Old vs. New

I just couldn’t resist. Here’s a couple pictures that I think say a lot about photographic technology’s evolution and why I still shoot film.

The first is a picture taken with my 60 year old Kodak Brownie 127 using Kodak Portra 160 film and processed by The Dark Room.

As you can see in this first picture my wife is taking a picture with a Pentax ist D, DSLR.

The second picture is the one she was taking which is a picture of me taking the first picture.

Now if I hadn’t said anything about it could you tell which was taken with the new DSLR and which was taken with the 60 year old Brownie?

60 Year Old Camera Takes Great Pictures

A month or so ago I talked about the Brownie 127 I received for my birthday. The Brownie 127 is a really cool looking old camera that was made and sold mainly in Great Britain back in the 1950’s. That makes mine probably 60+ years old.

I finally got a chance to run a roll of Kodak Portra 160 through it and get processed. The results are amazing. Here’s just one of eight great pictures taken with this 60 year old camera.

The Kodak Brownie 127 takes eight pictures on roll of 127 film. The plastic lens is fixed at f14 and the shutter is set at 1/50 of a second. I have to give some credit to the Kodak Portra film which I am slowly coming to believe is one of the best films Kodak has ever produced and The Dark Room, as usual did a great job processing it

If you want to see what this little camera looks like check out my September 13^th blog post.

The Perfect Digital Camera

Last week I used a digital point & shoot at work and re-discovered one of the biggest problems with this kind of camera. It is nearly impossible to see the viewing screen when taking pictures in bright daylight. From that experience I concluded that my next digital camera should have a viewer of some sort rather than just the viewing screen that most come with. After spending some time online researching digital cameras with viewers I decided that position is not very practical after all. Other than DSLR’s (which I have already dealt with in earlier posts) I discovered that cameras that come with viewers generally have two things in common. They are big and they are expensive.

Now all things are relative. When I say they are big I mean big for a point & shoot. One of the advantages of a digital point & shoot is that it can be conveniently slipped into purse or pocket and carried around wherever you go so it’s there when you need it. The cameras that come with viewers are all substantially bigger than the ones without. That’s a deal breaker for me. If I’m going to carry a camera that that’s too big to fit in my pocket I might as well bring a DSLR along, or better yet, my SLR. As for the expensive part, again all things are relative but a point & shoot that costs as much a “system camera” or a basic DSLR just doesn’t make much sense to me.

What I am looking for is a good quality inexpensive digital point & shoot camera that I can carry around in my pocket and use to take snap shots for business or pictures pleasure. To me quality means a highly rated camera from a well-established manufacturer with a 10-12 megapixel sensor. Inexpensive means under $300. For business I need the “full automatic” mode so I can concentrate on the task at hand (whatever that might be) instead of photography. For pleasure I need enough features and control to make the camera get those “non-standard” shots that make photography a fun & challenging hobby.

Versatility dictates a zoom range from wide angle to short telephoto and I want a lens fast enough to capture available light shots without a flash. I also want a built in flash to get the shots I can’t get with just the fast kens. That means an f2 or better lens and a pop up flash that’s good out to 15 to 20 feet.

The most important prerequisite for any camera is that the controls have to be intuitive. I have been using the Olympus FE-310 pictured above off and on for over a year now and I still can’t do anything except press the shutter button without having to check the manual first. It’s a great little camera and I have been a lifelong Olympus fan but the menus & controls on this camera just don’t work for me.

That said,  I think I may have found the perfect (almost) digital camera, at least for me. I will tell more about it and reveal which one it is in my next post.

Digital Digs

I learned one thing for sure yesterday. If I am going to use a digital camera it has to have some kind of viewer. I was shooting some pictures with an Olympus FE310 of a ship that was being translated (moved over the ground) to the launch site. It was sheer luck that I got any decent pictures because I could not see the viewing screen at all while standing out in the bright sunshine.

Here’s one of the better shots. I had to step into the shade just so I could look at the screen and be sure the camera was even turned on. There was no way to compose the shot properly and forget using any of the cameras many on screen option menus.

This really isn’t an issue when using a DSLR because most things show up in the viewer and those that don’t are visible on the LED screen. This is a real challenge though when using a Point & Shoot with no viewer. I guess that’s just one more thing I will have to keep in mind as I continue to look for that “perfect” digital Point & Shoot. That also rules out my two top contenders to date, the Nikon P300 & S9100. Neither of them has a viewer.

Before you leave the blog, please consider leaving a comment or better yet, sign up as a follower by clicking the button on the right side. I know from the stats that I’m getting hundreds of hits on this blog but sometimes I feel like I’m just talking to myself because I have very few comments and just a couple followers. Please – let me know you’re out there. Tell me about some of your photographic adventures, ask a question or just leave a quick comment.