So? Who cares? Has Casual Photophile turned into a personal blog/travel influencer machine? Not quite. I won’t peddle travel hacks or tell the best time of day to see the Mona Lisa (in my opinion, don’t). Nope, I’m here to drag you along for the ride as I reflect on the existential question all photographers ask themselves before a trip – “What camera should I bring?”

One thing you need to know about me before we embark on this adventure is that I’m a self-proclaimed film girlie. My first “serious” venture into photography was a high school darkroom class and while I’m a technical person who works with computers daily, I have never clicked with digital photography (horrible pun not intended). I have no rational justification for it. I just don’t like digital. It’s not as fun as shooting film.

Another thing you need to know about me is: I am but a lowly hobbyist photographer – if it’s not fun, I’m not doing it. Add all of this together and the answer to the original question, which camera should I bring, is obvious. Of course I’m taking a film camera with me on a once-in-a-lifetime trip, right?

Wrong.

I know, it’s crazy and makes absolutely no sense but, I left out some other key info: I’m the cheapest person I know and I’m also a certified X-ray technologist.

If you’re in the film community I’m sure you’ve seen at least one Reddit thread or Instagram story asking “My film was scanned in the airport – is it trashed?” These discussions are riddled with contradicting responses.

“If it’s less than 800 ISO you’re fine.”

“My film was x-rayed 25 times and now those photos are on the cover of Rolling Stone.”

“Why didn’t you just ask for a hand-check?”

I’ve even seen a few responders go as far as suggesting we all haul along powdered chemicals and develop our film at our destination. Insanity.

I’m not going to get into all the caveats regarding film and X-rays. Kodak and others have well-documented the issues seen with the new CT scanners in airports (which are x-ray tubes that spin in circles but deliver a much higher dosage of radiation). As an X-ray tech and the cheapest person I know – all I can tell you is this: I’m not putting a single roll through an X-ray, ever. It’s too expensive. There’s a chance the film will be fine, but there’s also a chance it won’t be. One roll of film can cost as much as $18 nowadays. Not to mention, the photos on the roll itself on a trip like this are priceless memories. I’m not risking it.

I love photography, but again I’m a hobbyist. I just want to take an amazing vacation and document the memories along the way. I don’t want to be anxious in the security line and spend my precious PTO arguing with a foreign agent that my film absolutely must be hand-checked because *mY qUaLiFiCaTiOnS*. I also don’t want to carry around a heavy digital camera worth a thousand, or even hundreds of dollars through cities I’m not familiar with. None of that sounds fun.

So what’s a girl to do? I say, bring on the digicams.

Digicams! They’re small, cheap, and unassuming. Now, I know what you’re thinking – “You trusted once-in-a-lifetime memories to a tiny sensor that’s 10+ years old?”
Yes. Yes, I did. And I don’t regret it.

In the winter, when I was deep in my “I don’t know what camera to bring” crisis, I stumbled across one of KingJvpes videos in which he and a friend walked around town and pitted a Ricoh GR III head-to-head against an old Canon S95. I initially thought all the same things you’re probably thinking – “These kids today. Why not just use your cell phone if you’re going to use a camera with such a crappy, old sensor?” But as I watched, my main takeaway wasn’t that the photos were indistinguishable between the two cameras – they were obviously very easy to tell apart. But I did realize that the old Canon S95 really held up much better than I thought it would and it was only $100.

As I did more research by endlessly scrolling through photo examples on Flickr, I found that the older pre-2010s digicams with their CCD sensors produced photos that had a unique look to them that I really liked. They felt a bit more “vintage” to my eye. I’d heard people in the photography community say that digicams “are the new film” and give a “film look.” I personally don’t think that’s true, but I do feel they provide a certain nostalgic look to photos that younger Millennials and Gen-Z would attribute to their childhood eras. It’s definitely a look that resonates with me more than the super crisp amazing digital sensors that are out there today.

