FOR THE LOVE OF LOW LIGHT Blurred figures of visitors are captured with low ISO settings to be moving around the displays of a museum

By ALEX AMANSEC

More than three years have passed since the 84-year-old Japanese camera brand Olympus announced they would be leaving the camera business. The memorandum of understanding released by the company on June 24, 2020 said the imaging business of Olympus “recorded operating losses for three consecutive fiscal years,” attributing the rapid market shrink to the inversely proportional evolution of the smartphone. Over the decades, Olympus released a rich lineup of cameras that ranged from film cameras to DSLRs. But the real deal was with their point-and-shoot cameras—and the 2013 Olympus Stylus VG-190 featured an operating system designed for simplicity that was, in the words of reviewer Anand Tuliani, “better than the most basic models.” It had been sitting in one of the dusty boxes under my bed from October 2022 to June 2023. Before that time, it was used on and off for school requirements, as well as passion projects that were never quite fulfilled. To preface, I’m not going into the technical nitty-gritty of this product, as it would not make sense to try to convince anyone to consider buying a 2013 gadget on the basis of these features in the present day when a smartphone can do the exact same thing and, more likely, better. But there might be a reason you would want to purchase a second-hand VG-190 from whichever marketplace is most accessible to you. Or, better yet, if you already have it, unearth the camera from wherever it may be stored in your home. After I began using the camera again over the past couple of weeks and playing around with the camera and taking it on photowalks through the city, I had some initial thoughts.

Awful in low light

Low light conditions don’t bode well with a camera sensor that has a low sensitivity to light by default. And even if you crank up the VG-190’s ISO settings, you’ll end up with a picture with blurry details and a lot of grain, almost as though it was taken through CCTV lenses. The camera’s powerful flash may come into good use, but an alternative way to think of it is how this disadvantage can also turn into your power — all it takes is creativity and a knack for timing. On the lowest ISO speed, keep a steady hand as you snap a photo of a scene with subjects, especially people, in motion. This will capture the in-the-moment, slice-of-life sensation and make it seem like the people are always moving in the forever static frame. SOFTENED EDGES Morning sunlight washes over a collection of pictures and postcards by the author’s bedside

Strange magic filters

Besides the camera’s Scene mode that offers 14 presets to choose from (Candle, Sunset, Fireworks, Cuisine, Documents, Portrait, Landscape, Sport, etc.), the magic filters feel a lot like the earliest, beta versions of the Instagram and Tiktok camera effect filters that we all know today. Some of these filters, which are all exclusive to Olympus digital cameras, are the Fish eye, Pin hole, Soft focus, Punk, and Sparkle. But my favorite has to be Pop art, which delightfully exaggerates the colors of the scene with far higher saturation and warmer tones than normal. It can be useful when taking photos that call for a little pop of life and color. ROLLING BLUES A hill in the distance stands out as a blue silhouette using the Olympus Stylus VG-190’s Pop art filter

Non-scratch-resistant screen

Unless you secure the three-inch-wide LCD screen with a protective film, you will find the surface accumulating with many scratches over time. Considering how old my camera is, though, these marks may lead you to wonder what the device has been through, and how much it has seen. Ten years and counting, yet it wholly remains intact with its durable, good-quality plastic casing. It’s lightweight and pocket-friendly, too. You can also take snapshots single-handedly with the nice, ergonomic grip the design accommodates, but just be sure to do this with a wrist strap. This camera wasn’t designed to be shock proof.

A softer life

There’s something about the vintage, retro, or Y2K aesthetics that make it so appealing. The youth, especially, is highly enticed by this nostalgia, shown by a common habit of using editing apps to deliberately downgrade the quality of their 4k images to achieve the same vibe that the Olympus Stylus VG-190 has right on-hand. Today, I live by burning the candle on both ends, running on empty, but still always on the move from one task to the next. I was 12 years old when the Olympus Stylus VG-190 first came out.

The camera may not be as cutting-edge as the SLRs and mobile phones we have now, but it is something of a romantic experience to see life through the lens of a camera that my 12-year-old self had in her pocket.