every camera I own: the nickelodeon photoblaster

The Nickelodeon Photoblaster takes four pictures on one frame of 35mm film. There are a number of popular cameras that take four pictures at once on a single frame, but the Photoblaster operates more like a half-frame camera (coming soon) times two: four individual images can be taken on one frame, allowing for unusual juxtapositions or just a highly efficient use of film.

The camera went out of production in 1999, and I bought mine on eBay shortly after that. I remember using the Photoblaster to take photos of the 2000 Election protests outside the Supreme Court. Those were the days.

The plastic camera with the slimy handgrip is sturdy, but the frame advance can be erratic. From 2001:



In my recent camera inventory I dusted off the Photoblaster, which still had film in it from the last time I used it. Which turned out to be around six or seven years ago, which was when I took photos of the old Children's Museum that was the venue for Artomatic 2004.

The camera was loaded with Kodak Elite Chrome, transparency film that I remember using in the 90's and at the time had already started to shift color. I corrected the colors in the above shot in PhotoShop, but the uncorrected image is completely magenta:

The Beanie Bears are on display in the MotoPhoto where I dropped off the film. The last frame of the barren trees on Pennsylvania Avenue begins a sequence where I just turned around in circles burning film and shooting at random. Much of the lost color can be brought back in PhotoShop: