More greenwashing

I just came across a company called the Papershoot Camera company, who produced cheap, lo-fi digital cameras presented as a simple PCB powered by 2 AA batteries and wrapped in a piece of supposedly recyclable cardboard.
The company claims that their product is not only more environmentally friendly than a disposable camera ( a tall claim, since they nearly totally made out of recyclable plastic and are usually devoid of electronic components!) but that they exclusively recycled used (sic.) components to produce their cameras.
The product, aside from the claims, has every earmark of yet another cheap, disposable, non repairable and definitely non-recyclable electronic product, marketed to children and teenagersā€¦ coming soon to a landfill site near you. :weary:
You can find them here:

This is, of course, not even the tip of the iceberg but I find it particularly depressing to see that, in spite of laws and regulations put in place, new companies are still being allowed to emerge, using the allure of doing something for the planet while based on patiently false claims.

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As a photographer I would not touch this with a ā€˜barge poleā€™.

It is simply about ā€˜faux retro aestheticsā€™; a fashion accessory for the Instagram generation. It is not sealed, so using it anywhere damp or dusty is going to cause issues. If you want a better camera that is more versatile and also does video you could get a second hand GoPro or pretty much any other second hand major brand camera for the same price and get better spec.

If you really feel the need to try and build a camera yourself, then start with a Raspberry Pi + camera which you can build from a kit, for less money and you get a free computer (and can get spare parts).

Or was that too cruel?

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Absolutely. The camera cannot possibly withstand even moderate ā€œnormalā€ use for long.
This means that their claim of fixing or recycling the camera is necessarily an empty promise since it cannot possibly be economically viable.
Did I mention that itā€™s blatantly not made from used parts, as stated?
All this for 16MP, so a lower definition than most modern phonesā€¦

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