cameras for everyone
Among his many breakthroughs, George Eastman produced coated film that could be mounted on a roller. This Scientific American illustration showed how it was prepared.
Eastman decided to try to figure out a way to replace the heavy and fragile glass plates that made carring the equipment such a chore. If he succeded, the result would be a far less bulky negative, which then could be used to print as many positive images as the photographer desired.
In the early 1800s, Eastman introduced his first coated paper cut into sheets the same size as the glass plates it was replacing, but found the public response disappointing. It was clear that improvements were necessary, so Eastman went back to the laboratory.
His next invention was one of the most important in the history of the camera. Eastman created an emulsion coated paper that was flexible enough to be wound into a door. Each roll had enough paper for twenty four or more exposures. Working with camera maker William H. Walker, Eastman also designed a special rollholder that fit into almost any camera. After each exposure, the photographer would wind the paper by turning a key and be immediately ready to take another photograph, without having to remove a glass plate or even a sheet of paper and insert anotherone.
The first rolls came to market in 1885, and though they sold well, Eastman still wasn't satisfied. Eastman himself knew that the photographic process had to be made easier still, a truely pupular camera had to be completely foolproof and easy to use.
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Eastman enlisted the help of Frank Brownell, an independent camera maker who made Eastman's roll holders. The team of Eastman, Brownell, and their coworkers created a new box camera. This was one of the most compact cameras yet invented. All the user had to do was 1. Pull the cord. 2. Turn the key. 3. Press the button. With his new camera, he claimed, photography could be done ''without preliminary study, without a darkroom and without chemicals.''
Photographers didn't have to worry about ruining their pictures during processing, because they never touched the film at all. When they had finished taking their pictures, they would send the whole camera back to Eastman's factory. The film would be removed, replaced, and the pictures would be processed and mounted onto individual cards. Then it would all be mailed back to the owner. This way Eastman founded the photofinishing industry. Today it is a multibillionare dollar industry functioning in virtually every country in the world.
Eastman then came up with a catchy name for his new camera: the Kodak. He advertised it with an equally catchy phrase: '' You press the button, we do the est.''
The first Kodak hit the markt in 1888,Eastman had finally achieved the succes he was looking for. Further improvements, leading to the introduction of the first modern style transparent film, only cemented the company's success. The first Kodak cost $25.00, a substantial sum of money in 1888. During the last decade of the nineteenth century, George Eastman's main effor was to develop a less expensive camera and to reduce costs by devising a methood of daylight loading, which could be accomplished by the camera's owner, so that the entire camera didn't have to be returned to the factory to be reloaded. Around 1894 Eastman achieved this.
In 1895, Eastman introduced the Pocket Kodak. This compact camera was the first completely designed by Eastman Kodak to use spools of daylight loading film. At $5.00, it was the most affordable yet. One of the most events in history of photography was when Eastman introduced the Brownie camera, designed by Frank Brownell, retailed for $1.00 .
Photographers didn't have to worry about ruining their pictures during processing, because they never touched the film at all. When they had finished taking their pictures, they would send the whole camera back to Eastman's factory. The film would be removed, replaced, and the pictures would be processed and mounted onto individual cards. Then it would all be mailed back to the owner. This way Eastman founded the photofinishing industry. Today it is a multibillionare dollar industry functioning in virtually every country in the world.
Eastman then came up with a catchy name for his new camera: the Kodak. He advertised it with an equally catchy phrase: '' You press the button, we do the est.''
The first Kodak hit the markt in 1888,Eastman had finally achieved the succes he was looking for. Further improvements, leading to the introduction of the first modern style transparent film, only cemented the company's success. The first Kodak cost $25.00, a substantial sum of money in 1888. During the last decade of the nineteenth century, George Eastman's main effor was to develop a less expensive camera and to reduce costs by devising a methood of daylight loading, which could be accomplished by the camera's owner, so that the entire camera didn't have to be returned to the factory to be reloaded. Around 1894 Eastman achieved this.
In 1895, Eastman introduced the Pocket Kodak. This compact camera was the first completely designed by Eastman Kodak to use spools of daylight loading film. At $5.00, it was the most affordable yet. One of the most events in history of photography was when Eastman introduced the Brownie camera, designed by Frank Brownell, retailed for $1.00 .
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Perhaps the most important of all was the introduction of the Graflex, a single lens reflex camera, in 1898. Soon it became the camera of choice for many professional and serious amateur photographers. This camera allows you to see the photograph's exact subject up until the moment you take a picture. A mirror is placed between the lens and the film, which reflects the image up onto a small glass screen at the top of the camera. Then when you press the button to take the photo, the mirror swings up and out of the way. allowing the image you are photographing to fall on the film instead of the mirror, exposing the film and capturing the image.
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Another innovation was the development of the flash. Almost as soon as the cameras became widely available, inventors began seeking a way to photograph at night or indoors.The inventors were looking for a light that would briefly illuminate the subject at the same moment as the picture was taken.