So, off I went down the rabbit hole of DP Review’s camera feature search (kudos to onemonthtwocameras on Youtube for that gem) and filtered for cameras that had all the features I was looking for: RAW capabilities, “larger” 1/1.7 inch, 10-megapixel CCD sensor, and an optical zoom. I came away with two options that I was personally interested in: the Canon S90 and the Panasonic Lumix LX5. I cross-referenced prices on eBay and other used retailers and they were each around $100 at the time so, against my frugal heart, I bought them both and planned to sell whichever one I liked the least.

After testing for a few months before my vacation, I ultimately decided to bring both cameras along. Each camera had different ergonomics and I couldn’t decide which files I favored more. They’re both so small and light, they took up less space and weight in my bag than one of my 35mm SLRs would have anyway. In the event one of them got lost or broken, I’d have a backup. It was an easy decision.

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In Japan, Digicams are the New Film - Guest Post by Johnny Yokoyama

I’d like to introduce a new photography trend. Welcome to the exciting world of “Digicams.” Wait! Don’t roll your eyes just yet!

I had the time of my life. I kept one of the digicams on me at all times during the trip. They easily stashed into my little travel purse. I never felt weighed down by my camera or felt the need to leave it back at the accommodation. I didn’t worry that someone was eyeing me up as a potential target for carrying a bunch of expensive camera gear. I never thought twice about plunking my bag up on the belt to be x-rayed a million times. I was carefree and living my best life. The digicams did exactly what I needed a camera to do for this trip – get out of the way and let me take photos.

Since I carried a camera with me everywhere, I got a lot of great shot opportunities that I might not have had if I’d opted to bring along a bigger camera. The RAW capabilities and manual settings made shooting feel more like actual photography than simply using my cell phone, which for me is not an enjoyable photographic experience. I’m very happy with the decision to use digicams for this trip and I’m confident that the 10-megapixel files will have plenty of detail to print the photos into a memory book.

With that said, I want to reiterate that this trip wasn’t an African safari, Paris fashion week, or a destination wedding that I was being paid to shoot. It wasn’t even a photography-focused leisure trip. I didn’t take the most ground-breaking, iconic photos ever. But what I did do is have an amazing time traveling and get to sneak in some fun, low-stress photography whenever it was convenient.

So, if you’re a frugal-to-a-fault hobbyist photographer with a love of film and all things vintage but don’t want to deal with the hassle of flying with film (or heavier, bulkier cameras) and you’re taking a trip that isn’t photography focused, I encourage you to give digicams a try. They’re great little companions. Lastly, thanks for making it to the end of this long-winded article – why are you still here? Just bring whatever camera you want. Don’t let anyone tell you what to do. Happy shooting!

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A camera shop specializing in vintage cameras; 35mm, medium and large format, film and digital. 

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But in a press conference in 2010, mayor Menino mumbled his plan to revitalize the area. New transportation infrastructure was added (the Silver Line of the MBTA would provide public transport) and the scenic Boston Harborwalk was extended to run along the north side of the Seaport. 1,000 acres of the waterfront was redeveloped as an “Innovation District,” a regional hub for burgeoning industries such as clean tech, bio-chem, and health care IT.

It worked. In 2014, the area was described as “the hottest, fastest-growing real estate market in the country.” By 2017, the Seaport District boasted 78 restaurants, 8 hotels, and more than 1,100 housing units.

Yesterday, I revisited the Seaport, this time with my wife and kids. The transformation was stunning.

Everything was new. The streets weren’t just clean, but freshly paved with geometrically pleasing block work like I’d not seen since I visited Tokyo. Sleek, glass towers rose into fluffy clouds where abandoned cranes once listed against an overcast sky. The sounds of summer were carried along on a sweet breeze. Young sun worshipers lifted their faces under an azure sky. Live music carried with it the scent of outdoor dining. Families loving life and each other. We even saw (I kid you not) a marriage proposal. Moments after the heartwarming clapping trickled away, a Lamborghini’s motor roared through the canyons of glittering mirrors.

“Holy shit.” I said the swear quietly, so the kids wouldn’t hear. “This place has changed.”

My wife had never visited the Seaport during its squalid era. She asked what I meant. I explained, prefacing with the caveat that I’m kind of an idiot and don’t know much about anything.

