Camera ergonomic scores revised and updated April 2019

-



Will we see a new wave of more user friendly cameras ?
If not I doubt that cameras have much of a future



I have undertaken a review of my  ergonomic  scores. The reason for this is changing expectations about the experience of using a camera. These days most people come to cameras via smartphones.

They sensibly take the view that having to assimilate a badly written 500 page instruction book in order to operate the device is just ridiculous.

Some current realities bear on this:

Camera sales are still falling steeply.

Camera makers continue to equip their latest products with clumsy, muddled, old menus and controls.  These were not really acceptable 20 years ago but we tolerated them because that’s all there was.

There have in recent times been two arguments for buying a camera in addition to a smartphone.

1. You could get better image quality from a camera. This is still true but that advantage is declining with with every new generation of smartphone.

2. You could have or mount a long zoom lens on a camera but not a smartphone. This advantage is also being eroded with new smartphones having a 10x optical zoom built in with no doubt more zoom to come.

So camera makers have to greatly improve the experience of using their products and they need to make progress on this ASAP or they will become even less relevant than they now are to most people who want to make pictures.

In the light of these considerations I have downgraded most camera scores for Setup, Prepare and Operation. Even the highest rated cameras in this list could improve substantially with more user centric internal and external design.

The principles and scoring schedules are unchanged but the marking got tougher, less tolerant of user interface characteristics which could and should be improved.

This applies to models from all camera makers. They are all guilty of dragging the chain when it comes to upgrading the user interface and operating experience.





Youcan read about my camera ergonomic score method and schedules here

Camera
Setup Phase
Max 15
Prepare Phase Max 15
              Capture Phase
Review Phase Max 5
Total Max 100
Holding Max 20
Viewing Max 20
Operating Max 25
Sony A3500
5
5
12
7
8
2
39
Nikon 1 V2
7
6
12
10
8
3
46
Panasonic LX10
10
10
5
6
8
5
46
Panasonic GM5
10
10
4
10
12
2
48
Nikon P900
10
6
13
11
8
2
50
Panasonic TZ110
9
10
4
9
13
5
50
Sony RX100 Mk4
8
12
7
9
10
5
51
Panasonic TZ70
9
10
6
9
13
2
52
Canon G7X.2
9
8
8
9
14
5
53
Panasonic TZ80
9
10
7
9
13
5
53
Panasonic LX100.1/2
10
8
11
10
10
5
54
Canon SX60
9
8
16
11
6
4
54
Leica D-Lux7 with handle
10
8
12
10
10
5
55
Panasonic TZ90
9
10
7
10
14
5
55
Fuji X-T1
10
9
9
13
10
4
55
Nikon B700
9
8
16
9
13
2
57
Canon SX70
9
8
16
11
9
5
58
Canon G1X.3
9
9
8
13
14
5
58
Panasonic GX80
9
10
9
11
15
5
59
Panasonic GX8
9
10
9
14
13
5
60
Panasonic FZ80
9
10
13
12
14
5
63
Panasonic G6
9
10
13
14
14
3
63
Canon EOS M50
9
8
13
14
15
5
64
Panasonic G7
9
10
13
14
14
5
65
Ricoh GR2/3
12
12
13
8
17
5
67
Panasonic FZ300
9
10
15
15
14
5
68
Canon EOS RP
9
10
13
14
17
5
68
Panasonic FZ1000
9
11
15
15
15
5
70
Panasonic G85

9
11
14
15
17
5
71
Sony RX10.4
9
14
12
16
16
5
72
Panasonic GH4
9
11
16
16
17
5
74
Panasonic FZ2500
9
11
16
16
18
5
75
Panasonic GH5
10
11
16
17
18
5
77










Nhận xét

Đăng nhận xét

Bài đăng phổ biến từ blog này

IF ONLY FOR A SECOND ~ Unique and Wonderful Portraits of Cancer Patients

-
Hình ảnh
20 cancer patients participated in a unique makeover experience. They were invited to a studio. Their hair and makeup were completely redone. During the transformation, they were asked to keep their eyes shut. A photographer then immortalized the moment they opened their eyes. This discovery allowed them to forget their illness, IF ONLY FOR A SECOND. "Within a second, smiling faces were seen all over the room. At that very moment, cancer did not exist for the family members either." You can order the book and learn more about the campaign, launched today, at the  "If Only for a Second" website .
Đọc thêm

