[HN Gopher] Nintendo DS cameras are the best lo-fi photo trend
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Nintendo DS cameras are the best lo-fi photo trend
Author : PaulHoule
Score : 117 points
Date : 2023-08-15 12:17 UTC (10 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.polygon.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.polygon.com)
| purpleflame1257 wrote:
| There was a time when the DSi was integrated with Facebook for
| direct uploading of the photos you shot on it. The resolution
| that it took pictures at (640x480) was considerably higher than
| the resolution it could display on screen (256x192), so it isn't
| as crazy as it sounds.
| robotnikman wrote:
| I think it also had integration with Twitter too iirc
|
| I think I still have my DSi laying around in a drawer
| somewhere.
| purpleflame1257 wrote:
| There is an active homebrew community making everything from
| video players to emulators.
| AshamedCaptain wrote:
| > the cameras are the perfect way to nostalgically capture the
| low-fidelity look of the 2010s.
|
| Yeah, try more like the 90s. The earliest digital cameras (think
| Apple Quicktake) took better shots than even the 3DS.
| wanderingjew wrote:
| You're right. This was taken with a Quicktake 150:
|
| https://640by480.com/posts/397/
| cubefox wrote:
| The journalist who wrote this was probably a kid until
| recently.
| lapetitejort wrote:
| The best digital camera looks leagues better than the DSi
| camera, but the DSi camera was the only camera some kids have
| in the early 2010s, hence the comparison. "The best camera is
| the one you have on you."
| grishka wrote:
| Another way to get this "what even _is_ a dynamic range " look is
| an old camera phone. I'm sure you can buy them for pennies these
| days.
| cubefox wrote:
| When digital cameras were new, you could spot when they had
| been used to shoot some TV segment. The generally white sky
| gave it away. Nowadays their dynamic range probably is a lot
| better than analog video or film.
| luketheobscure wrote:
| Reminds me of when filmmakers in the 90's rediscovered the
| Fisher-Price Pixelvision https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PXL2000
| cowholio4 wrote:
| The Gameboy photos are great
| https://www.instagram.com/p/Cbu8a3fLkgx/?img_index=1
|
| There are even mods to add a better lens.
| https://hackaday.com/2021/12/19/gameboy-gets-ridiculously-go...
| TranquilMarmot wrote:
| Back in the day, I used to take photos CONSTANTLY with my 3DS. I
| got some really cool shots with it, I should go find it in my
| closet and see if I can yank them off of it.
| 2-718-281-828 wrote:
| i'm not sure what to make of that and what term to use to convey
| my skepticism. let me try ... how about cargo cult retro cult? or
| artificial authenticity? or try-hard artsy romanticism? i'm
| missing the organic aspect about this. seems like it has just
| been decided that taking lo-fi pics with some old lo-fi cam is
| now meaningful and deserves attention ...
| Spivak wrote:
| It's the magnetic pole flip after twenty years of better
| meaning more pixels, more accurate color representation,
| perfect lighting and staging, more frames, Dolby EarFucker 9.1
| stereo, Quantum LED Rendering, Hi-Fi Cannabis.
|
| It's new-age impressionism.
| [deleted]
| 2-718-281-828 wrote:
| i get your point but what's missing is a motivation to use
| this lo-fi tech beyond it being lo-fi for the sake of the
| pole flip.
| hbn wrote:
| What's the motivation to paint a picture of a scene in
| front of you when cameras exist?
| monknomo wrote:
| I think the motivation for almost any style is to be cool.
|
| Whether you think folks have that motivation organically,
| or you think this article is trying to manufacture cool, or
| if the article is just describing something that exists,
| I'd guess that's the motivation.
|
| Were I inclined to question it, I'd wonder how many people
| think it is cool or are on this trend. Sometimes one or two
| popular people can make something look popular, when it is
| really that the people themselves are the popular part.
| Spivak wrote:
| And also I think because after a while you get sick of
| $current_trend and want something different.
