Kodak 35 Kodak 35 The Kodak 35 was introduced in 1938 as the first US manufactured 35mm camera from Eastman Kodak Company. It was developed in Rochester, New York when it became likely that imports from the Kodak AG factory in Germany could be disrupted by war. While Kodak had invented the "Kodak 135 daylight-loading film cassette" in 1934, prior to 1938 they only offered the German made "Kodak Retina' to work with this cartridge. US built 35mm cameras used the 828 paper backed 35mm roll-film (Bantam Series). The first Kodak 35 has no rangefinder. It slightly resembles cameras like the German
Box camera of using glass photographic plates which were typical of earlier cameras. Before the introduction of the Kodak, photographers were responsible for making their own arrangements for the development and printing of their pictures. The first Kodak came pre-loaded with film and the customer returned the camera to Kodak for processing and to be reloaded with film for the customer. In 1900, a Yale plate box camera cost US $2 (about $ in dollars). and a Kodak rollfilm box sold for US $1 (about $ in dollars) Although many cameras of the mid nineteenth century were wooden and "boxy" in appearance