Being Photo Unrealistic

I've always stayed true to the buy cheap buy twice rule for most things in life, so you might think I would follow this when it comes to my choice of personal cameras. 

Years of budget cameras have taught me how to appreciate a genuinely good shot regardless of the megapixels. I can stretch my budget to spend on a much more advanced camera, but I enjoy the challenge of the cheap and cheerful.

I've had one big faux pas moment where I did ultimately regret my budget choices. 

About ten years back, I embarked on a winter touring and backcountry snowboarding trip with a long time friend of mine who I met way back in Andorra at one of my first major snowboard events. We traveled to the far Arctic Fjords starting in a Norwegian town called Narvik and made our way across to the remote and stunning Lofoten Islands for what would be a life changing trip but also the opening of a new chapter for me away from the mountains. 

I wasn't exactly living a luxury life back then, I'm not high flying right now but it's a big contrast to my lifestyle in the mountains. I was living in a one bedroom dorm style room working in a hiking lodge in the Scottish Highlands purely as a means to practice and build my skills in snowboarding and mountain touring as a semi professional at the time. I loved the experience and the simple way of life, but this also meant my budget was always stretching for a big venture out into the Nordic Laplands, just the idea of being there was enough for me, even if I would be the brokest person the Norwegians have ever seen. 

I made the decision to use my phone as a camera and also bring a fairly average action camera, however the phone was relatively untested and the best I could have expected was fairly average shots. The action camera captured most of the best shots, I was quite slow with technology back then and realised all too late the phone shots were automatically set at lower resolution, Unfortunately, this resulted in most of my pictures coming out in lower resolution than what the phone was capable of. 

I returned home and the reality of my mistakes dawned when the pictures uploaded onto my PC screen. I experienced instant regrets and guilt for not being fully equipped to capture the memories of this trip for the both of us, and it played on my mind just how stupid I had been for quite a while afterwards, it even caused a rift between me and my friend at the time. 

Luckily, I was never going to be the main character camera man, and in this case it was a good job because my friend arrived fully equipped for the trip with his fancy GoPro and iPhone camera and captured most of our action footage, and looking back I'm truly grateful one of us was a bit more serious about our tech gear.

What I've learned from this experience is that you do really need to consider the wider implications of playing it safe with equipment choice, and whilst for me it would have been fine for the most part opting to just enjoy the moments and worry about the picture later, for others it is a missed opportunity to capture and document their own lives and achievements, hence why everyone needs to be in sync with expectations. 

Ever since the Norwegian trip I've not made the same mistake twice and my budget equipped moments have been at my own expense, literally. 

However, I've always still had a soft spot for the underdog, there is something rewarding to me about taking a low megapixel camera and maximising the potential out of it.

I got into the 35mm film scene during the 2010's revival after discovering Lomography back when film was still relatively available, experimental, spoken about and affordable. Sadly, film took a dive again early 2020s with the demand itself for new film outdoing the supply which made it too pricey for casual people who just enjoyed it as a budget alternative. Phones have now absorbed most of the casual film camera market, even if the nostalgia and demand remains. I had a lot of fun with the Fisheye Lomo and Diana F, the unknown results were exciting and somewhat emotional for better or worse when the physical photos returned back from the lab. I still keep a point and shoot 35mm Harman about ready on standby.

Nowadays we have phones with crystal clear quality cameras, still for me I love the rugged and slightly blurry, washed out and flawed nature of a simple camera. Don't get me wrong, there are times when high quality really captures the moment to most effect when done right, but the way I look at it is like this, nobody looks back at old photos pre-smartphone age and questions what the megapixels on those old grainy images, the picture itself captures the moment in time, the rest is up for creative imagination to fill in the gaps. 

Now in 2026, I've found my next substitute cheapy, The Kodak Charmera, and it is so far so grainy but i'm loving the simple nature of just shooting at anything and seeing how it turns out later, I'm pretty much a camera sniper now, I take instant shots with precision for whatever is in my field of view. I also like the portable nature of it being on the end of my keychain which makes for great random moments of inspiration.

I still find that simple happiness in photography to have fun without worrying too much about the results. The Kodak Charmera takes it back to a time where the moment just matters not the resolution, try being photo unrealistic for a change, you might like it too.