The joy of using a digicam, but I'm a millennial

I'm about to sound so old, but I had no idea how trendy digicams actually were until I was getting ready to write this post. I basically knew "kids these days call them digicams."

And I think by "kids" I mean 25-year-olds.

So anyway, I found my old digicam (point-and-shoot digital camera) a few years ago when I was packing for a move. I had even stored it with its battery, charger, and SD card. Thank you, past me.

It's a Canon PowerShot SD1300 IS. It shoots 12.1 megapixels (my pro-level mirrorless cameras shoot 45MP). I found my original Amazon order receipt and I bought it for $107 in 2010.

This thing sells secondhand for $250-$400. Even accounting for inflation, that's a big increase in value for a basic little point-and-shoot from my freshman year of college. (I can't remember if this purchase was meant to be an upgrade to my camera from high school, or if I had lost/damaged that one, but I don't have the high school one anymore.)

Some people want to replicate a film aesthetic with their vintage (yes, vintage 😭) digicams. I have an actual film camera from the 1970s for that.

Some people want to replicate what they think of as the early-2000s aesthetic with their digicams. That isn't my goal either, but sometimes it happens.

For my part, I've been having fun just using it like I did in 2010! That means using it on auto and not editing anything.

What I have been loving about it

I can take quick snaps without getting my phone out

I actually did a bit of an experiment with this on an overnight backpacking trip in the mountains. I wanted to be able to take low-pressure photos without using my "real" camera, but my phone battery has been dying quickly lately and I knew I wouldn't be able to charge it so I didn't want to rely on my phone for photos.

I brought my digicam! I left my phone on battery saver and airplane mode and hardly touched it. I was perfectly happy taking those quick snap type of photos on my digicam and my phone battery lasted well into the next day.

This also means I don't have the potential to get distracted by notifications on my phone every time I want to take a photo.

It removes the pressure to create a perfect photo

When I use my mirrorless camera, I put pressure on myself to edit the photos really well to create something super nice. But when I use the digicam, it just looks how it looks! The most I might do in post is straighten or crop it slightly.

It's convenient when I have my long lens out

I often hike with a long lens on my camera in case I see a cool bird or other wildlife I want to photograph. If I also want to be able to take wider-angle photos such as landscapes, I have to swap lenses, or carry a second camera body.

Or I can get out my phone... or my digicam!

Something like a Ricoh GRIII (modern, high quality, compact point-and-shoot) would also solve this and would take much higher-quality photos, but I'm really enjoying the excuse to use this tiny little nostalgia machine.

I can't share everything in real time and that's a good thing

I'm so used to taking a quick snap with my phone and popping it onto my Instagram story right away. Now that I've started taking some of those with the digicam, I kind of love that I literally cannot post them right away. It keeps me more focused on the moment.

At the end of the day, it's just fun

And that's enough of a reason to do anything. 😊