Fifty-Year-Old Time Capsule Found: Rare "Black Chrome" Kodak Pocket Instamatic 60 Camera Deluxe Set Is it Better than Digital?

 May 6, 2025

#512

Gentle reader,

It has been a L-O-N-G time since I have written about film cameras. I used to collect them and longtime readers of The Robb Collections (thank you!) are well aware of just how many I had and what kinds and types they were.

First of all, for those who did not know about my camera obsession, a little background.

In case you are new to my blog, (also, thank you!) I had owned a total of 505 of them, but not all of them at the same time, usually around 200 cameras. 

I created a way to display my cameras which negated the need for shelves or glass cabinets. I named it CameraLock. I wrote about it back in 2008: The Robb Collections: Old Camera Collection CameraLock displayed One of my camera collecting buddies offered to host a web page about CameraLock, through which I tried to sell plans. There were but a few takers...

This is one of many film images I made of the then-ever-changing Camera-Locked collection.

This is what laid within the cardboard sleeve seen in the image at the top of the article. It could easily be mistaken for just another jewelry box from long ago.

This is what was inside: The rare Black Chrome Kodak PI 60 camera. 

I did not know who figured out a way to make black chromed metal, but Leica in Germany used it in their new M4 rangefinder camera in the 1970's. Here is a web site which explains the process: What is black chrome plating? - California Learning Resource Network

I had not been looking at cameras AT ALL after selling off my collection years ago. However, eBay's algorithms know my ENTIRE eBay history since 1998 when I first joined. As a result they chose the above Kodak camera set as "Something you might like."

A man I met in my camera collecting journey, who became very important to me. My camera-collector-mentor, Lt. Colonel Ervin (Bill) Arps United States Army (Retired). More about him, later.

I never thought about collecting cameras. Like so many of the collections which Nancy and I have enjoyed, doing so just happened. All it took to get me started was finding ONE old camera...

This is an early film image of the very first old film camera I ever found. It is a Yashica Model J 35mm rangefinder camera and that is what it looked like when I found it at a Catholic church's annual flea market sale in the mid-1990's. The "J" was missing from it, so identifying it (long before the Internet) was not easy...

This is the only photo of Nancy's father, Julio, I have in digital form. He was a wonderful man. He owned a house in Puerto Rico and one less than a mile from where I worked in northern Virginia. 

I knew NOTHING about cameras when I showed my find to him. He explained how to use it to me: Focusing with a rangefinder, loading, winding, setting aperture, rewinding and more.

Above and below, are all the cameras which I chose to keep of the 505 total collected over many years. A total of nine. See the one third from the left, above? That was Julio's own Yashica J. It is in much better physical condition than the one I originally found. However his was worn out and no longer works. 

All of those cameras above and below were given to me by friends and relatives after they learned that I was collecting camera.

The one on the left was mailed to me from Puerto Rico by Nancy's Dad. I called her at work and said, "Your Dad sent me a package." "Well, open it." she replied. I had no idea what it was that I found inside, because it was all folded up. Eventually, I was able to open it and what I found was exciting.

It turned out to be a 1940's Busch Pressman 4x5" press camera. It is similar to the type of camera which captured this timeless photograph below made by AP photographer Joe Rosenthal on the island of Iwo Jima during World War II. It uses 4" by 5" sheet film.

This is the only image I was able to make with the camera.

Thus began my many years of learning, looking, finding, shooting with and eventually selling off hundreds of cameras. You see, Colonel Bill's camera buddies began dying off and he developed Parkinson's Disease and could no longer enjoy using or even holding cameras. It eventually killed him. I continued to work with his widow and family to sell off his massive collection.

Look closely at the image above. (clicking or tapping on any image will enlarge it) The same man is sitting at both ends of the photo! It was made by a special kind of medium format (120 film) camera in which the film is held still and the camera rotates around it to make a 360 degree (or wider) photo. Image was made by Colonel Bill Arps.

"The stage is set."

If you have never seen the film, Rango, starring Johnny Depp as "The Lizard" you must watch it!

Like so much of what was happening in the photography world of the 20th Century, Eastman Kodak was behind it, always inventing and creating new markets for their products. 

They were a very innovative company and in answer to people who did not like dealing with film which needed to be threaded into the camera and onto another reel, they came out with the "Instamatic" line of film and cameras. I explain film types and their numbers in this article: The Robb Collections: 135, 120, 110, 126, Four by Five, Eight by Ten. What DO All These Film Numbers Mean?

Image courtesy of flickriver.com

As a result, in 1963, Kodak introduced their new "Instamatic" cameras and "Drop in" film cartridges. It was still 35mm film, but in a new format with no threading onto a take up spool or rewinding and further spaced sprocket holes.

Nine years later, Kodak did the same thing, but with 16mm film by shrinking their 126 Instamatic film cartridge, to made it to hold 16mm film. The Black Chrome camera still has a 110 film cartridge inside it of Kodachrome slide film inside. 

16mm film was packed in smaller cartridges than 110 and had more sprocket holes since it was movie film, just as 35mm film also is.

My main focus of my camera collecting was buying and trying various Rangefinder focusing cameras. I hoped (then) to someday own a Leica camera. 

