Creative FX hype (warning, long message!)

[johnny bluejeans <jmanoog@umich.edu>]

Hello all,



it's been a while since i posted to the list, but all this

creative effects hype has given me some food for thought. after reading

all the good publicity about the thing, i thought it would be a great gift

idea for a friend of mine who's into low-res type photo stuff. but when i

saw the thing at meijers i was shocked. chintsy plastic camera, cruddy

looking package and a $50 price tag. then i saw the image quality: forget

low-res, guys and gals, this is NO-res. the images look like they were

faxed twice and then pulled out of somebody's ass (pardon my french).



i think that Carl <carl@suck.com> suggested some good uses for it when he

talked about taking it on his trip to Guatemala, but i don't want casual

readers of this list to get the idea that this new camera is anything

special. it generates *very* poor looking images, imho is overpriced and

is super toy-looking. it may find a market among kids and people who need

a 0-image-quality camera, i don't know. while i don't think that fischer

price "ignored the lessons of the past," i also don't think that the

creative FX is anything on par with the pxl. If they truly were to create

a "pxl for the Nineties", they would make a camera that was small, cheap,

interfaced with a computer, was idiot-proof and beat the pxl in quality

and recording length. the FX does none of these.



i am not *out* to dis the thing, but i was so crushed when i saw it that i

just had to write this.  and in defense of the flames i fear i will

receive from this mesg, please know that i have nothing against using

"toy" technology in pursuit of fun, art or anything else. but when a color

polaroid camera costs $25, when a kodak disposable can be reloaded at home

in about 2 minutes, or when b&w instant film or polalith blue or IR film

all fit in a 35mm camera which costs 5 bucks at a garage sale, i just

can't see much use for the creative effects camera.



love,



  john manoogian

  http://www.umich.edu/~jmanoog/pxl/



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