by Stephen C. Murphy, July 1999
"The PhotoBlaster is a reasonably rugged plastic children's camera that
takes four pictures per normal 35mm frame; so you get 96 exposures on a normal
24 exposure roll of 35mm film. I first heard about it online but when I called
local toy stores none of them had heard of it and none knew how to order it.
After doing several searches online, I finally found it and I bought one.
The PhotoBlaster meets all of Philip's criteria for a "Kid Camera":
Hard to break--Except for a couple of caveats listed below, the PhotoBlaster
is ruggedly build and seems to be able to take a fair amount of abuse from young
hands.
Cheap to replace--It's about $40 (or less--Ed.)
Simple to use--We bought the camera for my 4-year-old, but were amazed
when, after watching his brother take several pictures, our 20-month-old picked
the camera up and snapped a picture! He can even snap open the lens cover and
wind the camera without any help too! This camera is easy to use.
Low per-exposure cost--This is where this camera excels and the other
cameras Philip mentions fail for very young children. Excluding the cost of
the camera, I figure my per-exposure cost is about $.08 an exposure! We have
never tried a 36-exposure roll (for a whopping 144 exposures) because it takes
long enough to take 96 exposures that we have actually gotten impatient and
processed an incomplete roll! A single roll is good for weeks of enjoyment.
The camera is also smart enough to only use the flash when needed and to turn
itself off after 60 seconds of inactivity, so it doesn't go through batteries
quickly either. It takes two Alkaline AA cells.
The PhotoBlaster takes four pictures per normal 35mm frame by incorporating
two lenses, one above the other, on the front of the camera. Each lens in turn
takes a half-height picture filling 1/4 of a 35mm frame, one on the top half
and the other on the bottom. The film then advances 1/2 a frame and two more
pictures are taken. (The resulting film can then be processed normally, but
your photo processor might get a little confused the first time they see the
negatives, so you might want to warn them ahead of time to avoid delays). Opening
the back of the camera is a two handed affair requiring that two buttons be
slid simultaneously, so Jr won't accidentally open the back and overexpose his
roll of film. You probably won't want to enlarge these pictures to 11 X 14,
but they do a fair job of recording the moment.
The camera is not perfect. While the camera back is admirably immune to being
opened by little fingers, the battery compartment is easily opened by my one-year-old.
Not only that, the battery cover latch is so wimpy it opens every time the camera
is dropped (read: every 5 minutes). We secure the latch with scotch tape. The
shutter button on our PhotoBlaster sticks in the down position sometimes, but
eventually pops back up. Viewfinder Parallax causes framing errors on close-ups,
chopping off foreheads on one frame and chins on the next. Sliding a door on
the front of the camera turns it on and reveals the two lenses, but there is
no indication in the viewfinder when the door is shut (and the camera is off)
and you have to be careful to open the door all the way or the camera won't
turn on, causing considerable frustration. Finally, the rewind knob is flimsy
and easily extended by little fingers, so I expect it to seperate from the camera
soon. Even with its weaknesses, we love this camera. There is just something
great about watching my son engrossed in watching a "Star Wars" video pick up
his camera absentmindedly and click pictures of Darth Vader, the Death Star
and the Millenial Falcon knowing that the pictures only cost eight cents each.
Instead of warning him that he will run out of film we now encourage him to
explore and take as many pictures as he wants. On a recent family trip to Disneyland
the PhotoBlaster was constantly in use and the film from it was the most entertaining
that we took on the trip. Recommended."
Denny Gee, November
27, 1999
"About the
Nickelodeon Photoblaster, That is a great camera and I used it in my travels
to Tokyo and surrounding areas. The cost of photographing Tokyo (for fun) was
so cheap ! I got my photoblaster at Kmart and it was 24.99."
"The Photoblaster has two lenses which take four quarter-frame shots in the same space that a normal full-frame 35mm negative would appear. The main limitation is that there are no manual settings. The camera can use 200 or 400 ISO film. The results from this camera blew me away. I was completely surprised at the quality of the results from such an inexpensive camera. Since the camera is designed to take lots of small pictures and since the camera has so many features -- such as a buit-in flash -- I just figured, they would cut corners on the lens. The bottom picture is an enlargement of a 6x8mm section of one negative. Lots of details show up clearly -- quite a surprise!"
