Family history....in a flash! (Polaroid FS Flash)

Member Name: kaitlinsmummy

Product:	Polaroid FS Flash
Date:	29/07/08 (169 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Perfect for the un-technical! (me)

Disadvantages: Still doesn't stop me from losing them!

I have always been a fan of photographs, I was "that" sad mother, who after the birth of her first child, took a camera full a week of photographs, then put them all carefully in an album, preserved for prosperity!

Now if you are at all familiar with my other reviews you will notice one overwhelming similarity with them...... none of them are in the slightest technical!
I am not what you would call a technophobe, I just can't get my head around it, my husband is more than capable of setting up televisions and uploading pictures from my daughters digital camera onto the computer, but I have trouble actually turning on a digital camera, let alone working out how to turn them into photo's I can actually hold.
And before some smart arse points out that I have a picture on this site, I would like to say the most I did for that picture was put some slap on, my darling husband did the rest!!

I will finally get to the point.... The product I will now review is "Polaroid, single use camera"

I first discovered single use cameras when my mum told me about a special offer that was being run through our local "Klick" store, the offer was two cameras, including developing for £10, which I thought was phenomenal.
I have always been the type of person that loses cameras, putting them down then forgetting they ever existed, using these meant that, yes there was a good chance I would lose some precious images but, no it wouldn't cost me a fortune replacing them.

I came across these particular cameras when my husband actually started working for Asda, as part of Asda's reward scheme, they give each employee a loyalty card, which in turn discounts 10% of your total shopping bill, you can use it for shopping, clothes, electrical's and yes, you've guessed it, cameras and developing.

On this bombshell I decided it would be wiser to purchase my single use cameras from the afore mentioned store, this is how I came across these.

The store sells very few single use cameras, and the ones they do are not particularly cheap, the "own" brand costs exactly 10p less than the Polaroid one, hence the review on that camera!

The camera's come in there own cardboard pouch, with the packaging markings replicating the markings on the camera itself.

When removed from the cardboard sleeve, the camera is a navy blue colour with a fetching "montage" of pictures on the front, obviously to symbolise the pictures you will be taking with it!
This is a simple generic camera with the usual things, ie there is the view hole, (apologies to the technical minded of you reading this review, I have no knowledge of the proper words for the buttons!), there is the camera lens, the flash in the left hand corner and a flash button half way down the left side, with "FLASH" written underneath it, told you it was simple!
On the top is the ready light, with shows when the flash is enabled with the statement that this is a "single use camera" written next to it. Next to that is the quantity window, the camera starts at 27 exposures and as the pictures are taken, counts down towards zero. As I mentioned earlier there are 27 exposures but anyone familiar with these cameras will be aware that you can squeeze a couple of extra pictures from the camera with the only down side being that the last picture taken is usually double exposed with the picture taken previously, which makes for some interesting photo's! Finally there is the "shoot" button to actually take the pictures with.

On the back of the camera there are written and picture instructions on the best way to take the photo's, first you must wind the camera onto the fist exposure using the wind bitton situated on the back of the camera, then you must aim, look, push the flash button and keep holding it until you take the picture, and that's pretty much it!

The pictures that you get, as long as you are a reasonable photographer, are good pictures. I am not the worlds best photographer by any means, but I rarely get a bad picture.
They are clear and crisp and have not had a photo with the obligatory red "devil eyes", for quite sometime.

On the back of the camera there are pictures to specify that the entire unit, including the batteries is recyclable, but due to the fact the entire unit has to be returned to the store for developing, that is left entirely to the discretion of the shop.

One camera costs £2.29 and developing costs from £1.99, that is for the standard size photograph, obviously with my discount card it works out less for me!
My one recommendation to you is to use Asda's photo centre, as when you get the photo's they come with a dull sheen coating, this reduces down the risk of you ending up with fingerprints over them!

Would I recommend, yes, most wholeheartedly! These are not going to produce the best quality photo's around, but if you are like me..... Forgetful, then these are foolproof way of saving you the expense of purchasing a new digi camera every time one gets lost! The fact that this camera is produced by such a well known brand in photography is only an added bonus!

For more information visit - www.asda.co.uk ot alternatively www.concord-camera.com

Thanks for reading x

Summary: A cheap and effective device for feeding my photo obsession!

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