The Amazing Saga of 120 Film: The Last Paper Backed Roll Film

Jason Schneider

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The Amazing Saga of 120 Film: The Last Roll Film Standing
It all began with the Kodak Brownie No.2, a humble $2.00 box camera!

By Jason Schneider

An abbreviated history of roll film

The invention of roll film in the 1880s transformed photography by making it possible to shoot successive exposures on a single roll of film, instead of the cumbersome procedure of having to insert individual glass plates or sheets of film into the back of the camera one at a time. Roll film is defined as any type of spool-wound photographic film protected from exposure to light by a paper backing, which allows the film to be loaded in daylight and moved through the camera from the film feed spool onto a take-up spool that’s turned by the camera’s film wind mechanism. The first roll film devices were essentially roll film backs, such the Eastman-Walker roll film holder of 1885, that were (mostly) affixed to the large format view cameras used by professional photographers. But by the 1890s Kodak, Ansco, and many others developed and sold a wide variety of box and folding cameras that used roll film with a paper backing imprinted with successive frame numbers that could be read through a red window on the back or bottom of the camera. This allowed the user to shoot properly spaced frames with much greater precision than by counting the number of turns of the wind key or tab, which resulted in successively wider spaces between frames. When the roll of film is fully exposed the take-up spool, which now holds the entre roll, is removed for processing and the now empty film feed spool is moved to the take-up side to receive a fresh roll.

Who invented roll film?

There are many inventions that history arbitrarily assigns, in retrospect, to particular people, and roll film is undoubtedly one of them. Example: Not to cast aspersions on the prodigious achievements of the Wright Brothers, they did not “invent” the airplane. They were simply the first to demonstrate “controlled flight” of a specific duration and distance in 1903. They clearly merit kudos for creating the first “practical airplane” even though Lilienthal, Bleriot, and Stringfellow (among many others in Europe) had previously “taken to the air” less audaciously. In the late 19th century, there were several inventors in Europe and the U.S. working on flexible roll film, but the guy who gets the credit is the one who first patented the concept in the U.S. even though he sold few, if any cameras based on his ingenious ideas.
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Diagram from the first U.S. patent for a roll film holder filed by David H. Houston in 1881. All Houston's patents were sold to Eastman by 1912.

Although George Eastman, a true marketing genius, did more to promote roll film and roll film cameras than any other individual on the planet, it was Peter Houston, a farmer in Cambria, Wisconsin, who invented the first roll film camera, and his younger brother David H. Houston who patented the first holders for flexible roll film, U.S. Patent No. 248,170 dated October, 11, 1881. He licensed it to George Eastman who used it in the Eastman-Walker roll film holder of 1885 and the landmark Kodak camera of 1888. Eventually Houston sold the patent (including an 1886 revision) to Eastman for $5,000 in 1889. If that sounds like a bad deal, bear in mind that in 1889 one could easily purchase a nice brick 3000 square foot upper-middle-class house for 5 grand and still leave plenty of cash left over. Houston continued developing has camera, creating 21 patents for cameras and camera mechanisms between 1881 and 1902. In 1912 his estate transferred the remainder of his patents to Eastman. A prescient quote from his original 1881 patent: “The object of my invention is to facilitate taking a number of photographic views successively and in a short time.”

The Goodwin Patent Kerfuffle

The Ansco Company of Binghamton, New York had established itself as the only viable U.S. competitor of Eastman Kodak with a full product line, but by the first decade of the 20th century its financial position was precarious and largely dependent on the outcome of the Goodwin Patent case. Hannibal Goodwin, an Episcopalian clergyman and inventor had filed a patent for “a photographic pellicle and process of producing same…especially in connection with roller cameras” on May 2nd 1887, but the patent wasn’t granted until 13 September 1898. Goodwin died as the result of a street accident on December 31st 1900, but Goodwin’s patent was sold to Ansco. A lawsuit ensued, Eastman lost the case, and wound up paying Ansco the then stupendous sum of $5 million on March 10th 1914. While that undoubtedly saved Ansco, it barely made a dent in Kodak’s immense profitability, which was by then largely based on selling huge quantities of roll film and millions of roll film cameras at all price levels.

