The 2021 Disposable Camera Challenge - CHAT

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Advance notice of next year's challenge. Updated MAY 2021

This gives us time to get ordering, putting on Santa's list or start loudly hinting (or scouring charity shops and car boots if you like really unpredictable results ) in time to get shooting from Christmas Cʜʀɪsᴛᴍᴀs Day (it said Cʜʀɪsᴛᴍᴀs not 'its far too early' till the auto edit someone set) 2020 (which may still be quiet and spent inside).

The other dates will be would have been much the same as those eventually used in 2020 which gives us most of the summer to finish off films but now goes into autumn just in case we get another wave of infection.

How it works

The challenge is to post up to three photographs taken with a disposable, single use film camera¹ after Christmas Cʜʀɪsᴛᴍᴀs Eve (it said Cʜʀɪsᴛᴍᴀs not 'its far too early' till the auto edit someone set) 2020.

A thread on which to post those photos will be created at the end of August October 2021. This is the entries and voting thread.

At the same time, another thread will be created on which to post any other photos you might wish to share, the reject thread.

The final date for entries is Saturday 18th September Sunday 28th November 2021.

Voting will take place from 20th September until 2nd October 29th November until 5th December 2021. You will be able vote for your three favourite photos.

The subject matter is open, up to you, do your own thing.

Basic processing allowed, but nothing extreme. (I think we know what is meant by this)

This thread is for discussion, chat and waffle.

Footnotes:
¹ There are some commercially refilled/recycled cameras nominally 'disposable, single use' those are acceptable.
 
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Time to look for Black Friday deals on Disposable Cameras or add them to your wish lists.
 
I've just ordered a five-pack of Agfa disposables, so that I can participate in this with spares for future years. I haven't used any Agfa film in a very long time.
 
Camera in my stocking. Ready to start taking photographs for the 2021 challenge from tomorrow morning.
 
Just was looking in my filing drawer. Something green down the back.

WIN_20210115_15_12_10_Pro.jpg

Plan Z - may need to fit a new battery for the flash. Expiry date on sealed wrapping says 2003/04 - perhaps save it until it is 21?
 
Taking the 2004 date, it IS 21 - if you count in octal, as all former Honeywell 200 series programmers do :)
 
My machine code and assembler days only go back to hexadecimal. Not sure what machine the ALGOL code I wrote as a 12 year old in 1968 was compiled and run on. Though I do still have my Digi_comp 1 mechanical computer I had for my 8th birthday.
 
/waffle mode on

I moved on to hexadecimal when I moved to IBM computers, in the later days solely in assembler.

Honeywell 200 computers were more fun (in a perverse sort of way) because EASYCODER, their assembler language, lacked a lot of facilities. Any IO operations were totally the responsibility of the programmer. Choose the appropriate trunk for the device and read write channel of appropriate speed, initiate the data transfer, check the hardware for read/write errors and that the expected amount if data had been read. Add in cylinder and tracks if it was a disk rather than tape or card... And you could code in octal opcodes and (as they weren't multitasking and only ran one program at a time) write absolute memory locations. I can still recall some of the op codes in octal. To save program space you could even tell the assembler to code addresses as 2, 3 or 4 bytes (OPCODE 2 etc as the assembler directive, followed by the CAM change address mode instruction to tell the hardware at run time).

IBM was a doddle with the macros to handle data transfer in assembler.

The operating system was a program loader, and no more. It was 1340 octal bytes in size, and I still have a listing of it somewhere. ALGOL I only ran across on ICT computers (not ICL in those days).
 
StephenM said:
/waffle mode on

I moved on to hexadecimal when I moved to IBM computers, in the later days solely in assembler.

