Discovering Camera Ergonomics Part 8 Handles and thumb supports

Here I have made a handle without the body (represented schematically by the grey bordered black rectangle) to show how canting the handle back 10 degrees allows the wrist to be held straight with eye level viewing. This is secure and comfortable. The yellow arrows show where the index finger wants to move side to side to shift from the shutter button to a front dial. If these controls are on the same plane the shift from one to the other is smooth and efficient.

The handle in front and thumb support at the back should work together to provide a comfortable, secure hold on the camera while placing the fingers of the right hand ready to operate Capture Phase controls.

A review of existing cameras shows that there is no industry consensus about the need for a handle or a thumb support.

There is no agreement about whether a handle should be an accessory or built in and in either case what might be the most effective shape and configuration.

I have no inside knowledge about the design process used by any camera maker but from my perspective as a consumer it sure looks as though some of them are treating the handle as a styling accessory and the thumb support as an afterthought with little regard for their actual or potential ergonomic function.

My hypothesis, guess, hunch, call it what you will, is that camera designers lack a good  understanding of functional anatomy.  They may also be going into the design process asking what I suspect might be the wrong questions. Their designs appear very camera centric (What shape will we make this camera ?) when they should be  user centric (How can we best shape a camera of about the selected size to best fit the hands which use it ?)  

I am well aware that some consumers and reviewers express strongly phrased opinions about the appearance of cameras, using words like ‘beautiful’ and ‘ugly’ and phrases like ‘it has no character’ (whatever that means),  and ‘it looks like a consumer electronic product’ (which it is) and so forth.

In my work with mockups I never start the design process with a camera. I always start with the hands which will work it and build a camera to fit the hands.

I hope that as camera makers, reviewers and users become more aware of and literate about ergonomics they will become less fixated on  appearances and more attentive to functional capability. 

Cameras designed this way have their own style, the desirability of which is in the eye of the beholder.

Hand position with no handle or mini handle. This mockup actually has a mini handle. The wrist  is straight which is nice but you can see the camera has to be gripped tight or it will fall on the floor. 

No handle   Light, compact cameras with a short zoom can be managed reasonably well without a handle. However my work has convinced me that even these little cameras can be more comfortable and stable to hold with a mini handle.

For many years in the 20^th Century SLR and rangefinder cameras had no handle. My 50 years old Pentax Spotmatic is an example of this type.  But even with a small 50mm lens the Spotmatic weighs 815 grams. The left hand has to support most of that mass and simultaneously work the aperture and focus rings to free up the right hand for operating the controls on the top right of the body. This is not the end of the world ergonomically, millions of photos were made using this system.

But users and manufacturers came to realise that the right hand could obtain better purchase and a more stable hold if a handle was provided.  So SLRs started to appear with some variant of the mini handle, but with the shutter button still on top of the body.

No handle on the left, mini handle on the right as shown in the photo above.

Mini handle   This takes the form of a vertical or curved post or shape on the front panel of a camera with the upper/rear shutter button position. The third finger of the right hand wraps around the mini handle. The actual posture of the right hand and fingers is basically the same as that with no handle.

This is better than no handle and has the advantage that the right wrist is held straight with the camera held to the eye. But there is not much purchase for the fingers to prevent the camera falling to the ground so the muscles have to squeeze to support the mass of the device. Contrast this with the inverted L handle and diagonal thumb support described below which allow the mass of the camera to be supported with little muscle effort. 

Projecting handles small and medium/large. This handle type works reasonably well at the larger size, but not at all well at the smaller size.

This is what happens when the user tries to hold a small projecting handle. With the hand in the most effective position for holding, the index finger is nowhere near the shutter button. If the index finger is pulled back so it can bear on the shutter button the palm of the hand drops away from the handle and the grip is weakened.

Projecting handle   In due course the projecting handle appeared on SLRs led by the Canon T90 of 1986. At the same time the shutter button moved to the forward position top/front on the handle and a control dial was added behind the shutter button.

This type of handle continues to dominate DSLRs. It works well on mid size to medium large bodies. The handle opens up the fingers and if a well designed thumb support is provided a secure grip can be had for the right hand with the index finger free to operate controls.  

But cameras do not scale up and down. In particular the projecting handle does not work well on small bodies. If the index finger is to find the shutter button, as it must, the hand is forced away from the body of the camera weakening the grip. Early Panasonic G and GH cameras exemplified this.

Projecting handle with notch for the third finger.       Some variant of this configuration is now popular on DSLR style cameras be they DSLR, MILC or FZLC.  The notch or indentation serves two purposes:

* The most obvious is that the third finger can tuck into the notch making for a stable secure grip with the third finger supporting a portion of the mass with very little muscle effort.

* The second is a little less obvious but still important. The indented notch effectively allows the right hand to rotate back about five degrees. This allows the right wrist to be held straighter with the camera to the eye than would be the case without the notch. Young people with flexible joints might wonder why this might matter but those of us with a few more years on the clock will appreciate the straighter wrist posture.

