Disposable

My digital camera has been on its last legs for a while now, and I really need to invest in a professional DSLR. However, I have found an interesting intermediate solution: disposable cameras. I miss the instant gratification of being able to review my pictures as soon as I take them, and I miss the convenience of previewing shots on a screen that is visible even when it isn’t directly in front of my face, but there are benefits. I think having to use the viewfinder forces you to pay better attention to the framing of a shot. Also, since you only have 27 tries per camera, you are more thoughtful about the value of each shot you take. Finally, there is a certain quality of pictures taken with real film that cannot be duplicated digitally…something about the way light is exposed and captured. Unfortunately, I am not an expert on cameras, and cannot speak more definitively on this. It seems like photos taken with film instead of digitally have better contrast, but that could just be due to the fact that digital cameras only have one flash setting, and it’s rather sharp. Still, I feel like there is a more technical explanation that I don’t really know about.

Regardless of my lack of camera acumen, I have been happy with the end results my disposable cameras have yielded. You can simply take the camera to most drugstores that process film, and ask them to process the negatives and give you a CD with digital copies made from the negatives. That way you can just order prints of the photos you like, and not pay for prints of the entire roll. It’s also nice, because the negatives give you a physical copy of the photos that is relatively lossless, if you take good care of them. Here are some fruits of my labor for your perusal.