Box Cameras

blockend · Dec 18, 2017

Looking at YouTube videos of box cameras, I began to wonder when the last traditional box style cameras were made? The first camera I can remember was my parent's Coronet box camera in the early sixties, and I get the feeling box cameras were old hat even then.

They seem to have evolved into basic viewfinder cameras, with the Brownie name being given to various fixed lens point and shoot cameras and faux TLRs. Does anyone know when the last traditional box style cameras were made? I'm aware new variants have been produced since. The Coronet Company of Birmingham, England, appears to have been dedicated* to box camera production, and they ceased trading in 1967. I take that date to be the end of the true, volume produced box camera, unless anyone knows differently?

*Coronet made bakelite P&S cameras concurrent with box cameras in their final years as far as I can tell.

AgX · Dec 18, 2017

1967 ?? That is surprisingly long.

I assume the west-german Bilora Boy was last produced around 1960 (last modification 1957).

blockend · Dec 19, 2017

AgX said:
1967?? That is surprisingly long.

I assume the west-german Bilora Boy was last produced around 1960.

That's the question. Companies like Coronet disappeared, presumably in the face of cartridge loading Instamatics with which they couldn't compete due to re-tooling costs. Instamatic 126 cameras were heavily advertised in the press and on TV, and box cameras came to be seen as old fashioned. Even so, I recall people bringing box cameras into the local chemist for him to replace and develop the film until about 1966, and he stocked a lot of old formats. This may have been because his shop was situated on the border between a working class area and a very wealthy, old fashioned one where people took that kind of service for granted.

My guess is the general public were moving away from box cameras to Bakerlite viewfinder roll film P&S models from the mid-1950s, but small companies continued to service the demand until it was no longer economically viable to do so. Basic tool pressing shops could manufacture a box camera on simple machinery, plus a meniscus lens grinding machine (most likely sub-contracted and brought in). However cartridge loading cameras needed moulding tools and other registration machinery.

AgX · Dec 19, 2017

Th

blockend said:
My guess is the general public were moving away from box cameras to Bakerlite viewfinder roll film P&S models from the mid-1950s, but small companies continued to service the demand until it was no longer economically viable to do so. Basic tool pressing shops could manufacture a box camera on simple machinery, plus a meniscus lens grinding machine (most likely sub-contracted and brought in). However cartridge loading cameras needed moulding tools and other registration machinery.

There were Bakelite, thus moulded, "box" cameras as early as the 30s. The Bilora Boy from the 50s was seemingly the latest.
I include these as they basically followed the box-shape, but they already had a horizontal finder.

The last true Agfa box camera was produced until 1957.

Your Coronet seems to be an exception concerning production time.
The Agfa Clack, which was plastic moulded and already not a true box, but rather basically a lying box and with horizontal finder, was produced until 1965.

blockend · Dec 19, 2017

AgX said:
Your Coronet seems to be an exception concerning production time.

I think Coronet had been moving over to horizontal viewfinder cameras since the late 1940s, but kept box camera production going. They shared many parts with another manufacturer in Birmingham, the Standard Camera Co, who as far as I can tell produced traditional box cameras exclusively. Standard Cameras ended in 1955, so I'm guessing the market for them had become very small by that date. British box cameras tended to be 6 x 9, eight shots on 120 film, and undercut the US Brownie pricewise. There were UK produced 620 box cameras, but 120 was the norm. Most seem to have been basic in the extreme and built down to a price for a non-enthusiast market. There was nothing like the ZI Tengor made in Britain.

Ilford were still producing box cameras in the early 1950s, but were moving towards "brilliant" viewfinder pseudo TLRs as were a number of other manufacturers. Agfa Clack style cameras bridged the late 50's/early 60s, when 127 roll film P&S cameras like the Ilford Pixie (1967) occupied the box camera, no-frills sector of the camera market. Interestingly these aped the look of 35mm cameras but kept faith with roll film. I assume this was to capture the "racy" image of 35mm cameras for a buyer and photo-finishing market doubtful of these simple camera's ability to deliver sharp results.

