Jon Pountney, photographer and instagram user, introduced me to the idea of the Boots 350 AF ‘point and shoot’ auto-focus camera because he’d created some stunning images with one. It was cheap: £15 on eBay. The film, Kodak UltraMax 400 is £13… and developing is about £10: so the camera is easily the cheapest part of this photography. However, it saved me trying to use my phone camera, or buying an expensive point and shoot digital camera, or even worse: a disposable camera. I’m not being paid to document the Paris-Brest event, so the quality of the photographs wasn’t ever going to be important. I wanted a lightweight camera, and the Boots 350AF is only 200g – with the added bonus that if I dropped it while cycling it would be no great loss. I had tried with some ColourMax 200 35mm film, but settled on UltraMax 400 because I expected to have more low light situations in which I’d be snapping pictures.
Note to self: learn to keep your fingers out of the frame!
Photographed on Kodak Ultramax 400 colour film, using a Boots 350AF compact camera. The settings are automatic; auto focus, auto shutter, auto aperture.