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Jonathan Ive designs Leica camera for Red charity
- jeanjq 13y agoI'm always uneasy with the idea of (RED) charity: the message is "save the world by buying stuff". It's just consumerism with a bit of karma, no?
- vor_ 13y agoI don't understand why you're uneasy about it.
- k-mcgrady 13y agoI think it's more "you're going to buy this product anyway, so why not go with the model that will help a charity?".
- randomafrican 13y agoNo
- ddfu 13y agoSure, Product(RED) is designed to help you feel better about buying stuff you don't really need, but the high marketing spend is hardly much different than other charities. It's a "why not?" but don't assume you're done helping others for the year since you bought a (RED) iPad! If you want to donate efficiently, may I suggest typing :help uganda into vim?
- davidgerard 13y agoThe charity sector looks forward to a Bono-led recovery RICH PARADISE, Bahamas, Monday (UNN) — The (RED) anti-AIDS marketing initiative has announced its first annual results. The initiative, fronted by Bono, seeks to promote a "co-philanthropy" model, wherein companies can do good works by selling products they were going to sell anyway, but with a little red bit on to show how much they care. Really. They care. "We've worked hard on the model," said Bobby Shriver, (RED) CEO. "It's been a brand launch designed to get people used to the idea of an entirely new fund raising model. Because (RED) is explicitly NOT a charity, we encourage our partners to go about their business including their marketing. Gap, Apple, Sprint and other sales people are meeting Americans and explaining that 5,500 Africans dying daily of AIDS is preventable." "The publicity has been fantastically effective," said Bono from his Caribbean island. "Steven Spielberg smiling down from billboards in San Francisco, Christy Turlington striking a yoga pose in a New Yorker ad, me cruising Chicago's Michigan Avenue with Oprah Winfrey, eagerly snapping up Red products, Chris Rock appearing in Motorola TV spots saying 'Use Red, nobody's dead', and the Red room at the Grammy Awards. This is something to be really proud of." Zombie Steve Jobs also voiced his support. "I don't see how else you can assuage your OVERWHELMING GUILT at your comfortable life and income without a Red U2 iPod on your belt. Imagine the SHAME if people saw you with a plain white or black one. The SHAME." The stunning return to AIDS charities for 2006 was $18,000 on over $100 million in marketing and consumer spend. "The only way is up!" said Shriver. "Onward and upward!" "Buy more stuff!" said Jobs.
- marchra 13y agoI know I'm hellbanned but.. OUTSTANDING
- corin_ 13y ago> The camera took 85 days and more than 735 hours to manufacture. During that time more than 550 models and 1,000 prototype parts were made and tested; 55 engineers worked on the process. And > It is expected to fetch between $500,000 (£312,000) and $750,000. If they took the cost of that time and work and donated it directly to the charity how much would it have been?
- fein 13y ago> 85 days and more than 735 hours > more than 550 models and 1,000 prototype parts were made and tested... 55 engineers worked on the process. Uhh... I think they spent more developing this than what it will fetch. Wouldn't it have been better to just donate the money? A 500k donation at the expense of that many resources...
- abat 13y agoIt's called marketing. Ive "designing" a limited edition Leica is like Murakami being involved with Louis Vuitton. Lecia needs people to believe that their cameras are worth a lot of money and involve a much greater amount of design work and craftsmanship than a standard Canon.
- Osmium 13y agoFor the curious, Murakami = Takashi Murakami. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takashi_Murakami http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takashi_Murakami
- Osmium 13y agoYou assume they aren't getting anything else from that. Presumably it also counts as R&D for future products.
- sp332 13y agoReciprocally, Project (RED) also gets Ive's name to draw attention.
- sarreph 13y agoI think they just wanted to make a bloody awesome camera, that also happens to generate money for charity.
- vor_ 13y agoDo you really think they didn't consider this when making the device? Obviously, they gauged interest and determined that they'll make more money for charity by selling it.
- sgustard 13y ago"Aluminium case with tens of thousands of individual perforations" sounds so much fancier than "metal screen".
- trafficlight 13y agoI would've also accepted the term 'mesh'.
- gilgoomesh 13y agoMetal screens are just stamped or rolled sheet metal, while these perforations are made by a CNC mill from the same piece of aluminium as the rest of the body. Might not mean anything to a layperson but watching a CNC mill make thousands of precision perforations would be quite a sight.
- buro9 13y agoLooking at that, without reading the text, I thought immediately that it looked like Marc Newson's work rather than Jony Ive's. Then I read the text: > Apple's feted design chief teamed up with industrial designer Marc Newson I would say that Marc did most of this, and Jony either just created the collaboration and put his name to it, or his touch was reasonably light. The only part that really looks like Ive's stamp is the perforated aluminium. Every other curve, the buttons and balance of the design, scream Newson.
- huxley 13y agoReally? Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see it, there is a Dieter Rams influence to it that says Jony Ive more than Marc Newson to me.
