Paper Shoot camera battery life

Image taken with camera at the same location, with same focal length, but using shift instead of rotating the camera. Notice that we no longer suffer from perspective distortion.

Paper Shoot Macro Lens

The Paper Shoot is an interesting camera. The website makes it clear they set out to create a digital 35mm disposable camera. Basically they set out, and succeeded, at creating a digital camera that feels exactly like you’re using a 35mm disposable camera. They succeeded. I cannot stress that enough.

The Focal Length of a camera, usually measured in millimeters, is the distance from the film or sensor back to the optical center of the lens. There is a direct (non-linear) relationship between Focal Length and FOV. Longer Focal Lengths result in narrower FOVs, while shorter Focal Lengths result in wider FOVs. There is a direct linear relationship between Focal Length and the apparent size of the subject in the frame. For example, doubling the Focal Length will make the subject twice as large in the frame.

It’s clearly a very limited camera but it has enough resolution to print an A4 picture and film can only be adjusted so much. jpeg is similarly limited. Processing images pulled from the camera feels a lot like what I’ve seen with film: you can push/pull to a point but what you got is what you got really. Combine that with the fact the cases are simple clamshells that wrap around the main camera electronics and you have a digicam that feels a hell of a lot like a 35mm disposable.

Paper shoot camera review reddit

Image taken by rotating the camera up to capture the full height of the subjects. Notice the significant perspective distortion.

Usedpapershootcamera

I managed to get my hands on a Paper Shot Camera (links below) for the holidays and I’m impressed. Enough I felt compelled to put this post together.

On top of that the photos (samples below) look like Fuji color film or Fuji instax film. It has a grungy feel to it in many cases for me. If you flip it to black and white the pictures feel like Ilford film or Fuji Instax black and whites to me. The actual output of the camera feels like the films available. On top of that the jpegs are solid quality overall. You can work with the jpegs this camera produces. I’ve got mine set to black and white mode and plan to keep it there. I normally shoot black and white film and this camera does exactly what I want on that count.

Papershootvs Camp Snap

The relationship between Focal Length and FOV depends on the physical size of the film or sensor onto which the image is projected (Sensor Size (Film Gate)). For 35mm film cameras or so-called "full frame" digital cameras, this size is 36mm x 24mm. For such cameras, commonly used Focal Lengths are:

When I received my Paper Shoot it came with the wide angle and macro lens adapter things. Initially I couldn’t quite tell how they worked as there is no threading. Turns out they are magnetic. They pop right onto the face of the case and can be aligned by sliding them around a little. They work the same as the clip on phone camera lenses do. They also work a bit better than the phone clip on lenses too. If you find yourself using this camera a lot, I’d recommend looking into the lenses a bit.

Focal Length = 50mm – Camera moved farther from subjects to make the green/yellow cylinder roughly the same size in the frame as in the previous image. Notice that the red cylinder is now much large relative to the green/yellow cylinder.

Due to the simpler nature and the general ’this is black and white film’ feel to this camera it’s earned a spot in my camera bags and my pocket when I leave the house. It’s proven to be great for capturing daily life’s candid moments. So much so I started a 365 day project taking a photo of Houdini (the house cat) using this cam. I also expect to use it heavily to capture candid and behind the scenes moments when out doing larger photography projects or sets.

Paper Shoot camera

I have some Pentax 35mm film kit as well as a Lomography instant camera that shoots Fuji Instax film. The Paper Shoot matches these cameras near perfectly for me. I did not expect to have that reaction but here we are.

The Field of View (FOV), or Angle of View of a camera describes how much of the scene is visible from the camera, or how "wide" or "zoomed-in" the view appears, and as a consequence, how large or small objects appear in the frame. FOV is measured in degrees, horizontally and vertically. Larger FOV values indicate that more of the scene is visible and therefore objects will appear smaller, whereas smaller values mean less of the scene is visible and objects will appear larger.

Papershootcamera specs

How wide is field of view papershootcamera

In most consumer cameras, the lens is centered on the imaging plane (film back or sensor). However some professional cameras include the ability to adjust the offset of the lens with respect to the sensor. This lens offset is usually referred to a shift. Shift can be used to maintain a certain perspective while changing the composition of the image, or more commonly, to correct for the natural perspective distortion that occurs when photographing a building or other large structure from the ground.

Before getting too deep it should be stated that I am not a professional photographer but I do maintain a portfolio at https://kemonine.photography with pictures for sale as well as for free download. The TLDR version is: I can take pro photos but I don’t want photography as a career. I use the same general kit as the professionals while remaining a hobbyist.

_Focal Length = 24mm – Focal length changed, no camera movement. Notice the red cylinder still ½ the height of the green/yellow cylinder, but more of the background is exposed._

Changing the focal length or FOV is only one way to control the size of an object in the frame ("zooming in" or "zooming out"). The other way is to actually move the camera closer or farther away from the subject. Note that these are not equivalent and will result in very different looks. While the focal length/FOV changes the size of a single object in the frame, the relative sizes of 2 objects in the scene depends ONLY on the location of the camera relative to these objects. Thus framing a scene with multiple subjects involves positioning the camera to achieve the desired blocking and relative sizes of the subjects, THEN adjusting the Focal Length to achieve the desired overall framing. In the following example, the two cylinders in the scene are the same height (10). We position the camera such that the red cylinder is approximately ½ the size of the green/yellow cylinder. We then show the effect of first making the focal length wider and of moving the camera

There are a variety of cases and I recommend browsing them. Be careful with the hold too, I noticed my knuckles were in a few shots on the side with the shutter button. My fingers curl just right to end up in a shot if I’m not slightly mindful. I don’t mind but the hold is a little different than I expected. As for case durability, it will depend on the case material. However, the cases are like hot dog buns, they don’t protect the very top or edges great and water will not mix with this camera. A touch of careful would be wise.

The camera has function cards available to tweak how the camera operates. I’d recommend looking at all of them, they can really change how the camera behaves. I snagged the video one and it does exactly what the specs said it would. It enables video and time lapse recording on battery in place of two of the filters I’ll never use. It turns the Paper Shoot into a really spiffy, basic, standard kind of point and shoot. The video and time lapse functions will go through power very quickly but if you’re in a pinch the feature is nice to have handy.