Bob’s Camera Store Treasure Hunt

There is something about walking into a real camera store that still gets me excited.

On my latest visit, I wasn’t really interested in finding the newest camera with the most megapixels, the fastest auto focus, or the latest AI features. Bob was on a treasure hunt for old Sony digital cameras.

And a camera store filled with used equipment is a pretty good place to go hunting.

The walls and counters were packed with cameras and lenses. There were newer Sony, Canon and Fuji film cameras sitting beside equipment that had already lived a photographic life with somebody else. There were shelves of lenses, flashes, studio lights, camera bags and even colourful old camera straps hanging from the ceiling.

But I kept looking for the older digital cameras.

One shelf really caught my attention. Sitting in a row were those little compact digital cameras that almost everybody seemed to have before smartphones took over. Some of them probably haven't taken a picture in years.

Today people might look at them and wonder why anybody would want one.

I look at them and wonder what kind of pictures I could take with one.

That is the fun of old digital cameras.

They don't have to be perfect. They don't need 40 or 60 megapixels. They don't need incredible autofocus or a computer inside them deciding what the photograph should look like. Sometimes an old Sony with a small sensor and a few simple controls is all you need to have some fun.

I already know that from using my older Sony cameras. There is something enjoyable about taking an old camera downtown and seeing what it can still do.

Then I found another section that really took me back in time.

There was film everywhere — Kodak, Ilford and all kinds of different black-and-white and colour films. Nearby were developing chemicals, filters and other darkroom supplies. It was a reminder that photography existed long before memory cards and computer screens.

And then there was the pile of really old cameras.

Now that was a photograph waiting to happen.

Old movie cameras, box cameras, rangefinders, flashes and cameras from generations ago were all mixed together. Looking at that pile made me think about how many different ways people have made photographs over the years.

Photography keeps changing.

Film gave way to digital. Compact digital cameras gave way to smartphones. Mirrorless cameras became the big thing. Now cameras are getting smarter and smarter.

But that doesn't mean the old cameras suddenly stopped being cameras.

An old Sony digital camera can still take a photograph.

And sometimes having limitations makes photography more interesting. Instead of worrying about having the newest equipment, you start looking harder at the light, the people and the story in front of you.

So while everybody else might be looking through the glass case at the latest expensive camera, don't be surprised if you find Bob over in the used section.

I'll be looking at some forgotten little Sony camera and thinking:

"I wonder what Toronto would look like through that?"

That might be the best part about visiting a camera store.

You never know when somebody else's old camera might become Bob's next photographic adventure.