[zxaar]

I handled the K-01 on weekends and I think green button is placed fine. Had NO problems shooting with it the way I do. So I guess the placement of buttons is subjective. Anyway there is no hard and fast rule as long as it is not placed too awkward its fine by me.

[zxaar]

.....

Camera is complete fail. There is no green button.

[monochrome]

.....

Actually that iRemote or whatever it is creeps me out. Evokes "A Clockwork Orange."

[Medium FormatPro]

I've seen buttom (and camera control) issues for many years - and acorss the board with many camera brands.

For instance I don't believe that every button should be within reach. For film camera; that's why most had their type of rewind disengage botton on the bottom plate of the camera. Also noting; that on many film slr cameras - one would often accidently bump out the film iso speed - thereby effecting meter readings - oops.

Also, does anyone remember most of the Olympus film cameras; and how some of them actually had the shutter speed near where the aperature should have been?

[RonHendriks1966]

When I made my original post, I mentioned that two boxes were sometimes the same size :IE station wagons.
Three boxes:
1 engine compartment
2: passenger compartment
3: luggage compartment.

Other than a very few cabover van designs, passenger vehicles conform to a three box design.
Come back and point to the passenger designs that put a seat in the luggage compartment. They exist and you seem to feel the need to disagree, even in the face of pretty overwhelming evidence.
I'm sure you can find a few outliers.

The first car I bought was a Suzuki Super Carry Pick-up in yellow!

It's essential this car (sold as Suzuki, Bedford and Maruti).



Do I qualify to buy a K-01 in Yellow?

[Clothears]

Also, Marc is a professional, I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt on what he thinks makes great design.

Erm, I wouldn't do that.

In the UK in the 60s, someone designed a new coin box to go in the red public telephone boxes. It won an award from the Design Centre. But it was universally hated because:

1) It was easy to break into and steal the money.

2) On long distance calls, it kept asking you to add money and then made a funny noise when you did. Holding a conversation under these circumstances was very difficult.

You can design something how you like. But if it doesn't pass the functionality test, it fails.

[Clothears]

What function does the chimney/snorkel have?

I understood it to house the diaphragm motor.

[ibkc]

Pentax K-01 and Optio WG-2 Win Camera Awards - Pentax Camera News & Rumors - PentaxForums.com

"Today, Pentax proudly announced that two of their cameras launched this year, the mirrorless K-01 and the compact Optio WG-2, have each won a prestigious industry award!
The Pentax K-01, pictured above and reviewed last month, was the recipient of the Red Dot Design Award in the "Entertainment Technology and Cameras" category for its innovative design by Marc Newson. While we aren't surprised that its design is attracting attention, the news that the camera won this award comes as a great positive surprise, given our members' mixed options of the camera's appearance.

[ ... ]

"The Red Dot Design Awards are sponsored by the Nordrhein Westfalen Design Center in Germany, and are awarded each year to products released over the last two years. Nine different design criteria are judged, and the Pentax K-01 was found to be the best out of a batch of more than four thousand products in its category. This is the first time that any Pentax product has won a Red Dot award."

[Laurentiu Cristofor]

Red Dot gets to review very interesting products.

[Class A]

I seriously doubt that any of the red dot jurors knows what good camera design is. At RH's blog someone posted this comment (small mistakes edited)

"My old company had a coffee espresso machine that was awarded the Red Dot Award. That thing spends more time being fixed that it's being used. Red Dot probably just mean - hey they hired a designer to do the exterior."

Makes sense to me.

This award is a slap into the face to all the camera designers out there who did a great job in designing a camera with great ergonomics.

Many independent reports found faults with the button placement of the K-01, the grip, etc. One can just hope that Pentax takes this undeserved price as a "nice to have" regarding current sales, but does not view it as encouragement to prioritise "designer" looks over ergonomics in future designs.

[ibkc]

Many independent reports found faults with the button placement of the K-01, the grip, etc. One can just hope that Pentax takes this undeserved price as a "nice to have" regarding current sales, but does not view it as encouragement to prioritise "designer" looks over ergonomics in future designs.

