I know they are cheesy and unlikely to produce consistent results, but they are portable, affordable, and who cares cheap enough to carry several on trips where you don't want to take your good camera because it might get stolen or be abused by weather or environment.
I have had good luck with disposables, but I've used a lot of them and reloaded quite a few of them as well.
My favorites have been cheapie ones from a Family Dollar store (super easy to reload), and a cute little one called an "assignment" camera by Rollei. Yeah, a Rollei!
I think all disposables are made in China, including my favorite Rollei one, however the Rollei came loaded with genuine Rollei retro black and white 400 film and it is a dream.
Oh, the other reason I love disposables is there is no control, other than turning on a flash via a simple button.
No control means you have more time to compose and just watch a scene evolve and then click.
No shutter delay, no warming up, no focusing to fiddle with-just getting down to business fun!
And they are small enough to carry in a pocket. Less is MORE you know.
This is an old ranch site near Lake Lucero, New Mexico and was made with the little Rollei I'm so smitten with.
The site is near the missile range at White Sands and you have to take a tour to get to it since you have to drive through restricted property to get here. It's well worth going if you are visiting White Sands.
As you can see, the focus is a bit soft, but not quite as soft as the photo I posted from the Family Dollar disposable a few days ago.
If you want a disposable Rollei, Freestyle has a few left on clearance here:
Rollei disposable
I'm still buying Fuji color film at Walmart. I noticed the other day that there is also a rack of disposables there. I wonder who is buying them and what they are being used for. I think that Picture Perfect is the only place locally doing film processing, so I would guess that the disposables are mostly being sent out of state for developing and printing. That seems like an uneconomical process considering the alternatives. I guess it is good news for those of us still stuck on using film, but it is a bit of a mystery too.
ReplyDeleteHi Mike, In some cases it's cheaper to buy a disposable and take the film out of it and use in another camera than to just buy a roll of film. Also, I think parties buy them for special occasions. And maybe kids. But I like them for the reasons mentioned in my blog...and I have found them for 2 dollars at thrift stores, so it's cheap film that comes with it's own camera. There's also a perfectly good AA battery in the flash ones.
ReplyDeleteThere's probably just as many reasons not to buy them too, but I am one of the fan girls, so I get them.