Playing around with my instax today. I don’t know why I don’t pull this camera out more often. I’m always happily surprised with the results.

Went on a photo adventure out to the Great Salt Lake with TJ today.  It was so stinking cold (9° F!! —and yet he was still drinking a slurpee) but totally worth it. 

While we were warming up, TJ was so kind to let me test out my new toy on him. He’s a pretty good test subject.

So I get a lot of people asking me about the kind of camera I use and what I’d recommend.  I’d like to say that I am not an amazing photographer and I do not know tons about cameras but….

Here is my camera breakdown:

Canon S90

If you want a good every day point and shoot, this is what I’d recommend.  It’s small and light and I carry it with me everywhere.  It has a built in pop up flash.  And see the big ring around the base of the lens? It’s a rotating, programmable control ring you dedicate to direct control of aperture, exposure compensation, or almost anything! This camera takes such good photos in low light situations and the video is pretty great too. The S90 also shoots RAW which comes in handy for sure.

Basically I love it.  Sometimes I think its incapable of taking a bad picture. So if you’re looking to invest in a main camera, this is my personal pick.

Fuji Instax 210

This is my newest play camera.  I’ve always been a fan of polaroid and when I found out about this camera and saw some shots from it, I knew I had to have it.  This camera is deceivingly large and goofy looking.  When you are walking around with it, people might think its going to shoot water at them. 

Anyway, it shoots in a wide format (polaroids shoot square) and the color is really good.  It has bolder color than the polaroid but it still has that “instant” look that I love. The Instax has settings to lighten and darken as well as changing the distance of your subject.

I would not recommend this as your main camera.  It’s great for just shooting for fun but can get expensive if you are going through a lot of film (buy your film online). Plus who doesn’t like the ability to hold your photo right after taking it?  See some of mine here.

iPhone

A lot of the photos you see on my blog are simply taken with my iPhone.  I think it takes really great photos and there are enough apps out there that you can play with to make your pictures really stand out.  Some apps that I’d recommend are: Camera Bag, Shake It Photo, Best Camera, Tilt Shift Gen, and Photogene. But really, there are a ton of cool camera apps that I don’t even know about. 

cupcakes + beer with this guy.  (I really love this camera.)

More Instax love featuring Will. (via)

Hung out with my good friend Eddie last night + played around some more with my Instax.  I’m fully committed to this camera now.  I mean, just look at the color and focus in this photo.  Ugh.  Love it so much! 

I don’t even care that it’s huge and looks like a toy that might squirt water.  There’s just something about being able to instantly hold the picture in your hand + never quite knowing how the photo will turn out. 

You should totally get one.

Doesn’t the top photo look like a duck’s face??

I played around last night with my new Fuji Instax camera.  So far I like it (other than it being huge! at least it’s light).  Love the wide format and the picture quality is really nice—color tones are lovely.  Also has a  lighting adjustment feature and a close up attachment (bottom photo was shot with it on).  Still playing around with all the features but I look forward to using it often!