Mockup #13 with the lens removed so you can see the hand position. The wrist is straight, the middle finger tucks under the inverted L overhang. The mass of the camera is easily supported with very little muscle contraction. The fingers all lie where they want to be because I put the fingers there first then shaped the handle to fit the hand and fingers.

Accessory handles and thumb supports    Several manufacturers (including Fujifilm, Nikon, Olympus and Panasonic) offer one or several models with a no handle, flat front style or some version of a low profile mini handle. These cameras foster a niche manufacturing industry making accessory handles. Some of these are made by the original manufacturer and may feature an accessory shutter button and various other controls.  Some are from third party producers, usually without controls or electronics.

Many of these cameras also have a minimal thumb support which has fostered the development of  accessory thumb supports many of which slot into the hotshoe. This of course renders the hotshoe unavailable and in addition often impairs access to top plate controls.

I have to assume that styling considerations are the motivation for these cameras. Apparently camera makers are fond of the ‘flat front’ style.

I also have to assume that the reasons for this are grounded in some kind of romantic quest to rekindle the glory days of cameras, in the middle and latter part of the 20^th Century. In those days ownership of a 35mm SLR or rangefinder camera was an entry into the arcane and mysterious world of apertures, shutter speeds and ASA settings.

Those who could effectively operate an all manual camera formed an elite group with a close bond to their equipment which was by modern standards quite difficult to use.

Ergonomically, these modern cameras with flat-front-and-accessory-handle are a complete kludge.

Without the handle they are not as easy to hold or efficient to operate as a camera with a proper handle built in at the design stage.

With the accessory handle they often waste camera real estate by duplicating the shutter button and other controls, cost extra money and often require removal of the accessory to change battery or memory card.

Parallel handle  I spent some time experimenting with  parallel handles as a way to avoid the problems of the small projecting handle. The parallel handle is better than the projecting type for small cameras as it allows a more natural disposition of the fingers of the right hand. It can also work for medium and larger cameras but without any clear advantage over the projecting type.

Some modern cameras such as the Sony A6000 have a variant of this handle type although it is not optimally implemented. The shutter button would be better located about 10mm to the left as viewed by the user for a more natural hand/finger position.

Inverted L handle  I developed this in my mockups by shaping the handle to conform to the position my fingers wanted to adopt.

I have found that for cameras above pocketable size, it  provides the most stable grip with low muscle effort, best hand and finger position and best potential for Capture Phase controls on top of the handle.

Among actual cameras, the Canon SX60 has a nice inverted L handle which is comfortable for users with small medium and large hands. Other aspect of that camera such as the 4 Way controller are something of an ergonomic disaster, unfortunately.

The Canon EOS M3 and EOS 100D both have a variant of the inverted L handle but in each case the vertical part of the handle is too thin and cramped by the adjacent lens.

Several DSLR style cameras have a shutter button located to the left side of the top of a projecting handle. If these shutter buttons were to move another 10mm or so to the left an inverted L handle would be achieved.

Inverted L handle canted back 10 degrees   This is my interpretation of the optimal handle. It solves all the issues related to holding, supporting and operating in one configuration. It can be crafted to be usable by people with small, medium and large hands. Those with large hands drop down the vertical part of the handle. Those with small hands come up the handle.

It allows the right wrist to stay approximately straight with eye level viewing.  It provides passive supports for the hand to carry the mass of the device while leaving the index finger and thumb free to operate Capture Phase controls.

As far as I am aware, to date the only camera in the universe with a fully realised expression of this handle configuration is my Mockup #13.

Thumb supports  

A well implemented thumb support complements the handle, allows the camera to be held and supported with little muscle effort (tense muscles are undesirable because they shake) and sets up the camera for ideal Capture Phase controls for operation by the thumb.

Modern cameras have three main types of thumb support:

* None or tiny and offering little actual support.  My work with mockups shows that even small cameras can be more securely held and operated with a well implemented thumb support.

* Vertical, at the far right side of the control panel.  This appears quite often to be forced on designers when a large monitor leaves very little horizontal space on the right side of the camera for the control panel. This type of thumb support is better than none but the angled type (below) is more effective.

* Angled, allowing the thumb to lie diagonally across the back of the control panel.  If complemented by an inverted L type handle at the front, this allows the hand to adopt the optimal half closed relaxed posture for maximal stability and camera support with minimal muscle effort. At the same time the angled thumb support allows the thumb to swing left and right to operate controls optimally designed for use in the Capture Phase of use.

How not to do it.  Canon SX20. I owned one of these for a short time but the camera forever felt as if it was about to fall to the ground. The handle is smooth all over and slippery. There is no notch for the middle finger. The shutter button should be about 20mm to the left to allow the index finger to fall naturally on the shutter button and follow the contour of the right side of the handle. The thumb support is inadequate.

Next: Capture Phase controls for the right index finger and thumb.