I had the opportunity to attend a rather upmarket art exhibition recently, it was a very smart event and I dithered for an awfully long time as to whether I should take my camera. My main concern was that I attended the exact same event nine years ago and was made to leave my expensive digital camera at the front desk as the art was not to be photographed, there were a hairy few minutes when we thought it had been lost so I was loathe to take along my even more expensive current camera this time around. It was my daughter who suggested buying a disposable camera, reasoning that it wouldn't matter so much if I had to entrust it to the not terribly safe keeping of the gallery.

I opted for a Boots Essentials camera, quite simply because they were on buy one get one free together with other holiday items in my local store. It is a smart looking camera with flash, an added advantage being that I also received a voucher entitling me to 15% off the cost of developing the photographs.

The camera is very easy to use; the flash is activated by holding in a rather awkwardly placed button, when it is ready simply frame and capture your photograph. The winder works smoothly and feels tightly fitted into the camera, the same is true of the capture button which depresses with a reassuring click and has a robust feel to ensure it won't accidentally be pressed while in a pocket or bag.  The plastic body of the camera is sturdy and has a shape that is comfortable to hold, while being chunky enough to help keep itself stable while I am trying to frame my shot.

There are 27 exposures on the film and I didn't have a problem with over winding at the end, this meant no double exposures which used to be a problem with the older generation of disposable cameras. 

It turned out that I was able to take my camera in this time around and I took some beautiful photographs of the artwork and artists. Upon getting them developed I was astounded by the quality of them; the colours are all true and the images are almost as sharp as the photographs I take on my digital camera!  The flash is effective and doesn't cause the colours to become washed out, there was also a distinct lack of red eye in my photographs which again is a definite improvement from the disposable cameras I used a number of years ago. 

I paid £6 for this disposable camera and am thrilled with my purchase, of course there are developing costs on top of this but if you are prepared to shop around you will more than likely find a good deal on that. Another, unexpected, pleasure of using this camera is that I am very happy to have hard copies of my photographs for the first time in several years - I adore my digital camera but it's such a shame that photographs are left on the hard drive of my laptop rather than being printed out for everyone to handle and enjoy.