Question about Single Use Cameras - for the Photo experts

[liawri-75]

I was at an estate sale and bought 2 Single Use Cameras - one by Studio 35 & Fuji.  Well Low and behold I got home and looked at the packaging:  Expires (Process before)  10/2004 and 10-2009.

So should I trash it?  Is it any good to use?

I do wish these estate sale planners would take MORE time and throw out expired stuff, including Bath & Beauty.

[chevymontecarlo88]

---

@liawri-75 wrote:

I was at an estate sale and bought 2 Single Use Cameras - one by Studio 35 & Fuji.  Well Low and behold I got home and looked at the packaging:  Expires (Process before)  10/2004 and 10-2009.

So should I trash it?  Is it any good to use?

I do wish these estate sale planners would take MORE time and throw out expired stuff, including Bath & Beauty.

---

The film may be fine and can depend on how it was stored and kept. I would not sell these or even rely on them to be good. You can find places online to process film for around $20 per camera. YMMV

Hopefully, you paid at most $1 for these.

Give them out at Halloween. 👻

Trick or Treat!

[liawri-75]

I paid $3 each.  They were vintage and I failed to look at the expiration/process due date.

So the film inside may be good, is that what you're saying.

[chevymontecarlo88]

Yes, it may be good but hard to say until you process the film. YMMV

I don't see any value in them at all. IMHO

[lacemaker3]

So, they are 15 and 20 years old, then. The film may be good, but in my experience, probably not.

Back when film cameras were still common, I came across one of my point-and-shoot cameras that still had a partial roll of film in it, from several years earlier. So I shot pictures with the rest of the roll, and had it developed. The pictures that had already been taken a few years before turned out fine, but the recent pictures were worthless. So the exposed film aged OK, but the unexposed film did not.

[chevymontecarlo88]

It really depends on how the film was stored more than the age. I have used vintage 16mm, 8mm, 35mm and Super8 Film to shoot and develop that turned out fine. Even had film that was used but not developed that was over 50 years old that came out fine when i had it processed. Film is rather resilient if stored and cared for properly. These cameras were cheap and who knows where they kept them.

Regardless, the quality of picture you get from a disposable camera would make it not worth it unless it was used for nostalgic reasons.

[mudshark61369]

@liawri-75,

"I was at an estate sale and bought 2 Single Use Cameras - one by Studio 35 & Fuji. Well Low and behold I got home and looked at the packaging: Expires (Process before) 10/2004 and 10-2009".

If the cameras came in a box or on a card the film in them may still be good. Most of the boxed cameras were wrapped in a sealed foil envelope inside of the box. The film in a camera that came on a card is more likely to have degraded over time.  Though the film in a foil wrapped camera is probably still good. However, as other have said how they were stored can make a difference.

Since you do not know the conditions they were stored in, there is only one way to find out if the film is still good. You would have to take some photos and have the film processed. Not a viable solution if you intend to resell them, and a risk if you want to use one at an event of some sort.

"I do wish these estate sale planners would take MORE time and throw out expired stuff, including Bath & Beauty".

Estate liquidators often have only a few days to go through the contents of a home and put the items out for sale, so often they don't take the time to look over things they find in a home carefully.   

 Even more often they don't know anything about the things they find. That means that buyers need to do their own due diligence when buying things from estate/garage sales. You most likely had a cell phone with you when you went to the sale, and you could have used it to lookup most anything you found at the sale online.