Developing disposable cameras cost?

stephdonjon

My FI and Iove the idea of having a few disposable cameras on the reception tables for guests to take candids. But for the life of me I cannot find pricing on developing disposable cameras and putting them onto a cd. I've seen everything from $3-5, but I don't know if any of them included cost of photo cd. Anyone who has done this with their wedding, do you remember how much it cost you?

smokyhills

Here's what I did, when I was dealing with those disposables. (Someone had the bright idea to distribute them at a school dance - over a hundred of them - for yearbook photos.)

(Keep in mind, YMMV and I would DEFINITELY do a dry-run of this first)

The cameras contain what is essentially a regular roll of film, which retracts *into* the case as you take photos (so, the opposite of how most film cameras work - ie you don't need to *rewind* the film.)

Once you've taken all the photos, you can crack the case open, and there's just a regular film canister there, which you would then get developed like regular film - ie at a Walmart counter or similar.  At the time we did it, which was well over 10 years ago now, it was significantly cheaper to have them developed as regular rolls of film.

Some of the cameras claim to have "27" exposures - in my experience, they just threaded the film properly. Most 24-exposure rolls will allow you to do 26 or 27 shots when loaded carefully.

If you *don't* want to do that, I suggest going to somewhere like a large walmart, or, if you're in Canada, Black's photo. Black's especially is more than happy to explain anything you'd want to know.

arianek

Do a search on this topic as to why using disposable cameras is not really a good idea.  The main complaints are:

- cost

- mostly worthless pictures

If you want to capture pictures that your guests take there are some better alternatives.

fuccisphotos

You'd be better off putting out a few cheap digital cameras and making them as a doorprize type of thing like the centerpiece for people to take home, and just have people take out the memory cards before they leave.  Disposable cameras at least at CVS you have to pay about $2.50-3 for developing, then the photos on CD are $3.29.  Don't forget though the cost of the camera.  If it's a camera that doesn't have flash, forget about it the shots will be worthless.  Even if it does have flash, people often forget to use those on disposables.  The cheapo digital cameras will have flash and will automatically have it go if necessary.  Even if it's only a mega pixel or 2 it will still likely produce better shots overall than leaving out the disposables.  Also, in this day and age, pretty much everyone who comes to your wedding and takes shots is probably take shots digitally.  you can just ask your friends to send you the best shots via email or post them on facebook, etc.

In the end, it's mostly just the little kids and grandparents that use the disposables so you end up with tons of shots of peoples' feet, heads chopped off, etc.

capecod1986

My cousin had them on every table. If she got 10 good pics it was a lot. The flash is only good for less than 10 feet. No one really paid attention to that. All are dark. Cell phone pics come out better.