Digicam Journal (and
mild
photography rant)
Here's some notes i wanted to write down for some time about most of the cameras i've bought at the flea market,
primarily ranting about how each one produces .jpegs and .avi files.
hope this gives a heads up to the people who are looking to find a nice digicam in the wild :)
LUMIX LS-80 (2008)
This one is pretty dear to my heart since it was the first one i grabbed in 2022
and is probably the one i've used for the longest time.
It has a pretty solid jpeg compression, 1600x1200 res combined with ISO<400 gives the crispiest results,
and it has semi-manual white balance, so that's fun to fuck around with. Oh also, the video recording is somewhat
respectable too, it has like 4 options there, 240p@10fps, 240p@30fps, 480p@10fps, or 480p@30fps,
nice for a 2007 videoblog sheen.
It's pretty good for shooting a 2000's vibe in 640x480 because of how it melts the grain with the jpeg compression,
but at a resolution higher than that we start to see problems. Dude, the grain in this camera at anything beyond ISO400
is soooo ugly, its noise reduction algorithm makes the grain look muddy and blurry and it makes me wanna die.
For the record, this fault is not exclusive to this particular model, every compact lumix from 2005-2013 has this shit.
primarily ranting about how each one produces .jpegs and .avi files.
hope this gives a heads up to the people who are looking to find a nice digicam in the wild :)
LUMIX LS-80 (2008)
This one is pretty dear to my heart since it was the first one i grabbed in 2022
and is probably the one i've used for the longest time.
It has a pretty solid jpeg compression, 1600x1200 res combined with ISO<400 gives the crispiest results,
and it has semi-manual white balance, so that's fun to fuck around with. Oh also, the video recording is somewhat
respectable too, it has like 4 options there, 240p@10fps, 240p@30fps, 480p@10fps, or 480p@30fps,
nice for a 2007 videoblog sheen.
It's pretty good for shooting a 2000's vibe in 640x480 because of how it melts the grain with the jpeg compression,
but at a resolution higher than that we start to see problems. Dude, the grain in this camera at anything beyond ISO400
is soooo ugly, its noise reduction algorithm makes the grain look muddy and blurry and it makes me wanna die.
For the record, this fault is not exclusive to this particular model, every compact lumix from 2005-2013 has this shit.
[Absolutely dire]
[Do you really want this kind of grain in your household?]
Finepix A205s (2003)
This one broke my heart man, i'm still sad about it.
I got this one wanting to relplace my Lumix with some Fujifilm Finepix from the early 2000s, cuz those ones are some nice looking bricks.
so i got it, and the sensor was burnt, splendid. Everything this thing produces was showered in pink uranium beforehand, so there are very little
cases where i have used it, the resulting photos if you know what youre doing (and god is on your side) can look pretty cool tho.
But yea, i can't really say much aside from that, other that the battery life probably last shorter than it took you to finish reading this pharagraph,
it being an early digicam and all.
This one broke my heart man, i'm still sad about it.
I got this one wanting to relplace my Lumix with some Fujifilm Finepix from the early 2000s, cuz those ones are some nice looking bricks.
so i got it, and the sensor was burnt, splendid. Everything this thing produces was showered in pink uranium beforehand, so there are very little
cases where i have used it, the resulting photos if you know what youre doing (and god is on your side) can look pretty cool tho.
But yea, i can't really say much aside from that, other that the battery life probably last shorter than it took you to finish reading this pharagraph,
it being an early digicam and all.
[Infinite Sadness]
[Infinite Sadness]
Kodak DX6340 (also 2003)
And thus begins the absolute tragedy that is the entire line of Kodak compact cameras.
There's no point in sharing my experiences with theese cameras unless i feel like spreading my misery onto an unsuspecting victim,
so i will try to keep it short.
Every Kodak compact camera (that i'm aware of) has an amazing, beatiful sensor being able to reproduce colors in a way that feels
vibrant, unique, but not overly saturated. On top of this every lens (that i'm aware of) has some pretty rad chromatic aberration without
making things too distorted.