The original Kodak: The world’s first point-and-shoot

The Kodak of 1888, known among collectors as “The Kodak,” was the first camera marketed by the Eastman Dry Plate & Film Co. of Rochester, New York. In the opinion of countless experts and historians, it’s the most historically important series-production camera ever made. The only cameras that rival it in historical significance are the one-off or limited-production creations of photography’s great pioneers, Niepce, Daguerre, and Fox-Talbot. What makes this humble-looking box camera so pivotal and consequential is not its ingenious construction or technical brilliance, both of which are noteworthy, but the idea it embodied— creating a camera capable of producing satisfying photographs in the hands of an ordinary person having no particular technical skill. When the Kodak was announced in 1888. photography had progressed from the Daguerreotype and wet plate days when photographers literally had to prepare their own plates, but it was still an arcane pursuit requiring considerable expertise and dedication, particularly in the darkroom. What the Kodak offered, for the then-handsome sum of $25, was an unintimidating, easy-to use, portable camera with no adjustments, that was pre-loaded with 70mm-wide roll film sufficient for 100 exposures. When you were finished shooting the roll, you shipped the camera back to Eastman in Rochester, along with $10. They developed the film, transferred each negative to a sheet of glass for contact printing (because the 2-3/4-inch-wide “stripping film” was mounted on a non-transparent paper backing) made one print from each good negative, reloaded the camera with film for 100 more exposures, and returned it to the owner. In the context of the 19th century, the Kodak was the world’s first successful point-and-shoot camera, but it does not qualify as the first one-time-use camera because you got your original camera back. More important, it was the camera that really created the modern photofinishing industry.

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The Kodak of 1888: The camera that transformed photography into a universal experience. At $25, it was pricey, but it was an instant success.

The man behind the Kodak camera was, of course George Eastman, a man of considerable mechanical ability and one of the great conceptual and marketing geniuses of all time. The actual patent for the Kodak (Patent 388,850, September 4 1888) bears his name, but it incorporates several ideas used in Eastman’s Detective Camera of 1886 that was designed by Eastman and Franklin M. Cossitt, an employee. Another significant predecessor of the Kodak that provided vital elements of its design was the Eastman-Walker roll holder of 1885, one of the first roll film backs, that may have been inspired by Leon Warnerke’s earlier roller-slide holder, which also used stripping film. The Kodak, manufactured for The Eastman Dry Plate & Film Co. by George Brownell of Rochester, New York (who may also have had a hand in its production engineering) is a wooden-bodied box camera clad in Turkey Morocco with “nickel and brass trimmings and enclosed in a neat sole leather case with shoulder strap.” Described as “about the size of a large field glass” it measures 3-1/4 x 3-1/4 x 6-1/2 inches and weighs 1lb. 10 oz. It produced circular pictures 2-1/2 inches in diameter on 2-3/4-inch-wide flexible roll film, had no frame counter (you had to count the number of turns when winding the film-advance key!) and no viewfinder—you aimed it with the aid of two sighting lines, in a V pattern, inscribed on the top. The lens, contained in a unique barrel-type shutter that revolved on an axis parallel to the film plane, was a 57mm f/9 Rapid Rectilinear. Based on the format it was a wide-angle, which gave good depth of field, but image quality in the corners of the field would have been poor, so the corner-less circular format made sense technically. The shutter, which was manually cocked with a pull cord. provided a single shutter speed of about 1/25 sec, but a felt plug, which fitted on the front of the camera, could be used for making time exposures. The shutter-release button was on the left, a tripod socket oddly placed on the top-- but with no viewfinder this hardly mattered!

Despite its spartan simplicity, ample price, and the inconvenience of having to return the camera for processing, the Kodak was a phenomenal success because it was the first camera that enabled anyone to take pictures, and it was aggressively marketed with a brilliant advertising campaign. Eastman’s astute grasp of human psychology and motivation is evident in these quotes from an 1888 Kodak ad “Anybody who can wind a watch can use the Kodak Camera…No tripod, no focusing, no adjustment whatever…A picturesque diary of your trip…may be obtained without trouble that will be worth a hundred times its cost in after years.” In 1889, it was “1. Pull the cord 2. Turn the key 3. Press the button. And so on for 100 pictures.” This was later refined into the greatest photographic advertising slogan of all time, “You press the button, we do the rest.”

