Come Learn with me: Point and Shoot, the easiest way to take a Photo!

I assume every photographer at some point in their career has people around them asking for help using their camera. This has been happening more regularly since I started publishing this blog, and I’ve decided to start a series to walk through the basics, and maybe some more advanced topics.

Point and Shoot cameras are the absolute easiest to use, whether it be film or digital. Not only does the user not need to worry about aperture, shutter speed or even ISO number but in most cases, cameras will focus for them if they need to focus at all. These can vary from a medium format Kodak Brownie Hawkeye built in the late 1940’s all the way up to Nikon p1000 still being built. These are a great way to get a feel for using a camera, and sometimes it’s nice just to toss one into a pocket for when you don’t want to use your phone and don’t feel like fiddling with lenses. The best part of these cameras is literally every single one of them can take a great photo as long as the user knows the limitations. In this blog I will show a few types of cameras out there that are either absolutely Point and Shoot, or I consider to be a point and shoot.

The first and oldest camera is a kodak Brownie Hawkeye. It’s a box camera from the 1940-50’s that can be found in almost every antique store. There are no settings to change, no focusing to do and once film is loaded all that can be done is point it where you want to shoot, push the button, and then wind to the next frame. There is a small window in the back which shows the frame (printed directly on the film backing) and can easily be missed, or if you forget to wind will make a double exposure. I received a nice copy of this camera for Christmas one year and I rebuilt it at my kitchen table to make it good as new. When I shoot it in bright light it takes a very clean, contrasty picture.

The next type is the one most of us know from the 1980’s all the way up to now. Unless our parents were photographers, they usually had a point and shoot along with a few undeveloped rolls of film in the kitchen junk drawer. They’re amazing little pieces of technology as long as they’re working. Not built to be durable there is a tendency for them to fail at the worst time, especially if there one of the super trendy models’ influencers use that have become more expensive 20 years later than when they were new. For film the only thing to be mindful of is the ISO number of the camera, but most of these cameras check it automatically and adjust the exposure accordingly. For digital point and shoot (or Digi-cams) its really a matter of preference for brand and size. The more mega pixels it has, the sharper the image will be, but they all work just fine and over the past few years the trend is to use a lower resolution model to make it look more “film like”. I don’t use these, but I see them a lot and enjoy seeing what can be done.

The final type is to use an advanced SLR, DSLR or mirrorless camera in its Program mode. Models like the Minolta 7000 (1985), Pentax sf10 (1988), Nikon n2000 (1986) and others made “program” photography incredibly easy. You lose the creativity of changing the settings when using this mode but autofocus makes sure the image is clear and the electronics make sure the exposure is correct. This mode is excellent for when you want the freedom in using different lenses without needing to consider exposure. I really like using this from vacation and have captured some nice shots with both my Nikon f100 (35mm film) and d500 (digital). I’ve recently picked up a Fujifilm s2 pro digital camera from 2002 to use with my vintage manual focus lenses. It was literally made as a digital camera in a film camera shell, so all the settings are physical knobs like I’m used to. It’s a new area of this hobby um trying to learn and will be using it for the rest of this series. Even digital technology can be vintage, and I’m not sure how I feel about it.

If you want to shoot your camera and get overwhelmed just thinking of it, turn that mode switch to “P” and go take some pictures.