Now, grab everything nice i said up to this point and throw it out of the neaest airlock, because the jpeg algorithm that Kodak used
in theese things is the stuff of legends. It has. the most agressive and vicious compression i have ever seen, compared only the the
GameBoy Advance Video carts, and *that* is funny compression, this is just tragic.
I'm not fucking kidding dog, this shit is rancid, it's 07' facebook photo tier, no, worse, it's modern instagram photo compression tier. Because at least
you expect 07' facebook to be bad, this machine is made exclusively to take photos, how did this happen? I'm in awe with this shit, because the rest
of the camera is solid, there is a good product here that gets absolutely mangled at the last possible second.
And thus begins the absolute tragedy that is the entire line of Kodak compact cameras.
There's no point in sharing my experiences with theese cameras unless i feel like spreading my misery onto an unsuspecting victim,
so i will try to keep it short.
Every Kodak compact camera (that i'm aware of) has an amazing, beatiful sensor being able to reproduce colors in a way that feels
vibrant, unique, but not overly saturated. On top of this every lens (that i'm aware of) has some pretty rad chromatic aberration without
making things too distorted.
Now, grab everything nice i said up to this point and throw it out of the neaest airlock, because the jpeg algorithm that Kodak used
in theese things is the stuff of legends. It has. the most agressive and vicious compression i have ever seen, compared only the the
GameBoy Advance Video carts, and *that* is funny compression, this is just tragic.
I'm not fucking kidding dog, this shit is rancid, it's 07' facebook photo tier, no, worse, it's modern instagram photo compression tier. Because at least
you expect 07' facebook to be bad, this machine is made exclusively to take photos, how did this happen? I'm in awe with this shit, because the rest
of the camera is solid, there is a good product here that gets absolutely mangled at the last possible second.
[no words]
[no words]
Kodak M340 (2009)
Same shit as the DX6340 but even more insulting because 5 years had past since the other one and not once did they think
"oh shit, theese jpegs smell terrible, actually". This is also probably the worst example of a camera applying a sharpening
filter, i swear, if you zoom on one of theese pictures just a little bit it looks like a 2015 phone photo, really gross overall.
No, wait, there *is* something mildly interesting about it. So... you can actually enter the debug menu on this one...
wich is super weird, i guess it's useful for troubleshooting the hardware but you don't really see that on the other brands.0
I discovered the trick from a camerahacker.com post, they mentioned it for the Easyshare C line of cameras, so i tried on mine
and sure enough, it worked.
Anyways don't get too exited, you can make it shoot raw, but it exports it in grayscale because the chip that does the color processing
is tied to the god awful jpeg compression somehow. So there died any hope left i had for Kodak stuff, avoid it like the plague. Please.
Same shit as the DX6340 but even more insulting because 5 years had past since the other one and not once did they think
"oh shit, theese jpegs smell terrible, actually". This is also probably the worst example of a camera applying a sharpening
filter, i swear, if you zoom on one of theese pictures just a little bit it looks like a 2015 phone photo, really gross overall.
No, wait, there *is* something mildly interesting about it. So... you can actually enter the debug menu on this one...
wich is super weird, i guess it's useful for troubleshooting the hardware but you don't really see that on the other brands.0
I discovered the trick from a camerahacker.com post, they mentioned it for the Easyshare C line of cameras, so i tried on mine
and sure enough, it worked.
Anyways don't get too exited, you can make it shoot raw, but it exports it in grayscale because the chip that does the color processing
is tied to the god awful jpeg compression somehow. So there died any hope left i had for Kodak stuff, avoid it like the plague. Please.
[that sharpening filter that makes trees]
[look like blobs, you know the type]
[look like blobs, you know the type]
[crushes things that are too bright 2]
[absolutely sick and twisted compression]
Sony Cybershot S750 (2008)
Let's clean our pallette for a while and talk about one i actually like a lot, well mostly anyway.
I have a love-mild hate relationship with this camera because it's so, so close to being perfect in my eyes and it get most of the way there.
