The Rise of the Digital Disposable Camera
Nearly 13 years ago, I borrowed a friend’s digital TLR camera, which resembled a Rollei. Because it was so unique, I decided to do a review of it. Now, these days, there has been a rise of something I like to call the digital disposable camera. A great and really well-known version of this is the Camp Snap camera, which is designed for kids, Gen Z, etc. Part of this has been a result of the new retro digital compact camera market. In fact, lots of these cameras are very cheap, affordable, and often toy-like. More importantly, they serve a modern function and need that the Japanese manufacturers otherwise take four years to develop.If you were to look at the best-selling digital cameras on Amazon, you’d find a bunch of Chinese-made cheap cameras. If you dove into the reviews of those cameras, you’d see that they’re mostly for kids. They also include a bunch of instant cameras shooting zink paper like Canon’s older Ivy cameras. None of them are really good, mind you. But that’s part of the appeal.It’s really time to admit it: modern cameras are too good and provide image quality that’s too manicured when really all we want is a special interpretation of reality instead. Right before writing this article, I spent a while researching how to make my Sony RAW files look like film. It brought me to a Reddit thread that told people just to switch cameras systems and that the minimal post-production world is really where it’s at. These digital disposable cameras are delivering that exact experience. And the images that they give off are really a special vibe.Image shot with a Camp Snap cameraTo deny this at this point in camera history and photography history is a mistake akin to what Kodak did years ago when they developed digital cameras. Yet at the same time, I can see reps from many of the big camera companies doing this and saying this. Canon, for years, said that compact cameras weren’t in demand until they started making them again.But even then, it shows that they don’t really get the idea of digital disposable cameras.People want super cheap, affordable cameras. Those are the people in the market not looking for the higher end full-frame cameras. They want an experience that their phone won’t give them. And the truth is that these brands can surely do it by dipping into their designs from many years ago. Then they can put the cameras out in mass and sell them pretty easily. Canon has always been a master of doing this with holiday deal bundles.I mean, people are even buying the iPod Touch because of what the camera can do. The bigger Japanese companies will always say that something is a niche market and won’t give into it. But let me count all the ways that they’ve been wrong since I started my career as a journalist:Mirrorless cameras overtaking DSLRs
Film becoming a real thing instead of just being a niche product
The need and rise for unique lens focal lengths
The want for cameras and lenses that can provide a unique look
The return of point and shoot camerasLet’s be really honest, the Japanese camera brands are protecting their capitalistic goals. But the best way to do that is to instead be open to the possibility of an idea instead of saying what you have right now can do what someone wants.Consumers know what they want.These newer Chinese brands are mimicking how many of the Japanese brands started out: by copying the Europeans. And it’s only a matter of time until they take off.
Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./
HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice."
PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others.
EXPERIENCE:
Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things.
EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc.
FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
Comments (0)