Photographer Petitions Canon for Left Handed Camera

[old-pr-pix]

Flame us if you will, but Don's got the answer! I'm left handed but shoot right for obvious reasons. Took my OMD E-M5 with full battery grip and turned it upside down. Fully functional left-handed camera. Feels wrong, but shutter release is in o.k. spot, key controls reachable with left hand, touch screen focus can be done with thumb. I use a hand strap on that camera which helps when upside down. Clearly the ergonomics aren't the best, likely no one at Olympus planned on someone using the camera that way. Missing component is software to invert the menu display. Tilt screen needs different articulation -- maybe the new E-M5II with fully articulated screen will work? Heavier, long 2.8 zoom is more challenging - would like to use right arm for extra support. Haven't figured out how to change lens with only left hand though. Maybe if I replace hand strap with neck strap?

I'll stick to shooting right-handed. I can't imaging the reaction doing a shoot with an upside down camera; but, I could.

 

[DominoDude]

LOL.

Have you ever thought about playing a piano? How about making a left handed piano for you, Mr. YAMAHA please? Even if Steinway make one for you, will that make you a better piano player?

Have you ever requested TOYOTA to make a left handed Corolla for you, since you can't change gear with right hand?

People always say left-handed person is smarter than those right-handed. What do you think?

I am right handed, with tennis elbow for many years. Since then I have to use left hand to brush my teeth as suggested by Doctor. How much difficulty is it to use a regular camera for a left-handed person, compare to use left hand to brush teeth?

LOL. ;D

I think you should be careful while brushing your teeth. There's a chance that furiously stabbing the tooth brush into your mouth have made damage to an important gland that normally resides behind and above your nasal cavity...

 

[privatebydesign]

Have you ever requested TOYOTA to make a left handed Corolla for you, since you can't change gear with right hand?

What planet do you live on? What side of the road do they drive on in Japan?

 

[lol]

My first SLR was a lefty camera. An Exacta Varex, and as Canon makes cameras for astro photography, why not make a lefty camera?
I bet there are far more left handed photographers than astro photographers.
Mind you, I bet that there a few left handed astro togs out there too!

The hardware modification to make a camera more astro friendly is, more or less, change one piece of filter glass. The effort required to make a full "leftie" camera is many orders of magnitude more complicated.

Also, pretty much all astrophotography is done with the camera on a mount of some kind. If you're at all serious, you'd use an external release or USB connection to control the camera. Handedness of the camera then becomes irrelevant in this usage case.

 

[beforeEos Camaras]

Have you ever requested TOYOTA to make a left handed Corolla for you, since you can't change gear with right hand?

What planet do you live on? What side of the road do they drive on in Japan?

me me just like the uk first ting I had to get used to while visiting japan cars on the wrong side of the road

 

[Don Haines]

LOL.

Have you ever thought about playing a piano? How about making a left handed piano for you, Mr. YAMAHA please? Even if Steinway make one for you, will that make you a better piano player?

Have you ever requested TOYOTA to make a left handed Corolla for you, since you can't change gear with right hand?

People always say left-handed person is smarter than those right-handed. What do you think?

I am right handed, with tennis elbow for many years. Since then I have to use left hand to brush my teeth as suggested by Doctor. How much difficulty is it to use a regular camera for a left-handed person, compare to use left hand to brush teeth?

LOL. ;D

Go pick up your camera with your left hand and press the shutter button with a finger on the same hand..... then report back.

 

[Don Haines]

Have you ever requested TOYOTA to make a left handed Corolla for you, since you can't change gear with right hand?

What planet do you live on? What side of the road do they drive on in Japan?

me me just like the uk first ting I had to get used to while visiting japan cars on the wrong side of the road

and in some places, both sides of the road....

reminds me of the line "Hey, if you don't like the way I drive, stay off of the sidewalk"

 

[monkey44]

Based on the replies, models, images, and ideas here, I'm betting if this woman talked to Canon, or any other mfgr and states her problem - there are enough items and aftermarket 'gadgets' to fix her right up without a big deal about a new left-handed camera ... which actually makes little sense, because left-handed photographers have adapted over the years to exactly what's here now. It's not about left-handed anyway, it's about ONE handed -- an entirely different ball game.