It has a nice lens that gives cool chromatic aberration, and it makes everithing look a little soft because it let's you choose if you want a
sharpening filter aplied to the jpeg, really nice.
Also, the grain this thing produces is orgasmic, it embraces the digital look of the photos and lets the noise have rgb values, it makes the
picture look overal much more vivid and sofisticated instead of supressing it at all costs and giving a cheap 2010 tablet camera vibe.
But, and there is always a but, someone fucked up the high ISO modes and everithing past ISO800 has a quite puzzling sharpeing filter,
i say puzzling because it does it in such a way that it almost looks like an unintended bug, it tries it's hardest to generate clean edges
but it just doesn't work because the picture is too blurry at that point and it makes me sad.
They should have just left the high ISO pictures blury and add a disclaimer or something because it's frankly unusable.
Overall it's still pretty great, just stay at the ISO400 limit, trust me.
OH FUCK OH JISUS i forgot to mention the cutest aspect of this camera; it can only record at 240p and the video/audio
compression is absurd, really bad for documenting stuff, but absolutely priceless for shitposts. I'd show you an example but
the Neocities cat won't let me.
Let's clean our pallette for a while and talk about one i actually like a lot, well mostly anyway.
I have a love-mild hate relationship with this camera because it's so, so close to being perfect in my eyes and it get most of the way there.
It has a nice lens that gives cool chromatic aberration, and it makes everithing look a little soft because it let's you choose if you want a
sharpening filter aplied to the jpeg, really nice.
Also, the grain this thing produces is orgasmic, it embraces the digital look of the photos and lets the noise have rgb values, it makes the
picture look overal much more vivid and sofisticated instead of supressing it at all costs and giving a cheap 2010 tablet camera vibe.
But, and there is always a but, someone fucked up the high ISO modes and everithing past ISO800 has a quite puzzling sharpeing filter,
i say puzzling because it does it in such a way that it almost looks like an unintended bug, it tries it's hardest to generate clean edges
but it just doesn't work because the picture is too blurry at that point and it makes me sad.
They should have just left the high ISO pictures blury and add a disclaimer or something because it's frankly unusable.
Overall it's still pretty great, just stay at the ISO400 limit, trust me.
OH FUCK OH JISUS i forgot to mention the cutest aspect of this camera; it can only record at 240p and the video/audio
compression is absurd, really bad for documenting stuff, but absolutely priceless for shitposts. I'd show you an example but
the Neocities cat won't let me.
[oh hey it's me!]
[really great grain here]
[high ISO artifacts]
Nikon Coolpix S51 (2007)
This one's pretty cool, and look very, very fancy, too fancy in my honest opinion, in the short time i used this beauty
i was constantly woried about breaking that big screen. It just has that vibe.
But yea my only problem with this one is that the compression is a tad too agressive for my taste, still overall grab it if
you can, i ended up getting a refund because i live in Uruguay and couldn't find a replacement for it's already dying battery :(
This one's pretty cool, and look very, very fancy, too fancy in my honest opinion, in the short time i used this beauty
i was constantly woried about breaking that big screen. It just has that vibe.
But yea my only problem with this one is that the compression is a tad too agressive for my taste, still overall grab it if
you can, i ended up getting a refund because i live in Uruguay and couldn't find a replacement for it's already dying battery :(
[look a worm!]
[look a worm also!]
Fujifilm Finepix JX500 (2012)
I had a lot of hype for this one, in 4chan they always say the fujifilm and canon digicams are the best, and man was i dissapointed.
Sharpening filters, that's really all there's to it, also the compression on this one is really weird, it reduces the chroma bandwith a lot,
so if you edit the levels just a little bit you'll notice really big color blocks, it's a shame, really.
I had a lot of hype for this one, in 4chan they always say the fujifilm and canon digicams are the best, and man was i dissapointed.
Sharpening filters, that's really all there's to it, also the compression on this one is really weird, it reduces the chroma bandwith a lot,
so if you edit the levels just a little bit you'll notice really big color blocks, it's a shame, really.
