Critique the Community
Images Taken on an Older Camera
Enter Your Best Photos!
Congratulations to the winners!
This month we critiqued the images taken on your older cameras. How did these photographs from vintage cameras hold up against your more modern submissions? In this video we find out!
This critique was a lot of fun, and we'd like to thank everyone who entered. Below are the winners and the prizes they won. All winners, please send Lee Morris a private message to claim your prizes.
Join the next critique right now, and get the lowest price ever on Clay Cook's Fashion and Editorial Portrait Tutorial .
1st Place
Winning prize: A full bundle of Topaz Labs' software suite including GigaPixel 8, Photo AI 3 and Video AI 6. First place also will receive one of the second place prizes: a Hohem iSteady M7 gimbal.
2nd Place
Winning Prize: The new Hohem iSteady M7 electronic gimbal for your smartphone.
3rd Place
Winning Prize: One free tutorial from the Fstoppers Store
Congrats to everyone who won and if you want to partcipate in the next contest, head over to the main Critique the Community page now.
Rules & Prizes
Welcome to the March 2025 Critique the Community Contest! For this month's contest we want to see your best images taken with an older camera you've owned. This could mean your previous smart phone camera, an older DSLR camera, or even a modern mirrorless camera that you've since replaced with a newer camera. Obviously this opens the door for a ton of entries so we are asking that you add a little information about the camera you used to create the photograph and what camera(s) you are now using. If the only camera you own was first released before 2020, you can submit images taken from it as well even if you have never upgraded since then.
The whole idea behind this contest is we want to see images taken without the absolute latest and greatest gear available. We want read about the challenges you experienced back then and how it might be easier to capture the same shot today with a more state of the art camera.
Rules
- This contest is 100% free to join
- Each photographer may submit up to 3 images
- Each photograph must include a description that includes details about how the photograph was taken, what post processing was done to it, where it was taken, and what challenges you faced taking the image. Simply writing a single sentence that doesn't explain much of anything will disqualify you from being chosen!
- Each image MUST identify what camera it was taken on and what camera or cameras you are currently shooting with today.
Because the only requirement for this contest is the model of camera you used, we are allowing submissions of images from any genre of photography. Whether that be landscapes, product and commercial, portraits, composite work, or conceptual and fine art photography, any type of photography is allowed in this contest.
March Prizes
1st Place
One first place winner will receive a full bundle of Topaz Labs' software suite. Topaz Labs has become the industry leader in image upsampling and Ai processing for both photograph and videography. This suite includes an unlocked copy of Topaz Labs' GigaPixel 8 software which allows you to upscale and enhance any image up to 16x. Also included is a copy of Photo AI 3 which uses artificial intellegence to bring out more detail and sharpness out of your photographs. Finally, for the video editors out there, the first place winner of this contest will receive a full copy of Tapaz Labs Video AI 6. This powerful software allows you to drastically improve any video file with options to upscale, resample, stabilize, denoise, and add additional frames for slow motion. We have personally been using Video AI to upscale some of our older youtube content and the results are unbelievable.
Additionally, the first place winner will also receive the brand new iSteady M7 smartphone gimbal from Hohem. The iSteady M7 is an advanced battery powered gimbal that stands out from other smartphone gimbals with it's wireless, self monitoring LCD remote and it's Ai powered subject tracking. The M7 also has an incredibly convenient extension arm built into the gimbal itself making it a versatile tool for any videographer or vlogger needing professional looking footage from their pocket sized smartphone. We recently reviewed the iSteady M7 and it is one of the most powerful yet compact smartphone gimbals we have ever used.
2nd Place
One second place winner will also win an iSteady M7 smartphone gimbal from Hohem.
The total value of this prize is $300.
3rd Place
As always, our third place winner will receive their choice of any Fstoppers photo or video tutorial found at Fstoppers.com/store
The total value of this prize is up to $299
We are excited to see your best images captured using one of your previously owned cameras. Good luck to everyone and we will see you at the end of the month!
Bonus March Sale
For the month of March, Elia Locardi's photography tutorial Photographing the World 2: Cityscape, Astrophotography, and Advanced Post-Processing is on sale for just $59 (regular price at $299.99).
In the second installment of Photographing the World, Elia takes you on a journey through some of his favorite countries as he captures both rural historic sites as well as some of the world's most modern cityscapes. You will learn Elia's entire on location workflow as he travels through Italy, Cambodia, Singapore, and Hong Kong. We then fly down to New Zealand where Elia focuses on capturing the night sky, star trails, and the Milky Way.
Learn more about this incredible landscape tutorial in the video above and jump over to the full Photographing the World 2 sales page to take advantage of this fire sale during the month of March!
Sun, 03/30/2025 - 23:15
This contest has ended.
183 people have cast a total of 10,527 votes on 427 entries from 208 participants
Contest Submissions
Click on the thumbnails below to comment and rate each image.
Click here to learn about the Fstoppers rating system and what each star value means.
43 Comments
The rules make no sense.What qualifies as "old"? How do I take an image with a camera I no longer own? If I just traded my Fuji GFX100 II for a Polaroid, does that make the GFX100 "old"?
Lee this is for you - Sundew: The Sticky Plant With A Killer Instinct
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLHLQ_kFEVM
Keep enjoying your new found genre but it's a lot more than taking photos.
