Disposable cameras never went away, and the nostalgia still brings people together

If you ask Paul Berard about disposable cameras, he’ll say they never really went away.

The London Drugs photo lab manager who practises photography in his off hours said more and more, film has been making a resurgence, in various forms.

From families dusting off shoeboxes of old negatives in the backs of their closets to people inheriting film 30 years old in an estate, film is still telling stories in our digital world.

“They have all those negatives. Maybe somebody left them to them or maybe they just haven’t touched them in years, since the ’60s, the ’70s, the ’80s,” Berard explained. “There are some cases where we’re able to get something out of that (and) some cases where we’re not.”

Berard said the popularity of disposable cameras and film, in general, has never fully gone away. The 35-millimetre format remains “enormously popular,” according to Berard.

Less than a week’s worth of disposable camera shells and film at London Drugs on Eighth Street in Saskatoon. (Libby Giesbrecht/650 CKOM)

London Drugs’ two Saskatoon locations are the only places in the city where disposable cameras can still be developed. On average, about 20 disposable cameras get dropped off for development a day at the chain’s Eighth Street location, and that number appears to be growing.

About four manufacturers still make disposable cameras, which can be found for purchase at a variety of retailers still today. Companies like Fuji did stop producing disposable cameras for a short while, Berard explained. The cameras can be purchased to print both colour and black and white shots, depending on the model.

“People like to grab one for those family moments or occasions, Christmas parties, weddings, graduations — we see them at all of those functions,” Berard said. “It’s pretty hard to plug your iPhone into a tree, so it’s super handy to take a disposable camera with you and take some photos of friends having fun at the lake.”

He says disposable cameras have been seeing a resurgence in the past while, partially due to the fact people weren’t able to get out for so long with COVID-19 restrictions and lockdowns. Disposable camera sales, however, have been steady throughout the pandemic.

“We have a very strong market here for film,” Berard said.

And the interest spans across ages, with everyone from boomers to kids interested in picking up disposable cameras. But young shutterbugs — teenagers and young adults in their 20s — are the ones really driving the new interest in nostalgic photo-taking techniques.

“They’re really looking to have those moments and share those moments with friends and get off their phone,” Berard said. “Yes, there’s a filter that does all this but what they’re finding is they get surprising results sometimes, things that are better than they thought.”

Berard said using a digital camera also gives the user a different feel for interpreting and feeling things like lighting when curating a shot, making both film and digital viable tools for modern photographers.

Developed film comes out of the Fuji minilab. (Libby Giesbrecht/650 CKOM)

“Really, for me, it’s a dialogue … It gives you 27 shots and you know you’re out there for three days. It’s a different conversation,” Berard said.

The photo lab manager compared the photography method to crafting a mixtape — it’s all about learning to craft a message with a limited canvas.

“That’s what people have been looking for, is to have those conversations and that dialogue,” he said. “To have that go away would be a shame for our photographic communities.”

Berard will often encourage repeat disposable camera customers to invest in a reusable model, essentially a basic model of the traditional film camera. He bought one for his four-year-old son from a thrift store. Though it originally came from a Kellogg’s cereal box and lacks a flash, the camera has withstood years of use.

“One of the first photos (my son) got that came out that really surprised me was he asked me to stand against a fence and then spent about 10 minutes lining the shot up and he took the shot and it turned out really well,” Bernard recalled. “It’s arty and it was a fun thing to try.”

While not fancy, the camera gave Berard’s son a tool to learn a skill near and dear to his father’s heart.

“He was four years old, he’d seen me using my camera and he just wanted to get in on it,” said Berard, who plans to graduate his now-seven-year-old son to a model with a flash soon.

“It really irks him that he can’t take pictures of cats in the house yet,” he said with a smile.

Less than a week’s worth of disposable camera bodies at London Drugs on Eighth Street. (Libby Giesbrecht/650 CKOM)