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A New Camera For The Spring

 Looking back at the blog I realise that I missed February. We've been having a run in with family illness; so it's likely there will be a couple of gaps this year.

Sunrise as seen by my Camp Snap
Anyway, I have found a new camera to play with. I enjoy using an old film camera and I post a lot of random photos from film on my Lomography page (it's here). One of the fun things about film photography is not having a little preview screen to check you have the picture you hoped you were getting. You really have to think through your shot and set everything up correctly beforehand before you open the shutter. It could be weeks later that you develop the film and see what happened. The rest of the time I have a nice Fujifilm X-T50 which performs all of the digital magic you could possibly need. However, while this is one of the smallest digital mirrorless cameras, it isn't exactly pocket sized. I have a number of film cameras that are pocket sized and these are great, but they have a maximum of 36 shots before you need to start carrying film cartridges in your other pocket. Also, having a camera in your pocket that's got the right film for a day walking about in the sunshine isn't useful when you see a nice scene on a walk through town at night.

Handy to have a camera in my pocket when those geese flew by
Enter the Camp Snap camera, a name that is mildly amusing in the UK but makes sense in the US where they invented it (they are here). This is sold as a "screenless digital camera" and it's modelled on the cheap and cheerful point and shoot cameras of the 1980s, complete with a wee optical viewfinder. I have the latest one which can be loaded up with one of a number of digital "filters" which control the final rendering of the image. Mine has a KodaClone filter installed and its final images look like they were taken on a Kodak disposable loaded with the old Gold film. It has no screen and all of the excess electronics that go with that. It has a fixed focus lens and auto exposure and auto-ISO. Once it is set up you only need the one button which starts and stops the camera and takes the pictures. It has a frame counter on the back to let you know when maybe it would be a good idea to load everything onto your computer and see what you've got. And it has a nice little LED flash for murkier lighting conditions. However the auto-ISO allows you to take very nice night shots hand-held.

It takes a nice night shot too.

So now I sometimes post a digital image from my Camp Snap on my Lomography page where it looks right at home beside the film pictures that are already there. 


Sunset as seen by my Camp Snap

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