|
| Old tech is in the sweet spot right now of providing
| something that is different, difficult to imitate, cheap,
| anti-consumerist, sparks new kinds of creativity, and
| giving new life to otherwise trash.
|
| I like this trend far more than everyone buying new
| polaroid cameras because you have to reuse.
| COM9 wrote:
| I donno, but _cargo cult retro cult_ would sure make a good
| band name.
| tanjtanjtanj wrote:
| This is how the modern term Hipster (as opposed to the older
| one from the Jazz scene) is defined. A culture that takes,
| sometimes ironically, aesthetics from movements and cultures
| completely divorced from their original connotation.
| movedx wrote:
| I think I see what you're saying, but this is, essentially:
| culture. It's expression. It's art for those who consider it
| art. If you find it cringe, then it's not art from your
| perspective, it's a fad. It will always be culture and a "sign
| of the times", if you like.
|
| You can learn a lot about a society by studying these art
| forms.
| 2-718-281-828 wrote:
| i don't think this qualifies as "culture" in a meaningful way
| - technically it is of course part of culture as pretty much
| anything is.
|
| why am i even complaining, duh? well, because it seems there
| is more of "culture" like this popping up during the past
| whatever years. i don't exactly want to blame anybody. i
| think it is an expression of a perceived void and
| arbitrariness people try to fight by attempting to
| manufacture meaning. i suppose it just doesn't work that way.
| to be even more blunt this appears to me about as culturally
| relevant as some vintage tiktok filter (not even sure that
| exists but i guess you get my point).
| movedx wrote:
| Well there you go: you're analysing it and asking what it
| means. What it represents.
|
| I think it represents a lack of creativity coming out of
| main stream Hollywood and other "big ticket" industries.
| Nothing seems original any more. It's _mostly_ all
| polished, formulaic junk in my opinion (I loved the Barbie
| movie though - super fun.)
|
| So from my perspective, this sort of thing is culture in
| that informs us how our society is thinking and what it
| values.
| lostmsu wrote:
| It is a marketing campaign.
| [deleted]
| imiric wrote:
| What's wrong with someone appreciating art, technology or
| culture from decades ago? Many people still enjoy vinyl
| records, film photography, typewriters, vintage cars, vintage
| fashion, and all sorts of unpopular items and activities. And
| that's alright.
| touisteur wrote:
| Typewriters... Oh if I could get my hands on a working
| selectrix and years of supply of ink and spare parts for less
| than the price of a kidney I'd be using it all the time,
| pages would fly and neighbours would whine. It would probably
| make me more happy than 90% of my 'stuff'. Some things _felt_
| better before, and I can understand the sadness of not seeing
| more (in my case) mass-produced electromechanic tech today or
| that they haven 't survived, at least in affordable form.
| HeyLaughingBoy wrote:
| I don't know if that's what's going on here, but sometimes
| limiting the medium gives rise to an artform in itself. Someone
| with an art history background could probably provide a clearer
| explanation but I'm thinking of things like "mail art:"
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_art or the series the
| Minneapolis Institute of Arts did for a couple of years called
| "Art in a Box" (I think I remember that right) where anyone
| could send in any artwork that fit in a 1'x1'x1' cube and they
| would display it.
|
| IOW maybe the entire point is using the reduced resolution and
| color space as a new form of expression.
| hbn wrote:
| There's been a pretty robust rom-hacking community for Super
| Mario World that dates back to the 2000s, and it's something
| I always thought was really cool. It's led to some really
| awesome games coming out that are far more interesting to me
| being that they're built off an antiquated engine that ran on
| a 16-bit console from the 90's. There were plenty of other
| custom Mario level programs out there, like Super Mario Bros
| X which was an engine entirely made from scratch for PC. But
| that never interested me nearly as much, because people were
| writing Lua scripts that could do anything, and could
| leverage modern PC processing power. I thought it was way
| cooler to see what people pulled off when having to deal with
| sprite limitations, and having to write all the code in
| assembly. It really bred a whole other layer of creativity.
