[Rupert]

Yes Jac...it is still a toy camera, but a damn fine one! My first Toy Camera was the X10 and I still have it...still love it! The EXR sensor is amazing...as your shot here shows! You have lots of fine X10 shots...feel free to post them here! We need to keep in view so we can get new recruits to the fantastic world of Toy Camera shooting!

Lurkers! Save your cash, save your back, don't keep missing shots while trying to change lenses or get that big heavy machine out of its bag...get a Toy Camera and have fun...fun...fun!

You can shoot one handed with a Toy Camera...while eating with the other!


Regards!

[kyteflyer]

The camera I always have with me.

In the recording studio:





On vacation in New York City







The old reliable Hipstamatic iPhone camera.

Love these shots. Love Hipstamatic. I went nuts and bought all the film and lenses I could lay my dollars on

Beautiful work from a very competent camera.

---------- Post added 04-21-14 at 02:53 AM ----------

...a missed shot is missed forever.

Regards!

Never a truer word was spoken!

[reeftool]

This is from a real toy camera. It's from my first digital camera, a Fuji Finepix 2650, with a whopping 2.1 megapixel sensor. I bought this camera back in 2003 (I think) as something to take family snapshots to send to relatives out of state in emails which in those days meant AOL dial up. Problem was, I was getting far better stuff from this little P&S than my SLR's. It used XD cards. I don't think you can even buy them anymore. This is nice fall day on the upper Hudson River upstream from Glens Falls.

[Rupert]

Reef, that's a pretty nice shot....even at 2 MP. The best thing is you got the shot...and the memory. When you have a Toy Camera that is handy and always ready, when the moment comes, you will capture it! No banging around changing lenses, unzipping bags, or making a lot of commotion.....just pick it up and shoot...no one will notice!


Regards!

[reeftool]

Thanks, Rupert. That shot was the wallpaper on my last computer and a favorite of my wife. It's also the reason I moved up to DSLR's as she wanted a large print and the file just isn't large enough. After I bought my K10D, I have paddled that section of the river every fall and never been quite able to reproduce that shot. Either the foliage was still too green or the trees were already stripped of leaves. Beavers have done their work there also and changed the landscape. The best camera is always the one you have with you and can capture a moment that can't ever be repeated. Kodak used that theme for decades. Even the dreaded cellphone does the job. How many times have all of us been shooting something with a long lens and a shot opportunity arose and we missed it. Having a toy camera in your pocket solves that problem. Of course, the camera snob would rather be suffering with 3 DSLR's hanging from his neck banging around and into each other.

A was chatting with one of the staff photographers of a newspaper at a rowing competition when my daughter was still in college. Two D200's, one with a tele and the other with a shorter zoom. He told me he stopped bringing SLR's on vacations years ago and at the time, he was only using a Lumix superzoom. He told me the IQ was certainly good enough for newspaper shots but his bosses don't think a camera like that "looks professional" enough. The company owned the cameras he was using. When we bring up "image quality", are we talking about camera results or how cool we look with all that gear. It kind of reminds me of those guys who buy those huge Gold Wings and Harley Tour Glides and only ride them to their favorite watering hole and hang around the parking lot, constantly wiping the dust off them every time a car goes by.

[Rupert]

Well said Reef!

However, we don't want to be too hard on those guys with bad backs and strap marks on their necks.....in time they will learn the joys of a Toy Camera. Like the guys on the Harleys and Gold Wings that spend more time dusting and polishing than riding, many FF shooters spend more time pixel peeping and techno-talking than actual shooting. While we are snapping away and "getting the shot", they are changing lenses, making a dozen adjustments and "getting the not" .

Of course, the camera snob would rather be suffering with 3 DSLR's hanging from his neck banging around and into each other.

Oh! That was cruel Reef!


Regards!

[reeftool]

Cruel? Maybe, but remember what that bunch did to Ned Bunnell when it was revealed he carried a Leica P&S in his shirt pocket? Now THAT was cruel!

[Rupert]

Yeah, old Ned took a beating. Wonder what he carries in his pocket nowadays? Maybe a FF Sony.....times have changed haven't they!

Regards!

Dinner tonight from the view of a Toy Camera!

[paulh]

Great points, reeftool. On that note, here's me going for the ultimate bluebonnet shot with my P&S, taken by my wife with her cellphone . Nothing but the best pro equipment will do!

[Mr Bassie]

Some cross posted Sigma Merrill DP2M images from our trip to England last summer:

The aptly named Vine House in the Cotswolds




View of York Minster from the old York city wall:

[Rupert]

Paulh....Nice shot of the Bluebonnets......they are plentiful around here this year too!

Mr Bassie.....Love those, great resolution.......that is a high grade Toy Camera for sure!

Dinner tonight as seen by the X20.....


Regards!

[reeftool]

My toy camera shot for today. It's beginning to actually feel like spring. It's still too cold to ride north on the Harley so I headed south. This is the northernmost range of the Catskill Mountains, The Helderburgs, southwest of Albany. The city of Albany is in the valley and the tall group of white buildings is the State Capital complex. The Catskills come to an abrupt end with cliffs straight down to the bottom of the Mohawk Valley in some places. It's popular with climbers. The mountains in the distance are the Berkshires and Green Mountains in Mass and Vermont.

[Rupert]

Nice shot Reef, and interesting commentary too. Never been up in that area and probably never will be, but it is good to see what it's like.

A couple from eating out last night. The thing about a Toy Camera is that you can always have it with you.....of course, you can have your phone too, but it's not the same, is it?

X20




I'm still looking for any word on the X30 from Fuji....nothing yet. I would buy a Sony Rx100 but they have no OVF...and like a phone, on a bright Texas day a camera with no OVF is worthless. Somewhere at the bottom of the Paluxy river is a perfectly fine Panasonic with no OVF. Mrs Rupert threw it in after trying to take shots in the bright sun and not being able to see a damn thing on the LCD. She said "get me a camera with a viewfinder, not a piece of useless junk." That's when I got her the X10!.....and promptly stole it from her!

Regards!

[reeftool]

I took a couple of shots with my iPhone of some of the same scenes yesterday. The LF1 is noticeably superior in regards to IQ, which it should be. One area where the LF1 fails is it's exposure metering. Outside on a bright, sunny day, it overexposes badly sometimes and I have to play with the exposure compensation settings so it isn't all that great for that quick snapshot. The iPhone is 100% reliable. I may have an issue with the camera because it doesn't always happen. I'll post a couple of side by side shots later. I think the biggest issue with camera phones are the lenses right now. They are a fixed, wide angle lens and any zooming you do is essentially a crop. My iPhone 5s has a fixed aperture of f/2.2 and 30mm equiv. lens. It does a very good job for such a basic piece of hardware.

[Rupert]

Reef....The X20 is fantastic at exposure if you just view the little exposure bar on the LCD and adjust accordingly. You can quickly move the exposure knob to go up or down and get it just right in a second. The only time I miss exposure is when I fail to take a look at the bar.

I'm still finding all kinds of features on the X20 that I was not aware of.....some worthwhile, some not so much. They loaded this little camera with a little of everything, and in that respect, it actually beats my K5 by a mile. So fun to use and experiment with that I never get bored with using it! I'm hoping the X30 will carry on in the same way, just with a larger sensor.
Regards!