#easyload

Kodak had an interesting business model. Their film was always excellent, of course, used by professionals around the world. It still is, in fact, though the number of people actually shooting on film has declined dramatically they’re still using Kodak products. It was a film company first and foremost, it existed to make film, sell film, and get people using film.

This naturally lead to the company making cameras as well, because if you sold cameras you could sell people film to use in those cameras. But Kodak’s primary goal was not to sell great cameras, but to sell people film. So the result was that their cameras were not aimed at the professionals who still buy the premium, professional film that parts of Kodak still produce. Kodak was much more interested in the value proposition, making cameras for the everyman, cameras that were simple, cheap and would allow anyone to buy film. Kodak film, specifically.

This lead to Kodak constantly making new formats (with cameras to show them off) and it lead to the camera we are looking at today, Kodak’s EasyLoad 35 KE30, a camera designed to be so simple a child could use it, and then convince their parents to buy Kodak film.

The KE30 is a helicopter parent of cameras. First, you can’t do anything if film isn’t loaded, pressing the shutter release just lights a red light, to remind you to put some film in. Maybe you are just checking to make sure that the shutter on a camera you bought for $2 at Value Village still fires. The KE30 doesn’t care, it needs you to know that this is not going to get you any pictures, and you need to load film to make it work. Alright then, KE30, I’ll give you some film.

Flip around to the back and you find a relatively small film door, because the KE30 is meant to load easy and that means none of that traditional camera back nonsense. Open that door and it declares that this camera uses Kodak film. Because I am a rebel, I decided to use some FomaPan 100, which is not a Kodak film. I slid the end of the film into the tiny slot that is apparently much easier than the traditional method of loading (it’s not) closed the door, and listened as the camera made a loud whirring noise and didn’t actually load my film. It was on to my tricks and did not approve of my attempt to load something that wasn’t by Kodak. How did it know?

Turns out I just didn’t give it enough film to hook on its winding mechanism. Perhaps Kodak films at the time had slightly more film sticking out of the cartridge than other manufacturers. After I figured that out, I loaded a little bit more of the FomaPan into the camera - because I wasn’t going to let the camera win - and observed that this easy loading system was somehow more difficult to use than literally every other film camera I own.

All of this and I haven’t even taken a picture.

It didn’t take very long for me to actually understand the KE30, however, because this is a camera designed for a specific purpose. Specifically, this is a camera for kids. The design, with pleasant curves and a funky oval for the flash, looks welcoming rather than intimidating. Strategically placed squishy plastic makes it comfortable to use. Buttons to turn the flash on and off give the illusion of control, though their use is enough of a pain that you’re also more likely to just let the camera do its thing. Refusing to let you fire the flash without film is to prevent disappointment from kids rather than assert control. The entire EasyLoad system feels like a way to prevent kids from wasting film, which is as much marketing to parents as it is to children. It doesn’t make loading easier but it DOES happen to make it more difficult to accidentally ruin a roll by opening up the back. That it’s not actually written like that makes me wonder if salesmen were instructed to pull parents aside and explain the actual purpose of that particular innovation. It has a cheap-but-durable construction, it doesn’t feel particularly precious and it’s going to take a few bumps, but a kids’ camera is supposed to be able to take a few knocks.

It does happen to be designed to ensure that kids keep buying Kodak film, even after they have grown up and out of the KE30, almost as though it’s designed to convince them of the merits of Kodak film itself. They will eventually grow out of using the KE30 as their main camera, but they might just keep loading up their next cameras with Kodak film. And that’s what Kodak wanted, the entire design philosophy of the camera was to give people a reason to buy Kodak and only Kodak.

It is fixed focus, you need to be at least four feet away from whatever you happen to be photographing. It’s a 29mm Ektanar lens at f/5.6. The kid-focused design may explain why said lens on my KE30 was covered in a residue of sticky crap which often happens when children are involved. It’s very biased towards firing the flash, which feels like a safety measure - “I’ll fire the flash, just in case” the camera says, like a worried mother - but you can override that. The buttons on the front aren’t exactly as handy as having a switch for this same purpose, but it works and prevents accidentally leaving the flash off. The design is very much biased towards ensuring you don’t do anything accidentally, which is precisely why I forgot to turn it off and accidentally got a shot of the inside of my camera bag. You can’t beat me, KE30!

Shooting a roll was as fun as you can expect from a fairly basic point and shoot. And then I got to the end of the roll, and the camera did not forget that I loaded it with film that was not made by Kodak, and it did not forgive. Rewinding went fine, until the end of the roll, when it decided that no, it would not relinquish my roll, I had to learn a lesson for not abiding by the rules. There is a lock on the film door to ensure you don’t release it by accident. It would not unlock. It stayed firmly locked, to teach me a lesson for daring to use a non-Kodak film. It would rewind for hours, but it wasn’t going to give up my roll. It did not approve of me daring to do the unthinkable, loading it with film that was not Kodak. “Now I can’t be loaded with any film,” it said. “Are you happy?” I was not.

I was, however, the owner of a screwdriver.

I soon discovered that at some point in the middle of winding the roll it got stuck, and just fruitlessly tore a hole in the film rather than, you know, rewinding. I also managed to expose a surprising amount of film as a result. After heading to the basement to get the rest of the film out, and contemplating just how many shots I had lost to time, like tears in the rain, I contemplated the KE30. I kind of liked the idea of it, a simple point and shoot to get people interested in film. But I also discovered that it was somewhat unable to cope when things went wrong. But maybe it was my fault, maybe I should have listened to its warnings about only using Kodak film. Maybe I shouldn’t have taunted it.

Or maybe it was just a bad design.

Then I got the film back, and I was in for a surprise.

Then I remembered that I didn't notice that the lens was covered in gunk for the first several frames and cleaned it later. At which point I was in for a second, better surprise.

This camera was… good. Very good. Details were nicely rendered, the exposure was tightly controlled. It was sharp, which is kind of a crapshoot with a cheap camera like this, especially since we are talking fixed focus. I was not prepared for anything to look this good, it was - dare I say it - one of my favorite rolls I've ever shot. It compared favorably to all of my beloved SLRs and rangefinders.

Did it attempt to eat the Fomapan because it loved it too much?

I do still worry about actually using it, because at the end of the day it still failed to rewind all the way, and by design it is inherently difficult to rescue a film from it.Honestly this was the biggest surprise I've ever had when dealing with photography, at every step of the process. For all the headaches it gave me, this camera was, without question, worth every penny.

Next up: Using some oddball film with a Canonet 28. Squint really hard and you might be able to see it below.

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