Reusing disposable cameras

Someone asked me if it's possible to reuse disposable camera bodies. Yes of course! This blog is a tutorial on how to reuse disposable camera bodies. You can buy disposable cameras and when you're done, take out the film and keep the camera body, then reload them and reuse them. In fact, when you give disposable camera bodies to a camera shop, they simply take out the body and return it to a special place where they either recycle them properly, or reuse them.

Personally, I don't use disposable cameras myself. The image quality of plastic disposable cameras simply can't compete with that of a professional grade glass and modern DSLR body. On the other hand, I would use them in rare occasions such as diving (waterproof version), or when I'm given one in weddings and/or parties.

My wife bought a bunch of disposable cameras for our wedding this year. I kept a camera body for fun (and because there is a special 70s vintage look that the plastic lens gives). At the end of the wedding, we collected them, developed them, and compiled the good pictures into a collage that we added to our wedding album. Below is a picture of one of the disposable camera bodies that I kept:

It is important to note that many disposable camera bodies have a REVERSE LOADING mechanism. Whereas most film camera bodies require loading a fully loaded film cartridge into the body (and require you to crank back when you're done with all the frames), most disposable camera bodies are pre-cranked. That mean every time you use a disposable camera and crank a frame, you're actually loading back the 35mm film cartridge. In another word, when you're done with all the frames, you've already cranked the entire film back to the cartridge.

Here is a picture of the back of the camera (this one has no film, I already took it out for development):

Let's open it up and reload it

To open it, pull the tab/switch which releases the back film cover lock:

Here is a view of the inside. Now let's load it with a 24 exposure or 27 exposure film. My favorite is the Kodak Ultra Max 400 ISO 24 exposures. It is cheap and plentiful. I bought a bunch from my local clearance warehouse (4 rolls for $4, 8 rolls for $7, and 12 rolls for $10). That comes out to be less than $1 per roll! My local Walmart also has the exact same 4 rolls for about $6.80. By the way, now is a great time to load up on a lot of cheap consumer film because 1) no one is buying them 2) they're plentiful 3) they're on special clearance 4) they're going to disappear very soon. In the near future, the only film you'll be able to get are the professional grade films which costs a bunch.

Take a look at the film counter on top, and hand crank it on the film cog until it reads 24 (or 27 if you got the 27 exposure film). This is a counter that counts backwards to indicate approximately how many frames are left.

Load a new film:

Nudge the top of the film cartridge into the crank:

Now that the film is firmly in place, pull the film towards the left side of the film chamber:

Now pull out the crank tab on the bottom. You'll need to apply pressure and crank it all the way later on. By the way, that purple thing on the bottom is the AA battery. Make sure to check for voltage. Anywhere between 1.0 to 1.5 volt is fine-- you only need it for flash (no electronics) so it doesn't need to be exactly 1.5 volt:

Pull the film to the left chamber till the notch is right on the left crank latch:

This is very important: pull the film until the edge of the film notch is firmly attached to the little latch on top of the left crank:

You'll need to crank this soon. Let's put the back film cover.

Carefully put the back film cover, make sure it is properly placed seated and that light is completely sealed or else you'll expose film at a later point!!!

Now that the cover is properly place, it is time to crank the film to the left chamber -- all the way. You should feel some pressure as you're cranking the film all the way to the left chamber. Hopefully you've already done film for a while and have developed a good sense of whether the film is loaded properly or not... if not, ask someone with a few years of film experience to verify for you.

Keep cranking until you can't crank anymore. The right chamber is now empty, while the film is all the way cranked to the left chamber. You're done!

If you have a cover, put the camera inside. If you want to make your own personalized cover (and there are lots of software out there that does this), go ahead and print them.

Voila! You've reused the camera while saving the environment:

Below is a collage of the pictures that people took during our wedding. Half of the pictures look as if they're pointing upwards; it turns out that little kids love to play with these cameras! Note that 2/3 of the pictures turned out very dark-- people keep forgetting to press down the flash-charge button before taking a snapshot. So if the cameras are to be used indoors, make sure to tell everyone to use flash indoors!