Don't shoot the squirrels

Don’t shoot the squirrels – my digital camera history

Recently, while cleaning up, I transferred photos from old hard disks to one central disk. Doing that, I was looking for photos of myself. While searching I noticed, that I use digital photo cameras since more than 20 years.
My first digital efforts were around 1993/94 at my workplace. I forgot the name of the camera but it was ridiculous expensive and I had to wear a battery belt to take more than 20 photos in one hour. My task was to sell used buses and coaches and my method of describing the vehicle via digital photos was the fastest and most effective. I sent the photos via email. Unfortunately I haven’t a photo from that time :(

1996

I bought a Fuji DS7 (also known as Apple QuickTake 200).

Fuji DS7
Fuji DS7

Resolution was 640 x 480 pixels in standard mode (0.3 megapixels) and images were saved to SmartMedia cards (5-volt type) which are nearly unobtainable today. That’s me in full resolution (The photo says that it’s taken January, 1th, 1996 but I think it was later, probably around December 1996).

Hagen Graf

2000

I bought a Canon Powershot S 10, It was the smallest, true zoom 2 MP camera when released. Resolution was 1600 x 1200 Pixel.

Canon S10
Canon S10

Me again in the snow ;) – Date and Time (Original) – 2000:12:09 14:47:48

Hagen Graf

2003

I bought a Canon Powershot S 20, 3 MegaPixel!

Canon S20
Canon S20

Look, how crisp I become with 20148 x 1536 Pixel! (taken August, 10th 2003 on a German Autobahn while traffic interruption)

Chaos Communication Camp 2003

2004

Now I’m not sure what happened, the D20 disappeared somehow and I remember that I borrowed a photo camera Canon Photoshop A 300 from Jan aus Leipzig.

Canon PhotoShot A300
Canon PhotoShot A300

See the result Hagen Graf - Ocean

In 2004 I bought a Canon Powershot A 85 (4 Megapixel)

Canon Powershot A85
Canon Powershot A85

Well, me again …

Mandelas house

2005

I created my Flickr Account – first photo – have a look!

2006

I sold all my Asterix and Disney comics and bought my first single-lens reflex camera – A Canon EOS 350D (8 Megapixel). It was a wonderful camera!

Canon EOS Rebel XT
Canon EOS Rebel XT

Taken on October 22, 2006

Hagen Graf - drawing

2009

I bought my first iPhone 3GS (1536 × 2048 1,3 MB) and took my first selfie ;). The way I took photos changed from that time. I used the phone more and more because it was handy.

Hagen Graf - Selfie

2012

I bought another SLR Camera – Canon EOS 550D, the best camera I ever had, so far! Now we are at 18 Megapixels.

Canon EOS 550D
Canon EOS 550D

For me, it wasn’t possible to get a better photo quality.

Don't shoot the squirrels

2016

We went to Kenia, I took my camera with me and forgot! the battery! Meanwhile, I owned an iPhone 6s and I used this instead to take photos. They were o.k..

Christine is watching how they blow glass at Kitengela hot glass

I missed the possibility to zoom and in general the better quality of the SLR Camera. But there were advantages too. A phone is very easy to use, you have it always in your pocket, it marks the location and the photos were automatically uploaded to Flickr. I noticed that the SLR was to heavy and to complicated to carry … so I put it on eBay and sold it.

From the money I got I bought a Sony DSC H60V (20 Megapixels, 30 optical zoom), It’s already 2 years on the market but it seemed to be still good.

Sony DSC H60V
Sony DSC H60V

Here are two of the first shots I took with full zoom. It’s o.k., but totally different compared to the SLR.

Flamingos and great cormorants

Pelicans

I have to take more photos to get a better feeling for the camera but so far I’m happy! Hopefully a phone can reach this quality in the next years.

 


Posted

in

by

Comments

5 responses to “Don’t shoot the squirrels – my digital camera history”

  1. Isabell Avatar

    I think I may have taken the Canon S20 :) Oh that Autobahn moment. Only thing missing was a barbecue

      1. Isabell Avatar

        Oh back when we still had our regular McDonald’s 🍔🍟

Leave a Reply

Leave a Reply