Back at the beginning of the summer I started carrying around an old Canon digital camera. When I’m taking professional photos I love my OM Digital Solutions EM1 Mark II but for everyday moments it was too heavy and bulky. By the time you pack the snacks, diapering stuff, water bottle; your bag is so heavy that adding even another pound is too much. Which is why I love packing my small digital camera. However, you might be wondering in the age of phones that make excellent camera’s why pack and use a digital camera. That is exactly what we’re going to unpack today!
*All photos you see in this blog post were taken on the Canon M100 and the Canon EF-M 15-45mm Lens unless otherwise stated.
Park play date with Nana and Cousin J
Swimming pool fun at our friends house
Random park we went to where we got chased by marmots
Benefits of Using a Digital Camera Instead of Your Phone
Digital camera photos come out richer and creamier than phone photos: Phone photos are very sharp and vibrant but I just find the photos from my digital camera are better. This does partly have to do with the aperture that both camera’s use. For my digital camera I have it set to aperture priority so if I’m taking a portrait the background does have a creamy bokeh to it (it’s not the creamiest that a camera and lens could offer but it’s pretty good). On the iPhone (specifically comparing to an iPhone because that’s what I use) unless you have it on Portrait Mode it tends to put everything in focus and I don’t ever use Portrait Mode on my phone because I find it looks fake and you can typically tell around the edges of the person that you’re using a computerized software to create that bokeh.
You have range with better quality: Depending on the digital camera you have you can probably zoom in and zoom out quite a bit and still have quite a quality image (it’s sharp and not super distorted). On the phone you can also zoom in and zoom out but depending on the available light and just the technical capabilities of the phone you lose quality in your image. The more you zoom in/out on something you want to capture the grainer and blurrier it gets.
Really adorable moment where my husband was cuddling the cat and Victoria came over for a hug. Unfortunately, it’s blurry because when I opened my camera on my phone to take the photo it took a while to focus and figure out the environment.
Adorable photo of Victoria wearing her cousins sunglasses.
3. It’s less of a distraction: On my phone I have my email, text messages, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, etc., I might simply go to take a photo on my phone but then get a text message from someone which leads to checking my email, then scrolling. When I just use my camera to take a photo, that’s it. I can’t do anything else on my camera so I find it’s less of a distraction.
4. It’s less muddled: If I scroll on my phone’s camera roll right now I would find a mess of photos - photos intentionally taken for memory keeping, photos that I took just to add to my Instagram stories, exported photos from previous days that I edited, clips for Reels, snippets of videos and photos that my daughter took when she got my phone, screenshots of things and photos of prices. It’s muddled with so much other stuff that it feels messy. I only use my camera for memory keeping so there’s a chronology to the photos in my camera.
5. You love the creativity and art form of photography: One of the reasons I picked up my small digital camera in the first place was because I wanted to learn more about photography, more about shooting in manual mode, more about creating better more impactful photos. You can do a lot with phone photos but I did find limitations that I can overcome with a digital camera.
Although I do gravitate towards using my digital camera for memory keeping I do take a lot of photos on my phone. The biggest thing I find with my digital camera is that I don’t always have it on me, but my phone I do. For example, often in the mornings we have our routine where we eat breakfast, go for a walk and then play outside. Sometimes I’ll bring my camera along but a lot of time I just head out the door with my phone. It’s during these small, average days or moments that I’ll capture quick small things that I love - my daughter hugging the cat, something funny she did that I want to send to my family, her first time blowing bubbles. I will say that if I had a more compact point and shoot that I can fit in my pocket I would likely be more inclined to take that with me during these times when we’re just hanging around outside or doing something small.
Sweet moment captured on my iPhone between Victoria and our cat Binx
Something funny Victoria did that I just wanted to quickly snap
Victoria making bubbles for the first time on a average Thursday morning after our walk
My Everyday Camera
The digital camera that I use for documenting everyday moments like going to the beach, park, etc., is the Canon M100. This camera I had bought years ago when I first started my photography. I wanted a lightweight camera that I could switch out the lenses for and wasn’t too technical because I was just starting to learn manual. I believe I bought this camera for under $500 on a Boxing Week Sale at Best Buy. To this day I still use just the kit lens that it came with which is the Canon EF-M 15-45mm lens.
This little guy takes one battery and one SD card, it’s fairly small and fits in most of my bags that I use for toting my daughter around. It even fits in my Tushbaby which isn’t that big!
The Canon M100 is a few years old now. Canon has since come out with the M200 and other models. There’s also Sony with their ZV-1, ZV-1 Mark II, the ZV-1F (has camera capabilities but is geared more towards video). Nikon has their Z30 which is fairly small but larger than the models I’ve mentioned so far. There’s also older models like the Canon Powershots and other point and shoot options. Fujifilm also has some great smaller options that I would definitely love to explore one day!
If you’re a parent that wants to kick their memory making up a notch then I highly suggest looking for a small digital camera. Keep an eye out for sales, check your local Facebook Marketplace, you might even get lucky at garage sales and thrift stores!
You can create beautiful photos with your phone but shutterbugs that love the look and feel of an actual camera will prefer this option!
I hope this blog post inspires you to dig out your old digital camera to create some memory magic!
xoxo
Robynne