Cameras with illuminated buttons - more of them, please!
They do exist, the cameras with button illumination. But they are still few and far between. Why is that?
In the last few months, I've been taking a lot of photos in the dark or semi-dark. Some of these sessions were spontaneous and I never had a headlamp with me. That was sometimes tedious. Do you think you could operate your camera completely blind? I bet against it! You probably know the most important grips, but especially in the dark, you rarely need settings that you don't know by heart.
Lit buttons have been around for what feels like an eternity - but not on cameras. When mobile phones still had buttons, backlighting was a matter of course. When I tried out the Nikon D850, I realised: Hooray, finally a camera manufacturer has realised it too!
Olympus came up with the idea much earlier and launched a camera with illuminated buttons in 2009: the E-620. But the later Olympus models no longer had them. Goodbye, progress!
The Pentax K1 also illuminates itself and has a light-emitting diode behind the fold-out LCD, which indirectly illuminates the controls. Interesting idea.
Another LED on the front illuminates the bayonet, making it easier to change the lens. Well, I could do without that. You can see all this in the video below.
Other than that, things are looking bleak, with Canon at least announcing a patent application and rumours that the upcoming EOS 7D Mark III will be illuminated. I don't understand why a patent is needed for this, but I welcome the direction of travel.
At the moment, Nikon remains the only brand that at least offers lighting in its top-of-the-range models. This first happened with the Nikon D4. The following Nikon models currently have a button light.
But even this is only half-heartedly implemented. On the Nikon D850, which I am currently trying out, only the buttons on the left-hand side of the LCD are illuminated. The ones on the right remain dark. Why is that?
Conclusion
Lit keys are neither rocket science nor expensive. Nevertheless, you will only find this practical feature in some Nikon professional models. I think this should be standard in 2018. <p
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My interest in IT and writing landed me in tech journalism early on (2000). I want to know how we can use technology without being used. Outside of the office, I’m a keen musician who makes up for lacking talent with excessive enthusiasm.