Picture This: The Technological Breakthrough of Disposable Cameras
Imagine you’re on vacation with your friends and one of them asks you to take a picture of them. You pull your phone out of your pocket and tap on the camera app and take a few pictures to make sure you get a good one. Easy peasy. But picture taking wasn’t always this simple. It’s time for a little history lesson — back to a time when dinosaurs roamed the earth (just kidding) — on the disposable camera.
In the age of smartphones, it’s hard to imagine a life where you don’t always have a camera on hand. Before smartphones, people had to carry cameras around if they wanted to take pictures of anything.
Although the disposable camera commonly seen today was created by Fujifilm in the 1980s, it was actually a company named Photo-Pac who invented the first disposable camera in 1949. The cardboard camera was sold for $1.29 and could only take 8 pictures and then had to be mailed in to be processed before printing (Vision Launch & EzineArticles). It wasn’t until 1986 when Fujifilm recreated Photo-Pac’s concept and the disposable camera became popular on the market.
Disposable cameras were successful because people wanted to own a personal camera that was convenient, lightweight and affordable. Consumers were able to take their own photos whenever they pleased.
Although not as popular today, disposable cameras are making somewhat of a comeback. Disposable cameras can be purchased at ‘hipster’ stores like Urban Outfitters and the concept of having physical copies of pictures instead of just digital ones has become increasingly trendy among teens nowadays.
Disposable cameras are often used as wedding favours as well, as a way for guests to be featured in the wedding pictures in a more intimate way.
The disposable camera definitely had its advantages and disadvantages, but was ultimately unsuccessful in the long run. Eventually, digital cameras and smartphones replaced disposable cameras.
Some problems with the disposable camera were that you always had to be careful of what you took a picture of because there was only so much film in the disposable camera. If any film was wasted, there was a chance you could miss out on a great shot. And of course, there was also the possibility that your pictures would turn out horribly, because you can’t look at them to see if they’re any good until they were developed when all of the film was used up.
Once the concept of the digital camera was introduced, it seemed silly to continue to use something as unreliable as a disposable camera.
Although I do miss the excitement and anticipation of going to get my pictures developed, I would definitely prefer always having a camera on hand, just in case I need to snap that picture-perfect moment.
