The Art of using bad Cameras

I’ve come 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 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 just never know what you are going to get. Also 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 definition of a perfect shot. 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 do have the 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 and humbling moment where I did ultimately regret my budget choices.

About ten years back I did a dream Winter Snow Touring trip with a long time friend of mine in Arctic Lapland starting in Narvik and making our way across to the remote Lofoten Islands. I wasn’t exactly living a life of luxury back then, I had a one bedroom room as tiny as my current bathroom working in a hiking lodge up in the Scottish Highlands, I absolutely loved the experience, but it was never a get rich lifestyle, so my budget whilst flexible was still pushing for this type of trip. I made the decision to use my phone camera and a fairly average at the time action camera for my main photos, the phone was relatively untested as it was pretty much new but again it was no hotshot and the best I could have expected was fairly average shots, it was my action cam which picked up the best photos. Also, I was quite dumb back then not to realise that the megapixels settings on my phone were adjustable. 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 dawned hard when those pictures uploaded onto my pc screen. I had 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. Luckily, I’ve never been a main character camera man, and in this case it was a good job because my friend came 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 MP count 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 and affordable, but sadly the film game is up for most people on modest budgets unless you are willing to skip food to fund your film habits.

A few die-hards are still out there with hope of another comeback, left fighting in the wilds for the last remaining affordable old rolls on eBay. Phones have sadly 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 and what made me most excited was not exactly knowing how the pictures were going to turn out until you get the physical photos back from the lab.

Nowadays, We have phones with crystal clear quality cameras built in, 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 picture perfect crystal quality really captures the moment in vivid detail, but the way I look at it is like this, nobody looks back at old photos pre-smartphone age and questions what the MP count was on those old grainy images, the picture itself captures the moment in time, the rest is sometimes up for creative imaginations to fill in the gaps.

Flash forward to 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 love the portable nature of it being on the end of my keychain which makes for great instant random moments of inspiration.

I still seek happiness in the grain, the important thing is to stay focused.