Apart from iconic emulsions, Kodak also made some pretty interesting cameras, as today’s featured vintage camera ads from the 1960s remind us.
Been enjoying the walk down memory lane through the vintage camera ads we’ve been sharing? Today’s featured ad and commercial are the next to surprise and delight you. If you’ve been shooting with Kodak films, or are simply interested in the company’s history, we think you’ll be especially curious about the Kodak Motormatic 35 shown here!
As with most of the vintage camera ads we’ve previously shared, we spotted this one on Reddit’s r/vintageads. It appeared on the pages of National Geographic during the 1960s. The Kodak Automatic 35 and Kodak Retina Automatic III cameras also appeared in the ad alongside the then-new Kodak Motormatic 35. It’s definitely interesting to learn about the automatic cameras of decades past, not only to remind us of an era in photography history, but also how far we’ve come when it comes to the technology.
The ad boasted of the Motormatic 35 as a 35mm camera that had both auto advance and auto exposure and could take as many as 10 shots in 10 seconds, hence the name Motormatic. It also had the “electric eye” feature that automatically adjusted the aperture for picture-perfect exposures whether in the sun or shade, as well as for flash photography. “This is the most automatic of the Kodak family of fine automatic cameras,” the ad also noted.
The electric eye feature was also mentioned as the selling point in the 1960 Kodak Motormatic 35 commercial below:
According to Camera Wiki, the Motormatic and Automatic series were Kodak’s first automatic exposure 35mm cameras, and the last American-made 35mm cameras. The first Motormatic 35 came out in 1960 and was produced until 1962: the last was the Motormatic 35R4 made from 1965 to 1969. The Motormatic and Automatic cameras practically had the same features, except for the spring-driven power film advance in the former and manual lever film advance in the latter. You can also watch it in action in this quick video.
Curious about this camera? The good news is there are still loads of them selling for cheap on eBay. Grab one and shoot like it’s the 1960s!