Athens in 1964 with an Instamatic 500 Camera

2024 New Year Note

Dear Readers, welcome to 2024. Thank you all for your support. In the upcoming year, look for a mixture of new material and more treasures (garbage?) from my archives. I also want to scan more of my father's negatives. My New Year's resolution is to sort through much of this old material and purge. 

Resolution 2: Don't buy more cameras. But a friend said he would send me his Mamiya RB67..... 

Resolution 3: Use some of the film in my freezer before buying any more new film. The 120 Panatomic-X is 35 years old. It responds perfectly so far, but its life is finite. 

The Kodak Instamatic 500

Kodak Instamatic 500 camera (photo source unknown)

My dad always took pictures. So when I was in elementary school, I wanted a camera, too. My childhood friend had an Instamatic 100 and, later, the 104 (the 4 meant it could accept flashcubes). 

In the early 1960s, Instamatics and the associated type 126 film cartridge were Eastman Kodak's marketing marvel, an astonishing sales success worldwide. Kodak introduced the one-piece film cartridge in 1963. The cameras were easy to use. Many casual photographers had endless trouble loading 35mm film into a camera, but the one-piece 126 cassette solved that complexity. All a user needed to do was place the plastic film cassette into the camera and close the back. Most Instamatics were simple cameras with a fixed aperture, but some had early-vintage auto exposure. Some even has a hand-wind spring motor to advance the film. 

Kodak sold 126 film until the early 2000s. Their last Instamatic camera was the X-15F in 1988. Mike Eckman has written a detailed summary of the film and its history. He also summarized ways to load  35mm film into recycled or brand new 126 cartridges. 

I did not know anything about cameras, so an Instamatic seemed like the logical path. I saved my allowance and, with help from the parents, requested a Kodak Instamatic 500 camera. A relative bought one in Germany and brought it home to Greece.

From The Bulletin, August 14, 1965

Unlike most of the simple box versions, the 500 let you focus manually and had a built-in Gossen selenium light meter. The 45mm ƒ/2.8 Xenar lens was a modern and coated 4-element Tessar type. Mike Eckman wrote a detailed review of the Instamatic 500 and its history, so I will not try to repeat details here. On Instamatic standards, the 500 was capable of decent negatives or slides.

I did not know what I was doing, but the instruction manual said look at the distance scale and turn the aperture scale until the light meter needle pointer was in the middle of the bar in the viewfinder. Simple even for a youngster. Here are some 1964 examples from Greece. The film was probably Verichrome Pan (which I used and liked in 2021 in 120 format). 

Athens view west from Lycabettus Hill

In the 1960s, Athens was growing furiously. Elegant turn of the century townhouses were being torn down and replaced with rectangle concrete apartment buildings of no architectural merit. Now, some 60 years later, they look like tired nondescript apartment buildings with inadequate elevators, bathrooms, and electrical supply. My 1964 photograph shows the ugly constriction.

Athens view south from Lycabettus Hill

To the south, the scene is about the same. The stadium in the middle is the site of the 1896 Olympic Games revival. The suburb beyond is Nea Smyrni, an area settled by Greek refugees from Anatolia after the disasterous 1923 war and the subsequent exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey (i.e., forced ethnic cleansing).  

Athens view east

This is the view towards Mount Hymmetus. Today, the urban sprawl extends a lot further up the slopes.  The American Embassy is the modern white building with columns in the center just beyond the green slope. Bauhaus architect Walter Gropius designed the chancery building, which was completed in 1961. I recall when you could drive right up to the building and enter the basement garage. Now, it is surrounded by tall walls and the sidewalks have truck bomb concrete barriers. The concrete ramp in the foreground is part of the ramp for a funicular. 

S.S. Hanseatic in Piraeus

A trip to see ships in Piraeus was always a treat. This was the S.S. Hanseatic of the Hamburg-Atlantic Line. Built in 1930, this was formerly the Empress of Scotland steamship. The Hamburg-Atlantic Line bought it and extensively rebuilt it, replacing her three funnels with two modern style funnels. Note the open lifeboats, a deadly way to save passengers in case of an evacuation on the open Atlantic ocean. In 1964, passengers still crossed The Atlantic via ocean liner, but the Boeing 707 airliner was in the process of crushing the traditional cross-ocean passenger ship business. 

