Snowboarding and still shooting with film

If you think of capturing memories during a ride down the hill, you’d most likely take an action camera that can take a beating like a GoPro. Your iPhone, sure. A mirrorless camera, probably, if you’re positive you won’t fall off the board.

But you wouldn’t think of using a film camera, right?

Obviously, I did, especially because I always want to capture memories on film.

I have a variety of film cameras in my personal collection but I had to pick a camera that was small enough to fit my ski pants and that didn’t hold significant value like my old toy camera, the Superheadz Wide and Slim (UWS) (pictured below) or my Action Sampler.

I’ve traveled with my UWS a lot in the past and has been a favorite because of how light it was. This is my toss-around camera which I have literally tossed around. This camera has even been (accidentally) submerged in water 😂

My 10-year old UWS was the obvious candidate to take while snowboarding, then a few days before my trip, I realized that it isn’t easy to come across this camera anymore.

Enter: the Disposable Camera

I don’t like disposable cameras – they look cheap and I think they’re a waste of money. I’ve been in this hobby for more than a decade and I’ve only used one for review purposes.

Read: Camera Review: Ilford HP5 Plus Disposable Camera

Since I didn’t want to risk ruining my Superheadz, I went to the nearest Walmart and got a disposable camera.

A disposable camera was my last option. If I had enough time to purchase one before my trip, I would have gotten Lomography’s plastic reloadable film camera. Since I didn’t have a choice, I opted to grab the only disposable camera on the shelf: the Fujifilm QuickSnap.

If I’m remembering this correctly, I bought the QuickSnap for around $15. I wasn’t really thrilled about the price because I knew that it was going to be a one-time use. I had to buy 2 pieces because I was convinced that I would take a lot of photos.

While snowboarding…

Build quality was good and it fit so well in the front pockets of my small ski pants. It’s light and I couldn’t even tell that it was in my pocket the entire time.

I was not afraid of ruining the camera from all the times I lost my balance in the snow. When I fell, I didn’t feel the camera at all – and I had 2 dispos on me! I also put a strap on the camera so that I could ride down the mountain while taking photos as I snowboarded (which didn’t happen).

One advantage (that I hadn’t realized until I was in the mountains) was that when the first camera ran out of film, I didn’t have to change film rolls; I just pulled the other camera out and started to take photos again. I found this incredibly useful because I didn’t want to go through my film loading rituals in the bitter cold (ok, it wasn’t that bitter).

The photos

I was pleased with the outcome of my photos. Some were underexposed and this is something I couldn’t control (unless I used the flash). I accidentally clicked the shutter only once, surprisingly. Since this camera is extremely basic, non-film photographers were able to use it too.

Photos were scanned and processed by The Darkroom.

Will I use this again?

No.

For adventures like these, I’d much rather choose a small plastic reloadable camera, just like the Lomography Simple Use. Or maybe I could just risk using my rare-ish Superheadz Wide & Slim.