Box Cameras

Box Cameras

Box Cameras are simply as the name says they are. A camera built into a box. The first box camera was the Kodak, invented in 1888 by the Eastman Dry Plate Company, which would soon take its flagship product’s name. It was marketed under the slogan “You press the button, we do the rest.” This reflected its ease of use. It was not terribly more complicated than the previous generation of cameras, the pinhole camera. It had no system for focusing, no flash and no ability to control the aperture or shutter speed. The only true advantages it had was that of a simple, curved lens and a kind of photographic film that developed much more quickly and could be stored in a roll of film, but that was more than enough. With previous types of cameras, pictures had exposure times of any time between thirty seconds to several hour or even days, depending on the local light source.

The box cameras, on the other hand, could take photographs instantly, with no setup, thus introducing the concept of the snapshot. In addition pinhole cameras could only hold one piece of film that would have to be changed after each use, while box cameras could carry multiple exposures on a roll of film. The box camera concept has changed little even as optical technology changed, and the basic pattern is still in use as the modern, cardboard-covered disposable camera.

Brownie Box Camera

The Brownie Camera, introduced in 1900, was the first truly successful box camera. Priced at only one dollar, worth roughly the same as 25 dollars today, it was designed by Kodak subcontractor Frank Brownell, from where it gets its name, as a camera that anybody could afford and use with little training. The Brownie line of cameras was active for over seventy years, and the Brownie 127 model, one of the most popular cameras ever, sold millions between 1952 and 1967.

Ansco Box Camera

The Ansco line of box cameras, known as the Panda series, was created in the 1950s to compete with the popular Kodak Brownie series, which they very closely resembled. It was made of cheap Bakelite plastic, as opposed to the Brownie’s wood construction, designed to be a children’s product, hence the name, and held only twelve exposures. Although not as popular as the brownie, there is much interest today in collecting these cameras, and even in using these rare items for photography.