Retro rules, but why? - thoughts about Olympus E-P1
The retro force is strong with this one. Very deliberate of course, Olympus marketing makes sure no one misses the message - this is the digital version of the classic Olympus Pen film camera. They do it with such intensity (look at all the marketing props at the introduction - the Beatles records, the Fiat 500, the 60s look of the models), maybe they want to make up for the lost opportunity to market their DSLR line as the digital versions of the famous Olympus OM-series…
And the retro message seems to pay off. There is a huge excitement in the photographic community.
Why is retro hot? I think there are two explanations.
One: A huge part of the market of the buyers of advanced digital cameras are film veterans. The average age of the DSLR buyer is over forty years. There is a considerable nostalgia factor. Maybe also a longing for another, older way to take photos - less auto everything, less fast shooting, more deliberation and thought in the image making process. If early reactions is any indication, the prime lens option seems to be more popular than the zoom.
Two: Film cameras was a mature technology when the digital revolution started. Besides autofocus, there is very little in functionality that has improved since, say a Nikon FA, from the 80s. Digital cameras started out as designs made by computer engineers. The more the design has approached the classic film cameras, the more cheer from the photographers. Digital imaging has of course undeniable advantages and very few wants go back to film. But many are very aware of the strong points of film cameras and the short comings of the digitals. The areas where film cameras shine are small size and weight, viewfinder size and usability, shallow DOF for better subject isolation, metal build quality and reasonable cost. Maybe we will get that all that one day in a digital camera. In the meantime, let us applaude Olympus effort despite some shortcomings (optical viewfinder solution, high price) and hope that this will be the beginning of a new class of advanced compacts, maybe also from Panasonic/Leica. The more retro the better…
Here are some more photos to enjoy.
Randy | Apr 10, 2010 | Reply
I, too, want a camera designed by photographic engineers, not computer engineers. Retro is popular also because the controls and ergonomics of film cameras made a few decades ago was more intuitive, more standardized, and more user friendly than the contraptions made today. When I bought new cameras during the 1960’s and 1970’s I needed to read the owner’s manuals only once. I was also confident that I was getting a product that was made to last and wasn’t made of mostly plastic. Digital photography is a useful and welcome visual medium than supplements, not replaces, film photography. I hope that the Olympus and Leica digital cameras bring the industry’s state of the art of digital hardware toward the aforementioned design virtues of film cameras of the past.
PL | Apr 10, 2010 | Reply
Randy,
I agree very much with you. It is not about nostalgia, its about mature design, refined over decades. Knowledge that was brushed aside when the computer engineeers started to design digital cameras.