There's no two ways about it, photography is an expensive hobby, especially in this digital era. At the heart of any digital camera is the sensor – a pricey and sophisticated electronic component, particularly if it's a decent enough size to take quality images – and wrapped around it is all manner of tech gubbins – such as LCD screens to view your images on, sophisticated control interfaces to enable the myriad settings to be inputted, and rechargeable batteries to keep all the demanding electronics powered up.
Traditional film photography, by contrast, is pretty simple. The camera's prime function is to open a shutter for a fraction of a second to expose a frame of the film inside, meaning that at its most basic all you need is a shutter and mechanism to advance the film. The upshot is that a basic camera body can be quite cheap and cheerful, none more so than the best disposable cameras, which can be picked up for a few dollars. Once you've shot your way through the included roll of film, you simply get it processed and chuck the camera body away.
