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Monthly Archives: January 2013

Black and White LaGrange 2013

January 13

A small gallery of some photos taken in La Grange, IL.  I wanted to experiment with black and white photography.  These photos were taken on an overcast day, so look oddly flat with no shadows.  Taken with a Canon PowerShot SX260 HS.  My first CMOS camera in a long time.

 

Posted by on January 13, 2013 in Photos

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Photography, a personal journey, Part 2, digital infancy.

January 06

In part one, see below, I wrote about the film cameras I used growing up.  As an adult, I was introduced to digital cameras.  In the beginning, they really could not compare to film.  With comically low resolutions, as low as 320×240, they were useless for prints.  However, once the ball started rolling, it never stopped.

Jam Cam 2.0

The JamCam 2.0.  Our first digital camera.  More or less a toy, it could take 320×240 or 648×480 photos and store them in internal memory.  It could store up to 8 photos at ‘full’ resolution.  I, however, don’t regret getting this camera and have some fond memories of taking photos with it.  Very rugged and I don’t think we ever changed the batteries.  Optical viewfinder with just an 7 segment lcd on the back showing you how many shots you had left.  Serial RS-232 interface with no memory expansion.  The 3.0 version could have MultiMedia card, but our version did not.  Owned from early November 1999 to late April 2000.  Even then we knew at the time the photos were just unacceptable and the camera was soon replaced with an I/O magic MagicImage 500.

Specs:

 	Real resolution: 640 x 480 
 	Maximum picture capacity: 24 
 	Power: 9V alkaline battery- Not included
    Resolution and Display Capacity

Display Resolution Picture Capacity
r1 640 x 480 8
r2 320 x 240 26
r3 240 x 179 48

 

Sample Shots:

Luckily, it looks like we took photos at the Museum of Science and Industry Chicago with most of the cameras we have owned over the years, so you can really see how far the technology has come.  Only outdoor shots looked halfway decent, and color reproduction was very poor in low light.

iomagic500

 

 

Our next camera (in case you are wondering, us means the wife and I) was an I/O Magic Magicimage 500.  A big step up from the JamCam.  0.8 mega-pixels native, 1.3 interpolated.  The flash worked well and the image quality was somewhat acceptable for web images, with the possibility of printing actual photos with it.  We took many photos with the camera, and, luckily it was expandable with 3.3V Smart Media cards.  It could also take macro photos, for the first time.   It used AA batteries, and had decent battery life without the flash.  Used as primary camera from April 2000 to November 2000.

Specifications:

  • Resolution 0.8 megapixels / 1.2 megapixels (interpolated)
  • Total Pixels 800000.0 pixels
  • Optical Sensor Size 1/3″
  • Image Recording Format JPEG

  • Lens System

    • Type – F/2.8
    • Focal Length Equivalent to 35mm Camera 47.0 mm
    • Min Focus Range 4.3 ft

Sample Photos:

The photos are better, but still not what I would call printable.  In November of 2000, we bought our first non toy digital camera, the Olympus C-3000.  More on that in the next post.

 

Posted by on January 6, 2013 in Photos

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Photography, a personal journey, Part 1, film

January 06

I have always loved taking pictures.  I am not a professional or even a rank amateur, but I still have always enjoyed taking snapshots and photos in general.  I am not an early adopter of much, but digital cameras were the exception.  When I was younger (and up until I was about 24 or so) digital cameras were more science fiction than practical devices.  So, when I was a growing up, there was nothing but film.

This was the first camera that I used, the Kodak Instamatic 100.  I am sure many of the early photos of my life were taken with a camera like this.  I still remember the packages that the one use flash bulbs came in.  That’s right, you had to replace the flash bulb with every flash photo, well, every 4 photos with the magic flash cube.  Very simple, but it took good photos and it was super easy to get film for it.  (Did not own, was family camera.)

Ah, yes, the disk camera.  A real marvel of engineering.  Pocket sized, built in flash, kinda crappy photo quality.  The disks we very easy to use, and you almost never accidentally destroyed the negatives by mishandling.  The downside is with such small negatives, the film grain was pretty obvious and low light without the flash on was pointless.  The camera size, however, was very convenient.  (Did not own, was a family camera.)

Yet another Kodak.  You have to remember, before digital cameras, Kodak was king.  I used a camera like this in my late early 20’s.  Very good image quality and a neat feature of panoramic shots.  24mm film negatives meant decent film grain and the film itself was easy.  You just dropped it in and went along with life.  When it hit the end of the roll, it automatically rewound the film and you didn’t need to carry the little round 35mm canisters.  Decent flash and good low light capabilities.  Only recently discontinued, it was the last point and shoot holdout in traditional film.   (Not owned, friends’ camera.)

 

That last film camera I have used, and, shockingly, still in production.  The Fujifilm QuickSnap disposeable camera.  Just take your shots, drop off the whole camera to get the film developed, and you are done.  No film to handle, no batteries to replace.  Takes shockinly good looking photos.  A great way to use traditional film, or, if you are cheap, have a camera you really don’t care about if it gets destroyed.  Dirt simple to use, tough, and even comes in waterproof versions.   

This was the last film camera I have handled.  I also used some traditional 35mm point and shoots, but nothing that stands out in my mind.  Next post will be on my transition to digital with sample photos.  Ah, yes, digital.  13 years later the photos still look exactly how you took them originally. 

 

Posted by on January 6, 2013 in Political

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