- aray 13y agoIt really screamed Rams to me as well (much more than Ive), even more than Newson as well. It doesn't look to me like a Rams/Braun product though, but a product that's trying to be one.
- veemjeem 13y agoIt looks more like an Ive design than a Newson. Newson designed a Pentax camera last year, and it doesn't seem like any of those design elements made it into this Leica camera design.
- 9999 13y agoThe shutter speed dial really looks like Ive's work to me. Although it's hard to say. This Leica bears absolutely no resemblance to Newson's Pentax K-01, but perhaps that's just because the K-01 was a camera that was actually intended to be used rather than stuffed away in a billionaire Leica fanatic's collection.
- cookingrobot 13y agoNewson seems to really like perforation: http://cdn0.lostateminor.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/marc-newson-watch.jpg http://cdn0.lostateminor.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/marc... http://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2010/09/dzn_Nike-Zvezdochka-by-Marc-Newson-2.jpg http://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2010/09/dzn_Nike-Zvezdochka... http://www.thebohmerian.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Modern-Storage-Unit-the-Voronoi-White-Carrara-Marble-Shelf-by-Australian-Furniture-Designer-Marc-Newson.jpg http://www.thebohmerian.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Moder... http://25.media.tumblr.com/tDKhyxB37qrkb3g3wZIeQyQwo1_500.jpg http://25.media.tumblr.com/tDKhyxB37qrkb3g3wZIeQyQwo1_500.jp...
- slinlee 13y agoLike so many apple products, it probably feels great to touch, but bad to hold.
- DigitalJack 13y agoI suppose people that buy these will just put them on a shelf, but if not, those perforations are going to fill with garbage.
- eCa 13y agoThere will be only one.
- DigitalJack 13y agoOh, I see now. I misread the part about 550 models thinking it meant they produced and were selling 550 of these.
- zokier 13y agoHow the hell it that top selection wheel supposed to be operated? Overall, it looks pretty similar to the normal Leica M, but with Apple-style all-aluminium coloring and more rounded corners.
- 001sky 13y agoA leica fan and his money are easily seperated -- source: leica owner
- vparikh 13y agoThis to me does not really strike me as some Mr. Ives would have had a large amount of time in, and quite frankly am shocked that he put his name on this. The Leica M has had pretty much the same dimensions and design for since the 50s (save to major departures the Leica CL and the Leica M5). Note that I am referring to the analog film version and not the modern digital M8 and later incarnations design, along with the Fender Stratocaster are the closest thing to perfection anyone has come up with. The Stratocaster is a discussion for another time. In the case of the Leica, it is the best design because it distills the essence of the photographic expression and builds the product around that. The controls are simple. You have a shutter speed dial, a film crank, a shots taken indicator. Aperture control is on the lens barrel. Any photographer can pick up a Leica M and know how it works intuitively. The controls fall right where they should. Its been 50 years, and no one really has come up with a better interface to take a picture. This design throughs all of that out the window. From the looks of the picture, it doesn't look very comfortable to hold. It seems to rounded, and the "cheese greater" design is just asking for dust/environmental problems. A well used Leica looks even more desirable with age, this would just look hideous. This design just lost all of the elegance that 50 years of incremental design bestowed on the Leica M and turned it into something that looks like a Braun product. Then lets move to the usability -- whats with the recessed dials??? the whole point of the dial placement ABOVE the top plate is so that the photographer can operate all the controls via his thumb without taking his mind away from the act of taking a picture. This completely violates that principle. Not to mention all the ergonomic evolution the engineers at Leica spent so much time agonizing over. Don't get me wrong, yes I do love the Leica M. I am not a zealot by any chance. I don't claim they do everything but what they do -- they have perfected the design. And here they just through all of that out the window. If the goal was to make an advancement on the design, I would say take a close look at the Fuji X100s. It has taken the Leica ethic and bridged it beautifully with the modern digital age. In fact I will say the Fuji X100s is the first classic of the digital age.
- axman6 13y agoIt's also a one of a kind and may never actually be used, but instead displayed in someone's private collection. Who cares if it's not particularly usable, it was not designed to be used from what I can tell.
- snarkAttack 13y agoIt is expected to fetch between $500,000 (£312,000) and $750,000. The special edition Leica M camera features an anodised aluminium case with tens of thousands of individual perforations. The camera took 85 days and more than 735 hours to manufacture. During that time more than 550 models and 1,000 prototype parts were made and tested; 55 engineers worked on the process. The best part about writing for the BBC without a byline is that no one can criticize you as an individual, when you start spewing hyperbole and completely unrelated statistics in an illogical fashion, for the purpose of making retarded embellishments that go over like a lead zeppelin. But hey, it's for charity, so the Madison Avenue bullshit artistry is (almost) excusable.
- exo_duz 13y agoIve doing what he does best. Industrial and hardware design. I still think there are some question marks about his software design skills as some of the things in iOS7 is very badly thought out such as the new date pickers.