Welcome!
You are about to experience Pittsburgh via the low res world of a Mini Digital Camera. The ones we choose are normally made by Vivitar and sold under their name, but occasionally you see them under Sakar Digital Concepts, etc.
This is a pic of one (without the key chain attached) … you can usually find them at your local drug or grocery store for around $7 to $15, depending on what is in the pack with them.
They’re cute, they clip on your belt or purse, and they take the same low res pictures than an old 90s web cam takes.
So why do this?
Well, every camera, no matter how bad the picture creates a style of photography that become part of the art of producing photographs with that camera or piece of equipment. That can range from anything like box cameras with 12in negatives that allow you to get billboard sized pics with absolutely no visible loss to cameras like the mini digital that produce very grain by dates styles or photography that resemble the early digital photo years. Remember the old plastic 120 cameras? Well, they’re popular again, simply because even though the newer digitals go way beyond what they were able to take on old 120 film, there is an artistic style to the way those cameras capture the moment.
Personally, I was looking for a challenge and something different to do in a photo blog. I’ve shot with the best digital cameras Kodak products, created / installed / and trained for digital labs, shot with film camera, and own some of the higher end FujiFilm pro and semi-pro cameras. The minicam is just a different way to see things. Sometimes you get a great shot. Sometimes your shot is framed badly (you don;t get a preview), sometimes things get cut off, etc.
But it shows things differently and creates a new level of art within photography by doing that.
Here are the specs: Hi Res is a whopping 352×288 (with one of the models I’m using), the Clipshot (made by Vivtar, but also marked by Sakar Digital Concepts) does 640×480. I only have the lower res model at this time. Myby someday I’ll save enough pennies to upgrade.
The only fixes we do is to take the photo into a simple paint (mtPaint is a good example) and maybe brighten or sharpen it a bit. That’s it. Other than that, you are seeing the basic original pic.
How Did I Start?
Always interested in the gadgets in the James Bond movies (click here to get to a wiki link of some of them), having a father that was a part time professional wedding photographer, the mini spy cam quickly became one of my favorites. The pic is of a Minox camera … very close to the ones used in the early James Bond and other various spy movies.
Of course, those little mini film cameras you could “win” from the bubble gum machines in the 80s caught my attention also. They actually did take film and you could develop it. Unfortunately I was the one kid that never got one … so if you ever find one clean your house, write to me. I am looking to collect a few. These were the original “keychain cameras”
