I want to get some “early-2000s-era disposable camera” photos at the next furry convention, but I don’t know if I want to go through the hassle of getting disposable camera photos developed in 2024. I’m wondering if some reusable film/digital device exists that has the same sort of shitty flash bulb and lens as a disposable camera. Any recommendations? note: this question has been answered.
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in reply to @phenokage's post:
isn't it usually just a roll of 35mm film in there if you get the camerra open?
that might be easier to get developed if you liberate it from the camera
The official one hour photo technician method of doing this is "Pop open the bottom with a screwdriver and take the film canister out"
Ilford has the sprite 35-II. It's a bit big but has a plastic lens like a disposable.
Lomo has the simple use.
Kodak has a full frame and half frame camera with plastic lenses that'll get you what you want.
You can check out the cameras that fpp has at https://filmphotographystore.com/collections/35mm-cameras/
They have atleast the kodaks and the lomo's! The harmen is the same as the ilford I believe. You can't go wrong with any of them though! You can also buy the film from that shop.
my preferred mail-in darkroom takes disposable cameras like any other roll of 35mm, it's not that much of a hassle. my experience is that bad digital cameras do also exist but they kinda have a different look about them
a lot of the issue is that a digital camera with a fixed flash and a bad lens is also going to have a bad sensor, which means your photos are going to be dominated by "this looks like it was taken with a bad digital sensor". disposable film cameras have shit optics but the film itself is higher resolution and higher dynamic range than you get on even some pretty good digitals
If you're dead set on it being digital, the Camp Snap supposedly has picture quality similar to disposable 35mm cameras.
If you still wanna shoot on film, there are zillions of cheapo 35mm point and shoot type cameras littering eBay, you can find them for a song, and they'll look about the same. Same cheap garbage flash that whines as it charges up and will completely flatten the lighting of an image. I'd look for Olympus brand personally, they made some pretty sleek and compact ones.
In addition to toy film cameras that take regular film, there are also some folks who repackage toy camera and disposable camera lenses for use on digital.
But you'll need an interchangeable lens digital camera to use them, and if you don't already have one that'll obviously boost the price a fair bit. Also at a bit more of a price premium but with higher build quality, you can toy-ish lenses from some manufacturers like lensbaby, or this interesting one from Chroma.
For flash, you just any sort of direct flash mounted onto the camera. Reflx lab sells some cheap little ones, or if your camera has a hotshoe but not a built-in flash, you could get a cheap used flash. Some old flashes have non-TTL auto modes that work quite well and can make direct flash shooting more convenient.
It's a big of a jump in pricing, but with the value-add of a lot of convenience and instant results if you get some sorta instant digital camera like a fujifilm instax or polaroid go? The higher end ones are nice but the basic ones are somewhere in the disposable camera quality range (a bit better admittedly though on smaller format prints). Freder was taking pics with one at MFF last year and he got one of me in suit and it's just a lovely little memory.
Kodak recently made some basic camera quality film cameras that take normal film, like late 90's early 00's fixed focus flash point & shoot film cameras, if you can find out that's doable, and lets you just buy film though you still gotta get stuff developed.
Last option is like, buy a cheaper, old, used point & shoot digital camera and a compact photo printer and rock that!
lomography sells reusable film cameras that they say are designed to be like the disposable ones. No idea if they are good but it's pretty close to what you're looking for
if you don't wanna bother with film, a lot of late 00s/early-mid 10s digital point and shoots will give you a similar (albeit still distinct) vibe. i personally really love my olympus mju mini digital and my nikon coolpix s01. the nikon is especially cool because it has a built in high contrast b/w mode which looks amazing with the built in flash.
any of the olympus camedia d400 or d500 series would probably do the trick as well.