The Birth of the 35mm Film

The 35mm film commonly used in both still photography and motion pictures was invented by Thomas Alva Edison in 1889. He is the same inventor of the incandescent light bulb. It's called 35mm film because the photographic film was cut into strips that were 35mm or 1 3/6 inches wide. It was first called the Edison size format. Another distinct feature of the 35mm film is that it contains 6 perforations every inch along both edges.

In the 1900s, Bell and Howard introduced the use of the 35mm film in photography. Other variations of the early photographic film was developed by the Lumière Brothers. The film used a single circular perforation in the middle of the film between the frames. Since then, despite the evolution of the 35 mm film both in size and function, it is still being used and preferred by some professional photographers. After a decade, the Kodak-Standard perforations was introduced and was used for projection. In 1913, still photography made use of the film format through the introduction of the Leica camera or the American Tourist Multiple. This type of camera was invented by Oskar Barnack. Incidentally, the said camera sold for about $175.