When Skyler Adams realized she was more obsessed with buying new expensive gear than actually taking photographs, she decided to do an experiment. She bought a Canon Sure Shot camera for $1 and an expired roll of Fujifilm Superia 400 film. “I wanted to challenge my gear acquisition syndrome, so I decided to shoot with a $1 camera for a month,” she wrote.
„I was pleasantly surprised at the quality I could get from the 38mm lens stopped down,“ Skyler said on PetaPixel. „The manual ISO setting also let me play with exposure compensation. Most of the battle is finding good light.“ Film processing and scanning was $8 more, so Skyler spent $10 for the whole experiment.
There is a common misconception that you need expensive gear to take great pictures. However, Skyler successfully proved that even the cheapest equipment can provide amazing images if you have the required skills.
$35 seems to be the going rate for a tested working unit: https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B004R7U4JE/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&condition=used
Load More Replies...I think the photos say more about the photographer than they do about the camera
I don't like any of these photos... Except for the self portrait. I don't find her eye for photography to be the best
I asked a photographer if I could sit down next to her at a fashion show, she saw the DSLR camera I was holding which had on a 35mm fixed lens. She then eyes me up and down and goes on to say "yeah, but just to let you know.. I will be taking real photos". What are REAL photos? She was sitting there with her camera and a very long long lens in front row. I sat away from her, I didn't want to be whacked in the face with her lens, plus.. didn't want to be near her bad juju either. D:
Whoops, hit send too soon. But anyways, I walked off with the impression that because I had a cheaper camera she didn't think I was a photographer. True, but I am a creative, it doesn't matter what medium I use.. does it?
Load More Replies...I have a 14 year old second cousin who uses her Mom's iPhone 4 to shoot with and her pictures are fabulous. She's a natural and just experiments with that raggedy old phone in ways professional photographers wouldn't think of because she has to. Almost afraid to get the family to pitch in and get her a decent entry level professional camera for fear it will ruin her.
I think they look pretty good from a composition, lighting and subject points of view. Well done.
As a professional photographer, you learn that there are two things that matter the most in your best images: 1. An interesting subject and 2. can you capture what you saw and felt in the image. The equipment only gives you options and technical flexibility, not a great image. Its the difference between a photo as a math exercise or a photo as a piece of art.
Well done young lady these are very good pictures taken on that old cheap camera, keep it up and maybe you will make a famous name for yourself.
It's clearly not a good camera but I think her talent is still there.raw
Japan's an extremely photogenic country so it's not that hard to take pictures like this... Also, expired Fujifilm Superia 400? That film is a legend :O
I think it is a good challenge for any photographer. Sure NOT ALL the photos are good, but that is OK. You will get better once you shoot and shoot , and then shoot some more until the percentage of good photographs / film roll or shootout increases. I saw a lot of comments saying that "most of the photos will not receive likes on their facebook pages" or that "the composition is not good on some photos"....well, every PRO photographer will have good and bad photographs on a regular shootout or if he shoots for a whole day. Selecting only the good ones and posting them on social media, well that is another story.
Some of my favorite photos I took were from a 30 cents camera I got in a surplus store.
These are amazing! You can hardly tell that it's a $1 camera. Great photos don't in my opinion depend on the quality, more or less the actual picture. Quality is simply a feature that helps you see the picture from the photographer's perspective. However, this is entirely my opinion.😊
The second to the last one reminds me of A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.
You still need a camera that you can control the exposure and you can only do that with cameras (like the one she used) that have manual controls or DSLRs. You cant get these results with a common "point and shoot" camera.
The Sure Shot is one of the best point and shoot cameras - therefore the name...
very true.. i had the same experience.. the fujifilm I had shot one of the best pics and it was most basic cams..
$35 seems to be the going rate for a tested working unit: https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B004R7U4JE/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&condition=used
Load More Replies...I think the photos say more about the photographer than they do about the camera
I don't like any of these photos... Except for the self portrait. I don't find her eye for photography to be the best
I asked a photographer if I could sit down next to her at a fashion show, she saw the DSLR camera I was holding which had on a 35mm fixed lens. She then eyes me up and down and goes on to say "yeah, but just to let you know.. I will be taking real photos". What are REAL photos? She was sitting there with her camera and a very long long lens in front row. I sat away from her, I didn't want to be whacked in the face with her lens, plus.. didn't want to be near her bad juju either. D:
Whoops, hit send too soon. But anyways, I walked off with the impression that because I had a cheaper camera she didn't think I was a photographer. True, but I am a creative, it doesn't matter what medium I use.. does it?
Load More Replies...I have a 14 year old second cousin who uses her Mom's iPhone 4 to shoot with and her pictures are fabulous. She's a natural and just experiments with that raggedy old phone in ways professional photographers wouldn't think of because she has to. Almost afraid to get the family to pitch in and get her a decent entry level professional camera for fear it will ruin her.
I think they look pretty good from a composition, lighting and subject points of view. Well done.
As a professional photographer, you learn that there are two things that matter the most in your best images: 1. An interesting subject and 2. can you capture what you saw and felt in the image. The equipment only gives you options and technical flexibility, not a great image. Its the difference between a photo as a math exercise or a photo as a piece of art.
Well done young lady these are very good pictures taken on that old cheap camera, keep it up and maybe you will make a famous name for yourself.
It's clearly not a good camera but I think her talent is still there.raw
Japan's an extremely photogenic country so it's not that hard to take pictures like this... Also, expired Fujifilm Superia 400? That film is a legend :O
I think it is a good challenge for any photographer. Sure NOT ALL the photos are good, but that is OK. You will get better once you shoot and shoot , and then shoot some more until the percentage of good photographs / film roll or shootout increases. I saw a lot of comments saying that "most of the photos will not receive likes on their facebook pages" or that "the composition is not good on some photos"....well, every PRO photographer will have good and bad photographs on a regular shootout or if he shoots for a whole day. Selecting only the good ones and posting them on social media, well that is another story.
Some of my favorite photos I took were from a 30 cents camera I got in a surplus store.
These are amazing! You can hardly tell that it's a $1 camera. Great photos don't in my opinion depend on the quality, more or less the actual picture. Quality is simply a feature that helps you see the picture from the photographer's perspective. However, this is entirely my opinion.😊
The second to the last one reminds me of A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.
You still need a camera that you can control the exposure and you can only do that with cameras (like the one she used) that have manual controls or DSLRs. You cant get these results with a common "point and shoot" camera.
The Sure Shot is one of the best point and shoot cameras - therefore the name...
very true.. i had the same experience.. the fujifilm I had shot one of the best pics and it was most basic cams..
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