I'm a millennial and I've seen technology evolve in a lot of ways. I remember having a Sony Discman that would clip onto my belt and play CDs I'd burned on my dad's computer.
I remember manually winding cassettes with pencils, and I remember using floppy disks to play video games. I remember when iPods became obsolete (R.I.P.) and streaming services like Spotify became the norm.
You know what else I remember? My parents' videocassette recorder, or VCR, which would play episodes of Tom and Jerry and even home movies my folks had made of me and my brother.
These tapes were imperfect and grainy but gosh were they sweet, because my parents didn't care about the highest quality — all they cared about was creating memories for all of us to look back on. I'm not crying, you're crying.
As someone who reviews modern tech for a living now, it's very rare that a product makes me sentimental, yearning for a simpler time. Scratch that: this had never happened before... until I tested the Camp Snap CS-8 and found myself teary-eyed at my desk. That's down to the retro-looking camera's nostalgic video quality and screen-free design. And if you want a no-frills camera, here's why you'll love the CS-8.
Nostalgia-inducing video quality
The Camp Snap CS-8 is not the camera for you if you want the highest quality video with rock-steady stabilization. You might want to consider one of the best cameras for that.
The CS-8 is the one for you if you want an easy-to-use camera that captures footage which makes you feel like you're in a vintage music video, or back in your parents' living room.
Capable of recording 2.7K footage, the CS-8 comes with an array of color profiles and aspect ratios, and the color profile determines the frame rate. If you choose Standard, Black and White, Vintage 1 or Vintage 2, the camera will shoot at 30fps, and this drops to 18fps when filming in Analog.
Analog is the color profile that reminds me of home movies from the 90s. It adds fake scratches and heavy grain to the video, and when I first read about that, I thought it would be gimmicky — but I adore it now.
It tugs on my heartstrings and makes me smile. I also think it would be great for a music video or anyone trying to film an indie horror film.
Or hey, shoot in monochrome and add some intertitles in post-production to make it feel like a silent movie! I laughed for 30 straight minutes when I was editing the video above (please don't judge my very simple sense of humor).
The possibilities are endless, and I think the CS-8 is a fantastic camera for anyone who wants to experiment with videography without worrying about the specs or semantics of photography.
Oh-so-easy to use
Do you know that scene from 'Bridesmaids' where Kristen Wiig's character Annie and Chris O'Dowd's character Rhodes are standing on the side of the highway and tracking cars' speed with a speed gun? That's what holding the Camp Snap CS-8 reminds me of.
What makes the CS-8 even better is that it is incredibly easy to use — yes, I believe a small child could use it too. The CS-8 is inspired by Super 8 cameras of ye olde and it sports a retro design. To start recording, all you need to do is hold down the trigger with your index or middle finger and keep it held down until you're done filming.
It's simple enough to swap between color profiles and aspect ratios too via dials and zoom in and out with "W" and "T" buttons. Unfortunately, the camera records the sound of the trigger and zooming every time but hopefully you don't mind it too much.
Simplicity itself
The Camp Snap CS-8 doesn't feature any stabilization. It doesn't come with a companion app. Its electronic viewfinder is very stripped back. Really, on paper, there isn't anything that makes you go "Wow!" when you look at the CS-8's product page.
But that is not what it's about, and I believe in today's world, we get too bogged down with specs sheets. Sometimes, it's about taking a step back, being in the moment, recording something and not looking at it until you're back at your desk. It's about having fun, as was also the case with the Camp Snap Screen-Free digital camera.
Camp Snap has, essentially, capitalized on the human experience, on us feeling nostalgic about the past, on us wanting to be innocent children again, and it has created a product that invokes feelings close to that — I love it, and I'm certain you will too.
