The most cherished camera I ever owned was the Panasonic GM1. Micro Four Thirds, but small as a deck of cards. Not "Blackmagic Pocket" small, actual shirt-pocket small. A perfect meeting of portability (body-cap lens) or power (mmmm f0.95 Voigtlander) as the moment calls for. But there was no space between high-end point-and-shoots and low-end compacts, and after a second gen model they vanished. Fifteen years on, meet the Esquisse, a similar design.
A camera is a tool that should get out of your way. Too often, great cameras are left behind because they're too bulky, too heavy, or too complicated. We're changing that with beautiful design and intuitive simplicity. Every curve, every dial, every surface is crafted to be not just functional, but genuinely beautiful. This isn't just a camera, it's a piece of art that happens to take extraordinary photographs.
It's MFT, at 105 × 70 × 35 mm only a little larger than the GM1 (99 mm × 55 mm × 31 mm) and GM5 (99 x 60 x 36 mm), and designed with a modern sensor offering better dynamic range, a multi-point autofocus system, and an EVF. Concerns: it'll be pricey, at "under $2,000" and there'll be no video (it's "Made for Photographers"—not a bad thing, but I had my hopes up.)
DPReview's Mitchell Clark takes a look.
The Esquisse Camera site says the goal is to have "all essential photography functions right under your thumb," and shows a design featuring a shutter button, dials for exposure compensation and ISO, a clickable top-plate command dial and two function buttons. It also shows a touchscreen to control the autofocus point. ..The core team at Esquisse is four people, though there are others with varying levels of involvement. "At the core, we're amateur photographers," Courteault says. "We teamed up with people who have experience in consumer electronics and industrial design, and everything we need to make this camera." Courteault himself comes from the software side. He says the team is currently a group of enthusiasts spending their own money to make the camera that they'd like to use, and that they're still considering how the business will actually run. But a primary focus is making sure potential buyers are included in the process. "In all transparency, we want to see the market feedback before we actually fundraise and incorporate and invest more in this."
It's early days; they hope to launch by 2027.
1. The Pentax Q system was even smaller, but the 2010s wanted image quality those tiny sensors couldn't deliver and it didn't take off either.