|
| Plus a lot of the games could actually be played on a physic
| console if you loaded the ROM onto a SNES flash cart.
| jonathantf2 wrote:
| I've seen quite a few people at concerts recording on a DS or 3DS
| - can't seem to find any clips but the video and audio are both
| horrendous, obviously not meant to be able to cope with the
| volume in these places.
| [deleted]
| butz wrote:
| This lo-fi trend makes easier to build an alternative to
| Instagram and Youtube. Using modern compression techniques, low
| resolution and framerate requirements make bandwidth a non issue.
| And low user count helps too.
| rthomas6 wrote:
| > the cameras are the perfect way to nostalgically capture the
| low-fidelity look of the 2010s
|
| Am I old now? Is 35 old?
| p0ppe wrote:
| The low-fidelity look of heavily filtered Instagram-photos that
| was trendy in the 2010s.
| cramjabsyn wrote:
| I'd always attributed the lofi music videos as a post demarco
| thing, diy indie from the 2010s
| anthk wrote:
| lofi music has been in use since the 90's on hiphop remixes
| with obvious sources coming from really old vynils/acetates.
| [deleted]
| hbn wrote:
| My favorite band, Vulfpeck, do a similar thing. Their videos
| (edited by band leader Jack Stratton) usually have a heavy
| film-grain filter applied. Though that doesn't stop him from
| doing absurdly tight zooms in editing, occasionally turning the
| screen into a mess of barely-discernible pixels.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le0BLAEO93g
| 01100011 wrote:
| 3DS prices have held up pretty well over the last year or so. I
| keep waiting for them to drop because they make decent retro
| handhelds, especially when rooted.
| tanjtanjtanj wrote:
| The price shot up during the collector-crazy era of Covid
| shutdowns. I was able to get a Japanese version of a new 3DS XL
| this year very cheaply and it can easily be flashed to English
| firmware.
| 01100011 wrote:
| Ah, I was wondering if the Japanese version would suffice
| since they seem to sell at a discount to the US version.
| Thanks.
| JansjoFromIkea wrote:
| You'll probably get an original 3DS cheapish eventually, but
| the New 3DS models are gonna hold their prices and probably go
| up I imagine. The most advanced way to play the whole library
| on a system with the intended form factor, a lot of reason to
| not sell and a lot of reason to buy one as your primary DS
| device for the future. I got a new 3DS XL in 2018 for about $60
| and I've hardly ever seen them come close to that price since.
| Pretty sure they've gone up in price since then if anything.
|
| DSi XL seems relatively underpriced at the moment too
| considering it's the only device with the original DS
| resolution that offers a pair of screens within the size range
| people expect as bare minimum now. Once you focus on how the
| resolution is off playing DS games on 3DS it can get pretty
| annoying (you can play native res with a ton of dead screen
| space too, mind). Wildly easy to hack too. DSi in particular
| can be a great gift now for how cheap they go with all the
| rooted stuff.
| purpleflame1257 wrote:
| The real secret of the DSi XL is that it is the only model
| guaranteed to have two IPS screens, which not even the New
| 3DS XL is 100 percent on.
| lapetitejort wrote:
| I pulled out my New 3DS XL to play Professor Layton DS games
| to satisfy my puzzle itch. Game designers seemed to
| understand the format so well, especially for slower thinking
| games. Taking notes on the screen with the stylus helps with
| the puzzles, something I haven't see reproduced on the Switch
| or phone. The 3/DS may be the last truly different game
| console we'll ever have. The only way I could see it topped
| is if Nintendo finally stops teasing us and makes a VR-only
| console.
| muraiki wrote:
| I remember that there was a company that would somehow print out
| the 3DS photos in a way that they could be seen in 3D (probably
| with limited viewing angles). I'm sure there's some photography
| term here that I'm totally unaware of. I'd love to find a way to
| do this.