Unknown sports car near Mount Pendeli

Update: a reader from Germany wrote that this sports car is an Auto Union 1000 Sp roadster (3 cylinders, two-stroke, front wheel drive).

Picnic somewhere near Mount Pendeli

Family friends invited me to a picnic. The stove with all the smoke was a clever Israeli folding camp stove that burned crushed newspaper. I do not know if it could handle the heat of wood or charcoal. Sitting on the rocky soil on newspaper does not look too comfortable. 

My mom and two cousins somewhere near the sea

A typical Sunday outing was to go to a taverna by the sea and eat. The adults hung about and talked, while the children were bored and ran around. Note the poofy hair in classic 1964 style.

Sitting around at a taverna

Yes indeed, here are the adults sitting around at the taverna. The kid looks bored. Don't forget the high-heeled shoes for the Sunday casual outing.

This ends out short look back at 1964 through a Kodak Instamatic 500 camera. As you can see, for internet display, the quality is quite acceptable. I could not find any companies that sell new 126 film, but some adapter kits exist to reload perforated 135 film into 126 cartridges. The Film Photography Project may be trying to reintroduce 126, but I have not kept up with their progress. 

I used my 500 for about 5 years and then progressed to a Nikkormat FTn camera in December of 1968. This was a much more sophisticated camera and used the dreaded "complicated" 135 cartridges. The Instamatic stayed in a drawer until a friend borrowed it to use while rock climbing. It disappeared at some stage, but I did not plan to use it again. If you have an Instamatic at home, buy a reloaded 126 cassette and test it - have some 1960s fun.

Verichrome Pan Film in Mississippi and Louisiana (Abandoned Films 06b)

In 2020, my friend from Indiana sent me a roll of the long-departed Kodak Verichrome Pan film in 120 size (for medium format cameras). I used it on a snowy day in Vicksburg in early 2021 and loved the results. It was high resolution and just perfect for my type of photography. I never tried Verichrome Pan when it was in production, but now I wish I had. 

I have had surprisingly good results with discontinued black and white films such as Kodak Panatomic-X and GAF Versapan. But it is always a gamble with expired film and I decided to only buy fresh product from now on. Well, as you can guess, I was unable to stick to my own advice. A seller on eBay claimed two rolls of Verichrome Pan had been frozen for years, so I succumbed to temptation.

Of the two rolls, the first was perfect. The other was so thin, it was useless. That is the risk of buying expired film. I used that first roll in the Mississippi Delta on a blazing hot June day with harsh and unforgiving light. The camera was my Rolleiflex 3.5E with its 5-element 75mm ƒ/3.5 Xenotar lens. Even today, this 1959 camera is totally usable and optically excellent. Used Rolleiflexes in good condition sell for serious $$s on eBay or via auction houses now. Click any photograph below to see it expanded.

Louise, Mississippi

Louise is a small agricultural town in Humphreys County west of Yazoo City. It consists of a small core of houses with silos and former shops along Main Street. It may have been busy decades ago, when the railroad ran through town. But today, it is forlorn.

Main Street view north, Louise, Mississippi (1/30 ƒ/11, Rollei orange filter)

Main Street, Louise

Silos (1/15 ƒ/16, orange filter)

Main Street stores, Louise (1/30 ƒ/16, yellow filter)

Lee Hong Grocery, Louise (1/60 ƒ/11.3, yellow filter)

Quiet afternoon in Louise

Yazoo City, Mississippi

Yazoo City was the "Gateway to the Delta." It is still a busy town with a harbor on the Yazoo River. Timber is a major product. But the town is a bit rough.

Fixer-upper store, West Broadway, Yazoo City (1/60 ƒ/11.5, yellow filter)

Garage and gin, 301 West Bridge Street (1/125 ƒ/8, yellow filter)

Tallulah, Louisiana

The last stop on our Verichrome Pan trip is Tallulah, Louisiana. Tallulah is just off I-20 about 20 minutes west of the Mississippi River bridge.

Former Tallulah High School, Bayou Drive (1/30 ƒ/11.5, orange filter)

This was a blazing hot (95º + F) afternoon with harsh sun. I had one frame left and stopped at the old Tallulah high school. Much of the roof has collapsed, but the brick walls remain. The ball field to the left out of the picture view is still in use. It is sad that these handsome brick buildings are abandoned.

