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Digicam Winter & Nature Hike: Canon PowerShot SD750

This weekend, I made a thing.

It’s funny to see the recent digicam craze. Everything old eventually becomes new again, and sure enough, it’s the classic point-and-shoot camera’s time to shine.

So, after a big snowstorm this weekend, I hiked into the Kate Palmer Wildlife Sanctuary here in Jackson, Michigan, to take my trusty Canon PowerShot SD750 on a photo walk in the woods. I also shared a few classic and recent shots with the PowerShot – a camera I used for years, on many trips, from 2007 up until I bought my Canon Rebel T1i in 2010.

Bringing it out into the woods reminded me of a few things:

  • The files hold up decently, but man, my modern photography eyes are spoiled. There’s so much chromatic aberration, shadow noise, and corner softness with this 35-110mm lens.
  • It is nice to have a tiny, pocketable camera that you can carry anywhere. I used it quite a bit over the holidays because of the flash and the size.
  • “Unfussiness” should be a guiding light in more modern cameras. The Ricoh GR series comes close to this level of simplicity. Truly: point and shoot.

I can see the charm. These younger generations want something imperfect. Film is difficult and expensive, so classic digital is the practical (and affordable) way to go.

This PowerShot will stay with me until it’s dead. It’s still fun to bring it out once in a while and remind myself that, for a long time, this was the best I had.

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Using Older Camera Gear

“Rebelling against the standard” – that’s all the excuse I need.

Martin Castein makes a good case for using older gear, but one point he missed:

Save money.

Instead of $1,000-4,000 for a new camera, how about using a five- to 10-year-old camera for $500 or less? There are so many great deals to be had on fantastic cameras.

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Background Music

Bush Wackers

Lately, life – and especially working while at home – has been full of background music channels on YouTube.

Take this Coffee Beats channel. Or this Acid Jazz & Grooves channel. YouTube is full of these kinds of background music channels, with styles ranging from low-fi to chill to jazz to whatever your brain needs. There’s the famous lofi hip hop girl. You can even find some background video game music (just about anything with Animal Crossing works). 

I’ve noticed that I’m listening less and less to my kind of music: progressive, metal, rock and roll – the kind of stuff I’d usually listen to on Spotify or my iPod.

With all that’s going on in the world, what my brain needs is something simple – something that can hang out in the background and not get in the way, yet enjoyable enough to not be annoying. 

Luckily, YouTube is full of just what I need. 

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