The Fotron was a

camera A camera is an optical instrument that can capture an image. Most cameras can capture 2D images, with some more advanced models being able to capture 3D images. At a basic level, most cameras consist of sealed boxes (the camera body), with a ...

produced by the Traid Corporation of Glendale,

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

between 1962 and 1971 and mainly sold

door to door Door-to-door is a canvassing technique that is generally used for sales, marketing, advertising, evangelism or campaigning, in which the person or persons walk from the door of one house to the door of another, trying to sell or advertise a ...

. It had a highly unorthodox design and boasted several firsts for a consumer camera, including a built-in

electronic flash A flash is a device used in photography that produces a brief burst of light (typically lasting 1/1000 to 1/200 of a second) at a color temperature of about 5500 K to help illuminate a scene. A major purpose of a flash is to illuminate a ...

, built-in

motor drive Motor drive means a system that includes a motor. An adjustable speed motor drive means a system that includes a motor that has multiple operating speeds. A variable speed motor drive is a system that includes a motor and is continuously variabl ...

, and drop-in film loading (beating Kodak's popular

Instamatic : ''For the film formats associated with the ''Instamatic'' and ''Pocket Instamatic'' camera ranges, see 126 film and 110 film respectively.'' The Instamatic is a series of inexpensive, easy-to-load 126 and 110 cameras made by Kodak beginning ...

to the market). Other unusual features included push-button exposure and

focus Focus, or its plural form foci may refer to: Arts * Focus or Focus Festival, former name of the Adelaide Fringe arts festival in South Australia Film *''Focus'', a 1962 TV film starring James Whitmore * ''Focus'' (2001 film), a 2001 film based ...

controls and an integrated rechargeable battery. The camera used standard

828 __NOTOC__ Year 828 ( DCCCXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Siege of Syracuse: The Muslims under Asad ibn al-Furat defeat ...

rollfilm Roll film or rollfilm is any type of spool-wound photographic film protected from Electromagnetic spectrum#Visible_radiation_.28light.29, white light exposure by a paper backing. The term originated in contrast to sheet film. Confusingly, roll film ...

packaged in a proprietary snap-in cartridge which had to be returned to the company for processing. It was aimed mainly at women, marketed as a "goof-proof" alternative to traditional cameras. Although innovative, the Fotron was also extremely expensive, unwieldy, and reportedly suffered from poor optical quality. Introduced at a list price of $139.95, by 1971 the camera was selling for $520 (), plus $3.98 per 10-exposure roll for film and processing (). Despite this, Traid claimed the cameras were sold at a loss and only the film processing operation was able to turn a profit. Due to the high price,

vendor lock-in In economics, vendor lock-in, also known as proprietary lock-in or customer lock-in, makes a customer dependent on a vendor for products, unable to use another vendor without substantial switching costs. The use of open standards and alternat ...

of film and processing, and aggressive

direct selling Direct selling consists of single-level marketing (in which a direct seller makes money by buying products from a parent organization and selling them directly to customers) and multi-level marketing (in which the direct seller may earn money ...

techniques used to market the camera, it is often regarded as something of a

scam A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibility, and greed. Researchers hav ...

. Traid faced multiple

class-action lawsuit A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class actio ...

s brought by Fotron customers and stopped selling the camera in 1971.

Design

The Fotron was a large and heavy camera, similar in size to a folded Polaroid

Land Camera The Land Camera is a model of self-developing film camera manufactured by Polaroid between 1948 and 1983. It is named after their inventor, the American scientist Edwin Land, who developed a process for self-developing photography between 194 ...

of the same era. Much of the bulk came from the built-in flash unit and rechargeable battery. Exposure was set by pushing one of two buttons, marked "indoors" and "outdoors" respectively. This also served to turn on the flash circuitry in preparation for taking a picture. The exposure would then be made by choosing from a second set of buttons, labeled with various camera-to-subject distances. This would set the focus accordingly and then trip the shutter and the flash, which fired with every exposure. The film would then be automatically advanced to the next frame.

Models

Traid produced three Fotron models, all of which were essentially the same. The original model was simply marked "Fotron" and had a gray plastic housing. The second model, introduced around 1965, had a black housing and a different style of frame counter. The final model was the Fotron III, which was introduced around 1966. It was also black and had a slightly simplified design with two focus buttons instead of three and a different exterior treatment for the flash unit.

Fraud allegations

The Fotron was the subject of a

class-action suit A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class actio ...

filed against the Traid Corporation in 1972. The plaintiffs alleged that the Fotron cameras they had purchased were sold for over ten times their actual value and that Traid had misrepresented the product both implicitly and in writing.Metowski v. Traid Corp. The outcome of this case is uncertain.

Notes

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External links

George Eastman House
Cameras 828 film cameras Companies based in Glendale, California