Form Follows Function: A New Camera Type That’s Mostly Viewfinder, No Screen

Believe it or not what you’re looking at is a camera, and it is form-follows-function. The C100, by China’s Godox Photo Equipment Co., is yet another sign that folks crave analog experiences. While it is technically a digital camera, it’s intentionally been designed with no screen. Instead there’s a massive viewfinder that takes up most of the form; the opaque part at the bottom, which houses the camera and shutter button, serves as the handling point. The idea here is to preserve the surprise of old-school film cameras, where you had to wait for film development before you could see what you’d actually captured.The Joy of “Blind” Shooting: Live in the moment and embrace the suspense. By removing instant screen playback, the Godox C100 invites you to shoot freely all day and experience the nostalgic excitement of “unboxing” your memories.The viewfinder is actually two pieces of plastic that sandwich an LCD layer. The LCD is there to overlay information like the battery status and shooting mode; you can choose between 16:9, 4:3, 3:2 and 1:1 square. The LCD overlays the frame lines on the screen. Furthermore, you can use the device as a light meter, turning it into a companion device for a “real” camera. You’re not actually developing film, of course. You transfer the images via a micro-SD card or a USB-C cable. The camera’s maximum resolution is 1,920 x 1,080 pixels, and it can also shoot video at that resolution.The C100 runs $45.