Are you constantly chasing that vintage lo-fi aesthetic with your photography? If so, how about taking things to the extreme by adapting your expensive mirrorless camera to emulate a disposable point-and-shoot? That’s exactly what I did with a novel piece of kit from a new company called Pocket Dispo.
As the name might suggest, Pocket Dispo rescues the lenses from disposable cameras and repurposes them into lenses for modern interchangeable lens cameras. It’s a great idea, and a pretty admirable one if those lenses were otherwise destined for landfill. When Pocket Dispo sent over a sample I wasn’t expecting much, but I have to say that I had an absolute blast shooting with it – far more than you would have thought for the $40 asking price.
The lens itself is a tiny pancake-sized form factor that certainly looks a little odd on a modern mirrorless camera, but it fits well enough. When mounted, it’s barely noticeable, so it’s an easy addition to any camera bag alongside the usual zooms and primes.
Doing more with less
Using the Pocket Dispo, I was surprised at how quickly I got into the groove of shooting. It has a fixed f/11 aperture with infinity focusing, meaning that everything further than 1.5 meters from you will always be in focus. If you’re used to modern autofocus lenses then it’s a completely different experience – one where you can simply shoot from the hip at all times.
Did I miss modern autofocus? Surprisingly, not really. You might also think the lack of depth of field would be limiting, but it’s fun to just shoot away and forget about the bokeh. With no focusing, you’re simply taking snapshots, with the only limiting feature being no extreme close-ups. If you can, however, I’d highly recommend enabling focus peaking in your camera settings, as that will really help you know when you’re nailing that focus on nearer subjects.
For images, the Pocket Dispo definitely gives you a certain look – one that's complete with the expected idiosyncrasies of a cheap vintage lens. Even with infinity focusing it’s notably sharper in the middle of the frame than at the edges, which gives images a kind of swirly, dreamy look. Overall it’s not an unpleasant effect, and it's pretty effective if you’re looking to isolate your subject mid-frame. I could see this being another tool in a portrait photographer's kit bag if you want to move away from the usual tack-sharp look with blurred-out backgrounds.
Boundless retro possibilities
In terms of results, it goes without saying that you’ll need more than just a lens to really nail that ‘disposable analog’ look, as the film aesthetic is down to more than just the lens. Things like the look of different film stocks, halation, and grain can all be hard to nail, but the Pocket Dispo gives you another relatively cheap way to get a notch further toward that particular look, and coupled with some post-processing, you can get some enjoyable and creative results.
Using the Pocket Dispo on my Nikon Z6 I was instantly looking for ‘classic’ shots reminiscent of a nostalgic childhood holiday. Knowing that the classic Polaroids usually have more of a square aspect ratio, it was fun to try and shoot images that would crop appropriately.
The above images have been post-processed in Lightroom with a VSCO film effect to emulate an old Polaroid, which, I have to say, is far more fun than it should be. The Pocket Dispo not only opens up an interesting way of shooting, but also gets you thinking creatively in terms of how you’re going to process your images. Do you crop them to a squarer format to ape a vintage Polaroid? Or perhaps you go for something a little more reminiscent of a classic 35mm frame:
There's a huge variety of possibilities here, and I'm still thinking of ways to experiment further with the Pocket Dispo. For example, I would love to pair up the Dispo with a flash at some point to emulate that classic lo-fi indoor disposable shot. I can imagine it now – several friends or family gathered smiling for the camera, with plenty of red-eye to boot.
For $40, it’s really hard to go wrong with the Pocket Dispo if you’re tempted to turn your expensive flagship camera into a charming lo-fi shooter. While I tested it on the Nikon Z6 it’s currently available for a range of mounts for the best mirrorless cameras, including the Canon RF and Sony E-mount. There are also options for crop mounts, although be aware that the 28mm focal length will be affected by the associated crop factor. Either way you’ll get a lightweight pancake-style lens that easily fits in any camera bag alongside your usual lenses, and which will give you some fun retro results.
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