So, we've found ourselves on yet another detour, I really shouldn't make these so regular but I truly cannot resist. I've not had a lot of time or bandwidth to deep dive into technical work, for fun at least, I've been plenty busy adding incus support to salt and improving how saltext-nebula handles things like lighthouse DNS and relay configuration. Lots of bug fixes and optimizations, lab tests, and production roll outs. I've pretty much lived inside of a terraform, cloud-init, saltstack, python shaped bubble for a hot minute. Which is a long winded way to say I haven't had the bandwidth to dive into my lab even though it's literally sitting there waiting for me!

That said, it's summer, and the kids are out of school so we're spending most of our free time bouncing around Maine enjoying the warm weather. Our most recent antics have had us out on Highland Lake in Bridgton Maine which is this quaint little town right outside of Naples whose focal point (insofar as I've been concerned) is said 1400 acre lake. Beautiful clouds, nice 70-80 partially cloudy, you really can't beat it. So instead of doing anything remotely related to computers, I've been wandering around taking photos instead. Likely this will become most of my contribution to LLSC's zine at this point since I've spent the most time with it.

A digicam like any other

So, like my other LLSC idea, this one started a long time ago but has had a little more traction. There are very very few things I enjoy more than photography, and any opportunity I can get to contribute photos to something I readily do. I'm the kind of person that always has a dedicated camera of some sort on me though most of the time it's my trusty Nikon FE and a couple rolls of Ilford HP5. So what better way to self indulge and participate in LLSC without the mental stress of technical challenge, than to deep dive on a camera long abandoned at the bottom of the rummage draw!

Enter a Canon PowerShot G5, an unremarkable squat black brick of a digicam, something most people have abandoned ages ago once the 5 megapixel sensor stopped pleasing the eye.

This little camera has been my stalwart companion since the start of June, and is remaining my only camera until the end of July. Forcing myself to use this single camera for everything lets me really dive into the bells and whistles it provides, and try to prove out whether or not the camera is still useful despite its limited sensor and quaintly 2000's technical limitations. I obviously shoot with cameras that are far older than it is, but there's something magical about the colors and tonality that CCD sensors captured. Pair that with a whisper quiet leaf shutter, an ultra common and cheap BP511 battery I can pickup new in any camera store for a couple bucks, and the ability to shoot CRW RAW format in full manual mode; and you've got a wildly capable camera system in a compact little format.

It's the quirks that really get me about this camera more than its functionality. It has character, like a weird hybrid point and shoot meets quasi prosumer dslr. Just take a look at the system, it has this top down data screen that displays just enough information for you to track you shots, adjust your fstop or shutter, and operate the camera. The little postage stamp sized screen on the back can be flipped round and covered converting the camera into a little digital "film like" experience. As long as your comfortable shooting sunny16 or not worrying too much about your exposures at the moment of capture you can literally operate the camera without the screen. I frankly love this, I wish some of my Sony DSC digicams had this functionality, or just more cameras generally.

If the quirks don't convince you it's a cool camera then take a look at the actual system specs. This thing is sporting a fast f/2-f/3 on 35mm-140mm equivalent built in 4x zoom lens. Which makes up for the fact that ISO is limited between 50-400. But it doesn't matter, the little leaf shutter in the lens opened wide and I was able to take shots hand held at 1/15th with little to no motion blur. Try that on an old SLR and your photos will blur more "audibly" than the sound of the shutter closing! But in the immortal words of Billy Mays, wait, there's more! Notice the max aperture on this lens is f/8, but there's a 3 stop neutral density filter built into the lens which you can toggle on/off from the camera menu! You know, just in case there's too much light and the max shutter speed of 1/2000th isn't fast enough for you.

What I'm getting at, is this is a weird little camera. It's like someone took a Canon EOS10D, ripped it apart, and shoved it into a plastic box with a variable lens on it.

It's not all sunshine and roses though, I've shot a little over 700 frames with it since June and either the compact flash card I pulled out of an old TechKnow Speed of Service timer is dying, or there is just a considerable lag between shot and write on this thing. I'm talking typically waiting 2-3s between shots normally sometimes up to 5-6s before the camera is usable again. Oh, and the grain noise at anything higher than 100 ISO is noticeable. But I like that personally, grain is good.

So does it take good pictures?

Indeed it does, though I think that's probably not all that surprising for anyone who's been doing photography for a while. The old adage goes that it's the photographer that makes the photo, not the camera. But objectively it's not a Leica with amazing glass, it's not a 40MP CMOS sensor on a high end Nikon, and it's certainly not fast or flashy. Despite that I'm enjoying the results a ton.

What's next?

Too many things! I'll probably have shot at least 1k frames on this little camera by the end of July. And there's a lot of neat little nuance I need to dig into with this camera. For example, how has CRW RAW changed? How does a CCD differ from a CMOS from film? What does my editing workflow look like? Comparisons on color and b&w images produced by the camera. Maybe if I'm brave I'll take the camera apart, there are service manuals floating around the internet after all, it'd be cool. So many different options to dive into before LLSC ends.

Also yeah, definitely an "ideas guy", I'll eventually do my original idea it's just not going to be this year I'm having too much fun with my photography again.