From about 2002 - 2005 my only camera was a fixed prime lens compact 35mm film camera, the Rollei Prego Micron. Digital cameras were really starting to become popular, but after searching for one I came away feeling like I just couldn't afford anything decent and that I'd get a lot more IQ out of a film camera. In searching I'd been made aware of the Ricoh GR series of fixed lens point and shoots and man did I want one. But, again being young and poor, even they were more than I could afford at the time. The Rollei Prego Micron is a plastic camera with a fixed 30mm lens that, like the Ricohs was known for its exceptional lens, able to produce sharp images with beautiful renditions of light and color. It lacked the snap focus and manual control of the ricoh, but was within my budget so I went for it. I was blown away by the images and despite being a fully automatic camera found it to be a truly inspiring tool. With it I made photographs that I am still proud of today.
Unfortunately, the lens started to malfunction on deployment and retraction on start up/shut down and it became tough to use reliably. I ended up retiring it for a Fuji Finepix F10, another fantastic automatic P&S which I will discuss another day in a separate post.
I recently purchased a film/photo scanner and have been slowly digitizing the work created with the Rollei. It's fun to be able to share analog work created over a decade ago. I even purchased a few rolls of film to run through it again. It still suffers from the same lens issues, but I'm able to get it work with a little patience. I'm curious to see what comes back.
