Highly modular Viewpoint Jon Bentley
Environmental awareness is everywhere these days. From planes and cars to food and boilers, there’s practically no area of life that’s exempt from eco anxiety. It makes you wonder what an environmentally friendly camera might look like. The obvious and flippant answer would be something with a body made out of bamboo or recycled coffee cups, and lenses carved from salvaged spectacles. However, after a bit of conspicuous eco virtue signalling, it would be tossed to the back of the cupboard, a useless waste of time, effort and resources.
You might argue that photography went through its environmental revolution years ago with the shift from analogue to digital. The decline of mass market film has meant fewer chemicals sloshing around, no imminent silver shortages, less waste from film packaging and raw materials, and even less petrol consumed driving film to and from processing.
But the extra electronics that have taken film’s place create extra e-waste and toxic chemicals and substances that are arguably much more toxic than the film ones, the likes of lead, mercury, cadmium, PVC and phthalates leaving a trail of havoc during manufacture and end- of-life disposal. Then there’s the virtually unrecyclable lithium-ion batteries.
One partial eco solution might be more modularity so you can easily upgrade broken or outdated bits of your camera. The Fairphone, a mobile that’s modular with the aim of giving it a longer life, has won the highest environmental rating from Greenpeace.
But cameras are already highly modular. Unlike the latest phones and laptops, you can still replace batteries easily. Lenses are often interchangeable, and there’s a host of adapters available so you can use optics from half a century ago or before. The camera industry could potentially go even further with interchangeable sensors, screens and processors.
At least cameras last longer than phones, and not just film ones. And there’s now a healthy market in used digital cameras from well over a decade ago as improvements become more incremental. The camera industry has something to learn from the best tech firms though. Apple has eliminated some of the worst chemicals from its production process, and along with its use of recycled materials and renewable electricity, it’s helped Apple achieve second place, behind Fairphone, in those Greenpeace ratings. It’s been achieved with no negative effects on the look and feel of its products.
The bottom line is that a successful eco camera would look and feel very much like a current one. The changes would be to the bits you can’t see and to the production process. Is there any progress being made? Well, while Sony, Nikon and Samsung all publicly state they are phasing out the worst chemicals, only Sony has target dates, and other camera companies make no commitments at all. They should probably get on with it before someone forces them to.