If you watch their latest video on YouTube, they explain it a bit better :)
But was that picture real or was the bug placed there??
Lee, that’s a question for the photographer, personally I think it could be either. I do not know how this Sundew would react to a cold or dead specimen. I’d like to give Ed the benefit of the doubt but after reading his bio I think more probable this images was setup or excuse the pun “executed”. But still it is most certainly a scenario that could have occurred naturally under specific circumstances.
Ask him in his comment area or send him a private message, you never now he might be thrilled with your interest!
I've posted about the shot below Paul ...
It is older, not old
I just took the oldest digital images I could find in my catalog, dating back to 2005 or so.
definitely, the better more modern camera would make the Deer a better photo. He said he had to save the photo from the grave over the years with denoise with Topaz.
hmm... my current camera body is the EOS M6 Mark II, its release date was Sept 2019.. pretty close. But I think I'll just submit images taken with my EOS Rebel SL1 that I still have, in keeping with the spirit.
Current camera is a sony A7IV, but i loved my older sony A6400. Got some cool shots with that tiny but great camera!!
I was so pleased that you decided to comment on my shot of a cranefly caught by a sundew plant, it's an image I'm very pleased with. Just for the record, I did not "sacrifice" the insect or stage this in any way; it's just how I found it. I'm pretty certain that it was not in there the previous day. I couldn't tell if it was dead or alive, but it definitely wasn't moving. I did hesitate about sharing the shot initially; all seemed at bit "brutal". That's nature though. The "crucifixion" vibe is an unfortunate additional element. Yes it's cluttered and with a somewhat awkward composition, but just a single natural-light, hand-held shot. There's a lot going on there!
Ed, sorry to disappoint you but I was more replying to Lee Morris' comment about your image. But since you brought it up. I think it's a great image and am glad to hear it's as you found it, that's the way I shoot too. And yes you should be proud to this image. Do you know what species of sundew?
I don't know the species Paul. I'm in the UK. but I think it may have come from mainland Europe. I'll put some photographs on iNaturalist and see if I can get an ID.
I can't remember how many species of sundews there are but I do recall there are native species all over the world except Antartica. I did see one similar species with the long leaves like you photo from Africa with may have been in the video link. Not really important just wondering if it was a local native or what just the born naturalist in me.
The prize package is insane!
Thank you for picking my image to review. On that note learning to manually focus a 400mm f3.5 lens takes some practice but after awhile it is surprising how well a person can do just focusing through the view finder. You learn to not only look for the focus on the eye but to look for the focus on the highlight in the eye. Secondly, Yes Pentax is still in business, they are still in the DSLR world but I feel the user interface of their K-1 camera is the best ever, their focus was not good and the lens selection worse but the ability to set up the camera body how you wanted it is second to none.
Thanks for the work you do.
Don Wolterstorff
Thanks so much for choosing my photo as the winning image! The one CTC I missed XD. I appreciate the open and honest critiques you guys provide.
Submission deadline is 2035? Are you giving us a chance to make our current camera ‘old’?
Haha, I just checked and...you're right! Oopsy!
I started photography back when dinosaurs roamed the earth. Can you submit photos taken on film cameras, had the negatives scanned, and then did post in Lightroom?
that is what I have done for my entries
I'd love to see some of those photos of dinasaurs!!!!
"Amazing insights on photography techniques! I especially loved the part about using natural light creatively. As a pre-wedding photographer in Jaipur, I always emphasize golden hour shots for couples to achieve that dreamy look. If anyone is looking for inspiration or professional photography, check out my work at Candid Life Photography. Looking forward to more expert tips!"
Houston we have a problem the blue question mark thumbnail I complained about has struck another member and is effecting his one of his March entries. His thumbnail representation is not available and denying access to his image for voting or comment!
See Allan Savage homepage upload 18 hours ago
Contest entry 18 from the top.
The thumbnail isn't showing for me on Alan Savages entry either, but access and voting is possible.
Yes I found if you viewed from advancing from before and aft images by right or left arrows but not by clicking the empty thumbnail. The think with these blue question mark thumbnails they last in the general forum for 24hrs then they appear as they should.
It worked for me by clicking on the image placeholder.
Looks like everything is fixed. I just scrolled through every image on the page and it appears the issue is fixed.
Perhaps that why the contest doesn't end for another 3,651 days?
Dean, yes it has past the 24 hrs from Allan's original image post on his profile, when I saw the same image entered in the contest 17 hours had past from his original post meaning in 7 hours both would appear as they should.
As per your 3651 days did you account for leap years ;)
Later.
https://www.timeanddate.com/date/durationresult.html?m1=3&d1=31&y1=2025…
Touché, Dean ... uncle!
I thought we had to rush but upon closer inspection the contest does not end for another 10 years. 😂
It does appear to be still open. Yeah that was pointed out a while ago and the joke was that it was giving time for a cameras to get old. Where is management to fix... haha.
What management? This is obviously AI led site ;)
Ha I personally made this page and have no idea how 2035 was selected. No AI here, just dumb user error...AI probably would have gotten it right. We filmed the video so it will come out tomorrow or Thursday.
Hi patrick, could you update the gear in my bag option? Searching for sony cameras and other lenses, most seem to be missing. Thanks
Voting is closed and you cant enter any new submissions. 2035 came early i guess? 😆😆