Strange Film Camera Facts: Pigeons, Spies and a Hasselblad Left on the Moon

One of the things I love about old cameras is the history around them. Even a fairly ordinary camera makes you wonder where it has been and what pictures it has taken.

Then there are the stories that sound completely made up. Cameras strapped to pigeons, cameras disguised as matchboxes, and expensive equipment deliberately left on the Moon.

Here are a few of my favourite strange facts from the world of film photography.

Pigeons were taking aerial photographs before drones

In the early 1900s, German pharmacist and amateur photographer Julius Neubronner experimented with fitting small cameras to pigeons. He received a patent for his invention in 1908.

The birds carried the cameras into the air, allowing photographs to be taken from above. There was, however, a fairly obvious problem: a pigeon doesn’t necessarily fly where you want it to. The Military Intelligence Museum describes the invention as having mixed success for precisely that reason. I like the ambition behind it. Someone looked at a pigeon and decided it needed photographic equipment.

It also puts our complaints about autofocus into perspective. At least your camera usually stays where you leave it.

The Apollo 11 camera stayed on the Moon

The Hasselblad used to photograph the lunar surface during Apollo 11 had a rather unusual retirement.

After taking the pictures, the astronauts brought the exposed film magazines back into the lunar module. The camera and its lens were left behind at Tranquility Base.

This was specially adapted equipment, too. NASA describes modifications including a silver exterior to help control temperature and changes to lubricants so they could cope with the vacuum. A glass plate inside the camera produced the familiar reference crosses visible in lunar photographs. 

There is something brilliant about the film being the part that made the return journey. Once the photographs had been taken, those little rolls held the reason for carrying the camera all that way.

Still, leaving a Hasselblad behind would take some getting used to.

With the original Kodak, you posted the whole camera back

When Kodak introduced its original camera in 1888, it came loaded with enough film for 100 exposures.

Once you had finished, you sent the entire camera back to Kodak. The company developed the film, made the prints, loaded fresh film and returned the camera.

The camera initially cost $25, with processing and reloading costing $10. Kodak’s slogan, “You press the button, we do the rest,” was a fairly accurate description of the arrangement.

I can see the appeal. You could take photographs without having to learn the chemistry or set up a darkroom.

Although if you think waiting for your scans is frustrating, imagine waiting for your camera to come back as well.

Kodak also made a camera disguised as a matchbox

Kodak’s history includes something rather less obvious than family snapshots.

During the Second World War, the company developed a tiny camera for the Office of Strategic Services, the American intelligence organisation that preceded the CIA.

It used 16mm film and was shaped like a matchbox. A suitable local matchbox label could be added to help it blend in wherever it was being used.

Resistance personnel used it behind enemy lines. It had a rugged construction, few adjustable settings and controls that could be operated by touch. 

What interests me is how practical the design was. Everything about it served a purpose: keeping it hidden, making it dependable and allowing someone to operate it without staring down at the controls.

It sounds like a film prop, but people actually depended on it.

A three-year-old’s question helped inspire Polaroid photography

In 1943, Edwin Land photographed his three-year-old daughter, Jennifer, during a holiday in Santa Fe. She asked why she couldn’t see the photograph straight away.

That question prompted Land to think seriously about a system that could produce a photograph immediately after taking it.

Turning the idea into something usable took years of development. He publicly demonstrated instant photography in 1947, and the first commercial Polaroid camera, the Model 95, went on sale in 1948.

I like this story because the question is so reasonable. If you have just taken a picture, why shouldn’t you be able to see it?

Most parents would have explained that you had to wait. Land helped develop an entirely new photographic system. Quite a commitment to answering your child properly.

Leica’s early history includes a very relatable complaint: heavy cameras

I like a camera that feels solid. My fondness for the tank-like Zenit E probably gives that away. Carrying heavy equipment around all day is another matter.

Oskar Barnack, the designer behind the original Leica prototypes, was an amateur photographer with asthma. According to Leica’s history, he struggled with the weight of plate cameras.

His work with 35mm cinema film helped provide a solution. Running that film horizontally through a small still camera allowed a 24 × 36mm image—the dimensions familiar to generations of 35mm photographers. 

It is a part of camera history I find easy to appreciate. A major development in photography grew partly from the very ordinary desire to go out and take pictures without hauling quite so much equipment.

These stories are part of why film cameras hold my interest. Behind the shutters, lenses and winding levers are people solving strange problems, taking risks and occasionally deciding that a pigeon would make a suitable photographer.

I’ll stick to carrying my own camera, though.