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| 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 rank order is approximately the same with a few adjustments.
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.
You can 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 |
Panasonic TZ80 | 9 | 10 | 7 | 9 | 13 | 5 | 53 |
Panasonic LX100 | 10 | 8 | 11 | 10 | 10 | 5 | 54 |
Canon SX60 | 9 | 8 | 16 | 11 | 6 | 4 | 54 |
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 | 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 |