Box Camera

The box camera is mechanically simple, the most common form is a cardboard or plastic box with a lens in one end and film at the other. The lenses are often single element designs meniscus fixed focus lens, or in better quality box cameras a doublet lens with minimal (if any) possible adjustments to the aperture or shutter speeds. Because of the inability to adjust focus, the small lens aperture and the low sensitivity of the sensitive materials available, these cameras work best in brightly lit daylit scenes when the subject is within the hyperfocal distance for the lens and of subjects that move little during the exposure -- snapshots. During the box cameras heyday, box cameras with photographic flash, shutter and aperture adjustment were introduced, allowing indoor photos.