126 Instamatic film in the Frugal Photographer catalog

Click

here for some great fun making a 24-exposure pinhole camera with this film.

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The Kodak Instamatic 500 (circa 1963-8) shown here has a magnificent Schneider-Kreutznach Xenar f2.8 lens, a beautifully-made and accurate Gossen meter, and a 1/30-1/500 Compur shutter. It has a flash hot-shoe as well as a PC synch socket, and synchs at any shutter speed. After all these years, it is still a very fine camera, and richly deserves to be used.

It's price during the years it was manufactured was $94.50, equivalent to roughly $650 to $700 in 2007 (check the math here).

In mint condition these cameras have been selling recently on eBay for less than $10 up to $20. It fits easily in a coat pocket.

Note: although Ferrania ended production of 126 in April, 2007, we bought most of that last production run, and expect to be able to provide you with fresh-dated, cold stored 126 film through 2010.

Important note regarding film freshness: Almost every roll of 126 in the warehouse is dated at least 2008, and almost all are 2010, but there are a few rolls dated September 2007. Apparently they are intermixed with the newer films. It is possible your order may include one or more of these recently outdated films. For more information about film freshness dates, please click here.

Is this film expensive?

In 1982, when 126 was at the height of its popularity, the K-Mart discount chain sold Kodacolor VR 200 (126-24) for $3.19. At most non-discount stores, supermarkets, drugstores, and camera stores, it was closer to $3.75, which is roughly $7.40-$7.50 in 2007 dollars (check the math here). .

Even now, with the added cost of shipping from Europe, in small volumes, it's price has not changed significantly since 1982.

Note: you can reload 126 cartridges using ordinary 35mm film, if you're patient and have a darkroom or dark bag. For reloading tips: Click on this link, and locate the "intro, step 2, step 2" etc. icons at the top of the page. The author, Bruce Miller, is a true friend of frugal photography and richly deserves our thanks.

Your Instamatic camera is not obsolete.

Solaris FG200-24 126
Guaranteed to fit any Kodak Instamatic camera, from the workaday 104 and 114 all the way up to the amazingly sophisticated Instamatic Reflex and Instamatic 500. And, of course, it will work perfectly in all those Minolta, Olympus, Rollei, Voigtländer, Canon, and other high-quality 126 cameras.

Science fair deadline? Please note: Most orders which are received by early afternoon (Mountain time) go out the same day, but not all. Even with FedEx overnight service, it may be two business days before you receive your film.

Item: SOL126-1
per roll
(3 roll minimum)
Use this Add To Cart button to buy three or more single rolls.

Item: SOL126-10
10 roll package,
(use this Add To Cart button to buy 10-roll "bricks")

Item: SOL126-30
Carton of 30 rolls,
(use this Add To Cart button to buy 30-roll cartons)

To order on-line, click the Add To Cart button. When you finish shopping, you can choose from several shipping methods. You can pay on-line with VISA/MasterCard, or PayPal. Or you can print out your order and mail it to us with your personal check or money order.

Prices are in $US. For currency conversion, click here.

About Solaris Instamatic film

Ferrania is/was the last factory anywhere in the world to manufacture 126 Instamatic-format film. Production ended in April, 2007, but later in 2007 one further run was processed. Apparently the factory is vacillating between discontinuing the film, or continuing with sporadic runs. This must be a very difficult decision-making process for them. We hope they will schedule at least one factory production run per year into the foreseeable future, but ...who knows? A lot of it depends on whether or not people like you continue to use the film.

We have several thousand rolls in stock and expect to be have Ferrania 126 films on hand for you to buy through 2010, one way or the other. By that time, some entrepreneur will undoubtedly be making 126 again. It continues to be a valuable and valued format for people who want to use the very good 126 cameras that are out there, and for pinhole photographers.

Finding a processing service for 126 Instamatic film
Information about making a 126 Instamatic pinhole camera.
General exposure and processing information
How to order from The Frugal Photographer, and
How we administer and ship your order.

Click here to see samples of this film in use.

Solaris FG Plus is a color print film manufactured at the ultra-modern Ferrania plant in Italy. It is considerably advanced over that company's former products, and has substantially improved granular properties, color fidelity, and exposure latitude. When correctly exposed and processed it gives images that meet the most exacting, professional standards of quality.

Sophisticated 126 Instamatic format cameras have a mechanical "sensor" that detects a notch in the film cartridge body, and automatically sets the camera's exposure system to the film speed being used. Solaris 126 film is rated ISO 200, and is particularly well suited to high-quality photography using sophisticated cameras like the Kodak Instamatic Reflex, Instamatic X-90, and Instamatic 500, the Voigtländer Bessa, Rollei A26 and the Minolta Autopak cameras, Ricoh and Konica rangefinder cameras, and the Yashica Ez-Matic and Ez-Matic Electronic. These kinds of cameras "sense" cartridges from ISO 50 or 80 to ISO 800, and expose Solaris 126 film accurately.

