So you’ve decided you want to start taking old school film photos of children, but aren’t sure what kind of camera to get?

The first question is: “What is the look you’re going for?”

If you’re an 80s or early 90s baby yourself, you might be craving that saturated, indoor flash-heavy, darkly-vignetted 35mm film appearance that you remember from your own childhood photos.

A great film stock for achieving those striking greens from your childhood is Kodak Ultramax 400.

Here, I’ve used a purposely low-fi plastic “toy” camera (heavy on the indoor flash) to achieve a set of photos that could easily be accidentally dated to 1993.

The Diana Mini is an adorable little option for achieving this look. Another choice would be the Kodak Ektar H35.

Tips: USE THE FLASH INDOORS and choose a 400-800 ISO film.

But maybe that’s not exactly the vibe you’re going for… Maybe you’re more interested an editorial, Eye Mama look for your photo series?

For these photos, I used my Minolta XG-1 with Ilford XP-2 film. I happened to find my XG-1 for $15 at an antique shop.

I find that this camera loves children. It’s capable of a rapid shutter speed (in enough light) to reduce that childhood motion blur. I’m using a 50mm lens which gives that soft background bokeh. The original Rokkor lens has a softness that suits their perfect skin tones and bright eyes.

Obviously there are hundreds of other options, but I hope this helps narrow down your ideal type of photographic aesthetic— without knowing your desired outcome, it’ll be hard to choose the right camera.

Other fun ways to capture a childhood would be via Instax (I’d personally go with the wide or square cameras), Polaroid, or even Holga (expect very artsy and blurry results).

Thanks to adorable nephew J. for letting me take his photo! 🎞️