The invention of photographic film – the beginning of mass amateur photography
With the development of digital technology, photographing on film has become the lot of professionals or fans of this method of shooting. But at the end of the 19th century, the film became a real breakthrough in the photo industry.
Photo before the appearance of the film
Before the film was invented, photography was a lot of professionals. This was due to the fact that the cameras were large and heavy, and the exposure of each shot lasted more than 10 seconds. A photographer could work only in the studio, and in order to make a high-quality portrait, people needed to be fixed with special devices, asked to hold their breath and not blink.
In 1871, R.Maddox invented the bromine gel emulsion, which made it possible to reduce the frame exposure time to a quarter of a second, and made photographers mobile. This invention was the reason for the growth of the mass popularity of photography, but progress did not stand still, and in 1887 a film appeared.
The invention of photographic film
As it often happens, several authors fought for the right to patent a new invention, among them were amateurs, for example G.Gudvin, and professionals, such as D.Istman, the owner and founder of Eastman Kodak.
It was he who first received a patent for the invention and began to produce tape film from celluloid. In 1888, the first Kodak camera was created, making a revolution among amateur photographers, making the process of photographing truly accessible to the masses. The reason was the technical simplicity of the camera and its low cost.
Shooting on a film
New cameras were supplied with coils with unexposed film, the length of which allowed to make about a hundred frames. The footage together with the camera was handed over to the manufacturer, where the experts showed the film, and the camera with the new film and printed images was returned to the owner.
By the end of the 20s of the twentieth century, the size of cameras decreased significantly, professional devices of medium and small format appeared. In the Leica cameras, they began to use perforated 35 mm film (similar to modern film format).
In the mid-1930s, Kodak began selling the Kodakhrom three-color film. The development process was technically difficult, so they also dealt with the company Eastman Kodak, where the photographers sent the captured film, getting back the finished slides.
The invention of photographic film – the beginning of mass amateur photography
Three-color film “Kodahrom”
The situation had already changed by 1936, when the German firm Agfa released a positive color film “Agfacolor” with already applied color components. This innovation gave photographers the opportunity to show color film on their own, as well as print photos in any quantity.