Well, I've got one and I have been using it extensively - it goes with me everywhere. I also have and use 16 other cameras from various time periods; and I have owned two other dSLRs, one Pentax and one Nikon. The K-01 is easy to use and its grip is, at least for me, a lot more ergonomic than that stupid Nikon's was.

I'm amused that you hate it so without having spent time actually using it, but I'm more delighted that some people recognize good design when they see it.

[monochrome]

Well, I've got one and I have been using it extensively - it goes with me everywhere. I also have and use 16 other cameras from various time periods; and I have owned two other dSLRs, one Pentax and one Nikon. The K-01 is easy to use and its grip is, at least for me, a lot more ergonomic than that stupid Nikon's was.

I'm amused that you hate it so without having spent time actually using it, but I'm more delighted that some people recognize good design when they see it.

+0.95 (meaning +1 with a qualification) - I have adjusted to the Green Button placement and it doesn't bother me any more.

I shoot 90% manual mode with K lenses and get beautiful exposures. Tungsten WB correction is beautiful on this camera. In 5 weeks I've done 965 clicks - way high for me. Now I'm down to actually using the camera.

[zxaar]

I seriously doubt that any of the red dot jurors knows what good camera design is. At RH's blog someone posted this comment (small mistakes edited)

"My old company had a coffee espresso machine that was awarded the Red Dot Award. That thing spends more time being fixed that it's being used. Red Dot probably just mean - hey they hired a designer to do the exterior."

Makes sense to me.

This award is a slap into the face to all the camera designers out there who did a great job in designing a camera with great ergonomics.

Many independent reports found faults with the button placement of the K-01, the grip, etc. One can just hope that Pentax takes this undeserved price as a "nice to have" regarding current sales, but does not view it as encouragement to prioritise "designer" looks over ergonomics in future designs.

Yaa sure. If you have an opinion antipodal to mine then you must be the stupid one. This seems to be philosophy of your life.

As far as designing is concerned, no matter how useless Red Dot awards are, they are given by people who understand design far better than you do. Between you and them, I would take their opinion every time.

At RH's blog someone posted this comment (small mistakes edited)

"My old company had a coffee espresso machine that was awarded the Red Dot Award. That thing spends more time being fixed that it's being used. Red Dot probably just mean - hey they hired a designer to do the exterior."

Makes sense to me.

Just the way of looking at things.

I could equally say that there are people who can not even operate a coffee machine properly and their coffee machine was always broken. They can even break the good ones like the ones which got Red Dot award. These guys must be pathetic at handling things.

You see , problem lies in the eyes of beholder.

[rparmar]

I seriously doubt that any of the red dot jurors knows what good camera design is. At RH's blog someone posted this comment (small mistakes edited)

"My old company had a coffee espresso machine that was awarded the Red Dot Award. That thing spends more time being fixed that it's being used. Red Dot probably just mean - hey they hired a designer to do the exterior."

You're confusing design with engineering. This causes you to be hostile to those who actually know something about design.

[Class A]

You're confusing design with engineering.

No, it is you who is confusing industrial design with fashion.
Industrial product design is first and foremost about function. Form follows function in this discipline.

Star designers like Newson, however, cannot just design a product around functionality. They always also need to make a fashion statement, need to proof that they are worth their money and put their signature on a product. This often is to the detriment of the product (there is a reason why all the nameless product designers did not choose a "stand out", "fashion statement" approach and ended up with similar designs).

That's why every star designer has to do their own interpretation of a chair which looks odd, will auction for a lot of money, but is immanently impractical.

The red dot award for the K-01 seems to be the result of a designer jury looking for fashion forward style rather than usability. There is no doubt that the K-01 ergonomics are suboptimal and hence are not award worthy. So at least for the K-01 the red dot award turned out to be a "fashion statement" award rather than an "industrial design" award. Maybe that's what it is meant to be.

This causes you to be hostile to those who actually know something about design.

Just because I criticize, you call me hostile?
I expected better from you, Robin.