Junk Cameras One

DSCI0525.JPGI have posted on this blog early on about the Kodak digital cameras I had collected and I showed them off and told you about what they could do and the quality of how they took photos. You see, I wanted a digital camera ever since they started hitting the market, but I could never afford any. When I got a Cintar camera as a gift for Christmas back in 2002, I was in business. Yeah, I had to sharpen each pic individually and yes, the memory for those cams was stupid expensive (to me) but I used it as much as I could. Take a pic, wait 45 seconds, take another pic. I finally had a little more money when I bought a 6.1m Kodak in 2006. It was  light years from what I'd been using yet towards the bottom of state of the art. Maybe 2004 or so all the camera makers started getting into a "we have more mega pixels" race and went to about 16 MPX before Americans switched over to smart phones and away from point and shoot consumer cameras. 

DSCI0526.JPGI was fine with my Kodak until it started messing up. When I couldn't take it any more, I bought a new Nikon camera that was great. A year later, it failed because it was a piece of dung. (Just past the warranty. Figures.) I bought a new Fuji cam. Boomer started having the same problem with his Kodak (the same as mine) he went to Fleabay, bought several of our model and we had fixed Kodaks for about $6 each.  A short time later, I was in the thrift shop near his house and I found a crate loaded with cameras for two-three bucks each. I bought. I had gone down the rabbit hole. I started looking for a camera that was better than what I had and took better pics, or a cam that cost 2-300 bucks when new, yet was less than $10. I got a lot of goodies, or at least pretty goodies. I've also got a lot of cheeseburgers. Here is my box of cheese.

100_3528.JPGFuji Finepix 1.3 4"AA" Batteries


Here was the first one. A 1.3 Fuji Camera that takes 4 "AA" batteries. It's as base of a point and shoot cam as you can get. I wish I could say I tested this camera when I got it. However, it took a certain type of media and didn't have memory in it. Lots of cams that were this type of media didn't have memory or came with a "basic" chip memory.

100_3529.JPGIt does look a little like a retro camera. Yes I have a link for it. A great camera review site, usually reviewed all the cheese. Remember, at one time, these were not cheese. http://www.steves-digicams.com/fuji1300.html

100_3535.JPGFuji 1400 1.3 4"AA" Batteries

Here was the second cam I bought the same day from the same store. Same thing, 4 "AA" batteries, but this one had a lens that popped out. When you closed the door, it retreated. Fuji went with this design for their cheaper cameras with "zoom" for a few years. Here's the cam review site on this one:  http://www.steves-digicams.com/fuji1400.html

100_3536.JPGNothing too exciting here. The LED displays on the back of these cams was pretty good for when they were minted. However, the ate batteries. So one of the best things about older digital cameras was, they had a view finder. Day or night, you got an approximate look at what you were taking a picture of. Approximate. Yeah. But, at least they were there. If you can't see what you are shooting, you guess that it it's about right.  The reason there are no "demo" pics that I took is....

100_3539.JPGSmart Media.  Yep. Heard of it?  Back when "removable media" on a computer was a 1.44 Meg floppy drive, this was invented and floated as being the replacement for floppies. It was thin, it held at least two floppies worth of data, and it was tiny. It grew by doubles for a few more times until it stopped at a whopping 128 Meg of storage. Lots of manufacturers adopted the technology like sewing machine makers and musical keyboard makers. Too bad the camera industry was growing so fast by taking better and bigger pics, at cheaper prices.  Also, more compact media that held MUCH more data came around. SD and XD memory took over. I think Fuji went xD and then joined just about everyone else with SD.  Search for Smart Media and get the full story about why they died. I didn't have a Smart Media card until about 6 months after when I bought my third cam that used the media. I really think these Fujis took good pictures. The review site has good demos. 

100_3540.JPGMinolta Dimage E 201 2.3  4"AA" Battery Compact Flash


Here's the link for it. http://www.steves-digicams.com/camera-reviews/minolta/dimage-e201/minolta-dimage-e201-review.html  Yes, I know, I've really been breaking the rule of this blog. However, I search for every camera I get, so I already have the links. This was the last of the three that I bought on the same day from the same store. This was also a 4 battery affair, but it takes Compact Flash media. Again, I couldn't test it right away as I didn't have any CF chips with me. I did think there was a little more gusto to this cam than the Fuji cams. Minolta was an old line camera maker right? This had to have a good lens right? This had to be a better cam right?

100_3541.JPGWow! It has TWO displays? Something that older digital cameras have is these little LCD windows that provide a lot of info at a glance. Why? Because using the display to see how many pictures you've taken made those 4 AA batteries get really tired really fast. This showed what quality and what range the lens was as well as the number of shots left. Nifty.

100_3542.JPGMost of the controls were on top anyway. This has a dimmer display than the Fujis had, and likely took the juice from the batteries even more. Ahhh, but the viewfinder was there. Plus, this thing weighs a LOT compared with the Fujis. Built like tanks were these cameras.  Ahhh, but the pictures....

PICT0041.JPGThis is why I used to re-process all of my photos on my first cam. A little sharpening is all this needs. Funny, but  lots of "other" cheaper cameras even with less MPX than this one delivered sharp photos without processing needed. When I did finally see what the above Fujis could do, they did better.

PICT0028.JPGNow it was a bit cloudy on this day, but one of the other problems of older digital cameras is the black tones of the picture. If you look past the blur, you'll see they are dark and pasty. My old 2.3 Cintar would take the same way. My guess is it was the CCD pickup used to record the picture. I'm sure not every manufacturer designed their cameras from the ground up. Some may have had better lenses as I'd believe this Minolta did, but the inner workings... My Cintar said it uses a "Sony" CCD. I'm betting Minolta used something similar as they never were a big competitor in the digital camera world.  So...these cams got retired, but I started going to thrift stores and buying any camera that was...well...a camera. When I continue this series, you'll see some of the others in the box at the top, and then I'll round it up by featuring the ultimate cheese... Vivicheese.  

ARF! -Ric