One use disposable cameras.

[Zee09]

I just looked to see if they are still available. I was wondering if any market was left for them.

I got sticker shock. I have no need for any but they have been off my radar for a few decades.

Most everyone has a cell phone.. weird!
Crazy prices for new old tech.

 

[KCJeep]

So these are the things you think of while eating pizza with a fork.

I haven’t seen film for sale in forever, not that long ago there were huge displays everywhere. Where can you even get it developed anymore, mail order?

Remember actually WAITING to see how your pictures turned out?

 

[Hall]

I haven’t seen film for sale in forever, not that long ago there were huge displays everywhere. Where can you even get it developed anymore, mail order?

Remember actually WAITING to see how your pictures turned out?

Walmart had a very, very limited amount of 35mm film on their shelf maybe a year ago. We have a nice little 35mm camera that one of our daughters wanted to try. As I recall, you can still have it developed in many of their stores if you pay extra for the 1-2 hour service. If you're not in a hurry, i.e. 1, 2 days, they send it out (probably gets consolidated with drop-offs at CVS, Walgreens, etc, etc).

The nearby CVS in our small town has photo services, according to CVS' website. They mention same-day pickup options so they have to be printing them in store.

 

[hrv]

I purchased one about a year ago at walmart and it worked great...took 35 pictures and got them developed at walmart and the pictures turned out great...has a built in flash too...I think the brand was Fuji...Heck I still got a Cannon sureshot 35 MM and a Kodak 110 pocket camera...The 110 film is hard to find anymore..

 

[brianl703]

A while back I had the remains of the camera flash from one of them. It still sorta worked, I think the charging circuit was bad though.

But if you hooked to to an external source of 300 volts DC it would still flash...

...so I had a capacitor bank made from filter capacitors from old computer power supplies...

Probably had something like 2000uF of capacity, if not more. It would make a 60W bulb glow for several seconds.

I charged it up to 300V (using an Ebay high voltage power supply that costs $12) and connected it to the camera flash.

Pushed the button to fire it, and it flashed quite brightly, I felt the heat from it too.

It shattered the flashtube. Nothing left but tiny bits of glass.

I couldn't stop laughing.

 

[eljefino]

You can get film developed at Walgreens.

They send the film to a warehouse where it gets developed and scanned. The negatives then get shredded, never to be seen again.

The digital data finds its way back to the store, where they print on some sort of photo paper (inkjet?) and give you a CD with JPEGs of your photos. It's expensive, $15 for 24 pictures.

 

[simple_gifts]

OT: this thread gave is a recollection of old flashbulbs for instamatic 100 cameras. I believe filled with Mg and Oxygen, they were 1 use and melted some of the bulb when used. Trying to pull them right after a picture you would burn your fingers; even had an ejection lever "the good old days"

 

[JavierH19]

I saw this hippie looking 20 something year old girl at Walmart buying them while i was buying printer ink and asked her why. She said she really likes the way the photos look and said they have more special feel which i actually realized once i thought about it. Back when i used my camera i knew i only had a few dozen shots and had to make them count on the trip and there was no regretting so i had to enjoy what i took which i did. I also remember there being a bit of excitement in doing the extra work and getting the photos developed and going through them one by one smiling. And they did have a nice look to them.

I mostly stopped taking pictures on my phone while on vacations because they just don't feel that special anymore which i didn't think about. I can take a ton of them without regard and they look as how my eye saw i. Film gives the memories you're preserving that kind of rose tinted look to them. Though i don't know if I'll go back to shooting film but I'm more tempted now. I still have my old canon camera just have to buy film, maybe i will on my next vacation.

 

[brianl703]

OT: this thread gave is a recollection of old flashbulbs for instamatic 100 cameras. I believe filled with Mg and Oxygen, they were 1 use and melted some of the bulb when used. Trying to pull them right after a picture you would burn your fingers; even had an ejection lever "the good old days"

When I was a kid, probably in 1986/87, I found a flashcube for a camera we no longer had. I took it apart and removed all the plastic, exposing the flashbulbs and the base.

I then took a 9V battery and applied it to the contacts as I was holding it by the base.

I don't remember a flash.

I do remember flames, and I threw it across the basement, as it was still flaming, and landed on the carpet. It went out as soon as it hit the carpet, thankfully.

Also burned my fingers.

When I looked at the remains of the flashcube, every single bulb was burned, the plastic coating melted, like they all went off at once. But I don't remember a flash, just flames.

 

[Hall]

How many people print photos they take with the mobile phone ? Modern phones do have incredible quality so it's not like they're low resolution, poor quality.

 

[y_p_w]

OT: this thread gave is a recollection of old flashbulbs for instamatic 100 cameras. I believe filled with Mg and Oxygen, they were 1 use and melted some of the bulb when used. Trying to pull them right after a picture you would burn your fingers; even had an ejection lever "the good old days"

For me it was the General Electric Flip Flash. My dad bought me a Kodak Tele-Ektra camera and one came with the camera.