Those too impatient to send their cameras to Rochester could buy darkroom-loadable 100-exposure film spools for $2 apiece, and develop and print their own film, or send the exposed film back to Rochester and have it processed and returned with a fresh roll for $10. While The Kodak was certainly clever, no feature of the camera except the barrel shutter was really unique, but the concept of a stone simple roll film camera, squarely aimed at the middle- and upper-class masses, and the forward-looking marketing techniques used to promote it ultimately brought photography within the reach of hundreds of millions of people. More than any other single camera, the Kodak helped to create the modern photographic industry by transforming the act of taking pictures into a universal human experience.

An original Kodak Camera, one of the holy grails of camera collecting, now verges on being a museum piece. Early barrel-shutter models in good condition sell in the $4000-5000 range, though a really pristine and complete example with case and instruction manual could easily fetch much more. Later models with “safety-pin” metal-bladed shutter are worth less, but are still scarce and collectible.

The Kodak Brownie: A snapshot camera for the masses

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Cover of The Book Of The Brownies, 1910, shows Kodak's astute marketing of the Brownie to kids, the picture takers of the future.

If any single camera can claim to have created the snapshot, that common, unpretentious memento of things as they are, it’s the immortal Kodak Brownie box camera introduced to the world at the turn of the 20th century in February, 1900. It was neither the first box camera, nor the first camera to use paper-backed roll film with numbers on the back (that was the 1892 Bull’s-Eye Camera made by the Boston Camera Company, later acquired by Kodak). However, by offering a simple, competent, easy-to-use, daylight-loadable camera at the then-unprecedented price of $1.00 and putting a brilliantly conceived mass-marketing program behind it, Kodak was literally able to sell a camera to practically everybody, and to motivate millions to buy it. The Brownie’s success was unprecedented—in the first year alone, over 150,000 cameras were shipped, three times the previous record. To get a clearer idea of the impact of the Brownie, check out one of the many timelines of the 20th century and go to the year 1900. Right up there, along with such momentous events as Max Planck’s formulation of the quantum theory and the publication of Sigmund Freud’s “The Interpretation of Dreams” is Kodak’s introduction of the $1 Brownie camera!

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First Brownie: Kodak Brownie No. 1 of 1900 sold for $1.00, but had no viewfinder. Here it is with rare accessory viewfinder priced at 25 cents.

The Brownie got its name from artist Palmer Cox’s whimsical cartoon versions of Brownies--“hard-working Scottish sprites or elves who did household chores” --that were as popular in the 1880-1920 period as Mickey Mouse is today. Some have conjectured that the name was an oblique tribute to Frank A. Brownell, who was responsible for its design and manufacture, but this is probably not the case. In any event, the Brownie is about as simple and basic as a camera can get—an imitation-leather covered cardboard box, with wooden film carrier, measuring about 3 x 3 x 5 inches. It has a simple fixed-focus f/11 meniscus lens, and metal rotary shutter with a single speed of about 1/35-1/50 sec plus T. There isn’t even a viewfinder—like the original Kodak of 1888, sighting lines, in a V pattern, were inscribed on the top! Starting in July, 1900, a small clip-on accessory reflex finder was offered for 25 cents. The film-winding key was detachable and often lost, which is why many original Brownies are found with soldered-on, non-standard keys. The first 15,000 Brownies were fitted with a push-on cardboard box lid back that proved unreliable and was soon replaced (March, 1900) with a bottom-hinged back with a nice, nickel-plated sliding latch on top. Despite its modest specs, the original Kodak Brownie did score one extremely important historical distinction—it pioneered No.117 film, thus making it the world’s first 2-1/4 x 2-1/4-inch roll film camera. The 117 size, essentially 6-exposures of 120 film on a narrower-flanged roll, is long defunct (it was the film used in the original 1929 Rolleiflex) but the glorious 2-1/4 square roll film format is still very much alive.

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Brownie No. 1, No. 2, and No. 2A compared: 2-page spread from early 20th century Kodak catalog shows the differences in specs and prices.

