C41
Kodak Portra 400
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
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The Robot Royal 36 (introduced 1953) is a German precision 35mm camera built by Otto Berning & Co. of Düsseldorf and marketed under the Robot brand. Unlike conventional manually-advanced cameras, the Robot Royal employs a clockwork spring-motor drive — wound by a single pull of the film advance knob — that automatically advances the film and cocks the shutter between exposures, enabling rapid sequential shooting at up to one frame per second with the appropriate lens setting.
Reference
Recommended film stocks for the 35mm format your camera takes.
C41
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
View profile →C41
Kodak Gold 200 is a daylight-balanced C-41 color negative film with warm color, moderate grain, and a classic consumer-film look.
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Kodak UltraMax 400 is a versatile consumer-grade ISO 400 daylight-balanced color negative film with T-grain emulsion, delivering warm Kodak colors, fine-for-speed grain (PGI 46), and wide exposure latitude. Currently in production and available globally as a single-roll and multi-pack.
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Before you buy used
About this camera
The Robot Royal 36 — built by Otto Berning & Co. in Düsseldorf — brought spring-motor rapid-sequence 35mm photography into the hands of journalists, scientists, and surveillance operators, shooting 24×24mm or 24×36mm frames at near-automatic speed without batteries.
| Field | Value |
|---|
| Format | 35mm; 24×36mm (Royal 36) or 24×24mm (Royal 24) |
| Mount | Robot bayonet (interchangeable) |
| Years | 1953–1971 |
| Standard lens | Schneider Xenar 38mm f/2.8 or 40mm f/1.9; Zeiss Tessar 38mm f/2.8 |
| Shutter | Focal-plane: 1/2s – 1/500s + B |
| Flash sync | 1/50s |
| Film advance | Spring-motor clockwork, ~24 exp per wind |
| Meter | None |
| Viewfinder | Optical (reversed Galilean) |
| Battery | None (spring motor) |
The Robot camera concept was developed by Heinz Kilfitt and Otto Berning in Germany during the 1930s, with the first Robot camera appearing in 1934. The spring-motor drive was the defining innovation: a pre-wound clockwork mechanism advanced film and re-cocked the shutter automatically after each exposure, enabling sustained rapid-fire shooting without the need for the photographer to manually wind between frames.
The Robot II (1938) became widely used by German press photographers, the Luftwaffe (for aerial reconnaissance adaptations), and by scientists for time-series documentation. After the war, production resumed at Berning's Düsseldorf factory and the cameras were updated into the Royal series (1953), which added 24×36mm full-frame capability alongside the original square format.
The Robot Royal was exported widely — appearing in North America through importers and used by photojournalists, surveillance agencies, and scientific institutions. Later variants included the Robot Star (which added a coupled rangefinder) and continued production through the early 1970s. The brand declined as motorized SLRs replaced the niche, and production eventually ceased.
The Robot Royal is historically significant as one of the earliest production cameras with an integrated film-motor drive — a concept now universal on professional cameras. The spring-motor mechanism is elegant and entirely mechanical, requiring no batteries whatsoever: the camera is a self-contained clockwork instrument. For collectors, the Robot system represents a fascinating engineering approach, and the bayonet-mount lens ecosystem provides genuine versatility. The Schneider Xenar and Zeiss Tessar lenses fitted to Royals are capable performers; images from these cameras have a crisp, mid-century German character.
The Robot bayonet mount accepts a full range of Berning-made and third-party lenses:
Accessories: Robot-brand cassette inserts (for 24×24 vs 24×36 shooting), interchangeable viewfinder frames, flash adapter, and ever-ready case. The spring motor accepts a cable-release socket.
C41
Kodak ColorPlus 200 is an affordable, consumer-oriented daylight-balanced color negative film at ISO 200. Known for warm, slightly muted color rendition, fine grain, and wide exposure latitude, it is currently in production and widely available in Asia and select global markets.
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Kodak Tri-X 400 is a classic black-and-white film known for strong tonality, visible grain, and documentary character.
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