đ·I brought my 20-year-old camera back to life.
A few days ago I found in a corner of my closet, the bag of my old digital camera perfectly packed and I wondered if the camera would still work, so I decided to bring it back to life almost 20 years after its manufacture.
Iâm talking about my old digital camera, a Panasonic model Lumix DMC-FZ7 that I bought brand new in a FNAC store during a vacation in France, back in 2006.
The situation
Of course, the first thing I did when I unpacked the equipment was to verify that all the contents were in good condition, and at least at first glance it seemed so, there were no bumps, nothing broken or out of place. Nothing beyond the daily use it had for some time.
That first visual inspection left me pleasantly satisfied, as it indicated that my storage process, years before, was quite careful.
Next of course was to put the battery in and try to turn it on.
It didnât work.
An original battery that is almost 20 years old and has been discharged for at least half that time doesnât have the best performance, much less hold a charge.
So I placed the battery on its external charger and let it regain its strength for a couple of hours before trying again. While that was going on, I looked unsuccessfully for the SD memory in the camera bag. It wasnât there. But this didnât worry me too much, I could use any SD I had, I just needed to charge the battery, put it in the camera and, give it a try.
Finally, after a couple of hours the battery was âfullyâ charged, I put it in the camera, took any standard SD memory I have, and also put in, turned on the camera, andâŠ.
It didnât work.
I mean, the camera turned on with no problems, but it did not recognize the SD memory.
Ok, maybe the SD Memory was damaged, I thought. So I took another one, replaced it, turned on the camera andâŠit didnât work.
Two randomly taken SD memories that donât work are starting to get very suspicious.
I started going through the camera manual and checking the documentation: âThe camera can read SD memories without any problem, up to 2GB.â
Wait!!! What? 2GB WTF!!!
I had to read this several times to see if my eyesight or my comprehension wasnât deceiving me. Of course, we are talking about technology from almost 20 years ago, then cutting edge, but now a granny.
Thatâs the reason why my camera was throwing up the 32 GB and 64 GB memory I had previously tried. The camera just couldnât understand them.
So except for the memory problem the camera functions were fully operational, although I couldnât take any pictures.
The fully charged battery lasted something like 15â20 minutes, which for almost a decade without any charge or use is acceptable, or at least understandable.
Now to solve the SD problem.
How difficult could solving the SD problem be? Simply buy a 2GB SD memory card from the corner, and the problem is fixed, right?
Well, it took me a long time to do this. SD of those capacity is no longer sold in large department stores, medium or small technology or electronics stores, at least in Chile. I believe the SD memory market actually starts at 8GB or 16GB (GIGAS).
So I went to sites like Aliexpress, but they were selling me bunches of at least 50, 100, or more SD memories at crazy prices, and I didnât want or need 200 SD cards, just one or two. It was not my objective to collect old stuff full of cobwebs from some corner in China.
I purchased a couple of MicroSD memory (2GB each) and an adapter from a vendor called Cloudisk on Amazon for a somewhat higher price than it should have been (22$ USD), and they came in Chile in about two weeks.
After around 2â3 weeks, I eventually plugged the âfullyâ charged battery and 2GB SD memory adapter into the camera, and it came back to life.
Now itâs time to take some photos and run some tests.
Camera Test
I began some small tests with the help of my friend Luck. To be honest, the most difficult aspect of these initial photos was getting used to the menu and the cameraâs unique features, since I was immediately and reflexively hunting for the buttons on my Sony A7c on the Panasonic, with no success. For a few days, I felt as if the ânew menu and buttonsâ had rewired my head, but I was able to retrieve some of my Panasonic skills.
I believe the most difficult aspect of using my old camera in the beginning was finding the patience to wait for the camera to focus, zoom, shoot, or display the menu. I mean, using the camera felt really slow in comparison to my previous experience with my current camera or even my Android phone.
It was quite annoying at first, especially in this day and age when technology has put a feeling of immediacy on everything. And, while I believe it has been a significant step forward for photography, I believe it has also diminished our sense of ownership of our own time, patience, and the ability to wait with tranquility, preparation, and enjoyment for the right moment to take a photograph, rather than waiting with anguish, anxiety, and desperation.
