First, the initial period (1888 ~ 1894)
Kodak cameras in this period were in the trial period of small-scale popularization design, which was characterized by the lack of standardized film numbers.
(1) "The Kodak", the earliest camera dedicated to film in the world
When Kodak film was mentioned, almost everyone knew it. However, "Kodak" was the first camera made by Hysmans Dry Plate &: The name of the camera made by Film Co) is the first camera made by the company and the originator of Kodak camera.
One hundred and ten years ago, in Rochester, New York, there was a young man named GeorgeEastman (1854 ~ 1932) who took photos by wet printing. He was not perfect at that time, and was first taken care of by the British doctor and photographer R-L- maddox (1816 ~ 192). In 1884, Hysmans Company produced a Eastman-Walker film box for a large landline, which contained a roll of gelatin emulsion film. After shooting and developing, it was coated with oil on the paper base, and the paper base became transparent before it could be used for printing photos. In 1885, Hysmans Company developed and produced paper-based peeling film. In the process of film development, gelatin emulsion was transferred from paper base to transparent materials such as glass to print photos. Although this kind of early Hysmans film printing is much easier than wet printing, it is still quite troublesome compared with later film printing. However, if photosensitive gelatin emulsion can be coated on a very thin and curly transparent material, high-quality photos can be obtained through a very simple process. This idea was first put forward by hannibal Goodwin (1822 ~ 19), an American priest. At that time, this transparent material was called "Parkesine" and it was a nitrocellulose. In 1888, the entrepreneur J-W- Hai Ete produced a transparent nitrocellulose plastic sheet with a thickness of only .254mm, and Hai Ete named it "Celluloid", which was a coinage. In the same year, Hysmans Company began to use celluloid as film base and trial-produced a new type of celluloid transparent film base, making it the first company in the world to produce celluloid film commercially. Later, this film base was replaced by new transparent sheets such as acetate fiber and polyester fiber only after 195s.
In order to popularize the new film as soon as possible, Hysmans Company developed and produced the first square box camera using only film in 1888, and George Hysmans also made great efforts to create the short English "TheKodak" as the name of the camera. Since then, "Kodak" has been regarded as the trademark of most products of the company, and Hysmans Company has been renamed as EastmanKodak Co.
"The Kodak" camera shutter is cylindrical, with only one shutter time of about 1/25th second. 57.2mmF9 lens, fixed focus design, using hyperfocal distance principle, can make a scene 6 feet (about 1.8 meters) or a little farther clear. Built-in film with a diameter of 2.5 inches (63.5mm) can take 1 photos with a circular field. Due to the low sensitivity of the film at that time, the exposure combination design on this camera was only suitable for shooting in the sun. The initial "TheKodak" cost $25, and it was widely welcomed by photographers all over the world because of its simple operation.
because the film at that time was not attached with black paper (12 film) or packed in a cassette (135 film) like the film used today, the user could not change it himself. Therefore, after the film was shot with "TheKodak", it must be sent back to the Hysmans factory together with the camera, and it will cost 1 dollars for the factory to develop, print and frame the photos for the user, and then the camera will be loaded into a new film and sent to the user together with the photos. At that time, Hysmans-Kodak Company called this service "You press the shutter and I will do the rest", which attracted a large number of photographers and promoted the sales of Kodak film. This idea of driving film sales with camera production began at this time.
It is worth mentioning that in 1998, Kodak Company specially launched an exhibition replica of "TheKodak" to commemorate the centenary of its appearance (Figure 1 and real photos, in which the character is George Hysmans) to commemorate Kodak's centenary glory in camera manufacturing and silver salt film production.
(2) Kodak No.3 rectangular film camera
After TheKodak, Kodak introduced Kodak No.2 in 1889. The Kodak No.3 camera introduced in the same year designed its film to be a rectangle of 15×8mm, and the reflective viewfinder on the fuselage was changed to a rectangular frame matching the film, and it was equipped with two horizontal and vertical frames. Kodak No.3 camera laid the basic design pattern of Kodak square box camera, and subsequent models have followed this basic design since then.
