Oh No! A Digital Camera?

Have I gone off my rocker? Have I gone to the dark side? Muahahaha!

To be honest, I have nothing at all against digital. I've seen some absolutely stunning digital photos, it's just fine IMHO. It's just that I usually find the quirkiness and unpredictability of film much more fun and engaging. Digital could never be as unique and interesting as film, could it?

Well maybe not, but it can definitely be interesting in my book. Let me explain. The other day I was digging around in various nooks and crannies of the interwebs (I know, I had lots of work to do, why put it off?) when I stumbled upon some really intriguing images that turned out to be digital. They were created with a very odd little beast called a Digital Harinezumi (digital hedgehog), a tiny camera shaped like a 110 film cartridge with a whole megapixel of resolution. The images really spoke to me, so right away I began to look for one. Unfortunately for me, it turns out they have a cult following and were discontinued over 10 years ago. Some real photographers swear by them and have several backups for when theirs eventually die. Prices, though are through the roof! Some go for well over $500.00

Luckily for me though, there was a successor to the Digital Harinezumi, which uses the same chip as a later version Hareinzumi and has almost the same features. It's almost square 6x6x8cm format made it much less sought after, allthough in Japan they still go for a fairly steep price. I found one here in the states for less than half of what its counterparts from Japan are going for, it's called the Sun & Cloud.

The Sun & Cloud has a few interesting features. It has several different monochrome modes for its 2mp sensor as well as some color modes that I haven't even looked at. The menu is simple and easy to use, even I had it figured out in about a minute. It has two ISO settings, 100 and 800. It also records lo-fi videos if that's what you want.

Along with the other features it has a solar panel on top, although I'm told you have to leave it out in the sun pretty much all day to fill it's rechargable battery, that or connect it to a USB charger. There's also handle on the side that cranks a generator to recharge if you're out in the field. Oh, there's a sliding lens cover similar to the one on my Lomo LC-W, and of course, a tripod mount. I didn't see any shutter or aperture controls and it takes quite a few seconds to write an image to the micro SD card. This little guy is pretty low tech.

These are a few shots straight out of the camera. The Sun and Cloud is super fun, especially when you overload it with more light than it can deal with. It's a camera I'd probably take everywhere except for it's chunky little form factor, I think when my ship comes in, I'll get half a dozen actual Harinezumis.

I almost forgot, it's got a nice little built in flash, but it drains the battery crazy fast.