Matt Jones

Cheap Digital

If there is one thing I really need, it is a cheap digital camera that I can quickly create images with. It’s pathetic that I have a degree in contemporary photography and I don’t generate more imagery for this site. I have an array of analog cameras at my disposal: a lomo, a Mamiya C3, a Contax 167, a Kodak Folding Brownie, a kodak range finder with a broken lens, but I hardly use any of them. If I do manage to find time to use them, I’ll happily shoot a roll of film only for it to gather dust on the shelf in the hope that someday it gets developed. I believe that the act of taking a picture is much more pleasurable than viewing the resulting prints, the latter being dependent on how good a photographer you are. Your average holiday-maker happily snapping their loved one in front of the Eiffel Tower will invariably be satified with only 40% percent of the prints returned from Boots [a level of happiness far below that during the time of film exposure], so a large amount of money is being wasted. I waste money by not even getting as far as Boots… I have countless unprocessed films knocking about in my room [although not as many as Garry Winogrand] because I’m just too lazy to get them processed - pathetic really. So, what I really need is a cheap digital camera which I can take anywhere and shoot stuff, then I can inject some fresh imagery to this site. If you can recommend any, let me know.