The Camp Snap CS-8 is one of the more exciting camera releases this year and is easily one of the most recognizable by actual human beings that don’t review cameras for a living. The camera has only been out in the wild for a few months and is constantly on backorder – so imagine our surprise when a recent Reddit thread revealed a CS-8 with some new features that hadn’t even been mentioned in the product’s manual. Has Camp Snap secretly updated its CS-8 in the first three months of its release?
Two New Features, No Update in Manual
As a Reddit User, johnessex3 pointed out in their post, the official product description, packaging (seen as our lead image), and user manuals do not reference or show a cold shoe mount or any audio i/o on the camera. Imagine all of our surprise when johnessex3 posted a photo of what appears to be a Camp Snap CS-8 with a very visible audio jack. A follow-up image showed a proper shoe mount. Neither of which was in the camera we reviewed earlier this month.
Shortly after the post started gaining traction on r/CampSnapCamera, Camp Snap’s official account confirmed that there is, in fact, an updated version of the CS-8 that’s not only in production but being shipped as people have their orders fulfilled. Their response (below) removes all doubt that this was a one-off production error:
We have listened to the comments and made this small change. We are working on some lights and mics too. More exciting is we’re getting close to releasing a firmware update that will: improve the sound and better represent super8 film in your video appearance. Sorry for the lack of communication. Super small team here at Camp Snap and our resources are spent mostly on shipping product and making products. I’ll try to post a sample video early next week with the new firmware. Back to coding for me. Thanks for all your support!
Prior to their comment to the original post, we reached out to Camp Snap for comment and their CEO, Brian Waldman, confirmed and added:
We recently added a cold shoe and a mic jack. We will be offering some accessories (light and mic) for the CS8. We heard several people ask for this, so we added it on.
While there were some comments on the thread that expressed displeasure over the change – early-adopter syndrome is real – overall, the community applauded Camp Snap for their transparency.
Can Two Minor Features Change Our Opinion of the Camera?
As we mulled over this story, the biggest question that it prompted was how, if at all, this would change our opinion of the camera. The inclusion of the shoe mount opens up the possibility of attaching lights to your camera, helping its small sensor produce better images in otherwise challenging lighting conditions. Additionally, the microphone jack can be useful if you’re attaching things like boom mics or even a wireless microphone system to capture audio. But I don’t know who would really want to carry all of that around. It is something we’re considering in a potential review update of the CS-8.
At ThePhoblographer, there are two early adopters who might feel a little underwhelmed by this development – both Editor-in-Chief, Chris Gampat, and I preordered the camera sight unseen, and neither of us will have an audio jack or shoe mount on copy. And while I can only speak for myself, I’m a little bummed about missing out, but still very happy with the camera.