Down the Road

Photographs and stories by Jim Grey

Since 2007

Tag: Kodak

  • Kodak Instamatic body types

    Kodak Instamatic body types

    A review of the handful of body types that make up all of the dozens of Kodak Instamatic models.

  • Ozzie and Harriet for Kodak

    Vintage commercials for Kodak cameras, via Ozzie and Harriet Nelson.

  • 1950s TV commercials for Ansco cameras and films

    Remembering camera and film company Ansco through some 1950s commercials for its products.

  • In belated praise of Kodak Gold 200

    I’ve been devoted to Fujifilm color print films for years. Fujicolor 200 is my all-time most-shot film. But now that Fujifilm appears determined to get out of the film business, I’m reevaluating Kodak Gold 200 — and realizing it’s very good.

  • Displaying my old cameras on the Kodak Metal Tripod No. 1

    A review of the Kodak Metal Tripod No. 1, which was first manufactured more than 100 years ago.

  • My first roll of film

    Down the Road is on hiatus, returning Monday, 26 September. I’m rerunning old posts in the meantime. When my grandmother gave me a quarter to buy the old Kodak Brownie Starmite II at a garage sale, I don’t think either of us could have predicted that it would spark a lifelong love of cameras, which…

  • Kodak Brownie Starmatic Canon PowerShot S95 2010 This is a surprisingly capable little 127 camera.

  • Vintage TV: 1950s commercials for Ansco cameras and films

    Do you remember Ansco cameras and films? For many decades, Ansco was second only to Kodak in the United States. Headquartered in Binghamton, New York, the company’s history stretched back to 1841. But its peak years were probably the 1950s, when it routinely manufactured two million cameras a year. Ansco manufactured simple cameras that anyone could operate, like…

  • Made in U.S.A. Canon PowerShot S95 2015 A review of this Kodak is forthcoming.

  • I may have lost my mind a little

    I bought very few old cameras last year as I focused on shooting my Nikon F2. But as 2014 ended, I kind of went a little nuts. Call it unslaked gear thirst. Last year’s Nikon adventures showed me that I really enjoy shooting SLRs, so that’s mostly what I’ve been buying. I know I’ve said…

  • Goodbye Kodak BW400CN

    Kodak has announced that it has ended production of BW400CN, a black-and-white film. Film manufacturers keep shrinking their product lines because digital photography has all but collapsed demand. Only technophobes, certain pros, and hobbyists like me still shoot film. That’s enough to support some film production, but not on the scale of just five or ten years ago.…

  • Vintage TV: Ozzie and Harriet for Kodak

    If you’re of a certain age, you remember when a television show had one sponsor, or maybe two; all of an episode’s commercials were for those companies. The show’s open usually incorporated the sponsor, too. When these shows were later syndicated, new “generic” opens had to be prepared that referenced no sponsor, as local stations…