New Dinasour

[nikonbob]

The first digital I bought was an Olympus C 5050 and if I recall correctly that was about 9 years ago. That was the camera that showed me the potential for digital photography. Needless to say I really liked that camera, short comings and all, and was disappointed when it died suddenly on me 5 years ago. By that time having it repaired likely would have cost more than the camera was worth so I just shelved it and got another digital P&S. Fast forward to yesterday when I found another C 5050 locally for less than what it would cost to have the old one even looked at for repair. Bought it out of nostalgia, I suppose, but was quickly reminded by the new what I originally like about the camera. It became evident just as quickly just how far digital cameras have progressed in the interim. It is like using a SM leica compared to a modern AF SLR. When you persevere with all the restrictions imposed on you by the dated technology you are still rewarded by a decent photo got to at least 8x10. I never did shoot RAW with my original C 5050 but did try it with this one. Let me tell you I can paint a picture faster than this thing can process a RAW file. No problem that is what JPEG is for. No purpose to this other than to say you can still get satisfaction from an old digital dinosaur.

Bob

[olroy2044]

Your post brings back memories, Bob. My first ever digital was a bright yellow thing called a "JamCam." It was a throw-in premium with the purchase of a ----printer, I think. It was a truly AWFUL piece of c**p. It so soured me on digital, that it was years before I even thought about buying another! I think it went to the landfill! Kinda wish now that I had kept it just to remind myself of how far the technology has come.

I have an old Sony Mavica that uses a 3.5" floppy as a memory card. I get it out and play it with fairly often. Less than 1 mgp, but an absolutely terrific lens. If it had a decent sensor, it would still be a top-flight performer. Roy

[Doug T.]

My first digital was a Polaroid Photomax 320 or something like that. It also took really,really bad photos, but I liked the software that came with it .
I found it (the software) the other day, and discovered that I can use it to do restoration on some old photos that I have.
I guess it had some redeeming qualities after all.

Doug

[PeterW]

My digital dinosaur is an Epson 850Z. It was bought new 10 or eleven years ago because the publisher for whom John and I were writing a book on car restoration wanted all the pictures digital to make production cheaper.

It boasted all of 2.1 megapixels and you could twiddle the knobs and push the buttons to give aperture priority, speed priority or fully automatic, auto flash on or off and auto focus on or off. It was state of the art at the time and it got top reviews in just about all the photo magazines

I've got to say it took superb pictures, and still does. The only problem we had was when a very young Luke poked a finger through the cover shutter blades that protect the lens when the camera is switched off.

It was out of guarantee - of course - but Epson UK were very sympathetic and repaired it in three days for the cost of the postage.

Together with the bigger memory card and a mains power supply to avoid running down the Ni-Cads when shooting on a tripod on location where there was an electric power supply it was bl@@dy expensive at the time but John took about 230 pictures with it for the book which paid for it almost twice over within a year, and it's earned about ten times that since, so it doesn't owe us anything.

I've now got the use of John's Pentax istD2 and a bagful of lenses whenever I want it because he's very much into digital movies, but I still use the old Epson with its fixed zoom lens quite a lot because it's compact and convenient. And it still takes damn good pictures if you don't want to blow them up to mural size. Here's an example:



PeterW

[nikonbob]

Nostalgia for old digi cams, who would have thought that possible. I have to give you guys the laugh of the day. I decided to play around with the dead C 5050 today. For some reason I noticed a bent pin in the CF card connector of the camera. On the basis of I can't damage a dead camera anymore than it already is, I was able to pry the pin away from the other pins it was in contact with. Put the batteries in and it fired right up. I am not the brightest bulb in the pack. Still not out of the woods yet as I can't insert a card until I get that pin straightened out. I think I'll be pondering that for awhile. It must have been operator error, mine, when inserting the card the last time. I don't think I'll be too slap bang in the future when putting cards into any digitals I own. Hope you had a good chuckle, now I have to get rid of this black cloud that keeps following me.

Bob

[daveh]

First digital: was the photo-shot in the Panasonic NV-GX7camcorder nine years or so ago. All of 1.2 megapixels, and more noisy than today's cameras. It wasn't bad as long as the picture wsn't blown up too much.



First proper digital still camera: Panasonic Lumix FZ1. Only 2 megapixels, but with a good lens and producing good clean photos.


These are not necessarily the best photos to illustrate the cameras, but the only ones I have to hand that I haven't already used elsewhere on here.


A good call for a new thread, Bob. I know some who got in when the photos were 640x480 pixels and the results were truly awful with zig-zag diagonal lines and all manner of other problems. It is no wonder, Roy, if your first digital was like that, that you were put off for some time.

[nikonbob]

This is what the Oly gave me and why I was impressed by it.

Bob

[daveh]

Some notes on the surviving Hawker Hurricanes can be found at: members.madasafish.com/~d_hodgkinson/hawker-guide-RW.htm

P3069 is about the eighth plane down the list.

[nikonbob]

Dave

Thanks for the link. I checked to see if they got the history of P3069 right, at least as I have known it, and seems they have. I saw and have photos of the original flying at Abbotsford BC airshow around 1980-81 I think. The original was built in Fort William Ontario, now part of Thunder Bay, by Can-Car. The Can-Car plant is still in operation today and is now part of Bombardier Company. The Canadian Warplane Heritage was originally located in wartime wooden hangers of a former RCAF base at Hamiltion airport. Although they lost, besides the Hurricane, a Spitefire and possibly some others in that fire they managed to save the Mynarski Lancaster which had just begun flying around that time. BTW Senator Molson was from one of the great brewing families in Canada.

Bob

[pompiere]

I picked up a Sony DSC-P50 the other day. I wasn't even going to look at it, but it was only $1, and it had a good set of AA batteries and a carry bag so I figured that was worth a dollar. Having the camera work and the lithium battery hold a charge was just a bonus. It is a good size to carry, way smaller than the Mavica.