Pocket Plastic

1 May 2010

Kodak Hawkeye Instamatic R4

Here's a beautiful Kodak camera I received last month as a birthday gift from a thoughtful friend. It used 126 film back in the day, and comes with a little detachable "flash cube", which throws light in four directions as opposed to just forwards. A great looking piece of mass-produced photographic equipment from the 1960s (some Instamatic cameras sold for as little as $10USD at the time), although I've read that this R4 model was something of a limited edition.

I haven't run any film through it yet. It seems that I will need an empty 126 cartridge to load with standard 35mm film in a darkroom. The alternative would be to open the thing up and try to cram an inexpensive digital camera sensor in there behind the lens and make my own Hipstamatic. Any engineering hobbyists out there want to give me a hand?

Photos taken with my Panasonic LX3.

(download)

10 Apr 2010

Edbar VP Twin Walnut, 1938

Just saw this cute English 127 format toy camera in a museum.

8 Mar 2010

USD$20 Green House Toy Camera

Japanese camera blog Circle Rectangle has reported on a new USD$20 digital toy camera by a company called Green House. It may or may not be named "Mini Digi", as shown on the official website. It's pretty small, uses a single AAA battery and features a keychain ring, so I'm gonna put it at about the size of a Vistaquest VQ1005.

Still photo resolution is a basic 640x480 VGA, with video recorded at 320x240 QVGA. No word on the frame rate. Memory is fixed internal, and enough for approximately 160 shots. I assume they are transferred to a computer via a mini or micro-USB cable. The website states several versions of Windows as a system requirement – my guess is that it mounts as a mass storage device, which should make it Mac compatible as well, but don't take my word for it. Still, it's extremely cheap and might be worth ordering.

Kodak Hawkeye Instamatic R4

Edbar VP Twin Walnut, 1938

USD$20 Green House Toy Camera

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