Per the old is new again trend, anyone remember does disposable Fuji film cameras you used to take on vacation? Only had like 35 frames. You wouldn't dare take a photo every 5 minutes and run out of film on day one.
I want disposable cameras to make a comeback a big way. Nothing compares to film, it just looks like memories. It’s convenient to be able to shoot film without the commitment of buying a camera + film and learning how to use it. imo, every person should go through at least a few disposable cameras in their lives! :)
Yes but in the words of my dad - you could buy extra roll of film literally anywhere, for not a whole lot of money. When you were on holiday with only that one 50-photo large memory stick, and no way to empty it before going home, that's a big problem.
I couldn't understand having a nostalgia for a time when cameras sucked. At least go film. Hell, go for disposable film cameras or something. Cheap 35mm point and shoots rule.
None, pre-digital camera days and I never owned a film camera and didn't buy any disposables. I had very little money that I didn't spend on techno records.
I think it was a sacrifice of quality for the convenience of digital cameras. It was a great joy to be able to download and view photos immediately after taking them, rather than send the film to be developed. It was also extremely liberating when I realized I could buy a 1GB card and store photos taken over an entire trip. The freedom to not worry and keep clicking was a huge departure from the experience with standard 24 shot film rolls. I remember trips with my family where we'd spend lots of time just looking for shops selling film.
Disposable and film cameras are taking off again, kind of like what happened with vinyl records. My favorite part about shooting film is the mystery of it. When you shoot film the intention is high since you have a limited number of (expensive) shots: These days a disposable camera costs $25 when you factor in development.
Later Cam gives you a disposable/film experience for less than half the cost. It's $12.99 for 27 photos delivered.
At first the app held your photos for 3 days (simulating a film lab), let you preview your photos in-app with the option to order select prints by mail. After dozens of user interviews it became clear we also need (or maybe only need) a print-first mode where all of your photos get printed and the first time you see them is when they arrive in the mail.
We support "party cams" so you can shoot into the same camera with family and friends. Everyone shoots from their own iPhone or Android. One of the coolest things we do is turn your prints into postcards so you can slap on a postcard stamp and forward them to friends.
The last few weeks we've been experimenting with weddings which has been a blast. We create a custom wedding camera matching your invitation or use your engagement photos. Guests can easily download the app and get into the wedding cam with QR codes on signs and table cards we mail out ahead of the wedding. A week after the wedding the newlyweds get all the photos in the mail.
If anyone is interested in a beta invite I'd love to connect.
Some older people will probably have Fujifilm burned into their cortex because they made a lot of very popular film types for cameras back in the day, and if you were just somewhat serious about taking photos, film type was a big deal. At least I guess that's why it feels like that to me, too, even though it's definitely no longer true.
"It as common for the included film pack to be the only film that ever went in as the years whiled away with the camera in a drawer." This was because replacement film was so ridiculously expensive, you ended up 'saving' the shots you had 'in case you needed them' until the film went out of date.
Alas, film's recent popularity comes with (literally) a price. Cameras that were practically being given away are, thanks to "influencers", now insanely priced. Film was expensive enough but pandemic-related supply issues and Fuji's slow withdrawal from the film market have just made things worse.
I was lucky in that I picked up a bunch of film cameras when they were cheap. Processing hasn't risen in price all that much (yet) so that's nice. I even shoot 4x5 B&W that I process and scan myself. I still shoot digital, but it's 50:50 with film these days.
This is not very surprising news - very recently I was wondering who still sells film cameras. Digital has surpassed film in almost every way.
It is however quite scary to see technology completely go away which was so common not long ago, sometimes even completely lost as technology. You can’t buy proper Polaroid film any more, many other important film materials are completely gone as well.
I made the switch over to film from years of shooting digital. I’ve fallen in love with the colours and contrast that the Fuji films give. The blues and greens really pop but overall it’s a muted colour palette - love it.
I can see why they are doing this and Kodak isn’t but it is sad. I’ll probably end up buying up a bunch of Fujifilm and freezing it as well. A lot of the film from Fuji I see in stores is set to expire late 2019.
There was a time when cameras had a roll of film in them, usually 35mm limited to 36 shots per roll. You had to put thought into shooting because there was no preview, undo or delete. Once the films was exposed, it was done. Mistakes costed money.
Now you can shoot until your 1TB+ SD card is full, preview, delete, edit, etc, right on the camera as it is now a general purpose computer with a digital camera hooked to it. So photography is a now a cheap afterthought for many. Point, click, forget.
I have an anecdote, I believe from Herbert Keppler's column in Modern Photography from the early 1980s. A newspaper sports editor was complaining to him about the work of his photographers. He said, "Back when they carried Graflex 4x5s, I could send a guy to a game with 5 plates of film and he would come back with 5 usable shots. Now with motorized 35mm cameras, they shoot several rolls at a time and often come back without a single usable shot."
I don't miss the limitations of a roll of film, I usually took about 10-12 rolls of 120 film on a trip. thats 120-150 frames. Never bracketed, sometimes took two pictures of the same subject from different angles. The habbits carried over, with digital i shoot maybe twice as much (with about the same number of good pictures per trip, so for me more shots != more pics).
What i miss is the experience and workflow of a mechanical 6x6 TLR camera. You hold the camera at chest level, look down on the viewscreen, frame, then decide to take the picture or not. Nothing in digital does this yet.
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