One does not look through the camera's lens with a rangefinder camera, like one does with a Single-Lens-Reflex camera and digital cameras. Rangefinder (and viewfinder) cameras have a viewfinder to look through which as a much smaller central image one has to align vertically to insure the pictures will be in focus.

This is a very small 1970's German 35mm viewfinder camera which my brother, Jim, gave to me after he heard I was collecting cameras. The viewfinder is off to one side and above the camera's lens, thus what one sees through it will be a little different than what will go onto the film.

The 1946 Leica IIIC (and earlier) camera I was finally able to buy had two viewfinders. The right one was to use to compose the picture, the one on the left showed the rangefinder's image.

I removed the 1946 "sharkskin" black leatherette covering and recovered it in red sea snake skin. The two round openings are for the rangefinder, the rectangular one in the middle is the viewfinder.

My 1946 Leica IIIC camera with the original "Sharkskin" leatherette covering. Coincidentally, this photo was made with a 110 film SLR camera. Most likely, one of the two below. Yes, they shoot 110 film.

Once Leica came out with the M3 (their IIIG was the last two-window camera) it had one viewfinder on the back.

The Soviet Union was not only spying on other countries governments, they were also doing industrial espionage, including camera companies. The early FED and Zorki cameras were nearly identical to early (III series) Leicas. One can buy a Leica-look-alike camera on eBay for a tiny fraction of cost for a real Leica. 

The FED-2 was the first Soviet rangefinder to figure out how to have one viewfinder. 

My Zorki 3 camera which came out in 1951 has one view/rangefinder and came out three years prior to Leica's M3.

But, enough about rangefinders and antique Euro-Asian cameras. This is about the rare Black Chrome Kodak Pocket Instamatic 60 Deluxe camera set.

Once I found out that 110 film cameras existed which had rangefinder focusing, I bid way too much for a Kodak Pocket Instamatic 60 camera than it was worth. They call that "Auction Fever". It was like the one below, the original chrome bodied PI 60 one as shown below.

This was not that particular camera, what I bought was just the camera for $60. This set I bought later on. Once other camera owners learned about eBay, the market began to be flooded with all kinds and sizes of film cameras and prices dropped as a result. The PI line came out in 1972. The Deluxe set came out later with a higher ($155) price and much fancier packaging.

The booklets which came with this set tell the production year of 1973 and are like new.

There's more than meets the eye of the Deluxe Pocket Instamatic 60 camera set!

Remove the molded  and flocked plastic camera set tray and what lay beneath was the untouched initial letters sticker set and...

Why, yes, it CAN be a jewelry box after all! You see, the Deluxe set being nearly 50% more expensive than the standard chrome PI 60 camera set and this was one of the ways Kodak justified that extra cost. That and not many made since most people did not buy them just to get a black one and a jewelry box.

The entire box of the standard chrome PI 60 was entirely cardboard. Oh, and in case you were wondering what that black tapered plastic cylinder thing seen in the camera set is, here it is in place on a camera with a flash cube on top:

You see, the further away the camera's flash is from the camera's lens, the less the chance of  the dreaded "RED EYES".  Which is a problem using a phone's camera, the flash is almost always right next to the lenses.

Even the phone with Leica lenses has it's flash right next to the lenses.

So, you may be thinking, "Scott, just what are you going to DO with your new camera?" Well, the problem is the K battery. It can be disassembled and the mercury batteries replaced with #357 button cells. But, it's a tricky job. Some have 3D printed them, but they are fragile. Then, there is 110 film. It is still being made by LOMO and perhaps other companies. But it is expensive as is developing and printing. Besides, I have shot hundreds of photos with 110 cameras, starting with the JCPenney 110 camera I bought in 1979. Here are some examples of the questionable quality obtained with 110 film.

My first new car, a 1979 Chevrolet Monza 2+2 I special ordered.

This is the 1974 Triumph Spitfire sports car my first wife bought for me by selling her first new car, a 1978 Datsun (now called Nissan) F10. Which was Nissan's first front-wheel-drive car which was TINY and UGLY. It was the only nice thing she did for me.

Fun to drive and it fit my six-foot-three-long-legged body just fine.

Below, my first born son, Paul who decided walking out of the house to see what dad was up to was a good idea. He will be 45 in November.

Now, the JCPenney 110 was very inexpensive and there are plenty fine quality 110 cameras, almost all of which I enjoyed over the years which produced very sharp images, including Kodak's PI 60, which has a very sharp lens. 

So, no, I will not be shooting film with it. It was a spur-of-the-moment purchase which I will enjoy looking at or showing to a friend. I have this Nikon D300 digital SLR camera as well as these two Panasonic Lumix Cameras, both of which have lenses made by Leica.

While their sensors are smaller than 110 film, their resolution and super-sharp German lenses will always provide me with what I want with no waiting and no cost-per-image which film has.

Well, that went on far longer than I thought it would. That being said, I hope that you enjoyed what I had to show you and perhaps you learned some things as well. Thank you for sticking with me to the end. Feel free to comment below on via Facebook.

Scott Robb

#512

May 6, 2025