Killing Themselves Softly With Complexification-Saturation

Just wanted to reiterate this. (I've said it before, here and there.) This is a renegade, outsider, beyond-the-pale, meta viewpoint, but...

...I still think the camera companies are killing themselves with complexity. It's easier to figure out a new computer than it is to figure out a new camera. A few mavens can do it; nobody will admit to not being able to do it; but here's what I think is happening: I think most buyers of high-end enthusiast-level interchangeable lens (IL) cameras bought one new wunder-toy a few years back that they never quite understood thoroughly, then they replaced that with another one that was even more complicated and had even more features they never quite got around to figuring out, and then maybe rinse and repeat another time or two and...

...Eventually they reach a point of complexification-saturation, and they're exhausted by it, and they wander away.

Never admitting to a soul the real reason for their disaffection, which was that the darn things got more challenging than they are rewarding.

I'm not talking about anyone reading this site. Neither am I complaining on behalf of myself. I'm talking about the average mainstream potential buyer of any higher-end DSLR or mirrorless camera.

I know there are other reasons for the decline in the market for these kinds of cameras. But I think one reason (just one) that people are turning away from the product is that the product no longer serves them in a way that's gratifying. They've become too complex. Too hard to learn. Too hard to understand. Too confusing. Too frustrating. Too difficult to truly master such that they can be used fluently, instinctively, naturally, easily, comfortably.

Just one take.

Mike

P.S. Imagine, this is what passes as a "gear post" on TOP these days. I gotta get out more!

Original contents copyright 2019 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Bryan William Jones: "I don't want to make a case for any one manufacturer, but after having shot with 'pro level' cameras for 20 some odd years, I started looking around for something with more soul. It seemed as if everyone was chasing all the features that software allows and adding more bells and whistles. Certainly there is a market for that, but I found myself going with a very old brand that makes simple cameras with simple interfaces and manual focus lenses. It slows me down in all the right ways and leads to a level of satisfaction that I never got with the 14-FPS, incredibly impressive, almost prescient autofocus super-cameras."

Ger Lawlor: "Can we use the 'L' word? M10D...'nuff said."

Mike replies: Sure we can use the L-word. As I've written a number of times, Leica is the only company with the confidence to make its cameras relatively simple. 

Dennis: "It could be, but I'd need more evidence. People I know who have bought a high-end, enthusiast-level ILC have stuck with it. They don't tend to upgrade frequently (less often than I do!) but they haven't turned away from it.

"On the other hand, I know plenty of people who have turned away from entry level cameras (ILC or fixed lens) in favor of their phones, but I think that's due to the ease of sharing photos taken with a phone. As an aside, I truly believe that many people do not think that their phone is a 'good enough' camera (how many times do you read that phones are good enough for most people)—it's just that the ease of use/sharing is worth the compromise. I think a lot of people who shoot phones as their primary camera would love a better camera in their phone (and that is driving phone manufacturers to compete on camera capabilities)."

Jeron: "'Overserving' is a a term that describes that nicely. I admit that my favourite camera still is the Nikon V1. It serves me well, and works frictionlessly for me. I have much 'better' cameras, but I find that the larger files don't bring me much value, and the operation is so complex that I have a hard time finding the few features that I actually use. The few features I do use are scattered randomly among a gazillion of features that I don't need. I love it when settings change accidentally, and I find myself stuck in some sophisticated focus mode that makes no sense to me, and can't figure out the way back to normal. The sheer amount of features that I'm not interested in have diminished my user experience. It's frustrating—the camera sits unused for months until I feel guilty enough to lug it around again for a day or two."

Josh Hawkins: "I usually figure out how to change around seven settings. (Seven is a totally arbitrary number. I’ve never actually counted. It’s not many.) Everything else I set once and I’m done. There are to many settings to learn them all.

"I say as someone who uses my cameras to feed my family. It’s not worth learning it all, even to me."

Mike adds: Also, you used to manage a camera store!

Geoff Wittig: "I'm somewhat sympathetic for camera makers, as they're always looking for that extra feature or function that will magically capture buyers' interest, that will differentiate their very nice camera from all the others out there. Feature-creep is irresistible. But Mike is right; they're shooting themselves in the foot here. I have a four-year-old desktop computer I use for photo editing. It works fine, but its operating system is no longer supported by Adobe with the latest upgrade of Photoshop, so I can't access some of the newest functions. This will only get worse going forward. Sooner or later I'll need to get a new desktop computer. No doubt it'll be spiffier and faster; but the drudgery of setting it up, reinstalling all my apps, scores of printing profiles and printer software, and making sure it functions well with my large format printer is excruciating. Basically a lost weekend with a lot of frustrating 'gotcha's' that take time to iron out, now that live tech support is a thing of the past. New cameras present the same problem. Lots of cool new features, but accessing them requires a deep dive into the (generally badly written) manual and lots of finicky setting of preferences and custom menus. Canon has at least been pretty consistent with their menus and controls, so it's not too painful getting a new Canon DSLR. I will confess that the Fuji X-series cameras have so many options and obscure features that I basically use them as either a glorified point 'n' shoot, or keep them in straight manual mode. Life's too short to slog through hundreds of pages."

Jeff: "I think you might be right. I've thought I enjoyed digital much less than film because it totally devalued all my hard-won knowledge. But maybe the reason is much simpler, that with all the buttons, dials, settings, thick manuals, and the endless, incomprehensible menus, it just isn't much fun. And that's before you start with the 'fun' of the post-processing software.

"Maybe they are more fun to argue and talk about then to use."

