Does the “classic digital” camera exist, or is the term an oxymoron? Many believe that a classic is, by definition, a film camera. But evidence now points to the opposite, and supports the case for the classic digital compact. After nearly three decades of digital photography, interest in older digitals —mostly compacts — is burgeoning. Photographers are being encouraged to dig into their drawers and explore their attics for early examples of point and shooters from the early years. And it’s then a short step to canonisation at the earliest opportunity, with the resultant scramble for examples of the lucky targets and steadily rising prices on the ‘Bay.
Classic drive
Classical digital cameras could become the new Zeitgeist for the first quarter of the century. It comes hard for me, for I have always prided myself on being inimical to fads and phases. Proof of this is evident in my daily drive vehicle. A classic two-door Saab Viggen from 1999. At the time, it was the fastest Saab ever built. Now a quarter of a century old, it performs flawlessly. My wife, my family, my friends all continually suggest that I should buy a new car, even an electric vehicle. But all that does is make me dig my heels in deeper and maintain the status quo.
My dyed-in-the-wool approach to cars and cameras has held up well. But then I read about a movement that’s gaining traction. Macfilos has mused on the topic back in February. Scarily, it means that for the first time I now find myself a reluctant participant in a Zeitgeist. That said, let’s consider the topic of what’s old is new again, and admit that it’s now time to get all those old digital cameras out of storage and take them for a spin around the block.
Classic Digitals? Or Digital Classics?
Do you focus on the Future? Or do you concentrate on the Here and Now? Or, third option, are you a Looker-Backer? There’s an adage that “it’s OK to look in the rearview mirror, but don’t stare”.
Looking back, briefly, we see that the commercial emergence of digital cameras occurred about 25 years ago. It was at the turn of the millennium that 2MP and 3MP cameras hit the mass market as a new way to consider photography.
Seeking the fossils
An archaeological dig through storage in my study yielded two other great little early digitals. One was an Olympus mju that our son Ben bought as his first digital camera in 2003. Yes, we were an Olympus family in the early 2000s.
It was a great little pocketable camera that took its design cues from the compact Olympus mju 35mm film camera. A traveller’s delight, being weatherproof, it was ideal for Ben as he headed off to Scotland for oil industry training and climbing in the Highlands.
Alas, the camera world has lost Ben, I suspect forever, as he now uses a top-end smartphone for photography. He’s not alone, of course, but the resurgence in interest in both film and classic digital cameras could bring smartphone addicts back to the fold. They are something special, unusual, and more hands-on than the modern iPhone.
The other little fossil that I found lurking at the back of the archive was a Sony DSC-W350. It is a 14MP camera that my wife Dianne used on a 21-day trek to Everest base camp in 2012. Sadly, I remembered that I sold the 7.2MP Sony W80 that I had bought in 2007 and used on that that Himalayan trip.
I unloaded it after returning home because I was concerned about yak trail dust that had found its way into the zoom lens mechanism. This was unfounded, I now believe, because the camera was working perfectly up to the point of sale.
A switch to Sony
During this period, in the last half of the first decade, we moved to Sony digital cameras. My thinking was that superb Sony electronics combined with the reputation of Zeiss lenses was the best combination for cameras at that time.
The first image below is from our 21-day trek into Gokyo on the northern Tibet border with China. The mountain in the rear with the freezing jetstream is Choy Ouyu, at over 8,000m, the fifth-highest peak in the world. Hillary and a team tried to climb it in 1952, but were unsuccessful. In 1953, they conquered a higher peak nearby.
That peak, Everest, is seen as the giant rock in the rear of the bottom image. The village in the foreground is Gorak Shep, the site of the 1952 Swiss expedition. Present day base camp is at the fall of the glacier in the centre of the image. I took these two Himalayan images with my 7.2MP Sony W80.
The question of Classic Digital Cameras
Moving forward and onto the topic, there is an emerging interest in potential “classic digital cameras”. Every week, I read and enjoy Amateur Photographer, the British magazine which continues to survive when others have succumbed to the digital explosion.
