Cameras, Cameras, and More Cameras

As a photographer, I have a lot of cameras. Like, probably too many cameras. When I started getting into analog photography, I was suddenly seeing film cameras everywhere I went. 

Cameras Mentioned in this Post

Granted, I do a lot of thrift and antique store shopping, so I guess it's not that unusual. Over the past couple years I've built up a pretty solid collection of point-and-shoot, SLR (manual analog), and DSLR (manual digital) cameras. In this blog post I'll share a few of my favorites, and the photos they produced (with a little help from my artistic eye). 

We'll start with my go-to digital camera. I didn't find this one at an antique store or anything, but it's the camera that I've used for almost everything in my photographic career. It's a Canon EOS Rebel T6. This might not mean anything to you - but it's basically the nicer DSLR beginner digital camera that is made by Canon. It has the full manual control, without the big price. It's not as nice as some other cameras that Canon makes, but as an amateur photographer I still haven't run into a need to upgrade.
Here are a few photos I've taken with this camera: 





Next I'll talk about my most used SLR camera. If you don't know, SLR stands for single-lens reflex technology, which is referring to the way the photographer can view the image in the viewfinder. To learn more about the difference between DSLR and SLR cameras, check out this article.


I got my SLR camera from my grandfather, who kindly gifted it to me when I started getting interested in film photography. It's a Minolta SRT-101 that was made in the 1960s. I've used it for my analog photography classes at the University of North Florida, and I gotta say it still holds up 60 years after it was made. Check out some photographs I've made with it:






Ok, now we're talking about point-and-shoot film cameras. A point-and-shoot is exactly what the name implies - you point it at what you want to take of photo of, and you push the button. The camera does all the work internally, and there is very little control on the photographer's end. 

These have gotten insanely popular over the past year, and yet I've still been able to find them at thrift stores for under $5. The camera I'm talking about next was thrifted at a Goodwill near my house at the beginning of 2021, and it's an Olympus Infinity Zoom 70. It was only $2.99. If I could write it in caps, I would. Well, here: TWO DOLLARS AND NINETY-NINE CENTS! That's a steal. Sorry, I'm proud. This is one of those film cameras that would go for $50+ on eBay. I've only put one roll of film through it so far, but it's one of my favorite point-and-shoot cameras I've ever used. Some examples:





The last camera I'll talk about in this post is an instant camera - aka, a polaroid camera. I have found a few at thrift stores over the years, but they just don't work as well as I hope they will. Plus, the film for the large square polaroid cameras is pretty expensive. The instant camera I use the most is the Instax Mini 8. It produces cute little polaroid photographs that are only a few inches tall. I find that this instant camera is the best for the money it costs, and I love the ease of the pictures printing as soon as I take them. Here are some polaroids taken on this tiny film camera:






This isn't all the cameras I have, but these are the few that I find myself using the most. Eventually I'll put together a post all about my camera collection, what issues I find with what cameras, and the best deals I've found. For now, I hope you enjoyed reading about my 4 favorites!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What Camera Should You Use? Take This Quiz To Find Out!

Image
No matter how often you take photographs, you can take this quick quiz to find out what type of camera you should be using! (Keep track of your answers!) Do you put thought and effort into all the photographs you take? Yes No Would you call yourself an artistic person? Yes No Do you like to see results immediately? Yes No Here are your results! Find your answers to reveal what type of camera best suits you as a photographer. Phone Camera Yes, No, Yes No, No, No No, No, Yes Point-and-Shoot Camera Yes, Yes, No Yes, No, No No, No, No No, Yes, No Polaroid Camera Yes, Yes, Yes Yes, No, Yes No, Yes, Yes Digital Camera Yes, Yes, Yes Film Camera Yes, Yes, No I took the quiz too, and my result was film camera! I'm not surprised since my film camera is my go-to camera when possible. Comment below your results, or tag me on Instagram @oldimprovedphoto .
Read more

Q&A on Analog Photography

Image
With this new age of digital photography, the common knowledge of the analog process is not so common anymore. New photographers have now started off with cameras built into their phones instead of cheap point-and-shoot film cameras. In this post I'll answer some common questions beginners may have about using a film camera and the analog process. Film camera selfie 1. How does a film camera work? A film camera works in a similar way to how digital cameras work - by recording the lens-focused light that is exposed to a sensor inside of the camera. However, instead of the light information recording into a digital file, the light exposes a strip of material called film. Film strips are typically made of plastic and coated in  light-sensitive silver crystals (photographyhistoryfacts.com, 2021). The crystals undergo a chemical change based on how much light is exposed onto the sections of film. In order to view the pictures the film has to be developed in photographic chemicals. Examp...
Read more