| Introduced: | 1934 |
| Â | Â |
| Type: | cartridge film |
| Â | Â |
| Typical Frame Sizes: | 36 x 24 mm |
| Â | 24 x 18 mm |
| Â | Â |
| Currently: | in production |
135 Film is a 35mm cartridge film standardized by Eastman Kodak in 1934. The film stock found inside 135 cartridges has been around for much longer, of course; Thomas Edison himself patented the perforated film in the late 19th century for use in his groundbreaking Kinetoscope motion picture device. Fortunately for us, Edison’s patent was invalidated in 1902 which allowed his design to be freely produced by anyone. After decades of experimentation, manufacturers slowly began designing proprietary 35mm film cartridges for their cameras. The original Leica I of 1925 came with reloadable brass canisters and Ansco debuted their Memo cartridge alongside their Memo camera just two years later. With that in mind, while this category is primarily for cameras that use Kodak’s 135 film cassette, it will also include those designed for other 35mm formats like Agfa’s Karat/Rapid cartridges and Univex #200 series film (with the obvious exception of 126 film).
Released in 1934 alongside the original Kodak Retina, Kodak’s 135 cartridge was specifically designed to function not only with its own 35mm camera, but also with the groundbreaking Leica II and Zeiss Ikon Contax. This compatibility combined with the fact that these cartridges came pre-loaded with film made the 135 format a surefire winner. However, while Kodak enjoyed some initial success with the Retina, it was actually the Argus A that convinced the American public to adopt 135 film. Faced with the choice between the Retina (a high end folding camera designed and built by Kodak’s subsidiary in Germany) and the Argus A (a relatively inexpensive, simple camera manufactured in Michigan), it’s no surprise that Americans overwhelmingly chose the latter. This winning streak was continued with the enormously popular Argus C3 which only strengthened America’s love affair with 135 film.
Over the following decades, 135 film became the global standard in small format photography for amateurs and professionals alike. There was quite an assortment of 135 film on offer: negative, slide, black and white, various color temperatures, a mix of lengths (most commonly 24 or 36 frames), and a wide range of film speeds were being produced by a number of companies all over the world. Real competition didn’t come along until 1963 when Kodak released 126 film but its emphasis on amateur photography (and amateur cameras) meant that it wasn’t a serious contender for long. In 1996, Kodak introduced the Advanced Photo System (commonly known as APS): a drop-in film cartridge that traded a slightly smaller frame size for convenience but it was soon overshadowed by digital photography. Amateurs soon began turning away from 135 film (and photographic film in general) as consumer grade digital cameras became better and cheaper. Soon, higher end models like digital SLRs began finding their way into the hands of professionals. Film sales collapsed seemingly overnight as the public embraced digital technology and while 135 film continued to be readily available, the market never recovered. There are, however, groups of dedicated purists who are attempting to bring analog photography back into mainstream culture.
In addition to the cameras already mentioned, notable 35mm models include the Nikon F (which convinced countless photojournalists to abandon rangefinders in favor of SLRs) and the amazingly compact Rollei 35, and the Yashica Electro 35 which was the first camera to feature full electronic automatic exposure. Unusual 35mm cameras include specialized panoramic shooters like the KMZ Horizon and the Hasselblad XPan, the hybrid TLR/rangefinder Bolsey Model C, the Yashica Dental Eye: a fixed lens SLR designed specifically for photographing teeth, the movie camera-inspired Durst Duca, and the tiny Concava Tessina spy camera.
McKeown, James M. and Joan C. McKeown’s Price Guide to Antique and Classic Cameras, 2001-2002. (Grantsburg, WI, USA: Centennial Photo Service, 2001), p 152, 182, 364, 387, 417, 586, 714-715.
“135 film,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/135_film
“135 film,” Camera Wiki, http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/135_film
The FED-2 is a 35mm rangefinder built in Kharkov, Ukraine in a factory that was once an orphanage. After the groundbreaking Leica II was introduced in 1932, Soviet leaders tasked the FED factory with building a clone. The FED-2 is a descendant of that first Leica copy. And if thatâs not interesting enough, FED is named after Felix E. Dzerzhinsky who was the founder of the NKVD, the shadowy secret police organization that would eventually become the KGB.
In terms of serious cameras, this is my genesis: the Nikon Nikkormat FT3. My father bought this beautiful camera as a young man in Hong Kong and gave it to me when I began getting serious about photography in college. Iâve spent many hours shooting with this camera and have even lugged it overseas on assignment to various developing countries as my backup and film body. Itâs been a sturdy and dependable friend for many years now and has taught me many things about photography, the most important of which is patience.
