![]() In an interview for the Japan Times, Sakai describes how he wanted to avoid creating another forgettable point-and-shoot which the Japanese manufacturers were churning out at an impressive rate: "What is good for the manufacturer is bad for the consumer. Before I came up with the design concept for the O-Product camera for Olympus, cameras were made of black plastic. It's expressive and toy-like in its form, but the metal body gives it some seriousness. It's a satisfying size, and manages to walk a fine line between being precious and un-intimidating. Whether you pick up on its retro references or not, this is a fun product that puts a smile on the faces even of people who've never used a film camera. The most explicit visual reference is with the flash unit, which looks like the old flash guns on press cameras wielded by Weegee and the like. Like the Be-1, the O-Product is vaguely retro, but it doesn't reference a specific product or model, as is the case with the Beetle or the MINI. It was mass-produced but in a limited run of 20,000 units. The O-Product is a 35mm film camera, based around the internals of one of Olympus' then-popular point-and-shoot Infinity Jr. Sakai was an early proponent of retro-futurism, an approach to design that blends references to past products but treating them in a contemporary style. J Mays - the co-designer of the VW New Beetle in 1997 - became arguably the most famous practitioner of this approach in the following years. What the Nissan and the Olympus have in common is that they were designed by Naoki Sakai and his studio, Water Design. Long before any of these, however, were the Nissan Be-1 microcar in 1987, and the Olympus O-Product camera in 1988, launched to mark Olympus' 70th year of existence. In the automotive field the standouts are the VW Beetle and the MINI. These days retro design is quite the thing, especially in cameras, such as superb examples from Fujifilm ( X100 series, X-T1), and more clumsy ones like the Nikon Df.
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