My first camera was a Kodak Instamatic 177X which I was given for a present (Christmas I think) when I was something like 9 years old. This was a fixed-focus camera with ‘cloudy’ and ‘sunny’ settings, and using 126 cartridge film. If it was too dark, extra light could be supplied by ‘magicubes’ – little plastic items containing four flash bulbs. The pictures (when they’d been developed and you’d got them back from Boots) were square which, looking back at them, seems a bit odd.
This was my main camera until some time in the mid-80s when I upgraded to a Canon AF35J – motor wind, (and auto focus if I remember correctly). Unfortunately, the camera died some time toward the end of the decade, whilst the Instamatic still carried on being used.
Now, the next camera I remember getting was a Canon Ixus in 1998 (a graduation memento), so I either kept on with the Instamatic, or there’s a camera in there that I’ve forgotten about.
I absolutely loved the Ixus. Ok, so the APS film format is not going to give me the best prints, but the sheer size (or lack of it) meant that I carried it around all the time: “The best camera is the one you have with you”…
Unfortunately, the camera was stolen in a burglary on our house in 1999. I obviously should have been carrying it around more…