Apparently Olympus does. Thanks to a tip from Scott who points me to imaging resource, “Olympus: Prototype wood-bodied digicam“. Olympus has developed a technology which allows it to create the cast of a camera body using compressed wood. And this wood would be made so hard that it can match the hardness of currently used polycarbonate materials? What does it look like?
It’s great that they can put wood on an electronic gadget, but why all the locomotion? It’s not like wood is the hardest texture to replicate, I mean you can get phone covers that look like it was cut straight from the forest. And speaking of forests, what good does this technology bring to the industry? Sure we need to move away from our dependence on oil, but is cutting down 2.5 times more forest to compress into camera bodies the best solution? At least trees regenerate and oil doesn’t. I see that this technology can improve, and I hope it will improve its efficiency first. I can’t wait for the new wooden iPod.
Olympus says its all about aesthetics. But all I can picture (pun intended), is a camera for naturalists, who would want to blend into the environment when taking their next snapshots of mother earth.
But whilst we’re on the topic of wood, trees, mother earth and cameras. I urge everyone to check out this video on Lyrebirds. Did you know they can imitate camera sounds?
Hi !
Not to worry about them cutting down MORE trees for this sort of item…compressed wood is actually a great idea that uses waste from trees being processed for other “larger” purposes. Sothe result of projects like the camera body above wouldn’t necessarily result in more trees being cut down. And when the camera is eventually at the end of its usefull life, at least part of it is bio-degradable and partly “earth friendly” unlike its poly counterparts…..