I’ve never been a big fan of these. I bought one once when I was out of the country and needed to take some tourist shots. The camera was one of those basic types – 32 pictures in a plastic black box covered with that annoying yellow colored cardboard. When I ran out of available film, I had to drop off the camera at a store and wait for a few days to get your pictures back (of course, I could have paid through the nose to have them developed in an hour). All a big hassle in my opinion.
I heard about the disposable camcorder the other day and I wasn’t immediately excited. The concept is intriguing, but the realities are not. The thing costs $30. That’s not a bad price I guess, but you only get 20 minutes of video. If you’re the type to film long shots of a room with multiple people talking for a lengthy period, this isn’t for you.
The other thing that turns me off is the ‘processing’ fee. Your $30 expenditure isn’t all inclusive. You’ll pay an additional $12.99 to get a DVD of your video. Worse yet, you have to go to a CVS store to do it. You can’t take it to KITS or any place else.
From what I read, the video quality is good, not great. But, you’re not going to film an academy award winning epic with this thing either.
Here’s a review from a guy at the San Francisco Chronicle.
Your mileage may vary.