I was out and about with multiple cameras. While I shot most with the Leica D-Lux 8, I also used the Camp Snap and Fujifilm X Half. Since I found two similar scenes, I thought it would be instructive to compare the Camp Snap and Fuji X Half. You will notice that I’m still at the Mercado Little Spain that I talked about yesterday. In fact, if you look at the last picture of yesterday’s post, it will look very familiar.

Several weeks ago I did a mini-series with both the Camp Snap and X Half to show you what it can do. I don’t consider these serious cameras, and I brought them to New York as a test. However, it’s worth adding that the Camp Snap is a true toy camera that costs $69. The Fujifilm X Half was a hefty $850—definitely overpriced.

I don’t recall if I framed these from the same spot. But the Camp Snap has a crude optical viewfinder, so it’s challenging to frame accurately. I prefer the image quality of the $69 toy to the Fujifilm. I didn’t brighten the image of the Camp Snap; this is the way it exposed out of camera. I added the faux-grain and took the edge off the over-sharpened images. While I brightened the Fujifilm picture, it’s still considerably darker. However, the color of the neon Coffee sign is closer to reality, and the Fuji’s color better matches the picture from the Leica D-Lux 8.

Both cameras do silly things. The Camp Snap ramps down to a 1/17-second shutter speed under darker conditions, which often causes blurry images from camera shake. This picture came out great, however. The Fujifilm, on the other hand, unexpectedly ramps up the ISO while holding the shutter speed at 1/125 second. While the Fuji has a larger sensor, it shot this image at ISO 1000 versus the Camp Snap’s odd ISO 243, largely negating the benefit of the larger sensor.

I think most people will prefer the first photo. Also, the Camp Snap is consistently faster at taking pictures. For me, that’s the surprise. The $69 toy camera consistently produced photographs I enjoyed more than the $850 Fuji. Overall, the Fuji X Half is an overpriced camera and not worth it. I talk more about my thoughts behind the X Half on this post from Substack.

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