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Tuesday, 5 March 2024

Let's do retro right....right ? Introducing the CONRO contemporary retro camera concept March 2024

 



Behold the CONRO  a contemporary retro style camera for the 21st Century


There has been much excited comment lately about the just-announced Fujifilm X100VI retro style camera.

Why are camera reviewers and user forums so energised by the latest model of this  line of compact cameras with limited capability and why is there so much interest in retro style cameras ?

In this post I will hazard some guesses about  the appeal of the retro genre and also offer some comments on the usability of current retro models and my views on how retro could be implemented in a more user friendly fashion.

Retro style models available new in 2024 include:

* Fujifilm X100 series (fixed lens rangefinder style)

 * Fujifilm  X-Tx series, X-Txx series (interchangeable lens [ILC] SLR style)

* Leica Q series (fixed lens rangefinder style)

* Leica M series (classic manual focus optical rangefinder [messsucher] type) 

* Nikon Zf series, Zf, Zfc (ILC, SLR style)

The Leica M series is the only one of these camera lines which provides a user experience similar to the original, manual focus, film camera type.

All the other cameras in this group are faux-retro.  Their appearance mimics some aspects of a real or imaginary forebear  but they are fully electronic, with autofocus and auto exposure.  The Leica Q series offers a semi-retro user experience with aperture and focus rings on the lens barrel.

What might be the appeal of retro cameras ?

1. For camera makers I guess they might be thought an opportunity to sell more stuff. The market for real cameras has declined dramatically over the last 15 years so those makers still in business could be looking for selling points outside the mainstream.  Fujifilm in particular appears to have discovered a cohort of fans who are prepared to pay for their faux-retro offerings. However I do notice that several recent offerings from Fujifilm (X-S series and X-H series) have reverted to a more mainstream style with a proper handle and Mode Dial.

2. There is always a cohort of consumers who like to have and be seen with stylish accessories. Things which can be a topic of conversation at dinner gatherings. 

3. Nostalgia for and homage to the good old days in the second half of the 20th Century when fine cameras were held in high esteem and great industry names were made. Cameras of this era had external, analogue controls with marked settings easily seen by the user.

For instance Nikon is marketing its Zf cameras as representing a latter day reprise of the FM2 single lens reflex model which had a 19 year production run from 1982 to 2001 and was instrumental in confirming Nikon’s reputation for making reliable high quality products leading to a high level of consumer satisfaction.

4. Leica has been selling cameras for years based on the notion that they offer das wesentliche, or just the essentials. This can be seen as a pushback against the ever-increasing complexity of mainstream cameras  several of which have 900-plus page instruction manuals.

A camera offering a user interface with “just the essentials” could be a useful device on which newcomers to camera photography might learn the essential elements of exposure, focussing and operation without the distraction of 95 million combinations of settings for every conceivable useful or useless camera setting dreamed up by the back room boffins.

I own two old cameras which offer a user interface with just the essentials.

Here they are:

 

Baldafix on the left, Pentax Spotmatic on the right


Let us look at the Baldafix first. I learned about photography at the age of 10 using this camera which is now 71 years old. The bellows, film transport, focus movement, shutter and aperture still work although the lens succumbed to the ravages of fungus years ago. The viewfinder is a horrible squinty little thing which was never much help with framing.

There is no exposure meter. We use the “sunny f11 rule” to establish a combination of aperture and shutter speed to provide appropriate exposure of the black and white rollfilm.

The only way to make reasonably decent pictures with a camera like this is to fully understand the relationship between ambient light, shutter speed, aperture and film speed.

My second old camera is an Asahi Pentax Spotmatic. This is a single lens reflex, 35mm film  model made in 1964. This camera was rather advanced for its time having a built-in, through the lens exposure metering system. I used this camera to make documentary photos in the 1970’s.  This one still works although finding a suitable battery for the exposure meter might be difficult.

The user interface of the Spotmatic is virtually identical to many SLR 35mm film cameras of the second half of the 20th Century from many makers. It has just the essentials. We hold it tightly, there being no handle or thumb support. We adjust focus manually with a ring around the lens and aperture with an adjacent ring around the lens.  Shutter speed is set with a rotating dial on the top plate and film speed is set by lifting the outer ring of the dial and rotating it to a different position relative to the inner ring. It is all very basic, direct and simple. And slow. Which is not necessarily a bad thing. When using a camera like this we need to think carefully before pressing the shutter button.