"Junior photographers, express your creativity. Not only does this camera feature the quirky styling you'd expect from Nickelodeon, but it takes four pictures per frame of film, quadrupling the number of shots you get per roll. Essentially, the PhotoBlaster takes a normal 4-by-6-inch print and turns it into four 2-by-3-inch prints. That means a roll of 24 exposures gives you 96 different pocket-sized pictures. Yowza! Hold the camera in your hand and you can tell it was designed with kids in mind. Press the oversized Big Red Button to take pictures and use the Green Slime handle for a steady grip. A domed film counter makes it easy to see how much film you have left. In another kid-friendly move, the camera is designed so that it's virtually impossible to expose the film by accident. The Blaster takes care of the focus and the flash (they're automatic), so shutterbugs just have to point and shoot. Also features a manual film advance knob and a carry strap. Uses any standard 35mm film. No special processing is required. Comes with 2 "AA" batteries and 12 exposures of Kodak 400-speed film."
"Go ahead: This vacation, let your son take three more photos of his perfect
sand castle. If he's shooting with a PhotoBlaster, you'll pay for only one.
This new camera from Nickelodeon uses standard film, but holds four shots on
each frame - so you pay to develop 24 exposures, while your kid gets 96 chances
to express himself. Four photos develop on each print, and can be cut into passport-size
snapshots, or kept together for a ready-made collage. Selling for $39.95 (including
film and batteries) at major toy and department stores, PhotoBlaster takes shots
of comparable quality to other cameras in its price range, reports John Sun,
director of the Good Housekeeping Institute's Engineering Department. And it's
sturdy, Sun says, with a heavy plastic frame and well-secured knobs to guard
against the junior photographer who's a little hard on his equipment. One minor
drawback: You have to rewind the film manually."
Excerpt from "Cameras plus kids = Funtography",
by Rick Sammon, The Associated Press (Published: Tuesday, September 22, 1998)
"Nickelodeon PhotoBlaster. Nickelodeon, the cable TV network, has a space-age-looking
camera with blue, orange and green colors. At the touch of a button, the 35
mm camera takes four pocket-size shots per frame. The Nickelodeon PhotoBlaster
has a built-in flash, which helps by "blasting" light when the available light
level is low. The camera comes with a roll of Kodak film and a set of Kodak
batteries."
"you have to love the nickelodeon (viacom, eww!) PhotoBlaster. it is a "quad shot" camera meaning that it will shoot four frames per "normal" frame of 35mm film. it quadruples the amount of images you get per roll of film! and it looks quite wacky, which can't hurt. (any camera that has faux-goo as part of the ergonomic grip is pretty cool) we have had ours for about three months and it has been quite fun. i usually load it up with kodak t400 (cn) black and white film and have got some really cool results. i also shot fuji 800 print film for color, and was very happy with the results (the extra speed helped). my only complaint, naturally is that the flash is very basic, so you have to keep within it's stated distance limitations. you also have to be aware of your exsposures keeping in mind that when they are printed you can get some crappy results if one frame is bright sunlight, and the other is shade. oh well. but otherwise, they are damn fun to play with. i would love to shoot a wedding with one. last i checked, freestyle camera was running low on them, so BUY ONE now!" (editor's note: as of 6/14/2000, freestyle no longer has these cameras)
"CES has cool stuff, but few celebrities" By Richard N. Velotta, LAS
VEGAS SUN velotta@lasvegassun.com, January 9, 1998
"Nickelodeon, the Farmingdale, N.Y.-based kid-friendly television network,
has unveiled a camera for children that puts four images on a single 35mm frame.
Debuting at CES Thursday was Nickelodeon's PhotoBlaster Quad Shot camera, which
will retail for $40 in most outlets. The camera breaks one negative into four
rectangular parts producing four pocket-size photos per frame. That means a
24-exposure roll of film can produce 96 pictures. The PhotoBlaster is 50 percent
thicker than most cameras, making it more durable and its plastic shell is in
typical Nickelodeon colors -- including a slime-green handle."