a camera only a mother could love …
Toronto. When I was a kid, one of the insults we hurled at each other was “your mudder’s so ugly she wears army boots”. And the rebuttal was, “so’s yer old mudder”. Well in my opinion, the 1965 Kodak Instamatic 800 is down right ugly. Then again we came through a time when North American cars looked like jet aircraft.
The marketeers touched all bases to make this camera series idiot proof. Unfortunately in doing so it was all awkward corners and bits that jutted out. Not a pretty design even for the mid 1960s. Remember Leitz sold the beautiful, ergonomic M series at the time. This ad from page 19 of the April 2, 1965 LIFE magazine shows what Kodak considered an elegant design. The film used was another Kodak design, a drop-in film cartridge that even a klutz could change and not mess things up.
My thanks again to my friend George Dunbar for suggesting this bit of history when Kodak was the huge factor in North American photography.
