While looking through a camera manual I came across something interesting. With today’s digital cameras and smartphones we look for ways to manipulate the dials and buttons. The manual I’m looking at is a bit different. It was written in 1888. Yes, that’s 1888. It’s the manual for the original Kodak Camera.

That camera was loading with enough film to take 100 photos. It was meant to be returned to Kodak to be unloaded, developed, and returned to the owner. Yes, unloaded. They wanted you to send the whole camera back.

If you didn’t want to actually return the camera, they provided what was needed to develop the film yourself.

Next time you complain about how difficult it is to print a picture think about how easy it is to get bromide potassium, hyposulphite soda, and Eastman’s collodion.