Reuters reports that CVS Pharmacies are now selling a one-time-use digital camera, similar in concept to a one-time-use film camera. Pay $20, and you get a camera with many of the features of a normal digital camera: color LCD viewfinder/preview, flash, exposure control, timer, delete. Pay $10, and you get the above without the LCD.
The camera stores up to 25 pictures (the deleted pictures don't count against this total). When you're done taking the pictures, you return the camera to CVS and (for an additional fee, presumably) they give you prints and a photo CD. CVS then "recycles" the camera for use by the next customer.
I suppose that those who like 'disposable' film cameras will embrace the new technology as well, but it seems like the early adopters are going to get soaked. $20 (plus processing) is IMO far too steep.
In my own experience, people with digital cameras take far more pictures than those with film cameras, mainly because there is no additional cost associated with additional photos. With my digital camera, I am likely to take far more than 25 pictures at a given event. The CVS camera seems to be designed on the assumption that the customer will take pictures sparingly, as if it were a film camera.
A customer who uses such a camera for just a few events has already paid for a regular camera of similar quality. Oh, well... as the saying goes: it's their money.
1 comment:
Caveat emptor, to be sure. I would further add that the addition of children to the family will boost digital camera usage ten-fold. I just burned a disc with the photos I had saved to my hard drive: >260 hi-res pictures. And that's after five months.
The local Wegman's supermarket (gratuitous upstate NY plug) prints out hard copies for 29 cents a pop, and we've taken advantage of a couple of "20 pictures free" coupons given out in conjunction with the grand opening. rjd is down with digital technology.
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