Kodak Disc
Kodak Disc is a cassette film system introduced in the fall of 1982 , which was supposed to replace pocket film . It consisted of the disc camera and a matching disc film .
Pocket cameras after 1980
Pocket cameras were extremely successful in the second half of the 1970s, but did not sell as well after 1980. With the advent of particularly compact 35mm cameras, their time seemed gradually to be over: Now you could take photos with 35mm cameras and only had a slightly larger camera in your hand. In this situation, Kodak saw the possibility of being successful again with particularly flat pocket cameras, which, however, also required a new film format. On February 3, 1982, Kodak presented a new camera system that went on sale at Photokina 1982.
Movies
Since the basic concept of a particularly flat camera also requires a flat film - as opposed to rolled-up 35mm films - 15 negatives, each 8 × 10.5 mm in size, were arranged on a 63 mm diameter disk and the result was “disc film " called. Another reason for the lens shape was its flatness: Compared to the pocket film, the negative area was 40% smaller, which made increased demands on the exact position in relation to the lens. In order to meet this requirement, a particularly stable film carrier called “Estar-Base” was created, which was not rolled, and the camera pressed a pressure plate against the film to take the picture. Since the smaller format resulted in a considerably higher magnification, the film had to have a finer resolution, which the specially developed material "Kodacolor HR" offered.
The film disk is encased in two plastic shells welded together and thus resembles a 3.5 ″ floppy disk . After inserting it into the camera, a slide is moved with the locking, which reveals the view of the image window. As with the pocket film, the display for the counter is in the film, this time on the inside on the disc. Around it there is a barcode for the film type and an individual identification number. The latter should simplify processing by the photo laboratory. A magnetic strip is also arranged around the core of the film disk, which contains the type of film, the film number and the information that a print is to be made for the copier. When the customer returned the disc to the photo lab to reorder, the number of images to be created on the magnetic strip was changed in the "Re-Order-Station" or set to zero for the negatives that were not reordered.
For film development, the discs were placed on a spindle that held 100 discs. The special thing was that this spindle had a much stronger movement in the chemicals compared to the normal C-41 process, as it rotated at around 100 revolutions per minute in the baths of the Kodak disc developing machine. After drying, these spindles were brought in pairs into a transport container and could be placed on the photo printer with this , so that 200 discs were always automatically exposed in one pass. The printer set the filtering automatically using a magnetic code on the discs for the type and manufacturer of the film (memory change). For the first time, the magnetic code also made it possible to print both the film number and the negative number of the image directly on the back of the images during the printing process, which was done with a dot matrix printer. The customer never had to pick up the disc film and look at it to reorder. The operator controlled the cutting of the images from the paper roll with the help of a monitor projector, which made it easy to assign the correct film disc and images to the order bag. Before development in the opening station for the films, the order envelope had already been printed with the film number of the magnetic stripe as the order number.
The disc film, in conjunction with the Kodak processing machines, was ideally prepared for the processing sequence in the large laboratory. The printing of the picture number on the back of the photo and the partially automated reordering of pictures by the customer was only possible later with the 135-35mm format using the DX code in the perforation. Due to the small film format of 8 × 11 mm, a tenfold magnification was necessary for the standard positive format of 9 × 11 cm. The modern film emulsions of the disc films, however, delivered a good quality. Compared to the pocket format 110, the number of successful (salable) images was higher, which is an important factor in a large laboratory.
Developed disc film disc, front and back
Closed disc film cassette
Retail packaging of a disc film
Disc negative viewing magnifier from Osram
Disc films were only offered as color negative materials with 15 exposures, there were no slide films and, accordingly, no slide projectors. There was also no black and white film.
Kodak presented the system with a film speed of ISO 200/24 °, the image quality corresponded to that of pocket film, so it was acceptable for normal 9 × 13 and 10 × 15 prints. With larger paper prints, however, the limits of this technology quickly became apparent. Despite the high resolution of the film material, the small dimensions of the negatives resulted in a characteristic “graininess” of the images, and in many cases there was a lack of color brilliance and depth of field , even under optimal photography conditions. Thus, despite everything, the quality of even simpler 35mm cameras and films was never achieved.
The standard process C-41 was selected for the development in order to get as many photo laboratories as possible to accept. As an indication of the disc format, the process has been named C-41A . Processing in the home laboratory was basically possible, there were simply no suitable inserts for developing boxes and enlargers .
Kodak itself stopped producing disc films in 1998. Few other manufacturers offered compatible footage: Fujifilm , Konica, and 3M . Films in this format have been considered exotic since the late 1990s at the latest, and in the 2010s they can only be obtained on the second-hand market with considerable effort and in questionable condition.
In the meantime (2013) it is also difficult to have prints made from disc negatives that have already been developed as part of reorders, since most large laboratories no longer have any machines in which the negative discs could be inserted. Disc film development is possible in the 2010s, for example, in a laboratory in Great Britain that specializes in old film formats.
Cameras
The disc cameras were 2.5 to 3 cm thick, about 8 cm high and 13 cm wide. They weighed about 200 g and always had an electric film transport. Kodak introduced the system with the Disc 2000, Disc 4000, Disc 6000 and Disc 8000 series. All models only had fixed focus lenses that covered distances from 1.2 m to infinity. Even with the two top-class models, although expensive over 200 DM, you could only slide a close-up lens in front of the lens in order to be able to photograph between 0.50 m and 1.5 m; the two simple models, however, had a built-in flash. The lens (12.5 mm; f / 2.8) was a special development, it consisted of four lenses, one of which was aspherical. Apart from the simplest model, the batteries were curiously built-in - Kodak spoke of long-life batteries, which should allow 2,000 pictures with 60% flash use. It was two lithium cells that were changed in the workshop.
Market importance
Disc cameras have hardly spread. They did not offer any noteworthy advantages over the now inexpensive 35mm cameras. It was also questionable from the start whether the associated film would be around for a long time. Kodak offered licenses to other companies, but not the film material and the specially developed lens. Later, Kodak tried again with the Advanced Photo System , which used re-rolled film in cartridges, to market a concept of uncomplicated photography with compact cameras.
literature
- Georg Bach: Disc cameras and disc films. Short interlude with moderate success. In: Photo Deal 101, II 2018, pp. 18–25.