This ends our short Verichrome Pan tour. I probably should have dialed back from the orange filter to deep yellow or just plain medium yellow. Internet users claim that Kodak's discontinued Plus-X film was very similar in tonality and grain. My friend will send a couple of rolls of 35mm Plus-X for me to try. I'll post the results later.

Note: some film users on the internet believe the new Kentmere 100 in 120 size looks much like Verichrome Pan. I need to try it. Kentmere is made by Ilford company, and the 120 size is a recent (early 2023) introduction. 

Another Expired Film Treasure: Kodak Verichrome Pan (Abandoned Films 06)

Dear Readers, this is a continuation of my series on discontinued photographic films. Previous posts covered GAF Versapan film packs, GAF Versapan 135 film, Kodak Ektar 25, and Kodak's famous Panatomic-X black and white film.

For decades, Kodak's Verichrome Pan film was a staple in camera stores around the country. It was a medium-speed (ISO=125) panchromatic black and white film intended for box and medium format cameras. Kodak's data sheet stated:

FEATURES                            BENEFITS

• Extremely fine grain            • Excellent for producing high-quality images

• Wide exposure latitude        • Rich tonality maintained with overexposure and underexposure

• Very high sharpness            • Excellent for applications that require a high degree of enlargement

• High resolving power          • Good rendition of detail

Over time, Kodak sold it in 120, 127, 116, 126, 616, 110, 620, and 828 formats. As far as I know, Kodak never packaged it in 35mm cassettes. Note that these are format designations, not width in mm. The 126 was the Instamatic cartridge that was so popular in the 1960s and 1970s, and the 110 was the smaller cartridge for 110 cameras. As of 1996, they even sold it in long roll for Cirkut panorama cameras. Numerous writers on the web enthusiastically claim that it was a superb film. It was such a flexible film, an inexperienced amateur could could load it in a crummy box camera and achieve something that a lab could print. 

For unknown reasons, I never tried any Verichrome Pan, and now it is too late. But good news: my Indiana friend, Jim Grey (author of the Down the Road blog), generously sent me a roll. 

The roll Jim sent expired in 12/1987. He said he did not know its original storage conditions, but he had kept it refrigerated. I took pictures around town with my Hasselblad 501CM medium format camera on a rare day when snow had fallen (yes, it does snow in Vicksburg once in awhile). The light was soft and even, so maybe this was not a very challenging test for this film, but that is what was loaded in my film holder. Because of the age and unknown storage, I decided to add extra exposure and use it at EI=64 (or half the original), meaning one ƒ-stop extra light for each frame. Click any picture to see it enlarged to 1600 pixels wide.

Kansas City Southern tracks from the North Frontage Road bridge (80mm ƒ/2.8 Planar-CB lens)

2624 Washington Street, Vicksburg (80mm Planar lens)

Fairground Street Bridge (permanently closed; 80mm ƒ/2.8 Planar-CB lens)

Pearl Street view north (80mm Planar lens)

Over a decade ago, cottages lined the west side of the tracks (left in this photograph). All have been torn down and the road has been abandoned.

Kansas City Southern rail yard from Levee Street, view east (80mm Planar lens)

Kansas City Southern rail yard view south (80mm Planar lens)

Work shed on levee next to Yazoo Canal (50mm ƒ/4 Distagon lens, 1/30 ƒ/11)

Sycamore Avenue, Vicksburg (80mm Planar lens)

View west from Sycamore Avenue (80 mm Planar lens)

Kansas City Southern tracks along Mississippi River waterfront (250mm ƒ/5.6 Sonnar lens, ⅛ ƒ/16.5)

Well, once again I am thrilled that a 30-year-old film responds so well. What amazing technology. I love the tonality of this Verichrome Pan, at least under these conditions of soft light.

Praus Productions in Rochester, New York, developed the film, and I scanned it with a Minolta ScanMulti medium format film scanner. The Silverfast Ai software did not have a Verichrome Pan profile. Instead, I used the profile for Plus-X film. I read in some old Kodak books that Verichrome and Plus-X responded about the same. I have read that they were almost the same emulsion but one had no anti-halation layer (?). I do not know if that is true, and I had no recent experience with Plus-X. The last time I used Plus-X may have been in Moscow in 1978 (click the link). 

Thank you, Dear Readers, for following along on this exploration of Films from the Dead. All comments welcome.