Box Cameras

Box cameras have been out of use for a long time now, with the more modern technologies available for photographs and film. However, understanding a little bit about how to build a box camera and how they were developed and improved upon can shed some light on the way cameras today are built. How is the box camera made, and how are newer styles similar and different from this design?

Aside from a pinhole camera, there is no simpler device for photography than a box camera. In most box cameras, only a single simple meniscus lens is used, and there is no focusing system nor any control over the shutter speed or aperture. Because of these limitations, the box camera has never been suitable for any application aside from bright daylight or the brilliant flashes introduced in the 1950s.

As a leader in the camera and film industry from its beginning, Kodak introduced the first commercial box camera in 1888. The Kodak Brownie box camera was popular for a long time, a series of box cameras that lasted from their introduction in 1900 through the late 1960s. Unlike box cameras used by professionals, however, these used roll film. Beginning in 1963, the Instamatic became the box camera of choice.

In the 1950s, the Ansco box camera, known as the Panda, was introduced to compete directly with the Brownie and became well known as a simple child’s camera. The Sparta box camera was another popular and commonly found model that gave the Brownie a fair bit of competition. These models can be found on eBay and other auction sites as collector’s items today.

If you want to learn how to build a box camera, you can do one of two things. You could perform a search for a box camera diagram and study it carefully, following the image piece by piece to discover how such a tool works. However, you could also purchase a modern disposable camera using 135 films and take it apart step by step, then following those steps in reverse to build a camera. While you may be hard pressed to find a modern wooden box camera, most disposable units are constructed in this simple method.

Obviously, the technology of box cameras gave the photography industry a great shove towards the modern achievements found in the market today, and if you look at specific applications like the disposable camera, you can see it’s direct influence and continued usage in society.