DAY 282

HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY

The Instamatic Camera

NO THINKING REQUIRED

Of all of the products introduced by Kodak, the instamatic camera was arguably its most successful. Actually referring to a line of cameras rather than one specific model, the instamatics were inexpensive (often made of aluminum or plastic), point and shoot cameras that hit the market in 1963, and essentially allowed anyone to become an amateur photographer.

The key appeal was a combination of low cost and extraordinary user-friendliness. The cameras had a fixed shutter speed, aperture, and focus, eliminating the need for any technical knowledge of how to take a picture. The process was so simple that the camera owner only had to aim the camera at the subject, and press a button. Kodak’s new 126 (and later 110) size film, came preloaded into plastic cassettes with a built-in mechanism for advancing the frames. Rather than finding a dark space in which to insert a canister of roll film and then thread the leader into a slot, the consumer merely had to snap the cassette into place, close the back of the camera, and be confident that the film was loaded correctly. The convenience came with a trade-off, relatively low-quality photographs that satisfied the “man on the street” but held no value for professional photographers.

The company (and inevitably the copycats) went on to manufacture tens of millions of instamatic cameras over the course of the next 25 years. Wildly popular from the very beginning, the cameras evolved from the original, basic version to later models that were packed with special features. —DJG