If you're wondering about the appeal of crappy cameras..

[Huss]

Why is it that so many people want a P&S, or even disposable/reusable camera when they can for the same money (or less!) buy something good like an AF film slr with zoom lens?
It's something that us photo experts/enthusiasts cannot fathom!

Here are some customer review comments for the Kodak M35 reusable 35mm camera. Cute plastic thing in many colours, fixed focus, one aperture, one shutter speed:

Super awesome p&s camera to carry with me, small and lightweight, great for the price and gives the same vibe I love with disposables.

I was looking to get into film photography in the simplest way possible, and this camera seemed like the most accessible way to start! The M35 is super easy to use and throw in my bag on the go, and I’m excited to get my first roll developed and start collecting some memories that are more intentional than digital photos.

I keep this in my backpack at all times now, it’s perfect for on the go adventures!!

What a fun little camera! So lightweight and easy to use, I love it!

The colors of the film camera are super cute that I had to buy 3 of them)

So cute, so light and easy to use. I’m a big fan

great alternative for disposable cameras! easy to use and affordable + super cute

I love it! It’s perfect for beginners like me.

I’m really enjoying using it. Can’t wait to finish up the film and get them developed.

I love this new film camera! It is so cute and the quality is great.

I responded to each comment and told them they were idiots that didn't know any better. It took me a while but if I can make the world a better place for it, it's worth it.

 

[MattKing]

Did you forget your sarcasm emoticon?

 

[Donald Qualls]

This is all applicable to a waterproof (via included housing) plastic 35 mm I bought recently on AliExpress after a mention by Ari Jaaksi in a video. Haven't seen any results yet, but it's mechanically sound, so I see no reason it ought to be any worse than a Holga or Diana (only on 35 mm film). I paid $9 plus IIRC $5 or so for no-hurry shipping from China...

 

[Sirius Glass]

Over many years, decades, I have gotten very good performance from P&S cameras. But now that I bought top of the line equipment when the prices were low, I use the better cameras now.

 

[faberryman]

Why is it that so many people want a P&S, or even disposable/reusable camera when they can for the same money (or less!) buy something good like an AF film slr with zoom lens? It's something that us photo experts/enthusiasts cannot fathom!

Probably because they don't want to haul around a AF film SLR with zoom lens. Film is cool. An AF film SLR with zoom lens, not so much. Would you want to carry around a cellphone like this:

 

[Huss]

Did you forget your sarcasm emoticon?

 

[MattKing]

I think we need to make Huss post more of his photos from small, obsolete format film cameras using long expired film.

 

[Moose22]

I was talking seriously about this with a younger lady I see occasionally in town. She's maybe 25 or so, shoots film, and told me things like the contax point and shoot (T2 ? ) that are so popular with kids who don't know what they're doing are just viral marketing. Some influencer or other uses them and so all the kids who see it on the instagrams think that's the shiz. Cute, simple, such pretty colors, and all that fall right in to the influencer realm of emotional appeals.

She had a P&S of some variety, much less expensive than the contax, and doesn't use it much. She'll throw it in a purse if she's going to a party for snapshots, but she doesn't even do that much. Much prefers her FM3A (as do I, which is why we're friends) for almost everything and would carry a medium format at times if it weren't too expensive for her on a per shot basis. We both are of the theory that with the expensive, trendy, P&S you pay out the ass for a camera that nobody will repair when it has a problem.

That said, I see how it works. I've been sucked in by an influencer. Got a trendy point and shoot for myself -- A $35 Work Record, which I intend to use in places where I'd rather not expose my Nikon Fs to the elements. And I guess it's "cute" with the orange buttons and all. Ugly cute. Like a plastic bulldog.

 

[NB23]

What can I say. Owning a Leica (M or Barnack), or a Nikon S, cuts thru a looooot of bullshti.

 

[Huss]

I think we need to make Huss post more of his photos from small, obsolete format film cameras using long expired film.

"cracks knuckles"

 

[Sirius Glass]

I think we need to make Huss post more of his photos from small, obsolete format film cameras using long expired film.

With film that was stored frozen or in the trunk[boot] of a hot car?

 

[Sirius Glass]

I was talking seriously about this with a younger lady I see occasionally in town. She's maybe 25 or so, shoots film, and told me things like the contax point and shoot (T2 ? ) that are so popular with kids who don't know what they're doing are just viral marketing. Some influencer or other uses them and so all the kids who see it on the instagrams think that's the shiz. Cute, simple, such pretty colors, and all that fall right in to the influencer realm of emotional appeals.

She had a P&S of some variety, much less expensive than the contax, and doesn't use it much. She'll throw it in a purse if she's going to a party for snapshots, but she doesn't even do that much. Much prefers her FM3A (as do I, which is why we're friends) for almost everything and would carry a medium format at times if it weren't too expensive for her on a per shot basis. We both are of the theory that with the expensive, trendy, P&S you pay out the ass for a camera that nobody will repair when it has a problem.

That said, I see how it works. I've been sucked in by an influencer. Got a trendy point and shoot for myself -- A $35 Work Record, which I intend to use in places where I'd rather not expose my Nikon Fs to the elements. And I guess it's "cute" with the orange buttons and all. Ugly cute. Like a plastic bulldog.

Would you have become friends of she did not favor the the FM3A?

 

[Huss]

Rollei A110, garbage expired Lomo Orca

 

[Huss]

Would you have become friends of she did not favor the the FM3A?

I find that very elitist. But like on a 2nd tier level, after all Nikon, ya know?

