Hi Photographer friends,
As I mentioned in my previous post, I am currently writing a new e-book. This time, it’s about the new Pentax K-01 that was announced in February with a start of delivery at the end of March.
We already heard all kind of negative comments about this new camera, "it's too Boxy", "It looks like a brick", who would want a bright yellow camera?", "Who is Marc Newson anyway?", "It has no EVF (Electronic ViewFinder) or OVF (Optical ViewFinder) so it's useless", and many other comments.
As for myself, I cannot judge anything by looks only. Pentax has always been on the forefront of technology, daring in their designs, and here they go again. The K-01 is certainly daring or pushing aesthetic to a new level…but why can't aesthetic and functionality live together?
As I am writing my book, I am finding out a lot about the camera, and the specifications are pretty impressive. We, as human, tend to want the newest technology while we don’t want things to change. It’s an oxymoron, a paradox, or call it what you want, but that’s really the way we are.
The K-01 is a blend of new technology, new aesthetic, bold design, and that’s what the upcoming generation will gravitate to. I often let other people use my DSLR to take a picture of me or my family or friends as a group, and the first thing they do is to hold the camera like a point-and-shoot, trying to compose the picture by looking at the LCD screen. They are at lost when I tell them to look in the viewfinder.
Apparently, the most used camera is the world is the iPhone or Smart phones. That leads me to believe that the new generation won’t care about an EVF or OVF.
So…my new book or e-book will actually be published first as an iBook, for the Apple iPad.
Why would I do that?
Because Apple introduced “iBooks Author” in January and the concept is an absolute game changer. You get to read a book while experiencing multi-media. Yes, you can view videos, image galleries, interact with images and diagrams, follow Internet links, search the Internet, highlight passages, write and save your own notes, and more. Check it out here and here. I can’t think of a better way to learn.
My new iBook will be available on the Apple App Store for the iPad. I will make a version also available as a PDF file, just like my other e-books. The iPad 2 has been selling at the rate of a little over one million per week. Not everybody that has an iPad 2 will buy a Pentax K-01, but many will, I hope.
I am setting up my iBook as a template that will be used for many future “Everything you need to know…and then some” series of camera “How to books”, and this time, for all major brands of cameras.
Ah! Technology, the more it changes the more it’s the same.
Thanks for reading,
Yvon Bourque
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