Interview With The Designers Of The Sony DSC-G3

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Discoveries and excitement captured on a digital camera can be shared with others on the spot, using wireless networks and photo-sharing websites. It adds a new dimension of fun to shooting. In the DSC-G3, Sony created a successor to the DSC-G1 that has expanded features and better functionality – at a high cost of nearly $500. Every Sony product is first designed in Sony’s Creative Center, where Sony Design took the time to interview the people behind the DSC-G3.

Timely advances in the G series

Masamitsu: Cyber-shot owners should not only enjoy taking photos but also viewing shots later. This goal has led to several enhancements, including larger, higher-resolution LCD screens, greater memory capacity, and slideshows with music. Another way we enjoy cameras is by sharing images, and in 2007, the DSC-G1 was one solution for this. It supported wireless LAN communication and introduced several original features, such as image exchange between cameras and image transmission via a home network.

Two years have passed since then. Wireless networks are now even more pervasive. New photo-sharing websites have been launched one after another, and their user base is growing. This means the G series has greater potential, and its advantages are better than ever. Taking the next step in development, we wanted the DSC-G3 to be easy for anyone to enjoy in all respects, from shooting to uploading your images to a photo-sharing site.

First we upgraded the specs. Uploading utilizes a full-featured browser, and there’s a touch-panel screen, for example. The hard part was improving the design. At first glance, the back of the previous model (the DSC-G1) appears to be a simple LCD viewer. To shoot, you slide the camera body right and left to expose the lens and controls. How could we improve on its portability and usability, and the element of pleasant surprise? Refining this concept proved a true test of our designers’ ability.

Necessity is sometimes the mother of great design identity

Takagi: The thinner and more compact digital cameras are, generally the harder they are to hold. That was a primary issue we considered when designing the DSC-G3. I suggested that the lens cover could also serve as the grip, after it was slid open. The key was to reinterpret the role of lens covers from protecting the lens to offering a place to hold the camera. This ultimately made the new shape seem even more inevitable, and it’s a more practical format for a camera. With this as our starting line in design, so to speak, we decided the internal layout and overall structure.

We also wanted the lens cover to be seamlessly integrated into the camera body. Somehow we had to blur the lines between the lens cover and body. My instincts told me that in this, we would find a distinctive new design identity for the G series, a face unlike that of the T series. It encouraged me to propose this lens cover, which you open by sliding the entire front panel. On back, you see nothing but a large LCD viewer when you’re not shooting. It doesn’t look like a camera at all. If you get the impression that the opening mechanism isn’t obvious, I’d say that’s the point.

For a better grip, the back of the front cover has a non-slip, dimpled texture. Instead of a pattern of raised dots, the surface is indented, which was a detail that was important to me. Raised dots would have left a strange sensation on your fingers after you held the camera for a while, so I couldn’t compromise. I looked for inspiration in golf club grips and sports car steering wheels, but it certainly wasn’t easy to achieve this finish.

Turning design restrictions into product character

Takagi: The raised edge around the DSC-G3 sets it apart from previous Cyber-shot models and gives this camera a sense of design identity. But of course, an innovative appearance was not our only goal here.

The body also took this shape because of the internal structure. G series cameras have a built-in antenna for wireless communication, and because radio waves can’t pass through metal, the part housing the antenna must be made of plastic. But we took the trouble to create a seamless metal body, so we wanted to hide areas where different materials come together. That’s why we chose a plastic material for the edge encircling the body of the DSC-G3. We positioned the antenna on top, where there’s no interference from the metal surfaces. When we sought a shape that smoothes out this slight bulge, we naturally settled on the contour you see today.

There are other benefits from this shape. First, the lens cover doesn’t have to slide open too much. The cover must open wide enough to prevent vignetting (lack of exposure at the corners), but having a cover with a slanted edge helps us minimize the amount you have to slide it. And the fact that less lens cover travel increases the camera’s structural strength is undeniably an advantage. In appearance, the edge around the body also contributes to the thinner image. And because we put labels, buttons, and LEDs on the back side of the edge, the edge nicely hides these elements from the front.

The internal structure, and the new edge shape we turned these design conditions and restrictions into traits of the camera’s identity, and they fulfill a valuable role aesthetically. Thinking of performance and appearance, we sought a practical, beautiful shape.

Clever mechanisms all around

Takagi: Pick up a DSC-G3 and you might also enjoy clever details in mechanisms of the camera. Watch the flash as you open the lens cover, and you’ll notice how a barrier slides away to reveal the flash. If we just left the flash exposed through a gaping hole, it would be a little disappointing, as if we compromised for practicality. But because we cared enough to incorporate this barrier, we were also careful about the timing as it opens. As the lens cover is fully opened, the barrier is retracted just in time to reveal the flash. I also devised the mechanism here, and this exact timing was something I persuaded the engineers to implement from the stage of our design mock-up.

Here’s another “inside story,” so to speak: there’s also a special mechanism in the bottom of the camera. As you know, the lens cover and body of the DSC-G3 slide apart, so that the lens cover provides the grip. This made designing the battery compartment tricky, because the battery stays in the body section while only the outer panel moves. How should the compartment open, then? Preventing people from replacing batteries when the lens cover is open would have been unacceptable. And it would have made even less sense to enable battery replacement then if it exposed the hollow space in the grip. (Above all, we didn’t want children getting their fingers caught in there.) We resolved this by also using a sliding battery cover, which extends and retracts. For this, I can only thank our engineers for their tenacity.

Broad-based portal to photo sharing

Furue: Photos you shoot can be uploaded without a computer to photo-sharing or social networking sites. To do it, we built wireless networking and a full-featured browser into the DSC-G3. Still, screen space is limited, and merely making the camera a window to each site without some refinement would discourage you from uploading shots whenever you wanted to. The sites would be hard to view. Because it’s a camera, after all, it was better to forget the fact that it has a fairly powerful browser and focus on providing a convenient way to upload shots.

This was our consensus when designing the camera’s portal to these sites. Several services are supported, and whichever you choose, you’ll see the same interface for easy uploading. It’s also flexible enough to add sites that become available in the future. In this way, the DSC-G3 is really more than a camera; it’s your portal to photo sharing.

It’s also easy to use. Once you complete the wireless network settings and choose a service, just press the WLAN button on the side of the camera to access the site. The camera immediately acquires information from the destination server, such as the folder structure. You’ll see this information in the interface. For example, if you set up folders called “Friends” and “Family” on a site, you can select the folders on the camera, and you can upload the shots you want to share for the desired viewers. You can also browse images already on the service sites.

In the DSC-G3, you’ll find camera functions and sharing functions. But because both use unified interfaces and controls, operation is clear. It’s enjoyable because switching between camera and network operations is transparent and seamless. That was a goal of ours for this interface.

From introducing a novelty to setting a standard

Masamitsu: Now that sharing photos online is so common, cameras that support all processes from shooting to uploading and even browsing certainly offer tremendous advantages. Such an advantage that it’s not far-fetched to imagine it becoming a standard feature of cameras, although this is just one of many possibilities.

For now, the DSC-G3 is the only compact digital camera that does it. The G series in the Cyber-shot line has attracted attention for novel features, but the refined design of the DSC-G3 will appeal to a broader range of people. Young women on vacation, taking some shots.

Casually viewing their images. And then choosing images to share and uploading them. In each situation, the camera is a perfect match. And it shows how the G series is especially qualified to meet current needs. How we see it, just like the T series and W series, the G series is already setting a new standard.