The Camp Snap 2 ($69.95) is the follow-up to the eponymous screen-free camera that launched the brand, a digital version of an old-school disposable 35mm compact. Like many sequels, it's more of a retread than a reimagining, with some refinements and flashier looks, but the same plot. That's not a bad thing—the Camp Snap 2 is just as affordable and easy to use as its forebear, and its display-free design continues, so kids can use it to preserve memories at summer camps and school events where smartphones and screen time are verboten. The company adds some new translucent colorways, a tripod socket, and a half-dozen image filters, and slims down the body, but aside from that, it stays true to the original. Even with some flaws, the Camp Snap 2 just might be the perfect camera for older elementary students and tweens, and earns our Editors' Choice award for its simplicity, low cost, and fun factor.

Design: Disposable Goes Digital

It's not fair to compare the Camp Snap 2 with pricey digital compacts like the Panasonic ZS99 and Ricoh GR IV; it doesn't pretend to compete with superzooms or high-end pocket cameras. It's more like a disposable 35mm camera, an item many '90s kids would pick up at the drug store or airport before a school trip, vacation, or another occasion they wanted to document. You can still buy a disposable camera today for just under $20, but it doesn't include film processing or scanning, and it only yields about 27 snapshots. The Camp Snap 2 comes preloaded with a 4GB microSD card, large enough to hold around 800 photos, so the value proposition is obvious.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

The Camp Snap 2 shares some of its design DNA with disposable cameras, too. It's purely a one-button camera, so you just press the shutter and it takes a photo. The aperture and focus distance are fixed, and you put the camera to your eye and peer through an optical viewfinder to frame your shot. The viewfinder isn't exactly accurate, though. Its angle of view is narrower than what the lens sees, another trait it shares with disposable film cams and the original Camp Snap.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

The second-gen model is just about the same size as its predecessor, about 2.5 by 4.5 by 1.3 inches (HWD), but its rounded edges and slimmer body design give it a sleeker look. Not taking the lens into account, it's about a quarter inch shallower than the first-gen model. The Camp Snap 2 is a little heavier (3.8 ounces) than the original (3.4 ounces). The new camera's plastics feel a little more sturdy to me, and it adds a metal tripod socket, two factors that no doubt add a few grams.

The original Camp Snap was available in a rainbow of colors, and that trend continues with the second gen. I received the Camp Snap 2 in Forest Green, but you can also get it in Arctic White, Chestnut Brown, Stealth Black, or Sunbeam Yellow. 

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

Fans of Y2K-era tech may prefer the Jelly Edition, a special edition with translucent plastic and bright colors. The Jelly version is available in Blue Rush, Strawberry Splash, Tangerine Drift, or Twisted Lime. I haven't seen the Jelly version yet, but it's meant to evoke the look of transparent tech products that were popular around the turn of the century.

Controls: Choose Your Filter

In an era when pro digicams have so many buttons, dials, and menu pages that you practically need a study guide to use them, the Camp Snap 2's simplicity is a breath of fresh air. There's not much to taking a photo—just press the shutter on the top plate, and it snaps a picture. The shutter release is rounded and concave, versus the oval convex button from the original Camp Snap. It's a little less clicky than the original Camp Snap's button, which makes it a little bit more comfortable to operate, and its matte finish matches the body better than the original's glossy shutter button.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

The rear panel nearly matches the original. It has a three-stage power switch (Off, On, Flash), an optical viewfinder, a digital watch-style monochrome information display, an indented thumb rest, and one new control: the filter button. This button lets you switch between the six built-in image profiles (Analog, Black & White, Standard, Vintage 1, Vintage 2, Vintage 3). It's possible to lock the filter selection: Hold the button down for ten seconds, and the camera will beep and prevent you (or your kid) from changing it by accident. Just hold it for another ten seconds to unlock it.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

The rear info LCD shows both the frame counter (in a large, easy-to-read font) and the active filter, but the latter is a little hard to see. The filter icons are super small and hard for my aging eyes to read, even with progressive eyeglasses. I think that Camp Snap should have dropped the frame counter in favor of a display that shows the selected filter in big type. The frame counter isn't nearly as important.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

The camera has the aforementioned tripod socket on the bottom, along with a USB-C port for charging the internal battery and for connecting the camera to a computer, phone, or tablet to offload images. The USB port is protected by a rubber flap that provides some protection against dust and splashes of water, but note that the Camp Snap 2 is not weather-sealed. A recessed button to reset the camera to factory defaults is nearby. There's no chance of pressing the reset button accidentally; you need to use a paper clip, SIM card remover, toothpick, or similarly pointy instrument to do so.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

Despite adding a tripod socket, the Camp Snap 2 doesn't include a self-timer. To be fair, I wasn't expecting one. Kids and teens are more into snapping quick selfies than setting up a camera on a tripod and then racing against a 10-second timer to get into a group photo—that seems like something that's nostalgic for Gen X and millennials.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

There's also a hinged door with the microSD slot and three buttons hidden underneath. It's locked with a Philips-head screw by default, so parents won't have to worry about kids opening it and losing the memory card, but it latches shut, so you can skip using the screw if you're buying it for an adult or an older, more responsible child.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

The camera comes with a 4GB card, which is big enough to hold around 5,000 photos, but you can upgrade to a larger card if you prefer. The three buttons are used to set the date and time. Hold down the M button and use the up and down keys to switch through months, days, hours, and minutes. Setting the date isn't a hard requirement, but it's a good idea if you want to log when photos were taken—that can be handy if you want to look back at a picture years after it was snapped to help remember when a special moment was captured.

