I forgot about this experiment with a disposable camera. A while ago, a friend told me she wrapped a camera in cellophane to make it more waterproof in order to take it in the sea. I say more waterproof as it clearly wouldn’t have been fully waterproof, but she wanted just a little added protection to take it in the sea while she floated around.

In the past, I have tried some film cameras that were supposed to be fully waterproof to shallow depths, but I was never really confident in using them as designed. Age had created cracks in the housings and the o-rings couldn’t be trusted. For the most part I used them in puddles or wet weather. The one I did take underwater, leaked as soon as it was submerged. So I decided to use a disposable camera for this experiment. That way no actual camera would be harmed if it went pear shape.

The LeBox camera I got from Analogue Wonderland was just like the others I have tried recently, easy to open and fairly safe in terms of the flash capacitor. Once loaded with Exeter 400, I wrapped it with a heafty amount of cellophane.

As you can see, I covered everything but the lens. That meant I had trouble looking through the viewfinder. Then I took it to Nottingham on a very rainy day. I mean really rainy, so much rain came down that once it had stopped, I had to change my coat and bag before I could continue my walk. The cellophone also became quite slippery and gross to touch. It did protect the camera from the deluge, the film was fine…but it wasn’t pleasant to use after.

I took that cellophane wrapping off and added a new layer. Then finished the film off on the last snow day of this year.

Here are the results.

I can say this experiment was fairly successful, but I won’t be doing it again or trying cellophane with a regular camera. I would not recommend you trying this with your favourite camera, but a disposable…well you have nothing to lose.