Please do not misunderstand me; I am an eager consumer and booster of technology, and as a photography lover, I have had the privilege to experience the era of the priceless 12, 24, and even 36 rolls of film since my boyhood. Digital photography has advanced dramatically in recent decades, but I believe there is a loss in terms of personal contact, people, and time.
This reconnection with my old camera has taught me two things:
1.- Prepare better. In connection to the camera and stage.
2.- To be patient. Not all senses of urgency should (or can) be returned.
The camera is merely an instrument; it does not understand patience. That is my job...
I attempted to take a few pictures, some of them in less-than-ideal conditions, and failed, partly due to my frustration with the camera (I was still getting used to it), partly due to the cameraâs limitations, but mostly because I was impatient; I had the impression that the camera was taking forever to do something, when in fact it was only a couple of seconds slower than my current Sony, but it still felt like an eternity.
The Zoom
Remember that this is a âbridgeâ camera; its lenses are not interchangeable, but it has a zoom of up to 12x, which was astounding 18 years ago, and while it may not seem like much, the zoom is adequate enough to produce some good images in less extreme settings. Of course, at maximum zoom (including digital zoom), the image quality is poor, in the best minecraft style.
This photo has the greatest physical magnification and digital zoom, and while the photography is horrible, I believe it represents an incredible effort, especially when viewed with the eyes and mind of nearly 20 years ago.
Not all photos taken with this camera are bad; some are quite good, and even if not, they connect me emotionally with pleasant moments and experiences.
For example, this photograph shows a couple in love at the top of a staircase near the Sagrado CorazĂłn (Le Sacre Coeur) Church in Paris.
Honestly, the Zoom was not badâŠ
And the colors are also acceptable, in this unedited photograph on a shady dayâŠ.
Even in low light conditions and with only the cameraâs built-in flash, this photo is acceptableâŠ
All photographs can be improved, of course they can. Iâm sure they can, but for my level of experience and the technology at the time it was at least satisfactory enough to keep me motivated in photography.
Something I remembered from this reunion with my camera, and the reason for its subsequent change to another Lumix model, is that when I went to retrieve and edit the test photos I took in Chile, I could not find the RAW files in the SD memory.
Well, âI didnât set it up correctlyâ, I thought.
This camera does NOT generate RAW files, only JPG. Therefore all the pictures from that moment have very limited editing capabilities, for obvious reasons. Or well, it wasnât obvious to me at the time when I bought this cameraâŠ
Does this limit me as a photographer at all? Of course not, I mean, I understand that it will certainly limit me with some things I want to do, but for the time almost 20 years ago and for enjoying photography, playing with light, with scenery, with composition and other factors, it is as perfectly functional as any other camera.
Or at least I see it this way, I enjoyed it a lot at the time and using it again, besides challenging, it reintegrated me a lost (or dormant) emotionality of excellent memories, of far away places and dear people, and with this, honestly, I feel paid. Isnât this something that photography should rescue as well?
Finally
Iâm sure you have some gadget in a corner of your closet at home, forgotten by the digital and information era where everything has to be fast and immediate. It could be an old microscope, a telescope, an old LCD calculator, an old 80s PC that was connected to the TV, your vinyl record player, or of course your old digital or analog camera.
Try to bring it back to life!
If it doesnât work, maybe try to repair it, make it work. Consider it as a personal project to use that device, but also to enjoy the moment of restoring memories and emotions, because if it was stored away, itâs because it represents something important to you.
So give that old gadget a chance to refresh your life. I did it with my old camera and I simply loved it. I hope the same happens to you.
I canât thank you enough for taking the time to dive into this reading. Your support means a lot, and Iâm genuinely thrilled youâre a part of this journey.
Your thoughts, opinions, and feedback are invaluable to me. Iâd love to hear what resonated with you or any ideas you might have. So, donât hesitate to drop a comment or reach out â letâs keep the conversation going!Until next time wonderful readers.
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