Disposable cameras for the trail

[CHRISTINE2015]

I am considering going old school and using disposable cameras on the trail. The idea being that I can send them in my mail drops and each time I pick one up, I can send the full one home to my parents, so they can see what I've been up to. Does anyone have any suggestions as to quality disposable cameras for a reasonable price, that would be good for outdoor lighting. I'm not a photography expert!

[Slo-go'en]

Don't do it. The picture quality is poor, it will get very expensive and you'll have to be very selective in what you take a picture of or you'll use up your 26 shots real quick.

Even an inexpensive digital camara will produce much higher quality pictures and you can effectively take an unlimited number of shots. Get a few 2 gig memory cards which are cheap and send one home every so often. Once you review all the pictures, you can have the best ones printed out to hang on the wall later if you like.

[Weather-man]

Smart phone and set up an Instagram account. Even if you don't have a signal on the trail you most likely will in town or you'll be able to ht a hot spot. Much more elegant solution, IMHO.

[maptester]

My son used an inexpensive Tracfone (a slider Samsung feature phone) to take photos and send them back to us, plus he would call and update us on his hike. Fairly good coverage and battery life, he would turn it off if not using it. Nothing like getting a photo/email of your son on Saddleback Jr in the middle of the morning while you are working. Recommended.
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[Damn Yankee]

If memory serves me write(and most times it doesn't)I may still have a cheap digital camera. If I can find it, I can send it to you, then all you will have to do is get a bunch of cheap memory cards and mail them home where they can be cataloged, numbered(or dated) and filed. That way when you get home, you can sort through your pictures, delete bad ones or enhance them, rename them while it is still fresh in your head and in your journal. Then you can have them printed and placed in order in a photo album.

[Kerosene]

I was surprised at how good the picture quality of a Fuji disposable was when I had to use when my digicam died on a hike about 5 years ago.

That said, I had to be terribly selective as to what merited a photograph, and while I got some great shots I know I missed some others. It's just not worth the supposed convenience in my opinion, and the cost will inevitably be higher. Even the lower cost digicams are pretty darn good nowadays, and memory cards are amazingly cheap. I'll be buying a Canon Elph for my next section hike, plus an extra battery (or two) and a few 1GB memory cards.

[gypsy97]

I hiked a total of about 900 miles of the AT in 1997, before digital cameras. I mailed the film directly to Seattle Film Works and the pictures were sent to my sister who did my mail drops. After all these years I love holding those pictures, and I'm amazed at the quality of the photos and developing. 16 or 17 years from now how many people will be looking at their AT photos on their computers or smart phones? The biggest problem today is finding a shop that does quality developing at a reasonable price. I now take digital photos when I travel, hike, etc., but have yet to get any of the photos printed out. I might just try a disposable when hiking this summer.

[RedBeerd]

They suck. I used these over 6 months last year. The quality is crap, the pictures are foggy. They get expensive especially when developed and mine were not developed properly. They made duplicates on one camera and lost the contents of another one instead! Never again!
I have my smart phone on me when hiking. Airplane mode and use the camera. WAY better!

[RedBeerd]

And these were with HD ones.

[Grampie]

Back in 01 I used disposable cameras on my thru. Once I finished a camera I would send it home for my wife to develope. I used about 15 of them. Got a nice scrap book with my hiking photos. Most folks who look at the pictures can't believe that they were taken with a disposable. I don't think the disposable cameras are so readiable today as they were 13 years ago. I'd probably go digital today with disposable batteries.

[rafe]

+1 on the digital camera recommendation, or just use the camera on your smart phone, if it's of fairly recent vintage. Plus, it'll probably have a video and a panorama feature, which can come in handy.

[Dogwood]

I am considering going old school and using disposable cameras on the trail. The idea being that I can send them in my mail drops and each time I pick one up, I can send the full one home to my parents, so they can see what I've been up to. Does anyone have any suggestions as to quality disposable cameras for a reasonable price, that would be good for outdoor lighting. I'm not a photography expert!

Yeah, that's what I thought. I was wrong. I too went old school buying disposable cameras with 27 or so shots per camera thinking it would save money. It didn't. I did this in 2006 on a AT thru-hike. I bought more than a dozen disposable cameras like this ranging in price from about $3.99 up to $7.99 each. For simplicity sake, and rounding things off to the lowest level, lets say I paid $4 per camera for a dozen cameras. That's $48 for cameras alone. Then add on the developing charges which are about $5-8 FOR EACH CAMERA. Let's say they cost $5 to develop each 28 photo camera(no frills in the developing price). That's another $60 to develop a dozen disposable 28 shot cameras. That brings the cost for a dozen disposable cameras up to $108 and I think that is on the low end. Consider, that of all the pics I PAID to have developed and used on each camera I screwed up(not wanting for various reasons) that I had no idea I wouldn't want until AFTER I paid for them to be developed I'd say I wasted 3-4 pics per camera. * You can purchase a decent digital camera these days for $60. No developing charges. When in town you can send your parents pics in various ways much cheaper or with less overall hassle.

[Dogwood]

I'm no electronic tech geek, but I'll jump on board with the rest here to suggest simple inexpensive cell phones(Trac Phones for example) not only provide a way to contact your folks but also take OK pics in one device.

[Kerosene]

16 or 17 years from now how many people will be looking at their AT photos on their computers or smart phones?I would guess almost everyone. I have the best of mine come up on my screensaver. They just never get old, even though I can identify every one out of hundreds within a second of displaying.

[da fungo]

Try looking in thrift stores for older digital cameras. I've got several that I picked up for $5 apiece or so. You'll usually have to add memory, perhaps a battery, but it will still be cheap enough that it won't hurt if you break it on the trail.