Instamatic was a film cassette sytem, 28mmsq format on perfed-one-edge 35mm film. You would ask for 126 film(as opposed to 120,135,127,620,etc). Kind of a quick-load. I'm trying to remember the name of the instant system Kodak had, Ektamatic, maybe? Anyway, the camera owners were left high and dry after a patent-infringement lawsuit by Polaroid, and Kodak stopped providing the film. Fuji just paid for the patents, and has continued making peelapart pack films. Their Instax is their own process, much better than the 600 and sx70 Polaroid stuff they resemble. The little ones(business card size) are popular at weddings,etc. The larger Instax is quite good. It's much cheaper than the 600/sx70 film was 20-30 years ago. The Impossible Project is an outfit making films to fit many old Polaroids(they even made a batch for the old, old roll film versions). New55 is an outfit making 4x5 instant film that gives you a usable negative as well as a print. They have actually improved the quality over the stuff Polaroid used to make. 8x10 and 20x24 Polaroid are still available.
Some traditional materials are cheaper than 30-40 years ago, like colour paper(the price is the same or lower, and the money, well, you know). B&W paper is about the same as 20-30 years ago(the price 30-70% higher,but..). The real cost and trouble today is the availability and cost of chemistry.
The colour paper is made in nearly the same quantity as 20 years ago, as when you send your files to be printed they are printed by laser onto it. This assures that your kids will find a print in your drawer when you are gone, as 'archival' for an inkjet or 'laser' print not the same standard as for more traditional media. The wonderful thing about not using traditional materials when taking snapshots is that we no longer waste vast resources making those original images. We just use electrons, and snap away. You only have to print something when you want/need to. And we can make our own short-to-moderate life prints at the touch of a button(which can even be a virtual button, which saves on buttons). When you want a large or durable(or better, if we buy our printers for other qualities than colour gamut) print we can choose between electromechanical and electro/photo/chemical processes.
Kodak has in the last year made its first batch of Ektachrome in about 15 years.
And the oldest photochemical company in the world, Adox, is still developing new products. For over a century, Adox came up with stuff and licensed/sold the patents and processes to folks like Agfa, Kodak,etc. They have reeled in their rights, and are now producing their own products for the most part. After a long journey, even the name of Rodinal, the oldest developer still produced(the 'new' recipe dates from about ww1). How's that for a stab from the past? I have a funny story about Rodinal- Rodinal was for years sold in glass bottles, with a rubber plug under the cap. It is diluted for use from 1:50 to 1:300, so to keep air out, one would extract it through the plug with a hypodermic needle. Well, Bill Pierce, a Chicago press photographer,went into a pharmacy in the '60s and explains why he needs a new syringe. The tiny old man behind the counter looks over his glasses, looks him up and down(long hair,old army fatigues,etc), and says,"sure you do, hippie boy".
I'll talk about how photochemical and electronic processes are complementary, not oppositional another time.
I am still teaching darkroom techniques when time allows. If anyone on this forum finds an old camera with film in it, leave it as it is and contact me. I can help you make test shots with any empty frames, then you have a chance of saving a forgotten picture. I bought a camera a few years ago off craigslist, it was the fellow's father's, and it contained a roll with pictures of his father and family- his father died when he was eleven. Happy serendipity.
Oh by the way, that smell? Ammonium thiousulfate, the fixer used.