box camera

A classic box camera.

The box camera is, with the exception of the pin hole camera, a camera in its simplest form. The classic box camera is shaped more or less like a box, hence the name. A box camera has a simple optical system, often only in the form of a simple meniscus lens. It usually lacks a focusing system (fixed-focus) as well as control of aperture and shutter speeds. This makes it suitable for daylight photography only. In the 1950s, box cameras with photographic flash were introduced, allowing indoor photos.

Creators/Inventor

The idea of the box camera was created by the French inventor Nicéphore Niépce. He was known for his photographic experiments. With the help of Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre they were able to create the camera to expand the popularity of photgraphy. Soon After Niépce's and Daguerre's new advancements to the box camera many more photographers decided to do their own "photographic experiments" and created their on cameras based on the original box camera. Niépce's created one of the first box cameras during the 1820s.^[1]

Beginnings

Over the decades between the 1720s and 1820s many experiments have been made with the use of silver clohirde,which is sensitive to light, and being able to capture that light image as a photo. It was easier to figure out how to caputure the image, using the new box camera invention, than it was to figure out how to have the image last without it fading away instantly. Nicéphore Niépce took his first fixed photograph using the box camera in 1826 and the image lasted all day. It was not until he received the help of Jacques Mandé Daguerre that the method became practical. The breakthrough was with le Daguerrotype, which was introduced in 1939 and so photography was born.^[2]

Purpose

The box camera was initally created to start popularity for photography. Photography was still a very new idea in the mid 1800s and a product needed to be created to persuade the public of the potential for this new art. The box camera became the first consumer camera at the end of the 19th century. In 1900, when a Yale plate box camera cost $2 and a Kodak rollfilm box only $1 the industry sought new customers for its huge production of these simpler cameras.^[3] Today those prices would be $52.90 for the Yale Plate and $26.54 for the Kodak rollfilm according to http://www.measuringworth.com/ppowerus/.

Typical box cameras

• The Kodak introduced in 1888, the first commercially successful box camera for roll film -- the advertising slogan being You press the button – we do the rest.
• The Kodak Brownie, a long lasting series of classical box cameras using roll film.
• The Ansco panda was designed to compete directly with the Brownies. It used 620 film.
• The Kodak Instamatic using 126 film, later 110 film.
• The modern disposable camera using 135 film.

In the UK:

• Ensign cameras, by Houghton Butcher (examples)

Other box cameras

'Le Phoebus 1870

Etienne Carjat (1828–1906) another French photographer created "le Phobus'" around the late 1870s. It was a simple mahogany box camera. It needed no formal shutter. The leather lenscap was removed and replaced for the exposure of light.^[4]

Pocket Kodak 1895–1896

Pocket Kodaks were small (2 and 3/16 x 3 x 4 inches) and lightweight (6 ounces), and took roughly 2 inch exposures on 102 size rollfilm. This camera had a new feature, a small view box that told how many exposures of film were left. They were first available in 1895 with either black or red leather covering.^[5]

le Papillon 1905–1908

Meaning "the butterfly," le Papillon was a small French stereo camera which made 45mm x 107mm stereoscopic images on glass plates in single plateholders.^[6]

No. 00 Cartridge Premo Camera, 1916–1922

The No. 00 Cartridge Premo was Kodak's smallest box camera ever. It was only 2½ inches tall. It uses a simple rotary shutter with meniscus lens, and does not have a viewfinder. The photographer must use the leatherette covering to attempt to see the subject of the photograph.^[7]

References

1. ^ "Box Camera". http://www.camerapedia.org/wiki/Box_camera. 
2. ^ Camera Lenses: From Box Camera to Digital By: Gregory Hallock Smith
3. ^ "Boxes for Beginners". http://www.camerapedia.org/wiki/Box_camera. 
4. ^ "Le Phoebus". http://www.boxcameras.com/phoebus.html. 
5. ^ "Pocket Kodak". http://www.boxcameras.com/pocketkod.html. 
6. ^ "le Papillon". http://www.boxcameras.com/lepapillon.html. 
7. ^ "Cartridge Premo". http://www.boxcameras.com/00cartpremo.html. 

See also

• A toy camera is a simple, inexpensive box camera that uses film. The body, and sometimes the lens, is made of plastic

External links

• A photo essay made with an Ansco box camera