Ever since I purchased the Pentax Optio E10, I’ve been wanting to convert back to the disposable camera days. Frustrated with my purchase, I sat down and compared a one time use disposable camera and my digital camera, the Pentax Optio E10 surprisingly, the list I formulated revealed to me, that the disposable camera is much better than the digital camera for many reasons, and those reasons are all mentioned below;
Taking photos are much easier when using a disposable camera, all disposable cameras require is a wind and a push of a button, digital cameras often need to be set so that the brightness, size, picture setting such as landscape or portrait etc are the way you want. Many times pictures taken by digital cameras come out blurry, too dark, or too bright and if you are not digital camera savvy, you may never figure out how to properly set your camera. The great thing about the disposable camera is that the flash is built in and can be accessed easily by holding down one button for 5 seconds until a red light is visible and then you just click and take the picture, and if you do not want flash then you do not push the button, now if you have a digital camera you will have to go through all the menus and set ups to figure out how to turn the flash on or off.
Receiving photos from a disposable camera is much easier because all that is required is a drop off at the 1 hour photo development center at the local Walgreens or CVS, and within an hour you have your pictures. With the digital camera you have to download the digital camera software, connect the camera to a computer via a specific pc/av cable, but before you connect the camera you must set it up so that it is in the proper set up for transporting pictures to the computer. Then once the camera is connected to the computer, you have to actually select each photo that you want to download onto your computer which can take up a lot of space and some time. If you do not know much about computers you might have difficulty understanding the prompts. Connecting the camera to the computer and downloading the pictures onto the computer can take up to an hour or more.
Sending photos with the disposable camera is much easier because you can conventionally mail photos to relatives and friends, when using the digital camera you have to email the pictures to family and friends which involves locating the folders the pictures are in that you want to send, and then uploading them into an email and then sending them. If you have a disposable camera you can also send you photos through email by requesting a photo cd from Walgreens or Walmart, it does not cost that much, the store will load all your pictures onto a cd, that way you can email them to friends and family as well.
Price- A quality digital camera can run anywhere from $200-$600. A disposable camera can run from $5-$8, and if you go to a dollar store you will get good deals on brand name disposable cameras such as Kodak and Polaroid.
Storage- You can throw a digital camera right into your bag and be on your way, unlike if your traveling with a digital camera, you have to either carry a special bag to hold it in or hold it very tightly to prevent if from falling, or from damaging the lens, not to mention having to protect the camera from thieves. Losing a digital camera can be heart wrenching, but loosing a disposable camera is no biggie unless the photos are very special, in that case you could place a little mailing address label on the camera with your name and number, in hopes of receiving the camera back if it gets lost.
With a disposable camera you never have to worry about running out of batteries, or having to recharge batteries, or needing an adaptor.
With a disposable camera you don’t have to worry about the size of your photos, usually when you need to send photos that have been taken by a digital camera the size of the photo can be huge (if not set up properly) and this can really delay sending photos, and when the photos are opened by the receiver they often appear extremely large,(magnified) and hard to focus on.
When taking pictures with a disposable camera, it is just one simple shot unlike with the digital camera, in which you have the ability to see the picture after it has been taken, which will motivate you to perfect the photo, and have others pose for retake, after retake, after retake, just imagine how frustrating it will be trying to get a perfect shot of the scenery, because you can see what you took. You will become obsessed with making the shot perfect and you’ll most likely take the same picture over again numerous times.
