Thursday, June 27, 2024

The Stylus with the Lens Leak

A friend of mine buys pallets of old cameras from a local e-waste organization and then trades or sells the ones that seem to have potential to still be good cameras, and he gifted me with this Olympus Stylus Zoom.



It's a nifty compact point-and-shoot with a remarkably sharp 35-70mm zoom. Fully automatic, so sadly creativity is somewhat stifled, but alas. It's still pocketable and quick to use. Unfortunately it also has a "lens leak," as I discovered when I ran the first roll thru it. Guessing I must have pointed it directly at the sun at some point midway through the roll. Honestly I'm not disappointed as the light leaks produced streaking that seemed to perfectly frame the subjects in most of the shots. Or it just gives a nice dramatization of California's fire season. 

Kayaking a rather full Lake Sonoma:








Local classic VW repair shop:






Some shots snapped on the ride home from work one afternoon:






And some snapped out in the local countryside:





Next door neighbor's house:


And the dog.


As interesting as these results were, not sure I am going to do another experiment with this camera anytime soon. At least not with the current prices for film and developing. Probably just a one-time happy accident.