Solaris film's good exposure latitude means it can be expected to also give excellent results in inexpensive 126 snapshot cameras.

A number of exceptional cameras were made to use 126 Instamatic film. Among them are the Kodak Instamatic X-90 (top left), the Minolta AutoPak 550 (top right), the Yashica Ez-Matic Electronic (bottom left), and the Kodak Instamatic 500 (bottom right).

The 126 film cartridge was introduced by Kodak as the "Kodapak" in 1963, along with a set of "Instamatic" cameras to use it with. It was invented to solve what Kodak felt were the three most inhibiting problems for amateur photographers —

the clumsy process of threading roll films onto takeup spools in their cameras;
the need to match a camera's exposure system to the film's speed;
and problems associated with trying to advance film to the next frame through the use of numbers printed on the film's backing paper and viewed through a small round red window on the camera's back.

The new format coincided with advances in film chemistry that saw new color print and slide emulsions becoming available. The first Kodapak films were Kodacolor X for color prints, Kodachrome X and Ektachrome X for color slides, and the very popular Verichrome Pan for black and white photos, which at the time were significantly less expensive than color.

For the first time, color prints, slides, and black and white could all be exposed at approximately the same speed in simple cameras.

By pre-loading the film into a light-tight plastic cartridge, Kodak effectively eliminated handling film altogether. Drop the cartridge into the camera, and then take it out for processing — no more takeup spools to thread, no more risk of accidental exposure to light. By printing frame numbers onto the film's paper backing, Kodak made the cartridges useful in inexpensive cameras that did not have frame-counting mechanisms. And through an ingenious system of perforations on the film edge and an indexing pin on the camera body, the film automatically and accurately framed itself, advancing only far enough to position the next frame, and no farther.

The format was wildly successful. Reliable estimates of the number of 126 Instamatic type cameras manufactured between 1963 and the 1990's are in the tens of millions. Every major 35mm camera manufacturer except Nikon produced cameras that used the KodaPak cartridge, and some of them sold spectacular numbers of them.

The Kodak Instamatic 500, an expensive, premium-quality camera made in Germany with a Gossen meter and Schneider-Kreutznach Xenar lens, selling for $94.50 in 1963 (equivalent to something like $500 today), is reported to have sold more than a half-million units. Minolta's superbly-engineered AutoPak camera models sold more than a quarter-million units each. Agfa, Fuji, 3M, Ansco, and a host of smaller manufacturers all produced films packaged in the Kodapak cartridge.

Many factors contributed to the decline of the Instamatic camera, primarily the dramatic fall in price and increase in sophistication of Japanese 35mm "point and shoot" cameras with high-quality zoom lenses and autofocus systems. Motorized film advance and rewind, DX speed encoding, and sophisticated exposure control made the 126 Instamatic (and 110 Pocket Instamatic) cartridges superfluous.

Kodak stopped production of the film at the end 1999, and most other film manufacturers discontinued it at about the same time. At that time, Kodak's 126 film production amounted to less than 1/3 of 1% of their total annual output, and was dropping 30% per year. Kodak's expressed wish was that Instamatic users would switch to APS, but most of them probably switched to 35mm or recyclable "single-use" cameras.

The last manufacturer, Ferrania SpA in Italy, ended production of 126 in April, 2007.

Many inexpensive snapshot cameras from the 1960's through the 80's used 126 Instamatic film. They crowd the shelves and bargain bins of thrift shops the world over, dusty and unloved, and while few of them would be a worthwhile camera for everyday use today, some definitely are.

126 Instamatic cartridges originally gave either 12 or 24 28mm square images per roll, but due to the cropping effects of photofinishers' printing equipment and slide mounts, it is the central 26mm square portion of the negative that is printed.

It is possible to salvage empty 126 plastic shells and backing paper, and reload them. However, for most Instamatic cameras to operate properly, the film must have an approximately 4mm wide and 2mm high rectangular perforation in the top margin to mark the starting position of each frame. Without that perforation, the frame-advance mechanism cannot tell when to stop. Correctly sized and spaced perforations are difficult for the casual reloader to make.

Solaris 126 film is rated by the manufacturer at ISO 200 / 24 DIN. Our tests resulted in correct exposure at the rated speed when processed in standard C-41 chemistry by a one-hour lab.

126 film is 35mm wide, so it can easily be processed by any lab, or in any home darkroom, that is equipped for processing 35mm color film. Few photo labs, however, are equipped for printing the square 126 images, so most deliver square images on 3x5 or 4x6 rectangular paper.

You can also take the film to your local photofinisher and ask for "develop only", and then scan the negatives using a scanner at 1,200 dpi or greater, and print your own images on an inkjet printer.

For the more sophisticated 126 Instamatic cameras which permit full exposure control, these are our suggested exposures:

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