“I remember this place being a total dump.” I said. “The last time I was here I watched a cop get mugged by six rats in a trench coat. The air smelled like dead fish and a bucket of nails. Now look at it.” I pointed to the three Lexuses parked alongside a perfectly manicured public garden, upon the lawn of which lounged a few dozen smartly-dressed young people drinking bubbly liquid out of crystal flutes. Everyone was smiling and gorgeous, with taut skin and perfect teeth. “Nothing but yuppie scum!”

She logged her disapproval of my prejudice against yuppie scum with a sideways glance. For the record, I don’t truly dislike anyone, not even yuppie scum. While I freely admit that conspicuously wealthy people irk me, I don’t really mean to pick on them. I just find immense pleasure in the phrase yuppie scum.

We walked on, stopping momentarily at the foot of a residential tower, all glass and Mithril silver like something from Tolkien’s elves. In the windows of the foyer floated framed monitors displaying listings for the apartments within, their amenities and pricing. $1.2 million, $2.6 million, $4.0 million. I gawped at the listing for one particularly luxurious rental unit and its price, a staggering $17,000 per month.

Per month!

After some time, I closed my mouth, blinked, turned to my family, and said the only words that came to mind. “Anyone want ice cream?”

At least my camera looked the part. Or it might have in 2002. Because I was using the Contax TVS Digital, a luxurious, expensive, stylish point-and-shoot digital camera capable of recording images at a stunning resolution of five point two megapixels.

We published an article last year about the growing popularity of Digicams, digital point-and-shoot cameras from the late ’90s and early ’00s. About a year later, The New York Times copied us and published a similar (though worse) article. It’s always nice to see a small publication find their voice.

I reviewed the Contax TVS Digital even before that, way back in 2019, and even then I predicted that we’d see a massive surge in the popularity of early digital point-and-shoots. Hey, maybe I do know something after all?

And so, today’s literary stroll will not be a camera review. I won’t list the specs, nor compare the titanium shelled Contax TVS Digital to its contemporary models. And readers searching for the history of Contax and the details of the Kyocera years will need to look elsewhere. I won’t even allow myself a sentence about the Contax T series‘ proclivity toward sapphire shutter release buttons, though it kills me to hold back.

I won’t mention how thrilled I was to discover that the Contax TVS Digital has an in-camera black-and-white shooting mode, nor how amazing it is at creating surprisingly striking images with deep shadows and well-retained highlights. I won’t compare it to Fujifilm’s film simulation modes. I won’t bring up the frustrations of the camera’s incredibly slow startup, nor its interminable read/write times as it saves and displays shot photos.

No, I won’t talk about the camera. Even though I want to, because I love its sing-song warble when I turn it on, I love the Game Boy quality sound effects that squeal from its insides when it locks focus and the delightfully fake shutter release sound it makes when I press the shutter release button, which – did you know? – is a synthetic sapphire?

I’ll hold back my gushing and simply share the photos, and bring you along as my beautiful wife and my lovely children enjoyed a stroll through Boston’s North End, down toward the waterfront, over the bridge, and into the new, revitalized seaport, where we wove through and amongst the filthy rich and the young and the beautiful, and where we stood in line for half an hour for the privilege of buying Japanese ice cream served in a warm, fish-shaped waffle, and where we held hands along the pristine harbor front walkways, and where we poked into a store that sells cupcakes made exclusively for dogs.

If that’s not gentrification, I don’t know what is.

But I do know that days like yesterday are why I love cameras and photography. I went to a place to see new things. I saw them, and I shot them with a neat camera. I shared the day with my family, made a few decent photos. In a perfect world we should all be so lucky.

[The gallery in this article contains images from the Seaport, as well as shots from Boston’s North End and other places where we spent our day, all made with the Contax TVS Digital in its black-and-white photo mode.]

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We didn’t know that standing in the line outside the door of the small cafe, which is situated in a strip mall between a barbershop, a salon, and a laundromat. My friends, Jose, Megan, Zully, Angela, and I were line-dancing in a Broadway Street bar when we heard this small place held acoustic performances every night. Tickets were sold out, but a few were given each night to non-ticket holders who got there early enough.