(3) "Kodak A, B, C" cameras capable of changing film in sunlight
In p>1891, Kodak released the box camera "Kodak A, B, C" capable of changing film in sunlight, and marked the words "Daylight" on the camera. Kodak A, B and C cameras can be divided into ordinary type and daylight type. The ordinary type needs to be reloaded in the darkroom, and the daylight type can be operated in the bright room. The dimensions of each type are as follows: A type is 2.75×3.25 inches, B type is 3.5×4 inches, and C type is 4×5 inches.
Second, the development period (1895 ~ 193)
This period is the period when Kodak box cameras developed greatly and led to unprecedented market returns in film sales, forming Kodak Brownie series; At the same time, in order to further reduce the size of the camera, a folding camera using film was introduced to form the "FoldingPocketKodaks" series. At the same time, Kodak also adopted several new technologies for camera design, such as "electrostatic writing back". Moreover, during this period, Kodak cooperated with camera production and introduced 3 kinds of films with different specifications from No.11 to No.13, including 12 films still in use today.
(1) "Kodak Bull'sEye)No.2" camera with liner film and red window counting device
The square box camera with Kodak film has been widely welcomed by the market, which has caused other camera manufacturers to follow suit and compete to introduce similar square box cameras to the market, among which the most ingenious one is the bull's eye square box camera designed by American Turner. This new Turner camera rolls the film with black backing paper with numbers. The camera is designed with a red window similar to the size of a bull's eye, from which you can see the numbers on the backing paper of the film and know the number of films that have been shot. Due to the protective effect of "black paper", it is very convenient to take the film in the daytime light. Kodak company is very optimistic about Turner's new design. In 1895, it bought his patent together with its company, and launched this Kodak Bull's Eye No.2 camera in the name of Kodak company, as shown in Figure 2.
(2) Kodak's first folding camera using film-No.4 Cartridge
This folding camera uses 14 film and takes 12.7×95.8mm photos. There are two viewfinders on the left and right of the fuselage, which is very convenient for horizontal and vertical shooting. This machine came out in 1897, and adopted the shutter time design of B, T, 1/1 ~ 1/25 seconds, three sets of Kodak Orthophoto lenses with three-piece structure, or some of them also used RapidRectilinear lenses. From the point of view of processing technology, great progress has been made, as shown in Figure 5.
based on No.4Cartridge, Kodak introduced "Folding PocketKodak" in 1898, which is the first model in this series. Kodak cooperated with this machine to launch 15 film, which can take 57.2×82.6mm photos, as shown in Figure 6.
(3) Kodak panorama camera (Kodak PanoramNo.4)
Kodak panorama camera * * * is divided into six types, and No.4 machine * * * is divided into four models: A, B, C and D. Most of the lenses are crescent-shaped and fast-moving lenses with 12mmf/1, and No.13 film is used. Unit 4 is the earliest panorama camera of Kodak Company and one of the representative models in early panorama camera. Its lens can be rotated 142o to the right, and the top of the machine is raised as a viewfinder. When not in use, the lens is protected by an openable lens cover. The appearance of the whole machine is square box, and 4 photos of 88×34mm can be taken with film. The first model was introduced in 1899, as shown in Figure 11. Figure 12 is an improved model introduced in 193. Its * * * same feature is that the mechanical energy storage spring drives the lens to rotate, with two shutter times of 1/25th second and 1/1th second. The lens is composed of two lenses with constant F8 aperture. In addition, No.1 and No.3a (see Figure 13) use 15 film and 122 film respectively, with film widths of 57.2×178mm and 82.5×254mm, and 6 and 5 films can be taken respectively.
