HF The History of Photography 600pág

Hand, pocket, and detective cameras 415
The Kodak was a veritable Pandora's box : the push-button method let loose many
of the evils from which photography is suffering today. On the other hand, it has
undoubtedly enriched the lives of millions of ordinary men and women.
Naturally, other manufacturers tried to profit from the popularity of the Kodak
(which for many years remained the only roll-film camera on the market, owing to
Eastman's virtual monopoly of roll-film) by producing still smaller plate or cut-film
pocket cameras, but in spite of all their efforts, for at least two decades if not three,
a hand camera of whatever make was popularly called a 'Kodak'.
REFLEX CAMERAS
The single- and twin-lens reflex cameras are classed as a separate group becausealthough
they were made variously with change-box, magazine, or roll-film attachments-they
are basically of a different construction. As every photographer knows,
reflex cameras incorporate a mirror fixed at an angle of 45° to the axis of the lens. It
reflects the image on to a ground glass in the top of the camera, allowing observation
of the scene up to the moment of taking the picture, and obviating the need for a
black focusing-cloth.
The first to apply this centuries-old camera obscura principle to photographic purposes
was THOMAS SUTTON, who patented a reflex instrument in August 1861. When
making the exposure, the mirror was turned up by a handle. The first reflex camera
in which the mirror was automatically displaced during the exposure by being connected
with the roller-blind shutter seems to have been s. D. MCKELLEN's, patented
in May 1888. As far as we can ascertain, neither Sutton's nor McKellen's cameras ever
went into production. One of the first single-lens reflex cameras produced was
C. R. Smith's, patented in Britain, France, and the United States in 1884. It was a hand
camera for 6t in.x 4± in. plates, manufactured by E. W. Smith & Co., New York.
One of the best early single-lens cameras, and certainly the most rapid, was the
'Cambier Bolton' introduced in 1898 by W. Watson, London. This camera, based
on the ideas of the photographer F. W. Mills, was intended for the serious photographer,
being provided with a double extension and Rapid Rectilinear lens, and
a Thornton Pickard focal plane shutter which gave speeds from -io to -rdoo second.
Exposures were made automatically by pressing a button which raised the mirror
and released the shutter. The 'Holostigmat' lens, series 1a, a symmetrical anastigmat
doublet, with which the camera was fitted from 1906 on, made it the fastest on
the market, for this anastigmat gave perfect definition at the full aperture of F. 4·6.
R. & J. BECK in February 1880 constructed the first twin-lens reflex camera, for the
meteorologist G. M. Whipple, Superintendent of Kew Observatory. Both lenses
were focused simultaneously by turning one knob. The camera was made to take
J!- in. x 4± in. plates, and except for the roller-blind shutter attached to the taking
lens, it does not appear to have differed in any essential point from modern twin-lens
reflex cameras.
Several twin-lens reflex cameras followed Beck's, including the 'Excel Detective'
made by ARMIDE LE DOCTE of Brussels (1890), the 'Artist's camera' of the London
Stereoscopic Co. (1891), and Ross & Co.'s 'Divided' (1891) which was the most Pl 220
advanced of all. Three models were made, for taking a 48-exposure Eastman rollholder,
three double darkslides or a change-box containing twelve plates. The dimensions
of the smallest size, made for J!- in. x J!- in. negatives, were only 6 in. x 4! in. x
7!- in., and compare very favourably with the modern 'Rolleiflex'. Exposures were
made by means of a roller-blind shutter fitted in front of the taking lens.