What's in a name?

RETO is the latest name stamped on the face of the little point&shoot film camera with a 22mm lens. However, the camera was on the market over a period of more than fifteen years with a long list of other names.  When I acquired mine close to its debut in the U.S. it bore the Vivitar brand name along with "Ultra Wide & Slim" which has persisted through most of the naming permutations.

All of the versions of the camera have seemed nearly identical except for minor cosmetic differences, and all appear to have been made in the Sunpet Industries factory in Zhongshan, China. Reviewers over the years have used terms like "toy" and even "crappy" to describe the camera, but the Ultra Wide & Slim actually embodies some very sophisticated design enabled by high-tech machinery for the production of ultra-precision plastic aspherical lenses and other camera components as illustrated in the company's website.

Sunpet Industries Limited

In the years I've had an Ultra Wide & Slim it has made more pictures for me than any of the other cameras in my collection including some high-end models with sophisticated features and advanced lens designs.  So, the little plastic camera has met and often bested some serious competition. Some of that, of course, can be attributed to my own biases and infatuation with the seductive combination of sharpness and a wide-angle perspective.  Many others, however, have experienced the same thing; the Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim group on Flickr is home to over forty-five thousand images.

My latest images with the Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim were made on some expired Kodak Gold 200.

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Sunpet's decision to revive the Ultra Wide & Slim line has clearly stimulated some interest and enthusiasm for the outwardly simple but capable camera, as well as for film photography in general.  How durable that interest will be is uncertain.  When the camera first appeared the digital revolution was not far beyond its infancy and there were still many choices in photographic films available at nearly negligible prices. Today, many varieties of films have disappeared and those remaining are priced beyond what seems reasonable to many of us who cling to the analog traditions.