The Hottest Gen Z Gadget Is a 20-Year-Old Digital Camera

I am always a smidge skeptical about the Times and trend pieces, especially about the kids these days. Culture is so atomized and fragmented that I don’t know if we really have fads now.<p>But if it is a trend: yeah, that won’t last. I am an old Millennial, we had the analogous trend of shooting with instant film cameras and Polaroids. And then that trend fadedaway, because that isn’t what photos “are” now. Photos used to be a semi-scarce good—cost a lot per individual photo, and you had to wait for results. But now that photography is absolutely 100% ubiquitous, everywhere, photos are the most base commodity, and though you <i>think</i> you will appreciate these less-than-instant photos, the novelty fades away.

I remember making fun of that 4-5 years ago in a film photohgraphy forum. We were viewed as hipsters for still using film and predicted people would sooner or later find out about these old CCD pieces of crap and start a new cycle<p>Hardcore consumerism and the fast cycles it brought us in the last 40 years is making us speedrun nostalgia. I also think some people would do anything to appear out of the norm

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Modern point-and-shoots are amazing, too! As a professional I use the Ricoh GR IIIx on a regular basis and highly recommended it. Older models are also available and have somewhat of a cult following.

Oh this is kinda funny for me. I just bought a 2009 model PowerShot for $10 last summer so that I could experiment with the Canon Hack Dev Kit, [0] and use it to get RAW photos on my trips without having to lug around or risk my DSLR. Some of the eBay listings of that same model are going up to $70 now.<p>The PowerShot has been pretty nice to have. Been developing the RAWs with DarkTable, and the PowerShot&#x27;s auto mode is sufficient for me to develop a nice image, and it&#x27;s better at capturing a random moment where I would otherwise have been trying to adjust my DSLR.<p>I&#x27;m also not surprised at this new trend. Most of my close Gen-Z friends have Fujifilm instant cameras or a PaperShoot, a digital camera that markets itself emulating the film look, and I could see them jumping on this.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;chdk.fandom.com&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;CHDK" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;chdk.fandom.com&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;CHDK</a>

I should really use my digital camera. It&#x27;s not even that old. But it is free of all the AI bs that is invading phone cameras. All that doesn&#x27;t sit right with me. An example is the magic eraser stuff. Outdoor photos where you can erase all bystanders? idk something about a world where that&#x27;s the norm skeeves me out.

My OG Canon PowerShot (Compact flash!) took better photos in many ways than almost every Point-and-Shoot digital camera I&#x27;ve had since. It just didn&#x27;t have the megapixels.<p>But it was free of chromatic aberrations, didn&#x27;t have bleed or other fringing on high-contrast edges. There were clear advantages to not pushing the limits of how many megapixels you can pack into a small sensor.

Mid 2000s digital cameras were quite good and still better on some metrics than recent top of the line phones. However, their video quality was atrocious, as I was reminded recently looking at a 2004 vacation. My Sony had grainy 640x480 MPEG with mono 32khz sampled sound. Stills from the same day are gorgeous at 5MP.

I couldn&#x27;t understand having a nostalgia for a time when cameras sucked. At least go film. Hell, go for disposable film cameras or something. Cheap 35mm point and shoots rule.

Name an era when &quot;stuff from 20 years ago&quot; was not a nostalgia trend.

As if the NYT has the finger on the pulse with Gen Z?<p>A handful of hipsters in social media used older cameras, and now it&#x27;s a general Gen Z thing?