What caused the demise of the Kodak Instamatic Camera and its 126 Film?

Question

It was once the meat of the Kodak Industry and then it suddenly disappeared in the mid 90s. This was BEFORE the success of digital cameras.

Answer 1

For a long time, Kodak came out with a new sub-35mm "consumer" format about every ten years. The new format would be proclaimed as the greatest thing since sliced bread, consumers would go out and buy the new cameras(almost always made by Kodak at first) in droves, and shoot miles of film in them.

Then, 10 years later, a new format would come along, and the cycle would repeat.

This happened in the 1960s with 126, the 1970s with 110, the 1980s with disk, and the 1990s with APS.

126 is the oldest of these, and there never were any really great cameras made for it. I lose track, but I believe that there is still a company in Italy(Foma, maybe?) making it. 126 film is 35mm wide, so it's easy to process on standard 35mm equipment, but the odd sprocket hole spacing(one per frame) and the square format mean that any prospective manufacturer must start from raw, unperforated film stock.

There actually were some decent 110 cameras made, although the small negative made it difficult to get good results. There are still enough people keeping 110 hobbling along for Kodak to make 1 emulsion(Gold 200).

Disk was junk from the get-go. The negatives were tiny, and it required special processing equipment. I don't think that anyone misses it.

And, of course, digital killed APS. It also still has some following, although it's not nearly as big as it was 7 years ago.

Digital pretty much finished off all of the other antiquated "consumer" formats that were on their last legs anyway.

By the way, I've seen statistics indicated that 35mm film sales far outstrip all other formats by a significant factor. I suppose that this is related to the fact that

1. It's used by both pros/amateurs and consumers
2. For pros and amateurs, it gives good quality with a significant increase in convenience and decrease in cost over larger formats
3. For consumers, it gives better quality than smaller formats without any loss in convenience and often times at a comparable or even lesser cost.

Answer 2

Kodak's 126 film was easy to load. Period.

But, it didn't give great photos because the film didn't always lie flat inside the Instamatic cartridge. On a 35mm camera, the camera had a spring mounted pressure plate that pressed the film flat against the film plane and insured even focus and exposure.

As consumers demanded better quality pictures and realized that they could learn to handle better equipment, the 126 format faded. One of the factors that contributed to it's demise was the temporary replacement by the 110 cartridge that gave us a much smaller camera. But it also gave us grainnier pictures, too.

Later, camera makers came out with 35mm point & shoot cameras with easy loading systems and full auto exposure and focus. If you could get a larger negative and a sharper picture (and look better doing it) then you'd leave your Instamatics behind and move to 35mm.

Answer 3

Kodak not only sold a lot of film, they sold a lot of cameras. By replacing 127 roll film in their consumer oriented cameras with 126, they made the film easier to load and created a demand for these newer, more compact, easier to use cameras. 126 was eventually replaced for much the same reason. Film technology had advanced to the point that a decent photograph could be coaxed from the tiny 110 negative, cameras could be made more compact. Therefore, Kodak had the opportunity to produce and sell a smaller and more desirable camera.

Answer 4

Better films with finer grain came along. The poor quality of a larger negative was no match for the fine grains of the then-new 35 mm "Gold" films so 126 just sort of faded away. They tried to use APS film without a whole lot of market success, because that was just pushing the limits too far. 35 mm cameras can be made very cheaply and neither 126 nor APS were needed.

Answer 5

The complete lack of image quality.

Plus the introduction of 35mm cameras with Program Exposure and Auto Focus.

Answer 6

The film came in a cartridge, so you didn't have to touch anything. They were fine for snap shots, but nothing else.