126 cameras are near and dear to my heart. The first camera I used, a Kodak Instamatic 104, and the first camera that was mine, a Minolta Autopak 600-X, were 126 cameras that are in the museum. While 126 cameras were generally unsophisticated point and shoot cameras, many were quite sophisticated cameras capable of excellent results. The key to the 126 camera success beginning in the early 60s was easy loading, drop in film cartridges. The widespread advent of quick loading and autofocus 35mm cameras by the 1980s spelled the demise of 126 cameras (except on E-bay at bargin prices). Select a brand below. For detailed information, select History and Technology.

GAF Anscomatic Cameras

Argus

Argus marketed at least 17 different 126 cartridge cameras as listed at Camera-Wiki - Argus. They all appear to have been made by other manufacturers and branded Argus. For example, the 270 and 284 were made in Japan by Sedic according to Camera-Wiki. Others such as the Argus 164 Carefree and Argus Solid State Electronic 374 were made by Balda in Germany according to Camera-Wiki.

Canon Canomatic and Autoload Cameras

Besides Focus-Matic, the Autoload 342 was unique at the time because it had an Electric Motor Drive powered by two 1.5 volt AAA batteries. While several Kodak Instamatic 126 cameras had automatic film advance, they were spring wound and did not use batteries. The 342 also was quite sophisticated in showing the shutter speed information from 1/30 to 1/500 second in the viewfinder. There was also a 1/800 setting with no marking. Apertures were not displayed, but ranged from f2.8 to f13. The lens is 40mm f2.8 with 4 elements in three groups. Metering is with a Selenium photocell which surrounds the lens. The Selenium meter does not require battery power. The batteries only power the electric drive and fire the flashcube. (These were regular flashcubes, not Magicubes.) The camera utilized the "flashmatic system with flashcubes. Flash exposure is controlled automatically to suit the subject distance and flash aperture." (Canon Camera Museum - Specifications. Film speed is also automatically set at ISO 64 to 160 by the film cartridge. There was no manual control over the exposure. The camera was remarkable in having so many automatic features that would become commonplace for point and shoot cameras by the late 1980s. With the Autoload 342, most of those features were mechanically controlled, however, while in the 1980s they were electronically controlled. A 1970 magazine ad for sale on eBay for the Autoload 341 says it sells for less than $88. That's about $700 in April 2023 dollars.

I purchased my Bell & Howell Autoload 342 for $2.53 plus $7.50 shipping on December 20, 2006 on eBay. It is in good cosmetic condition. The Focus-Matic works, the film advance works, and the shutter fires. The Selenium meter does not appear to work. The aperture appears to always remain wide open. I bought a second one as I was writing this on May 22, 2023 on eBay for $6 plus $8.82 shipping plus $.51 tax for a total of $15.33. I'm so intrigued by the Focus-Matic that I may take one of the cameras apart!

Keystone

Kodak Instamatic Cameras

The camera was an upgrade from Kodak Instamatic 804 substituting the CdS meter for the 804's Selenium meter. "Additionally the 814 omits the +/- exposure compensation wheel found on the 804. Period advertising suggests this was possible as the CdS cell only read from the central subject area of the frame, and so was less likely to be thrown off by contrasting background brightness." (Camera-Wiki.) The successor to the Instamatic 814 was the Kodak Instamatic X-90 which I have below. It updated the camera to accept the new X Magicubes which fired without a battery. The X-90 still had a 3 volt alkaline battery for the exposure system, however. (Camera-Wiki - Kodak Instamatic X-90.)

My camera may have been a donation in October 2009. It comes with a hard ever-ready case. The camera is in good cosmetic condition except it developed a white film over the black covering. Most of the white film came off with some Windex although I don't know if it will come back. The rangefinder could use a cleaning. The lens looks good. I got the lens to fire a couple of times after winding the camera. I think it would fire consistently if the camera had a film cartridge installed. The camera is heavy at about 1.7 pounds. It is a very nice camera and very sophisticated for a 126 cartridge camera. There were a lot of 35mm Japanese rangefinder cameras, however, around the same time as this camera that were probably a better value.

Konica

Mamiya Cameras

Minolta Autopak Cameras

The camera takes two PX825 batteries and one RM625 Mercury battery. I assume the PX825 batteries are to fire the flash. The PX825 batteries are not made any longer. They were used in many Kodak Instamatic cameras also. Little Kodaks has a YouTube video showing how to substitute one CR2032 batteries for the two PX825 batteries. Since a CR2032 battery is much thinner than two PX825 batteries, the video fills the gap with 4 nickels. I haven't tried it but some similar arrangement might be possible with the Minolta Autopak 550. The RM625 battery powers the exposure meter. These mercury batteries are no longer made for environmental reasons. There are replacement 1.35-Volt Zinc air coin cell battery replacements although they have a limited life once opened. The mercury batteries were common in the 1960s and 1970s and other solutions are possible.

The next problem is that 126 film is no longer made. Some people load 35mm film into 126 cartridges to get around this. Needless to say, using the Minolta Autopack 550 as I write this in May 2023 was not as easy as it was in 1969! You can get out your smartphone, however, and snap all the photos you want as well as make videos, make phone calls, search the Internet, email, text, etc. All of that would have been hard to imagine back in 1969. (See 1969 IBM 2770 Data Communications System Bisync 360 to see what communications systems were like in 1969. In October 1969 the ARPAnet, the forerunner of the Internet, was switched on. computerhistory.org.)

