Having given up on ever seeing any of my cameras again (my children “borrow” them) I invested five bucks in two working 5mp Fijis I found on eBay. I paid twice as much for the postage, but I’m sick of never keeping a camera long enough to learn how to use it. Nothing fancy, just 3x optical zoom, AA batteries, and a by-god-real viewfinder–I’m nearsighted and just using the display is a PITA. No B&W format, but I can try converting pictures in the darkroom, hoping to recreate the velvety blacks of Panatomic-X. I found TrueGrain, which promises to duplicate the look of good, ol’ 32ASA Pan-X without the languid, full-minute exposures, but it costs ten times what my cameras did. So what’s good and free?
Note: I don’t want to shoot B&W entirely because I’m a twat with pretensions to artiness. It’s also what I know and I have always found color photos jarring and a bit unrealistic. But I have to get used to it and the alarming detail of even five megapixels, so I will ease into color. At least until my kids find my last camera, 12mp with a B&W mode. That’s like the resolution of 120 Pan-X, a film I never had a camera worthy of!