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Polaroid Pronto! Sears Special

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The Polaroid Pronto! Sears Special was sold exclusively at Sears department stores and is a variant of the Pronto!, Polaroid’s first non-folding Land Camera to use SX-70 instant film. Polaroid’s earlier instant films required users to peel the negative away from the print which, unfortunately, caused many photogenic locations to become littered with discarded negatives, much to the chagrin of Polaroid founder Edwin Land. Land addressed this concern by developing SX-70 film, which did not use separate negatives and therefore produced no excess waste with each exposure.

Kodak Tele Disc

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In 1982, Kodak launched what they thought would be a revolutionary product: disc film. Instead of fumbling around with roll film or awkwardly shaped cartridges, consumers could now load their cameras by simply inserting a thin, sleek bit of plastic into the back.

Polaroid Land Model 104

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The Polaroid Land Model 104 is Polaroid’s first lightweight, plastic Land Camera (named after inventor and Polaroid co-founder Edwin Land). It belongs to the lower end of Polaroid’s 100-400 series of instant cameras which, despite sometimes wildly varying levels of affordability and build quality, all feature folding bellows, clearly labeled operating sequence, and automatic exposure.

Sears 2.8 / Easi-Load

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The Sears 2.8 / Easi-Load is a rebranded Ricoh 126-C EE, a fixed-lens viewfinder camera designed for Kodak’s now-obsolete 126 film cartridge. It features a 43mm f/2.8 Rikenon lens with a minimum focus distance of three feet. Like many 126 cameras of this era, the Easi-Load has no integrated flash and must rely on top-mounted flash cubes, plastic rotating cubes that have four single-use flash bulbs good for four exposures. Other notable features include an interesting “atomic” Sears and Roebuck logo next to the viewfinder, nicely recessed film advance lever, and a threaded shutter button to accept a soft release or shutter release cable.

Kodak Baby Brownie Special

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The Kodak Baby Brownie Special is a very simple box camera constructed of Bakelite, an early plastic. It has a basic meniscus lens with a minimum focus distance of five feet and a single fixed shutter speed (estimated to be about 1/40) activated by the button on the side. The optical viewfinder runs across the top of the camera next to the film advance knob. A nice braided hand strap is supposed to span the top of the camera from the metal brackets on either side but it’s missing on this one.

Kodak Instamatic 304

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The Kodak Instamatic 304 is one of the more technologically advanced cameras in Kodak’s famous Instamatic line with a then-sophisticated automatic aperture system controlled by a selenium meter (seen on the front next to the viewfinder). It has a relatively simple Kodar 41mm f/8 lens with two shutter speeds: 1/90 and 1/40 for flash photography.

Kodak Six-20 Bull’s Eye

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The Kodak Six-20 Bull’s Eye is a box camera made of Bakelite, an early plastic. The shutter lever is located under a simple meniscus lens with a minimum focus distance of eight feet and a fixed shutter speed with manual bulb mode activated by the lever above the lens. The primitive viewfinder is only usable for approximating composition and runs along the top of the camera next to the circular metal knob that’s used to advance the film after each exposure. The little nub opposite the braided handle is used to keep the lens level when the camera’s resting on its side for portraits.

Kodak Colorburst 100

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The Kodak Colorburst 100 was made during Kodak’s relatively brief foray into instant film. Kodak’s instant film was designed to be exposed from the back which meant that they could make their instant cameras more compact than Polaroid‘s which had to accommodate a mirror for their front-exposing film. Unfortunately, none of that mattered when Polaroid filed a lawsuit against Kodak for patent infringement in 1981. After nearly a decade of deliberation, Kodak eventually lost in court and had to cease production of all instant film and related products as well as pay $925 million in damages to Polaroid (around $1.5 billion in today’s money).

Kodak Instamatic X-35

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The Kodak Instamatic X-35 is a plastic viewfinder camera designed to take Kodak’s then-popular 126 cartridge film. It’s got a 41mm f/8 Kodar lens with two focus zones: two to six feet and six feet to infinity. The shutter has two speeds: 1/90 and 1/45 for flash photography.

No.1 Pocket Kodak

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The No.1 Pocket Kodak is designed to take Kodak’s then-popular but ultimately short-lived autographic film which allows you to use the camera’s metal stylus (which is usually found attached to the brackets just next to the shutter lever but is missing from mine) to record information about the photograph you just took by opening the squat T-shaped window on the rear panel of the camera and writing directly onto the margin of the negative via carbon transfer paper. Regular 120 film also works, of course.

Agfa B-2 Cadet

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The Agfa B-2 Cadet is a simple box camera introduced in 1937 by Agfa. Even though the Cadet is a German camera designed in Germany, it was actually manufactured in Binghamton, New York in the factory of American camera company Ansco since they were owned by Agfa at the time. In fact, the company was known as Agfa-Ansco from 1928 until 1941 when the United States entered the Second World War and seized control of Ansco back from the Germans.