Last Updated on 06/09/2023 by Chris Gampat
Many of us have been asking manufacturers to bring back the point and shoot camera — and we’re more or less met with brands who turn their noses up to us. Granted, the Fujifilm X100V continues to receive support, Ricoh continues to do special variants on the GR, and Leica never ceases to amaze us with the Q3. More recently, though, a few brands have popped up that give us hope that the point and shoot camera is finally coming back in a potentially big way. And best of all, it’s the same stuff that we’ve been getting from the Japanese companies.
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The Problem with the Point-and-Shoot Camera Market
If you ask every single camera brand about the point and shoot camera market, they speak about it as if it’s targeting consumers. The word “consumers” is an archaic and patriarchal originating term referring to those who reach for lower fruit than the long-necked giraffes. Those brands never saw any use going after that market when people could just use their phones. From a business standpoint — I very much agree with them. Further, I acknowledge that the Japanese manufacturers, with their literal billions of dollars, failed to catch up. Even now, they embrace the idea of the point and shoot camera as something too beneath them as they go after content creators only to offer them all too similar feature sets.
Essentially, they don’t care about the point and shoot camera market because they’re lacking ideas that they can understand. I’ve known from several conversations with brand ambassadors that they’ve gone to Japan and told them to make film point and shoot cameras. They’ve all declined for the most part.
Where the spiritual successor to Yashica ultimately ended up failing terribly, a few other brands are giving us hope.
Camp Snap
One of the new brands is called Camp Snap. Brian, the founder of the company, isn’t shying away from the fact that this is a cheaper camera. “Just to get your expectations set, this is a screen-free camera for kids to replace disposable cameras at summer camp,” he told us in an Instagram message. “As we’ve seen demand grow past the summer camp demographic, we’re currently sourcing parts to make a higher-end model where the customer can choose the lens, image sensor, and processor combination (there will be 3 options).” Brian continued to say that Camp Snap will also have a very generous upgrade option for those who are interested in trading up.
Despite the camera being designed for children, there’s something surely appealing to a millennial that’s spent much of adulthood devouring modern iterations of nostalgia. It looks a bit like a disposable camera, which we’ve reviewed tons of. Considering how craptacular the photos from disposable cameras are, we’re pretty excited about what we’re going to get.
“As we’ve seen demand grow past the summer camp demographic, we’re currently sourcing parts to make a higher-end model where the customer can choose the lens, image sensor, and processor combination (there will be 3 options).
Brian, from CampSnapPhoto
What bigger brands are lacking right now is the understanding that lots of people are willing to pay for an experience that a point and shoot camera can deliver. These cameras are small and stylish enough to hopefully have some promise.
On a personal note, I bought one — and it’s on the way to me right now.
Flashback One35
Currently fully funded on Kickstarter, the Flashback One35 is yet another point and shoot camera that’s designed to deliver that nostalgic experience sorely missing from our lives in the middle of yet another recession. Like Camp Snap, it’s designed to be aesthetic — parading around in the most seductive shades of black and white for any that adore the retro boho-chic look.
The camera “develops” the images by wirelessly sending them to a smartphone, a process that takes between 24 and 72 hours after the “roll” is finished depending on the film stock selected.
THIS CHEAP DIGITAL CAMERA HAS THE SOUL OF DISPOSABLE FILM — AND REQUIRES “DEVELOPING”
Hopefully, other brands start coming back with the types of point and shoot cameras many people want. By that, we’re not necessarily talking about the traditional photography market. Instead, we’re talking about all your friends and family that don’t consider themselves to be proper photographers in the slightest.
And that’s perfectly cool.