Jonathan Ive designs Leica camera for Red charity

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.

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.

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?

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.

> 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...

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.

-- source: leica owner

  It 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.

But hey, it's for charity, so the Madison Avenue bullshit artistry is (almost) excusable.