 

[Kira]

Slobs dropped Flashcubes on the floor at exhibitions.
I'd ease my full weight onto 'em and they'd collapse in a second or two creating a unique, loud, crunching popping noise.
I guess that made me a slob too.

The real kicker was when Advantix film wheels came out.
Each picture got a 3mm square of film.
These and Instamatics were developed because people didn't like or couldn't handle film.

 

[Rmay635703]

At Mesa verde I saw someone with both a disposable and a cell takings pictures.

If you want it developed real photos still last the longest

 

[supton]

I mostly stopped taking pictures on my phone while on vacations because they just don't feel that special anymore which i didn't think about.

Heh, my wife laughs now but at the time she didn't--long ago, I took her digital camera at a wedding she was at, and took photos. I erred on the side of, can always delete later. Anyhow, I took one of her with her kitty cornered in the shot. She saw what I was doing, and had a "what the ___ are you doing?" look.

I didn't care, electrons are cheap. Delete what didn't make it.

These days I carry a camera always (phone), yet rarely use it for non-work stuff. Realized years ago that I almost never look at the pictures. Even when pictures were expensive, I rarely took and properly put into a scrapbook--wait until the decades go by, then try to figure out who's in the picture, or where it was taken.

 

[Shel_B]

So these are the things you think of while eating pizza with a fork.

I haven’t seen film for sale in forever, not that long ago there were huge displays everywhere. Where can you even get it developed anymore, mail order?

Remember actually WAITING to see how your pictures turned out?

If you're using film you're probably at least a hobbyist, and you'll know where the labs are. They are quite common in many communities. Also, many of these hobbyists and some professionals do their own processing.

There is a wide variety of films still available in various formats, including at least 8 and maybe 10 variations of Black & White film. A number of larger communities have camera shops that sell film, and there is always the choice of a few excellent shops that have an online presence.

 

[skyactiv]

I'm at the age where digital came into play in early adulthood.
Before digital cameras, lots of color pics you'd see in magazines like Hot Rod, National Geographic, Car & Driver............. were shot on slide/reversal film. Getting good quality photos from color print film was rare when you dropped off a roll and wanted and wanted 4'X6' prints. If you took a C-41 negative to a good shop for an enlargement, it made a world of difference. The last modern en masse 1 hour photo machines were a digital hybrid and did better work unless you took your film to a very good shop that would do even better.

B&W photography has suffered big time due to digital cameras and its unfortunate.
While some people still shoot and process their own B&W film and make prints, its a small fraction of what it once was.
B&W photos shot on film convey light, shadows, feel and grain that cant be duplicated by digital.

My Nikon SLR is no longer useable. The light seal on the film back has deteriorated. Not worth repairing.

 

[paulo57509]

I still have my B&W film processing stuff. I really don't know why I'm still hanging on to it.

For prints, I used to borrow my friends darkroom equipment. I'd set it up in the hall bathroom (no windows).

I still have my Pentax MX 35mm camera. Last time I took photos with it was when the house was being built in 1999. I recorded a good chronology from empty lot to finish.

I still have two, unused, MIB Minolta 16Ps 16mm film cameras that I found at my parent's house. I think my uncle bought back as gifts when he went to Japan in the 60's. I bought a used 16P off an ebay seller just to get the accessories that were with it.

There's a Polaroid SX-70 auto focus and a Pronto someplace around here.

Most of the film cameras need the light seals replaced.

 

[bunnspecial]

I never stopped shooting film for my own photography, but the resurgence that's been seen the last 6-7 years has been nutty.

What's even more nutty to me is that often the sort of crummy look of things like disposables or low-end P&S cameras are in style too.

I've like the fact that bunches of films have come back on the market, but prices have been nuts too. 35mm 36 exposure E-6 film(and there are a few more options now than there were in the mid-2000s) is nearly $20 a roll before processing.

 

[AutoMechanic]

My parents used to always get me those to take on field trips at school. And we had to get them when we went to the Green Bank Telescope because you couldn’t have a digital camera there at the time. We still have all of those never have gotten them developed lol.

 

[bunnspecial]

The real kicker was when Advantix film wheels came out.
Each picture got a 3mm square of film.
These and Instamatics were developed because people didn't like or couldn't handle film.

Advantix was its own mess and actually had potential but fell short.

The 16.9x24mm frame size is decent to 5x7 and even 8x10 in a pinch, but it definitely took a hit on anything bigger. 24x36 of 35mm is already small enough.

The tech behind it is interesting but the in camera crops were really just wasting film.

Also the whole keep the negatives in the cartridge is great to avoid scratching for a lot of snapshooters, but awful for someone like me who catalogs negatives in binders.

I have a Nikon Pronia 6i, which is a proper F mount SLR and can do most of the fancy APS stuff including the custom frame keying but also is pretty limited as a camera. It’s more a curiosity.

APS(Advanced Photo System, Advantix was the Kodak name) lives on though. Most of the early DSLRs used a roughly 16.9x24mm sensor and were called APS-C. Even though full frame(24x36mm) cameras are now common, APS-C are still around. I actually just bought one-a Fujifilm X-T5 and love it.