Ya See; There's This Camera.......

....And here's where  you say: Of course there is, there always is! At a large conveniently located pawn shop that I frequent, I ran across this a few months ago. In the ensuing time, it has gotten push farther and farther back into the dark corners of the digital camera showcases as more of the current flashier models have shown up. It's a Nikon CoolPix P7000; 10.1Mp, 7.1x zoom (28-200mm, 35mm eq.) with VR (natch.), 100-6400 ISO, 3" Ultra-High Res screen (about the same as my D300), optical viewfinder, and full manual controls. It's original "list" price was a cool $500. And even at the inevitably discounted from the marked $200, which would probably be somewhere between $150 and $175, I probably won't buy it. Then is there a point to all this other than averting summertime boredom? 

Now that you ask..... yes there is! Last month, while down at the 1st Saturday computer flea market with my computer club students, I ran across this at one of the "junk dealer's" tables. It at once grabbed my attention and took me back something like 40 years to when I was a budding teenager just becoming obsessed with photography. Back then at the height of the era when 35mm and Japanese cameras were king, these cameras were very common. They sold to well-heeled consumers who either didn't want to give up a month's of salary for a "real" 35mm SLR, or what a devoted photographer would buy as a second camera when they didn't want to take along "the big rig". Many were sold, but they generally didn't get a lot of use. They were typically of high level manufacture, and came equipped with excellent features sets and optics. After all, they were Minoltas (Rokkor), Konicas (Hexanon), Canons and Olympuses (Zuiko) and thus were equipped with lenses to match. Of the species, the Minolta Hi-Matic 7s II that I found (as depicted above) was considered within elite group of 3 and came equipped with a Rokkor 40mm, F1.7 lens! And as was also typical, it was also endowed with automation with manual override. Of course, I bought it and it now lives with one of my students. Between those two find, within the space of a couple of days, I was transported back to the mid-70s. 

Then, some 10 years later to the mid-80's when I was single, working and living in Lubbock, Texas, where-upon I found this in a dusty corner of a glass case, in a pawn shop. Although, not one of the "elite" given it's (quite good) F2.8 Tessar formula lens, this Olympus 35 RC was nevertheless considered one of the best of it's breed. Plus (thanks to it's smaller lens) it was considered "pocketable" whereas it's brethren endowed with more sophisticated glass were not! I paid my $12 for it and got the heck out of there! It went on to go live with one of my students as well when she went overseas for a trip. There seems to be a trend here!

Around the same time, one of these came to live with me. My brother had picked it up somewhere and it was not working properly.... so he sent it to me. Come to think of it, there seems to be a trend there as well! Anyway, back in those days, I had a camera repair guy. Yes indeed, there are those people. Folks didn't just throw away broken stuff back then, and there were those jobs.... kinda. This was a guy who did it on the side, but had a real "day-job" (or in this case, night-job) as a police dispatcher. Anyway, when Rollei moved production of this little jewel.....

to Singapore, they engaged in some cost-cutting by using some nylon gears (vs. the traditional brass which had to be hand-fitted). Guess which one my brother had picked up? Yup. So my "guy" replaced the buggered up nylon gear with a brass one. You can't tell by these images, but the wonder of these cameras is that they are completely mechanical, AND literally the size of a package of cigarettes with the lens collapsed! It now resides in my "collection in exile", living with my buddy Pat.

Then there's this. The "unrequited love" of this type of cameras for me. The Olympus XA. What's so special about this one? A decade down the road in the early-mid 80's, the "compact rangefinder" market was dying. People who bought small cameras didn't care about precision and quality any more. The folks who did were buying the new breed of inexpensive SLRs. So, most makers were bailing out of this market segment. Well, we all know that Olympus isn't like other makers so they built this. It was an immediate sensation, but a relatively expensive one, so they came out with the "de-featured" XA2/3/4. So the original XA is the one to have! I might pick one up someday, but of course, I'd probably give it away anyway! So is all this reminescing going anywhere?

Well..... kind of..... I think it's pretty apparent that I love this type of camera. Whether it be the "real thing", or a digital throwback like the P7000. And if the pawn shop gets desperate enough to clearance it at or near the $100 that I think it gave for it, I'd probably buy it and put my CoolPix 8400 out to pasture. But while I was contemplating the idea, it's obvious to me why that camera has been sitting in the case for so long and obviously neglected by the buying public.

Yup. As a photographer, I think it's stupid and encourages poor photos, but the fact is that poor photography has always been around! The reality is that the Smartphone has almost completely wiped out the bottom end of the camera market. Furthermore, any camera even physically small has to compete again them. 

Contemplate these results of a quick Google search! They range from the: "Oh, I could use that" to the "that's the craziest thing I've ever seen". The fact that they exist should tell you everything you need to know about the direction of compact cameras! It that market isn't dead, at the very least, it's severely shrinking! Well; at least I have a gift idea for my wife who does engage in iPhone photography and there's a darned good chance of that P7000's price dropping into my range soon!