For my sisters 30th birthday last year we threw her a big surprise party and my mother had the idea to leave disposable cameras on the tables for guests to take their own photos so she would have a unique memory of the evening. I think she had got the idea from watching a movie but I also thought it was a good idea when she told me about it. I thought it would be hilarious to capture people when they were a little inebriated and see the results. Unfortunately my enthusiasm died when I found out that I had been given the responsibility of buying the cameras and then gathering them all together at the end of the night and getting the pictures developed.

I had a good search round for which disposable cameras to use as the money for them was coming out of my own pocket and as I had to get 20 of them it was going to cost me quite a bit. The cheapest ones that I could find that fit my criteria were the Kodak fun flash disposable cameras which I managed to find for £19.99 for a pack containing 5 cameras.

There were other cheaper cameras to choose from but my main criteria in purchasing a disposable camera was that it needed to have a flash and these were the cheapest I could find that had one.
There were also much more expensive ones to choose from so I was a little worried in that buying the cheapest ones I could find that the pictures would be pretty much useless but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the pictures produced by the cameras.

The cameras themselves weren't as cheap and nasty looking as I had imagined they would be but there is no getting away from the fact they are disposable but this isn't necessarily a bad thing and they are fun looking with yellow, red and black colouring. They look sort of like a child's toy and actually feel like a bit like a toy too because they are made with plastic however they do feel quite sturdy and well-made which is something I wasn't expecting.

The cameras could take 39 pictures but this is because they had an extra 12 per camera otherwise the usual amount of pictures you can take with one of these is 27. Taking the picture was really easy and just involved lining up what you wanted to shoot and pressing the button.
The flash was a lot better and brighter than I thought it would be for the price and the only annoying thing about it was that you needed to wait for the flash to charge each time before you could use it again but in all fairness this only took a few seconds.

I actually enjoyed using this camera as opposed to my digital ones. It's not that I would like to go back to using film but because everything was so easy to use with the camera and there was no fiddling about with settings it made for a nice change.
And my favourite thing about the cameras personally was that because it is film and not digital there is none of that annoying thing where when you take the picture everyone in it demands to be able to see it straight away and then insist certain pictures be deleted. It was also nice to be ensured that at least these pictures weren't going to end up on facebook the next morning.

Taking the pictures in to be developed came as a bit of a shock as I haven't had to do it in years and wasn't expecting it to be quite so expensive. After I got over my initial shock I left the photographs to be developed and agreed to pick them up a week later.
When I got all the envelopes back I took them round to my sisters and we spent a fun afternoon laughing over them.

The majority of the pictures came out really well but about 20 per cent of them were either out of focus, over exposed or just dark with nothing on them. I didn't really think this was bad considering the cheap price of the cameras. The ones that did turn out ok had a nice colour to them and looked pretty much like you would get from an inexpensive digital camera. Kodak say that to get the best pictures then the subject should be between 4 and 10 feet from the camera but we had shots taken at much further and closer distances than this and they also came out fine and weren't made blurry with being to close or too far away.

Although buying a disposable camera isn't something I can really see me doing again I was pleasantly surprised with just how well these Kodak fun flash cameras actually worked. These would be absolutely ideal for either those times that you don't want to risk damaging your digital cameras or else I think they would also be great for small children to be able to take their own pictures with. The only drawback as far as I can see is with the developing costs which can work out quite expensive.