“Keep it simple, Stupid!.” That’s a principle exemplified by Apple’s industrial design, but sometimes is nowhere to be found when it comes to compact cameras. Panasonic, however, seems to be on the same wavelength with the Lumix FP7 they just unveiled at CES 2011. The physical buttons normally found on the back of point-and-shoots are missing, replaced instead with a sleek 3.5-inch touchscreen LCD. The only physical buttons that remain are found on the top of the camera — power, shutter, and zoom (dial). With the simplicity comes 16.1 megapixel photographs, 4x optical zoom, and 720p video recording. No word yet on pricing or availability.

Update: As @valerietherese points out, this is also taking a page from Sony and the DSC-T200 camera released in 2007.

In the current world we live in, it’s often the case that one person taking photographs for a group might promise to share the images as soon as they can but end up forgetting the images in some corner of their hard drive, never to be enjoyed by the other people in the photo. Enter the Samsung UCIM concept camera, designed by Jung Eun Park. Rather than store images onto a memory card owned by one person, it records images onto USB flash drives through three USB ports, allowing two other people to instantly receive the captured images.

It’s an interesting concept that turns the way we think about shooting and sharing upside-down.

UCIM Concept Camera (via Engadget)

How do you take a picture of something above the surface of the water and below at the same time? Well if you had the “underabove” camera, it would be a snap. The concept design features two lenses; one on the top half filled with air and one on the bottom half filled with water. It sports a flash and even a “time wheel” so you can take an underwater self portrait. The camera then stitches the images together and displays them on the LCD screen.

The design won a Red Dot Design Concept 2010 award.

UNDERABOVE (via engadget)

SonyAlphaRumors received a pretty interesting tip yesterday regarding the design of the upcoming Sony Alpha A77 (which is still a rumor at this point). The anonymous tipster wrote that the camera — successor to the A700 — will have an innovative design that boasts a hybrid viewfinder by blending optical and electronic images:

Yesterday Sony explained the new system that will be used for the incoming a77 (the a750 will use a regular SLR design). Practically the are using two semi-transparent mirrors and a high-resolution EVF to reinforced the live image. They are using a reflexive technology design called 70/30, between each semi-transparent mirrors.

The final image in the viewfinder will have 30% of original image and 70% of electronic reinforced image through the new EVF.

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The golden ratio is used by nature, photographers, and now… Twitter! Did you notice it in the new Twitter design?

After studying the ratio extensively, German psychologist Adolf Zeising wrote in 1854,

The Golden Ratio is a universal law in which is contained the ground-principle of all formative striving for beauty and completeness in the realms of both nature and art, and which permeates, as a paramount spiritual ideal, all structures, forms and proportions, whether cosmic or individual, organic or inorganic, acoustic or optical; which finds its fullest realization, however, in the human form.

Even if you’ve never heard of the golden ratio, you’ve probably heard of the rule of thirds. The two concepts are similar and related. Here’s an interesting article discussing them.

(via Laughing Squid)

This adorable Pico projector concept which comes hot on the heels of Nikon’s more standard-looking S1100pj projector camera. The Pico, envisioned by René Wooram Lee, combines form and function in its anthropomorphic design: its blue “eye” is a projector lens and its greenish “eye” is the camera lens. The center smile is actually a microphone. The two feet not only double as a stand for the pico projector cam, but they also cover a mini-USB port and what looks like an audio jack. Brilliant!

(via Yanko Design)

Canon recently indicated that due to consumer demand for smaller cameras, they’re working on shrinking their traditional SLR system to make it more portable while retaining the mirrored design. It’s still possible, however, that they’re simultaneously working on developing their own EVIL camera to battle existing offerings and the camera Nikon is likely working on.

The above is a concept design by Idan Shechter over at Digital Photography Writer of what a Canon EVIL might look like. Do you think it looks better or worse than current EVIL offerings?

Finally, a photo accessory for ladies that isn’t just frills. The new BlackRapid Camera RS-W1, is designed specifically to fit women. Sure, it has some embellishments on the strap padding, but it retains all the function of the traditional R-Strap, plus some strategic curves for comfort and fit. The strap will begin shipping later this month for $59 from BlackRapid. Read the rest of this entry »

Holga D is a concept camera by India-based industrial designer Saikat Biswas that brings the plastic, medium-format Holga camera into the digital age.

The cheap toy camera design retains the optical jankiness that lures hipsters to this type of camera (i.e. vignetting, blurring, and light leaks), but a DSLR-caliber sensor inside ensures that the anomalies are optical rather than digital.
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Wouldn’t it be neat if we could print out short video clips in Polaroid-esque “prints”? That’s the idea behind Kim Hyun Joong’s Movie Polaroid Camera, a concept camera that uses a flexible display material rather than ink to “print” out ultra-portable video clips rather than traditional Polaroid pictures.

With the direction displays are going (and technology in general), I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw something this crazy sometime soon. Get ready for Harry Potter style photographs!

(via Photojojo)