I have always loved taking pictures. I am not a professional or even a rank amateur, but I still have always enjoyed taking snapshots and photos in general. I am not an early adopter of much, but digital cameras were the exception. When I was younger (and up until I was about 24 or so) digital cameras were more science fiction than practical devices. So, when I was a growing up, there was nothing but film.
This was the first camera that I used, the Kodak Instamatic 100. I am sure many of the early photos of my life were taken with a camera like this. I still remember the packages that the one use flash bulbs came in. That’s right, you had to replace the flash bulb with every flash photo, well, every 4 photos with the magic flash cube. Very simple, but it took good photos and it was super easy to get film for it. (Did not own, was family camera.)
Ah, yes, the disk camera. A real marvel of engineering. Pocket sized, built in flash, kinda crappy photo quality. The disks we very easy to use, and you almost never accidentally destroyed the negatives by mishandling. The downside is with such small negatives, the film grain was pretty obvious and low light without the flash on was pointless. The camera size, however, was very convenient. (Did not own, was a family camera.)
Yet another Kodak. You have to remember, before digital cameras, Kodak was king. I used a camera like this in my late early 20’s. Very good image quality and a neat feature of panoramic shots. 24mm film negatives meant decent film grain and the film itself was easy. You just dropped it in and went along with life. When it hit the end of the roll, it automatically rewound the film and you didn’t need to carry the little round 35mm canisters. Decent flash and good low light capabilities. Only recently discontinued, it was the last point and shoot holdout in traditional film. (Not owned, friends’ camera.)
That last film camera I have used, and, shockingly, still in production. The Fujifilm QuickSnap disposeable camera. Just take your shots, drop off the whole camera to get the film developed, and you are done. No film to handle, no batteries to replace. Takes shockinly good looking photos. A great way to use traditional film, or, if you are cheap, have a camera you really don’t care about if it gets destroyed. Dirt simple to use, tough, and even comes in waterproof versions.
This was the last film camera I have handled. I also used some traditional 35mm point and shoots, but nothing that stands out in my mind. Next post will be on my transition to digital with sample photos. Ah, yes, digital. 13 years later the photos still look exactly how you took them originally.