Honeywell 200 computers were more fun (in a perverse sort of way) because EASYCODER, their assembler language, lacked a lot of facilities. Any IO operations were totally the responsibility of the programmer. Choose the appropriate trunk for the device and read write channel of appropriate speed, initiate the data transfer, check the hardware for read/write errors and that the expected amount if data had been read. Add in cylinder and tracks if it was a disk rather than tape or card... And you could code in octal opcodes and (as they weren't multitasking and only ran one program at a time) write absolute memory locations. I can still recall some of the op codes in octal. To save program space you could even tell the assembler to code addresses as 2, 3 or 4 bytes (OPCODE 2 etc as the assembler directive, followed by the CAM change address mode instruction to tell the hardware at run time).

IBM was a doddle with the macros to handle data transfer in assembler.

The operating system was a program loader, and no more. It was 1340 octal bytes in size, and I still have a listing of it somewhere. ALGOL I only ran across on ICT computers (not ICL in those days).
Click to expand...
It’s like trying to learn Klingon! ;)
 
I actually took my disposable camera out for a walk today!! Nothing grabbed me though, perhaps tomorrow.
 
I only did octal on a Univac 1106, with 36-bit words. ASM was the univac assembler language, although I didn't do much programming, it was more debugging after live incidents. I did some Algol on Dec PDP-10 I think, and my hex was mainly on ICL2900 VME/B trawling EBCDIC dumps to find bugs. I did some hex programming though on embedded devices and modems, I seem to recall.
Happy days.
Now where shall I go with my disposable camera...
 
Considering the continuing (and possibly renewed) uncertainty over possible restrictions over the rest of this year I've moved the time frame back to give us more chance to get some good shots - see opening post.
 
dmb said:
Considering the continuing (and possibly renewed) uncertainty over possible restrictions over the rest of this year I've moved the time frame back to give us more chance to get some good shots - see opening post.
Click to expand...

Now if I had pressed the save button on the edit of the opening post that would have been better, Done again.

Summary - post thread opening end October, last post 28th November, voting 29th November to 5th December.
 
Still time to take some photos with a disposable. Latest victim for the Disposable Camera Challenge, which you still have time to join. £1 at charity shop for 12 exposures and it is only 10 years expired. Thinking next year to widen the allowed cameras to include self reloaded ones and any other fixed focus, fixed exposure cameras, being eco-friendly and also supporting the use of new film.

IMG_20210702_200307.jpg
 
Using a reusable but otherwise super simple camera is a good way to go...
I couldn't find an out of date disposable, but like this 36 shot Agfa APX400 cam... ordered one for the comp. (Hoping that i can crack it open and dev the film myself.)

s-l500.jpg
 
Cluster said:
Using a reusable but otherwise super simple camera is a good way to go...
I couldn't find an out of date disposable, but like this 36 shot Agfa APX400 cam... ordered one for the comp. (Hoping that i can crack it open and dev the film myself.)
Click to expand...
They are easy to open and the film winds into the cassette so just like developing a normal 35mm. With a changing bag not too hard to refill. Have to pull film out of cassette and roll up in space provided then will wind into the cassette. BUT watch out for the flash capacitor, they bite.
 
dmb said:
Still time to take some photos with a disposable. Latest victim for the Disposable Camera Challenge, which you still have time to join. £1 at charity shop for 12 exposures and it is only 10 years expired. Thinking next year to widen the allowed cameras to include self reloaded ones and any other fixed focus, fixed exposure cameras, being eco-friendly and also supporting the use of new film.

View attachment 323006
Click to expand...
I'd be up for this if it's widened to include fixed aperture and fixed focus cameras.
 
auntiemaryscanary said:
I'd be up for this if it's widened to include fixed aperture and fixed focus cameras.
Click to expand...

Only if you throw it away afterwards...this way even ;)

When number one daughter got married I supplied 10 cheapish digitals, a 10 bank usb charger and 10 8Gb cards. Worked out well, 9 tables and a spare (which was needed) and we got some cool memories. Worked out way cheaper than your more usual disposable film cameras/developing/scanning/etc not to mention way more pics. I still have them somewhere, I should throw them away perhaps - or can I use them for this excersise?
 
