After a month of reading reviews, articles and guides, I finally came to a decision regarding my new camera – a birthday present from back in October, but I didn’t want to just rush out and get one without some research beforehand. For the last couple of years, I’ve been using this Samsung model:
It’s a great little camera, and despite it’s rather insignificant appearance, has produced some fantastic shots, not to mention everything in the Grumpy Git Productions film library. I purchased it initially upon the recommendation of a friend, as I needed a decent, but budget priced camera that I could slip into a pocket and easily take abroad – and small enough to get through Ryanair’s somewhat restrictive baggage allowance of a credit card (to spend on Ryanair add-ons) and a pair of Y-fronts. For a pocket camera priced at £60 or so, it was a great purchase, and really came into its own on holidays in Belarus and Ukraine – not to mention its achievements in the movie world. In Belarus, for example, I was even able to take night-time shots without a tripod, simply by leaning on a lamp post at the corner of a street until a certain little policeman moved me on:
The camera has few drawbacks for what it is, the main one being that the zoom isn’t brilliant and often struggles to focus regardless of lighting, which can be annoying. The second more serious problem came about during a shoot on the Nene Valley Railway, when both the camera and I were enveloped in a thick cloud of steam and ash as the locomotive City of Peterborough came off shed – a fantastic piece of film that was used in the film 1968, but one which had a detrimental effect on the Samsung.
I ended up looking a like chimney sweep on overtime, but at least I could wash it all out later. L’Oreal just doesn’t have the same effect on a camera, regardless of how much you think it’s worth it. I suspect particles of ash made their way inside the lens, as I’ve noticed marks on several films made since then, and also the protective sliding door that protects the lens when not in use frequently jams and has to be jiggled about with a small plasticard tool I’ve made (so as not to scratch the lens) when out filming. This jiggling about has cost me some great shots, so I decided that perhaps a replacement should be purchased.
The new model goes beyond point and shoot, as all this filming has awakened an interest in photography, so I hope to learn some new skills. It’s a Fujifilm S1500, which is still a digital compact, but with some traditional camera looking bits making it look more like a camera of yore (I’m a bit of a dinosaur). There are loads of things that it will do, as the 133-page manual implies, but the main attraction was the 12x optical zoom that will add a new dimension to composing pictures. I also like the fact that it takes four AA size batteries, rather than a flat lithium – easy to get spares, and the battery life of the lithiums doesn’t seem up to much in many reviews I’ve read lately. I like knowing that if I need batteries in a hurry, I can simply get them at Asda if it comes to it – and they’re a lot cheaper as well.
Naturally, as soon as I got home from Argos, I assembled everything and without bothering to print off the instruction book (I detest having complicated books like this in pdf format – a camera manual needs to accompany the camera, especially in the early learning days. I can hardly take the PC with me on a photoshoot, now can I?) I duly set off around nearby Dysart Park to play with it. And the results are in:
Back at home, I did all the usual experiments – I am mightily impressed with the macro function, as shown in this handheld shot a few centimetres from the subject:
It also does continuous shooting – unfortunately in Grantham, thanks to some ludicrous traffic calming projects (traffic lights every 50 yards) nothing actually moves fast enough to justify continuous shooting, so I tried shooting a film that was playing on the computer!
I haven’t tried the movie mode yet, other than a quick pan round the garden, which isn’t very interesting.
And what of the Samsung? Well, there’s always a use for a pocket sized point-and-shoot camera, even if it is now a point-and-fiddle-and-swear-and-jiggle-and-shoot camera, so I’m keeping it ready for active service. In the meantime, I’ve printed off my 133 page manual, which I really should familiarise myself with before going off on a photoshoot. But that’s not how blokes do things, now is it?
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