I don’t hide my love of photography. I also find, being a human, that I like things that are intuitive. I recently took the plunge and made the switch from Canon’s DSLRs to Sony’s A7R. My main reason for this is an upcoming trip to Japan. A trip that’s going to involve a not-insubstantial amount of travelling around the country. If Sony’s claims, and numerous reviews, are accurate I can get a similar (if not better) quality of image out of a relatively tiny A7R to my Canon 5D MKII. So it was with great excitement that I picked up my new A7R today. First impressions aren’t positive.
That photo is of the instruction manual. It worries me that a company has produced a camera with an interface so complex it requires a manual large enough to break a toe should I drop it.
Yes, this is in multiple languages, but that hurts the user experience for me. It’s a reason, but not an excuse. This is smaller than the entire manual that comes with a new Mac, and that’s an entire computer, hardware and software. It really speaks to the level of confidence a company has in their UI when they produce something like this.