a collection of folders
Toronto. A few decades ago at Bell I had a boss who suggested I run with my suggestion. “After all”, he said, “it’s your fresh egg”.
Have you ever noticed that be it cars, cameras, microscopes, sewing machines, radios, televisions, or cell phones, etc that at any point in time there is a similarity amongst products by different makers?
Take for example the lowly folder. A great many were marketed varying in shutter speed, lens speed and quality, film size, etc but all used a bellows and a means to close the camera with the bellows, lens, viewer, and shutter inside making a very compact package. The original folder design was indeed a “fresh egg”, but I wonder what we should call the others – the improvements, the copies, etc.?
The similarity comes down to how cheaply can a product be made and still cater to those who lust after the basic design. Many models seem to operate the same, but still have idiosyncrasies that make a change from one make to another a bit awkward.
