Wednesday September 14, 2005

Reinventing the Camera

Disposable cameras have become so sturdy and substantial—so permanent feeling—that at least one person has taken the time to hack a Kodak MAX One-Time-Use camera so that it can be used again and again. Kind of like, you know, all the cameras we had before there were disposable cameras.

We should have seen this coming. While disposability starts out as the key advantage of various limited-use products—like one-time use cameras and razor blades—the logic of product evolution was bound to bring the disposable camera full circle. First it was made more durable—so durable that it seems like a waste to throw it out—and now it can be reused. Once Kodak finds out how popular their disposable cameras are—so popular, apparently, that people want to use them again and again—don’t be surprised when they introduce the Kodak MAX Multiple-Use disposable camera. They’ll introduce it with a splashy campaign, with TV ads where people are about to toss out next wave disposable cameras but are stopped by friends “in the know,” who remind them that they can use it again. It will be hailed as a revolution and breakthrough, at least until everyone realizes that that’s how cameras worked in the first place.

It’s brilliant when you think about it. Digital cameras were taking over the market anyway, so the film giants devalued their product by making it completely disposable—trash to be thrown away. This, in turn, lowered consumers’ expectations of the product to the point that customers became impossible to disappoint. “What do you expect? It’s a disposable.”

But now, by slowly reintroducing the camera—the old-fashioned, reusable camera—into the marketplace, Kodak et al. can charge a premium on a new generation of “super disposables” while still playing to low expectations. That point and shoot you bought ten years ago? The one that crapped out after twenty rolls? As an old paradigm “camera,” it was a real piece of junk. But as a “disposable,” it would have exceeded your expectations by 2000%. Genius.