Why do cameras look the way they do

[peenebiber]

Hi, may be I misunderstood the topic but yes it's astonishing how conservative the photography industries are. If we look to the smartphones they fall really short of innovation. At the beginning the Film rolls determine a lot, anytime look at the Rollei 2/3000, it does not need to be the same design.This camera does offer also a waist level viewfinder (Picture from Wikipedia).
Nowadays its a computer with a sensor and a display or a display in a prism viewfinder. Industries suggest we do like to stay with the knobs and wheels we have needed in the mechanical age. Interstingly, no one is offering a mechanical multiwheel toy for smartphones for the manuell feeling of the old ages.  SO it goes without.
Phase One has developed in my view a clear concept for the components of a digital camera. It offers a totally modular approach, the user interface is variabel depending on the job. They do offer also in the newer backs picture processing similar to smartphones. Interestingly for me: They do not offer multiexposure etc. in the external Capture One tethering software, but thats another topic.

So does the preview of the captured image needs to be on the camera? Of course: No. It could be on a tablet or in my digital glasses. If the digital interface is for convenience basically connected to the camera why is it on the back of the camera??? Why is it not on top of the camera light protected with touch areas for both hands at the side? It could also be a transparent glass with electronic look through information like in modern cars?! Why we need to encapsulate the terrible hot storage cards deep inside the camera causing thermal disaster? There are a lot of questions unanswered if we start to think freely.
If photo industries want to live longer they must learn to get their mind free. That should have been the message of this article, we are waiting too long. Its a pitty that creative thinkers like the phase one people do not have the money to realize all the concepts.
So keep asking all the other manufacturers why they offer us such old concepts.

[DP]

Why we need to encapsulate the terrible hot storage cards deep inside the camera causing thermal disaster?

so you want to encapsulate terrible hot /because if they will work to transmit the all that data @ SD/CFAST/whatever card speeds they will be/ wireless (wifi/bt/whatever) adapters inside and they will drain battery faster too on top of being hot ?

[Dan Wells]

Fujifilm has actually tried the hybrid optical/electronic viewfinder, using a projection system similar to that used in car heads-up displays (it's the odd viewfinder in the X-Pro series). It works well in some very niche situations, especially in street photography.

Sony and others have tried the all touch interface, and they are NOT great cameras to use. Part of the problem is that most photographers use the camera with their eye to the viewfinder most of the time, which encourages a much ,more stable shooting position than using the rear LCD to compose. When your eye is in the finder, you can't see what your hand is doing, so tactile controls are a huge plus.