Brownie (camera) Brownie (camera) The Brownie was a long-running popular series of simple and inexpensive cameras made by Eastman Kodak. Introduced in 1900, it introduced the snapshot to the masses. It was a basic cardboard box camera with a simple meniscus lens that took 2 1/4-inch square pictures on 117 roll film. It was conceived and marketed for sales of Kodak roll films. Because of its simple controls and initial price of $1 () along with the low price of Kodak roll film and processing, The Brownie camera surpassed its marketing goal. It was invented by Frank A. Brownell. The name comes
120 film cameras. Most of these cameras use lenses intended for large format cameras for simplicity of construction. Cameras using 120 film will often combine the numbers of the frame size in the name e.g. Pentax 6×7 (6×7), Fuji 617 (6×17), and many "645"s (6×4.5). The number '6' in general, and the word 'six' are also commonly used in naming cameras e.g. Kiev 60 and Pentacon Six. The 105 format was introduced by Kodak in 1898 for their first folding camera and was the original 6×9 cm format roll film. The 117 format was introduced by Kodak in 1900 for their first