It may surprise few people to learn that I enjoy taking photos. I have about 4000 photos on my iPhone alone. Not to mention almost 15,000 on my MacBook… No wonder it runs slower than a herd of snails travelling through peanut butter.

Anyway, I’ve recently purchased a couple of newbies that are pretty decent. This first camera isn’t exactly new, but I’ve been meaning to write about it for ages because it’s a fun toy. It’s the Fugi Film Instax Mini 7S. My friend Tim has one and brought it to our Op Shop party ages ago and I decided I had to have one.

It was on sale for about $90 if I recall correctly. There is something so delightful about instant film cameras. My Grandfather used to take Polaroids and I will always remember how he used to carefully tuck a fresh photo into his lapel pocket so that the warmth would help the picture develop.

Unfortunately the first two photos I took turned out like this:

I have no idea why they are so overexposed. The only thing I thought it might be is they were taken on the beach at Esperance, which has blinding white sand. That combined with the fact you can’t turn the flash off may have resulted in the epic white wash. $4 of film down the drain… The next 8 photos were a success though:

Perhaps because they were all taken at night? I might have to experiment with some day time shots. Obviously, the film is hideously expensive, $20 for 10 photos, so at $2 a pop you want to be super careful with who you ask to take your photo. In my experience, young men make genuinely awful photographers (see the photo second from the left in the top row above – I’ve always wanted a photo of mostly the ceiling!).

The photos do a great job of prettying up our fridge:

The next one is the Samsung NX1000. I’d been in the market for a Compact System Camera (or mirrorless camera) for a while and had my heart set on the Panasonic Lumix GF5. But it was getting increasingly more difficult to track down and the Samsung was my second choice and better suited to my price range. I’m so excited about not having to lug a giant DSLR around, particularly when I go on holidays soon. Compact System Cameras use smaller sensors than DSLR’s (which makes them more compact) but still allow you to change lenses and take good quality photos.

I haven’t had a good play around with the camera yet but I can already tell it is going to take quite a bit of getting used to. I find it weird that it there is no viewfinder and that a lot of the settings apply themselves automatically, rather than being manually applied. Freeeeeeaky. It’s also rather front heavy. I took this rather uninspiring photo of our grubby fruit bowl yesterday:

Considering it was quite dark in our kitchen I was happy with the amount of light the camera managed to pick up. I then snapped this selfie, with Bec being the ultimate lurk in the background:

Niiice. It feels so light and tiny compared to a DSLR:

^ Kind of looks like a weight loss before and after pic! Do you have either of these cameras? Got any tips?