Endangered Camera.

Several years ago, I invested in a waterproof camera.  It was state of the art, at the time, and I really enjoyed (and still do) snorkeling and water sports in general.  So the investment made sense, and the camera could be used above water, too.  It had the cool feature of changing picture sizes — meaning, I could get more fish in the picture just by rotating the dial.  The camera uses APS film, which used to cost about $8 for 3 rolls of 25 pictures on each roll.

I discovered a couple weeks ago that there was film still in the camera, so I figured I should finish the roll and get it developed.  And then we discovered, through Tony driving all over town, that photo labs no longer develop APS film.  Walmart, nope. Target, nope.  Costco thought they did, but then when I went to pick up the developed pictures, the employee handed me the roll of film and sadly told me that she didn’t realize it was APS film and they don’t develop it.  I searched Google and found out that CVS develops it.  I called first (a stroke of genius on my part), and learned that the ONLY CVS that develops APS film is way the heck over there in another city.

After picking up the pictures, the photo guy commiserated with me and told me I’d probably not be using the camera much longer because film for it is hard to come by.  Imagine my shock when I checked online and, horrors, the film is now upwards of $32 for three rolls of 25 pictures each.  Good grief!

I found one more package of the film in my desk drawer.  I’ll be using that up and then investing in a digital waterproof camera, I guess.

I’ve never felt so old.