A rangefinder camera is a valve amplifier

[harrumph]

"The notion that a higher-end camera is a high quality tool has given way to "add more features" so that the user throws away a perfectly fine camera and buys the new. Sometimes these things are disguised as useful additions, but the relevant questions are "why wasn't that feature important before?", "why are we getting it now?", and "did this really obsolete my current camera?"

This is the way the Japanese-driven consumer electronics business has always run since the early days of Hi-Fi equipment: start with a relatively simple but well-defined product, and when the steam runs out on that add bells and whistles and convince the public that they need them so much they should give up their old one."

from http://bythom.com/

If this is true, there are likely to be some cameras, current and past, which eschew unnecessary fripperies and, given available technology and manufacturing practice, provide nothing more - nor less - than is needed in an image-capturing tool. The question is: which ones?

[mrcharly-YHT]

http://www.hawkin.com/20670-05181/pinhole-camera-kit

[harrumph]

Twenty-three notes? I might have to get one of those for Joseph (age  

Not quite the contemporary image-making tool I had in mind, though...

[Charlotte]

The question is: which ones?

If we're talking digital, then it's stuff that's aimed primarily at pros, I suppose.  Anything medium format.  Leica, high-end Nikon and Canon gear.  The Fuji x100 and its ilk, maybe.  Big sensors and good glassware is always going to make it easier to take a great picture.

[Peter]

http://www.hawkin.com/20670-05181/pinhole-camera-kit

You are a very naughty boy.  (We get most of our Christmas presents from Hawkins!)

[Biggsy]

This is the way the Japanese-driven consumer electronics business has always run since the early days of Hi-Fi equipment: start with a relatively simple but well-defined product, and when the steam runs out on that add bells and whistles and convince the public that they need them so much they should give up their old one.

This wouldn't be fair to apply to digital cameras in general.  As well as bells and whistles being added, the fundamentals of the technology - including sensors and processing power - has genuinely improved, and will continue to genuinely improve.

Film cameras, on the other hand, continued to have bells and whistles added after the fundamentals had matured.

Get a Pentax P30 if you want a good, simple and convenient film camera for peanuts.

[IanDG]

£23 for a pinhole why not use an old cornflakes box 


Dippold Pinhole Camera by windy_, on Flickr

You could always get a Holga off ebay and do a mod for something a bit more up-market


Holga pinhole mod and shutter release attachment by windy_, on Flickr

[harrumph]

The Fuji x100...

Ah. I wondered whether somebody might say this. I have been agonising over the X100 for months. Agonising, being FREE, is good!

But now it's down to £898, and the attractive force it is exerting on my credit card is becoming well-nigh irresistible

The thing is... I would want it to be the Last Camera I ever buy. I would want it to compel me to throw away and forget about my spreadsheet of camera data and comparisons, accumulated since what seems like time immemorial.

Is it a Last Camera? Does such a thing even exist??

[harrumph]

...the fundamentals of [digital] technology - including sensors and processing power - has genuinely improved, and will continue to genuinely improve.

True, but there are "shelves" in technological progress. I think the quote suggests that the best cameras are those which appear at the beginning of a shelf period, because they are the product of engineering minds rather than marketing ones.

The arrival of the sensor used in the Nikon D7000/Pentax K-5 seems to be an example of such a "shelf moment" (not that DSLRs appeal to me).

[mrcharly-YHT]

£23 for a pinhole why not use an old cornflakes box 

It includes paper and all the developing tools plus instructions. Doesn't seem to bad to me.

Anyone know if cycle led rear lights can be used in a darkroom?

[IanDG]

£23 for a pinhole why not use an old cornflakes box 

It includes paper and all the developing tools plus instructions. Doesn't seem to bad to me.

Anyone know if cycle led rear lights can be used in a darkroom?

Actually it's pretty neat 

When the obsession bites you could always shell out for a zero image camera 

guess what's going to be on my xmas list

[iakobski]

£23 for a pinhole why not use an old cornflakes box 

It includes paper and all the developing tools plus instructions. Doesn't seem to bad to me.

Anyone know if cycle led rear lights can be used in a darkroom?

Definitely - red LEDs have very narrow spectral range and so are probably better than the old filtered tungsten lights:

[SiD]

"Is it a Last Camera? Does such a thing even exist??"


I think it's the first.  I think other manufacturers are looking at a potential bandwagon.
That will inevitably drive down prices and increase performance.

I reckon Canon are currently blowing the dust off their "Canonet" logo.