As early as 1860, photographers began to use magnesium powder or a mixture of magnesium and other chemicals to create a bright and relatively brief flash. When the flash was used, flashpowder certainly cast a bright light, but it was smelly, smoky, and extremely unstable, and often exploded. Until 1930 was the first true flashbulb introduced, allowing cameras to safely record images that previously had been beyond their capabilities.
Early in the 1930s the first synchronized flash systems became available. An electric contact in the shutter closed a fraction of a second after the shutter was released. The flashbulb was ignited by a simple circuit powered by flashlight batteries. The invention of flashbulbs oppened up many new opportunities for both professional and amateur photographers.
Chemists in research laboratories were working towards producing faster and finer grain films. A faster film required less light to take a picture, and with a finer grain film it was possible to reduce the negative size and still make a sharp enlarged positive print. Improved films would have a profund effect on camera design.
In 1914, German inventor Oskar Barnarck made the prototype of a very compact camera that 35 milliliter film. His employer Ernst Leitz, was a manufacturer of high quality microscopes, but the German company was interested in pursuing Barnarck's invention. Because of the interuption caused by the first World War, Leitz was unable to make a production version of Barnack's camera until 1925. They called their new camera the Leica, a combination of the words Leitz and camera.
The Leica I was small enough to fit in a jacket pocket. Even more importantly, a single quick turn of a knob would both advance the film and prepare for the next shot making the Leica a perfect tool for professional news photographers and anyone else who wanted to take a series of photographs in a quick sequence.
As early as 1860, photographers began to use magnesium powder or a mixture of magnesium and other chemicals to create a bright and relatively brief flash. When the flash was used, flashpowder certainly cast a bright light, but it was smelly, smoky, and extremely unstable, and often exploded. Until 1930 was the first true flashbulb introduced, allowing cameras to safely record images that previously had been beyond their capabilities.
Early in the 1930s the first synchronized flash systems became available. An electric contact in the shutter closed a fraction of a second after the shutter was released. The flashbulb was ignited by a simple circuit powered by flashlight batteries. The invention of flashbulbs oppened up many new opportunities for both professional and amateur photographers.
Chemists in research laboratories were working towards producing faster and finer grain films. A faster film required less light to take a picture, and with a finer grain film it was possible to reduce the negative size and still make a sharp enlarged positive print. Improved films would have a profund effect on camera design.
In 1914, German inventor Oskar Barnarck made the prototype of a very compact camera that 35 milliliter film. His employer Ernst Leitz, was a manufacturer of high quality microscopes, but the German company was interested in pursuing Barnarck's invention. Because of the interuption caused by the first World War, Leitz was unable to make a production version of Barnack's camera until 1925. They called their new camera the Leica, a combination of the words Leitz and camera.
The Leica I was small enough to fit in a jacket pocket. Even more importantly, a single quick turn of a knob would both advance the film and prepare for the next shot making the Leica a perfect tool for professional news photographers and anyone else who wanted to take a series of photographs in a quick sequence.
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Barnarck invented the first practical still camera that could use 35 millimiter film. Manufactured by the German company Ernst Leitz, the Leica came on the market in the 1920s. It became the perfect tool for news photographers.
Although some photographers considered the Leica ''a toy,'' it eventually caught on and became extremly popular. As the use of 35 millimiter film grew, so did the demand for convenient and accurate color film. By the late nineteenth century, inventors were building cameras that were capable of dividing light into three colors, red, green, and blue to make seperate negatives. These negatives were projected onto three special pieces of film, dyed and then transferred in sequence to a piece of trated paper. The resulting color image was frequently very beautiful, but extremly difficult to make.
In the mid 1930s, with the arrival of 35 mm Kodachrome film, did true color photography become available to anyone who wanted it. These cameras used what was called an ''integral tripack'' emulsion. Which meant that the coating film contained three seperate layers, each of which was sensitive to either red, greed, or blue light, the layers also contained dyes and other chemicals that allowed a single photograph to contain all the colors of nature.
A color negative film called Kodacolor was developed by Eastmn Kodak in 1942 but didn't become available to the consumer until after the Second World War. It was designed expressly for the easy and inexpensive creastion of color prints makde by automatic printing machines. By 1960 color film had become more popular than black and white, a dominance that is unikely ever to change.
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By 1932, Edwin Land had designed a plastic sheet containing thousands of tiny crystals of a substance known as herapathite. Light passing through the crystals would be polarized, emerging glare free. His first invention confirmed Land's fascination with the properties of light. It was only a small step for him to become interested in photography, an art from that dependen so heabily on light, and try to design a better camera. The result of Land's inspiration was the Model 95 Polaroid Land camera, announced in 1947 and first marketed in 1948. This remarkable camera and all polaroid cameras, in effect place the entire darkroom and processing laboratory within the camera. While the Polaroid cameras have never completely replaced traditional cameras.