In 1898, booming out to the masses of photography Kodak introduced its first folding camera: the Folding Pocket Kodak was designed to produce images in a format very close to today’s 6×9 (5.5 x8 cm) . Looking at the “pocket” included in the name, you can imagine what was the spirit that had led to the design and implementation of this new type of camera.
In addition to the new model was introduced, as was customary in those days, a new film format wrapped in roll for loading in the presence of light; with the subsequent numerical coding of 1913 this format will take the number 105 . Both the camera and its film were quite successful and this is one of the fundamental steps for the transformation of Kodak in the photographic industry giant who has then been almost a century; production was interrupted only in 1915 and are estimated to have sold more than 200,000 cameras.
As said it is a roll film which can provide 12 poses in the format 5.5 x 8 cm: film was not perforated and had a width of 6 cm, wrapped around a spool initially built in wood and later metal of the same size as that adopted for the more recent 620 format; the film was then protected by a light-tight paper that allowed to handle it without special precautions.
Cameras and film
The format is closely related to one Kodak camera, the lucky Folding Pocket which is the most important camera built for 105 format; with the emergence of new and even smaller roll film formats and more modern cameras that used them, the 105 roll underwent a rapid decline and was withdrawn from the market shortly after the Second World War, in 1949. Were produced exclusively panchromatic B&W emulsions by Kodak and to date there is no information of any other manufacturers.
Using the format 105 today
Despite the size of the source references at the beginning of the last century, if you had a camera that accepts 105 format, it could easily used even today; the size of the film allow to adapt a modern 120 film without any change with the only foresight to provide for a filing of the ends of the spool to reduce the size up to coincide with those of 620 native spools. Alternatively, if available, you can wrap the 120 film directly onto a 105 or 620 spool.