Camera Body

Information from “Practical Photography”, March 2001, p.38

Requirement on the Materials

Requirement on the Materials

Opaque –don’t want your film to record undesirable lightStrength –to support the mechanism and lensDurability – won’t fracture easily, won’t deform easily, won’t

scratch easily, won’t corrode easily…Weight – light but not too lightCost – you know the answer, or don’t you?Dimensional stability – the alignment and spacing of

components must be kept at close toleranceProcessability – hundreds of operations are required for

making the camera body

1839 The Daguerreotype Camera

1839 The Daguerreotype Camera

The first commercial successful camera

Wooden boxBrass lens barrel and

lens mountNo shutterFocus with ground

glass

1895 The Sanderson1895 The Sanderson

Wood and rubberized cloth

Flexible bellow enables perspective control

Can be folded into smaller dimension for outdoor use

1900 The Brownie1900 The Brownie

Made with jute boardSmall and light even for

childrenCan be made with very

low cost (25p at that time)The first to use 120 roll

film

1925 The Leica I1925 The Leica I

The first 35mm cameraHand made with brass

with chromium plating and paint

Why use brass?Do you know the shutter

material?

1959 The Nikon F1959 The Nikon F

Aluminium die-cast internal structure with brass top and bottom plates

Titanium shutter

See this page as wellhttp://www.nikon.co.jp/main/eng/society/rhnc/index.htm

1985 The Minolta 70001985 The Minolta 7000

First AF cameraAl die cast internal

stucture, with glass fiber reinforced polycarbonate external structure

How is GFRP compared with brass or zinc die-cast?

State of the ArtState of the Art

The internal structure is still mainly Al die-cast

High-end product: Ti- and Mg-alloy shell prevails

Consumer grade: polymeric materials are used widely