The first Kodak made round mistakes

George Eastman’s camera patent, granted on September 4, 1888, described an improved form of the “detective camera”: a small box that could be used discreetly without a tripod.

The Kodak built from it did not produce rectangular photographs. Its snapshots were circles, 2⅝ inches across.

This was not merely a jaunty new format. The camera’s lens gave poor definition near the edges, so a circular mask in front of the film blocked the worst of the image. A technical defect acquired a clean border.

The circle also suited the rest of the camera. There was no viewfinder, only faint V-shaped lines on top of the leather case to help with aiming. With no corners in the finished picture, the photographer did not need to hold the camera perfectly level. A tilted horizon might still look odd, but at least the entire print would not announce the tilt.

Operating the camera meant winding the film, pulling a string to set the shutter and pressing a button. It arrived loaded for 100 exposures. When those were finished, the owner could send the whole box to Kodak, which developed the film, made prints and returned the camera reloaded. The Smithsonian’s description notes that owners could instead buy film and finish their own pictures, but the factory service was the system Eastman advertised.

The famous promise—“You press the button, we do the rest”—usually sounds like a division of labour. The customer handled composition; Kodak handled chemistry. But the original camera also reduced what composition required. Wide angle, generous depth of field and round pictures made aiming approximately good enough.

Kodak did not first make amateur photography simple by perfecting every part of it. At the edge where the lens became unreliable and the operator might become crooked, it stopped the picture.