Methodology of reviewing point & shoot film cameras

OK, so this is a site about point and shoot film cameras. To a large degree, it is intended to contain user ‘reviews’ about some of those cameras. However, it is worth setting some parameters about the scope of this project. So, here we go:

  1. The reviews are based on the opinions of the person reviewing the camera. Currently this is one person. As such, they are personal opinions. These opinions are not intended as purchasing recommendations. Seriously, I am a camera enthusiast on the internet messing around with old cameras.
  2. These cameras are all old, no longer produced, or manufacturer supported (from a point and shoot perspective, disposable cameras and instant cameras are about the only new film cameras available these days). Most of them were cheap and cheerful to begin with, even when they were new. The cameras written about have usually been picked up cheaply in charity shops, garage sales and online. They are predominantly made of plastic and might very well be broken or functioning incorrectly (without my knowledge) and this might obviously affect any review. For the most part, they are not intended to be directly compared against each other – or with any other camera.
  3. The technical specifications that are provided have been pulled from wherever I happened to find them. They may be wrong and are almost certainly incomplete.
  4. Did I mention that I’m not an expert?
  5. Lens and image quality. I am loath to express opinions on lens quality and the resultant image quality of photos taken by these cameras. I don’t have scientific equipment or the qualifications to make empirical lens tests – even if I did, who really understands all those graphs and charts? I also haven’t got the patience to make boring test shots and whatever follow-up investigations would be required to ascertain lens ‘sharpness’, contrast, and whatever. Any opinions I make about quality is subjective.
  6. Film is film, and is not intended to have the binary ‘perfection’ of the digital photographic process. The fact that I am scanning any test images on a cheap desktop film scanner (a Plustek 8100, since you ask), also makes it hard to make absolute judgements on the quality of the camera or lens which took them.
  7. Most importantly, this site is intended to be a bit of fun, for the most part. Hopefully there is some interesting and potentially useful information interspersed in there also.

Thanks for visiting and enjoy!