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i have recently been on a nostalgia kick with digital cameras. this has sparked from exhausted of seeing a ton of photography done with modern day gear. there's a ton of photography nowadays that's just... _too_ good. it's too perfect, too realistic, essentially nothing is left for one's imagination. often, i turn out to be a contrarian with my hobbies. i enjoy going off the beaten path and seeing if i can arrive at the same place and time as someone who's taken the meta route.
that meta route nowadays is often choosing gear that gives a crapload of headroom. shooting and editing raw files from a camera that can deliver oodles of stops of dynamic range. i've been there and done that. i'm almost certain that the reason why i took a years-long pause with photography is because of that. i never really liked slaving away at post processing. yes, a lot of my photography is post processed, and i've had excellent results, but loading up and editing each raw file also slowly ate away at my patience.
as hdr implementation has become increasingly popular in the past 15 years or so, i've found myself embracing a copious amount of contrast. same goes for high-resolution noise-free photography-- it's too clean, i've always been a fan of film grain and digital noise. this list does go on, but you get the point.
that leads me to my rediscovery of vintage digital cameras. i ended up missing the limitations like lack of headroom/dynamic range. i miss just taking photos and posting stuff straight-out-of-camera (sooc). now, this rediscovery isn't exactly off the beaten path, as there's been somewhat of a resurgence in recent years. but a lot of that resurgence is for a different reason. a quick visit to one of the following online shops taking advantage of this revival will show what i mean:
Shutterhouse
Retro Camera Shop
anyways, i've invested in a few digital cameras that are now over 20 years old. one prosumer 'compact' camera and two dslr bodies. i'll talk about the prosumer camera now and the dslrs will be mentioned in future posts.
the nikon coolpix 5000 aka the nikon e5000. this camera has been introduced 23 years ago, and the price when released was around $1100. purchased a unit for $30 shipped. as with a lot of cameras at that time, operation is on the clunky side compared to what you'd expect nowadays. very noisy when the lens extends and retracts and most would consider the autofocus detection and speed to be not up to par (far from it).
however, the images it produces are pretty addicting to look at, in a nostalgic way. especially when the in-camera saturation setting is set to max. it turns a rather drab looking mid-december scene into something more interesting.
i have only taken a few test shots with these cameras, as i prefer to stay at home during the colder months when i'm not at work, but the weather was mild a couple of days ago, so i decided to hang out at a couple of nearby areas for an hour or so.
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bix