Fujifilm tricked me in their marketing shot of the 30th-anniversary edition of their snapshot disposable camera ‘Simple Ace’. I bought one just for the packaging design because I love. Hey, I’m 30 myself so… 

I was also appealed by the idea of a simple camera that you get out of your pocket (the camera is so small, it FITS in your jeans pocket) and fire without too much thinking. That gives back a sense to candid photography, right? And the fun part in taking whatever pictures with a disposable camera was that people didn’t really bother. They probably thought I was a first-time-in-Japan tourist who thinks “Japan is so amazing!”, and were less prompt to shy away. 

So, how about the look of the pics? Well, it’s a toy camera with a toy lens with a good film (probably the Fujicolor Industrial 400, the cheapest version of the Superia 400). So expect nice saturated colors but tons of color fringing, vignetting and distortion (nb: colors of the pictures above are terrible because my scanner is awful). But, hey! If you want perfect pictures without fun, get out the big cube. I never used the flash as I thought I wouldn’t need it. It seemed that it would have been better to use it most of the time actually, even during daylight. 

30. The smaller, the better.  Yes, I know: Somehow contradictive to the last post... But hey, I'm a pragmatist... In the last post I rambled about, that it's easier to make good pictures with bigger and heavier cameras. That's true. And its wrong. At the same time.

I still think, that - from the "handling"-point of view - it's a bit easier with bigger cameras, but also think about the following:

The picture quality is (for most uses) more than good enough with small cellphone and snapshot cameras (I stressed that out in the last post as well)

You can easily put a small cam in your pocket and have it with you all of the time. If you have a cellphone with a decent built-in-camera, you have it with you whatsoever.

Little example: I have that very old iPhone 3GS and the built-in camera is ... well ... not that good ^^ But for Instagram, Facebook... heck even Tumblr: More than decent most of the time. Edit: I have a Samsung Galaxy S5 and ... well... the picture quality is amazing. Download a decent editing-app and you have your digital darkroom with you all of the time. So I’m not even jealous anymore of people with their fancy iPhones 4, 5, 6...  On our trip to Venice some time ago, I dragged around my DSLR, three lenses and a speedlight all of the time. And every time I was about to take a picture, my friend with her iPhone had already taken three. Of course I do see differences when comparing her pictures and mine on my computer in full resolution. But when do you really need 8, 10, 12 or 18 megapixels in full res? Almost never! So, what did I do? Since my cellphone cam did not satisfy me completely, I bought a used snapshot cam for little money from the internet, that I can take with me all of the time. AND I LOVE IT!

You can take pictures from angles that would hardly be possible with a DSLR. The point of view you're using tells a story. And - very often - an unusual point of view tells a more interesting story. And with a small cam, it's way easier to get into those unusual points of view. My gf's iPhone camera pictures are very, very often more interesting than my DSLR-pictures.

What about the "holding the camera straight" issues? Practice! Simple as that. And what about the shake-issues, I talked about in the last post? My used snapshot cam, I bought, has an image stabilizer that is so friggin' awesome, I can't stop talking about. And if your snapshot cam doesn't have a decent image stabilizer... well... that’s why God created the monopod… or the beanbag... or the table tripod...