35mm Photography
Old 35mm Cameras
The first camera capable of professional 35mm photography was the Leica I. The Leica I was made commercially available in the mid-1920’s. This new camera was made in Europe, and was prohibitively expensive for most photographers who were not independently wealthy, or working very well in the industry at the time. It was not until the late 1930’s that the first SLR was manufactured.
These old 35mm cameras (The Kine Exacta was the first) were the first of a line of SLRs that would revolutionize the way the world took pictures. Even though these older models were heavy, clunky, and prone to mechanical malfunction, the idea of a camera that had the performance that a SLR offered—even an old one, was a step ahead of the rest. In the mid 1950’s another leap came along. Contax built an SLR with the first built in meter. Even though the meters on the Contax E were uncoupled, something was better than nothing, and the beat rolled on.
The Late 1950’s and early 1960’s were the really heady years for SLR shooters. During this time, interchangeable lenses and film backs came along. This advance in technology offered photographers a new world of performance. It gave them the ability to deal with changing light conditions in a new, and more efficient way. It was suddenly easy to change film speeds, and one could switch lenses quickly—which lowered the cost of photography, and allowed the photographer to grab shots that he or she would have otherwise missed. The venerable Nikon F1 was the first to offer the interchangeable lens system, and the world of 35mm photography has never been the same since.
In 1959 Voigtlander created the first zoom lens. This set up the next revolution in lens design. Soon, nearly every lens manufacturer would roll out a zoom lens, and the competition resulted in better and better zoom lenses being created throughout the 60’s and the 70’s. Even though the sharpness of the early zoom lens left quite a bit to be desired, the ability to zoom was worth its weight in gold to photojournalists and sports photographers. Zooms also offered new creative control that was previously impossible—like the “zoom blur” shot.
The 1960’s brought along new features such as electric motor drive to advance the film, which eliminated missed shots when the photographer forgot to wind. Automatic exposure control came next, giving birth to the semi-automatic controls that are used by nearly all professional photographers today, modes like A and S (or Tv for Canon). The built in meters in the 1960’s got a lot better, and spot metering (and average metering) became a standard built in feature on all professional grade SLRs sold near the end of the decade.
The 1960’s and 1970’s were really exciting decades for 35mm photography, and the professional photographers and well-heeled amateurs who could afford the new cameras. Built in microprocessors and LED displays made the automated functions of these new SLRs easy to use, and easy to see. Programmed exposure mode was invented to bring the semi-automatic controls to the level of what we still use today: M A S P. The advent of Program mode was a real tipping point for amateurs who were considering buying 35mm cameras. Now, the process was so simple that if one was capable of loading the film, and focusing the camera, even an amateur could take shots that could rival the quality of pro photographers. The sale of SLRs went through the roof, and led the way to the “Big 80’s”, the decade that saw the sale of more 35 mm SLR cameras than any other…
The 1980’s opened with a bang when Nikon rolled out the popular F3. It was the first camera that featured an LCD display in the viewfinder. This was remarkable, since photographers could now keep their eyes inside the viewfinder while changing modes and selections using the controls mounted on the camera body. Minolta later came out with the first 35mm camera with internal auto focus, a move which shepherd in another bastion of amateurs who loved the idea shooting with a 35mm, but were too timid to try to learn how to focus the older models. “Insta-matic” was a term used to sell the SLRs of the 1980’s. The leading brands of the day hired celebrities to do television commercials where they would demonstrate just how easy it was to take great photos with the new automatic cameras in Program mode. Of course, this was an oversimplification, one still needed a bit of knowledge that went beyond a three step process if one wanted to take excellent photographs, but the idea was sold—and so did millions of cameras.
The Digital Age: 35mm Photography has never been more exciting than it is now…the transition to DSLRs has opened a whole new realm of possibilities to photographers. Just as the 35mm film SLR ushered in a entirely new group of photographers, the ease of using digital cameras has brought in a new breed of photographer. Just about every cell phone and PDA on the market today has a built in digital camera. When film had to be scanned into digital format, there were only a few million photos on the Internet. Today, there are hundreds of millions, with more being added every day. Almost all new digital cameras have video capability too, with some of the more advanced DSLRs boasting HD video capability.
