Those Days Are Gone Forever

Over a long time ago, oh yeah.

This camera came into the shop the other day. We won’t be auctioning this off, and I will show you why, in a minute.

Kodak Brownie, No. 2A, Model C

This, is the Kodak Brownie. In fact, this is the business end of the camera; all the magic went through that small hole in the front.

The Brownie, was one of the most influential cameras in the history of photography. It was a stroke of design genius for Eastman Kodak, because it was so easy to use. When Kodak first started crafting its cameras, the selling point was that anyone could shoot them, and then return the film to Kodak, and they would develop the film and print the shots. In fact, the very first Kodaks were simple boxes, pre-loaded with film, that the consumer could not service by themselves. The customer would buy the camera, shoot the film and then send the whole kit-and-kaboodle back to Kodak, not just the roll of film.

This model camera came out around 15 years after Kodak first started business, so the refinement of the process had progressed to the point where the customer would buy the film, and keep the camera, reloading new rolls of film as needed. Kodak made a fortune selling this simple camera (and the film inside).

This simple box had nothing the photographer could adjust. This was one of the first point-and-shoot camera designs to be seen. Certainly, you had a good chance to blow your shot, but the fact that you could hold this little box in your hand, and get pictures of the family (at ALL), was such an amazing thing at the time. There are even pictures of the Russian royal family, prior to WWI, shot on Kodak Brownies. Everybody loved taking pictures!

This Kodak is not going to be sold, because it is (sort of) broken. That’s not to say that you COULDN’T shoot film through it, but it would be a bit tricky. What do I mean with all of the equivocating? well, look.

What you see, is the front plate of the camera missing. It can be easily re-fit, but it would be doubtful that anyone would spend any money for this camera, if the front plate can be removed. So, I get to keep it. As an aside, there was a small spider living inside the front plate, he scurried off when I opened the camera.

You will notice a kidney-shaped hole on the disk that is attached to the lever that my finger is touching? That is the sum total of the shutter. The lens, is hidden behind the disk at the 12 O’Clock position.

This camera has many features that you might not expect to see on such a cheap camera, including, different apertures, and an ability to do long exposures.

I took these pictures today, with my phone, because I forgot to do so the day before. Here, you will see where the lens is kept, and how you could adjust the aperture.

This Brownie did not require you to cock the shutter, the shutter would slide back and forth, across the face of the lens, each time you moved the lever up or down. What I am doing here is holding the shutter midway through the run. The shutter’s fastest time was 1/50th of a second. This camera would also allow you to create long-exposure pictures buy pulling the metal strip on the right, up, catching one of the button on the disk. It was VERY crude, but hey, the camera is well over 100 years old.

In this picture, you can see the adjustable aperture mechanism. The metal strip that looks as though it has the tines of a fork has been pulled up. You can see a series of different sized holes, these are the adjustments that you could make to the amount of light that you let through the lens. Again, not the most sophisticated design, but the camera was dirt cheap, and meant to be the easiest thing to use.

Kodak did have sophisticated cameras, their design esthetic was alway looking for cheaper, faster, easier, but sometimes they came out with very sophisticated cameras. Case in point… My Kodak No. 4 Cartridge Camera.

his camera pre-dates the Brownie by about 20 years, and there is nothing cheap, fast, or easy about this camera. I am tempted to try and shoot some film through it - a 19th Century camera.

Then, there is this beast.

The Kodak Medalist II, is the most beautifully over-engineered camera that Kodak ever produced. The reason that it’s so over-the-top is, the man who thought up this beauty was an industrial/commercial designer who didn’t know the first thing about Kodak design esthetics, or optics. He asked the Kodak engineers to build it, and they did.

We are taking a look through almost 60 years of camera design from one American camera maker. The majority of Kodak cameras were not sophisticated, but that didn’t mean that their designs were not sophisticated, it takes a lot of thought to make something next to fool-proof.