Setting up the Panasonic Lumix FZ1000.2 Part 1 The Controls 21 June 2019

-
Hình ảnh
This is not Photoshopped apart from cropping and some adjustment to local brightness levels. The gull actually has no feet. It is 3 wing beats from having made a water take-off.  The FZ1000.2 can manage bids in flight and much more quite competently. The original FZ1000,   announced five years ago has been one of the best all purpose, do (almost) everything, freedom-from-changing-lenses camera models that you can buy. The Sony RX10.4 has more lens reach and a faster frame rate for continuous focus but is larger, heavier and much more expensive than the FZ1000. In addition the user interface is not as well designed. The FZ1000.2 is a mild upgrade to the original with most of the changes   going to further improve what was already a pleasing user experience. In addition there are several upgrades   to autofocus capability which I will discuss in this post as they affect the way the camera is best set up and operated. Accessories One of the nice things about this camer...
Đọc thêm

Setting up the Panasonic Lumix FZ1000.2 Part 2 The Menus 21 June 2019

-
Hình ảnh
Panasonic cameras including the FZ1000.2 have very good auto pano capability. My apologies for the boring nature of this post.   But menus are like that. Also apologies for the cryptic nature of some of my comments. I lack the energy to fully discuss the pros and cons of every option. The FZ1000.2 has Panasonic’s recently re-vamped menu system with a very nice graphic user interface, submenus in the Custom tab and a My Menu. There is still room for further improvement however. I would like to see the whole menu system revised from scratch with a new set of submenus based on more photographer relevant categories. The basic outline for my suggestion for these is something like: Setup>General/Controls/Viewing/Files Capture>Image/Focus/Exposure/Drive Movie Review Connect As it stands the submenus [camera] and [custom] don’t really mean anything.   All the other camera makers present the user with the same kinds of issues in the menus. In this post I will not deal with Movie ...
Đọc thêm

Fascinating Exhibition Preparation Photographs from the 1904-60's

-
Hình ảnh
The American Museum of Natural History is one of the world's preeminent scientific and cultural institutions. Since its founding in 1869, the American Museum of Natural History has collected more than 32 million specimens relating to the natural world and human cultures. The Museum showcases its amazing treasures in the exhibit halls, and behind the scenes more than 200 scientists are at work making new discoveries. Millions of people from around the world visit the Museum each year. For information on current exhibitions and upcoming events, visit http://www.amnh.org/calendar. Fred Scherer installing Birds of Paradise Group, 1945 Photographing Tyrannosaurus skeleton, 1937 Museum staff painting background and mounting animals for Tiger Group, Asian Hall, 1934 Museum staff cleaning elephant skin, 1933 Museum staff mounting Brontosaurus skeleton forelimb, Department of Vertebrate Paleontology, 1904 Preparing African Buffalo Group, 1934 Museum staff preparing African Lion Group, 1935 ...
Đọc thêm

Elements of camera design 7 July 2019 The good, the bad and the just plain silly

-
Hình ảnh
Chief camera designer on the lookout for new ergonomic mistakes Many camera historians   identify the UR-Leica of 1914 as the fore-runner of the modern hand held camera. With over a hundred years evolution you might expect that modern cameras would have gotten their user interface to a point that most people can pick one up and work it right away. Motor cars have a similar historical timeline. The Ford model T automobile started mass production on an assembly line in 1913. Automobiles have evolved to the point that I can hire one anywhere in the world and expect to be able to drive it using a set of controls which with a few minor exceptions (like the windscreen wipers) are universal everywhere. If this were not so all pedestrians and most vehicle users would be dead by now. Cameras are a totally different story. The people who design and make cameras continue to bequeath their products with a bewildering muddle of different types and designs of controls. Even within any one make o...
Đọc thêm