This is too funny. Longtime readers might remember that we awarded the palm for the "World's ugliest camera" in the Sam Memorial Dog Camera Award, in 2006. The winner (and still champion) was the Simmons Brothers Omega 120.
Given the huge number of cameras ever made, this pinnacle is rarified indeed.
Well, I think we have a subcategory winner for the 2000s...this delightful horror is the Brikk Nikon Dƒ, which costs $41,395 and is for those who like to flaunt their wealth and bad taste in equal measure. The plating is 24-carat gold and the leather is stingray skin. What? I said stingray skin.
Limited to 77 copies, which is fine as long as I never have to see two or more at once.
Brikk normally sells gold-plated i-Phones and gold-plated versions of other smartphones to people who have never had lots of money before and don't know how to behave. I kid, I kid...no hate mail, please, gold-plated smartphone users—yours looks good.
Mike
(Thanks to Stephen Scharf)
Correction: Sorry about the bad link earlier. Fixed now. Blogging really is like being the helmsman of a ship—you can't leave your post for more than a few minutes or bad things can happen.
Original contents copyright 2014 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.
You're only as ugly as your worst purchase
(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:
Kent: "OMG, that thing is horrible. I rarely post these days, but I'm afraid the horror of that apparition is so severe that my reflexes have taken over and I'm just going to have to barf all over your otherwise very fine blog."
Clearly a candidate for your "collectibles" list.
Posted by: steven willard | Monday, 15 December 2014 at 02:00 PM
Blarg.
With very best regards,
Stephen
Posted by: Stephen S. Mack | Monday, 15 December 2014 at 02:04 PM
Hmm, do the include "improving" all your lenses? Or is the one included stuck on?
I'll get my feel of stingray skin at the interactive lagoon pool, thank you very much.
Posted by: KeithB | Monday, 15 December 2014 at 02:06 PM
Now THAT's a fancy lens cap.
Posted by: Robert Roaldi | Monday, 15 December 2014 at 02:21 PM
I never understood who bought these things. Same goes with the recent spate of Hasselsony cameras. The only benefit to these things, if you can call it one, is that other rich people with no idea what a camera is will be impressed by your lavish expenditure...maybe. There's just as good a chance they will think you are an idiot, which, I promise you, is what ever non-millionaire, photographer or no, already thinks.
Posted by: David W | Monday, 15 December 2014 at 02:24 PM
'Pimp my Nikon!'
You know, I actually love the (standard) Nikon Df. Last summer I became friends with a german photographer who was visiting Porto, Portugal. He has a silver Nikon Df. The camera is big, but not as huge as some believe and actually holds quite well for a body with such a tiny grip. I'd never call it 'nimble', but it's quite manageable. It has the most gloriously big, bright, clear viewfinder I've ever peeped through - and, what's more, its image quality is second only to medium format. (If you don't believe me, take a look here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/lohmannfotografie/)
But this... this Brikk thing? Oh no! It is thoroughly disgusting. I wish I could unsee it. I wonder who is foolish (and tasteless) enough to buy it. I can only see one group of people who are actually excited about the news of this gold turd: Nikon bashers. They'll be all over the net.
Nikon should have never allowed this, nor the gold-plated edition they issued recently. It doesn't do their reputation any good.
Posted by: Manuel | Monday, 15 December 2014 at 02:34 PM
What, no affiliate link for the Brikk? :)
Posted by: Doug Nelson | Monday, 15 December 2014 at 02:50 PM
Stunning, just stunning (though not in the way I presume was intended by Brikk or their customers).
I'm afraid to ask what people do when it's time to upgrade their gold plated smartphones and digital cameras.
btw, the link is to a Keck contest post. Here's the link to the Dog Camera Award post:
http://theonlinephotographer.blogspot.com/2006/04/sam-memorial-dog-camera-award.html
Posted by: robert e | Monday, 15 December 2014 at 02:57 PM
At least the Simmons Omega had some functional rationale for its ugliness.
What am I still doing on this page?!
Posted by: robert e | Monday, 15 December 2014 at 02:59 PM
Isn't the link rather http://theonlinephotographer.blogspot.fr/2006/04/sam-memorial-dog-camera-award.html ?
