January 2021

My collection of film cameras now exceeds 60 different models, and a narrow majority of them use 135 (or “35mm”) film. Each and every one of those cameras owes part of its existence to one man: August Nagel. While the use of 35mm film stocks in still photography was not new, it was Dr. Nagel who saw the value of a daylight-loading film cassette that came factory-loaded with 35mm film, so that photographers wouldn’t have to load their own film into proprietary containers in a darkroom. Nagel’s approach became known as 135 roll film, and to align with the introduction of the film in 1934, Dr. Nagel designed a camera to use it: the Kodak Retina. It would eventually become a long and popular line of cameras that continued well past Dr. Nagel’s death, but the very first of them was the Kodak Retina Nr. 117 — “Nr.” (rather than “No.”) owing to its German origins.

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