Originally posted by Not a Number I think people make too much a fuss over the grip too. Not everybody on earth has ogre sized paws. I find the grip on my K10D probably at the limit to what is comfortable. I'm interested in a K-3 but the grip may be too large for my hands. And I'm used to manual focus cameras which didn't have grips until the mid 80s. And the so called grips were mere bumps compared to what is common today.
In my meanderings with the K-S1 this weekend, I ended up at the Smithsonian Institute in DC. Along with burning photons, I performed some observations to support my theory that the K-S1 design was primarily intended for Japanese women, or east-Asian women in general:
1) There are a heck of a lot of Asian women in Washington, DC. I saw, oh, a couple hundred in about six hours at the Air and Space Museum(s) and National Gallery of Art. English was usually not the language being spoken (did hear a mix of Korean, Japanese, and either Mandarin or Cantonese), so I think I had a decent sample for the world in general.
2) I'd say average height was about five feet / 150cm, maybe less. Even the taller ones tend to be slender, with small hands. In general, they had smaller hands than Caucasian women of similar height. Conclusion: Asian women tend to be small, and have small hands.
3) They tend to dress "up" for going to museums. Where the American "white girl" winter uniform is jeans, boots, and a sweatshirt (or a sweater if they were with a date), Asian women were more likely to be in skirts, with more layers and accessories like scarves and hats. They looked like they were going to church, or possibly a job interview. If they had been guys, think sport coat and slacks. If they were with a date, increase one more notch. From this, I'm going to conclude that Asian women, even of different nationalities, are generally more "style conscious".
4) Not a lot of them had cameras (other than phones) - for those that did, it was compacts and superzooms. I think I saw two with DSLRs, and they both spoke to their friends in English with an American accent. In both cases, it was a smaller body and lens. (Side note: If I saw a DSLR with an f/2.8 zoom and a flash attached, it was a Caucasian male.) From this, I'm going to conclude that Asian women prefer smaller cameras, when they use cameras.
5) As a middle-aged white guy with no fashion sense, I am completely invisible. This is useful when you are staring at women's hands and outfits, but it pretty much killed any chance of saying, "excuse me, could you hold this camera and tell me if the grip fits your hands?". That, and not wanting to get pummeled by security.
So, I didn't see anything to DISprove my theory. For my next test, I'm going to need a 'sweets collection' Strawberry Pie K-S1 and a silver DA 21 HD...