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Box Camera?
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Hate to sound like a spoil sport, but is there a definition what actually IS a Box Camera for this group?
Posted at 8:08AM, 8 June 2006 PDT
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I could have sworn that there was a discussion about this a long time back, but I could never find it again. So, yes, what constitutes a box camera? Is it anything without a (significantly) projecting lens?
Posted 73 months ago.
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Posted 73 months ago.
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For me a box camera is your basic square box camera like the one shown in latente's photo in the post above, but I personally include other plastic bodied wonders like the Brownie Hawkeye or the Argus 75.
It can be a grey area, but I've posted photos taken with these not-so-purist/traditional box cameras.
If the moderators rule this inapropriate, let me know and I'll remove them - I shoot plenty with traditonal box cameras too :)
Thanks
James
Posted 73 months ago.
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Right. For me, the Argus 75s are a grey area, and I've uploaded the occasional 75 photo to the pool. However, I don't consider the Clack to be a box camera because of the projecting lens, despite an almost identical interior structure as true box cameras.
Posted 73 months ago.
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If you go by strictly the shape of the camera, then anything, inlcuding 75's, Argoflex E's, Hawkeye's, or anything in the shape of a box would qualify, including YashicaMats and Rolliecords, etc.. However, if you limit the selection by implying that only box shaped cameras with no controls for aperture, shutter speed, and focus are to be included, then other simple plastic cameras would have to be eliminated, such as Dianas, various folders, and/or other basic cameras. I'm like James in that I have enough straight forward point and shoot box cameras that it won't make much difference to me and there are certainly enough pools for the other cameras in my collection. However, in my opinion, I tend to qualify any camera as a box camera if it has no controls (other than Time and Instant) or very limited controls, and the photographer must work with elements outside of the camera, i.e. lighting, framing, angles, etc. To me, shape is kind of irrelevant. Likewise, I have no problems with people who flip the lenses to get special effects. That's just my 2 cents worth. I'll go along with the group on this decision.
Originally posted 73 months ago.
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midmophil edited this topic 73 months ago.
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You all have valid points.
Though for me, it would best apply to cameras with no or minimal controls.
My Zeiss Box Tengor has time and bulb shutter speeds, as well as focusing via closeup lenses and it has three apertures.
Heck it's even called a Box in its name!
My Yashicamat TLR however 'boxy' its shape, is a bit too sophisticated to be called a Box Camera IMHO.
:)
Originally posted 73 months ago.
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alessianna edited this topic 73 months ago.
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I think a box camera is a box camera, i.e., shaped like a box (be it plastic, metal or cardboard), with a fairly flat profile, minimal shutter controls, and pocessing fixed focus. I also think that to qualify a box camera should come from the box camera era, i.e. the early 1960s and before. The Kodak Brownie Hawkeye is clearly a box camera and meets all of the above criteria. The Agfa Clack is not a box camera -- it is does not have the right profile. I also would not count an Argus 75 or an Anscoflex style camera as box cameras. They are clearly TLR cameras, even if they are only modestly enabled. Box camera and vintage camera are not the same things. Folders, for example, are clearly not box cameras, though some of them were also called Brownie cameras by Kodak. And cameras that take 126 film or 110 film -- even if they are old and simple to operate and are made by Kodak -- are not box cameras either. These are Instamatic cameras and belong in a different class altogether.
Just my two cents. :-)
Originally posted 73 months ago.
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DeborahK edited this topic 73 months ago.
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Well, the birth of the box camera was the original Kodak--back in the 1880s, when "Kodak" was the name of the camera: the maker was still called The Eastman Film and Dry Plate Company.
The essense was an amateur-friendly camera with fixed focus, one shutter speed, and the convenience of multiple exposures on roll fim. The box shape was just the simplest thing to manufacture--out of wood, at that point.
I'd say the spirit of the box camera survives in any rollfilm camera intended as a simple snapshooter, with only very basic adjustments (like instant/time shutter, or near/far focus). Should we stigmatize post-50s cameras just because plastics made other shapes possible? ;-)
But I don't think any 35mm or 126 camera qualifies... too small to be boxy!
Posted 73 months ago.
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No speed or aperture controls. Looks like a box.
Posted 73 months ago.
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The Zeiss Tengor and the Kodak Target Six-20, among others, have aperture controls ... albeit very crude ones.
The Brownie Hawkeye Flash qualifies as a box camera by virtue of its design, but I'm not sure about TLRs ... somehow I think those are a sub-genre.
Posted 73 months ago.
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I think most of my box cameras have aperture 'controls' (if a metal tab with holes drilled in it counts!)
But none of them have adjustable focus/shutter.
It's highly variable among my collection, however. I rarely post any photos to this pool though, so it's not a worry. But a photo taken with my 6x9 format Kodak Hawk-Eye Rainbow 2-C is definitely a box camera.
Only one focusing eye, no aperture/shutter/focus controls ;)
Your only creative outlet is double exposing, if that's your thing.
Posted 73 months ago.
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There have been a lot of shots with the Yashica Mat and Lubitel making their way into the group recently. While they are nice shots, maybe this thread could be at the top for a minute to remind people what we are referring to.
Posted 63 months ago.
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smultron [deleted] says:
There are some good box cameras that have aperture controll (metaltab with holes in it), that's how they got the exposure right back then. Kodak made some and Agfa too, they look like a box, they have fixed focus and shutter speed. And I would say they are box cameras, but if you see to cameras working in a simular way, disposable cameras are also box-cameras.
Here's what Wikipedia says about it.
For any other questions, Wikipedia is the place to be.
And I don't think Yashica Mat count in as a box camera, it's a TLR (Twin-lens reflex) if anything, and a good one too!
Posted 63 months ago.
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Twin Lens Reflex cameras that actually use the viewing lens to focus and have more than Bulb; and one shutter speed beyond that are NOT Box Cameras;.
Even Matt Denton at his site;
www.mattdentonphoto.com/cameras/box.html
He groups "Box" and "TLR" cameras on the same page.
Please note that while puts them both on the same page, he still distinguishes between them; Box AND TLR cameras.
Originally posted 63 months ago.
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colette_noir edited this topic 63 months ago.
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