The Brownie was certainly the right product at the right time, at the right price with a catchy name. But what really transformed it into an enduring American icon that sired generations of Kodak Brownies and inspired countless competitors worldwide, was Kodak’s ingenious and aggressive marketing plan. It was advertised in popular magazines rather than trade magazines. Ads stressed it could be “operated by any school boy or girl” and kids were urged to join The Brownie Camera Club, which had no initiation fee, and whose object was “to increase the interest of American boys and girls in matters pertaining to photography.” Kodak ran picture contests and awarded prizes. A roll of film, called a “Transparent-Film Cartridge, 6 exposures 2-14x2-1/4” cost 15 cents, a box of paper, 10 cents, and a Brownie Developing and Printing Outfit, 75 cents. At the bottom of many ads was a small box with the message “Send a dollar to your local Kodak Dealer for a Brownie Camera. If there is no dealer in your area, send us a dollar and we will ship the camera promptly.” With the arrival of the Brownie, anyone could take photographs of everything from special occasions to everyday life, and do so inexpensively. The era of the snapshot had dawned and the world would never be the same.

No. 2 Brownie Model C.JPG
Kodak Brownie No.2 Model C of 1907 had spool end clips in the roll film insert. Later models used simpler friction type spool holders.

Today, an original Brownie camera with “shoe box” back cover and accessory viewfinder is a rare bird indeed and a collector’s prize valued at over $1000. The later, improved version with hinged back, also a primo collectible, sells for about $100-$200 with original winding key and box. The most popular classic Brownie was probably long-running Brownie No.2 (1901-1933), that took 120 film and provided a 2-1/4 x 3-1/4-inch format. It’s a nice user-collectible that sells for $15-35 and is recommended to anyone who wants to experience the joys and limitations of shooting with a vintage box camera.

Roll Film Sizes & Designations (based on information from Camera-wiki)

Roll Film and cassette or cartridge-based films have been available in many different standardized sizes to fit specific cameras and film holders or backs. The longest-lived paper backed roll film size, type 120, was introduced in 1901 by Kodak for the Kodak Brownie No.2 box camera. It has now been continuously available for over 120 years and is the only remaining size of traditional roll film in large-scale production.

Kodak's standardized roll film size numbers were gradually introduced starting in 1912, and first appeared as a complete list in the 1914 Kodak Condensed Price List. Prior to that, films were identified only by the image size produced and the specific cameras the films fit. This made it difficult or impossible to cross-reference films made by different manufacturers for different cameras, especially when the number of amateur cameras available on the market expanded exponentially around the end of the first decade of the twentieth century.

When standardized roll film sizes were introduced by Kodak, the sizes were assigned to all of the film sizes produced by Kodak at that time, using numbers 101 through 129. These film sizes were numbered sequentially in the order of the date when the original film size was first introduced. Only one other roll film size using the same sequential numbering system was introduced after that: size 130, which was introduced in 1916.

In the 1930s Kodak introduced two revised versions of existing roll sizes, which used the same size film but were rolled onto smaller diameter spools: 616 is a variation of size 116, and 620 is a variation of size 120. Initially, the leading "6" in these sizes was meant to indicate the number of frames on the roll; however, by the time these films came to market, the length of film generally permitted 8 frames per roll. Kodak has consistently claimed that they brought out the 620 and 616 sizes to enable more compact cameras to be constructed, which is technically true, but many think their primary motivation was to create a captive film market and disincentivize the sales of competitive cameras that stuck with the “old” 120 and 116 sizes. Kodak also introduced roll size 828 in the 1930s, which is a 35mm wide film with only one perforation per frame. The number 828 was chosen to represent "8" frames of "28"mm-wide (by 40mm long) images on a roll.

In Europe and Japan, many film sizes had alternative designations, a good example being 120, which is generally known as B-2 in Europe. For a comprehensive list of film sizes, including format dimensions, year of introduction, and year of discontinuance, please go to: Film sizes and designations – Camera-wiki.org

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Nice schematic of the Kodak Brownie No. 2 showing the pull up tab (A) for setting Time and Instantaneous shutter speeds, the aperture-setting slide (B), and the shutter release (C). Simple spring-operated rotary shutter is very reliable. Illustration is taken from vintage Kodak user manual.

Taking pictures with a Brownie No.2, The Box That Shook the World

Buying a Kodak Brownie No.2

These are old cameras, made between 1901 and 1933. While many of them are still in good working condition and perfectly capable of turning out pictures of decent quality you’ve got to check them out carefully beforehand and/or buy them with no questions asked return privileges. While you can probably snag a nice example for around $35 or even less, repairing one will cost more than the camera is worth, and in some cases, repairs are not possible.

