Classic Film Cameras That Changed Photography

A gallery of the film cameras that set the pattern for how people take pictures, from a one-dollar box in 1900 to the titanium pocket compacts of the 1990s. Each photo shows the camera itself, and each one earned its place by changing something: a film format, a way of focusing, a price that put photography in more hands, or a design other makers copied for decades. The order is chronological, so scrolling through traces the path from box camera to rangefinder, twin-lens reflex, instant print, SLR and autofocus. Digital cameras are left out on purpose; this is the film era only. Several of these are still easy to find secondhand, and the captions say which ones still make sense to shoot with today.