As I contemplate upgrading my camera – it’s been more than 5 years, an eternity in contemporary photography – I was thinking about my first DSLR and the quality of images that it produced.
I owned a Konica-Minolta 7D, which had the Sony 6.1 MP CCD sensor in it. I’m thinking of replacing my venerable a900,but I’m sure whatever I decide something newer with more resolution will come along shortly thereafter. Even though I love the color that the 24Mp Exmor gives in the 900 and the almost film-like quality of the images (it does remind me of Kodachrome), there was something about that CCD imager that I have never been able to replicate.
It’s interesting that I’m nostalgic about a digital camera. This is usually reserved for film aficionados, not contemporary digital cameras. And yet there is something – less refinement perhaps, or a certain grittiness – that shares those feelings that folks have about film.
This image in particular of the Jacksonville Beach Pier and surfers shows an out-of-camera coloring unique to that sensor:
And it reminds me that, in the mad dash for resolution, I’ve seen posters made from that sensor (it was used in many cameras, including the Nikon D50, D70, as well as a Pentax).
While it may be important from a competitive standpoint (as well as artistic), it is yet another reminder that it is the image – not how it was produced – that is important.