You can see all the controls in the photo. There is nothing else. No menus, no auto-anything, no mode dial, no control dials.

Now I want to show how I would design a retro camera in 2024 to optimise the four ways in which such a device might appeal.

To recapitulate briefly, these are

* A way to offer something different from and maybe more interesting than the generic DSLR/MILC shape and bland, functional appearance of mainstream cameras from Canon, Sony and Nikon.

* Attractive styling.

* Practical realisation of nostalgia for and homage to the heyday of 20th Century camera photography.

* Simplicity of operation through a user interface based on external, analogue controls for the main exposure parameters and a philosophy of providing just enough user interface modules to properly control the camera but no more.

Can we incorporate these requirements into a modern camera, taking advantage of the latest imaging technology and designed to be used by enthusiast photographers in 2024 and beyond ?

Yes, I think so as I will demonstrate.

Do any of the currently available retro-style cameras listed above meet these requirements and in the process provide an enjoyable use  experience ?

I nominate the Leica Q series models as the ones which come closest to achieving this.

My proposed retro camera design evolves from thoughtful consideration of the four Phases of camera use and the essential requirements of the user interface required to navigate each of these confidently.

The four Phases of camera use are

1. Setup Phase. This involves programming user preferences into a menu system. To access the menus we need a button which can be located in a low priority position on the camera body, together with a means of scrolling and a way to select the required options.

Scrolling and selection can be done with the touch screen or a thumb-stick. Both should be available.

Most current model cameras have way too many options in their menus, many of them not required for efficient operation of the device.

A minimum set of menu options would include items related  to image quality, exposure, focussing, shutter actuation, flash, connectivity, display, power, storage, stabiliser.

I nominate the Hasselblad X2D100c as the current model which appears to have the most user friendly approach to menus which are accessed and selected via the touch screen. I took the list of items above straight from the X2D100c.  Check out a review of this camera to see how its menus work.

Access to the menus can be via the touch screen as on the Hasselblad or via a button which brings up the on screen menus.

2. Prepare Phase. This is the minute or few or less when we need to quickly re-configure the camera for a new photographic environment.

Individual preferences will vary but the kinds of things I like to adjust in this Phase include Stabiliser, Drive Mode and Timer delay, Subject to detect, AF area size and shape, Bluetooth and wi-fi, Focus bracketing.

Many cameras offer direct access to a quick menu (Q Menu) for these adjustments and that works well. We want to allow users to select which items appear in the Q Menu with a maximum of 8. That’s about the maximum number of items which most of us can scan quickly.

3. Capture Phase. This is divided into three functional activities, Holding, Viewing and Operating.

Holding arrangements on a retro camera are a bit problematic. Ever since the ergonomically influential Canon T90 of 1986 the forward projecting handle with rear thumb support has become the standard holding configuration for DSLR/MILC type cameras.

Prior to the 1980s both compact, fixed lens and 35mm SLR cameras were flat on the front and back offering nothing but the textured surface of the body on which to get a grip.  Throughout the 1980s cameras like the Canon A1, AE-1 and New F1 acquired various types of mini-handle to give the fingers of the right hand a better grip.

I think our 2024 retro camera could work decently enough with  a revised version of one of these, allowing the traditional appearance to be retained while providing a more secure grip than is possible with a completely flat front.

To this I will add a discreet thumb support on the rear. That used by Fujifilm on the X-T5 is unobtrusive to the eye but still serves its purpose without breaking up the lines of the upper rear section of the camera body.

Viewing arrangements can be quite straightforward as there are for practical purposes not many options.  We can forget about optical viewfinders, they are obsolete.

We will fit our modern retro camera with an electronic viewfinder which can be located either upper left as viewed by the user, rangefinder style, or over the lens axis, SLR style.

We will also have a monitor screen which is touch sensitive and which can be tilted up or down in either landscape or portrait orientation, like that in the Nikon Z9.