 

[Paul Howell]

I do not post as I don't want my work reposted without my permission, saying that I have a wide range of film cameras ranging from Minolta 9 to point and shoot, in between, Minolta, Konica, Sigma, Petri, Kowa, and Topcon. Lately I've been shooting with point and shoots, older fixed 35mm 2.8, with AF, Konica Off Road 28 3.5, Pentax WR zoom, and midlevel zooms like the Stylus Deluxe 80. Image quality can be quite good, lens will resolve Tmax 400 and Ektar 100, down side is most of zooms are quite slow. Not much in the way of control, the viewfinders are small, and early AF point and shoots have iffy AF. Still, taking a morning walk I pick up a point and shoot, second body when traveling, some good for street shooting, quite, easy to keep out of sight. I've shot dust storms, monsoon rain, and the Blue Lagoon in Iceland with my Minolta Weathermatic. Not something I would want to do with my Minolta 9. The 9 it's self maybe weather sealed, the lens are not.

 

[mtnbkr]

Rollei A110, garbage expired Lomo Orca

God I want an A110 so bad for reasons I can't articulate other than it's cute and I want a pocketable film camera. I have to remind myself that my cellphone takes significantly better pictures and I already have it with me all the time.

Chris

 

[Moose22]

Would you have become friends of she did not favor the the FM3A?

Yes. Because I also shoot an M3 and she's a leicophile. That's how we met. Her coworker spotted the camera as I walked past their restaurant and asked about it, she saw it and came trotting over, then we chatted photography. So it's not just my Nikon she fawns over, right?

Seriously, yes, and because she's a damned nice person. As is her coworker for whom I procured an F3 -- I sold him my backup and bought another one later.

I normally don't connect to people under 30, but I'm happy to encourage pleasant people interested in my hobbies, and chat with them so I learn something from their perspective.

 

[Moose22]

I find that very elitist. But like on a 2nd tier level, after all Nikon, ya know?

Not elitest at all. Just a case of "I love the needle meter! So much nicer than the +- thing in the F3" and then we just chat about film. Hers was a gift and she uses the crap out of it. So very egalitarian and user oriented. Kind if like liking the same band being enough to want a girl to go out with you... except I'm not 19 anymore, but you get it.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Yes. Because I also shoot an M3 and she's a leicophile. That's how we met. Her coworker spotted the camera as I walked past their restaurant and asked about it, she saw it and came trotting over, then we chatted photography. So it's not just my Nikon she fawns over, right?

Seriously, yes, and because she's a damned nice person. As is her coworker for whom I procured an F3 -- I sold him my backup and bought another one later.

I normally don't connect to people under 30, but I'm happy to encourage pleasant people interested in my hobbies, and chat with them so I learn something from their perspective.

Well being a Leicaphile explains it all. That is like a junior level Hasselblad.

 

[Huss]

Not elitest at all. Just a case of "I love the needle meter! So much nicer than the +- thing in the F3" and then we just chat about film. Hers was a gift and she uses the crap out of it. So very egalitarian and user oriented. Kind if like liking the same band being enough to want a girl to go out with you... except I'm not 19 anymore, but you get it.

My comment was elitist.


Of course we are attracted - on many different levels - to others who share interests. Part of which is why we are here on Photrio!
But before you lot ask, no, I'm not attracted attracted to any of you. Bunch of ugly curmudgeons.. (takes one to know one).

 

[MattKing]

I agree with all those reviews, even if I'm blessed with a whole bunch of really high quality photographic equipment, and enough ability to get some decent results from it.
I used to work in retail, and sold lots of very basic cameras, and oodles of film and photofinishing to people who used them. Those customers were incredibly well served by the simple equipment they bought, and the capabilities of the film and photofinishing they bought. They frequently were really happy to share with me the joy they got from what they had and what they did with it.
To quote my late, Kodak manager father from the 1970s or so, "there have been far more really good photographs taken with Instamatics than all the 35mm SLRs combined".
126 Kodachrome from the 1970s - Dad's the one in the hat, and that's me in blue:

 

[Craig75]

What can I say. Owning a Leica (M or Barnack), or a Nikon S, cuts thru a looooot of bullshti.

Or just perpetuates it

 

[Moose22]

"there have been far more really good photographs taken with Instamatics than all the 35mm SLRs combined".

View attachment 299514

One of my favorite photos -- and best -- was taken with a disposable landscape camera. One that shot 135 but super wide. They're in a box somehere in my storage so I don't have the example online, but I carried disposables hiking on a lark. At the end of a hiking expedition on Catalina I had a frame to kill and some friends were playing with their glider and stearman (both 1943 models) and the light was perfect. Took a shot of the stearman in front of a couple of hangars and, regardless of the crappy camera, it was beautiful. The landscape format was a plus, the light was directional and golden... cheapest equipment I owned, obviously.

And that's a nice family portrait. Having seen your self portrait with your Mamiya, the apple did not fall too far from your parents. Technical perfection wouldn't make it better. The best camera you have is the one that's with you when you see something you want to photograph.

 

[Sirius Glass]

I agree with all those reviews, even if I'm blessed with a whole bunch of really high quality photographic equipment, and enough ability to get some decent results from it.
I used to work in retail, and sold lots of very basic cameras, and oodles of film and photofinishing to people who used them. Those customers were incredibly well served by the simple equipment they bought, and the capabilities of the film and photofinishing they bought. They frequently were really happy to share with me the joy they got from what they had and what they did with it.
To quote my late, Kodak manager father from the 1970s or so, "there have been far more really good photographs taken with Instamatics than all the 35mm SLRs combined".
126 Kodachrome from the 1970s - Dad's the one in the hat, and that's me in blue:
View attachment 299514

I sold many Instamatic 104's at E J Korvettes the summer of 1965 and no one ever came back to complain.

 

[NB23]

Or just perpetuates it

Impossible. Such perfect mechanical objects rapidly put everything into the correct perspective.