The Hottest GenZ gadget is an old camera--NYTimes

Took this picture on Saturday, late afternoon, at Broken Kettle Grassland, maybe the most beautiful spot in the neighborhood, right now an abundance of big snowy marshmallows on the northernmost edge of the Loess Hills.

I love the picture. It's elegant lines and contrasting late-afternoon lighting sweep your eyes along the edges of nothing more than an ordinary snow drift just off the road. In the shadowy light, the moment I saw it I knew it probably offered as much sheer beauty as anything I was going to find right then--even the buffalo out there. I got out of the truck, stepped around the cab, took out my phone, and this is what I took home. I--me!--had so little to do with the picture that I hope you don't mind my saying that it's really beautiful.

And I took this too.

I haven't toyed with this shot at all, but I could likely adjust the color enough to bring it to the deeper blue of the shot up top. Likewise, I could crop it a bit so the drift makes up the same proportion of the picture. No problem.

That having been said, there just ain't a whole lot of difference--the top shot, from my phone; this one comes from a camera and lens whose original cost I would feign attempt to tally and admit.

Friend of mine sent me a note recently, almost a lament. Told me he'd been to Glacier National Park and basically used his phone for pictures, left his Nikon at home, didn't even bring it with, and the pictures--well, look for yourself. Which is sharpest--which is best? I don't know.

When I was a kid, our basement was full of photography stuff--developers and fixers, a homemade enlarger, lots of paper. I've been taking pictures ever since I was 13. I bought my first real camera--an SLR--in 1976, a better one right before a trip to South Africa, a couple of expensive point-and-shoots after that, and then, finally, I stepped into the DSLR world maybe ten years ago or so.

Today, honestly, the best I can do with the Olympus DSLR I own and love, I can do with a $400 phone (for the record, a Google 7).

And now--get this!--according to Sunday's NY Times, kids are begging for their parents' old cameras. “We’re so used to our phones,” said just such a kid, a college freshman. “When you have something else to shoot on, it’s more exciting.”

Oh, my word. Oh, my camera.

I suppose this return to fuzziness is a variant strain of the attraction of antiques. Maybe Gen Zs will rekindle that market too, at just about the time we're selling our furniture and moving off to the Home. Anyway, these hip Gen Z's are posting their blurry photos on line, on social media, anxious to show off the fuzziness or burned- out faces. Third-rate photos are very cool, I guess, but then there's no accounting for taste.

It's enough to make an old man's head spin. What I really need to find is that old homemade enlarger and the pans I used for developer and fixer. Who knows what kind of price that old thing might bring? Who knows how far back this fad'll take us?

I don't get it really, but then there's a ton I don't get these days.

But allow me to make an announcement. On the shelf right here behind me, I've got a couple old fart cameras I'll be glad to sell. Let me know what you're paying.