Standing in line, we took turns making funny expressions for my fifteen-year-old Kodak digicam (a portmanteau for the compact digital camera; the use of this word peaked in 2004). I found the camera online for twenty dollars at the beginning of the year. And now a few months later, I was using it as my sole camera on a six-day-long Spring Break road trip down the East Coast, from Connecticut to Tennessee and back. Me, four friends, eight megapixels, one Mini Cooper, and a dream.

Angela and Zully outside of the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, Tennessee.

I have “serious” cameras. The ones that do great at high ISOs, give pretty colors, have fast autofocus, and make old men look at you in envy. I have an iPhone, which gives several different lens options, also works as a cellphone (multipurpose king), and fits in my pocket. I have a film camera – a rangefinder that is small and hurts my wallet a little bit with each click.

I chose none of them for this trip. The fancy camera? Sure, it is small enough with my prime lens to not kill my shoulder on a strap. But it isn’t fun. It takes me away from being a participant in the trip and places me firmly into the role of photographer. And in my experience, my friends take that camera seriously and work to maintain a good appearance in front of its lens. It would just feel weird to carry it everywhere. So, no.

The iPhone is too slow. Sure, it’s always on me, but by the time I get out of my pocket, use my face to pass the lock screen, and open the camera, I might as well have written a diary entry about whatever moment just happened. Because it would be gone by then. And it’s too familiar and not fun at all. Every photo I take on it is a few clicks away from social media. Which can be scary to the people in front of its lens, whether it’s the zoom, the standard, or the fish-eye. So, also no.

The film camera. Well, manual focus probably wouldn’t be the easiest on the run for me, plus we would be in a mixture of low-light and bright conditions, meaning I would have to put a lot of thought into what film I would load and shoot through it quickly before I shifted light conditions. And film ain’t cheap. I’m in college, remember? I’m broke! So, no.

Which leaves the Kodak EasyShare C813 digicam. Eight megapixels, runs on AA batteries and fits in my pocket. It can be turned off and stored away in my jeans pocket, and, in less than three seconds, be turned on and ready to go in my hands. And most importantly, it is COOL and FUN. Instead of being a “ professional photographer” documenting my college road trip, I am a college kid on a road trip with my friends with a camera. When I bring it out, my college friends are fascinated with its age and the “vintage” look the photographs bring out. And everyone on the trip could use it.

Zully takes a mirror selfie in an antique store in rural Kentucky.

In response to a previous piece published on Casual Photophile about early digital cameras, one reader responded that using one would be a bad move and that memories would be ruined by the subpar quality.

Fair, maybe. But not for me. Sure, a cheap digital camera might not be the best option for fine art. It might not produce glorious 20×30 prints. But that isn’t why I took these photographs. I took these photographs to remember. To have a document to bring out and laugh at with my friends years down the road.

And without my digicam, these photographs wouldn’t exist.

Megan waits to put her new guitar in the trunk. We had to rearrange all of our luggage after she purchased this vintage guitar in an antique store in rural Kentucky. We took the unplanned exit off the highway after seeing a sign for a cool cave.

Zully and Megan nap in the backseat somewhere in Tennesee.

Megan, Zully, Jose, and Angela plot out our next move in the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.

Angela tries on a leather jacket in a vintage store in Nashville, Tennessee.

Perfume Genius performs in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Megan tries on a cowboy hat at the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Megan, Zully, and Angela practice their line dance in our Nashville hotel room.

The early morning sun engulfs Zully on the pullout sofa a few hours later.

Megan looks down through the sunroof at a rest stop in Connecticut.

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[Some of the links in this article will direct users to our affiliates at B&H Photo, Amazon, and eBay. By purchasing anything using these links, Casual Photophile may receive a small commission at no additional charge to you. This helps Casual Photophile produce the content we produce. Many thanks for your support.]

The post The Photographs That Wouldn’t Exist – Travels with a Digicam appeared first on Casual Photophile.