Inside Story

More than a month has passed since the R8 was launched. Though it has been highly applauded from the functional side, it has stirred a great deal of talk and won the approval of users because its design is greatly different from its predecessor model. Design team leader, Tatsuo Okuda, confessed to us: "I am so relieved that users have understood the concepts." Those concepts were "a camera as a photographic tool" and "a camera that looks and acts like a camera". As Okuda tells, "We aimed for a camera that would inspire people to take pictures." But, how did the design team tangibly shape the concepts expressed in such abstract words?

"To make it look like a high-end camera, we adopted a top cover that was not used on the predecessor model," says Okuda. The predecessor Caplio R7 looked like a "Sandwich" because of the matching front and back covers. On the other hand, the R8 adds another cover on top of that.

Cameras with a top cover follow in the footsteps of the "traditional" form of 35 mm film cameras. "Adding a top cover increases costs and manufacturing processes, but we were hooked on this style with the R8," tells Okuda. "Then, we brought out an advanced high grade look by making the top cover thinner, hiding the screws that hold it down and using hairline processing," he adds.