Piximplicity

I’ve learned to master the art of picking up cameras on a budget, I would like to say I do it now subconsciously out of a sense to capture the world in a not so perfect and more realistic point of view, but the reality is that I’m just too cheapskate to invest in a top of the line camera so I make do with what I can afford.

I’ve learned to master the art of picking up cameras on a budget, I would like to say I do it now subconsciously out of a sense to capture the world in a not so perfect and more realistic point of view, but the reality is that I’m just too cheapskate to invest in a top of the line camera so I make do. I’ve always lived by the buy cheap buy twice mantra, so I never aim low enough that the outcome is almost 100% guaranteed disappointment, but when sitting in the middle of the road you never know what you are going to get. To be honest, something doesn’t sit right for me when images appear almost better quality than the naked eye itself, brushing out the imperfections of life and replacing it with the digital perfect. Years of budget cameras have taught me how to appreciate a genuinely good shot regardless of the megapixels. But I will also make an admission, I could stretch my budget to spend on a much more tech camera, but I still crave 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 dream Snow Touring trip with a long time friend of mine, we traveled to Arctic Lapland starting in Narvik and making our way across the remote but eerily stunning Lofoten Islands. I wasn’t exactly living the luxury life, I had a one bedroom room as tiny as my current bathroom working in a hiking lodge up in the Scottish Highlands, I loved the experience and my simple existence, but my budget at the time was stretching for this type of trip. I made the decision to take my phone camera and a fairly average action camera for my main photos, however the phone was relatively untested and the best I could have expected was fairly average shots, it was my action cam which picked up the best photos. I was quite dumb back then not to realise that the megapixels settings on my phone were adjustable with the normal setting being automatically set at lower resolution. Unfortunately this resulted in most of my pictures being shot in lower res than what the phone was capable of. I returned home and the reality of my mistakes dawned when those 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’ve never been a 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 being a camera phobe 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 this trip I’ve not made this same mistake twice and my budget adventures have been at my own expense, literally. However, I’ve always 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 each shot. When I was a teenager I got into the 35mm film scene briefly whilst it had a mid 2010’s revival with lomography when film was still relatively available, spoken about and affordable, but sadly film is up for most casual people looking to do it on a budget unless willing to skip meals to fund film habits. Phones have now absorbed most of the casual camera market, and it’s a damn shame. I had a lot of fun with the fisheye Lomo and Diana during my 35mm days, the unknown results were exciting and somewhat emotional for better or worse when the physical photos return back from the lab.

Nowadays, We have phones with crystal clear quality cameras, but 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, So far..so Blurry but i’m loving the simple nature of just shooting at anything and seeing how it turns out later, 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 seek happiness in the grain, the important thing is to try and remain focused, pun intended, and enjoy the simple back to basics of photography.