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dmb said:
BUT watch out for the flash capacitor, they bite.
Click to expand...

Holy crap yes, a memory that will stay with you forever even as you stare longingly at the guitar you can no longer player until your pad heals :oops: :$
 
Ambermile said:
Only if you throw it away afterwards...this way even ;)

When number one daughter got married I supplied 10 cheapish digitals, a 10 bank usb charger and 10 8Gb cards. Worked out well, 9 tables and a spare (which was needed) and we got some cool memories. Worked out way cheaper than your more usual disposable film cameras/developing/scanning/etc not to mention way more pics. I still have them somewhere, I should throw them away perhaps - or can I use them for this excersise?
Click to expand...
Great idea for a wedding, but for this challenge is film only.
 
For some reason, this challenge has really got my interest. I've got my disposable camera and even two similarly simple re-usables for next year.

And, idle minds and all that, (with apologies), if we slightly tweek the name challenge parameters to "Flash Optional, Fixed Focus, Fixed Aperture, Shutter Time", you can have.....well you can see it, I guess.
 
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lindsay56 said:
I only did octal on a Univac 1106, with 36-bit words. ASM was the univac assembler language, although I didn't do much programming, it was more debugging after live incidents. I did some Algol on Dec PDP-10 I think, and my hex was mainly on ICL2900 VME/B trawling EBCDIC dumps to find bugs. I did some hex programming though on embedded devices and modems, I seem to recall.
Happy days.
Now where shall I go with my disposable camera...
Click to expand...

The old ones are the best, they say...........
There are 10 types of people in the world, "those that understand binary, and those that don't".
 
Cluster said:
The old ones are the best, they say...........
There are 10 types of people in the world, "those that understand binary, and those that don't".
Click to expand...
5 base 2 :LOL:
 
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I thought I had one of these single use cameras, but couldn't find it yesterday. Now on the lookout!
 
Getting close to the submission date!
I guess that each entry is intended to be three frames from the same film / disposable camera.
Only five frames left on mine, and no idea if any will come out (the joy of film).

In anticipation of the next, similar comp, using similarly simple "reusable" cameras, I now have a collection
in addition to the possibility of reusing the disposable which i used for this entry.
 
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Hmm ... I did have a disposable body that I reloaded a few years ago. It's got to be lurking somewhere in the dusty pile of storage boxes awaiting a new opportunity for me to give myself a nasty shock on the flash capacitors as I attempt to load it again. :D
 
Just finished one of my disposables, got a 12 exposure one and another 27 exposure one in stock but may save one or both for next year. One is waterproof so could be used this week.
 
I took my Agfa "Le Box" on a walk yesterday. It only had a few frames left, so I hoped to find something interesting to finish the roll.
On winding on from the first frame of the day, the camera winder felt as if it were a grinding machine. I figured that this was the end, although it indicated 7 shots left..... I forced them through. Today, developing the Agfa APX400 film, it seems that the last couple of feet of the film has been impressed with little rectangles. Maybe double exposed, embossed negatives will help my images? There's a lot of double images in a block, so something went wrong.
Luckily, there are enough images intact to provide a few for the comp. I'm going to pre-test my reusable disposable cameras for future comps.
 
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@Cluster These disposables are unreliable little bu***ers, There will be lots of blanks on my first camera for this year. Halfway through year I 3D printed a shutter button protector ring and stuck it to the camera as it seemed to like taking photos of the inside of the bag I carry it around in. The little 12 exposure one I will do some shots with before the end of the month has had that ring attached already,
 
Well...

I took a punt on a Konica disposable with a process before date of 2001 and of unknown provenance and I suppose you get what you pay for because I've just processed the negs and there is next to nothing on them. I'll have a quick look at them on the scanner later and see if anything can be recovered but its really not looking good.
 
Just put a few frames through the scanner, it was hard to find any frame edges to know where to cut and needless to say there was nothing salvageable. Time to look for another disposable ...
 
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