Death of a Digital Camera
 

My dear old Canon PowerShot A10 died today. It refuses to power up. The camera is ancient and low-end (1.3 mega pixels), but it served us well for many years of shots emailed to family around the country. In its later years it was the primary garage camera, willing to bear the heat, cold, and grime of a workspace. It will be missed.

Give it a proper send-off.

Thinking of putting it in an ice cream container and burying next to my son's deceased cat. I didn't like the cat, and the cat didn't like the camera. We may have equilibrium now.

Last time I looked I was amazed by how cheap used digital point and shoot cameras were. Lots of people with good camera phones just feel they don’t need them anymore. You should be able to find something quite good for under $50.

I do have a Panasonic Lumix DHC-FH25 (my wife's old camera - now that she has a new one). It is much better in nearly every way, but I got used to using the old one I suppose. I will adapt.

I got an 8mp Olympus for $5 a few years back.

I've had good luck with the Canon Powershots.
I had one that ran off of 4 AA batteries, and it was fine until I dropped it. oops.

The next one ran off of two AA's, and it tolerated being in a sweaty bike jersey pocket quite well. Easy to just grab out of the pocket and use it with one hand. Simple user interface and good results.

I did upgrade a couple of years ago, though. The new camera is a Canon Powershot Elph 350HS. I think it was about $150. It has a 12x zoom, a few more features, better low light sensitivity, ability to take HD video, etc. It's much less bulky too, which is appreciated for bike use. Overall, I'm quite happy with it.

Steve in Peoria

That's like my old Sony digital camera. The battery went TU long ago, but it still works fine plugged into AC power. It has a nice Ziess-designed lens and takes better close-up pictures than my modern Samsung digital camera, so I still use it for some things.

My wife had one of those Canon Power Shot cameras and liked it a lot. Had to retire it when a bit of grit got stuck in the lens mechanism and the lens would no longer extend or retract. Replaced it with another Power Shot, which, annoyingly, used an entirely different battery than the first one. :notamused:

:)

If you're in the market for an inexpensive digital camera, check out the Sony - DSC-W800. 20.1mp and very small. About the size of a deck of playing cards. Easily fits in a jersey pocket.

My best wishes.

Thoughts and prayers.

Hmm, maybe we need a 'Show Us Your Dead Bicycle, Camera and Turntable' thread.:rolleyes:

I had my trusty powershot s100 bounce out of my handlebar bag this season. I replaced it with an Olympus TG-5 which I like a lot.

A moment of silence for your deceased digital camera......

About 6 years ago I got a digital camera on a discount deal, I got a small slim one thinking this will be great on bike rides! reality I never remembered to take it! lol what I do have on every ride is my iPhone and even a now ancient SE takes better pictures than I deserve. Just took one on today's ride...

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...6b7d2b3f72.jpg

My camera, an oldie but still almost working goldie, died last winter when I was in Jamaica. With my riding gear on, I grabbed my back pack, forgetting that the camera was sitting on it. The camera went for a short flight and then an immediate death. Pooey-stinko. But I did have my cell phone, another oldie, and it did take reasonably good pics. Now, just this week actually, I have a new cell phone and it takes really good pictures. Who needs a camera these days when your phone can produce pictures like this...
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...59181d4910.jpg

camerastrong

Great picture! I was riding under the same skies this afternoon a bit west of you in Port Angeles. Gorgeous afternoon....and it was my first ride in 30 days. 'Story would bore you blind.

Dean

I have canon s110 that's still a great camera and don't want to let it go but the phone does great pics too. I don't see the point in carrying both on a bike weighing me down so the phone wins.

I've had two of them die on me, one in the middle of an Olympic Peninsula vacation. Replacement bought in Seattle did not last long but by that time the first had been repaired under extended warranty and worked right up until it didn't. I use the phone now but would consider another really compact camera for those quick-draw moments while driving.

Yep ya gotta take advantage of those sunny October days who knows how many we'll have

the "quick draw" capability of compact cameras is what I like about my little Canon Powershot. It just takes one hand to pull it out of the jersey pocket and take a picture. Very convenient!

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...5cba4f_c_d.jpg

Steve in Peoria

My Sony NEX6 has been dying a long slow death, the power button does not work easily and the selector button for Shutter/Aperture/Program... mode is way off.
time for a new one, have a Sony A6100 on pre order

Interesting thread. I'm one of those luddite film photo types who was dragged kicking and screaming into the digital world. I still, shoot film (B/W) develop my own, but scan rather than traditional wet printing.

Digital photography has come a long way and pretty d@mn fast. It's hard to deny. A bit like cycling. Current equipment is outstanding and can't be denied, yet there's still room for vintage devotees.