Kodak Brownie No. 2 Tech Specs;

Lens: 105mm, f/8 (based on full diameter)

Type: Single element meniscus

Focus: Fixed

Focus: 8ft-infinity

Apertures: f/11, f/16 & f/22 set with sliding metal plate*

Shutter: Spring actuated metal blade rotary, c. 1/50 sec + T

EV (ISO 100): 13-15

Exposure: Manual

Format: 8 exposure 2-1/4 x3-1/4 inches on 120 roll film

* Note: Some say the apertures are actually f/16-32 (EV 100 14-16)
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Brownie No. 2 page from an early Kodak catalog. This is the early cardboard bodied version with leather-like covering, no tripod sockets

Originally the Kodak Brownie No. 2 had its outer body constructed of heavy carboard with a coarse leatherlike finish, but starting with the Model F of 1924 the outer body was made of metal with a finer grained leatherlike finish. The inner film chamber, which is removed for loading, is sheet metal with a wooden front panel in earlier models, and all metal starting with the Model F. While metal sure sounds nicer than cardboard, both bodies and film inserts are robust and reliable, but the metal model F has the advantage of providing 2 standard tripod sockets, one on the bottom of the camera, the other on the left side. However, according to Todd Gustafson, the Curator of the Technology Collection at The George Eastman House, the spring in the shutter mechanism of early Brownie No 2 is more robust and less likely to give trouble than the one fitted to the F, so in the immortal words of anonymous, “you pays your money and takes your choice.”

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Cover of charming vintage Kodak Brownie No. 2 instruction manual for pre-1924 models with leatherette covered cardboard outer body.

Another thing to look out for is light leaks. Make sure the back fits tightly in all four corners, that the bottom hinge is sound, and that the red window in the back is not cracked or askew—more about that later. The most common problem encountered on the Kodak Brownie No. 2 is dirty, contaminated or de-silvered reflex finders, those little viewing windows on the top and right side of the camera body. Basically, each one is like a tiny top chamber of a twin-lens reflex camera (except that they don’t focus) and you look at them rather than through them to aim the camera at the subject and (roughly) compose the shot. If the front image-forming lens, the little angled reflex mirror, or the ground glass viewing screen on top becomes seriously contaminated you won’t be able to view the subject or compose the shot. The exterior surfaces of the lens and viewing screen can be easily cleaned with a Q-tip dipped in alcohol, but if the inner surfaces are obscured or the reflex mirror is seriously de-silvered, give the camera a pass.

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Kodak Brownie No. 2 Model F: Introduced in 1924, its metal body with 2 tripod sockets makes it a good shooter's choice, but make sure the shutter's working (see text). Models in colors other than black fetch higher prices, but they sure are pretty.

Finally, check that the ever-set (non-cocking) shutter fires when the shutter release on the lower right-hand side is pushed either upward or downward (it should fire both ways). Now pull the small tab at the top left, front corner of the camera up to set the shutter in T, and fire the shutter, which should now stay open. Look through the lens from both sides to make sure it’s clear and free of dirt, etc., and pull the larger middle tab at the middle of the top front area of the camera upward and downward to its 3 click-stopped positions to check that the aperture control is working. If the lens is dirty, you can clean it on both sides with the judicious use of Q-tip lightly moistened in 91% or higher isopropyl or ethyl alcohol. If the contamination is severe and won’t come off onto the Q-tip after a couple if tries, reject the camera.

Shooting with the Kodak Brownie No.2

Before you do anything, go to https://www.butkus.org, scroll down to FILM CAMERA MANUAL SITE, click on the Kodak tab, scroll to and select Brownie No. 2 and order or print out a copy of the charming vintage “Picture Taking with the Kodak Brownie No. 2” which will tell you everything you need to know. If you decide print it out, which you can do for free, do the right thing send the guy a couple of bucks for creating and maintaining one if the best sites for vintage camera collectors and users.

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Sliding the roll film holder out of the body for loading (Figure IV) taken from the Kodak Brownie No. 2 instruction manual.

