John Spahr

Just when you think you've seen everything, you're gifted a still camera that saves images to compact discs . I had been aware of Sony's CD Mavica line of cameras for a while, and I had owned numerous floppy disk Mavicas, but using a CD Mavica for the first time was surreal nonetheless. There's something special about a camera with a whole optical drive in it. It reminds me a lot of a Discman. I was fortunate enough to get mine for free with all of its accessories and several blank discs. My model is the MVC-CD400, and it was one of several CD-based Mavicas in Sony's lineup. This camera, in particular, dates back to around 2002. The weird round shape is the result of cramming a whole CD mechanism in this camera. The hardware is delightfully 2000s. The entire front panel, including its surprisingly bright LCD, folds out to reveal a compact optical drive. It reads 8-centimeter "mini" CDs. These are significantly smaller than normal CDs, and while the camera ...

If you’ve followed my work, you know I love my Canon Rebel T7. I'll admit, I’m a sucker for DSLRs. They’re inherently more mechanical in nature than their more modern mirrorless and mobile alternatives. Problem is, they’re big and bulky. And I love that… Except when I’m on the go. Sometimes, I just don’t have time to be swapping lenses.  That's where phone photography comes in, right? Well, not really. I love the various tactile controls and shooting modes on my Rebel. Using a phone feels soulless by comparison, with everything being dumbed down and AI-assisted. I was after a DSLR-like point-and-shoot camera, and that's where this little guy came in... Meet Uncle Ricoh! Obligatory Napoleon Dynamite joke out of the way, this is my favorite point-and-shoot camera I’ve owned. This is the Ricoh Caplio GX100 from 2007. It has all sorts of snazzy features that satisfy the camera geek within me. I'm talking about multiple knobs and dials. I'm talking   about a proper  man...

October is nearing its end, and that means we’ll have to contend with winter soon. With this in mind, I wanted to capture rural Indiana's fleeting autumnal beauty this weekend. I decided to do this with two cameras: My beloved Canon Rebel T7 (paired with my Canon EF-S 18-55mm lens) and my Sony Mavica FD88 ( as seen previously   on this blog). I chose to use the Canon for still shots, as per usual... The Fall Vortex Red Splash Bokeh Leaf 3000 By the time I had taken these three photos, the sun had started to set. I was ready for a break. The following afternoon, I decided to find my next subject. My cat Mocha proved to be exactly what I was looking for. Yep, I took a bunch of cat pics. Sue me. A Distinguished Gentleman A Clueless Gentleman A Distracted Gentleman Mocha's Calm Stare I'm glad Mocha cooperated, as the results are quite nice. I had a lot of fun with my fall pictures, but nothing beats photographing cats (when they're on board with it).  As for the Mavica, I u...

Hey, folks! I did it. I finally got into instant photography. And I love it. Admittedly, I've had some experience with instant photography before now. I got my first instant camera at a thrift store in 2022. It was a Polaroid OneStep from the 90s, and while film was still readily available for it, it was far too expensive to justify using it regularly. As cool as instant photography was, I accepted that it wasn't economically viable for me and moved on. ...Until about a month ago! On one of my first dates with my girlfriend, she introduced me to her Fujifilm Instax Mini 11. It was a much more compact and modern instant camera than my Polaroid. It also used smaller film slides. This was a big deal, as she informed me that the smaller film came at a smaller price. I was intrigued. A couple weeks later, I ventured to Walmart and splurged. I picked up the cheapest Instax they sold: The Mini SE. It only cost about $57, and it came bundled with 10 slides of film. I also picked up an ...

Hey, folks! Yesterday, I was browsing through a nearby Goodwill's decrepit electronics section, when I stumbled upon something very interesting: a Fujifilm camera. Specifically, it was a Finepix S2000HD. I'd been interested in trying a Fuji for a while, so I figured this wasn't a bad use of $15. Here's how it went... My first impressions: This camera is surprisingly feature-rich. It has a proper manual shooting mode. It also has a 10 megapixel 1/2.3 inch CCD sensor. The integrated lens supports up to 15x optical zoom, which isn't too shabby. Best of all, it has an electronic viewfinder! Not bad for a little bridge camera from 2009. It's also nice that it runs off of 4 AA batteries and can take any SD card up to 32 GB. This Fuji is very compact, making it great for casual shooting. After shooting with this camera for a day, I have a couple of thoughts. The colors are beautiful, and the CCD provides that classic digicam look. The photos this camera takes don...

Hey, y’all. Welcome back to the blog. Today, I have some more Italy pictures to share, this time from Venice. Like before, I used my Sony DSC-H90 digicam in manual mode to capture all of these. I did minimal edits, and bear in mind that this camera sometimes struggles with situations with high dynamic range. That said, I’m really happy with how they turned out, so take a gander! Enjoy.

Hi, folks. I’m about to leave Florence, Italy, so I thought I’d go ahead share some of the pictures I’ve taken so far. I exclusively used a decade-old Sony DSC-H90 point and shoot for these shots. I like this compact camera because it has a fully manual mode and great optical zoom. Both of these came in handy for the photos below. It also has an high-resolution sensor, so the quality has held up nicely. Enough talk, though… Here are the photos!