How Many Cameras Are Sold In The Us In 1980

Although disposable cameras are often associated with the 1980s and 90s, they have a long and rich history. Residing at a disquisitional juncture betwixt disposability and the consumer electronics manufacture, for decades they were the go-to option for people seeking a convenient, piece of cake-to-utilize camera. In today's digital world, they seem destined for obsolescence. All the same equally people seek alternatives to the digital photography craze, might disposable cameras be poised for a comeback?

by DELLA KEYSER MAY 2014

Two disposable cameras, a Kodak Sport and Fuji Quicksnap, for sale at a Walgreens in Newark, DE. Photograph by author.

A waterproof Kodak Sport disposable photographic camera and Fujifilm Superia film for auction at a Walgreens in Newark, DE, 2014. Photograph past author.

Photography enthusiasts concur: "The best camera is the one that's with you lot." Throughout the evolution of photography consumers accept repeatedly demonstrated that they are willing to cede quality and resolution for portability and convenience. Between the late 1980s and early on 2000s, no cameras fit the bill for convenience and ease of use meliorate than disposable, or single-use, cameras. With cheery names like the Fling, Funsaver, and Sidekick, these cameras could be purchased at the nearest drugstore or supermarket at lilliputian toll. They could casually be tossed in a beach bag or knapsack and even so be relied on to take satisfactory photographs.

Since the advent of digital applied science and subsequent ubiquity of camera phones and tablet computers, the appeal of disposable cameras has been decimated. Why would people carry effectually a dispensable photographic camera, even so lite, when they already deport a mobile phone with a congenital-in camera? In an age of selfies and hashtags, why would anyone await to have film processed when with a photographic camera phone they can share their photographs at the click of a button? How tin disposable cameras compensate for the absence of editing and video-taking capability? This is non to say that disposable cameras have been entirely supplanted by digital applied science. They are usually given to wedding ceremony guests; waterproof versions are valued by snorkelers; and they are sold at popular retailers. Yet even the appearance of disposable cameras —their mesomorphic design and garish packaging—seems to evoke an earlier era in technology.

Far From a Flash in the Pan: Why were disposable cameras so popular?

Although the dispensable photographic camera may exist trudging down the route to obsolescence, information technology is easy to see why the thought of a one-time-utilise photographic camera, first hatched in the 1880s, has had such staying power. Inexpensive and easy to primary, it represents a assisting marriage between the interests of manufacturers and the needs of users. For manufacturers, the sale of dispensable cameras was an opportunity to significantly aggrandize the market. Typically the introduction of a new camera to a product line meant cannibalizing existing concern, diverting sales from older products to the new. This was not the example with unmarried-use cameras. Kodak, Fuji, and others targeted new users, seeing in the concept of disposable cameras the potential for attracting new customers and disarming the photographic camera-less consumer to spend a few dollars the company otherwise would never have seen.

Viewing the camera and the photographs information technology produces equally separate entities, each with its own cost tag, users in turn had a solution for instances when the possession of snapshots was more than desirable than owning a conventional photographic camera. Particularly early on in the development of disposables, the price of conventional cameras deterred some. Equally cameras became equipped with more features, other users sought a simple camera without functions and capabilities they did not have the time, interest, or skill to acquire. And still others wanted a cheap, temporary substitute for situations—beach days, hiking expeditions, traveling in areas with high risk of theft—when they preferred to exit their expensive cameras behind. As one Kodak jingle summarized, "They're flashable, they're splashable, they're lashable, they're stashable, they're fashionable, when you're on the run." In any case, the dispensable photographic camera provided users with the means to permanently capture their memories and, having done and so, discard with what amounted to an extraneous cake of cardboard and plastic.