Kodak Brownie

The original Kodak Brownie was introduced in 1900 at a retail price of one dollar, making it the first camera affordable for the mass market. Its low cost, combined with simple operation, effectively launched consumer snapshot photography and opened photography to people who were not professional photographers.

The camera was named after the popular 'Brownie' characters created by Canadian illustrator Palmer Cox, who appeared in children's books and magazines in the late 1800s. Kodak's marketing used Cox's characters extensively in advertising to position the camera as a fun, simple device anyone in the family could use.

The original 1900 Brownie used roll film rather than individual glass plates, which was key to its simplicity and appeal to amateur photographers. The specific film format it used is no longer in commercial production, though some later Brownie models accepted 120 film, which is still manufactured today.

Some Brownie models can still be used if they accept film formats still in production, such as 120 roll film used by certain later versions. However, many early Brownies used discontinued formats, and the cardboard and simple lens construction of the earliest models means image quality is extremely primitive by modern standards.