All the cameras I own are OLD - even the digital ones!

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mfunnell

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It's kind of, well, obvious (duh!) but I only just realised that not only do I own a lot of old cameras, but that even the digital cameras I own (the ones I use, too!) are quite old.

The most recent camera I own (aside from my iPhone), which I kind of regard as 'new' (even though I've had mine nearly two years now), is a Canon 5D mark IV - and that model is from freakin' 2016!!

Seven years old!! Which in "digital camera years" (which I've kind of regarded like "dog years", only worse) is freakin' ancient! I'm not sure if this bugs me, or why it should if it does (I don't think it does). They still take photos just as well as they always did. I can still print from them as large as I care to, for the uses I make of each of them.

Yet, still, it somehow seems to be "a shock". I was also surprised, a bit, when I thought on this and counted the digital cameras I actually use - and came up with eight of them (including my iPhone). Eight, somehow, seems a lot - but I do indeed use them (I used "took photos with intent, in 2023" as a proxy for "still use them").

(I have plenty of other digital cameras, too. All older, but none really used anymore.)

If there is any reason for this (aside, maybe, from being a cheapskate) it’s that I'm something of an "optical finder bigot". I've never taken to EVFs - and that seems to be where all the action on new cameras is, these days. Maybe, perhaps, sometime, I should make the effort to look through a "really modern" EVF, since people keep saying "they're so much better than they used to be". But then: 'they' have always said that, and I've never found it to be true, so I probably won't bother. 🤷‍♂️

For what little it's worth, I put a album up on Flickr with a sample from each of the digital cameras I use (shots not previously put on Flickr, for the record) at:

www.flickr.com

Even my digital cameras are old!

Sample shots from all the digital cameras I currently use ("currently" defined as "still used in 2023"). All of them are OLD...
www.flickr.com www.flickr.com

...Mike

P.S. It could just be a case of “old guy, old cameras”. That does seem plausible 🤔😂
 
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Hi Mike -

At least the 5D-Mk IV is still current/in production. It doesn't strike me as in any way obsolete.

My only digital camera is a 5D-Mk II, and I still need to learn to use it! It should still be capable of producing good images.

My film cameras are all from the 1960s to 1980s, all pre-autofocus.

- Murray
 
Some cameras are timeless. The last roll of color film I shot was with a Rolleiflex 2.8A from 1950. And I am still using an 18 year old Leica M8. I don’t like EVF either but mirrorless cameras are good for adapting old lenses giving them new life.
 
My DSLR is from 2003 (EOS 10D) and it works well. That's my newest camera. My second newest is the canon EOS5 which I bought brand new in 1997. All other cameras I have are older (my F5 might be newer than my EOS-5, I don't know).
 
p.giannakis said:
My DSLR is from 2003 (EOS 10D) and it works well. That's my newest camera. My second newest is the canon EOS5 which I bought brand new in 1997. All other cameras I have are older (my F5 might be newer than my EOS-5, I don't know).
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The oldest DSLR I have is the 300D (it still works!) which is a more plasticky (and slightly crippled) version of the 10D, which was sold at half the price (which is how I could stretch myself to afford it).

It was the 1st non-P&S digital camera I owned (and only my 2nd digital camera). I learned a lot from it (and from its P&S precursor, TBF).

…Mike
 
I have to confess I'm pretty underwhelmed by the Sony A7 I bought. I tend to pick my old D4 up most of the time and as long as it keeps going it will probably remain my camera of preference ... in spite of its bulk and weight. 🙂
 
Keith said:
I have to confess I'm pretty underwhelmed by the Sony A7 I bought. I tend to pick my old D4 up most of the time and as long as it keeps going it will probably remain my camera of preference ... in spite of its bulk and weight. 🙂
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Another camera from 2012!

That year (maybe?) might be near the inflection-point when the big advances in digital slowed down, with improvements being more in increments than leaps afterwards.

I’m not sure if that’s really the case, but it might be that’s when (for most people, for most purposes) digital cameras became “good enough”. I’m not sure I’d argue that thesis for real, but I think I could defend it if asked to 🤔

…Mike
 
mfunnell said:
Another camera from 2012!

That year (maybe?) might be near the inflection-point when the big advances in digital slowed down, with improvements being more in increments than leaps afterwards.

I’m not sure if that’s really the case, but it might be that’s when (for most people, for most purposes) digital cameras became “good enough”. I’m not sure I’d argue that thesis for real, but I think I could defend it if asked to 🤔

…Mike
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I think you are right ... that old D4 is still state of the art in the DSLR world in my mind. 🙂
 
My newest camera is a Canon EOS 30D from 2006. 🙂
I think the oldest camera I use is a Zorki (1) from some time in the early 1950's.
(Pan, I do think 2003 is a bit too early for a EOS 10D, I do think EOS D60 was the current one then. I bought a second hand EOS D30 that year.)
 