AgX · Dec 19, 2017

Yes, the most basic plastic models from the 50s were the successors of the better box cameras: same features, but in a Barnack-style housing.

blockend · Dec 19, 2017

AgX said:
Yes, the most basic plastic models from the 50s were the successors of the better box cameras: same features, but in a Barnack-style housing.

That's right. Box cameras were an invention of the late c19th, and their heyday was the 1920 and 30s. By the post-war years they were seen as out of date, but there was still a demand for what box cameras offered, a way of taking photographs for people with no interest in the medium and often of limited means.

The main shortcoming of the box camera was its tiny viewfinder(s), a trait shared by early folding cameras. It meant only the most formal static poses could be taken, and those with the ever present risk of missing body parts and skewed horizons. This was addressed with the first brilliant viewfinder cameras, which were more or less a box camera with a much enlarged waist-level finder. Later box cameras bridged the two types with larger finders and pop up hoods.

Horizontal viewfinders sounded the death knell for genuine box cameras and their spiritual successors, various types of waist level, fixed lens camera. I'm interested in the companies that persevered with the true box camera, how quickly their demise came and when, and what technologies and social fashions saw them off.

blockend · Dec 19, 2017

This site offers an overview of the type, though incomplete in some areas: http://www.earlyphotography.co.uk/site/h_chap.html
The Baby Brownie of 1934 seems to be the bridge between old style box cameras and later varieties, having a Bakelite construction, but retaining the box camera viewfinder and split body.
http://www.earlyphotography.co.uk/site/entry_X14.html

MontanaJay · Dec 19, 2017

My first personal camera was this Brownie Bullet, given to me as an eight-year-old about 1960:

That was about the end of the line for the classic line of roll film Brownies, and you can see by the wear they were nearly indestructible, even to an eight-year-old.
A few years later I and most of America transitioned to the 126 cartridge Instamatic 104 with its flash cube -- easier to load, but a much smaller negative.
Kodak, a few years later, went to 110 with an even smaller negative/cartridge for the amateur market, but I was into 35 mm by then.

Nodda Duma · Dec 19, 2017

If you are tracing looks vs characteristics, you will find different answers.

What are the characteristics?

Low cost
Basic materials
Simple construction
Basic shutter
Simple optics
Minimal settings

From this perspective I start to envision the Kodak Instamatic as the box camera of the 70s.

blockend · Dec 19, 2017

Nodda Duma said:
If you are tracing looks vs characteristics, you will find different answers.

What are the characteristics?

Low cost
Basic materials
Simple construction
Basic shutter
Simple optics
Minimal settings

From this perspective I start to envision the Kodak Instamatic as the box camera of the 70s.

It's helpful to think of the subject in 3 categories. First, box cameras, secondly, post box cameras, thirdly, other simple cameras.

Box cameras are literally box shaped, accept roll film, have split bodies with a lens component and film holder, lack any viewfinder or include a simple waist level finder or frame finder. They are generally but not exclusively fixed speed, aperture and focus cameras.
Post box cameras are as above but have brighter, larger viewfinders, including separate chambers, but are waist level not eye-level cameras. They may resemble the box camera but are more commonly rounded, made of early plastics, and feature innovations like flash contacts.
Other simple cameras include horizontal viewfinder cameras, in roll film and cartridge varieties. They are generally fixed focus and have few or no exposure variables.

Each type fulfils a similar role, low budget snap shooting and simple portraiture for non-enthusiasts, but not all are box cameras.

blockend · Dec 19, 2017

MontanaJay said:
A few years later I and most of America transitioned to the 126 cartridge Instamatic 104 with its flash cube -- easier to load, but a much smaller negative.
Kodak, a few years later, went to 110 with an even smaller negative/cartridge for the amateur market, but I was into 35 mm by then.

Yes, it was a familiar story. I guess some people just found paper backed roll film too difficult to handle, and suffered from it unwinding and fogging before it was securely attached. Loading and unloading was something the store did for a lot of people, and 126 and 110 cartridges saved the hassle, at the price of a considerably small negative/slide. Roll film lingered on into the small film era with 828, basically short 8 exposure 35mm film with a paper backing. People were used to having a very limited number of shots and found it acceptable.

