Disposables?

I was dropping off a roll of Portra at the local lab, when i saw a disposable camera, 800 iso 24exp, for $10 with processing/prints. I bought this for the 'toy camera' look, and I'm wondering if it gives that look, and have you guys enjoyed using them?

it definitely gives that look. The local cvs was/is doing the same thing and I bought 2. Didn't much care for what I got back but that was my own fault, not the camera's. It's a fun way to just forget about getting nerdy on photography and just taking photos.

The best optics in the disposable cameras are in the Kodak disposable cameras.

Steve

I'm not that worried about optical quality! The camera I bought with 800 speed color, is it really 800 speed or just 400 and film latitude?

Sirius Glass said:

The best optics in the disposable cameras are in the Kodak disposable cameras.

Steve

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Nuh-uh! It's in the Fuji disposables!

2F/2F said:

Nuh-uh! It's in the Fuji disposables!

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No, when I was at Kodak the optical engineers showed me the comparison tests.

Steve

Fuji or Kodak.... They're not disposable!


Steve.

I peel them (the Kodak's) apart and hand in the film for processing (or do it myself) and then hand load a similar film when I recover the roll and pop the usually custom spool into a reloadable cassette. Then use a screw driver to wind the film into the camera and button it all up. Mine usally go out as all black the second time around. Do watch out for the flash capacitor- the terminal board can pack a wallop.

Sirius Glass said:

No, when I was at Kodak the optical engineers showed me that comparison tests.

Steve

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I have no idea, really. I was really just messing around hoping someone would chime in with "You two are idiots! Ilford's are the best!!!"

i used a nice kodak disposable - pano
back in the 90s when visiting friends
in sam frank's disco

it came in handy

you can also open them up and put your own film in them!
(they put them in a bin at the photo lab, to be recycled/reused ... or they used to )

Interesting parking job.

Steve

This sounds like a lot of fun. I'll have to go out and get a disposable later today and put some bw film in it.

I also found these step by step instructions for reloading Kodak disposables: http://www.camerahacker.com/re-use_camera/index.php You need a darkroom, but that shouldn't be a problem for 99% of this site.
A quick google yields a few more sites, too.

rphenning said:

it definitely gives that look.

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I would disagree. Disposable camera images don't look anything like Holga, et. al. pictures to me. I agree disposable camera images aren’t great, but they have a consistent engineered look to them. The image imperfection are balanced across the image surface, yielding as good an image as could be expected at that low price point. Surly these images don’t look like they were taken with a Leica, but you would be hard pressed to make improvements without significantly adding to the manufacturing cost of the camera, regardless of the number of hours of optical engineering you put into the effort.

Conversely, an image from a Holga type camera shows imbalanced imperfections. These images look like multiple incompetent optical engineers slaved completely independently and without any cohesive concept in mind. The resulting components were then just jammed together to make a camera. For example, the lens may have a sweet spot but it certainly doesn't cover the entire image surface. It's like the lens designer was working on a 35mm lens and then had it installed in a 120 camera body. The body design might have been done by the marketing department by someone that didn’t even know that the body had to be light tight but had his idea of what a camera should look like. I could go on - but why. That's half the fun with these cameras.

Denis K