AndersG said:
My newest camera is a Canon EOS 30D from 2006. 🙂
I think the oldest camera I use is a Zorki (1) from some time in the early 1950's.
(Pan, I do think 2003 is a bit too early for a EOS 10D, I do think EOS D60 was the current one then. I bought a second hand EOS D30 that year.)
Click to expand...
According to dpReview, the 10D was announced in March 2003. Certainly I bought my 300D (a cut-rate 10D, mostly) in late 2004 - even here in Oz (which was slow to receive new stuff, back then).

I had (and still have) a 30D, which I bought as soon as I could. The 30D is probably the camera I’ve taken more photos with than any other. Some A3 and A3+ prints from my 30D still ‘grace’ ( 🤔 ) my walls.

(It’s easy to forget how quickly things changed in the early days of digital, and how closely model releases - with major improvements - were spaced. That frenetic pace has slowed remarkably. Remembering that, now things have slowed, is one of the things that motivated me to post.)

…Mike
 
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AndersG said:
My newest camera is a Canon EOS 30D from 2006. 🙂
I think the oldest camera I use is a Zorki (1) from some time in the early 1950's.
(Pan, I do think 2003 is a bit too early for a EOS 10D, I do think EOS D60 was the current one then. I bought a second hand EOS D30 that year.)
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You might be right, I bought it second hand in 2010. I thought it came out in 2003 but I might be wrong.
 
mfunnell said:
According to dpReview, the 10D was announced in March 2003. Certainly I bought my 300D (a cut-rate 10D, mostly) in late 2004 - even here in Oz (which was slow to receive new stuff, back then).

I had (and still have) a 30D, which I bought as soon as I could. The 30D is probably the camera I’ve taken more photos with than any other. Some A3 and A3+ prints from my 30D still ‘grace’ ( 🤔 ) my walls.
Click to expand...
The 30D was my first DSLR, and I still use it for sports photography on the football field with the 70-200 f4 IS L. I've even considered getting a longer telezoom for football so I can reach right across the field.

The Leica M9 from 2009 is my favourite camera, and I used it last night for some reportage work. I don't baby it, but still take care of it. The small rangefinder window's coating is almost completely gone, which makes it a little harder to focus, but it still works.

I regularly use the Panasonic GX85 (2016) for casual and some work photography, and I use the Panasonic G9 (2017) for work all the time.

My lastest camera is the Panasonic S5, but even that has been superseded by the S5 II and S5 II X this year.
 
Well, my bag today when I went to work at 11 last night has my Rolleicord III and my Nikon S2 in so those are mid 50's. The Nikon is pretty new to me, but I've had that Rollei for a while 🙂 The F4 I've been shooting a lot lately is downright brand new, comparatively 🙂

My two digitals aren't especially new - Leica M 240 & Nikon D810. I am considering adding a Pentax to the mix for APS-C since I gave my D7100 to a younger photographer who couldn't afford a proper camera... Of course, the K5 I'm eyeing isn't especially new either, but it won't break the bank! 😉
 
Sonnar Brian said:
You young whippersnappers....

Oldest commercial DSLR: Kodak DCS200ir. Oldest Nikon DSLR: E3.
Oldest 35mm camera bought new, Minolta Hi-Matic 9.

Oldest digital used on a regular basis: Leica M8.
Newest DSLR: Nikon Df.
Newest Camera: Nikon Z5.

Years? whose counting....
Click to expand...
The 1st digital camera I ever saw (rather than just reading about) was a Sony Mavica (floppy disc; VGA resolution) in Hong Kong, just after the handover. Some of my colleagues bought ‘em.

I was far from convinced, especially at the price 😱

m.dpreview.com

Sony's Mavica FD71 liked floppy disks, hated magnets

In this weeks' Throwback Thursday article, Simon raises a toast to the Sony Digital Mavica FD71 - a little camera which used really big memory cards.
m.dpreview.com m.dpreview.com

I didn’t even look at digital for a long time afterwards.

…Mike
 
The only dedicated digital camera I still own is a Nikon D7000 which if I recall correctly was introduced in 2010. Until I moved house about 1 1/2 years ago, I also had a D40 (2006 model). I wish I had decided to sell the D7000 and keep the D40.

Usually "new and improved" simply means "we found a way to make it cheaper and charge you more for it."
 
I found some slides of imagery from the first digital imager that I worked with, a Digital Infrared Sensor. They are 40 years old. No image display device yet, so they are line plots and carpet plots of the image. We added a Gould Deanza IP8500 a year later, and could view as images. These days, you do not even need liquid nitrogen to take a digital image.
 
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