The first trip I took with no phone in my hand, I almost turned back for it.
I had spent years doing the thing everyone does. Somewhere worth seeing, phone up, twelve shots of the same view, check the screen, delete three, take four more. Then a filter on the way home.
And here is what I noticed when I finally looked back at all of it. I had thousands of photos and almost no memory of the days themselves. I could tell you what the pictures looked like. I could not tell you what it felt like to be standing there. The camera had been between me and the whole thing the entire time.
The problem was never the picture quality. My phone takes a better photo than anything I own. The problem was the screen. Every screen invites you to check, and every check pulls you out of the room you are standing in. You are not there anymore. You are reviewing.
So I started shooting film again, and the difference was immediate. Not because film is better. Because I could not look. I took the shot and I went back to the evening.
But film is expensive, it runs out, and you wait weeks to find out you got it wrong.
That is the gap I built this for. A camera with no screen to check, so you take the shot and stay where you are. Small enough to live in a jacket pocket, because the camera you left at home has never taken a good photo. And digital underneath, so a night out does not cost you twenty dollars in film and a trip to the lab.
What you get back looks like it was taken by someone who was actually at the party, rather than documenting it. Slightly imperfect. Occasionally badly framed. Honestly, better for it.
I will be straight with you about the trade. If you want to check every shot and retake it until it is right, this is the wrong camera and you will be annoyed within an hour. That is not a flaw I am hiding. It is the entire point.
— Founder, Keepgrain