zoom, flash with red eye reduction, and a rechargeable battery. Features include: 12 Megapixel resolution, 2.7" preview screen, 4X dgital zoom lens, SD card support up to 32 GB, Pictbridge ready, Moview Mode, Face and Smile detection Antisahke Technology and red eye Reduction.

Is the 'Retro' look the new fashion now for cameras?

I think it has been for a while now.

 

[LeicaTom]

I think it's a good way to capture part of the market now, everybody likes a little bit of RETRO! 🙂

Just waiting for Leica to come out with their Digital version of the IIIG............(I won't hold my breath!)

Tom

 

[FPjohn]

Leica Standard

Leica Standard

I think it's a good way to capture part of the market now, everybody likes a little bit of RETRO! 🙂

Just waiting for Leica to come out with their Digital version of the IIIG............(I won't hold my breath!)

Tom

Well maybe, the X1 is very like a digital Standard. 🙂

yours
FPJ

 

[robert blu]

Maybe not so much the fact to call a look "retro" but to have a camera which seems and can be used as a "real "or retro looking camera, without too many menus, sub menus etc etc...
robert

 

[Paul T.]

I think they chose the retro look as the simplest way of displaying the camera's USP: look, this is a digital camera, which works in the same way as all the classic ones you've seen around the streets of Tokyo, East London etc. It's a quick and easy way of differentiating their product.

For me, the look is not a part of its appeal; but old-fashioned aperture and exposure compensation is.

 

[Jodorowsky]

For me, the look is not a part of its appeal; but old-fashioned aperture and exposure compensation is.

Hear, hear. This is why I love my digital Leitz, and this is what differentiates the camera, and my experience with it from SLR's, m4/3'rds etc.

 

[ebino]

cameras have always been fashion accessories and a symbol of social status and taste. and nothing has changed. but the only quirk is when something goes mainstream, it creates a backlash. so if retro looking cameras became ubiquitous then some folks might opt for the ugly DSLRs and so on just to be different from the mainstream.

 

[Ken Ford]

You say retro, I say functional.

 

[user237428934]

Maybe not so much the fact to call a look "retro" but to have a camera which seems and can be used as a "real "or retro looking camera, without too many menus, sub menus etc etc...
robert

yes. If retro means, that the camera has dedicated controls again then retro is absolutely welcome. But the classical design is nice too.

 

[thegman]

You say retro, I say functional.

Could not agree more. If you design a camera to work like an old camera, it will likely work much better than a new design. I think older cameras were made to be usable for photographers. Newer cameras tend to be made to be marketable. Very cynical I know, but what modern design camera has a decent user interface, really?

 

[btgc]

One can buy gull-wing style doors for Golf Mk2 or Ford Escort on ebay. Do they start to drive like cars they mimic (even GTI 16V, G60 and XR3 versions)? Same with retro look - useless without dedicated controls. To look cool, I can grab $10 worth FL RF, double it's value by loading film (+ spare roll) and I'm set 🙂

After megapixel and zoom race, what followed...high-ISO race? Then I remember face and smile detection, so now retro is new wave? No problem, interesting to see what comes next.

 

[aizan]

retro design has mostly been used to tart up toy cameras: pentax optio i-10, yashica ez f512, and rolleiflex minidigi.

the olympus e-px cameras are retro and don't have shutter speed and aperture dials, while the leica s2 has a shutter speed dial and couldn't be farther away from retro, though its design is classic. the panasonic l1 and lc1 had dials and a classic-but-not-retro design, too. that's what i want from fuji.

ricoh's cameras don't have shutter speed or aperture dials or a retro design, but they are extremely functional and have a classic, modern design.

 

[Matus]

You say retro, I say functional.

second to that.

Not that a modern design can not be functional (just do not let Apple to design a RF camera 😉 ), but just keeping things simple usually helps. I think the market is saturated with "look-I-have-the-buttons-REALLY-everywhere" cameras.
Indeed also cameras that just look retro, but are not that much functional or practical will be (are?) coming too ...

 

[antiquark]

What's old is new again. Retro ALWAYS comes back... there will always be a point when most people don't remember the original style, and think it's fresh and new again.

 

[Neare]

Since when have plastic camera's been attractive?

 

[jsrockit]

How much is the Vivitar?

 

[filmfan]

Cameras are beginning to look like cameras again. I don't think it's exactly 'retro'.

 

[c.poulton]

How much is the Vivitar?

I've seen it listed for $154!

Retro must be cool - LMFAO, a Grammy-nominated electro hop group from Los Angeles apparently love the new camera! :bang: