The Leica wasn’t the very first camera to use 35mm film, but it was the one that made the film truly viable. Looking back now, we all know what a tremendous success the new format became, but back then its future wasn’t so certain. Apart from the fact that many proclaimed a quality image could never be obtained from such a small negative, there was also the perceived awkwardness of film loading compared to the ease of loading and unloading a roll film, to which photographers were more accustomed. There was also a kickback against having to shoot as many as 36 pictures before being able to develop the film.

Out of this thinking came a new breed of small camera, one that shot the same, or similar, negative size to that of a 35mm model, but on miniature roll film, with far fewer exposures to each roll. Many of these new cameras used film that produced a 24x36mm image similar to the Leica; some offered slightly larger images such as 30x40mm; and some turned out 24x24mm square images. It was common for camera makers to introduce new models which only accepted the maker’s own specific roll film, ensuring that everyone who bought one of these cameras was forced to return to the maker each time they needed a new film. The films that fed this new craze were many, and a whole raft of new camera styles evolved.

Bolta film cameras

Bolta film – 35mm wide but without sprocket holes and wound onto spindles with backing paper – was the brainchild of Johann Bolten, who founded Bolta GmbH at Nuremburg in 1921. Following the arrival of the Leica, the company began making cameras for their new Bolta film, but soon the concept was taken up and popularised more by Japanese camera makers. As time went on, Bolta film was adapted to serve two different formats, depending on placement of the camera’s red window. If the window was in the centre of the camera back, it read numbers 1-12 printed along the centre of the film’s backing paper to produce 24x24mm images. If the window was positioned at the top or bottom of the camera back, it read another set of numbers 1-10 along the outside edges of the backing paper to produce 24x36mm images.

Boltavit

Germany’s first Bolta film cameras were the Boltavit I in 1935 and the slightly improved Boltavit II in 1937. Each measured only 8x5x4cm and featured lenses and shutters on collapsible mounts. Lenses ranged from a Bolta 40mm f/7.7 on the early models, through to Corygon-Anastigmat f/4.5 and f/2.9 optics on the later cameras. Early shutters were simple three-speed types; later a full range of speeds of 1–1/175sec was introduced on Prontor II shutters. The cameras shot 12 24x24mm images to a roll.

Boltavit cameras didn’t use the red window system to count frames. Instead, the film wind knob was marked with a confusing configuration of numbers that ran: 1, 10, 2, 7, 3, 11, 8, 4, 12, 5, 9, 6. After frame 1, the photographer rotated the knob through a full 360 degrees, passed 1 again, passed 10 and stopped on 2. After that, the user wound the film on through another 360 degrees, passed 2 again, then 7 and stopped on 3… and so on through the film. The positioning of the numbers and their spacing on the dial meant that, as the film advanced and the take-up spool grew fatter, compensation was made for uneven spacing between frames.

Half-way though the production of the Boltavit II, the company and the camera names were changed to Photovit, so the Boltavit II is the same camera as the Photovit I. Soon after that new versions of the Photovit were produced which still accepted 35mm size film, but now without the backing paper and using a twin cassette system that pulled the film from one cassette and pushed it into the other.

Boltax

Bolta film cameras began in Japan in 1938 when Miyagawa Seisakusho in Tokyo launched its Boltax series. Similar in size to the German Boltavit, there were three models, all well specified with focusing lenses and good ranges of shutter speeds and apertures. The top plates contained tubular viewfinders. Film wind knobs were configured in the same way as the Boltavit to produce 24x24cm images.

Muse Flex

The Japanese Tougodu factory, well known for producing fairly basic subminiature snapshot models called Hit cameras, upped its game in the 1940s to produce its Muse Flex range. Looking a little like a small Rolleiflex, these took Bolta film with a central red window to shoot twelve images on Bolta film. Some were true twin lens reflexes, others were pseudo reflexes without focus coupling between the taking and viewing lenses.

Hobix

The Tougodo company also announced the Hobix camera in the 1940s and continued with a second model in the early 1950s. Styled like miniature 35mm twin lens reflexes, the cameras used eye-level viewfinders plus small waist-level finders fed by a viewing lens above the shooting lens. The shooting lens was fixed focus, so there was no focus coupling with the viewing lens, but the cameras enjoyed a good range of shutter speeds and apertures. They shot 24x24mm images.

Start

The Ikko Sha Company launched the Start 35 in 1950. This was little more than a snapshot camera with only an ‘I’ and ‘B’ setting for the shutter and no other controls. The Start 35 K and Start 35 KII which followed in 1952 and 1958 had similar meagre specifications, although the second version added flash synchronisation. The K series, however, offered a new image size of 24x36mm by placing the red window at the base of the body, thus reading the 1-10 configuration on the Bolta film’s backing paper.

Meisupii

Another product of the Tougodo company, the Meisupii name was used on several cameras with varying specifications. This one, from 1952, is one of the earliest which, on a good day in poor light, might be said to have been influenced by the Leica, whose film format of 24x36mm it shared. Unlike some of the other basic Meisupii models this one was well specified with a 50mm f/4.5 Meica focusing lens and shutter speeds of 1/25-1/150sec.

Richlet

Here we have possibly the most stylish of all the Japanese Bolta film cameras. Made by the Rich-Ray company in 1953, this one placed the red window at the top of the body, thus giving ten 24x36mm exposures. With an art deco design, the Richlet was made of Bakelite with metal trimmings. The lens focused from 45cm to infinity, while two tiny knobs on the front offered apertures of f/8 or f/5.6 and shutter speeds of 1/25–1/100sec plus a ‘B’ setting. The back hinged open for film loading and there was a small compartment under the viewfinder to house a spare roll of Bolta film.

Mickey 35

Also in 1953, the Miki Camera Company of Tokyo produced the Mickey 35. Designed in upright style with eye-level viewfinder at the top of the body, the film moved vertically while a central red window provided 24x24mm images. A small range of apertures of f/8, f/11 and f/16 was available, alongside a shutter speeded only for 1/30 second and ‘B’. Coupled with its name, the camera featured a small embossed logo of Mickey Mouse on the back of the body though its style didn’t resemble the real Mickey too closely and it is doubtful that its use was sanctioned by the Disney organisation.

Mamiya Mammy

Following World War II as the Japanese photo industry struggled to get back on its feet, some manufacturers were known to share designs, which is perhaps why the Mammy, introduced in 1953, looks a lot like the Start 35 K cameras from around the same time. The difference is that while the Starts had basic snapshot specs, the Mammy was well specified with a 45mm f/3.5 Cute (its name, not an observation) focusing lens and shutter speeded 1/25-1/100sec. The centrally-placed red window allowed Bolta film to be wound to its first frame, after which the wind knob was turned until it stopped, then firing the shutter released it to be wound again. In this way, the Mammy produced ten 24x28mm images.

Other 35mm roll film cameras

While Bolta film cameras were spreading their way through Germany and Japan, many other camera manufacturers from around the world were also trying out their own versions of paper-backed, quazsi-35mm roll film.

America: No.00 film

In 1933, the American Universal Camera Corporation introduced the Univex A which sold for 39 cents. The camera took Universal’s own No. 00 roll film on spools 35mm wide, producing images 29x38mm. In the years that followed Universal produced a range of cameras for their No.00 film, including the Univex AF-4, Iris, Zenith and Twinflex before introducing the unusually designed Mercury in 1938. That one took No.200 roll film, on which it shot half-frame 18x24mm images.

England: E10 film

In 1934 and 1935, the Houghton company introduced two new cameras: the Ensign Midget and the Ensign Mickey Mouse camera. Although very different in style, each took the same E10 film, which was 35mm wide and wound onto spools with backing paper to shoot six 30x40mm pictures.

There were five cameras in the Midget range, each of which folded to 8x4x1.5cm with a lens panel that extended on four struts. A wire frame finder folded up from the front and a waist-level optical viewfinder folded out on an arm from behind the lens panel. Top of the range was the Model 55 with a focusing Ensar f/6.3 lens and a three-speed shutter offering 1/25–1/100sec. The Model 33 was similar, but with a fixed focus lens and apertures designated only as ‘small’ and ‘large’. The Model 22 was launched with a redesigned front plate and viewfinder plus fixed focus lens, fixed aperture and single shutter speed. In 1936 rippled silver versions of the Model 33 and Model 55 were introduced to commemorate the silver jubilee of King George V and Queen Mary.

The Ensign Mickey Mouse Camera was a small box camera with a simple meniscus fixed focus lens, a fixed aperture and a shutter offering only ‘T’ and ‘I’ settings for ‘time’ and ‘instantaneous’. The front carried the Ensign name and Mickey Mouse embossed into the leatherette, with a red and silver decal below the lens that depicted Mickey.

America: 828 film

In 1935, Kodak jumped on the miniature roll film bandwagon with the introduction of 828 roll film, 35mm wide with an image size of 28x40mm. The 828 size was introduced with the first Kodak Bantam, which was basically a snapshot camera, but reached a peak in the 1936 Bantam Special, a well-specified masterpiece of art deco design. This folded into a clam-shape metal case, from which it unfolded to reveal a 45mm f/2 Anastigmat Ektar lens that focused down to 3ft, coupled rangefinder and shutter speeds running 1-1/500sec.

France: Elji film

Made in 1937 by the Lumière company, the first Elji camera was introduced together with its own miniature roll film. Although the camera measured only 7.5×4.5x4cm, it was well specified with shutter speeds of 1/10-1/150sec, an f/3.5 lens and focusing from 75cm to infinity. The film was actually smaller than 35mm with a width of only 30mm, despite which it turned out eight 24x36mm images to a roll to match the traditional Leica size. In 1951, the same film was used in an upgraded and much sleeker version of the camera called the Elji Cub.

England: Vogue V-35 film

Coronet was well known for making box cameras, simple Bakelite models and a few folding cameras. But occasionally, the company did something completely different, as in the Vogue, launched in 1937. The camera was made of brown Bakelite in a horizontal style with drop-down bed and self-erecting lens panel fronting brown bellows. Shutter speed, aperture and lens focus were all fixed. Check out the camera on the internet and it often states that the Vogue took 828 film. It didn’t. The spools for 828 were very slightly too large and the fittings top and bottom of the spools were not compatible with the camera. The camera’s specially-made V-35 film produced 30x50mm images.

England: Compass film

The Compass was one of the most unusual and complicated miniature cameras ever made. Introduced in 1937, it was designed by English entrepreneur Noel Pemberton-Billing and built by a Swiss watch manufacturer called Le Coultre. The camera measured only 6.5×2.5×5.5cm, but into those trim dimensions, it packed three built-in filters, a collapsible lens hood, spirit level, rangefinder, special heads for panoramic and stereo photography, an Anastigmat 35mm f/3.5 focusing lens, shutter speeds from 4½-1/500sec, a ground-glass focusing screen under a hood on the back, right-angle viewfinder, depth of field scale and an internal extinction-type exposure meter. Exposure was measured and set by a complicated system of numbers deduced from the meter, aperture settings and filter factors, which were added together and set on the shutter speed dial.

• The Compass camera – the World’s most complicated camera?

The Compass took pictures on single sheets of film, each individual sheet packed into a light-tight sleeve for insertion into the back of the camera. On this, one shot at a time, the camera produced 24x36mm images. A specially-made roll film back, fitted to the camera in place of its usual detachable back, took Compass miniature roll film on which it produced a similar size image. A second film back, made by an independent company called Cubitt, was also available to take 828 size film.

America (and world-wide): 126 cartridge film

Although some manufacturers had tried cartridge loading before, the idea never caught on with any lasting success until 1963 when Kodak introduced the Instamatic series. Suddenly, film loading – the bane of photography for many snapshot photographers – was solved with the introduction of the 126 size Kodapak cartridge, used in Kodak’s Instamatic cameras. Inside the plastic cartridge was paper-backed 35mm wide film with one registration sprocket hole per frame. The black backing paper on which the film type and exposure numbers were printed was viewed through a rectangular slot in the camera back, and the image size was 28x28mm.

The Kodak Instamatic range was vast, as was the plethora of cameras built first by Kodak and subsequently by other major manufacturers to accept the new film size. It’s probable that more 126 size cartridge films were produced than all the other 35mm-type roll films put together.

Related reading

• The classic Rolleiflex camera – a century of legend and legacy
• Here are 20 of the weirdest and most wonderful cameras ever made
• How to check if a film camera works

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