KODAK INSTAMATIC 400

The Instamatic 400 was one of the cameras in the first numbered series of Instamatic models that Kodak launched in 1963, together with the 100, 300, and 700, and it was based on the new 126 film cartridge which allowed users to simply drop the cartridge into the camera rather than having to wind the film onto a take-up spool by hand. Among that initial range the 400 was positioned above the basic 100 model (which had a fixed exposure and required manual advance) and the 300 model (which had only a meter), since it featured a coupled selenium photoelectric exposure meter as well as a spring-driven film advance, enabling the meter to set the exposure automatically and allowing the shutter to be recocked without the need for hand-winding. It had a fixed-focus three-element f/8 Kodar lens, a two-speed shutter, a direct-vision optical viewfinder with a low-light warning indicator, and a pop-up flashbulb holder that was powered by two AAA batteries reserved solely for the flash, the selenium meter itself requiring no power. The 126 film cartridge was one of Kodak's most important design choices as it eliminated the loading difficulty that had previously discouraged so many ordinary people from taking up photography, and during the following decade the wider Instamatic range sold tens of millions of cameras around the world. The Instamatic 400 is now a common camera on the second-hand and collector markets. Yet the meter and spring-advance mechanisms can become stiff or unreliable after sixty years, and because the 126 cartridge is no longer available practical shooting is only possible with reloaded or adapted film.