Vol.01 Optimizing the grip on the small movie camera! Hiroyuki Matsumoto

“I’ve been designing movie cameras for the past nine years now, but I was responsible for designing professional cameras for a time during my early days with the company. I really wanted to design products that fit in the palm of the hand, so I felt a little uncomfortable working on function-oriented professional equipment that seemed so bulky to me. Still, I’ve come to realize that it was precisely that experience with professional cameras that has enabled me to design consumer products with terrific grips. Since there’s no tolerance for the slightest imprecision with professional cameras, the highest priority is placed on operator control and the way the grip fits the hand. I learned a lot from that.”

When consumers look at movie cameras, their first considerations tend to be small size and innovative styling. But when it comes to actually purchasing one, they want to hold it in their hands and try it out in the store. Senior designer Hiroyuki Matsumoto of the AVCN Mobile Group’s AV Team sees limitless potential for improving movie camera designs by enhancing the feel of the grip.

“The grip may very well be the place where a camera can be differentiated most clearly from the competition,” he suggests. “Of course, there’s a difference between the professional movie camera, whose weight is supported by the cameraman’s shoulder, and the consumer market camera, whose weight and operation are handled solely by the palm and fingers. Our objective is to create designs that position the grip as the core element in camera functionality.”

This concept gave birth to the popular palm-sized NV-GS5 movie camera with its “affectionately compact” tagline.

“Most people consider the side of the body with the LCD as the key aspect of movie camera design, but we adopted a perspective that focused on the side with the grip and pursued a structure that ensured a proper grip and optimal operation, rather than treating the grip as just a handle to hold the camera with. We also incorporated slits in the grip, treating them as visual design elements, to let sweat escape and prevent slipping or excessive adherence of the palm that could cause discomfort. Since the hand forms a fist like the “rock” (“gu” in colloquial Japanese) in the rock-scissors-paper hand game, and since the grip is “good,” we gave this model the initials “GS” for “goo size.”

After his success with the NV-GS5, Matsumoto pushed ahead with even bolder designs. “Our sales and product planning departments were begging for designs that made the camera look small, but I felt that emphasizing only the profile, or the impression it made when viewed from the side, was the wrong approach.”

At this point, Matsumoto broke away from the received wisdom of movie camera design and created a breakthrough prototype with the top of the grip positioned higher than the lens.

“There’s no final structure for grip design,” Matsumoto asserts, explaining that the form taken by the movie camera itself will continue to evolve with changes in memory media and technological trends.

“There are DVCs, DVDs, hard disks, SD cards and all sorts of other memory media on the market,” he says, “and they’re changing every day. We have to reconsider our grip design from the bottom up every year to respond to changes in composition and body size while considering a whole range of factors, from the best control system layout to the optimal weight balance. A product won’t sell just because it has a good grip, of course, and the grip quality has to be combined with refined styling of the camera body itself. The important thing is to undertake the design while maintaining a focus on the ‘ideal grip’ concept.”

“We continue our persistent efforts to perfect the form even after submitting the preliminary design to the design department, and the designers there empathize with our persistence. All of us participating in the design process pursue the optimal grip together right up to the time we order the metal mold. Our new products this year, the HDC-SD9 and HDC-HS9, reflect this concern with the compact size and ideal grip that set our products apart.
“We’re never completely satisfied, though, however impressive our achievement. We intend to continue this product evolution that embodies the very design identity of our movie cameras.”

Clearly, then, size, weight and performance are not the only things that differentiate one movie camera from another. There are also other factors that are conveyed through the palm and fingertips when the user actually holds and operates the camera.

Next time you see one of our movie cameras in a store, pick it up. Hold it in your hand. And savor the exquisite feel of its grip. You’re sure to find it conveys a sincere message to you from Matsumoto.