Nothing beats the best disposable cameras for a shot of lo-fi retro fun. Also known as single-use cameras, these are essentially the same point-and-shoot models you used to pack to take on your holidays. Each one is loaded with a single roll of 35mm film, usually with 36 or 24 shots. And most offer little-to-no settings controls, so there's no fiddling with shutter speed or aperture. You point, and you shoot. It couldn't be simpler!
Why might people buy disposable cameras in the era of smartphone photography? Simple – because it's fun. There are lots of analogue film stocks out there, and each one has its own distinctive look that can never quite be replicated by digital filters. It's a similar prospect to the best instant cameras like Polaroids; it's a knockabout, lo-fi charm that just can't be beaten.
You may be thinking a disposable camera is an environmentally irresponsible purchase, but as long as you use it responsibly, this isn't the case. Many manufacturers allow you to send the camera back to them to be refilled, while others offer recycling facilities. Retro darlings Lomography have gone one step further and released a reusable disposable camera, which functions like a single-use but can be opened up and reloaded when you run out of film. The company calls them "simple-use", which is a nice touch, and we've included them on our list.
Lots of names in the film industry make standout single-use cameras, including Kodak, Fujifilm, Ilford, Harman and more. We've also seen some interesting newer cameras from the interesting Reto Project, debuting a new stock of cinematic low-light film. Even if the cameras are all superficially similar, there's a lot of variation in how the final images look.
Analogue images are great – full of charm and character. But if and when you do want to digitise them, you may find one of the best photo scanners comes in handy. We also have guides to the best cameras overall and the best cameras for beginners if you'd like something that offers more control and versatility. For now, let's get straight into the best disposable cameras.
The best disposable cameras available now
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This is something of an anomaly from Ilford, which usually specialises in black-and-white film stocks. The Ilford Ilfocolor Rapid Retro Single Use Camera is a full-colour, unabashedly retro treat of a camera. The Ilfocolor film it's loaded with gives images a washed-out look that screams swinging sixties style, with pops of colour that irresistibly draw the eye. It does its best in glorious sunlight and is precisely the kind of film stock you want to take down to the beach to capture all the sun and colour.
The camera is everything we want in a point-and-shoot – hugely easy to use, with a fixed-focus lens and locked shutter speed. One bit of control it does let you exercise is activating and deactivating the flash, which is great when a scene is already popping and you don't want to risk burning it out.
Often when we think of disposable camera shots, we imagine a bright, 'poppy' sort of look – one you associate with family holidays. A newer disposable camera that breaks from that tradition is the Amber Tungsten T800 Single Use 35mm Film Camera. Amber Tungsten T800 is a motion-picture film, using Kodak's Vision stock, and it produces images with a cool, muted colour palette.
In the daytime, it gives scenes a cool blue tone that's understated and highly distinctive. At night, it imbues points of light with a halation effect that translates to an intense red glow. Find yourself in a city scene with neon lights and you'll be making divine noirish images in no time – helped by the high ISO 800 sensitivity that makes the most of available light.
The camera itself is fine – a little plasticky, and with some softness around the edges of the lens, but perfectly acceptable for a disposable. This isn't a camera for technical accuracy; what we love about is that it's great for creating smoky, atmospheric, dreamlike images that could have been ripped from a Nicholas Winding Refn film.
We mentioned the Lomography “Simple Use” cameras at the start of this guide, but the fact is that they're more than a clever name. While they're simple to operate, they come with fun extra features like colour gels that can be placed over the flash to give an image a stylised tint of colour.
A few options are available, but we've picked the camera that's packing Lomochrome Metropolis. A more subtle, muted film than some of Lomography's wildly coloured emulsions, it's perfect for exploring the city. But hey, if you don't like it, finish the roll and load the camera with something else! We'd recommend sticking with ISO 400 though – the camera won't know if you load something that requires a different exposure time.
When you think back to the look and feel of disposable cameras from back in the day, you’re basically thinking of the Fujifilm QuickSnap Flash 400. With its fixed-focus lens, its single-button operation and its powerful built-in flash, this is an archetypal disposable film camera.
Loaded with ISO 400 Fuji Superia colour film, it’ll do well in the majority of lighting conditions, probably only struggling in the black of night. You get 27 exposures, and it’s so simple anyone can use it. There are some cameras on this list with more exciting features or special uses, but if you’re just looking for a straightforward, good-quality disposable camera, this is it.
This stylish rechargeable camera from Harman functions like a disposable camera, but like many of its contemporaries, is completely reusable. Its built-in flash is powered with AAA batteries, and in the box, you get two rolls of Kentmere, a budget black and white film with a usefully high ISO of 400 for use in all different lighting conditions.
The fast 1/120sec shutter combines with an f/10 lens to make for a solid, all-purpose photography setup. It's a basic setup, but that's just what you want from a disposable-style camera. Point that 31mm lens at pretty much anything and it'll probably come out in focus – as long as you're more than 1m away.
Disposable cameras are great for holidays, as they’re fun for anyone to use and make it easy to create physical images of your adventures. The AgfaPhoto LeBox Ocean 400 has one advantage over other disposable cameras when it comes to holiday use – it’s waterproof and sandproof, making it a great choice for beach getaways.
It can be submerged down to depths of 3m, meaning it’s ideal for leisurely dips in the sea, and its included yellow wrist strap means you can easily keep it secure and not worry about dropping it. The controls are also big and visible, meaning they’re kid-friendly if you’ve got little ones on your holiday. But really this is one of the best disposable cameras for all ages.
In 2021, Kodak unveiled its Tri-X 400 Single Use Camera, a disposable camera loaded with B&W film dating all the way back to 1954, making it a shoo-in as the best disposable camera for a vintage look. Long beloved by professional photographers of the era for its dramatic, high-contrast look and its forgiving exposure latitude, Tri-X built up a reputation as a film for all situations.
Its striking look may not be what you want for, say, a family barbecue, but for exciting photography with fantastic tonality, it’s a great choice. This flexible format works in lots of lighting conditions – if you’ve fired off a lot of shots in dark conditions, you may be able to ask your developer to “push” the film by one or two stops to retain detail.
Normally, black-and-white film has to be developed using a different process to colour film, and many photo labs will often charge more for it (and you can expect it to take longer). Ilford’s XP2 super film is a different breed though; it can be developed using the C41 process normally reserved for colour film.
This can really save you a headache once you’re done shooting and just want to find a high street lab that can handle your film with a fast turnaround time. Also, XP2 looks great – it’s a high-contrast B&W film with a stylish grain that’s ideal for getting shots with a little drama and flair.
Ilford HP5 Plus 400, to give it the full title, is perhaps the standard B&W film stock. It’s the one that photographers reach for time and again when they want an all-purpose film that’ll handle most situations; it’s arguably not as exciting as XP2 or Tri-X, but it’s great for getting clear and sharp images that are full of detail. You do have to get it processed with proper B&W processing, which can be more time-consuming and expensive, but the images that come back are all but guaranteed to look a cut above what you might expect from a disposable camera.
The Kodak Funsaver 35mm Single Use Camera uses Kodak’s ISO 800 film, as opposed to the ISO 400 in most other disposable cameras. This means that it’s more sensitive to light, and thus more usable in low-light conditions, the trade-off being that higher sensitivity film has more grain. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing – as these days, with pristine digital sensors available all over, film grain has become something of a sought-after look – but it’s something to be aware of. Also, be aware that this is a pretty cheap disposable camera and it feels it, with a flimsy plastic construction sleeved in paper. Still, were you buying a disposable camera for its build quality? Of course not!