Recently, I parked my '60 Volvo and a car stopped as I was getting out. The driver asked if he can take some photos of my car. I told him it was no problem. He pulled out a film camera and proceeded to shoot 3 rolls of film. I was shocked. Moral of the story....you're not alone.

Just sold all of my film cameras
 

I stopped using all of my film cameras in 1999 when I bought a 2.1mp Canon PowerShot S10 digital camera. They'd just come out and were in short supply in the US. I got a "good deal" on mine from a camera shop in Canada for around $900 with accessories and shipping.

It was simple to use and took great pictures. When it passed - after a number of falls - I bought a Canon PowerShot SD1000 with 7.1mp. It was great too and about 70% smaller with a larger viewing screen. I liked the square edges which were easy to hold on to.

When it suffered a fatal fall a few years later, I got a Canon PowerShot SD1400 IS with 14.1mp for a lot less money. It had rounded edges and easily jumped out of my hand. It was replaced with another Canon PowerShot with 16.1mp. It's not a sharp as my earlier cameras.

One thing about those cameras is they all suffer from "feature sprawl"! Every new model came out with more, difficult to use new features that maybe 5% of the owners will ever take advantage of! Sort of like software!

Recently I sold off all of my film cameras and accessories which included a Leica CL with 3 lenses, 5 Olympus OM bodies, 14 lenses plus a ton of filters and accessories. They'd been sitting packed away for 20 years. I got more than I was expecting for them so I'm happy. :D

I picked a new Canon G9X Mk II digital camera with 20.1mb. It's super sharp, easy to use and has just enough features for any of my needs.

I also had enough left over to pick up a new Ed Litton frame! :love:

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...270686da62.jpg

verktyg :50: In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king!

That's akin to saying who needs a high end bicycle when an X-Mart special will get you where you want to go. While camera phones do have certain advantages, image fidelity is not one of them. Until you spend time with a good, modern camera and develop an appreciation for image parameters, you can't appreciate how far phone cameras still have to go. Camera phones are satisfactory for the majority of consumers but then again, so are department store bicycles.

I've been using a Lumix ZS for a couple of years, maybe more than 10. The first one started having a dark spot on the images so I bought the latest version about, wow!, 10 years ago! Then I found out how to take it apart and clean the CMOS chip. Now I have two! MP's are different and the older one has GPS built in, which I like. It takes amazing pictures that rival a lot of much more expensive cameras. The disadvantage is that it is a little more bulky than many of those listed above. Mostly because of the zoom range. Both have Zeiss lenses.
My first digital cameras were Olympus'

I still have my 35mm kit of Olympus stuff. OM1 and OM2 in black.
https://live.staticflickr.com/8759/1...81abef92_k.jpg
P8231682 on Flickr

I loved the other end of digital cameras. Back more than a dozen years ago I switched over from one-use film cameras on the bike (because when you drop them, who cares?) to the magnificent $9 refurbished Aiptek pencam, about as primitive a digital camera as you could ever hope to find. Viewfinder, a focus ring you sort of estimated your distance and set and forgot (which could make for some interestingly blurred "artsy" photos when you forgot to reset it) but was ideal for taking photos while riding. It had a lanyard I would sling 'round my neck, and in the winter it could ride between my jerseys, while in summer I would bind up the lanyard and let that hang out of the back of a jersey pocket to make it easier to grab when the mood struck. Of course the photo quality was, technically, lousy - but it had its own quirky charm, sort of like using an old Com-bloc camera, or maybe manipulated Polaroids. Here's a bunch of images I took with mine, though these are my favorites -

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...99ab68c3fd.jpg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...b2705eb857.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...56f3da452e.jpg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...c1ba1d43d2.jpg

I've since gotten into the habit of just using the camera on my phone, but a separate, dedicated phone may well be in my future. They're certainly available cheap enough.

Point (and shoot :) ) well taken. In this thread I was interested mainly in the comments regarding modern compact cameras. My wife is a professional artist (mainly oils, some watercolors and photography) who really should have something to occupy the wide chasm between her bulky-but-versatile Nikon SLR and my iPhone. It sounds like the Canon G9X is worth looking into for this purpose.

I still carry and use film camera's. My digital cameras are Nikon DSLR's which I can and do pack on the bike , but it is nice to have a compact, svelte and quiet film camera. Image courtesy of an old Leica IIIg with Russian made 55mm f/2.8 lens and expired Kodak T-Max 400 ISO film stock .

R
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...6f15b5c115.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...def9738ef4.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...9538a0059a.jpg