How can you tell that a Nikon camera is a Nikon? Well, there’s the fact that the lens turns the annoying way to mount onto the camera. But then there’s also the iconic little red stripe that you see on nearly every single handle or grip the manufacturer puts out. That’s all thanks to Giorgetto Giugiaro — an iconic Italian designer who made the designs for tons of vehicles, firearms, and cameras. Though for the camera industry, he’s responsible for the designs that have enthralled customers. A few of the designs are still beloved even today.
The Nikon Cameras Designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro
According to Wikipedia, Giorgetto Giugiaro designed the following cameras:
- EM (1979)
- F3 (1980) [36]
- L35AF (1983)
- F4 (1988)
- F5 (1996)
- D2H (2003)
- F6 (2004)
- D3 (2007)
- D4 (2012)
- D800 (2012)
- Df (2013)
Indeed, his influence lasted for over 30 years. Some of these cameras are appealing even today. Photographers love the Nikon F3, L35AF, and the Nikon Df. What’s fascinating to note is that the cameras first started out with sharper lines and blocky structures. But after some time, they ended up having more rounded curves. It starts out a bit with the Nikon EM and then really starts to embrace it with the Nikon F4. By the time we’re at the Nikon D800, you can’t even really see the heritage of the Nikon F3 anymore. It’s almost like the evolution majorly changed.
An Enduring Legacy
What’s so fascinating is that Giorgetto designed the Nikon D3 — which basically was then stripped down to become the Nikon D700. Then, a smaller variant was made to become the Nikon D300. However, he’s only credited with the D3.
In the mirrorless camera world, we’ve seen the Nikon Df influence the Nikon Zfc and Nikon Zf. However, the latter cameras weren’t designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro. It was designed by Kenichi Soejima. He told Cool Hunting that the Zf was designed for people to step up to full-frame. With that in mind, it’s the antithesis of what the Nikon Zf and Giugiaro’s other designs were.
To be fair, they’re also cameras from different eras. When Giorgetto Giugiaro was designing cameras, photography’s barrier to entry wasn’t all that low. With the D2H, things started to change because of how digital photography changed. When the Nikon D3 came around, digital photography was starting to do things that film wasn’t capable of. The D3 was the King of Low Light photography back then. The design of the sensor required something that really would stand out. And I remember holding the Nikon D3 during that time frame. I was barely 20 years old at the time, and it struck me. These days, I’m not quite sure that holding the Nikon Z9 would strike me in the same way. That’s not to say that the Nikon Z9 isn’t a capable camera. Instead, the aesthetic feels as if Nikon has started to relax a bit while still giving an awe-inspiring presence.
All this makes me wonder if we’re every going to get iconic designers on cameras again. Jony Ive helped design one of the ugliest Leica cameras ever made — and it still sold for a ton of money. Cameras, honestly, aren’t as important as they used to be. Because of the sharing of so many parts between manufacturers, cameras are mostly the same. Where they stand out is with the interface. Otherwise, they’re all along the lines of SLRs with few rangefinders.
I also write for the watch publication Worn and Wound, and I really wish that cameras started to embrace the fact that they’re luxury products appealing to a niche audience. They’re not really needed anymore — many companies shoot photos with phones and then send them off to the retouching agencies.