Here’s a a little blog about my time using the Retropia Oreo Lens.

There’s a quiet itch that lives in a lot of us who picked up photography in the digital age — and every now and then, it rises to the surface:
The desire to shoot film. Maybe it’s nostalgia from our old family photos. Maybe it’s the romanticised idea of a time when “real photographers” worked with rolls and chemicals, not SD cards and Lightroom. There’s definitely an aesthetic to film — that soft, imperfect charm — and many photographers chase it with expensive presets and grain overlays. Even though my professional work doesn’t lean into that look, I’ll admit it: I’ve had the urge to “play with film.” Over the last decade, I’ve shot thousands of Instax Wide photos of my family and love them, and I even bought a Canon film camera once. I shot three rolls with it and, honestly, I’m not sure you could tell what any of the pictures were meant to be. There’s an art to film and maybe I just don’t have that particular skill.

Recently, a friend told me about a quirky little lens, the Retropia, that essentially turns your expensive digital camera into a lo-fi, point-and-shoot film camera…sort of. It’s a repurposed disposable film camera lens, fixed at infinity focus. Strap it to your digital mirrorless camera, flip into a auto mode or semi-auto mode (aperture priority mode for me), and suddenly you’re working with something that feels very analog and point and shoot like. Surprisingly, it actually delivers on the promise: the images to my eyes do have a genuine film aesthetic, soft edges, subtle aberrations and that nostalgic vibe.

So, I took the Retropia Oreo Lens it for a spin over the weekend during a family walk/ride/scooter mission around a nearby lake. Below are some of the photos I came back with and the reasons why, I won’t be rushing to use it again despite achieving the look I “thought” I wanted.

Did I enjoy using it? Would I use it again?
Honestly, I thought I’d love it. The simplicity. The freedom. Just framing and shooting without worrying about focus or settings. I wanted to love it. But… I kind of didn’t.

And here’s why:
As someone who shoots by focusing and recomposing, I kept instinctively trying to do just that, forgetting this lens doesn’t. That’s not the lenses fault, total human error, I knew what it was but it still got frustrating quickly. Also, while I get that it’s part of the charm, I found myself repeatedly annoyed that when I did catch a lovely moment the image was either too soft or just missed the mark in terms of subject clarity. I often like to get in close and this lens doesn’t come in to focus until 1.5m out. I also love using the edges of my frame, and the falloff in sharpness there is pretty noticeable. That combination just didn’t suit how I like to shoot.

Once I pulled the files into Lightroom and threw a preset on, I started to appreciate the look a bit more and I do actually like the way the pictures came out, even more so now I’ve culled them down for this blog, but if I’m being really honest, I find myself wishing I’d used a regular lens setup, one that would have let me capture these same moments with the kind of clarity and intention I usually aim for. Sharp enough to print, frame-able keepers. Instead, I’ve ended up with a set of images I’ll probably use just for this blog post and maybe an Insta story — and that’s about it.

Will I use the lens again?
Maybe, but I can’t think of when or why right now. The aesthetic or shooting style doesn’t suit my professional work at all (I knew this though beforehand), and I can’t imagine hanging any of these shots in the house against the better looking ones I already have (maybe that’s just photography snobbery on my part). I’m not even sure if they would look good printed above anything over a 6×4. Maybe if I was heading off on a chilled-out holiday, I’d throw it on for fun. But I know myself, the perfectionist in me would kick in the moment I saw a beautiful shot reduced to a soft, low-res looking version of what it could’ve been.

I feel I should point out that if this style of image & way of shooting is what you want, then this Retropia Oreo Lens, for the price, is great (We are talking £30 here). I can’t fault the lens quality considering the said price & the fact it’s a repurposed disposable camera lens and it delivers exactly what it is meant deliver however, If I’m after that ‘film look’, I think I’ll just stick with some solid presets that mimic it and keep the sharpness and flexibility to edit the files exactly how I want. I think, for me, the nostalgic feeling I get when I look at old family photos from my childhood has clouded what I actually want from the images I take today. I’ve been chasing a feeling and not necessarily a look. And I’m realising that those warm, fuzzy emotions come more from the moments in those pictures, not the retro-gear they were shot on. So for now, I’ll let my simple Instax Wide scratch that film itch on occasion and keep capturing my family moments on my regular gear.