The Olympus Camedia C-100, from Y2K to the #ShittyCameraChallenge

The Olympus Camedia C-100, from Y2K to the #ShittyCameraChallenge 

I've mentioned before about getting my hands on a glitchy camera, you know, one that's working but the sensor is way past its prime. I had the Vivitar Vivicam, but that failed on me last year, and I have the kiddies circuit-bent camera from Freedom Enterprise, which is ideal but is not 'naturally' glitchy. Then, in the last few weeks was the supposedly glitchy Canon Powershot G12, which has been anything but glitchy so far (though I live in hope) and has almost become my take anywhere camera. But so far I've failed to find a really naturally glitchy camera. Then, a few days ago, that all changed.

I was randomly surfing the web, checking out the Kamerastore website and a few other places for nothing in particular, when I visited the Cano Amarelo website. Cano Amarelo is a shop in Porto run by Nuno, a lovely guy from whom I have got a lot of my old film cameras. Just lately, Cano Amarelo has Ben offering sub-standard cameras in an 'Outlet' section. These are cameras that fall short of being in condition to sell at normal retail prices so are offered with the caveat that: 'Outlet products are sold as damaged for parts or decoration without warranty or return'.

There among the Outlet cameras, in fact it was first on the list, was this wonderful little Olympus Camedia C-100 digital. Normally I would pass this one by, I have more than enough noughties digicams and I prefer to get 'generic' cameras from the CEX website, which can sometimes be a treasure trove, but I paused and clicked on the entry and looked at the sample images (Nuno always posts some photos taken with the cameras on sale, which is really helpful) and froze. The interior images were wonderful, the colours were distorted and there was a glow to the image that I wasn't sure was because of haze in the lens or just the sensor failing.

https://flic.kr/p/2pY33Jb

The exterior image was something else completely, and it's hard to describe without actually seeing one. There was certainly something there, but it was almost impossible to make out. Of course, I was smitten and placed the order straight away. Well  not straight away, first I contacted Nuno to see whether he had a SmartMedia card available. I have a couple, but I wanted one to go with this camera, and even though the SmartMedia card cost twice as much as the camera, it was worth it.

https://flic.kr/p/2pY7QyZ

Before we go on, here's a little bit of background about the Olympus Camedia C-100 E-10 SLR. The C-100 is a 1.3-megapixel CCD sensor and a fixed-focus lens released by Olympus in 2001. There's no zoom function, although there is a digital zoom which no one should ever be using, and it's fully automatic which means there are next to no changes you can make to the image you are taking, like monochrome mode for my beloved aerochromes. It literally is 'point-and-shoot'. With four AA batteries installed it's a heavy beastie, and the sliding lens cover means that I can't fix a filter thread to the camera, so if I ever want to make trichromes or aerochromes (I do! I do!) then I'll have to hold these over the front of the lens.

The C-100 uses SmartMedia storage cards to save images, so of course in addition to  SD cards, and CompactFlash cards you'll need to add some of these to your collection of noughties storage devices. There are no options to change the style of image that you are taking, but you can navigate the rather clunky-looking early twenty-first century menu to transform full colour images to sepia or black and white. I've not tried this yet to see if it will make a copy of the image file or if you'll lose your 'carefully crafted' colour original. 

So, as mentioned earlier the sensor is failing (I had another 'f-word in mind, but we'll keep it civil) and I reckon that it's overexposing by around 10 stops. I've invested in a cheap Neewer ND2-400 variable ND filter for some intentional camera movement (ICM) with my Powershot cameras, so it seemed like a good idea to use that filter with the C-100 and see what happens. And it works! The vastly overblown natural image is made much more legible holding the variable ND filter on its maximum setting over the lens. It's still a little overexposed on bright sunny days, but in overcast weather or in shadow the results are quite 'good'.

Indoors, the C-100 behaves like any 'normal' camera, though you can take photos in hand-held in low light. In really low light it's also good for intentional camera movement by waving the camera around erratically during exposure -- there's no need for an ND filter here. The images are also really hazy and have a glow about them. I'm not sure whether this is because of haze in the lens or just a 'feature' of the failing sensor, but it's certainly a bonus with this already amazing camera ('amazing' for all the wrong reasons, of course).

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#ShittyDigital, Olympus, #Digicam, Camedia, #DigitalCamera, #Glitchy, #ICM, #Abstract, #Glitch, #Trees, #ShittyCameraChallenge, #IntentionalCameraMovement, #Sensor, #NeutralDensity,