Disc film
Disc film was a format introduced by Kodak, along with the cameras in 1982. The intention was to develop the Instamatic idea, of foolproof loading and simple operation, into cameras which would work in all lighting conditions. Developments in emulsion technology was allowing reasonable quality from very small negatives. The film was cut into rectangles for 15 8×10.5mm exposures, and arranged around a hub, in a similar manner to Viewmaster disks. The disc 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 discs had a magnetic strip included, to store information about print settings - allowing duplicate reprints to be made later. Kodak developed special aspherical lenses for the cameras and printing equipment.
The flat, roll-less arrangement of the film, meant that disc cameras could be very thin, and the negative size allowed very short focal-length lenses, and so lenses did not bulge out far. Most disk cameras were small & thin, mostly with automatic exposure, however the complex mechanism in a small space made manufacture difficult, and the film expensive.
Konica, Fuji and 3M also made disc film - which was also sold branded by other companies.
The quality of pictures was not good, due to the size of the negatives and the tendency of photo labs to print them using equipment designed for larger formats.
The format ultimately failed due to the poor picture quality, the relative expense of the cameras compared to other formats, and reliability problems. Newer, 35mm cameras had become more popular - providing much better images, and disc cameras went out of production in c.1988. Most manufacturers stopped making film shortly afterwards - although Kodak carried on with film until 1999.
Links
- Definition at PhotoNotes.org
- photos (text in German)
