SEPTEMBER 2006 – A BenQ Siemens M81 mobile phone has been mounted to the dashboard of a car and shows a satnav app. Photo © Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com
The story behind the image
It is the year 2006. The year when former telecommunications giant Siemens sold its mobile phone unit Siemens mobile to BenQ, an electronics manufacturer from Taiwan which rebranded the business as BenQ mobile.
The new owners were creative, brave and inspiring and specifically asked the staff to be creative, brave, and inspiring as well. Oh, and they asked for cost-savvyness, too. This did not pose a problem for us. One day I brought my Canon EOS 1ds mark II to do some shots of phones in use – with the focus being the apps running on the devices. Previously, this used to be a complex matter as the photographers did not have the insights into what we wanted and required detailed briefings on the desired look of the applications. Of course, they knew how to shoot a phone, but applications were entirely different challenges.
So, for this photo we mounted a BenQ Siemens M81 to the dashboard of a nice car and started the satnav app. It worked like a charm. An f-stop of f/5 enabled me to get the phone and screen in full focus while blurring the rest ever so slightly, especially the guy operating the app. The phone was positioned at youngish active people, so we asked the model to wear a baseball cap in military colors, even if the car with its elegant dashboard was not the best choice for this positioning. But hey, we were asked to be brave and creative. And cost-savvy. Check, check, and check. At zero cost, what could be more cost-savvy?
I like the idea that this candybar phone could run advanced apps including satnav apps. Admittedly, the screen was small, and the operation a awkward, but the use case was quite relevant and interesting. Heck, it is still relevant today. Having said that, the candybar phones did not survive the fierce competition of smartphones with their larger screens, higher computing power, and improved user friendliness. Consequently, BenQ mobile did not survive for long and filed for insolvency just weeks after the photo shooting, on the 29th September 2006.
These were rough times, and I remember them well.
Still, I am very happy that I did this shot.
P.S.: The photo is almost straight out of the camera. I just edited the brightness of the display, removed a couple of spots and slightly adjusted the sharpness.
The high resolution image
| Capture Date & Time | 13-SEP-2007, 14:29 |
| Location | Munich, Germany |
| Camera | Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II |
| Lens | Canon EF 70-200 mm 2.8 L USM |
| ISO | 800 |
| Exposure | 1/200 sec at f/5 |
| Digital Image Source Format | JPEG, 24 bits/pixel, AdobeRGB |
| Edited Image Format | JPEG, 24 bits/pixel, sRGB |
| Edited Image Dimensions | 4992 x 3328 Pixels |
| Copyright | © by Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com |
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