Welcome to Buster's Blog

Irregular commentary on whatever's on my mind -- politics, sports, current events, and life in general. After twenty years of writing business and community newsletters, fifteen years of fantasy baseball newsletters, and two years of email "columns", this is, I suppose, the inevitable result: the awful conceit that someone might actually care to read what I have to say. Posts may be added often, rarely, or never again. As always, my mood and motivation are unpredictable.

Buster Gammons















Monday, June 1, 2015

Everything Old Is New Again


Saw these things last weekend for the first time, used by a couple teenagers at our neighborhood pool.  They are the reincarnation of the old Polaroid instant cameras, updated by Fuji in pretty pastel colors.  Apparently, they're all the rage, especially for teenage girls.

Suddenly, all those smart phones that take really great photos are passe.  What's hot is technology from 1948.  It produces -- OMG!! -- an actual physical image you can hold in your hand.  Frame it, sign it, give it to others, etc.  What a concept!

The camera spits out photos on thick paper which take about 60 seconds to develop.  (No, you don't have to shake it.)  The color is sort of washed out.  The image sharpness is less-than-sharp.  There is no digital memory, no online capability.  While digital photographs are truly instant and essentially free, the Fuji Instax-Mini costs $70, and a film pack of 20 exposures is $17.  Today's teenagers got bucks!

And now they crave old-school photos.  There may yet be hope for books and newspapers.

No comments:

Post a Comment