From the Archives: the CyberShot DSC-T9

My second digital camera—if you don’t count the one in that Nokia phone, if it even had a camera, and I don’t think it did… I don’t even recall what phone that was, so I don’t—was the Sony CyberShot DSC-T9.

I bought it in 2006 and carried it around fairly religiously until the iPhone 4.

The T9 was much friendlier to me than the Fuji had been. I couldn’t (or didn’t) use it to shoot artwork, but it was near good-enough to take around to parties and take pictures of friends.

That’s pretty much what I used it for too. There’s little in the way of random shots around the house (like I have from every other camera), not much in the way of artistic or nature shots, etc.

But I did find these two. I really like the one at the top.

In some ways, smartphones have more or less replaced little cameras like the T9. I sometimes think about picking up a new pocket compact, but the one I bought to replace this one got sold late last year because it sat on the shelf for almost all of 2014.

These days, the iPhone is good enough for most walk-around purposes, and the LC-A or Ricoh 35 ZF or Nikon FG are small enough and far better image producers than any small-sensor (or large senson) compact camera.

Anyway.

Above is my favorite shot from the T9. And this is my second favorite.out the window, Springfield IL

That’s the  view out of the living room window of the apartment in Springfield, IL where I lived for three years while pursuing my BA. Good color, after some edits, and nice texture from the blinds.

Anyway. I sold the T9 on ebay for $50 or so in 2010. I didn’t package it well enough, and the USPS threw it around and cracked the screen in route to the NYC pawn shop that bought it. I refunded their money and kept the pictures of my friends and family from that time. There are some definite keepers there, if only for me and to aid my memory. Continue reading “From the Archives: the CyberShot DSC-T9”

Ohne Titel

Google released an update for their Snapseed app last week, and it’s a big one.

The interface has been completely redesigned, and there are a couple of new tools. After a couple of days with it, I give it a thumbs up, and I might do a full review of it at some point, though others have already likely covered it more exhaustively than I will. Continue reading “Ohne Titel”

from the Archives: the FinePix S7000 (2)

(aka even rank amateurs are sometimes capable of mediocrity)

(or even a broken clock is right twice a day)

It’s my birthday today.

This post is not in celebration of that fact.

Here we have a couple more from my days with the FinePix S7000.

I like the sorta dreamy quality in the one above. And, as you probably know, I’m a sucker for sunlight on metal.

And this one is kinda interesting…even hacks are sometimes capable of mediocrity|2|©JamesECockroft-20040418

Continue reading “from the Archives: the FinePix S7000 (2)”

More Play Please

Just a picture, a multiple exposure taken early this morning in the parking garage of the new office with Hipstamatic. I sometimes forget how much fun just playing with the phone can be. Is it just play? Am I just playing into the camera app’s program? Can I do more? Can I subvert the camera’s program somehow, bend it to tell the stories I want to tell, to share whatever it is I’m trying to convey? I’m not sure I can, especially not with the iPhone and a rather popular app, and this isn’t even a proper attempt.* Continue reading “More Play Please”

from the Archives: the FinePix S7000 (1)

(aka Looks Familiar)

As part of a hard drive reorganization, I’ve been going through my archives, and… wow… just, wow.

I bought my first digital camera—a Fuji FinePix S7000— in late 2005 if memory serves.

I didn’t like it much… It was noisy at low ISOs, I found it nigh on impossible to control in manual mode, and it was fairly slow.

Of course, at least one of those might have been remedied by, say, reading the manual, but I was 25 or 26 at the time and didn’t much get into manual reading until later.

I knew something about RAW files at the time (if I recall), but I only shot jpegs with it. And I knew enough about manual camera controls and mode dials to move the camera into manual, but not to change the shutter speed or aperture.

I also knew some things about Photoshop—I was in art school at the time, after all—but I processed files from the Fuji in iPhoto only, if you call converting files to black & white but othewise making no adjustments whatsoever processing (I don’t, but I don’t know what else to call it).

Anyway, it’s interesting to look at these again after so long.

I’m tempted to batch-delete virtually all of them. There are some pictures of old friends that I’ll keep around, maybe. But the others are more or less garbage.

This week, I’ll be sharing the best of a bad lot. It’s interesting to look back 10 years later and find that I default to shooting some of the same subjects over and over again… Continue reading “from the Archives: the FinePix S7000 (1)”