To be fair I’ve had this Vivitar PS80 for a couple of years now and haven’t really given it much of a chance. I’ve tossed a couple of rolls through it and that’s about it. Older film too, I guess I figured it wouldn’t be worth shooting “good” film in it…
The camera is ridiculously simple to use. You just need to push a little slider over to uncover the lens, and then point and shoot. It has autofocus, autoexposure, auto flash, autowind and dx film coding. There is a blue shutter release button on top. That is it for controls on this little camera! It is made of plastic, super lightweight and easy to throw into your pocket or bag when you head out. It is super fun to shoot and I definitely should use it a bit more.
This time around I had loaded up the Vivitar with a roll of expired Kirkland Signature 100 film, the Costco house brand from the early 2000’s. I had pretty low expectations for the film and was not disappointed. All of the scanned images came back from the lab with a massive magenta hue to them, which I have adjusted a little bit. Not surprisingly the film itself was super green. The film itself isn’t very sharp. The images are all in focus but have a softness to them which I am sure is a combination of the lens and the film. With that aside it is fun to shoot and I have taken a bunch of carefree snapshots with it. A few from last fall, a couple from skating on the Canal this past winter and the rest of the roll earlier this spring.
I know I have another roll that I processed last year that I should post about soon that had some pretty fun candid shots from halloween on it.
The thing that I like the most about this camera is all of the images have this 90’s vibe to them. A little softness, a little dreaminess and a slightly distorted wide angle lens that is perfect for taking pictures of people. All in all a super fun camera to shoot and I currently have a roll of Ilford HP5 in it to see how it handles black and white photography.
Take care and keep shooting film,
Jeremy Shane Reid
Dusty Negatives 