Hope everyone is enjoying the summer and avoiding the terrible heatwave! Just wanted to share some of the camera gear that I’ve gotten since earlier this year. Part of the fun of photography is wondering about another camera or lens’ special ability–since they all have one!
Some of this gear was free, and others cost less than an article of clothing that the young folks show in their “clothing haul” videos! So here’s my version and quick thoughts. I’ve been shooting some off and on over the months but haven’t had enough material for a solo post for each individual camera or lens. Hopefully by the end of this horribly hot summer!
Canon EOS 750 film camera – I wanted a camera that was a bit more manly than the dirt cheap plastic rebels I have and this one is pretty cool. However it uses an expensive 2CR5 battery and it only has PROGRAM mode! That’s not very manly at all! I did run a roll of Fuji Superia 400 through it so hopefully this camera does function!
A friend gave me this crazy Tokina 500mm f/8 mirror lens. After taking it to several events I’ll have to say 500mm is too cropped for that stuff. Even 300mm is overkill for me. This lens does come in handy when photographing the rabbits in the backyard. The donut shaped highlights is always a visual distraction, so I like to use it with solid backgrounds.
I’ve gotten several Pentax cameras, both film and digital. The first gen Pentax DSLR’s are still really good image making cameras with solid Raw files that rival any Nikon from that era as well. Being powered only by AA batteries can be both good and bad, but I’ve found Eneloops work pretty well.
Ah yes the return of the Canon 10D, a DSLR that I forgot had such a quiet shutter. It’s a pretty quick and light “snick.” I think the first gen Canon digitals captured sunsets way better than their current generation of cameras.
I got a plastic Holga lens for micro 4/3. It’s not very good.
As ya’ll probably know I’m a big fan of the Nikon J1 series, ever since 2011, so I finally, finally added a Nikon V1 to the squad. The sensor and image quality is the same as the J1, but what it’s wrapped in is totally different and frankly I’m still surprised at how the general public couldn’t see the imaging potential of this camera. The 10+ year old EVF still has a clarity and refresh rate that is much more usable to my eye than even the ones in the X100, X-E1, A7, and Rp.
An ancient Nikon Coolpix 3700 from 2003! This camera has pretty darn good image quality for food I’ve found. Which is nothing shocking since even the old classic twisty Coolpixes from back in the day had very nice optics for up close photography.
My Playstation Vita! Yes, I bet folks forgot that this thing has two cameras, front and back 640×480 imaging sensors that are pretty darn awful. It looks very similar to the still photo mode on my Sony DVD handycam. I’m going to do more testing, but I’m wondering if the video footage could mesh well with the lo-fi aesthetic of my Digital Harinezumi.
I got this camera last year I believe, but it’s good enough to feature again because I keep forgetting to use it! The Nikon S1100pj projector camera is too cool for a camera coming out in like 2010. I finally read the whole manual and found out it used to come with a stylus that you could use to draw on the screen! It’s more like adding cheesy clip art stickers and heavily aliased jaggy scribbles, but that’s still cool in my book. The novelty factor at the dinner table is worth the price of admission to me.
And yes I finally got a Lytro. For far less than the insane $400 price back in 2012 I think. (I’ll spare everyone the long story behind this doomed camera and company as a google search is just a click away.) My first impressions are that the gimmicky nature of this tech is even more useless in 2022 BUT I’m still going to see what kind of images this thing is capable of. It’s basically a low res square image “35-280mm f/2” Raw machine. That’s not bad at all. I’ve fiddled with the software a bit and it can output different types of 3D stuff too, like Red/Blue and Left and Right Stereoscopic. The 3D isn’t as convincing as my Loreo 3D Lens in a Cap for my Canon cameras, but that’s still pretty neat that this camera can do this. And who wouldn’t want a camera that measures it’s awesomeness not in megapixels, but in MEGARAYS!!! 😀 I’ve barely used this camera (let’s just say the image quality might be on par with the Sony PS Vita…), but have enjoyed photographing it like a real product alongside my ancient Mac Pro desktop. You can see they were really trying to copy Apple’s look and feel.
I got a Canon SX100IS for less than the cost of a bubble tea!! It uses 2 AA batteries!! It’s a great camera!!
But the camera that I’ve actually been enjoying the most is the one that’s been sitting here unused (my fault obviously) for quite some time. It’s the three cameras on my iPad Pro. This thing was supposed to house my personal video archive going back since the DSLR video revolution kick started by the Nikon D90 and Canon 5D mk II, but when it stopped recognizing faces, I figured I might as well use it for something. It’s great and finally matured to be a content creation device on its own. Sure we’ve had phones able to produce smooth video like this for many years now, but there’s something a bit different about filming and framing on something like a modern day large format ground glass. 4K 60 is not a frame rate and cadence that I’d want to watch any Hollywood movie in, but for real life goofing off adventures it looks hyper real. So yes, I’ll be that old dude with the iPad blocking everyone’s view. 🙂
Whatever anyone shoots with, it doesn’t matter, as long as you enjoy it and put some of that joy into your photographs. (And yes print out those photographs too.)
H.A.G.S.!
