Review - Boots Disc 415 Camera

Disc film was an idea from Kodak in the 80's.  The idea was to make cameras smaller and easier to use by using a disc shaped film rather than a roll.  I suspect the real reason was to dramatically reduce manufacturing and film processing costs, because they were no smaller than 110 cameras and no cheaper to buy and use.








I was given a model identical to this by Myrrah for Christmas when I was eleven.  I did use it quite a lot, but the photos were awful.  Technically the film has to have been the worst ever manufactured for consumers and the format was short lived.  My Boots 415 soon followed my old 110 to the bottom of the toy box, never to be seen again.

Like all Disc cameras there are no settings, just load the film cartridge, close the lid and shoot. An indicator on the disc shows you which frame you are on. You can actually open the camera and remove the cartridge mid way through a disc and it's ok.  This is because the cartridge contains it's own shutter to cover the film which is put in place when you pull the lever on the camera.  The model in the photos was a couple of pounds off ebay and it froze up a few times, but it still worked after re-inserting the cartridge.



No lab will process Disc film for you, so you have to do it yourself.  Thankfully it's just C-41 so you can do this at home.  More difficult is buying the film.  It's been out of production for many years and the Disc used below expired in 1993.  Still worked though.






Worst feature - Very small negative frame giving very poor photos.

Best feature - Some of the number graphics on the negative disc look cool.

Brandon and Callum in Manchester -
Taken on a Boots Disc 415 with Fujicolour HR.  Mar 2013