It's official, vintage digital compacts are trending (Petapixel)

This is interesting, my first thought was "Oh, Gen Z is finding film too expensive", so they're looking at old digital point & shoots. But it also aligns with another weird headline I saw this evening "DxO PhotoLab version 6.1 released with support for Nikon D100 camera"

I was like "What??? The Nikon D100 is a twenty plus year old digital camera that shoots like 6MP images" Why would DxO PhotoLab be making software for that?

I guess twenty plus year old digital cameras are now all the rage.

Best,
-Tim
 
Funnily enough, I'm thinking of using a Coolpix 990 for taking photos of finds for the local archaeology group - the files won't be too big, and the small sensor means even close-up there's lots of DoF. More practical than hipster, but that's just me.
 
I've never stopped using my Canon 10mp Ixus. This is the little one that has, rather surprisingly, a viewfinder that is slightly worse than the one found in screw thread Leicas.
 
jsrockit said:
Yeah some young model uses it so we should follow, how does that not make complete sense to us?!
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Wasn't it one of the Jenners showing up on Jimmy Fallon with a Contax T2 who made the film movement mainstream?

Apparently the hipsters grew up and got jobs, and are now yuccies, or so I am told, not that I know anything about it.
 
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I seem to have accumulated a few of the things myself.

Top row, L to R: Superheadz Sun & Cloud, Rollerblad 4, Superheadz Digital Harinezumi 2++
Bottom: Nikon Coolpix S01, Superheadz Necono, Casio Exilim EX-S500

Superheadz were priced like designer toys (i.e., not cheap) and picture quality is deliberately lo-fi, but production values (fit and finish, packaging, advertising) were high.

The others were cheap thrift store finds or freebies.

Rollerblade 4 (unknown production date) seems like the sort of thing which might have been sold as an impulse-buy item. It also included a number of games which I foolishly deleted.

Casio (2005) was relatively expensive when new, and may have started the craze for slender cameras with a footprint approximately the size of a credit card.

I think of Nikon Coolpix S01 and Canon Powershot N (both circa 2013) as late digicam-era products when the market was already in decline, but camera-makers were still willing to explore new niches. I wouldn't mind finding the Canon at thrift-store prices.
 
My worry is - or perhaps my thoughts are - that we will go the same way as film cameras did. There was a time when digital was popular and film cameras were dirt cheap as no one wanted them and some of us snatched up OM's for a couple of pounds. We can't do that so often these days.

Right now small, old 1, 2 and 3 megapixel cameras are seen as worthless and from there to (say) 10 megapixels in a camera makes it interesting and a little bit dearer but still a silly price for what you get. Usually a lens cap or lens hood cost more than the camera and lens...

So expect the same for old media cards that the older cameras take; meaning SmartMedia, xD and Memory Sticks and don't forget the adapters and card readers. You read it here first.

Regards, David

PS And, of course, I worry about being seen as trendy.
 
Not digital - but I'm waiting for APS to make a comeback (kidding).

Still have my Canon ELPH. Loved the mini form-factor and tank-like feel of the camera, but I never did get a good image out of that thing. :(
 
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JeffS7444 said:
Canon Powershot N (both circa 2013) as late digicam-era products when the market was already in decline, but camera-makers were still willing to explore new niches. I wouldn't mind finding the Canon at thrift-store prices.
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Yeah, that one I can see people liking....at least it has a cool design. But it is a 12mp CMOS--- surely too good of quality.
 
We are yet to plumb the depths. The Minolta Disc 7 came with a mirror on the front and what would now be called a selfie stick. All this in 1983 apparently.

I have never seen any pictures from a disc camera...but as fashionable accessory????
 
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A long time ago I had a Canon 12mp pocket camera, it had a small viewfinder, champagne gold color body; really quite nice. It was my second digital camera. I must say that that little camera took some mighty fine pictures. I loaned it to my nephew, he was going to the USA to be a foreign exchange student and wanted to borrow it to document his experience. He was such a nice kid; I never saw that camera again.

Apparently, to the young generation a loan is as good as a gift.

Mike
 
Wow. My Kodak DC120 still works. The Nikon Coolpix 700- Died.

My daughter belongs to a youth group, I take her to it and take pictures at the events. They all LOVE the Polaroid. Big Hit, great ice breaker. One of the members asked about it, and film in general- wanted to try it. I brought in a Polaroid 600 one-step and a Pentax ME-Super with a Ricoh K-Mount 50/1.4 to give to her. Will be bringing in a couple more cameras for the next get together, by request.

They all use cell phones for pictures at the gatherings. I would not worry too much about prices of old Digital cameras going up.
 
Duh, I forgot to say - and I'm trying to get back to digital compacts - that my Leica Digilux Zoom, of 1999 vintage, takes SmartMedia cards and so I had to dig around and find out about them. So it might just be of interest to fellow sufferers. What follows is about the cards and cameras in general and not specific to the Leica.

In a nutshell the cameras' software controls the media card. So if the camera was an early one it might only take the three smallest cards (2, 4 and 8MB). Later ones could take 16MB cards and sometimes the software in the camera was changed during the run to accept the 16MB cards, which adds to the confusion.

I suspect the rational behind the 2MB cards was to keep costs down - check them for a shock and I mean MB's nothing bigger. Anyway, after a while the cameras output became too big and 2MB cards were not accepted by the cameras made then but cards up to 32MB might be. And finally in 2000 or so they reached 128MB and never got any bigger. Not all cameras accept them.

One other "funny" event from those days is/was that cameras might tell you there's no card present and some might just turn off; very annoying until the penny drops. Anyway, it shows the importance of that well known but neglected ritual of RTFM.

Hope this is of some help; most of my collection of old ones came about because it was easier to buy elderly cameras for the SM cards in them than buy SM cards from that well known auction site.

Regards, David

PS FWIW, a 2MB card could hold 4 or perhaps 3 SHQ files...
 
Sonnar Brian said:
...Snip...I would not worry too much about prices of old Digital cameras going up.
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It's not so much the cost of the camera but the unique extras like lens hoods, lens caps, batteries, cards and chargers that worries me and the camera might not work so more expense.And sometimes they are "no refunds" and that can cause aggro when they insist that it works and works well and is in mint condition. We've all got horror stories about second-hand cameras, film or digital My solution is to buy as much as I can as cheaply as I can. Look on ebay for some of the prices but sit down first.

Regards, David
 
I have got a Contax TVS Digital: quality is terrible. Frankly a film point and shoot would give you better images. Plus the time it takes to store images on its card is laughable. But it is a Contax I suppose ...
 
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