This is a digital camera concept for the Holga legacy, by Saikat Biswas

Praise: Yes, this is mouthwatering design, hahaha, I really love the minimal rugged design, definitely if this was in the market I would probably be running to the stores to buy one.

Devil’s Advocate: Biswas talks a lot about being minimal in functionality and aligning with the lomography philosophy of “Don’t think Just Shoot.”  I got to say again I drool at the sight of this and all the thought that went into this little machine, but there are a lot of gratuitous features on this (well yes you find them on higher end Point and Shoots, but still…).  Shutter Speed dial? on a traditional holga you just hold the shutter down for the amount of time you want, there is no reason not to have the same function in this concept. E-ink display, nice for showing the remaining photos left, but the rest of the information such as aspect ratio and color are already on the unit next to their switch.  BW/Color Switch? I honestly like the fact the Holga.D lacks a viewfinder or a lcd screen, so this camera will appeal to a lot of enthusiast that like to do a lot of post-editing on photoshop before uploading it to their flickr, so there is zero need for this BW/Color switch, just make all the images color and let the user worry about it in post.  The Iso dial? ummm keep it, why not… even though most consumer digital camera’s noiseless iso range is very limited… my assumption is that this camera should be so cheap and made cheaply like its film predecessor that it would probably have the same camera sensor you would find on your smart phone, which have no indication of iso settings.  Removable lens? More of a Diana feature then a holga (maybe I am holding to tightly with the holga metaphor).

My Version: I would remove a lot of the things I pointed out above.  I would like to influence a modding community behind this product, force people to have to rip into the unit to get anything done, no easy interchangeable lens or an easy to access sd memory slot.  Maybe a little cynical of me.  But one cool feature would be adding some type of dip switch to the camera’s sensor so you can easy tweak and mess with how the sensor works.  (I heard that with the 1st generation of digital cameras. with a little tweaking to the sensor you were able to take infrared images.  So hopefully the dip switch would help tune into those abilities.) Ohh yeah last tweak, make it as thin as possible.

mmm, Why don’t they use the same design but make it a 35mm Holga, forget about digital…?

More info: saikatbiswas.com > iainclaridge.co.uk

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