noun
Dated term for a photographic camera; in modern Japanese, カメラ is overwhelmingly more common.
See also: カメラ
祖父は若い頃、写真機で風景を撮っていた。
When my grandfather was young, he took landscape photos with a camera.
The standard modern word for 'camera'; 写真機 is an older, more formal term now largely replaced by カメラ.
Compound of 写真 (shashin, 'photograph') and 機 (ki, 'machine, device'). The exact historical derivation is uncertain, but the term follows a common pattern for naming mechanical devices.