Do we feel an empathy for anyone with physical or mental issues? Of course, I'm betting every one of us has at least one family member with an issue - mental or physical. But do we need to change the world to suit one or two or five individuals - or Fifty? I don't think so. What we need is the ability for a person with an issue to reach out to someone in a position to assist those folks, and then overcome an obstacle in their lives.

With the technology and manufacturing ability today in the secondary markets -- any time a problem arrives, a small market secondary company steps up and addresses it, as long as it's a worthwhile event. The market is there, and soon enough, someone will step up and fill it.

Look what happened when we had some individuals that had 'feet problems' driving (War veterans come to mind) ... an engineer designed 'steering wheel driving' levers and controls. Small market at the time, but what emerged from that technology is now in almost every new vehicle in the form of 'cruise control' ... (and the option for 'lever brakes')

So, we need to feel the empathy without feeling sorry for this woman -- she has a problem, she sought advice, and she'll get it. Whether it's a left-handed camera (very unlikely) or a modified grip (more likely), I'm betting she'll be popping images out within six months, and posting up on this site or others just like the rest of us.

We wish her luck -- and I'm sure she'll succeed -- so, personally will not lose any sleep over it.

 

[Valvebounce]

Hi ecka.
Does the battery grip interface support the rear wheel too, as this is not normally replicated on the grip whereas the other controls are.
While your at it I'd like a battery grip for my 40D BG-E2N (MarkII perhaps) with an AF ON button please, this would help me not get confused when swapping between 40D and 7D. ;D

Cheers, Graham.

Hi Graham. Everything is possible, at least in my world . We only need tools to make it happen.

 

[tphillips63]

I do have empathy for her but I can't support her petition just because there are so many options. :'(

 

[Hillsilly]

Another option would be a case (such as a partial underwater housing) where the shutter release button is moved to the left hand side and connected via a cable to the remote shutter release terminal. You'd only have enough plastic to ergonomically mount the shutter button and gears, knobs and levers to access the buttons on the right hand side. Building this around a simpler DSLR would simplify the design.

Before I retired, I was asked if I knew where I could find a left handed phone...

Being right handed, you don't really appreciate the number of things designed for right handed use.

Drive in Australia and you can change gears in your Corolla with your left hand.

I understand the historical reasons, but I never saw the point of LHD cars. Wouldn't it be safer for most people to hold onto the steering wheel with their right hand and change gears with their left hand? But I suspect this follows a lot of comments from the left handers - you get used to using the equipment you have. (And, in totally unrelated news, I picked up a 1997 NA MX5 last week.)

 

[jameskatt]

I'm left handed.

The problem is that she is one of the rare people who needs a left handed camera, even for a left hander.

Left-handed people make up 11 percent of all people. In general, we don't need left-handed tools. We naturally learn to use the right-handed ones.

Some - like guitars - however, are more difficult to use for left-handers. So there are left-handed guitars available.

I - for one - would not use a left-handed camera. The left hand is used for focusing the lens or zooming the lens. These are far more delicate and precision operations than pushing the shutter button.

If Canon won't make money tooling a left-handed camera, then she should:

1. Custom create a left handed grip for herself.
2. Use a medium-format camera where the grip can be placed on the left side.

In either case, she would still have the problem of having only one hand - when like the guitar - an SLR camera is still a two-handed machine.

 

[RGF]

My guess that there is a very limited market for those who would pay extra for a LH camera, especially if the cost was $500 (or more) higher.

