Muzak and old cameras

Muzak. Yes, “muzak”. I’ve been listening to it for the last couple of days. If you’re unfamiliar with muzak, it’s basically music you’d hear playing at a 1970’s grocery store while you shopped for creamed corn. Or at the mall food court. Even the background music for The Price is Right is considered muzak. Good stuff. Choosing to listen to elevator music isn’t…common, I’m guessing. Here’s the thing, I like background music I can put on for long periods of time and know it’s not going to throw my mood for a loop and throw my thoughts off track. Classical is great for thinking and writing, but there’s occassional decibel surprises here and there. So my solution is muzak - soundtrack of the mall. A cousin of disco? Try it. You might just feel like a Stepford wife on a Saturday afternoon without the kids. Just delightful.

Yesterday, I wrote up “Disco Treat” in the Gallery. I’m so glad I keep all my shots. All the in-betweens, the edits, the messed up shots…everything. What’s also great is that it’s all in order and it shows my shot-by-shot thought process thorugh an entire shoot. Like a “written” record. Which is good, because a lot of work I’m writing about happened a while ago. Same thing with all the BTS shots of art and things. I shoot those with my Nikon P50. It’s my daily camera. I’ll explain.

The Nikon P50 is a tiny AA battery-powered digi-cam from 2006 and I take it everywhere, every day, with a recent exception. (It was at Nikki’s place for a few weeks and just got it back today, thankfully) Most people would say, “isn’t that what a cell phone is for?” And the answer is NO! A cell phone is not for taking pictures. It’s for calculating and transmitting data at rapid speeds. It just happens to be able to take pictures.

So why do I choose to take a consumer-grade camera from 2006 with me everywhere in 2023? It’s made for pictures. It is purpose-built to take pictures. A cell phone takes pictures just as a collateral duty. With the P50, I can power-on, zoom in, take a picture, switch to video mode, record a video and review shots all with one hand...comfortably while eating a popsicle in the other hand. Nikon made it that way. It’s fantastic. Cell phone? Flat, blocky, non-erganomic. Unlock it. Open the photo app. Hopefully it’s on the mode you need when you open it. Hold the phone with one hand while the other pinches in to zoom. Take the shot.

The results?

See for yourself.

Nikon P50 UNEDITED:

Let’s see... Overcast day. Back yard. Good, natural spread between highlights and shadows. Naturally colored. Gives you a real feel for the actual moment the shot was taken.

How about a Samsung S23? It’s GOT to look better, right?

You wish.

Samsung S23 “UNEDITED”:

Dear GOD, what happened? Highlights - non-existent. Contrast? Damn-near gone. Why are the clouds blue? Shadows - cranked to 11. Clarity and sharpness - cranked to 11. Overall, it looks crunchy, flat, un-natural. Just wrong all around.

The Nikon P50 is an 8 megapixel camera with a native ISO from 100 to 2000. The S23 has a 50 megapixel camera with ISO up to 3200. So what gives?

As I said before, the P50 is made for taking pictures. The shots that come out of it reflect exactly what you see. The S23’s camera was made to “enhance” every single picture; polish it as much as possible before its inevitable upload somewhere. Sadly, it does not deliver.

Does that mean it’s total sheisse? No! Of course not. It’s still an image from a modern “point-and-shoot” and still does the job of capturing some sort of image. I still use my phone on occasion to take a shot and post, because it is the faster track to upload between the two options - but at quite a loss in image quality. Clearly, megapixels does not equal quality. So will a cell image make the cut as a “fine” image with the way the phone processes it? Not a snowball’s chance in hell. But certainly, use it for the everyday.

One last thing before I sign off for the night. I uploaded a bunch of picture on the Portfolio >> Photography page. I mostly uploaded recent work with colors and things. Before I started getting crazy with color and effects, I “shot for the cover” as a style. I held back from uploading some of it as it wasn’t as POW as my newer stuff. But the more I think about it, I think maybe I should, since it still is a style a can shoot and still enjoy shooting.

Speaking of style, perhaps a blog on my photography style next? We shall see.

Good times.

It’s late. Until next time.