(4) Kodak Brownie children's camera
The initial success of popularizing box cameras made Kodak decide to expand the market to a greater level of popularization of children's cameras and create a camera that can attract both children and adults. FrankBrownel, chief camera designer of Kodak Company, designed a Brownie and put it on the market in 19. This camera adopts the name of the fairy tale character "Brownie" in an illustration book made by PalmerCox, which was very popular in the United States and other places at that time. The camera packaging box and advertising posters also show Brownie taking pictures with the "Brownie" camera in his hand, attracting children to buy it. This machine uses a simple shutter of 1/25th second, a single crescent-shaped 15mmf/11 lens, and uses 117 film to take 6 photos with 57.2×57.2mm, and the price is only $1, while the equipped celluloid film is only 15 cents per roll. Because of its simple use and low price, and the promotion of Kodak's advertising slogan "Even children can use it", about 25 thousand aircraft were sold that year, which was a great success, as shown in Figure 14.
in p>191, No.2Brownie with 12 film came out, and in 195, No.3 FoldingBrownie came out, using 124 film to shoot 82.6×18mm film. In the same year, the No.2StereoBrownie camera, which uses 125 film to shoot 82.6×63.5mm, was published. In 193, Brownie Beau with two specifications and the same name in a blue and brown shell appeared, and the lens was improved into a two-piece structure, with high-quality lens and beautiful appearance, and low price, which sold well for a while. It is particularly worth mentioning that Brownie's cameras of various specifications have been produced and sold for more than 6 years, and they were not discontinued until 1965.
(5) Kodak Guerra Flex news SLR camera
As early as 1676, a century and a half before photography was invented, the SLR structure had been used in the camera-box of framing painting. It was not until around 188 that people put forward various schemes for cameras. But the most famous and successful design was Follmer Schwin (Folmer &; Graflex SLR camera produced by SchwingMFG.). In 195, this company was acquired by Kodak Company, and from 195 to 1923, Kodak Gra Flex news camera was launched in the name of Kodak Company. This camera has a variety of sizes: 3.25×4.25, 4×5, 5×7-inch loose-leaf films, and can also be shot with special film boxes. Shutter time is T, B, 1/1 ~ 1/1 seconds * * *, and the foldable waist flat viewfinder with folding structure is very eye-catching, commonly known as "big chimney". However, because the left and right views of the early SLR cameras are opposite, compared with other models, the advantages of taking newsreels are not obvious, but it is a very good choice for portrait photography, such as the familiar portrait of Qi Baishi, which was taken by the late famous photographer Zheng Jingkang, as shown in Figure 16. In the late 194s, a SpeedGraphic head-up news camera was also produced. Because of its solid components and excellent imaging, it was bulky, and it was favored by professional photographers before the advent of Technita in Lin Hafu.
(6) Kodak folding camera with electrostatic writing back No.1 AutographKodak
In 1914, Kodak bought a patent of electrostatic automatic recording technology invented by Gaisman and applied it to its camera design. This design is to open a rectangular window on the back of the camera, and the shooting data can be recorded on the film with the electrostatic pen attached to the camera. This should be said to be the earliest form of camera data back now. Kodak adopted this technology for the first time on No.1AutographicKodak (Kodak No.1 electrostatic automatic recording) camera. This camera adopts Kodak's 3-piece positive lens with a focal length of 18mm and a maximum relative aperture of 1: 7.7. It adopts 9 variable copper rainbow apertures with a minimum aperture of F32；. Kodak BallBearing blade shutter is adopted, which has a six-speed shutter time of T, B, 1/1 ~ 1/1 seconds, and has horizontal and vertical tripod screws, and its performance has been relatively perfect. There are 1A, 1A new camera, No.3, 3A, 3A special camera and 1A special camera of the same type, and the films used are A112, A116 and A118.
(7) Kodak Pocket Folding Camera with Electrostatic Automatic Writing Back
In p>1914, Kodak Company introduced the Vest PocketKodak (Pocket Kodak) folding camera with further miniaturization design, which was also the first camera to shoot 41.3×63.5mm film with 127 film. On this basis, it added the back design of electrostatic automatic recording device, and in 1915, VestAutographicKodak introduced. This camera still uses the BallBearing blade shutter developed and applied by Kodak in 199. Because it still uses 127 film which further miniaturizes the camera, it is compact and can be put into a pocket, and it is very popular for a while. After its launch, it is only two or three years.