Loading the Kodak Brownie No. 2 is very straightforward. Pull out the wind key, open the back, and pull out the roll holder insert. Insert a fresh roll of film in the top section, making sure the spool is secured at both ends., pull the end of the paper leader, paper side out, around the film aperture, and thread the end of the paper leader into the wide slot of the take-up spool you’ve already secured in the bottom section. Make sure that the paper leader is precisely centered between the flanges of the take-up, and wind the take-up spool 3 full revolutions by turning its flanges with your fingers, so the paper end is tightly secured to the take-up spool. Now re-install the roll holder insert, push in and twist the winding key counterclockwise so it engages the slot in the spool end, and, while observing the red window on the back, wind the film to until the number is centered in the window.

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Pulling the paper leader around the film aperture of the roll film insert before inserting it into the take-up spool. Fig VI from the user manual.

Dealing with red windows

Red windows are relics of the days when black-and-white films were orthochromatic and insensitive to red light. Some later roll film cameras were fitted with sliding or hinged red widow covers or with dark green widows designed for panchromatic film. The bottom line: while paper-backed roll film usually won’t be light struck on the emulsion side by light coming through a red window on the paper side, it’s best to cover the red window when you’re not actually winding film, which should be done in subdued light. To fashion a jerry-rigged red window cover for your Kodak Brownie No.2 or any other camera so afflicted, use a piece of masking tape, which isn’t opaque, but has a low-grip adhesive that won’t damage your camera, and cover it with a same-size strip of black electrician’s or vinyl tape to make it the cover completely light tight.

Other shooting suggestions

The Kodak Brownie No. 2 was designed for ISO 50 black-and-white film so you can opt for Ilford Pan F (nominally ISO 50, which I rate at ISO 32), but a better (though costlier) choice is Fujifilm Acros II, which may well be the best ISO 100 black-and-white film ever made. You can also experiment with ISO 400 films such as Kodak Tri-X and Ilford HP 5 Plus, which may let you shoot at the camera’s smallest and sharpest aperture on overcast days, in the shade, or in late afternoon daylight.

According to the official specs the No. 2’s fixed focus lens is sharp down to about 10 feet at the widest aperture and to 8 feet at the smallest, but I’ve shot some reasonably sharp portraits in the 5-6 -foot range using the camera’s smallest aperture. Kodak did offer a close-up lens for the Brownie No. 2, but lots of luck finding one. Using a tripod or other firm support will always enhance picture sharpness with a camera whose nominal shutter speed is 1/50 sec, and it will also let you experiment with indoor and low light shooting at the T setting.

Whatever else you do with your Kodak Brownie No 2. keep experimenting with it and have fun shooting like it’s 1927. There’s nothing quite so gratifying as someone complimenting one of your photos, asking what camera you used, and your replying truthfully, “Actually I shot it with my Box Brownie—would you care to see the negative?”

Profuse thanks to the George Eastman Museum for providing most of the images used in this post,
 

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A splendid piece, Jason - if I may take the liberty of adding my twopence worth:

(yes, that's my ugly mug at the top)







My lastest Amateur Photographer article

And finally I thought this would amuse, this is Kodak's range of films circa 1927:
1927 Kodak catalogue - film sizes
 
A great piece, Jason! Really puts the cameras in their historical perspective, as well as being a user's guide. I may have to look for one. (And I will read Adrian's --Muggins's -- AP article as well. Congrats to him!)
 
Thank you again, Jason, for an enjoyable and informative article.

I can’t find late-1800’s monetary comparisons, but for 1913 a $25 camera is about $775 today and a $10 charge for developing and printing your 100 exposures is about $302.
 
A great piece, Jason! Really puts the cameras in their historical perspective, as well as being a user's guide. I may have to look for one. (And I will read Adrian's --Muggins's -- AP article as well. Congrats to him!)

If you, or anyone else, do buy one and aren't sure what you are doing, please feel free to message me - I'll happily help. Though hopefully between Jason's quoting of Kodak's material and my first article you'll have all the info you need (that's a bit bigheaded - I'm sure all you need is what Kodak said!)
 