The Argus Autronic II is an automatic fixed-lens rangefinders produced by Argus in 1962. Like many Argus cameras of that era, the Autronic II is fairly unremarkable at a glance with its simple but vaguely awkward styling.
In 1961, Canonâthen an upmarket camera companyâshocked the industry by debuting the Canonet line, a series of modestly-priced compact rangefinders. The very first Canonet model completely sold out in just two hours while worldwide sales hit the one million mark in a mere two and a half years, an auspicious beginning for what would be a wildly popular line of cameras that would span over two decades. The Canon Canonet QL17 G-III is the final high-end model of the Canonet series.
The Konica C35 EF is the very first compact 35mm camera to feature a built-in flash. The âC35â in its name stands for âCompact 35mmâ and the âEFâ standing for âElectronic Flash.â In Japan, this camera is known by its nickname âPikkariâ which, as far as I can tell, translates roughly into âglittery brightness.â
The BelOMO Chaika-II Anniversary is a special edition of the BelOMO Chaika-II that was produced by the Belarus Optical and Mechanical Enterprise in its Minsk factory to commemorate the 50th year of the Soviet Union. The Russian word chaika translates into âseagullâ which was the call sign for Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman ever to go into space and the person who this line of cameras is named after.
The original Minolta Hi-Matic is one of the first mainstream fixed-lens rangefinders and the first Minolta to feature automatic exposure. The Hi-Matic was also rebadged and sold in the United States as the Ansco Autoset and gained some notoriety after American astronaut John Glenn purchased one at a local drug store shortly before embarking on the Mercury-Atlas 6 space mission. Although there were other cameras on the Friendship 7 spacecraft, Glenn burned through five rolls of film with his new camera while on board, shooting many historical images including this photograph of the earth.
The Yashica T4 Super D is one of the last models of the T* series of compact cameras made by Kyocera (who owned Yashica at the time) in partnership with renowned German lens manufacturer Carl Zeiss AG. All cameras in this series used high quality Carl Zeiss Tessar lenses with the legendary T* coating which meant superb image quality in a small package. The Yashica T4 and its variants were also sold as the Yashica T5 and the Kyocera T Proof.
The Olympus AF-10 Twin is basically the cheaper, non-weatherproof version of the Olympus Infinity Twin. Like the Infinity Twin, the AF-10 Twin has two lenses (a wide-angle 35mm f/3.5 and a telephoto 70mm f/6.3) that you can switch between with a touch of that wonderful, tiny red button on the top.
The Pentax P30T is a plastic manual focus SLR spawned during the peculiar limbo period that took place after manufacturers began moving away from heavy, all-metal manual focus SLRs but before plastic autofocus cameras became the norm. The P30T differs from the base P30 and its other variants in that it has a plastic film door as well as a diagonally split focusing screen.
The Yashica T AF-D is a high-end 35mm compact camera introduced in 1985. Shortly after acquiring Yashica in the fall of 1983, Kyocera took advantage of its existing licensing agreement with renowned German lens manufacturer Carl Zeiss AG and began production of the T* series, a successful line of compact cameras that use high quality Carl Zeiss Tessar 35mm lenses with the legendary T* coating. The very first model was the Yashica T AF which was closely followed by this data back-equipped AF-D variant.
The Ricoh R1 is a fairly high-end compact 35mm point and shoot camera that was also rebadged and sold under license as the somewhat poorly named Rollei Prego Micron. The R1 won the 1995 Camera Grand Prix Special Prize.
The Yashica Electro 35 GS is a variant of the wildly popular Yashica Electro 35, the first ever camera with full electronic automatic exposure. The GS model you see above also sports gold-plated electrical contacts and boasts a âColor Yashinonâ 45mm f/1.7 lens which is completely identical to the standard (greyscale?) Yashinon but was named as such by their marketing department to capitalize on the growing popularity of color film at the time.
The Olympus Infinity Twin (also known outside the US as the AF-1 Twin) is unusual among compact point and shoots in that it has two lenses (a wide-angle 35mm f/3.5 and a telephoto 70mm f/6.3) that you can switch between with a touch of a tiny red button. It also inherits the rugged body designed for the worldâs first weatherproof automatic 35mm camera: the original Olympus Infinity/AF-1 which makes it even more unique.
