digicam pocket invasion
how my 2008 point-and-shoot became my most-used camera
You’ve heard, right? Gen-Z brought back the point-and-shoot.
I just couldn’t help my curiosity, so I went to my closet and dug out mine. Turns out, it was one of the smartest things I could do for my photography.
You can watch the video above to get the gist, but keep reading if you want to read my more elaborate take on the matter, 3 months into the endeavor.
First of all – why?
In 2015, I purchased a Ricoh GR, and that camera quickly became my most beloved possession. It was the right combination of size, usability, and image quality. It stopped me taking pictures with my phone that looked like garbage when blown up on a reasonably sized computer monitor. It simultaneously made me a more discerning photographer while encouraging me to look for photos anywhere I could. I toted it around my final year of college and took pictures of cool patches of light in the Humanities building, the evolving textures of winter, and frames of people sleeping in public spaces.
Gradually, over the course of years, that camera stayed home. Sometime late in 2023, I noticed that I wasn’t taking pictures. Hardly at all.
I don’t know exactly what made me reach for the Powershot, but I did. Once I figured out how to stop the date and time constantly resetting, I suddenly found that the rinky-dink A470 was giving me a bit of creative juice.
How to describe the A470?
7.1 megapixels truly isn’t much, but for sharing lightly around the internet, it’s enough.
Ergonomically, it’s exactly what you’d expect, but the highlights are that it runs on AA’s and has a cool little button that turns blue when you orient the camera vertically. Hit it with your thumb, and it’s a nice alternative shutter button.
The screen sucks. I never feel very confident about exposure or focus, but I kind of think that’s missing the point. Again, it’s enough.
The metering is surprisingly accurate! In really contrasty lighting I’ll bump the exposure compensation down by 1/3 or 2/3 stops to be safe.
And I hate to pile onto the whole “CCD sensors are more film-like” situation but I do think the combination of CCD sensor and less aggressive image processing does give the images very natural, pleasing color and contrast.
For post-processing, a task I hate but am also very picky about, I’ve built a Lightroom preset that applies a healthy s-curve, reduces color noise, and sharpens things up a touch.
The phenomenon of the vintage “digicam” fascinates me in a way that most trends don’t. It seems it began as an alternative to the skyrocketing costs of shooting mediocre Portra snapshots. Also, the premium compact camera market is insane right now. Also also, people are sick of phone photos. I was sick of phone photos ten years ago!
It gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling to see beat-up Powershots and Coolpix’s and Finepix’s and CyberShots finding new homes with young photographers. Young photographers! Embracing imperfect tools! Saving cameras from landfills! Maybe getting in a few lols along the way. But it’s great to see newer photographers – and even a few experienced ones – grasping the importance of a dedicated tool for capturing memories and making images.
are bure bokeh in Paris
an experiment in imitation
On a day-long layover in Paris, an attempt at imitating Daido Moriyama.
say you were one of the first subscribers
So I got a new camera kit, but that’s a longer story. The short story is:
I made this little YouTube video running down some of my first impressions of that camera kit, and I’m actually pretty… proud of it? No “What’s up guys” or “welcome to the channel”
Just a creatively made, clear and concise video about a lens and a camera that I find interesting.
2023 is the year of hobbies
I’m prone to oversharing sometimes.
A friend of mine just asked how I was doing the other night. Here’s what I remember my answer sounding like.
After almost three years of relentless instability – public health crisis, loss of career, learning new skills, changing employers, big personal life changes, buying a house, more career and employer changes, deep depression, addressing that mental health crisis, and just trying to keep up with all the shoveling –
I’m just settling in. Learning to be happy every day, not just some days. Having lots of free time, and not feeling obligated to fill it with anything. Able to reshape my life towards one where I simply focus on the things I love, and the things that I don’t love don’t take up too much space, time, or energy.
And before I end up in a nosedive of introspection, I’m here to say that I’m excited to have hobbies again in 2023. Here’s what that might look like.
Hosting movie nights with my friends, Commutator Collective.
Watching a lot more movies, and logging them all on Letterboxd.
Producing a podcast or two. Mainly, a conversation show in the style of Song Exploder asking people to share stories about the non-parental adults who raised them.
Finishing some long-standing musical projects and putting on a wee show to celebrate.
Traveling to South Africa, Idaho, and who knows where else, and the pictures and video to go with those travels.
YouTube??? I love watching all kinds of stuff near the photo and filmmaking corners of the platform, but am still circling exactly what MY YouTube channel would be.
And most of all, I’m going to enjoy it all. Learn things. Make stuff. Share stuff. And none of it will be on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter!
All my best,
Emmet