Konica Revio Z2 (Selfie’s before they were)

The Konica Revio Z2 has a built in mirror to help with composing a self portrait while holding the camera. No sorry millennials you didn’t invent it much like everything else. Flipping screens and front facing cameras on cell phones aren’t where this all started. I don’t know when the first person tried mounting a mirror on their camera but it probably wasn’t long after photography was invented. I have a Minolta disk camera with a built in front mirror that dates from 1983 but I’m sure some investigation could turn up earlier examples

Even when the mirror isn’t on the camera for composing, people have been shooting their reflected image for a very long time.

The Robert Runyon Photograph Collection, [Mother and child in front of mirror], courtesy of The Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin
Of course you can use a self timer or a remote release with a camera mounted on a tripod but those images would mostly fall under the self portrait end of the spectrum a selfie is something a little more while being a little less.

I took this ‘Selfie’ more than 25 years ago on Kodachrome 64 (gone) while taking the VIA train across Canada (gone, the route not the Country)

So before there were selfies there was self portraits…what’s the difference anyway? Here is a handy little chart to help discern if you are taking a self-portrait or a selfie.

And here is my selfie using the Konica Z2 with terrible APS film of course (Note the bonus mirror reflection in the elevator)