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In the 1930s Kodak introduced two revised versions of existing roll sizes, which used the same size film but were rolled onto smaller diameter spools: 616 is a variation of size 116, and 620 is a variation of size 120. Initially, the leading "6" in these sizes was meant to indicate the number of frames on the roll; however, by the time these films came to market, the length of film generally permitted 8 frames per roll. Kodak has consistently claimed that they brought out the 620 and 616 sizes to enable more compact cameras to be constructed, which is technically true, but many think their primary motivation was to create a captive film market and disincentivize the sales of competitive cameras that stuck with the “old” 120 and 116 sizes.

I'm one to challenge this assertion. For one, Kodak neither held any exclusive ability to produce 620/616 film, nor were they the only manufacturer of those formats. Ilford, Agfa, Ansco, Gevaert and others produced this formats in addition to Kodak. See these examples of 620 film:

Ansco 620.jpg
Agfa 620.jpg
Ilford 620.jpg

Additionally, were it Kodak's intention to create a captive film market and force people to use their cameras and films, surely they would have discontinued the production of 120 and 116 film formats, however they did not. Both 120/116 and 620/616 formats were sold simultaneously, as seen on this Kodak price list from the mid-1930s:

Kodak Film List.jpg

This doesn't mean Kodak's motivation was entirely altruistic, as it was not. I would contend however, that rather than forcing people to use their film, the 620/616 film formats were designed to increase profits by minimizing material and manufacturing costs for the film spools. As compared to a 120 spool which has thicker gauge steel and rolled over flanges*, a 620 spool is made from three thin pieces of sheet metal and has no rolled over edges. By using less material and reducing the number of manufacturing steps while keeping the price of a roll of film the same you can increase the net profits on each roll. This may seem trivial for a handful of rolls, but Kodak was making millions of rolls annually, so the costs add up. Plastic spools were also not a thing until relatively recently, so that being a cost cutting factor for 120 was not a consideration.

*The rolled over flanges were a holdover from early Brownie cameras being marketed primarily at children, as there was a concern they could cut their fingers on the metal flanges loading the film and was found only on the 117 and 120 formats. 116 was considered an adult enough format that this was deemed unneccesary.
 
A splendid piece, Jason - if I may take the liberty of adding my twopence worth:

(yes, that's my ugly mug at the top)







My lastest Amateur Photographer article

And finally I thought this would amuse, this is Kodak's range of films circa 1927:
1927 Kodak catalogue - film sizes

Hi, Thanks so much for your kind words, and the links to your excellent Amateur Photographer stuff. Cheers, Jason
 
Thank you again, Jason, for an enjoyable and informative article.

I can’t find late-1800’s monetary comparisons, but for 1913 a $25 camera is about $775 today and a $10 charge for developing and printing your 100 exposures is about $302.
Yes, when you consider that only upper middle class or rich folks could afford "the Kodak" back in the day, that you had to ship it back to Rochester, and that 10 bucks for processing and printing was pretty expensive even if all 100 shots on the roll turned out, it's amazing how successful the camera was.
 
If you, or anyone else, do buy one and aren't sure what you are doing, please feel free to message me - I'll happily help. Though hopefully between Jason's quoting of Kodak's material and my first article you'll have all the info you need (that's a bit bigheaded - I'm sure all you need is what Kodak said!)
What I do have is a Zeiss Box-Tengor (early version from later 1920s I think, shortly after the merger of Goerz into ZI). I've only shot one roll with it and found the results pretty remarkable, notwithstanding the slow shutter speed and lever-type shutter release, similar to the Brownie #2. Trying to figure out the apertures is a bit of guesswork though.
 
Later Zeiss Ikon 6 x 9 cm-format Box Tengors (both pre-WWII and postwar) have clearly marked aperture settings of f/11, f/16, and f/22 and 3 focusing distances, 20 ft. to infinity, 6-20 ft., and 3-6 ft., the latter two provided by built-in close-up lenses that move into the light path. The Goerz Frontar f/9 lens is a (2 cemented elements) achromat and is capable of surprisingly sharp imaging. The camera has blank exposure prevention, a sliding red window cover, and much larger, brighter reflex finders than any prewar Kodak Brownie. Overall, an outstanding box camera and a great user-collectible.
 