Posted by: Nikojorj | Monday, 15 December 2014 at 03:24 PM
If it were white gold, however... ;-)
Posted by: Slobodan Blagojevic | Monday, 15 December 2014 at 03:38 PM
Brikk - cockney rhyming slang?
Posted by: Patrick Dodds | Monday, 15 December 2014 at 03:39 PM
Well, yuck!
Every BMW driver thinks that they know how to drive. They don't. Great car, delusional driving skills.
Money and good taste rarely exist in the same time zone. Possessing wealth, so very sadly, does not inexorably lead to aesthetic wisdom.
These will go into glass cases alongside never used Leicas. BUT, if I see one loose in the wild, will I laugh? Or will I have the fortitude to turn away in silence.
Posted by: John Seidel | Monday, 15 December 2014 at 03:45 PM
Oh dear. At least the Omega 120 was ugly in a functional (and confusing. and terrifying) way. This is just awful and gaudy and tasteless. And it does nothing (apart from parting customers and their money) better than the "plain" version.
Posted by: Jamietie | Monday, 15 December 2014 at 04:15 PM
Does the Df icome with a stingray ever ready case? I would hate to prematurely brass that gold gaudieness.
Posted by: John Hagen | Monday, 15 December 2014 at 04:45 PM
Ah, but how does it look in monochrome?
Posted by: Arg | Monday, 15 December 2014 at 04:57 PM
A small correction, Mike: it's 'Simmon', not 'Simmons'.
Posted by: Keith B | Monday, 15 December 2014 at 05:24 PM
Words fail me.
Posted by: Mike Plews | Monday, 15 December 2014 at 05:57 PM
You jest! It's gorgeous!! Only it should have leather taken exclusively from the genitals of a sting ray, to evoke Aristotle Onassis' use of whale penises for bar stools. That would indeed be the epitome of taste.
Posted by: Jon Orloff | Monday, 15 December 2014 at 06:33 PM
I'd really hate to see one a time....
Posted by: Glenn Allenspach | Monday, 15 December 2014 at 07:05 PM
I think the Omega 120 is not nearly as awful as the Brikk: in fact it must be close to the ultimate hipster camera -- I can see myself wandering the streets of Shoreditch with beard, skinny jeans and my trusty Omega 120. Couldn't find one on ebay, sadly (I did look!).
Posted by: Tim Bradshaw | Monday, 15 December 2014 at 08:10 PM
The only way it could be worse is if it were a Holga under all that bling.
Posted by: Edie Howe | Monday, 15 December 2014 at 10:05 PM
Mike, I was enjoying my desert when I popped up this post. Had to clean off cranberry crisp from all over the screen. Please, PLEASE! Some warning next time.
Posted by: john Robison | Tuesday, 16 December 2014 at 12:09 AM
I'm guessing stingray leather is there for purpose, like, making it water-proof. *nudge*nudge*
Posted by: PVS | Tuesday, 16 December 2014 at 05:44 AM
This thing is perfect for Jeff Koons, assuming he doesn't already have one.
Posted by: Chad Thompson | Tuesday, 16 December 2014 at 01:06 PM
At least the price includes a gold plated Halliburton case.
Posted by: Kent Wiley | Tuesday, 16 December 2014 at 05:55 PM
From the start, Amazon has defined its hardware mission narrowly: to build devices that disappear in the hand, with uniquely useful features, for a low price. "We would never make a gold thing, because that’s too distracting," Green says. "There are many companies that create pieces of jewelry. We’re not going to do that, because that's an added cost that takes away from the actual content."
http://www.theverge.com/2014/12/17/7396525/amazon-kindle-design-lab-audible-hachette
[Nice find! --Mike]
Posted by: Speed | Wednesday, 17 December 2014 at 01:15 PM
Wow...
Hideous doesn't even begin to cover it!
Posted by: Keith Swindell | Friday, 19 December 2014 at 10:25 PM
Kabuto !
Posted by: gary isaacs | Sunday, 21 December 2014 at 12:16 PM