Kodak camera, revolutionary roll-film Co. in June 1888. A simpler version of a design patented in 1886, it held a 100-shot roll of Eastman's already successful paper-backed American Film, wound on by a key. The f/9 fixed-aperture lens was incorporated into an ingenious cyclindrical shutter cocked by a string and activated by a button. The short focal length of the lens (57 mm; 2 1/4 in) and small diameter (64 mm; 2 1/2 in) of the image meant that objects from a distance of 1 m (3 1/2 ft) would be sharp. The camera was small and portable, being 165 mm (6 1/2 in) long, 95 mm (3 3/4 in) high, and 83 mm (3 1/4 in) wide. ‘Kodak’ was a made-up name chosen by George Eastman as being distinctive and pronounceable in any language.
As remarkable as the camera itself (which was not the first to be designed solely for rollable film) was the marketing and back-up concept that went with it. Eastman planned to separate picture taking from processing, ‘the work that any person whomsoever can do in making a photograph, from the work that only an expert can do’. After exposure of the film, the camera could be returned to the factory and then sent back, reloaded, with a set of prints. As the immortal slogan put it, ‘You press the button, we do the rest.’ The original Kodak was an immediate success, and c.5, 000 were sold. It was then replaced by a new version (later named the Number 1 Kodak) with a simpler, cheaper shutter. The substitution, at the end of 1889, of celluloid for paper-backed film also simplified processing, and the many subsequent Kodak cameras were designed for it.
The cost of the Kodak itself (5 guineas; $25) and each processing cycle (2 guineas; $10) made it essentially a middle-class gadget. But its portability and ease of use made it the perfect adjunct to the bicycling, hiking, and seaside holidays that were coming within reach of ever-larger numbers of people by the end of the 19th century.
— Robin Lenman
Bibliography
- Coe, B., Cameras: From Daguerreotypes to Instant Pictures (1978)