| PaulHoule wrote:
| I used to take stereograms with my Nintendo 3DS, see
|
| https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/66345709
|
| (What looks like blurry color snaps look 3-d through red-cyan
| glasses). People in that thread recommended a better stereo
| camera and that is what I use now.
|
| Years before that I got mentioned in _Nintendo Power_ because of
| snaps I took with the original Game Boy Camera.
| mydriasis wrote:
| These are great. Have any more? I busted out my anachrome
| originals.
| PaulHoule wrote:
| Here is one I took with the Ego
|
| https://gen5.info/$/6-*XERJ0LO3S1GNQP/
|
| For a long time my photography has been secondary to printing
| things onto cards, that is an 8.5x11 card with a QR code on
| the back, if you scan it you go to that page. I have a bunch
| of cardboard anaglyph glasses so of course I give one out
| when I give out an anaglyph card.
|
| Lately I've been getting into "straight-to-web" publishing
| again since I find my photos do really well on Mastodon.
| mydriasis wrote:
| Wow! That one really pops!
| dmonitor wrote:
| I've seen pictures from people taking their 3DS/DSi to concerts
| and snapping photos. Its pretty fun.
|
| Semi-related, but flipnote studio is another example of DS-era
| tech being trendy. The art style imposes very interesting
| limitations.
| wombat-man wrote:
| People took videos at 100 gecs shows. You really can't hear
| much, it's too loud for the mic or something.
| isoprophlex wrote:
| 100 gecs is too loud for _people_ , lol
| crooked-v wrote:
| This reminds me that with all of the indie retro handheld trend,
| I still wish there was one with basically the New 3DS XL form
| factor, two screens and all. It worked so well for a ton of stuff
| and was a perfect size for (large) pockets.
| lapetitejort wrote:
| The Retroid Pocket Flip is one screen short of your perfect
| handheld.
|
| https://www.goretroid.com/collections/retro-game-system/prod...
| frandroid wrote:
| The gameboy camera was a lot neater. You could take and print
| fax-quality 2" pictures with it. Now that's really lo-fi.
| madrox wrote:
| The turn of the century tech was an awkward phase I didn't ever
| think we'd look back on with nostalgia, but between this and the
| low-poly video games that have come back around like BattleBits I
| guess you can long for any time past if it is associated with a
| carefree time in your life.
| thih9 wrote:
| > I guess you can long for any time past if it is associated
| with a carefree time in your life.
|
| I have yet to see someone romanticize 90s dial-up loading
| times.
|
| I don't mean a simulation or reenacting, but a genuine "How I
| wish my Internet was as slow as in the 90s" sentiment.
| hbn wrote:
| Another reason for the low-poly video games is that it enables
| small/indie developers to make a 3D game without worrying about
| the insane overhead of getting ahold of fancy-looking models
| that probably will look like garbage anyway if you don't
| animate them properly. A low poly model isn't gonna so easily
| stumble its way into the depths of the uncanny valley.
| mywittyname wrote:
| Also, they fix a lot of the issues that early game consoles
| had.
|
| For example, affine texture mapping and the pixel popping
| that really gave the PSX its distinct flavor is completely
| gone from modern games that try to emulate it. Or the SNESes
| texture warping in mode 7. Or the N64s very monotonous
| textures (or essentially black and white video due to
| compression).
|
| If a game _really_ tried to replicate the PSX or N64, I don
| 't think people would like the result. Modern sensibilities
| appreciate the idealized aesthetics, but not the rough edges.
| codetrotter wrote:
| > affine texture mapping and the pixel popping that really
| gave the PSX its distinct flavor is completely gone from
| modern games that try to emulate it
|
| > [...]
|
| > If a game really tried to replicate the PSX or N64, I
| don't think people would like the result.
|
| I have some terrible news for you my friend.
|
| https://danielilett.com/2021-11-06-tut5-21-ps1-affine-
| textur...
|
| PlayStation 1 Affine Texture Mapping in Shader Code
| mywittyname wrote:
| That's not bad news at all. I'm not surprised that
| someone reinvented it. In fact, I love it. I love
| "demakes", where someone tries to recreate a modern game
| on actual old hardware.
