Pros
- Nails the retro vibe
- Image quality is decent for a budget camera
- Can function as a «regular» digital camera
Cons
- More than a gimmick or a toy, but not by much
- Phones or «real» cameras will take better photos
- No settings/adjustments at all other than the filters
Do you remember disposable film cameras? If so, how’s your back? Have you scheduled your colonoscopy? I certainly have fond memories of the cardboard and plastic Fujifilm disposables, back when I had more hair and less mass. In the camera world, retro digital cameras and film cameras have found new popularity. Combining both into something that harks back to that time of cheap disposables seems, in hindsight, inevitable.
The Flashback One35 looks like a cheap disposable film camera, just with more plastic and no cardboard. It even has a film advance dial and a built-in flash. Inside, however, is a 13-megapixel sensor (4,144×3,088), and it can wirelessly connect to your phone. It even has a mode that locks your photos behind a 24-hour timer while they «develop,» certainly an intriguing feature for people who have never had to wait for photo development.
The result is a decent budget camera, delightfully retro in its looks and function, that’s capable of sufficiently good photos considering the price. It has some quirks, but as long as you go in knowing it’s mimicking a disposable camera from the ’80s and ’90s, you probably won’t be disappointed
Specs and hardware
- Photo resolution: 13 megapixels (4,144×3,088)
- Video resolution: N/A
- Sensor size: 1/3.1-inch type
- Lens: 4.2mm (Approx. 30mm in 35mm equivalent field of view), f/2.2
- Image stabilization: No
- Screen type: None (well, other than a monochromatic LCD with picture count)
- Storage: Internal, «27 photos» (actual megabytes not specified)
- Weight: 147 grams (5.2 ounces)
- App: iOS/Android
This camera isn’t about the specs, obviously. It has a small plastic lens with a focal length of roughly 30mm (35mm equivalent). This is similar to the main camera on most phones and what you’d have found on disposables in the day. The storage is internal, likely only a few hundred megabytes, but for the main trick of this camera, that’s unlikely to be an issue. You see, going hard into the «disposable film camera» vibe, the main mode of the One35 only lets you take a «roll» of photos, 27 to be exact, and then you need to send them to your phone for «developing,» which takes 24 hours. Yep, you can’t see what you shot until tomorrow.
It’s an interesting idea. Perhaps it keeps you in the moment more. It certainly leans into the ’90s vibe that’s quite popular now. You get to see the «frame count» drop with every picture. You even have to «advance» the film with a ratchety plastic wheel. Admittedly, it’s been a while since I’ve used a disposable camera, but I don’t remember the winders requiring quite so many twists of the dial as the Flashback does. Other than the shutter and the flash (more on that in a moment), this is the only control on the One35. It doubles as the power switch.
Once the «developing time» novelty wears off, however, I could see the Flashback being less interesting. You can enable a Digicam mode in the app, which lets you see the photos you took immediately after transferring them from the camera. Personally, having spent my formative years with film, I can skip that bit of nostalgia. I won’t begrudge someone else wanting to delay the excitement of seeing their photos until the next day. I’m glad both options are here.
The app itself is fairly basic, but it has a decent aesthetic. Here you can set a self-timer for the camera, change the filter for the photos in the current roll, and see what you’ve taken already, grouped as «film rolls,» naturally. According to Flashback, the images are processed in the app, not in the camera or on a cloud server. You need to save the images to your camera roll to see them there and share them, but you can also download «negatives,» which are unprocessed images Flashback describes as being saved in either a «JPEG or raw-based format.» They were JPEGs when I downloaded them, but they were otherwise unprocessed. If anything, these made me more impressed with the Flashback, as they look surprisingly good for a $120 camera (and I’ve tested a bunch).
Usability and photo quality
I’m not sure what to say about the usability of a camera with basically no settings and only one button. It’s a small camera, easily fitting in all but the smallest hands. It’s lightweight, too, with the battery presumably providing enough heft so it doesn’t feel like you’d crush it with one hand. I had it in my back pocket and sat on it twice to no ill effect. The buttons and sliders, on the other hand, feel very flimsy and not designed to last. So, yeah, like the disposables it’s inspired by.
As I mentioned above, the film «winder» is amusing at first, definitely jabbing that nostalgia part of the brain (my brain, anyway). It’s pretty loud, though, so if you don’t want to attract attention for the click-click-click-click sounds, possibly drawing the eyes and curiosity of any nearby millennials and older generations, this might not be the camera for you. It won’t let you take another picture until you wind it, which is, you know, the whole point.
Keeping the price down and the aesthetic up, there’s no screen other than the «film frame» counter. Instead, there’s a simple optical viewfinder. These have always been tricky, since if your eye isn’t lined up dead-center you’re going get different framing than you thought… and you’d have no way of knowing until tomorrow (or right after you connect the camera if you’re in Digicam mode). It also makes lining up shots when you can’t use the viewfinder — at arm’s length or above your head, for example — basically impossible to get perfect.
But perfect isn’t what the Flashback’s about. Like many modern budget and retro cameras, it’s about the retro vibes. The included filters definitely give photos a solid ’90s look, if a somewhat idealized one. If anything, the results look too detailed and contrasty compared with actual film taken with a cheap camera, but you can always edit them further if you want.
There is one other feature on the One35: a decently powerful flash that you enable by moving a slider on the front. That slider is easily the cheapest-feeling part of the camera. Just like real flashes of old, you have to wait a moment for it to build up a charge. The result nails that light-blasted «flash photo» look. Since most people who buy the Flashback likely haven’t used a flash like this before, they’re going to get a lot of blown-out images, just like the old days. Ah, the joy of blinding your friends in a darkened bar to get a candid photo. The memories…
The not-disposable disposable
I am rather enamored by the Flashback, enough that I could see giving it as a gift to a younger family member. It’s delightfully easy to use. (I mean, how could it not be? There’s literally just one single button.) It’s easy to carry in a pocket or purse, and you simply wind to wake it up and capture a moment. No worrying about settings, no worrying about picture perfection. Take that photo and go back to being there, no digital distractions necessary. Then, tomorrow, you can wax nostalgic for what you did the day before, marveling at the great photos (or not) you took and sharing those with your friends.
It’s a delightful updating of the way things were, or at least how we’d like to remember them. A simpler time with less need to instantly share. There’s a delicate line here, though, and I’m only on the side of this «celebration» of retro photo taking because 1) the Flashback is cheap, and 2) it’s decent enough for an inexpensive camera. The images you get are reduced in quality with filters to match the film aesthetic, but Flashback only gets decent results because the images start out looking pretty good. If they were bad to start, they’d look like trash once processed (much like what you get from the Kodak Charmera).
Given that Flashback regularly sells out of these, presumingly because they’re selling a lot, apparently other people are equally enamored. As long as you’re not expecting more than a disposable film camera that’s secretly a non-disposable digital camera, I think you’ll get your money’s worth.
