I was in my 20s before digital photography became a mass market concern and the seismic shift condemned my family’s film cameras – 35mm and APS – to the bottom drawer or, worse still, the dustbin.
Now, in middle age, it feels like the past has come back to haunt me.
Nostalgia is a powerful drug. So, as someone who grew up with film cameras and fiddly rewind levers, buttons and dials, I certainly get the appeal of a modern digital equivalent of a 35mm rangefinder that’s equally tactile, solid and ‘classic’ looking (even if I never previously owned one – in fact my first gifted camera was a 110-film compact).
And I acknowledge that, because there’s so much about today’s fast-paced consumer-driven society that’s disposable, constructing a camera built to last ‘just like in the old days’ suggests we are getting something worthy of the sizeable price tag the manufacturers want to charge.
But there’s not only the aspect of longevity; some designs are just timelessly cool.
Although it wasn’t the reason I chose it, I often get asked ‘is that an old camera?’ when carrying around my digital Olympus PEN E-PL7. As it had a 2014 release, it is officially now an ‘old’ camera, but it’s not the film camera casual observers think it might be from its throwback design.
But lately, as much as I admire classic aesthetics and value the tactile user experience of thumbing levers and dials, I’ve begun to worry the penchant for ‘old school’ styled mirrorless cameras and compacts is stifling innovation. My suspicion is engineers are being led by the algorithm and social media trends, rather than their own blue sky thinking. It sometimes feels like retro cameras are ALL we’re seeing these days.
The cine camera-inspired Fuji Instax Mini Evo Cinema and to a lesser extent the same manufacturer’s X half compact may be recent cases in point, yet I feel can be partly excused for genuinely giving us industry observers a couple of ‘WTF?’ moments.
Also getting a pass from me is the Sigma BF, magically milled from a solid block of aluminum, because it falls into the section where the circles in an imaginary Venn diagram marked ‘innovative’ and ‘retro’ overlap – to the satisfaction of both camps. Minimal and futuristic in design with pressure-sensitive haptic buttons, its handling might divide opinion, but it remains worthy of applause for simply daring to be different.
So, the manufacturers can still innovate if they try – and not just trade on past glories.
It’s now up to us photographers and image-makers to vote with our wallets to encourage them to do it a little more often.
