Disposable camera

This article's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions. (September 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

A disposable or single-use camera is a simple box camera meant to be used once. Most use fixed-focus lenses. Some are equipped with an integrated flash unit, and there are even waterproof versions for underwater photography. Internally, the cameras use a 135 film or an APS cartridge.

While some disposables contain an actual cartridge as used for loading normal, reusable cameras,^[1] others just have the film wound internally on an open spool. The whole camera is handed in for processing. Some of the cameras are recycled, i.e. refilled with film and resold. The cameras are returned for "processing" in the same fashion as film cameras.

In general the one-time-use camera represents a return to the business model pioneered by Kodak for their Kodak camera, predecessor to the Brownie camera; it is particularly popular in situations where a reusable camera would be easily stolen or damaged, when one's regular camera is forgotten, or if one cannot afford a regular camera.