Disposable Cameras Work Like a Charm for a Galapagos Trip

When planning my trip to the Galapagos Islands, I knew that there would be at least four times that we would be snorkeling. AND that the snorkel trips would involve swimming with schools of tropical fish, rays and sharks. Loving to take photos, but not loving the idea of buying a digital underwater camera, I decided to use disposable underwater cameras.

I found a Fuji camera on Amazon for about $14 for 27 exposures. It is listed on Amazon as a discontinued product; but the cameras are still for sale and ship right away.  Yes it uses film. Yes you need to figure out how to get the film developed. I researched that before I bought the camera. Both CVS and Walgreens' photo departments still will develop film, but neither develops the film in the store. They both send the film out to be processed. The waiting time is less than one week. I chose Walgreen for its more liberal policy of allowing you to buy only the prints you want.  Knowing that, I decided that it made sense to invest in a bunch of disposable cameras.  If all the photos were awful, I didn't have to pay for developing.  We were only in it for the price of the cameras. We outfitted our group of four people with eight cameras. Since my friends lost interest pretty quickly, I ended up with five of the cameras. I snapped photos like crazy. I did not want to be stuck with unused cameras at the end of the trip.

THIS is what I wanted to capture in a photo. Swimming with a school of gorgeous tropical fish. These are Surgeonfish.

Razorfish in my Face

Shark, Supposedly Friendly, Swam Right Underneath Me

The camera has instructions printed on the back, pointing out that the best pictures are in sunny conditions, and that you can take photos underwater and out of the water.  Good option to use the throwaway camera above the water surface! No worry about splashes ruining your good camera.

Chasing dolphins while riding in a Zodiac. Not a prayer of catching up with them. No worry about splasing

Making sure to use up all the film, I took pictures underwater following my friends while snorkeling. (Note that people snorkel with SPF clothes on because the sun is so strong that my husband's back got burnt even though he was wearing a cotton tee shirt).

This particular camera style took some getting used to because the dial to advance the film goes the opposite way of what you would think, so I kept unwinding, instead of winding the film. That got frustrating when I was in a school of fish or something really interesting, and bungled up my film in the wrong direction for the next shot.

Also unfortunately, one of the cameras, which I thought had a great roll of photos, got a badly scratched lens and something greasy smeared on it, so and all the pictures had a milky overlay on top of what would have been some really great shots. Oh well. I'm happy with the shots I got. Of the 135 exposures in my 5 rolls of 27, about 10 were passable. But getting that shot of the school of Surgeonfish made the whole investment in disposable cameras worthwhile.