the cameras I love most: newsletter week of 2/9 (Patreon)

In the spirit of Valentine's Day, I want to talk about my one true love-- cameras 🥰

First and foremost is my "stunt double" camera: the Canon PowerShot V1.

It's a sub-$800 Micro Four Thirds (ish) pocket cam with a built-in 16-50mm zoom lens that is both wide and has a close focusing distance. This allows me to mount it to other tech products with a cheap, small magic arm and get unique POV shots like this:

And because it was not wildly expensive, I don't worry as much about its well-being 😅. For example, I mounted it to my bike helmet so that I could get some depth of field in this shot:

A sketchy mount FOR SURE...

The next camera I love is the Lumix S1 II. (disclosure: this camera has been on loan to me from Lumix for about a year now)

I have never had so much confidence in a camera before. From photo to video, I know that no matter what I am doing, this camera will shine. But, by far, my favorite thing about it is its in-body image stabilization. It just works really damn well, especially when paired with some warp stabilizer in post. I do wish video straight out of cam had a bit more character, thought. It's very stock, and I have been too lazy to really tweak it. That's on me, I guess.

Lastly, the ergonomics are incredible. Unlike Sony, Lumix did not shy away from making a chunky, heavy body. I love it. The grip is deep, the buttons a' plenty.

The last camera I'm crushing on is the Kodak Snapic A1.

It's a simple 35mm point-and-shoot that is truly compact and, so far, reliable. I have been bringing it everywhere!

The only con I have found so far is that the flash takes forever and a half to ready up. "Hold that pose, just one more minute... no no keep it, you look great. just oneeeee moreeeee seconddddd..." <- me, endlessly

Hmmmm, I had planned to make a video about action cameras this week, but writing this out has made me really want to talk about these bad boys instead. Stay tuned, I guess!

📖 What I read:

The DJI Romo robovac had security so poor, this man remotely accessed thousands of them"But when his homegrown remote control app started talking to DJI’s servers, it wasn’t just one vacuum cleaner that replied. Roughly 7,000 of them, all around the world, began treating Azdoufal like their boss"

Meta Plans to Add Facial Recognition Technology to Its Smart Glasses"The feature, internally called “Name Tag,” would let wearers of smart glasses identify people and get information about them via Meta’s artificial intelligence assistant". Thoughts??

I tried Nothing's AI app builder — and ended up with a screaming tea timerLast week, Nothing announced an AI tool that lets you create personalized mini-apps or home-screen widgets by prompting it. A pretty neat idea!

📺 What I watched:

The Olympics every single night! Wow, I love sports, and I love watching people's dreams come true <3

That's AI (2026) - Short FilmAbsolutly genious

You hear it when you stop trying - (Fred again.. interviews cut to music)I needed to hear this last week- "The feelings you are having; you're in great company."

🎶 What I listened to:

New James Blake! <3

New Chet Faker, too??

And so damn much Nathaniel Rateliff

Ok, bud! I hope you got some goodness planned for this next week! I'm back in NYC after a few solo days up in the woods, and I think I might just be making a video about all these incredible cameras...

I appreciate the hell outta ya,Becca