Wanting a New Camera
For some reason, I got it into my head a couple of days ago that I wanted a new camera. A proper one. For many years, I’ve been a phone camera guy. Not a photography camera guy. If someone / something did something stupid or funny, whip the phone out, take a pic, done. Of course, before the advent of smartphones, most people had a dedicated camera, myself included. The “best” one I ever had was the Olympus Camedia C4040Z, bought for about twenty quid off a workmate, circa 2003. I took a lot of photos on that thing. So in 2025, I decided I wanted a camera like that. Not a pro one. That would be wasted on me. Just a half decent one with decent optics and preferably a decent zoom.
Hey, You’ve Got a Camera!
Being a cheapskate, I went on the other half’s Facebook and searched marketplace to get a lie of the land in terms of availability and price. Found quite a few between £50 and £100, which was what I was happy to pay. But then I remembered the old 4040Z which had done the rounds with my son and daughter. But, where was it now?
I won’t keep you in suspense, dear reader. Found it under the bed in a box!
Where the Hell is my Smartmedia Card Reader?
Gave the camera a bit of clean, checked battery status and it turned out they take four AA batteries, which someone had left in so they had corroded slightly. Not too much luckily as the poor, neglected thing has lived inside at room temperature. Replaced the batteries with new ones and fired her up. Still working, that’s good. Found the amazing site mentioned in See Also section at the bottom and tried to get some decent shots in low light. As I wrote earlier, I am not, never have been, and probably never will be a good photographer. But, I would like to take better photos. One thing that has always eluded me is being able to take a photo in low light that doesn’t look terrible. That’s if you can see anything at all! It turned out you can easily adjust the light level on the camera D-pad. Wish I’d had known that back in 2003. Oh well…
Got some photos that look good on the tiny 1.8” screen, but I’ll be damned if I can find my smartmedia card reader. I’ve found five memory card readers that will read everything but smartmedia. Sod’s law in action. Anyway, Mrs simonh.uk has lovingly bought me one from Amazon which should arrive tommorrow. Shortly thereafter, I’ll post part 2 with some new photos on this now twenty four year old vintage camera.
The four photos in this post were taken on the 4040Z between 2003-2008. I’ve resized to 600px width to keep the page load speed acceptable. Usually I convert to webp but decided against that for this post.
See Also
For more information / specs / reviews about this awesome camera see: 35hunter 4040Z posts Part 1 and Part 2 and The Light Slide.
