As you may have heard, the (RED) Leica M designed by Apple's Jony Ive and our Marc Newson for the (RED) auction at Sothebys brought in $1.8 million on Saturday Nov. 23rd. Their very special one -off Leica, featuring a body drilled with thousands of very small holes, is being hailed as the ultimate camera design statement.
But is it? I would, instead, nominate Newson's K-01 -- specifically, the white body with black buttons-and-grip -- as the epitome of the design philosophy that he and Ive espoused on last week's Charlie Rose PBS interview show. Simplicity of design... paring down the controls to the bare minimum needed... to the essence of what a camera really is. And that's the K-01, since it is so much more ergonomic (and easier to clean) than the Leica. The K-01 is a joy to hold, a pleasure to use... it lets you just take pictures without unneeded complexity. And that's good design.
As I see it, Newson hit a home run with the K-01 project. Not just a handmade one-off for a charity auction -- a modification to a previously existing design. No. With the K-01, Pentax and Newson made the same sort of design statement that Ive made with the Apple products. Clean, simple, well thought out. But where Apple was entering a smartphone and tablet market with zero tradition, Pentax was up against the expectations for camera design that went back to the turn of the last century. As in -- black body, maybe with a silver top plate and lens barrel... and as many knobs, dials, and buttons as possible, to proclaim the 'professional' nature of the product.
Poor Pentax. Tradition! Easier to bring a miniscule Smart Car to market than to introduce a quality camera by a top-rate designer. Sad for Pentax, but what a deal for us!
One last note. Does function follow form? Seems to, for the K-01... take a minute to compare RAW or JPG images, say at ISO 400 or higher, K-01 vs Leica M9, at the DPreview site... shocking difference. Maybe they should hire Newson to do the M10!
Below, the (RED) Leica M. Clean all those thousands of micro-drilled case holes with an old toothbrush? Try to find the right button in the dark? Well, no. But if you were the $1.8 million buyer, you probably have someone already assigned to clean it, and maybe take pictures for you too.