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All Black "Professional" Kodak Instamatic 60 for 110 film
"The 'in' camera for the professional to carry on his belt these days is the Kodak Pocket Instamatic 60." Modern Photography, Nov 1973 How times have changed.
The Kodak 60 was the top of the line Pocket Instamatic 110 in the world when the new smaller Instamatic 110 film was introduced in 1972. Just in time for Christmas 1973, Kodak introduced the "60 Deluxe" with all black chrome trim rather than the standard chrome trim. I'm fairly sure the Black 60 is the rarest of all Kodak Pocket Instamatics. Hard to find, it belongs in a collection.
The 60 was the only original Kodak Instamatic 110 film camera to feature rangefinder focusing, with a fine performing 26/2.7 Ektar lens. Various magazine articles of the time used a lot of ink comparing the 60 to 35mm. Some authors even went to far as to predict the death of 35. The 60 offers programmed exposure, with no manual over-ride possible. It is keyed for ASA 80 film. The electronically controlled shutter has a commendably wide range of 1/250th to 5 seconds. Niceties include shutter lock, tripod socket, cable release socket, and slim pocketable design. It also had the later 60 features of a battery check and parallax correction marks in the finder. By the way, it was not originally designed for electronic flash, but instead for four sided AG-1 flash bulb "flash cubes" which provided accurate flash exposure by linking the aperture to the focused distance. Warning lights in the finder told of used flash bulbs or long exposure times.
The sliding scale in the left pic is the rangefinder focusing bar, complete with both feet and meters focusing scales. Also shown is the shutter release with cable release socket. On the right you see the under side of the camera, complete with green battery check button and sliding thumb operated film advance. Not to rest on their laurels, Kodak also changed the shutter release lock on the black 60 so it would not unlock while being slid into its carrying pouch.
Strangely enough, the black Kodak 60 was only the 2nd camera in production with the new "improved durable" black chromium. The first was the ultra expensive Leica M5.
Revised: August 17, 2009 . Copyright � 1998-2002 Stephen Gandy. All rights reserved. This means you may NOT copy and re-use the text or the pictures in ANY other internet or printed publication of ANY kind. Information in this document is subject to change without notice. Other products and companies referred to herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies or mark holders.