Traces and Old Cameras
This was originally published in my Prime Lenses Newsletter. You can sign-up for a weekly update to your inbox here.
We kick things off this week with a special midweek episode with Justin Sorensen. He has released a beautiful book of photos of athletes called Traces. He spoke to me about it and you can listen now in your podcast app or choice or on the website.
Away from the show, Misan Harriman and I were chatting about older cameras the other morning. He was episode 100 and I recommend that you go back and listen because he’s a great guest. He’s been posting a lot lately on the subject of older cameras and it’s something I think about a lot too.
I have had the pleasure of trying some great modern cameras recently and am currently custodian of a little Fujifilm X-E5 on loan. A truly compact and lightweight every day camera with a wide selection of lenses and modern conveniences like autofocus, creative photo effects, in camera RAW processing, WiFi transfer along with my favourite, USB-C charging. I love USB-C. I love that there’s a fairly well rolled out power and data standard. My 40 year old Apple keyboard goes through 2 USB adapters to allow me to use it, but USB-C should mean that there are no more. Well, not for a while at least …
Anyway, Misan and I were discussing cameras, again :) He’d been asked lot about which cameras he uses and his go-to answer, which I unsurprisingly agree with, is that pretty much anything is now good enough, and that you can get a lot of really great work done with the cameras of 10+ years ago.
So I went and spoke to a bunch of previous guests as well as Patrons to see what you’re all shooting.
Dan Rubin reminded me that the now ancient Canon 5D might seem long in the tooth, but that in its day it was used to shoot the most prestigious sporting events.
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Tom in Australia said it was his Leica M3, the camera of his dreams, bought before his honeymoon. Ken said it was his Minolta Autocord, bought as a budget alternative to a Rollei that he’s really enjoying. KMK is rocking a childhood Polaroid that’s still kicking thanks to a revitalised Polaroid. And finally Linh said he still has his Pen-F, an OM-1 with a Super Takumar lens.
Not everyone is using all their old cameras all the time, but I did notice that while they’re all not often used, they are all kept around. They all must serve some sort of purpose.
Ultimately it comes down to this, Misan’s closing statement in his reel.
“Composition, Light and lens choice and the trust of your subject. The gaze that a camera has is the gaze of a man or woman holding that camera so it's really important how you see your subjects and how they see you seeing them.
There's an invisible handshake that happens between the highlights and the shadows and within that lies truth itself.”
Misan Harriman - Instagram May 25th 2026
To end the email like Stan Lee, ‘Nuff said.