Meet my latest toy:

Some assembly required. The camera arrives flat, and you just insert the batteries and SD card into the included camera board, lay the camera board into the case, fold it closed, and place two screws to keep the case closed. Sounds more complicated than it is. 

The Paper Shoot Camera. They’re all over social media, and I have wanted one for awhile. It’s billed as a replacement for disposable film cameras. There isn’t a screen on the back of camera, so you don’t see the results of your efforts until you transfer the photos to a computer or phone.

What prompted me to finally buy myself one was the passing of my mother. As strange as it might sound, I knew that having a fun little photography tool would help me through my days. I wasn’t sure how I would feel about taking photos after the loss of my mother, and this little camera has been something I could play around with and not take too seriously.

I normally go into a camera’s specs when I post about it for the first time, but the Paper Shoot doesn’t have a lot of specs!

• My version is 18MP, though there are some 16MP Paper Shoot cameras available.
• There are four color filters that you can set via a switch on the back: normal color, black and white, sepia, and cool tone.
• The case is interchangeable, and they have many designs you can purchase on the Paper Shoot site.
• You can also get accessory lens sets, such as macro and prism lenses.
• It runs on two rechargeable AAA batteries.
• It comes with a USB-C cable that you can use for transferring your photos to a computer or charge the batteries. For what it’s worth, I use an SD card reader to be able to transfer the photos directly to my phone without needing a camera.
• These cameras can actually take short videos – ten seconds. There is a time lapse setting where you let the camera take photos for thirty minutes and get a ten second video of them. I have not used this function very much because, unless you get a particular accessory function card for the camera, it needs to be hooked up to a power source while shooting video.
• The Paper Shoot has a VERY wide angle lens. I am not 100% sure, but I read somewhere that it’s the equivalent of 22mm in 35mm terms. It actually reminds me of my Lomography La Sardina.

I did my best to demonstrate the differences between each filter

And now for an assortment of photos I have taken with the Paper Shoot since I received it in February. As you will be able to tell from the photos below, I found the camera to be a master of mirror selfies.

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Conclusion?

If I could change one thing, it would be to make the“viewfinder” more accurate regarding what you see through it vs. the actual image captured. Because the lens on the camera is so wide and the viewfinder doesn’t reflect that, you need to keep that in mind when taking photos. If I use the viewfinder to frame my photo, I always take several steps forward toward my subject to try to make up for the “what you see vs. what the camera sees” factor.

What I saw through the viewfinder

What the camera captured

All in all, the Paper Shoot camera is pretty much the fun little thing that I had hoped it to be. It’s not supposed to be the most fully-featured camera, so I don’t expect it to work like an SLR. But the camera is advertised as an eco friendly alternative to a film disposable camera, so I just think of it in those terms. And the Paper Shoot absolutely beats what you can do with its film counterpart!

Since I mentioned that I got this camera to help me some with the loss of my mother, I want to say that I’m bummed she’s not here to see photos I’ve taken with the Paper Shoot. She would have thought it was SO cool.