Kodak 66x 'Instamatic' Camera

One of the reasons I started a blog is so that I could post reviews on one of my favorite things: gadgets. For my first tech review, I feature ‘vintage tech’: my late father’s Kodak 66x ‘Instamatic’ Camera.

Specs:

- Produced between 1973-1977
- Lens : f/11
- Shutter 1/60
- Film type : 126 cartridge
- Picture size - 28mm x 28mm

 

This was prompted when one of my former students, Kimberly Daco, posted a picture of herself wearing retro clothing. But the big nerd that I am, I noticed what was hanging on her neck: a vintage camera.

Photo courtesy of Kim Daco.

Kim, who is studying Mass Communication, told me that she and her classmates rented a manual camera for their photography course. I suddenly remembered the camera we would use to take pictures when I was small. After a short search, I found, still in its original leather case, my father’s old camera.

My father’s old camera is the Kodak 66x ‘Instamatic’ Camera. According to my research on the Interwebz, this model was made from 1973 to 1977. (According to my mother, my father bought this camera around the time my older brother was a little; so it fits the time frame.) The Instamatic series was a line of affordable cameras made by Kodak.

Here is the article from Wikipedia:

Here is a blog entry of a guy who is selling his Kodak 66x:

 

Our camera was made of lightweight but durable black plastic. On top was a slot where disposable flashbulbs were inserted. I remember when I was little when Papa would buy a box of flashbulbs. Each bulb had four sides. When a picture was shot, the slot would rotate the bulb for the next picture. How’s that for high tech!

On the top right of the back of the camera, was a plastic lever. This advanced the film and cocked the shutter. I tried it a few times, and to my surprise, the camera is still working!

I posted pictures of my father’s camera on the Internet and I was surprised that so many people liked it! Another former student, Nadine Destura, commented, perhaps with a hint of envy, that she finds vintage tech cool. Miss Jilliann Pagcaliwagan, a nurse who took care of my father during his last days, relates that one time she and my mother had a conversation about this camera. Of course, Kim was excited about this camera and asked if it still worked. It still works!

I really wanted to buy a roll of film and go around the campus snapping pictures on my father’s old camera. But my heart sank when I find out that the film size for this camera is 126, (not 135 as I expected). According to my research, this type of film ceased production in 2008 (that recent!) and many film developers would no longer process the film. Too bad!

Cameras were made to capture fleeting moments so that they would become permanent memories. As Optimus Prime said in the closing lines of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, “It is through these memories, we live on.” So here a few pictures of me and my late Papa, when I was little. (I posted one of these to commemorate my father on Father’s  Day.) 

 

  It is through these memories, he lives on.