Disc film
Disk film was a format introduced by Kodak in the late 1970s. The film was cut into 15 small rectangles for 8×10.5mm exposures, and arranged around a hub, in a similar manner to Viewmaster disks. The disk was mounted in a light-proof cassette which could simply be dropped in to the camera. The camera would take a photo, and then rotate the disk 24° for the next shot. The flat, roll-less arrangement of the film, meant that disk cameras could be very thin, and the negative size allowed very short focal-length lenses, and so small lens bulges. Most disk cameras were small & thin, with either fixed or automatic exposure, however the complex mechanism in a small space made manufacture difficult, and the film expensive.
Konica, Fuji and 3M also made disk film - which was also branded by other companies.
The quality of pictures was not good, due to the size of the negatives and the tendency of phot labs to print them using equipment designed for larger formats.
The format ultimately failed due to the poor image quality, the relative expense of the cameras compared to other formats, and reliability problems. Cameras went out of production in the early 1980s, and most manufacturers stopped making film shortly afterwards - although Kodak carried on with film until 1999.
Links
- Definition at PhotoNotes.org
- photos (text in German)
