Kodak Instamatics

Cleaning out the basement, I have discovered in my father's old stash of things two Kodak Instamatic (126) cameras. An X-15F and an X-35F. As far as I can tell they are in working order and in pristine condition. The X-35F is in a hard case. Although I thought they were long gone, I remember these cameras very well. He took very good care of them and used them up until the time I talked him into an SLR about 1987. I have no film to check them nor am I going to hunt any down. I will offer them up for sale on APUG classifieds if people are interested. So, are people interested and what do you folks feel is a fair asking price?

Is film even available for them or are they strictly collectors items? Please don't PM right now. If there is interest, I'd prefer to list them on the classifieds and let everyone interested have a fair shot.

-- Jason

People have modified them to use 35mm in the past.

Ten minutes with a dremel and screwdriver and some cardboard engineering has the X-15F back in business. My 1st attempt had overlapping frames but now that problem is solved. Got some Legacy Pro 100 loaded in it for mother's day. Ought to be fun!

There are always a bunch of 126 Instamatics offered on the *Bay.
You could check completed listings (go advanced) to see if anyone is actually buying any of them. Aside from reloading existing cartridges with 35mm film,
try 'Blue Moon Camera & Machine,' Portland, OR - USA.

http://www.bluemooncamera.com/

Thanks for the tip! I'll check them out.

I'm working on a cardboard cartridge that allows me to use a normal 35mm cassette by unrolling all of the film into the supply side and then winding back into the cassette. In the X-15F making two notches 180 deg apart in the cassette spool will allow the film to engage the winder. IDK if that'll work for any Instamatic. The Legacy Pro worked out OK today but I still need to get the winding distance correct. Have some Superia 200 in it now. There's a light leak around the top but I believe it can be dealt with using some felt.

Also looking at a few examples on *Bay that come with film included for reusable cartridges.

Tell you what, though, how nice to just wind and snap like the real old days! No batteries, no menus, no focus - just wind, compose and click. Yeah, some of my pictures didn't "get" but so what? They didn't back then either.

Didn't Einstein say something like "any fool can make something more complex, but to make it simpler is the real genius?" Sometimes perfection ain't what it's cracked up to be.

Kodak X-15 Winding

When winding an X-15 Instamatic, how many swipes of the lever do you normally make between frames when using a real 126 cartridge? I was looking online for an old manual or something but haven't found one. 2 1/2 seems about right in my setup when near the middle of the roll but isn't enough at the beginning and too much near the end. So I was wondering what was normal with a real catridge.

Note that my X-15F is now modified to not lock the lever after one swipe.