Image Quality: Lo-Fi Pics and LED Flash

The Camp Snap 2 matches the original in resolution, sensor size, and general image quality. Its sensor captures photos at 8MP in a 4:3 aspect ratio, with an angle of view that just about matches that of a 32mm full-frame lens. This is a common choice for fixed-lens cams, both consumer and pro. It's a moderately wide view, similar to what you get with the Fujifilm X100VI digital camera and most disposable film cameras. It's a useful angle for everyday slice-of-life photography, arm's-length selfies with two or three people, and landscape scenes.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

The fixed-focus lens renders everything that's three feet or more from the camera crisply, and blurs closer objects, with no way to adjust it. Focus control is one thing you give up with the basic camera, and the 3-foot focus distance can be limiting creatively. The Camp Snap Pro ($99) focuses at around half the distance (1.5 feet), but it has a much wider-angle lens (around 22mm, which is appreciably wider than the main lens on most smartphones), so it's not good for macros or detail shots either. If you want that kind of creative control, you'll simply need to step up to a camera with autofocus—the aforementioned Panasonic ZS99 is a good option if you want one with a big zoom, while the Sony ZV-1 is a standout for low-light and shallow-depth-of-field imaging.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

The Camp Snap 2 supports 30.5mm screw-in lens filters, so you can use a creative filter or a conversion lens if you'd like. Camp doesn't make its own filters, but suggests trying wide-angle conversion lenses, macro diopters, and diffusion and color effects filters. Neutral density filters aren't on the list, though they should be. While you can't use the camera for very long exposures that smooth out waterfalls or blur pedestrians moving through a scene (in very dim conditions, the shutter fires at around 1/20-second), cutting out a little bit of light is a good idea when using the camera in very bright sunlight, as it can overexpose highlights when there's too much light. A one-stop ND (also called ND3), a type of filter that cuts out half the incoming light, is a smart add-on if you want to use the camera to catch memories on bright summer days.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

There's no change in picture quality versus the original Camp Snap—the second edition uses the same sensor and lens. They work together to catch images with a lo-fi look. I like to describe them as a digital version of a disposable camera, but it's just as appropriate to liken the pictures to those from very early smartphones, like the iPhone 3GS.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

Details are fuzzy, and the dynamic range is very narrow, which means you can't get an image that shows detail in bright highlights and dark shadows as you can with newer HDR-capable phones. I don't think that matters for the target audience and typical use cases for the Camp Snap 2—pros may turn their noses up, but kids will have fun getting started taking photos, and artsy photogs who appreciate toy cameras and lo-fi optics will also enjoy it.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

The built-in filters are fun, too. The original Camp Snap let you load one custom filter at a time, but this version includes six preloaded options. Standard renders images naturally with accurate colors. It's joined by a trio of vintage filters with stronger contrast, cooler tones, and warmer tones (respectively), a black-and-white option, and an analog filter with faded colors and a very slight sepia tint. I tried each filter across several scenes for this review, and I like Vintage 1 most of all, but that's just a matter of taste.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

What if you aren't satisfied with the built-in filters? That's no problem—Camp Snap has a web app that lets you create your own looks and load them into the camera. You can get super creative here and recreate the color-shifted looks of cross-processed or special-edition film like LomoChrome Turquoise, play around with deeply saturated or pale colors, or make a black-and-white look with extremely low or high contrast. It's a great feature, and since the Camp Snap 2 has six filter slots, you can load several into the camera. The custom filter system elevates things above "just a fun kids' cam" to something that artistic photographers can add to their toolkit to craft images with a signature look.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

The camera has an LED flash, the same type used in smartphones. It's good for brightening a subject at close range and can fill in some shadows, but can't handle a really strong backlight or freeze motion like the xenon flashes typically found in more expensive compacts and entry-level mirrorless cameras. If you're interested in flash photography, you might want to upgrade to the Camp Snap Pro—its extra-wide 22mm lens is a little broad for everyday snaps, but its photos are 16MP and stand up to a little bit of cropping while still looking good on social media feeds.

(Credit: Jim Fisher)

All of Camp Snap's cameras suffer from shutter lag, though. The original, Camp Snap 2, and Pro all take about a quarter-second to take a photo after pressing the shutter. The delay is enough to make you miss some truly candid moments and catch friends and pets in awkward poses. The Camp Snap 2 wakes up from sleep faster than the other cameras, but doesn't fix the shutter lag.