Vibe Camera Shootout: Camp Snap Pro Vs. Flashback One35 V2

The last few years have seen a surge in interest in inexpensive digital cameras. Younger people are catching on to the old point-and-shoots because they find the aesthetics more authentic and attractive than smartphone images. Companies are balanced re-release old technology at new prices. And there are cameras like the original Camp Snap: a $70, screenless, one-button point-and-shoot device designed as a modern, disposable film camera. It’s cheap enough to take your kid to summer camp with, and affordable enough that its lo-fi aesthetic can be enjoyed by anyone.

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

Both cameras aim to give you the screenless aesthetic and experience of a disposable film camera with the convenience of digital. One of them hits the mark.

Both the Camp Snap Pro and the Flashback One35 V2 are compact and made of lightweight, inexpensive plastic. The Flashback is noticeably smaller, about the size of a disposable film camera, and fits better in my back pocket. But both are best carried in a jacket pocket, small bag or purse. It doesn’t feel precious like regular cameras. My wife and I both own the original Camp Snap and have often tossed it in our diaper bag without a problem.

Neither camera is special when it comes to specs (scroll down for a side-by-side comparison chart). The Camp Snap Pro’s 22.5mm-equivalent lens and 16-megapixel sensor are wider and higher-resolution than the standard Camp Snap (8-megapixel, 32mm-equivalent). The Flashback V2 has a 13-megapixel sensor. These basic smartphone-sized image sensors and tiny lenses deliver image quality somewhere between a disposable film camera and an old phone. Unlike film, you don’t pay money for each frame. And both have proper xenon flashes for bright illumination of dark environments at close range – a sought-after look that also helps mitigate their terrible low-light performance. (The original Camp Snap LED flash is mostly useless and not that flattering.)

But the biggest difference between these cameras is how you use them. Camp Snap Pro has a wheel that allows you to switch between four filters; the default values ​​are STD (standard), VTG1 (vintage 1, with a warm magenta tone), VTG2 (vintage 2, with a green tone and enhanced blue tone), and B&W (black and white). Each preset is customizable, allowing you to replace them with your own look created in the online Camp Snap Filter Builder. The original Camp Snap has a community built around free and paid filters to download, although some are not yet available on CS-Pro. The included 4GB microSD card can hold more than 1,000 photos and you can download them using 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 cinema (exaggerating the green-orange aesthetic). However, you can only switch between them in the companion camera app (iOS / iPad and Android), and you can use them as “roles” for up to 27 images at once. This is meant to mimic a disposable film camera. Once you select a filter, it stays with it for the duration of the “role”, although you can download the role earlier and start over. The One35 V2 pairs with your phone or tablet via Bluetooth, allowing you to check the battery level, enable the self-timer or change the movie type. Downloading images to your device requires either Wi-Fi or a cable. By default, the app makes you wait 24 hours for your images to appear. Alternatively, images can be instantly recalled by activating Digicam mode, which I activated after just one batch of images.

It’s a nice app, but virtual role-playing shooters quickly turn from charming to annoying. I’ve had a few occasions where my film type didn’t work for the camera, causing the rolls to come out in wrong color tones or black and white when I thought I was shooting in color. Waiting for your photos and the occasional unexpected result is part of the magic of analog photography, but I’ve never dropped a roll of black and white film to have it come back in color or vice versa.

One35 bit dedication has other disadvantages as well. After 27 shots, you can’t use the camera again until you send your shots to the app or computer. This negates one of the main advantages of digital cameras, not to mention the whole point of a #screenfree camera. You can’t just hand it to a child and turn them loose with them. And its reliance on a disposable camera-style winder to wake it up and re-cock the shutter means you’ll miss shots all the time. The advance dial only takes one turn to wake up the camera, but about eight to activate the shutter. It doesn’t stay ready to shoot like a proper disposable film camera, which doesn’t make sense for something designed around spontaneity.

When asked if the issue could be worked around, Flashback’s external PR representative, Bethany Andros, responded The Verge“Yes, this is a known issue that we are working on right now. A firmware update will help, but won’t solve the Flashback’s other big handling problem: due to the placement of the lens, wrapping my hand around the camera’s large handle often results in my fingers getting caught in the shot. What’s the point of having a nicely shaped grip if you can’t use it?

In terms of image quality, the Camp Snap Pro delivers a significantly sharper and cleaner image than the Flashback. Even the standard Camp Snap, which I also used for comparison shots, has slightly better image quality. “Better” is subjective, of course, because these cameras are all about vibration. There’s none of the technical sharpness or minimal noise we’re used to with modern phones and full-size cameras, but the aesthetic flaws and limitations are kind of the point. I even ran into users on the Flashback subreddit who preferred the One35 V1’s image quality over the V2’s because it looks worse.

I recommend Camp Snap Pro and I just can’t say the same about Flashback. The One35 concept is fun and cute (and its transparent variants look amazing), but by trying to replicate the physical experience of a single-use camera, it ends up preserving old flaws and adding new ones.

Camp Snap Pro focuses on the useful disposable cameras that were available in the days before digital cameras and smartphones. It’s cheaper than Flashback, easier to use, more customizable, and provides higher image quality – but no too high. It’s perfect for someone who wants something just a little better than the basic Camp Snap, or at least a proper flash. Unless you take the bait of Flashback’s nostalgic stylings, there’s no comparison.

Photo by Antonio G. Di Benedetto/The Verge