When Jenna told me her assignment was on camera history, I smiled as I had recently touched on that same subject in class discussion post that I briefly mention here. I ended up with this thought on digital cameras versus film:
" The digital camera was made available to the public in 1988 (Ternholm, 2007). Before the start of the 21st Century, I had known several people who had tried to sway me into the perks of having/owning digital. I don't remember all the reasons I had for sticking with my 35mm and rolls of film, but one of the reasons was because I had convinced myself that the picture quality was better from the film than the digital results.
"It wasn't until our family had an opportunity of hosting a foreign exchange student that I was "swayed" to the perks that a digital camera could provide. My "son" would take several pictures and post them to a blog that he had created. I had had the option of retrieving copies of pictures I had taken with my 35mm. If I put in the right code, I could view them online and even save them to the computer if I chose. It was nice to have that option, but the quality really wasn't there.
"I received my first digital camera in 2006. I found many perks to a digital camera that weren't available on my 35mm. Not only was the quality better when I viewed it on the computer, but I could view all pictures before they would be "developed". I had the option of deleting the ones I didn't want and would not have to pay for a lot of dumb pictures I wasn't able to view until after they were developed. Digital feels like less of a gamble and less of an expense than does film. Taking thousands of pictures without having to change film was the deal breaker. I love the digital camera."
I was not at home when Jenna returned from school yesterday as I had a dentist appointment in Riddle. Yesterday morning I had taken time look up a few references related to the camera and had also written down my own memories - none of which she used. Instead, she went with my initial suggestion to interview Bill and was on the phone with him when I returned back from the dentist.
She wanted to start her paper off with a humorous introduction and went with " I want to take up photography as it is the only job you get to shoot people and cut their heads off without getting arrested." My suggestion had been to ask the question "Why is it that people didn't smile in early photographs?" but I am happy that she made her own choice - as the quote does capture her personality.
I had read an article on the TIME website here that provided two possibilities of reasons why people didn't smile in the early 19th century photographs. The first had nothing to do with the camera, but the second possibility was the one I had been looking for that the long process of loading the film and taking the picture was just too long for sitting still - let alone wearing a smile for that length of time.
She barely touched on the subject of people not smiling and heavy equipment used only by professional photographers. Mostly she ended up quoting everything that Bill had told her. Meanwhile, I had suggested my own memories of cameras and film. As she did not include any of my memories in her report, I will post them here.
First I went through some names of inventors and original invention found here before starting in with the memories, the first was from my mom. She was telling me about a red box camera that her father had used. She said she recalls that he would go into the closet every time he had to change the film. Not a whole lot of pictures were taken, but we do have some.
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| Grandma Mary, Uncle John and my mom about 1943 |
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| in San Francisco |
I don't recall my first camera or how many cameras total. I know that both Patrick and I had our own cameras when Kayla was a baby as she was often the subject of our pictures.
We had a Polaroid at one time. Those even harder to keep in the photo album than those tacky corners. In 1978 my parents bought me a colorburst camera.
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| came with its own rainbow strap. How cool is that? |
It was cool to get instant pictures, but again, the bulkiness of the photos themselves. I remember scanning in several photos and do know that Polaroids were among them but cannot seem to retrieve any at this time except for this one that I found on my brother's facebook page
The camera was available for only two years and discontinued as Polaroid had brought a lawsuit against Kodak which evidently took years to resolve with a heavy fine which Kodak had to pay to Polaroid found here, here and here.
I remember Kodak had sent out discount coupons or certificates or something to compensate their customers who had purchased the colorburst. I remember purchasing a disc camera. It is the one that I used while on my mission here.
When I worked at Patrick Dry Goods, I had purchased and several lenses. I think it was the only camera I had owned that wasn't solely automatic. I had fun experimenting with the lenses, but it was short-lived.
Throughout the years I've had many cameras including these two:
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| probably my first with built-in flash |
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| I had purchased this for durability. I figured it was a tough camera. As a leader, I took it to YW camp |
Even though digital was available before I was married, I did not have my first digital camera until after Jenna was born. The digital camera doesn't seem to built to last, however. I am currently on my 5th camera in the last twelve years. My first camera was a used sony, and actually the best camera of the ones I had. It died after 6,000 plus pictures. Every other one has lasted less than four years. I'm hoping my current camera may outlast them all. It has a lot more features and is the biggest digital camera that I've owned.
It is said that there have been over 40 camera brands and over 2,000 models. I have tried at least seven brands throughout my life. I lost track of how many cameras I have gone through. The camera truly is a great invention.
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