Jim H (partial comment): "Agreed, but this complaint could apply to almost any consumer device today that uses microprocessors. Engineers can't resist doing things that can be done no matter if anyone wants it to be done, needlessly complicating the device."

Ken: "Perhaps a simple approach would be to take a cue from car manufacturers. The Toyota RAV4, to take your example from the earlier post, comes in four trim levels: each with an increasing number of features and increasing price. Depending on your budget and needs, you can get the basic model or the one with all the features. Why can't someone get a, say, Fuji X-T3 with two or three trim levels—from the bare-bones basic model to the fully loaded model with touch screen controls, flash, higher frame rates, video and more? Each trim would have the basics, including the same viewfinder and controls, but each higher trim would have additional features for those who need it."

Mike replies: Sounds good. Sony does something very close to that with the A6000/A6300/A6400/A6500.

Homo_erectus: "Having played musical instruments for most of my life, cameras strike me as being really odd art making devices. I've played bass for thirty years. I can pick up nearly any bass in the world and play music on it without reading a manual, adjusting anything, or even really looking that closely at it. There are tons of different manufacturers making them but the core design is essentially the same. In fact my familiarity with how to make pleasing sounds on one type of stringed instrument allows me to pretty convincingly fake my way through playing nearly any instrument that has strings no matter how radically different it might be from the bass. Why are cameras so completely the opposite of that? How come no one makes cameras that are as pragmatic and focused in their function as musical instruments are? Maybe in a few hundred years the designs will have matured into utilitarian simplicity."

Steve Jacob (partial comment): "I would love a camera that simply didn't support JPEGs at all. That would eliminate half the menu settings at a stroke."

Thom Hogan: "Camera makers aren't solving the biggest user problems. If you don't do that, you don't get new growth, you get a base that slowly erodes as they saturate out. What are the biggest user problems? 1. Communication (workflow); 2. Complication (as you suggest); 3. Customization (and I don't mean program anything to any button as Sony seems to think is the answer)."

Jim Richardson: "I hear you on the complexity theme. On the other hand. The progression I have seen in cameras and photography during my career has been about opening up new realms of seeing. Usually when people talk about the value of 'contemplative' photography what they mean in practice is taking pictures in pretty good light of stuff that doesn't move. Basically it means limiting the subject matter of photography to what a large camera on a tripod can do well. What digital photography has done is open of the world of really dark places and things that move quickly—and a lot. This has expanded photography and improved its ability to reflect the world (in my opinion). With it comes the hair-pulling complexity of digital cameras capable of such performance. But at least it is possible."

Bob Gary: "Mike, I think you’ve hit a nerve with this complexity issue. Very well could be we’re all experiencing the need to make photography fun again...."

Comments

[Ilkka]

How does a 4x5 view camera rate for simplicity? In some ways it is tje simplest camera around. But it is also the most complex.
The key is to learn the basics amd tjen use what you need in your photography. Nobody needs all the features of a modern camera. Just like nobody needs all the movements in a view camera.

[Howard Cubell]

The paradox is that the only "serious" cameras today that have clean, simplified user interfaces and controls, with limited "feature sets", are from Leica, Hasselblad and Phase One, and are the MOST expensive cameras available. You have to pay more money to get less. Oh, and what else do they have in common? None were designed in Japan. That's not a coincidence.

[longviewer]

My GX1 just turned seven. I've tried several cameras since but (thankfully?) its resale value is not worth checking. I think it's the right camera for me in several ways - the first 16Mpx 4thirds sensor, hackable firmware for higher video specs, small but with an optional VF, and simple ergonomics that make sense. Click the control wheel for EV±, press ISO and every single possibility is a screen-touch away, point to AF in stills or video. Every 'improvement' in later models came with a loss in simplicity for me. So the G85 is my 'do-everything' camera.. but the GX1 is my enjoy-shooting one.

[Stephen Felce]

Ansel Adams used to take a single shot and knew what he was getting. He was master of his craft and was close to genius at it. I try to emulate him with digital, take very few frames and most of them work out close to what I expected. But then I have been at it for sixty six years, so I know what I am doing.

Digital equipment is designed for profit only, aimed at people, often with a big pocket but no sense of what works in photography and what doesn't. They are impressed by technology, things like DPAF, even if focus with scientific precision is entirely unnecessary. But have a look at the pictures; most do not have a clue.

Of course equipment has become very complicated and like microwave cookers with all those totally unnecessary settings, it creates an unnecessary obstacle to many people. The first digital camera I bought on an experimental basis to overcome this, after which I was able to identify the micro-wave syndrome, sort out what I needed to know when I later made the move seriously from film.

I shoot landscapes with a Nikon D610. I set custom buttons for AF-ON to focus manually and lock it where I choose. I also set AE lock and hold, set exposure adjustment to +3 and take a spot reading and exposure set on the brightest part of the scene. So, I am using manual, subverting the automation to do it all more conveniently.

If you are shooting action then auto-focus obviously is a help. Cannot knock that but the extent to which it has been taken on top end cameras I think is useless, daft.

A few moments ago, I was reading a forum topic on the alleged magic of film. One comment referred to the fact that you could alter the results by changing developer. That made me remember a lot of painstaking work in my teenage years to get my technique spot on, the magic of when I got it right and the wonderful tonality when I did it with Ilford Pan F or Kodak Panatomic X in Neofin Blue.

That's the difference. Magic is possible with monochrome and colour on film. Photography is far easier with digital, no doubt about it but instead of the potential for magic all there is is poring over the manual to figure which few features actually are of use.