The Brownie Bullet was a last hurrah for the box camera principle, being a basic dividable body in heavy duty plastic, with a simple sprung shutter, a meniscus lens, but including the "luxury" of an eye-level finder. I don't think it's a true box camera, but it's certainly a real Brownie in spirit!

AgX · Dec 19, 2017

Kodak put type 126 on the market and competitor Agfa had so to say overnight to crank up the Karat system, modernize ithe casettes a little bit, design and produce new cameras and then even faced Kodak on Kodak's homemarket,. But failed in the long run.

The type Rapid was technically the better system, but handlingwise type 126 was foolproof.

AgX · Dec 19, 2017

Blockend,

see here, a good starting point for your further investigastions.
http://www.boxkamera.de

There also has been a book published on german box cameras.

blockend · Dec 19, 2017

AgX said:
a good starting point for your further investigastions.

Interesting. Note it doesn't include Zeiss Ikon Box cameras, the most sophisticated type ever made

AgX said:
Agfa had so to say overnight to crank up the Karat system

AgX said:
The type Rapid was technically the better system,

The VHS-Betamax story, technical sophistication loses out to mass marketing. Ilford and others went the 126 route, but Kodak made their cameras cheap enough, the profit was in the film. A number of Kodak, Ilford and other named cameras were German made. British manufacturing was slow to catch on to the post-war camera boom, specialising in fine optical equipment but hardly big sellers.

.

Theo Sulphate · Dec 19, 2017

blockend said:
Looking at YouTube videos of box cameras, I began to wonder when the last traditional box style cameras were made? ...

Perhaps look at the archives of major newspapers, especially at the Christmas holiday ads from department or photo stores. That may show when box cameras where last listed. Better yet would be the old store catalogs (such as Sears in the U.S.).

I suspect the simple box camera would disappear in the early 1950's, but I'm just guessing.

removed account4 · Dec 19, 2017

https://web.archive.org/web/20060114005751/http://www.boxcameras.com:80/
suggests it was mid-60s
doesn't help you much ...

Sirius Glass · Dec 19, 2017

Nodda Duma said:
If you are tracing looks vs characteristics, you will find different answers.

What are the characteristics?

Low cost
Basic materials
Simple construction
Basic shutter
Simple optics
Minimal settings

From this perspective I start to envision the Kodak Instamatic as the box camera of the 70s.

+1

For the 1950s and early 1960's made of Bakelite.

blockend · Dec 20, 2017

This is the last true box camera I can find from Kodak, ending 1959: http://www.brownie-camera.com/24.shtml
And the plain version until 1960: http://www.brownie-camera.com/23.shtml

I shall keep looking!

blockend · Dec 20, 2017

Most modern looking box camera? Eye level but in the box camera spirit, and made until 1966: http://www.brownie-camera.com/49.shtml

AgX · Dec 23, 2017

Doesn't it look like from NASA?

choiliefan · Dec 23, 2017

Apparently the final version of the Z-I Box Tengor was manufactured up to 1958. http://camerapedia.wikia.com/wiki/Zeiss_Ikon_Box_Tengor

Theo Sulphate · Dec 23, 2017

blockend said:
Most modern looking box camera? Eye level but in the box camera spirit, and made until 1966: http://www.brownie-camera.com/49.shtml

Simple, yet highly appealing!

blockend · Dec 24, 2017

choiliefan said:
Apparently the final version of the Z-I Box Tengor was manufactured up to 1958. http://camerapedia.wikia.com/wiki/Zeiss_Ikon_Box_Tengor

The Tengor was sophisticated for a box camera. I've been looking for a clean late model for a while, but there aren't many around.

blockend · Dec 24, 2017

Theo Sulphate said:
Simple, yet highly appealing!

The camera was designed by Kenneth Grange, one of mid-c20th modern's best known industrial designers. He shaped everything from razor blades to typewriters, and is best known for the 1970s High Speed Train, which is still running in the UK.

It's a great looking Brownie that's hamstrung by taking 127 film, meaning it's probably a shelf queen.

Box Cameras

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