I ended up reviewing the Camp Snap camera in my last post ~ a toy camera made for kids on camp who aren’t allowed to take phones. For this purpose, it’s pretty cool, even if it’s overpriced here in Australia. But it also seems that a growing number of youngsters and lomo-hipsters have seen the value in it as an easy-to-use toy camera that makes vibey photos. In reality, the photos are awfully oversharpened and smoothed, but I see the appeal.

In my side-quest to improve the photos by degrading them further, I’ve toyed with some cheap filters. Here are two photos ~ the first without the softening filter and the second with it:

Already, the results are looking better! The filter spreads highlights around and results in a soft focus effect. Yes, the oversharpening is still there (unless the firmware can be hacked, this remains) but I think the image has more vibe and the sharpening is less obvious. I’m going to continue playing.