Get away with your fancy tech, a toy camera can help get your mojo back
Full disclosure: I have a penchant for quirky, cheap toy cameras. I love the low-fi quality and weird anomalies that cheap plastic lenses produce. I was an early adopter of ‘Lomography’ and have a growing collection of oddball cameras. So I was delighted when the Camp Snap camera appeared on my Instagram feed. Think disposable camera but with a digital sensor instead of a roll of film.
It is a delightfully simple camera that I bought for about $60 (£47). The Camp Snap is designed for kids on holiday camps with the idea that they can remain ‘present’ without distraction by screens. So there is no screen. There’s very little to the camera, in fact – a shutter release that doubles as the on-off button and a flash setting, which has three options: on, off and auto.
Images can only be viewed after connecting the camera to a computer via a USB-C cable, which doubles as the charging socket. The plastic lens has a field of view equivalent to about 35mm, which is perfect for me as that’s more or less the only focal length I use anyway.
Liberated from the cutting edge
To be honest, it’s not just kids that could do with remaining photographically ‘present’, so this camera is perfect for most adults, too. Me included.
I’ve taken it on a couple of recent international trips and had a great experience. Being free of the shackles of settings, menus, and all the other bells and whistles associated with modern digital cameras was liberating. Being in the moment and embracing looking without being encumbered by technology is a beautiful experience. The toy-ness of the camera makes me behave less preciously about my image-making, too, and this is also a refreshing way to connect with the world photographically. This mindful way of connecting with the world is important to me, and it’s gaining popularity.
Let’s be
