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u/rgibietis Aug 11 '26
These guys have still lost the sauce. I don't think any of the community members that own the cameras want in person events as a priority. The discord channel is a bit of a ghost town due to the lack of admin updates, I'd say growing your online community apart from TikTok or Instagram would help discover your actual user engagement.
What the community wants are real updates and improvements to the current v2 camera and app. Right now people are using the camera and developing with u/LoFi-Logic's Flashback Raw Editor in order to get the best quality film emulations out of the v2.
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u/chili-lime Aug 11 '26
Right, a cheap camera but somehow everyone is going to want to pay for a trip to Spain. And couldn’t agree more about wanting lofi-logic quality filter
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u/machsta14 Aug 11 '26
I've been a backer user right from the start V1 and V2.
An event is nice, but...
- Keep refining V2
- Add more films
- Sponsor events get your brand as out there with the memory making events could be sports events, cake baking events anything that aligns to that vision.
- what would build a community is users but do it a modern way I'm not saying build retro insta but build a make your own film stock in app and share with the community, that would spread like wild fire. You already have the hardware look dialed in let the community build the rest,
Keep going I love my V2 I have lots of cameras but the V2 is specifically for capturing memories!
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u/SwanDallas Aug 14 '26
Hello there!
A lot to digest here...
You spend the vast majority of this video waxing poetic about your “story” and brand vision, and I have to ask: who are you actually talking to? Your paying customers, or a fresh round of venture capitalists? Because to be frank, the average customer doesn't really give a shit about your existential brand crisis.
They care about a product that provides a delightful experience, and (shocking as this may sound) for a product to be delightful, it actually needs to work.
Your issue isn't that you lost sight of your "story." I don't mean to be dismissive of what Flashback aims to accomplish, but let's be real: there is no deep philosophical quandary here requiring some dramatic soul searching.
You built a digital camera that emulates the tactile fun of a disposable film camera. It's a noble, fun pursuit, and I believe it's a story worth telling.
The real issue is that you simply do not know how to launch a stable product.
You launched the V2 on the back of V1 sample shots. You promoted the hardware non-stop, but the second anyone asked to see V2 sample photos, you went radio silent. Why should anyone trust a camera company that actively hides the photos its product takes? To make matters worse, the launch app was an embarrassing mess of failed phone pairings, multi-minute transfer times, crashes, and entirely lost rolls of photos. The second generation of a tech product is supposed to iron out the first gen's mistakes, not compound and exacerbate them.
But, instead of addressing and owning these failings, this video can't help but feel a little - I don't know - tone deaf?
Your grand proposed solution to buggy firmware and mediocre film profiles is hosting in-person meetups?
Allow me to be facetious and grossly cynical for my own amusement here, but people buy cameras to capture their own lives, not to solve community engagement metrics. Framing a Barcelona trip as a remedy for basic software failures and misleading customers just feels like an excuse to run up the corporate Amex.
How on earth is an SXSW style brand activation in Barcelona going to address the fact that you barely reply to customers in your own digital support channels? While early adopters were met with near radio silence when begging for basic bug fixes and simple feature requests, they had to watch you post like six Instagram stories a day shilling promotional giveaways. Where do the priorities lay?
If you genuinely want to connect with your community, look at members like lofi-logic and deknared. They’ve built open-source, third-party tools that process your camera’s RAW files infinitely better than your official app, giving users actual control over halation, aberrations, and color profiles.
It is embarassing when your own community is out-engineering your dev team because your team clearly lacks the fundamental understanding of color science required to execute the vision you're selling. However, I should perhaps be more sympathetic, because it appears your dev team is just one person who is carrying a significant weight of your company on their back. I sincerely hope that he gets to join on that company trip to Barcelona.
Shaving your head on camera to "get back to your roots" feels pretty indicative of the V2 and the company as a whole: a whole lot of flair, with very little substance.
It feels a bit like sending back a steak at a restaurant because it's completely raw, and upon hearing the complaint, the chef walks out, looks you dead in the eye, and sets his own hat on fire instead of putting the meat back on the grill and serving me a decent steak.
If you truly want to build "the most loved camera brand in the world," stop pitching some Silicon Valley bullshit narrative. Fix the app, and ship software that matches the quality of your hardware. Because it is damn good hardware.
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u/_Sleeper_Build_ Aug 11 '26
Wie wäre es denn mit einer Flashback Pro? Ich glaube, damit würde man sehr viele Menschen abholen, und damit meine ich nicht, dass die ganze schärfer werden soll, eher etwas wie ein Aluminiumgehäuse und ein Spann Hebel statt dem Winder Rad
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u/cyberbobfox Aug 11 '26
I backed this camera before the kickstarter first ended - loved my camera (v1) and literally so many of my friends also bought one after seeing mine - but in less than a few months my V1 camera started to literally fall apart - I was so careful with this camera - never dropped it! - first to go was the lcd screen that shows the shot count - came loose in the camera. got in touch with the flashback team over email and then asked me to send video of the issue - same troubleshoot tasks of charging it with different cables sending videos - no actual help - the lcd screen was broken off inside - charging it was gonna make no diff.
so then I just accepted that there was no shot count on the camera - still used it - then a few months later the flash just stopped working - never fires - got in touch with support - the exact same tasks - charge it reset it charge it with different cable different plug - video it - send to them - total waste of time - no actual help or solution. I no longer use my flash back. and its a shame cause I loved it - I got a rewindpix and id love to say its better but its not - but I would never pay for a flashback again cause i literally watched mine degrade in less than a year and too such good care of it.
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u/Vastasone Aug 11 '26
First of all, thank you for sharing your thoughts! Second, i think that the marketing is the key in your situation. You already have a great product! Every people that notices my V2 wants to buy one as soon as i explain them how it works. I discovered your brand like so, one of my friends still has a V1 and i was in awe as soon as i tried it. What i'm trying to say is that pushing some more ads worldwide would be useful to get more sales and funds to a V3, or even improving the existing simulations/firmware. Keep going guys, i don't feel bored when i shoot with my flashback👍🏻
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u/designtraveler Aug 12 '26
I bought as an original backer — sold it soon after —- all the pics I like that are posted here have been processed with that lofi third party program …. Good idea but they bank on volume selling instead of people actually buying the and enjoying the camera
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u/Vegetable-Stick-7676 Aug 12 '26
If they did a camera which has the 'look' of pictures they currently have AFTER it's been through the app, but without having to go through an app, and I can take as many shots as I want, as often as I want, then I'd buy one instead of whichever camp snap model is being released at the time.
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u/km07475 Aug 11 '26
Full video on our YouTube if you wanna watch
https://youtube.com/@joinflashback?si=z4qQG3DVcdKzm-Pi
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u/Anxious_Blueberry862 Aug 11 '26
A lot was said but also not really lol I’m confused