[this isn't it chief]
Fujifilm Finepix L55 (2011)
Same shit different day, really, the view angle is super short and the colors on this one are really desaturated, makes me feel like a
dog who's about to die, speaking of which. The noteworthy part of this section is that the camera came with an SD card full with
photos the previous owner didn't care to delete and there i made 2 groundbreaking discoveries:
Same shit different day, really, the view angle is super short and the colors on this one are really desaturated, makes me feel like a
dog who's about to die, speaking of which. The noteworthy part of this section is that the camera came with an SD card full with
photos the previous owner didn't care to delete and there i made 2 groundbreaking discoveries:
I found the most depressed looking dog i have ever witnessed in my life.
And apparently this camera's dad took family photos with this glorious shirt, i am in awe.
In spite of these marvellous pieces of modern photography i'd recommend you to stay away from low end fuji stuff from after
2009, they tend to have cheap tablet camera noise reduction vibes all around.
In spite of these marvellous pieces of modern photography i'd recommend you to stay away from low end fuji stuff from after
2009, they tend to have cheap tablet camera noise reduction vibes all around.
Sony Cybershot DSC-W830 (2014)
Sony why? you where doing so good before, what happened?
So, sometime after 2010 Sony got really bland with their consumer grade digicams, this one being the last model they produced and that
is still on sale today, surpisingly enough. But man, what a sad bang to end on. This camera is perfectly serviceable, no spice or personality whatsoever.
Looks good by day and pretty awful by night, the grain being pretty bland and monochrome. Oh also, if you're planning on using it's optical zoom
don't even think about it. Someone fucked up *baaaad* and if you use it the camera leaves some sort of square pattern, somehow distorting the grain
and compression artifacts. Like, you see it too, right? How did this shit pass beta testing?
Sony why? you where doing so good before, what happened?
So, sometime after 2010 Sony got really bland with their consumer grade digicams, this one being the last model they produced and that
is still on sale today, surpisingly enough. But man, what a sad bang to end on. This camera is perfectly serviceable, no spice or personality whatsoever.
Looks good by day and pretty awful by night, the grain being pretty bland and monochrome. Oh also, if you're planning on using it's optical zoom
don't even think about it. Someone fucked up *baaaad* and if you use it the camera leaves some sort of square pattern, somehow distorting the grain
and compression artifacts. Like, you see it too, right? How did this shit pass beta testing?
[like, how did that even happen]
Extra notes, a friend of mine has a Cybershot from this era too, it's like a G model or something, doesn't matter, it also has this pattern if you zoom in, it's unreal.
Fujifilm FinePix Z70 (2010)
Finally, some hope on humanity, i get what the fujifags say, this one is pretty dope, makes you wonder if they shit the bed after 2010 with digicams
like the L55 or JX500 or if they're just classist, and didn't let the low end commoners have the good jpeg algoritms.
Anyways onto the camera itself. Good chromatic aberration, pretty good compression, the colors don't make me want to die, the grain is actually great
and pretty sharp no matter the ISO value, i only wish it was a little more multicolored, it tends to lean into desaturated grays on dark areas.
I've only been using this one for a few weeks, for now it hasn't failed me, i have my suspicions that it's not really good at night, but i'll have to see.
Finally, some hope on humanity, i get what the fujifags say, this one is pretty dope, makes you wonder if they shit the bed after 2010 with digicams
like the L55 or JX500 or if they're just classist, and didn't let the low end commoners have the good jpeg algoritms.
Anyways onto the camera itself. Good chromatic aberration, pretty good compression, the colors don't make me want to die, the grain is actually great
and pretty sharp no matter the ISO value, i only wish it was a little more multicolored, it tends to lean into desaturated grays on dark areas.
I've only been using this one for a few weeks, for now it hasn't failed me, i have my suspicions that it's not really good at night, but i'll have to see.
[don't worry guys, i can open my eyes]
[that's some good grain]
After a few months of use i *can* confirm that my suspicions where on point, this fucker doesn't do great at night, but hey, it tries its best and i make it work.