Sidewalk chalk and fountain pens can both be used to write. One is coarse with exaggerated gestures, one is fine and refined, but each individual's handwriting style will still show through. The tool may change the details, but they don't change the underlying form.
And, most importantly, neither one inherently endows the user with anything worth saying.
Comments, questions, thoughts? You can find me on Twitter or via e-mail.
2013-09-23
2013-09-01
Raising Expectations
The question that I want to have answered – it will take time – is whether or not the Ricoh GR will change what people expect from digital cameras. It's just so well made, so well thought through, that using it makes other designs seem broken.
Looking back at my experience with the GR's immediate predecessor, the GRD-IV, I was disappointed that it couldn't do things that my $3000 Nikon D800 also can't do*. Ricoh's design really does set my expectations that high. But the GR-Digital series of small-sensored compacts sold for hundreds of dollars more than their competitors from other brands, muting Ricoh's influence.
The new Ricoh GR launch could not have had better timing. Nikon had announced their badly-named Coolpix A, generating both interest in the DX+28mm concept and skepticism at its $1100 price, just before Ricoh stepped in with a camera that's significantly cheaper. The excitement for the Coolpix mostly shifted to its rival, and people who would never otherwise been exposed to Ricoh now read its reviews and line up to try the camera.
Will it be enough to change what people expect a camera to be, and how they work? Will the era of manufacturers pushing poorly thought out iterations of good-enough cameras come to an end? Sadly, that almost certainly won't happen, but do I ever wish that it would.
* The new Ricoh GR can do what I wished the GRD4 could do – simultaneously displays its electronic level and grid screen – even though my D800 still can't show both at the same time.
Comments, questions, thoughts? You can find me on Twitter or via e-mail.
Looking back at my experience with the GR's immediate predecessor, the GRD-IV, I was disappointed that it couldn't do things that my $3000 Nikon D800 also can't do*. Ricoh's design really does set my expectations that high. But the GR-Digital series of small-sensored compacts sold for hundreds of dollars more than their competitors from other brands, muting Ricoh's influence.
The new Ricoh GR launch could not have had better timing. Nikon had announced their badly-named Coolpix A, generating both interest in the DX+28mm concept and skepticism at its $1100 price, just before Ricoh stepped in with a camera that's significantly cheaper. The excitement for the Coolpix mostly shifted to its rival, and people who would never otherwise been exposed to Ricoh now read its reviews and line up to try the camera.
Will it be enough to change what people expect a camera to be, and how they work? Will the era of manufacturers pushing poorly thought out iterations of good-enough cameras come to an end? Sadly, that almost certainly won't happen, but do I ever wish that it would.
* The new Ricoh GR can do what I wished the GRD4 could do – simultaneously displays its electronic level and grid screen – even though my D800 still can't show both at the same time.
Comments, questions, thoughts? You can find me on Twitter or via e-mail.
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