The Gameboy Color from the late Nineties had a camera module you could buy separately. I owned one of them and I remember enjoying it, particularly paired with the Gameboy printer. But, just how bad was the quality back then?
When I was just entering my teens, I begged my parents for a mobile phone (back then, they weren't a staple of life yet) and eventually I got one. Then, at some point in 2001, I got a Sony Ericsson T68i. The reason I wanted this particular phone was that it came with this chubby, plug-in camera that allowed you to take photographs. I had one for my Gameboy already and enjoyed it, but I knew I'd always have my phone on me, so I wanted that one too.
I can't find an example shot with it, but I remember thinking it was really quite good. I'd enjoyed the Gameboy camera and it felt like an upgrade. Before I watched this video by Vuhlandes, I couldn't remember what the images looked like, but I had a rough approximation as a memory and now I've watched the video, I can say I was way off.
It's really quite remarkable how far we've come in a little of two decades. The Gameboy camera was a real hot item back in the late Nineties and it was common to see printed photos on pinboards in your friends' rooms. Now, I look at the images taken with it by a professional photographer, and I can't see what on earth I was enjoying about it!
There is of course diminishing returns, but it's hard not to wonder how absurdly awful our current tech will be in the 2040s.
honestly, my first camera :D