Vintage Digital

[Black Pearl]

Couldn't decide where to put this but as its more about the camera than the images I though here would be good.

Some of you may know I have a local beach where the dog (see below) and I go several times every week. I have decided to make it my project this year and try to photograph it in as many different ways, with as many different bits of gear using as many techniques as I can be bother to have a shot at.

Soooo....with that in mind I dug out an old friend on Sunday morning, powered her up, formatted a CF card and went for a play.

What I took with me was a 1999 Nikon Coolpix 950:



2 Million Pixels - 1600x1200
3x Optical Zoom - 38-115mm
80, 100, 160 ISO - yes that is one hundred and sixty and not sixteen hundred.
Mag-Alloy Body - even has the iconic red strip on the grip.
Optical Viewfinder - a vile one but beggars can't be choosers...see below
2" LCD - 97% (!?!?!?!?) coverage with a failing backlight but I don't recall it ever being great.

Now it was great fun - honestly - it may be old but it feels like a pro camera with a rock solid build, a fantastic articulated lens and a lovely 'index finger placed' input wheel. You get PSAM modes, an external flash socket and the choice of jpeg or Tiff...yes Tiff. The flip side is a complete lack of any attempt at pace. It takes an age to turn on, an age to focus and when it does you get no indication at all of where it has focused or if I'm being honest again if it really has and an age to take/record a file. There is so small a dynamic range to the files the shadows were essentially black and all the highlights were blown. Even at base iso (that's 80 to you and I) there is noise visible. Now I'm not one to pixel peep but when the images fail to reach either edge of your screen when viewed at 100% you tend to spot things like noise.


Soooo....I had to be a little creative with my shots but I feel I'm off to a decent start and look forward to seeing what else I can use in the coming months.

Jasper


Bit of mono


Bit of a play


If you have an old digital camera lying around somewhere I would really recommend you have a play. If nothing else it will be a laugh and you never know you might get a shot or two you like.

Robin

[Shadowman]

Nice, images and camera. I have a few old digitals lying around and I like to dust them off every so often. Currently, I am trying different techniques to offset the excessive noise created when using the Nikon P90.

[IzzieK]

Did you do any PP on these shots?

I too have a few old digitals hanging around... and they all still shoot OK. 'must dig them out of their graves in the closet...

[PRSearls]

I have an old Canon 10D, my first serious digital camera. When I run across images I took with it, I'm surprised how well they look. I wouldn't give up my current bodies but it was pretty decent back then. The glass I put on it now costs a lot more than the body. The 10D still works and I've considered having it modified to an "infrared only" body.

Paul S

[Adrian]

My old digitals mainly remind me how far modern ones have come. I need all the help I can get from modern gear!

[xpatUSA]

It makes a good point "the photographer, not the kit"!

Lately, I've been doing similar, setting the RAW only SD9 to LO res (0.8MP 1134x756px) for snaps.

(HI res is whopping 2268x1415px, good enough for Government work . . .)

[Black Pearl]

It is amazing just how far things have come, you forget about....let's call them quirks on older kit when you get newer stuff.

Going this far back is a shock to the system though.
Good laugh mind.

[ajohnw]

This thread made me look up a camera that I came across a 2 years ago gathering dust in a camera shop. Street prices $1200 in 2003 it seems. A Dimage A1. Like de ja vu. Fastest AF in the world for a 5mp dslr type camera which it isn't of course. Tilt screen and viewfinder plus sensor shake image stabilisation and a 28-200mm F2.8/3.5 APO lens. For 40 quid I couldn't resist it just to see what a very expensive camera in it's time was like. I've only played around with it and impressions are not that bad. 14bit a/d too. They seem to have dropped to about $800 at some point. Using the usual rule that would be about £800 in the UK. It even has a noisy electronic view in low light like certain other electronic view cameras have.

John
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[JR1]

I like old cameras, and it appears so do many people in the street.

When I shoot with a new DSLR no one even gives you a second look these days, but take out a Nikkormat Ftn, or Kodak DCS there is always interest.

I am sure there are many people here who have long forgotten cameras they really should get out and enjoy once again

[Black Pearl]

Remember selling those - very popular with SLR users who couldn't afford a DSLR at the time but wanted similar functionality.

[Shadowman]

Nice, images and camera. I have a few old digitals lying around and I like to dust them off every so often. Currently, I am trying different techniques to offset the excessive noise created when using the Nikon P90.

I know quite a few people who have purchased successors to this model and noise in low light settings continues to be a challenge. So any new technique that can be applied to old technology definitely has a place with future technology.

[pjbw]

My old digitals mainly remind me how far modern ones have come. I need all the help I can get from modern gear!

But they built 'em in those days...
After I retired after 20 years as a programmer I really thought I should get with it and bought a remaindered 2MP digital camera. I can't remember the make; I gave it to my brother. I was surprised how good it was and splashed out on an all-singing all-dancing Olympus 5050 Wide Zoom in April 2004 for trip to India. Trying to make something of the photos I took really got me started on post-processing: vignetting, barrel distortion, you name it.
Then I had the great good fortune to go into a techie shop in Dublin (Ireland) in June 2006 and the salesman showed me a Sony DSC-R1. This ticked all my boxes and then some after I bought it. Not for nothing has the R1 reached legendary status. Late in 2013 the Sony RX10 came close (see my thread 'Comparing lens resolutions') but after some agonizing I will stick with the R1. After it was discontinued later in 2006 (rumour has it that it was because of health and safety reasons; it has a laser range finder) I bought another one as a spare, still unused!
I can live without video, wi-fi, stabilization, etc. but the R1 is rather slow to meter and focus though.

[Black Pearl]

Build is amazing - definitely in the case of the 950. Even looks like a Nikon which might sound odd but the modern Coolpic range don't.

[davidedric]

My first "serious" digital was a Canon Powershot Pro 1, not quite as vintage as Robin's, almost ten years ago. It was the first (only?) bridge camera that Canon put a designated "L" series lens on. It could produce some excellent images, one is attached, but my word it was SLOW, and noise became visible at even ISO100. I passed it on to a local charity a couple of years ago for taking snapshots.

[Black Pearl]

Ooo, remember selling those too - properly good lens on the front.