Photo Album: 10 frames on the Kodak Instamatic X-35

The perfect 70s throwback camera

I bought a box of cameras from an estate sale a few years ago and inside was a cute little Kodak Instamatic X-35.

That weird film again

Until recently, I couldn’t do much with it because it takes 126 cartridge film which (spoiler alert) isn’t made anymore. But the film gods must have been watching over me last summer when I saw a local listing for a bag filled with about a dozen boxes of this elusive film — mostly Kodak Kodacolor II. Not surprisingly, no one else seemed to want it and I scored the whole bag for a sweet deal.

This camera is BASIC! The Kodak Instamatic X-35 was first manufactured in 1970 and has a 41mm f/8 Kodar lens and two shutter speeds: 1/90 and 1/45 for flash photography. That’s it!

Give me sun, only sun.

Since I didn’t have any flash cubes in my possession, the only road to success was going to be full sun all the way. I popped one of the film cartridges (expired in May 1981) in the back and took the camera to my parents’ cottage for a weekend.

Take me to disco

I developed and scanned the film myself and the results are pure 1970s time travel: dreamy light, dusty negatives, softly blurred faces, and weird colours. I’m here for all of it and can’t wait to get back to the cottage this summer with another couple of packs in my bag.