The camera has no screen, no autofocus, and no interest in helping me recover from bad decisions.
That is exactly why I like it.
An old camera makes every photograph slightly more expensive in time. You have to focus, meter, frame, and then decide whether the picture is actually worth taking.
The first thing it taught me was to wait. The second was to move my feet instead of reaching for a zoom. The third was that light matters more than equipment. The fourth was that twelve good photographs are more satisfying than three hundred accidental ones.
The fifth lesson took longer: a camera can be a way of paying attention rather than collecting proof that you were somewhere.
I still use a phone. I still use digital cameras. But every so often I carry the old one because it changes the pace of looking, and that changes what I see.
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