Camp Snap contacted me in Early December and asked if I wanted to try out two filter effects they have developed for their camera. The B&W is already available for download and both these expend potential.

To be clear although I was given early access to these I am in no way beholden on Camp Snap nor have I been paid in any form. The view expressed are my own.

You might think I’ve been slow in reviewing these but has basically rained for the bulk of this Month here in Dumfries and those nice sunny spells have been when I’ve been working. I managed to shoot the B&W filter finally on Boxing day and the Vintage one on New Years day .

But How can you use a digital filter with this camera ?

Good question.

There is no filter switch or way of changing on camera. You need to effectively flash the firmware as you would do to upgrade the firmware.

Personally I’d prefer to shoot in default mode then filter my images in post but there will be those of you out there that wanna do this. It is also not something you can easily switch between in the field but I guess puts it on a par with imminent Aussie rival Flashback where you must pick a film type and then shoot that until you finish a digital roll. Thats said you may prefer to use these over the default.

But lets look at the filters

Filter 1 – B&W

The black and white filter is pretty good. They haven’t over grained it like you often see and you get a good range of grayscale. At times you start to wish you have some EV compensation, but that’s missing the point of this camera

Here are a few more shots

Filter 2 – Vintage

The vintage filter adds a slight colour caste to images. That sort of yellow green cast that does give an old film feel. But unlike some film filters I’ve seen they again sensibly they didn’t go for chucking in more fake grain.

Bit film Like then ?

The eagled eyed amongst you will notice this looks like some of the recent non big 2 C-41 films like this image taken by James Tocchio of Casual Photophile taken with OROW Wolfen NC500 before colour correction. (see his full post here on that film)

I will work better in some shots than others. Personally I would prefer to tweak shot in post but again this tonality appeals. I for obvious reasons can take a shot without the filter on the same camera but here is a comparison shot taken on my mobile to give a tonal differential

In Lower light you do get more noise but that’s the same as the standard firmware when images are taken at 800ISO not a grain effect.

Here are some more shots taken with it. Most are taken at 100 ISO except for the last (200 ISO)

Final Thoughts

These filters are quite nice and some of you will prefer having your Camp Snap locked over to one or other. I also get why they’ve done this as all of the current rivals (Paper Shoot, Yashica Y35 and Flashback) to varying degrees of ease offer swappable effects. I can understand the appeal of having say a monochrome shooting Snap (Leica even sell digital cameras locked to monochrome). and I get some will prefer the vintage look.

For me I’ll stick to the standard firmware as I can tweak in post but I get why you may wanna lock into one of these. Below is an example of post editing.

The B&W filter is available on Camp Snap’s support page now .

My review of this camera is here.