There’s a lot of varied content in there, and during this last year there have been several articles pondering which early digital cameras might be destined to become collectible classics.
The usual suspects were listed: The Ricoh GR digital series, the original Fuji x100, cute Sony and Canon offerings, for instance. But there was only one Leica, predictably the Leica Digilux 2.
The only Digilux that I have stashed away is a 4mp Digilux 1, the predecessor to the Digilux 2. This was a generous gift from Macfilos citizen John Shingleton, when he underwent a major clean out as he downsized his primary residence. It even has the add-on infrared filter and adapter tube. It continues to work well, with no suggestion of sensor rot in this example.
Above: The Leica Digilux 1, followed by five images from John Shingleton’s archive, to indicate the quality of output from that camera. They were all taken in 2004, with the last image being a product of the infrared filter attached to the camera.
Exploring the possibilities
Reading those articles, I wondered what the next classic digital Leica might be. Discussion with Macfilos colleague John Shingleton over coffee this week raised a few possibilities. John suggested the M9, except that the decaying sensor has been a distraction. He pondered the X Vario, a favourite of his, and then proceeded to remind me (for the umpteenth time) that I should never have sold mine. That’s one of this shooting-fish-in-a-barrel pastimes, deliberately needling me about divesting the X Vario.
After cogitation over the coffee, nonetheless, we came to a consensus that the next classic digital Leica should be the Leica X1. Released in 2009, it produced top quality images then, and excellent images still today. Further, the sweet spot of the Barnack form factor has been mentioned many times as part of its mystique.
The darker side
The elephant in the room when it comes to cherishing old digital cameras is repair and maintenance. Your average classic film camera can usually be repaired easily. This is especially so for Leicas where there is a thriving network of repairers and “CLA” (clean, lubricate, adjust) merchants.
With digitals, however, breakdowns can be fatal. The Leica M9 has the potential to suffer from sensor rot and, while it can be repaired as long as parts last, it’s an expensive operation. The rear screen of the M8 fails frequently and there are no spare parts to be had. The Leica X1 and X2 suffer from broken battery latches and flat internal batteries, both of which are quite costly to repair. And the Digilux 2 is only as good as it continues to work. If the electronics go, or the sensor fails, your camera will end up in a display case.
Conclusion
There is currently a great deal of interest in resurrecting those old, forgotten point-and-shoot cameras from yesteryear. True, the displays are antediluvian, and the results are not that brilliant (with some clear exceptions such as the Digilux 2 and X1), but they are fun to use.
Furthermore, consider the much ridiculed monster digital zooms with which many of these cameras were equipped. At the time, they were a running joke among serious photographers. Who would want to crop to that extent?
But, over the years, higher resolution sensors and modern lenses have combined to make digital cropping viable. None other than Leica’s lens guru, Peter Karbe, is a firm advocate of crop-to-zoom. That is, of course, with a very high-resolution sensor and one of his superb lenses.
Some questions
To finish, let’s consider a few questions.
- What are your thoughts regarding an emergence of classic digital cameras?
- Will they become collectible classics?
- Have some already become collectible?
- Is digital rot, aka electronic composting, a concern? Or fragile battery latches?
- What do you consider to be the Leica digital classics of the future? Could it be the X1, another or all of the X series? Why?
- Will the M9 with a sensor replacement, or the original Leica Q, or the X Vario be more likely candidates to become classic digital collectibles than the X1?
- What about the other forgotten Leica cameras? Any votes for the lovely little original Leica C typ112, another camera that I now wish I had kept rather than moving it on?
And yet more questions:
- What old digital cameras do you still have in storage? Are they still functional? Which one(s) will you always keep? Why?
- And how often do you get your classic digital cameras out into the sunshine?
So many questions, so many little cameras. Do consider them if you wish, but don’t spend too much time looking in the rearview mirror.
But do open a few drawers and see what you’ve accumulated. All good fun.
Read more from Wayne Gerlach
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