Now we come to operating.

Our camera must allow us to achieve the correct exposure. To do this retro style we want to find on the camera separate and visible user interface modules for each of the four exposure parameters, lens aperture, shutter speed, ISO sensitivity and exposure compensation.

A workable way to do this is to place an aperture ring and a focus ring around the lens barrel and a shutter speed dial, an ISO sensitivity dial and an exposure compensation dial on the top of the body.

The shutter button is threaded for a cable release allowing no-touch shutter release and bulb and time exposures.

The current setting on each of the user interface modules is shown by an engraved analogue scale and is easily seen by the user without having to power up the camera.

Each of the aperture, shutter speed and ISO sensitivity dials has a range of easily visible analogue settings and also an A setting.

This is how it works:

We can operate in fully manual mode by adjusting each of the three parameters separately.

We can engage manual mode with auto ISO by setting the ISO dial to A.

We can engage aperture priority exposure mode by setting the shutter speed and ISO dials to A (auto) and controlling aperture directly.

We can engage shutter speed priority mode by setting the aperture dial to A and controlling shutter speed directly with or without auto ISO.

All the settings are also replicated digitally in the viewfinder and on the monitor screen if the displays are configured that way in the Display Menu.

All this probably sounds a bit confusing to a camera novice but with study and practice the logic of it becomes clear.

This is definitely not a point-and-shoot camera. It is a camera which requires a thoughtful user to take active control of every step on the pathway to making pictures.

The next thing we need to control while operating the camera is focussing.

A (Autofocus)  is a clearly visible setting on the focus ring. The other settings are for manual focus at a distance indicated on the ring with an approximate  depth of field indication on the adjacent part of the lens barrel.

We change the size and configuration of the AF area in the Q Menu.

We move the AF area around the frame with the thumb stick and re-center the AF area with a push forward on the thumb stick. This is standard practice on many current model cameras.

My thinking about this modern retro camera envisages a prime lens which could be fixed or interchangeable.   I assume that a zoom would be technically possible although that would add another layer of complexity which some might feel is not in keeping with the spirit of the retro genre.

The fourth Phase of use is Review. We want to playback our photos so we can see them on the monitor screen or the viewfinder.  For this we need to initiate playback with a dedicated button, enlarge the image as required, scroll around the frame, check focus and exposure. We will use the thumb stick for scrolling and we need a separate button to magnify the image.

Now we understand what user interface modules we need for a “just the essentials” modern retro style camera and the function(s) of each.

To summarise:

We want visibly engraved  rings or dials for aperture, focus, shutter speed, ISO and exposure compensation.

We want separate buttons for main menus, quick menu, magnify, display options, movie and power. That’s 6 buttons. Some, like quick menu and magnify  need to be placed in high priority locations easily accessible to the right thumb. Others like main menu and display options can go to low priority locations as we need them less often.

We need a properly located thumb-stick of optimal haptic design for numerous tasks involving scrolling and moving. 

Check out the back of a Canon EOS R5 to see a thumb-stick which is optimally positioned and is of optimal haptic design.

Look at the back of a Fujifilm X100, X-S or X-T series for a badly located thumb-stick of very poor haptic design.

Yet the Fujifilm X-H2 and GFX thumb-sticks occupy a much more user friendly location where the thumb wants to find them and they feature a much more functional haptic design.  Go figure.

I often wonder if the product development teams in camera companies ever talk to each other. It’s not just Fujifilm, all of them offer products with such disparate control configurations I really have to wonder about the conception and birthing process.

Anyway, moving right along, we can now start to use our accumulated insights to construct a modern retro style camera.

For this exercise I will go with an SLR style model with the viewfinder over the lens axis. This style is a bit easier to work with than the rangefinder style because the hotshoe is on top of the viewfinder, making plenty of space available on the top of the camera for control modules.

The rangefinder style provides less space on the top deck unless we locate the hotshoe  over the viewfinder on the far left, which can be done but this puts the flash off axis in landscape orientation.

Putting all this together we arrive at the CONRO (CONtemporaryRetrO).

I made this iteration about the same size overall as a 20th Century 35mm SLR and co-incidentally a close size match to the current model Canon EOS R8 which strikes a nice balance between compact dimensions and comfortable handling.