I'm one to challenge this assertion. For one, Kodak neither held any exclusive ability to produce 620/616 film, nor were they the only manufacturer of those formats. Ilford, Agfa, Ansco, Gevaert and others produced this formats in addition to Kodak. See these examples of 620 film:

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Additionally, were it Kodak's intention to create a captive film market and force people to use their cameras and films, surely they would have discontinued the production of 120 and 116 film formats, however they did not. Both 120/116 and 620/616 formats were sold simultaneously, as seen on this Kodak price list from the mid-1930s:

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This doesn't mean Kodak's motivation was entirely altruistic, as it was not. I would contend however, that rather than forcing people to use their film, the 620/616 film formats were designed to increase profits by minimizing material and manufacturing costs for the film spools. As compared to a 120 spool which has thicker gauge steel and rolled over flanges*, a 620 spool is made from three thin pieces of sheet metal and has no rolled over edges. By using less material and reducing the number of manufacturing steps while keeping the price of a roll of film the same you can increase the net profits on each roll. This may seem trivial for a handful of rolls, but Kodak was making millions of rolls annually, so the costs add up. Plastic spools were also not a thing until relatively recently, so that being a cost cutting factor for 120 was not a consideration.

*The rolled over flanges were a holdover from early Brownie cameras being marketed primarily at children, as there was a concern they could cut their fingers on the metal flanges loading the film and was found only on the 117 and 120 formats. 116 was considered an adult enough format that this was deemed unneccesary.
Thanks very much for your expanded perspective on Kodak's introduction of 616 and 620 film. I especially like the part about children not being able to cut their fingers on 120 and 117 film spool flanges and your reference to 616 and 620 as "adult" formats. Undoubtedly there were many reasons Kodak came out with 616 and 620 roll films, and not all of them were nefarious or self-serving. However, the primary focus of Kodak's marketing strategy was always to sell as much film as possible and "cornering the market," even temporarily, with what were originally unique film sizes and cameras was one way of doing so. The fact that other film manufacturers including Ansco eventually came out with roll films in these sizes is a testament to Kodak's successful marketing efforts. Kodak sure screwed things up for us user-collectors who have a much harder time shooting film in classics like the Kodak Medalist II, the Chevron, the Vollenda, etc. Yes, it can be done, some cameras can be modified, 120 film can be re-rolled onto 620 spools, custom roll sizes are available at hefty prices, etc. but it sure us a pain in the butt.
 
Later Zeiss Ikon 6 x 9 cm-format Box Tengors (both pre-WWII and postwar) have clearly marked aperture settings of f/11, f/16, and f/22 and 3 focusing distances, 20 ft. to infinity, 6-20 ft., and 3-6 ft., the latter two provided by built-in close-up lenses that move into the light path. The Goerz Frontar f/9 lens is a (2 cemented elements) achromat and is capable of surprisingly sharp imaging. The camera has blank exposure prevention, a sliding red window cover, and much larger, brighter reflex finders than any prewar Kodak Brownie. Overall, an outstanding box camera and a great user-collectible.
Definitely on my list -- I love the look of the postwar Box Tengors, and they're more capable, as you note.
 
I don't let re-rolling 620 film from 120 bother me. I've done a few times; maybe a dozen or so and it takes me between 1 and 2 minutes in the darkroom.
 
Sorry, but Lilienthal flew (and eventually was killed flying) an unpowered glider, which doesn't meet anyone's definition of an "airplane." Bleriot eventually added power to his gliders, but not until after the Wrights had built theirs. Stringfellow got a small steam-powered flying machine off the ground in 1848, but it was too small to carry a person and had no means of stability control or guidance; maybe we should credit him with inventing the UAV? Of course if you get to play fast and loose with definitions, you can define anyone as the inventor of anything; want to hear how I invented nuclear fusion in my kitchen with two peach pits and a jar of peanut butter?
 
Jason, the research you did for this article is amazing.
I learned so much from you efforts.
I'm enjoying this forum even more now than when you were doing your thing at Modern and Popular Photography magazines back in the day.
 
My Uncle Walter was the proud recipient of this Kodak 50th Anniversary Brownie. These were given free in 1930 to any 12 year old who wanted one. I’ve shot Verichrome in it years ago and the images were “Brownie”. ( oh in reference to early flight....Gustave Whitehead flew First.)A450812D-E66F-4382-9EA5-CAF8A772C72F.jpeg
 
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