Flashback One35 V2 Review: A Digital Camera That Thinks It’s a Disposable Film Camera

Benefits

• Nails the retro vibe

• Image quality is decent for a budget camera

• Can work like a “regular” digital camera

Disadvantages

• More than a gadget or toy, but not by much

• Phones or “real” cameras will take better photos

• No tweaks/adjustments other than filters

Remember disposable cameras? If so, how is your back? Have you scheduled your colonoscopy? I certainly have fond memories of Fujifilm’s disposable cardboard and plastic products, back when I had more hair and less mass. In the camera world, retro digital cameras and film cameras have found new popularity. Combining the two into something reminiscent of the days of cheap disposables seems, in hindsight, inevitable.

The Flashback One35 looks like a cheap disposable camera, just more plastic and no cardboard. It even has a film advance dial and a built-in flash. Inside, however, is a 13-megapixel sensor (4,144 x 3,088) and it can connect wirelessly to your phone. It even has a mode that locks your photos behind a 24-hour timer while they “develop,” certainly an intriguing feature for people who’ve never had to wait for photos to develop.

The result is a decent budget camera, delightfully retro in look and function, capable of taking good enough photos considering its price. It has a few quirks, but as long as you know that it mimics a disposable camera from the 80s and 90s, you probably won’t be disappointed.

Specifications and hardware

• Photo resolution: 13 megapixels (4144 x 3088)
• Video resolution: N/A
• Sensor size: 1/3.1 inch type
• Lens: 4.2mm (approximately 30mm in 35mm equivalent field of view), f/2.2
• Image stabilization: No
• Screen type: None (well, other than a monochromatic LCD with frame count)
• Storage: internal, “27 photos” (actual megabytes not specified)
• Weight: 147 grams (5.2 ounces)
• App: iOS/Android

This camera is obviously not about specs. It has a small plastic lens with a focal length of around 30mm (35mm equivalent). This is similar to the main camera on most phones and what you would have found on disposable devices back in the day. Storage is internal, probably only a few hundred megabytes, but for the main trick of this camera it’s unlikely to be a problem. You see, going full-on with the “disposable camera” vibe, the One35’s main mode only allows you to take a “roll” of photos, 27 to be exact, and then you have to send them to your phone for “developing”, which takes 24 hours. Yes, you won’t be able to see what you filmed until tomorrow.

It’s an interesting idea. Maybe it allows you to stay more in the moment. This is definitely inspired by the 90s vibe that is very popular right now. You can see the “frame count” decrease with each frame. You even have to “advance” the film with a plastic ratchet wheel. Granted, it’s been a long time since I’ve used a disposable camera, but I don’t remember winders requiring as many turns of the dial as the Flashback. Other than the shutter and flash (more on that in a moment), this is the One35’s only control. It also serves as a power switch.

However, once the novelty of “development time” wears off, I could see the Flashback being less interesting. You can enable a Digicam mode in the app, which lets you see the photos you’ve taken immediately after transferring them from the camera. Personally, having spent my formative years with cinema, I can avoid that bit of nostalgia. I wouldn’t blame anyone else for delaying the excitement of seeing their photos until the next day. I’m glad both options are there.

The app itself is pretty basic, but it has decent aesthetics. Here you can set a self-timer for the camera, change the filter for photos from the current roll, and see what you’ve already taken, grouped into “film rolls”, naturally. According to Flashback, images are processed in the app and not in the camera or on a cloud server. You need to save the images to your camera roll to view and share them, but you can also download “negatives,” which are unprocessed images that Flashback describes as being saved in “JPEG or raw format.” They were JPEG files when I downloaded them, but were otherwise unprocessed. If anything, these made me more impressed with the Flashback, as they look surprisingly good for a $120 camera (and I tested a bunch).

User-friendliness and photo quality

I don’t know what to say about the usability of a camera with no settings and just one button. It’s a small camera, easily fitting into all but the smallest hands. It’s also lightweight, with the battery probably being heavy enough that it won’t feel like crushing it with one hand. I had it in my back pocket and sat on it twice with no ill effects. The buttons and sliders, on the other hand, feel very fragile and are not designed to last. So yes, like the disposable products that inspired it.

As I mentioned above, the movie “winder” is fun at first, definitely hitting that nostalgic part of the brain (my brain, anyway). It’s quite loud, though, so if you don’t want to draw attention to the click-click-click-click sounds, possibly attracting the eyes and curiosity of millennials and older generations nearby, this may not be the camera for you. It won’t let you take another photo until you put it back together, which is, you know, the whole point.

Keeping the price low and the aesthetics high, there is no screen other than the “film frame” counter. Instead, there is a simple optical viewfinder. This has always been tricky, because if your eye isn’t aligned at neutral, you’ll get a different framing than you thought…and you’ll have no way of knowing until tomorrow (or right after you connect the camera if you’re in Digicam mode). This also makes aligning photos when you can’t use the viewfinder – at arm’s length or overhead, for example – basically impossible to get perfectly.

But perfection is not the goal of Flashback. Like many modern budget and retro cameras, it’s all about retro vibes. The included filters definitely give the photos a solid, if somewhat idealized, ’90s look. On the contrary, the results seem Also detailed and contrasty compared to real movies taken with a cheap camera, but you can always edit them further if you want.

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There’s another feature on the One35: a fairly powerful flash that you activate by moving a slider on the front. This slider is by far the cheapest part of the camera. Just like the real flashes of yesteryear, you have to wait a while for it to load. The result gives a vibrant “photo flash” appearance. Since most people who buy the Flashback have probably never used a flash like this before, they’re going to get a lot of blown out images, just like the good old days. Ah, the joy of blinding your friends in a dark bar to take a candid photo. The memories…

The disposable non-disposable

I’m quite taken with the Flashback, enough that I could give it as a gift to a younger member of the family. It’s delightfully easy to use. (I mean, how could it be otherwise? There’s literally only one button.) It’s easy to carry in a pocket or purse, and just roll it up to wake it up and capture a moment. Don’t worry about settings or picture perfection. Take that photo and get back out there, no digital distractions necessary. Then, tomorrow, you can wax nostalgic about what you did the day before, marvel at the great photos (or not) you took, and share them with your friends.

It’s a delightful update of the way things used to be, or at least the way we’d like to remember them. A simpler time with less need for instant sharing. There’s a fine line here, though, and I’m only on the side of this “celebration” of retro photo taking because 1) the Flashback is cheap, and 2) it’s pretty decent for a cheap camera. The images you get are reduced quality with filters to match the aesthetic of the film, but Flashback only gets decent results as the images start out looking pretty good. If they were bad to begin with, they would look like garbage when processed (much like what you get from Kodak Charmera).

Since Flashback sells them regularly, probably because they sell a lot of them, apparently other people are enticed as well. As long as you’re not expecting more than a disposable film camera that’s secretly a non-disposable digital camera, I think you’ll get what you pay for.