The cost to Canon to develop a LH camera (again my guess) is over $1MM. Everything needs to be re-engineered, lines retooled, specs checked, etc. Not a trivial cost. I doubt that the OP would be willing to pay what Canon would require to develop and produce such a camera. Unfortunately a LH camera would not be incremental to Canon, rather it would cannibalize sales from their existing line. Hence they would need to mark it up sufficiently to cover design and production cost as well as make the same margin as the RH camera.

 

[monkey44]

We keep back-tracking into the same non-productive hole with our "left-handed answers" - the woman has ONE useful hand. A left-handed camera does her NO good. The camera will have to be modified with some kind of grip that will accommodate ONE hand to trigger all the controls, and some kind of support (tripod, cloth sling) so she can cradle the camera and change settings or FL etc. when needed.

It's not about a left-handed camera -- it's about rigging electronics and levers and a grip. I see this as a very minor design problem to anyone that can engineer these modifications. We've shown various methods in here in a very few days -- imagine what a team of engineers with the proper knowledge and equipment can do -- give them two hours and her problems will be on the drawing board and ready for prototype. And, I bet the expense will be easily achievable - not outrageous. This is not a difficult problem.

 

[pprestel]

Unfortunately a LH camera would not be incremental to Canon, rather it would cannibalize sales from their existing line. Hence they would need to mark it up sufficiently to cover design and production cost as well as make the same margin as the RH camera.

It will be incremental, as other customers from Nikon, Pentax, etc...maybe interested, left-hand people can adapt to using right hand tools, but probably you'll find more comfortable with a natively designed left-hand camera...so it will be a potential new market...

 

[Haydn1971]

Slightly different here, I'm almost blind in my right eye, making use of right handed cameras a tad uncomfortable with my nose slammed into the control gear to the right hand side of the camera. I'm right handed but would probably find a left handed camera much more comfortable to use and be able to actually use the rear controls on the rear without pulling the camera away from my face.

So yes, let's have a range of left handed cameras !

 

[dstppy]

+1 for custom build

We're really turning into slashdot here where the summary is deceiving. As other people pointed out, the person is asking for left-hand, single-handed use. I could see even a high end P&S being released for this market.

Southpaw isn't quite the 'disability' it used to be, where so many manual things were ergonomic. Scissors and can-openers come to mind, but a camera? You need both hands, if the first camera I picked up were backwards to what it was, I'd have learned to shoot that way.

If the buttons on my toaster or microwave were on the left, I'd use my left hand.

As for the original "request", again, like with prosthetics, customization adds for better needs fulfillment with customization. Some people suggested a bracket, others a battery grip alteration, it's not rocket science to find someone willing to prototype for this with all the hackerspaces and startups, petition one of them.

 

[RGF]

Unfortunately a LH camera would not be incremental to Canon, rather it would cannibalize sales from their existing line. Hence they would need to mark it up sufficiently to cover design and production cost as well as make the same margin as the RH camera.

It will be incremental, as other customers from Nikon, Pentax, etc...maybe interested, left-hand people can adapt to using right hand tools, but probably you'll find more comfortable with a natively designed left-hand camera...so it will be a potential new market...

What do you think the incremental sales would be? If there was a market, don't you think that someone (Nikon, Oly, Sony, Pentax, ...) would have addressed it by now?

IMO this would split the market but not provide any new volume, only new cost.

 

[lopicma]

Being left handed doesn't mean you can't learn. By golf and bat swing are both right handed, because that's the way I was taught. My camera shooting is "righty" as well, but everything else, I do left handed. I am probably one of the few lefties that does not write "up-side-down". I still can't figure that one out...

I learned, I adapted, and I overcame.

 

[MediaBaron]

If it were just a matter of someone who's left-handed it shouldn't be much of a problem, one would get used to using 'right-handed' cameras. But since this person has some limited use of their right hand a good solution is to get the battery grip for the camera.

If you get a battery grip for the camera and hold the camera upside-down the button which would have been the vertical shutter button falls naturally under the left index finger like it was made for a left-handed person. I discovered this when I had an issue with my right hand and had to use my left to fire the camera. Works great this way.