Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'miniature revolution'.
-
The first and second miniature revolutions In my thread on 100 years Null-Serie I include the development of the Ur-Leica of 1914. The Ur-Leica was created in the middle of a miniature revolution with an increasing flow of Liliput cameras. This miniature revolution already began in the 1880s – 1890s on the back of the new gelatine-based light-sensitive silver emulsions. One direction was (French) miniature cameras for dry plates with formats like 4,5x6cm. The other direction started with the Kodak roll film cameras. During his work for Zeiss Palmos and ICA (1902-1910) Oskar Barnack was in the middle of this miniature revolution. It is fair to mark the introduction of the Leica I in March 1925 as the beginning of the second miniature revolution. This second miniature revolution was not only a 35mm revolution. One can see a divergence of miniature formats (miniature inflation) and a later convergence to the formats 24x36mm on 35mm film and 6x6cm on 120-film. It follows that the Rolleiflex of 1929 must be regarded as the second standard bearer of the second miniature revolution. In the 35mm realm the success of the Leica format also benefitted from the contributions of Agfa, Perutz and Kodak (producers of 35mm film). Similarly, competitors like the Contax, the Kodak Retina, the Kine Exakta and the Agfa Karat helped to establish the Leica format as one of the dominant standards for miniature photography for the remainder of the 20th century.