Trashcam

Glossary Terms

The ubiquitous Time camera image by Bracket ツ (Image rights)

The term trashcam has sometimes jokingly been applied to simple plastic cameras of extremely low value. These might include promotional giveaways, dollar-store closeouts, or thrift-store finds.

While trashiness is naturally a subjective and debatable concept, one working definition of a trashcam might be, "any camera whose value at least doubles when loaded with film."

There is a continuum between cheap plastic cameras that actually have reasonable optics, such as the Ansco Pix Panorama, and true toy cameras that are especially prized for their degraded, aberrated imagery.

"Focus Free" or "Made in China" may suggest trashcam status image by Todd Evans (Image rights)

An optical lens is a highly-prized feature in a trashcam image by Nesster (Image rights)

Aperture settings: Sunny, partly sunny, partly cloudy, cloudy image by jill elise (Image rights)

Garish and unfashionable colors are also a plus image by Voxphoto (Image rights)