A 1967 Sunset magazine ad and a 1968 newspaper ad both for the similar Autopak 500 state the price is under $50. That's over $440 in March 2023 dollars. I purchased my Minolta Autopak 550 on November 1, 2009 for $0.99 plus $5.50 shipping for a total of $6.49. It is in good condition although the switch to open and close the battery compartment is missing. The battery compartment still lifts open and closes, however. The camera fires. To get it to fire without film you have to slide the sensing pin in the film compartment to the right after turning the film advance. (The sensing pin falls into the single registration hole on each frame of the film when film is in the camera.) I obviously can't fully test the camera due to the lack of batteries and film. The camera is similar to my Minolta Autopak 600-X camera except the 600-X uses Magicubes which do not need a battery. The 600-X hence just has a single mercury battery for the meter.

Olympus Quickmatic Cameras

Ricoh Cameras

Rollei Cameras

The lens is a 40mm f3.5 Rollei Sonnar. You have to focus by estimating the distance. To make this easy there is a distance scale on top of the lens with icons for one person, two people and a mountain. An actual distance scale is on the underside of the lens. The one person icon is between 1.2 and 1.5 meters, the two people icon is about 3 meters, and the mountain icon is at infinity. The actual range is from 1 meter to infinity. Exposure is automatic from a CdS cell. The exposure range is from 1/30 second f3.5 to 1/250 second f22 according to specifications in the owners manual at www.cameramanuals.org. There is no way to manually adjust the exposure. The camera required a 625 mercury battery. The C26 electronic flash attached to the side. It was over 7cm wide. It has rechargeable batteries which cannot be removed.

Coincidently, when the camera was introduced in 1972, Kodak introduced 110 format cameras. 110 cameras took over much of the 126 camera market although much better quality pictures could be expected from the over 350% larger 126 format. (28mm x 28mm = 784 sq.mm vs. 17mm x 13mm = 221 sq. mm. 784/221 = 3.55) This camera model demonstrates that a 126 camera could be made very small. Heinz Waaske's retractable design was used for Rollei's own A110 110 format camera.

I purchased this camera and flash on eBay on October 22, 2006 for $10.50. I'm don't know what the shipping was. I'm writing this in December 2022. For some reason it took me 16 years to put this unique camera online! My camera is in very good condition. The shutter fires. The lens looks very clean. My camera had a mercury battery in it which, of course, was discharged. There was a little corrosion around the battery area. I have not tried any other battery. The battery apparently only controls the light meter since the shutter fires without a battery. The flash is, of course, dead. I assume it has NiCd batteries. You can't get to the batteries without dismantling the flash. Additionally, I do not have the AC charger for the flash.

Yashica EZ-Matic Cameras

Zeiss Ikon Cameras

History and Technology

126 cameras use 126-size film cartridges. While no longer manufactured by Kodak, the film is still available today at the Frugal Photographer which also contains excellent information about 126 film. A 126 film cartridge has film about the width of 35mm film pre-loaded into a plastic cartridge. The film has holes only on the top for film transport, unlike 35mm film which has holes on the top and bottom. A 126 frame therefore is slightly wider than 35mm film (about 28mm compared to 24mm). 126 film uses a square format, however, and hence a frame is not as long as a 35mm frame (about 28mm compared to 36mm). The total frame area is about the same with 126 film having an area of 784 sq mm and 35mm film having an area of 864 sq mm. Unlike later 110 and disc formats, quality enlargements of at least 8" x 10" can be made with both 126 and 35mm film.

126 film was introduced by Kodak in the early 1960s for ease in loading. All you had to do is drop in a plastic cartridge, wind until it stopped at the first frame, and shoot. With 35mm film at the time, you had to thread the film across the film support tracks and into the take up spool, carefully close the back of the camera, wind ahead two or three frames, and make sure the rewind knob was moving. While not extremely difficult, all of that can be tricky at first and slower. The quick loading 126 film appealed to many consumers, and 126 film was relatively popular well into the 1970s. Most camera manufacturers made 126 cameras. See Instamatic Central for an extensive collection. Two exceptions are, I believe, Nikon and Leica. Canon had a few - the Canon C30 (1966), M70 (1970) and Bell & Howell 340 (1966), 341 (1969) and 342 (1969). Canon had a quick loading mechanism for their 35mm cameras perhaps explaining why they were not more involved with 126 camers. The widespread development of quick loading and autofocus 35mm cameras in the 1980s, as well as competing cartridge formats such as 110 in the 1970s, likely contributed to the demise of 126 cameras.

Different manufacturers had their own names for 126 cameras. While sometimes used generically, "Instamatic" was the registered trade mark of Eastman Kodak Company. Minolta used "Autopak," Olympus used "Quickmatic," and Yashica used "EZ-matic."

126 cameras have a reputation for being inexpensive point and shoot cameras, and indeed the majority of the dozens of models were usually fixed focus, non-adjustable exposure cameras, with inexpensive lenses. They also did not have a pressure plate holding the flim plane flat. As can be seen in the 126 wing of the Camera Museum, however, there were several quality 126 camera model with features such as adjustable focusing including some with rangefinder or single lens reflex focusing, manually or automatically adjustable apertures and shutter speeds, exposure meters, shutter speeds or apertures shown in the viewfinder, and automatic film advancing. The Kodak Instamatic Reflex even had interchangeable lenses. Therefore while 126 cameras never reached professional quality, several were quality, precision instruments capable of excellent results.