I’M beginning to think Henry Ford had the right idea.
For several years at the early stages of motor car production, you could buy his famous Model T car in any colour you liked – as long as it was black.
I’m led to believe this was down to purely practical reasons – something to do with the black enamel being quickest to dry, thereby speeding up factory times.
However, it did mean the buyers’ choice was limited – something I often wish happened these days.

Earlier this week I went to buy a digital camera. I’m taking The Princess away to London next week for a couple of days, in the run-up to her fifth birthday, and wanted, naturally, to capture the event on film (actually, do we still say that if it’s digital? Shouldn’t it be ‘commit the event to pixellation’ or some such like?)
Anyway, I had already looked at digital cameras in catalogues and on the internet, and had an idea of what type and specification I wanted. And, of course, I had a budget to stick to.
However, I hadn’t really bargained on just how many digital cameras there are out there.
Not that long ago, there would have been a choice of around 50, say, in a specific budget and specification, Now, there’s hundreds. Literally.
Look at this website if you don’t believe me. Gobsmacking, isn’t it?
The average punter, surely, just wants a reliable camera that takes half-decent shots, is easy to use and won’t break if you drop it. You try buying one.
Instead of a clear choice, we’re bombarded with dozens of different combinations of specifications, many of which we haven’t got a clue about:
Do we want three million pixels, or four, or seven, or ten?
What ISO range is suitable for our needs?
What size LCD screen is best?
Do we need a viewfinder, or can we do without?
What type of memory cards does it take? Does it come complete with one already, or do we need to buy one? Does it have an internal memory, and if so, how big?
What about the power source? Does it take AA or Lithium-ion batteries – and what the smeg is the difference?
Then there’s the amount of zoom – both optical and digital; aperture and shutter speed; macro distance; image formats; video modes; size, weight, colour – the list goes on and on and on...
Suffice to say, I stood in the digital camera shop for nigh on half an hour looking at the catalogue, trying to compare the dozens of cameras which seemed to fit my requirements, all around the same price, before I finally plumped for one which had the added benefit of being a third cheaper than advertised.
Surely too much choice is bad for us. Surely, too, better technology should be about making things simpler, not more complicated. Bring back Henry Ford’s philosophy, I say.

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