In 2003/04 I spent a year in the United States, working as a User Interface Designer for Siemens Medical. To document my stay I bought the smallest camera I could find. (Yes, this was before phones had cameras or were smart). I picked the Pentax Optio S4i.

The S4i was my first real camera.
It fits in the palm of my hand and I always carried it with me. It had glorious FOUR megapixels and it was shiny and perfect – but only until the S5i came out. The S5i had even FIVE megapixels and it allowed me to customize two buttons (instead of one). This was just too good. I bought the S5i and took some good pictures with her over the years.

Actually, I took my best picture with it.

This is it.

Why am I writing this?

The other day I updated my Mac’s Photos library and imported an old iPhoto library. It contained my first pictures. I looked through them and realized that many of the good ones were taken with the S5i, this one among them.

I decided to order a framed copy to hang it in my office. It arrived yesterday and it turned out pretty decent. 60×40 cm works nicely even though it is only five megapixels. And looking at it just makes me happy.

It also reminded me of the fond memories I have for S5i. Thus I had to buy one. Just to revisit it. I found a dead cheap one on eBay – and yes, I still love the S5i. The display looks ridiculous by today’s standards but the interface is well thought through. After a bit of customizing she is fast and dead simple to use. Still a great device. I did carry her in my pocket all week and started to take a few snapshots.

I am looking forward to seeing what we will come up with.