It is slightly larger than the Leica Q3 due to the SLR style design with EVF hump and rear-projecting eyepiece, designed for optimum ease of viewing rather than ultimate compactness.

At this size it would have a full frame 24 x 36mm sensor.

A smaller version with an APSC crop sensor could easily be developed.

I made the CONRO deep enough to accommodate an in-body-image-stabiliser (IBIS) system.





I think the CONRO satisfies the design brief which I set earlier in this post. It offers homage to traditional 35mm SLR cameras, has a simple, direct set of controls with “just the essentials” while incorporating some of the  most useful features of modern photographic technology such as electronic viewing and autofocus.

I want to offer some further comments about currently available retro-style models.

The Leica M series cameras are simply anachronistic. One has to be a die-hard traditionalist, and a very wealthy one at that, to tolerate the obstacles which an M camera places in the way of enjoyable photography. I owned a Leica M6 for a while many years ago and soon became dis-enchanted with the idiosyncrasies of this thing which even in 1990 felt like an antediluvian antiquity.

The current M11 model looks like and in key respects works like the M3 of 1954.

The Leica Q series models, the most recent being the Q3, are best sellers for Leica even though they are very expensive.

The Q3 comes close to satisfying my design brief for a contemporary retro style model.  Unfortunately Leica’s designers appear to be exercised by certain styling memes such as flat surfaces and sharp edges to the detriment of handling and ergonomics.

For the purposes of this discussion I think we can consider the rest together. These are the Nikon Zf and Zfc and Fujifilm X-T and X100 series models.

The main problem with each of these models as I see it is that they appear not to know what they are trying to be. They have an existential problem.

Are they a styling exercise, an hommage to the 1980’s, an attempt to offer a user experience like that of an old style rangefinder or SLR while simultaneously providing a modern button-and-dial electronic interface,  or what ?

They just look like an ergonomic muddle to me.  

For instance the Nikon Zf has dials for primary exposure parameters but then stacks those dials over levers for various other things someone might want to control sometime, maybe, like black and white mode, then adds a PASM lever and a front control dial and a rear control dial then covers the back of the camera with 11 buttons but no thumb-stick.

There is no thumb support and no handle, but there is  a strange little ridge on the far right side (as viewed by the user) of the front of the body. What is that for ? It is nowhere near the user’s fingers trying to get a grip on this unwieldy thing which is quite heavy. What a mess.


A Nikon Zf presents the unwary user with a cluttered array of marked dials, unmarked dials, buttons, levers and stacked controls but lacks basic holding aids.  Here is an object lesson in how not to do camera design. 

The Fujifilm models are not quite as ergonomically incoherent but they also suffer from the problem of trying to be several different kinds of device all at once (retro, modern,  direct controls, button-and-dial controls, simple operation, complex user interface) and in the process fail to realise any of them to best advantage.

The X100 models insist on giving the user both an optical viewfinder and an electronic viewfinder in the same window. Why ? The optical viewfinder is an anachronism and the electronic one is not as good as it could be if it were not competing with the OVF in the same physical space.

Summary

Over the 12 years I have been producing this Camera Ergonomics blog there have been expressions of interest by some readers in a type of camera which combines the direct style of controls of a 20th Century 35mm rangefinder or SLR with the advantages of modern imaging technology.

None of the currently available retro style cameras manages this task effectively except perhaps the Leica Q series which are too expensive for most camera buyers and still have ergonomic inadequacies.

My proposal for this market niche is my CONRO design as described in this post.

I think it could suit some camera users very well. All we need is a maker prepared to give it a go.

 

   





2 comments:

  1. G'day, Andrew...hope this finds you and yours doing well. I was hoping to make contact with you regarding the DMC-FZ-1000 Mk2 settings sheet you last updated 3 Aug 2023. With your permission, I have reduced all those written listings to an Excel spreadsheet, which makes it quite a bit easier to follow. However, have a couple of questions about some settings you posted in the article. Cheers!

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    1. Hi, I am having problems with replies to Google blogger comments, hope this gets published. Happy to answer any questions.
      Andrew

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