Retro camera shootout: Camp Snap Pro vs. Flashback One35 V2

Interest in inexpensive digital cameras has increased over the past few years. Young people are adopting the old point-and-shoot because they see the aesthetic as more authentic and more attractive than smartphone images. companies are even reissue Old technology at new prices. And there are cameras like the original Camp Snap: a $70 single-button point-and-shoot without a screen, designed as a modern take on the disposable film camera. It’s cheap enough to send to summer camp with a kid and accessible enough for almost anyone to enjoy its lo-fi beauty.

I’m testing two attractive examples of this formula: the $99 Camp Snap Pro (aka CS-Pro), which is an upgrade of the original Camp Snap and looks a lot like an all-plastic Fujifilm X100, and the Flashback One35 V2, which costs $119 and looks exactly like a disposable camera.

Both cameras aim to give you the aesthetics and screen-free experience of a disposable film camera with the convenience of digital. One of them hits the target.

Both the Camp Snap Pro and the Flashback One35 v2 are compact and constructed from lightweight, inexpensive plastics. The Flashback is quite small, about the size of a disposable film camera, and it fits better in my back pocket. But it’s best to keep both in a jacket pocket, small bag or purse. They don’t seem as expensive as regular cameras. My wife and I have an original Camp Snap, and we often stuck it in our diaper bag without a care.

Neither camera is special when it comes to specifications (scroll down for a side-by-side comparison table). The Camp Snap Pro’s 22.5 mm-equivalent lens and 16-megapixel sensor are wider and higher resolution than the standard Camp Snap (8-megapixel, 32 mm equivalent), respectively. Flashback V2 has a 13 megapixel sensor. These basic smartphone-sized image sensors and tiny lenses provide image quality between a disposable film camera and an old phone. Unlike film, you’re not paying money for each shot. And they both feature proper xenon flashes to brightly illuminate dark settings at close distances – a look that also helps mitigate their terrible low-light performance. (The original Camp Snap’s LED flash is mostly useless and not that flashy.)

But the biggest difference between these cameras is how you use them. The Camp Snap Pro has a dial that lets you swap between four filters; The defaults are STD (Standard), VTG1 (VINTAGE 1, with warm magenta tones), VTG2 (VINTAGE 2, with green tones and boosted blues), and B&W (black and white). Each preset is user-customizable, allowing you to replace each with a custom look created in Camp Snap’s online filter builder. A community has been built around the free and paid downloadable filters in the original Camp Snap, although some are not yet available on CS-Pro. The included 4GB microSD card fits more than 1,000 photos, and you can download them via a USB-C cable or a microSD card reader.

Flashback also has four preset filters: Classic, Mono (black and white), Beta (a red-toned look), and Cine (exaggerating a teal-and-orange aesthetic). But you can only change between them in the camera’s companion app (iOS/iPad and Android), and you can use them as a “roll” for up to 27 shots at a time. Its purpose is to mimic a disposable film camera. Once you choose a filter, you’re stuck with it for the entire “roll,” although you can quickly download a roll and start over. The One35 V2 connects to a phone or tablet via Bluetooth, so you can check the battery level, enable the self-timer, or change your movie type. Wi-Fi or cable is required to download images to your device. By default, the app makes you wait 24 hours to view your images. Alternatively, images can be developed instantly by activating the camera mode, which I enabled after just one batch of shots.

It’s a nice app, but virtual roll-by-roll shooting quickly turns from engaging to annoying. I have had a few occasions when my film type did not apply to the camera, causing rolls to come out in the wrong color tones or in black and white when I thought I was shooting color. The wait to see your photos, and sometimes unexpected results, is part of the charm of analog photography, but I’ve never discarded a roll of black and white film and returned it to color or vice versa.

The One35’s dedication to the bit has other drawbacks, too. After 27 shots, you can’t use the camera again until you upload your photos to the app or computer. This negates one of the major advantages of digital cameras, not to mention the whole point of a #screenfree camera. You can’t just hand it to a kid and let them run free with it. And the reliance on a disposable-camera-style advance winder to wake it up and re-cock the shutter means you constantly miss shots. The Advance dial takes only one turn to wake the camera but about eight turns to prime the shutter. It’s not ready to shoot like a proper film disposable camera, which makes no sense for something designed around spontaneity.

When asked if the issue could have been avoided, Flashback’s external PR representative Bethany Andros told The Verge“Yes, this is a known issue that we are currently trying to fix.” A firmware update will help, but it won’t solve the Flashback’s other big handling problem: Because of the lens placement, wrapping my hand around the camera’s large grip often gets my fingers in the shot. What’s the point of a well-designed grip if you can’t use it?

As far as image quality is concerned, the Camp Snap Pro produces much sharper and clearer images than the Flashback. Even the standard Camp Snap, which I also used for comparison shots, has slightly better image quality. “Better” is of course subjective, as these cameras are all about vibes. There’s no technical sharpness or minimal noise in modern phones and full-sized cameras, but aesthetic imperfections and limitations are somewhat of an issue. I’ve also seen users within the Flashback subreddit preferring the image quality of the One35 V1 over the V2, because it seems much worse.

I recommend the Camp Snap Pro, and I can’t say the same for the Flashback. The One35 concept is fun and attractive (and its transparent variants look good). Wonderful), but by trying to replicate the physical experience of a disposable camera, it retains old flaws and adds new ones.

Camp Snap Pro focuses on disposable cameras with the utility provided before digital cameras and smartphones. It’s cheaper than Flashback, easier to use, more customizable, and offers higher image quality – but not Very High. It’s perfect for anyone who wants something a little better than a basic Camp Snap, or at least a reasonable flash. If you don’t take into account the nostalgia of the flashbacks, there’s no comparison.

Photography Antonio G. By Di Benedetto/The Verge