|
| However, I stand by my assertion that people who didn't
| experience these effects first hand wouldn't like it.
|
| Valheim is beautiful, no doubt, but it's not really
| authentically old school. It's an idealized throwback -
| its what 20 year olds think a PSX looked like. There's
| also zero chance it would look nearly as good if it had
| to run on actual PSX hardware.
| araes wrote:
| What? Per WP, "All Nintendo DS models combined have sold 154.02
| million units". No nostalgia for the best selling Nintendo
| system ever, the best selling handheld ever, and the second
| best selling console ever? PS2 only got to 155 million before
| Sony stopped with numbers. I get not liking it personally, yet
| it was one of the most successful videogame events ever.
| madrox wrote:
| I'm not convinced past popularity necessarily equates to
| nostalgia, but as this case demonstrates I may be wrong.
| alephnerd wrote:
| Depends on which generation you are. If you were in
| elementary school in the 80s or 90s like I presume most HN
| commentators have, the DS doesn't have much nostalgic value
| compared to someone who grew up in the 2000s or 2010s.
| eternityforest wrote:
| The tech was amazing relative to what the basic science of the
| time allowed.
|
| I love modern phones, but I often wonder what we would have
| done back in the day with current silicon.
| 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
| I loved how I could take out my DS at lunch in highschool and
| connect directly to another person across the room to play
| Mario Kart, no network required.
| extraduder_ire wrote:
| It's a shame "download play" went away with more modern
| consoles, the DS and the PSP both had a version of it, but
| the DS one was far more common.
|
| I recently discovered that the switch has a feature to
| "Match Version with Local Users", if you want to play over
| p2p wifi, which syncs everybody's game to the latest
| version that's available in the group. Never used local
| multiplayer on a switch though, and I imagine it wouldn't
| play too nicely with pirated games. (though, I'm constantly
| surprised by what the NX homebrew community creates)
| hbn wrote:
| You can still do this on Switch, I played local Mario Kart
| co-op with my friend on a camping trip a couple years back.
|
| Though there's no Download Play any more. Though I can't
| say I really miss it all that much. It was practically an
| upselling/demo feature. I recall playing Mario Kart DS
| local co-op, and if you didn't have the game you had to
| play as a Shy Guy. It's not really going to be a fun
| competition with friends if the host has an advantage.
| tm-guimaraes wrote:
| I also recently had some pokemon link battles, trades,
| ane raids with friends without wifi. (It has a "connected
| to online services" and "disconnected" states, fun thing
| is that while disconnected the codes to join rooms (ie
| local) are 4 numbers instead of 6 alphanumerics)
|
| Switch still allows local multiplayer if the games
| implement it.
| Xenoamorphous wrote:
| I'm older than you.
|
| https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c8/D
| u...
| Yhippa wrote:
| Probably figured out a way to cram maximum
| telemetry/analytics/surveillance and make advertising
| pervasicenin those devices
| tedunangst wrote:
| Okay, but why would I want to use a DS instead of my Kodak DC210?
| dfxm12 wrote:
| You can't play Phoenix Wright vs Professor Layton on the Kodak
| DC210.
| giantrobot wrote:
| Not with that attitude you can't.
| mcphage wrote:
| There was a game for the DSi that used the camera for head
| tracking 3D. It was really charming but the quality of the DSi
| camera made it hard to get working right. I'd love to see play it
| with a nicer camera, but I don't think that'll ever happen,
| unless DS emulators have camera support.
| agumonkey wrote:
| And if that's not enough, there's a Gameboy preset here
| https://doodad.dev/dither-me-this/
| butz wrote:
| That teletext preset, though...
| zimpenfish wrote:
| The Spectrum preset is cheating - it gave me several places
| where there's 3 or 4 colours in an 8x8 space (which, as any
| Spectroid knows, cannot happen.)
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