August Nagel was born in June 1882 and died in October 1943. He was a German camera maker and designer. He helped start Zeiss-Ikon and later started his own company called Nagel Werke. He later sold this company to Eastman Kodak. His most important contribution was creating the Kodak 135 film cartridge, which is still the standard used worldwide for 35mm still cameras.

Biography

In 1908, at age 26, August Nagel and his friend Carl Drexler started a company called Drexler & Nagel in Stuttgart. Their goal was to make photographic equipment. That same year, they created the Contessa No. 1, a camera that used film in the 4 + 1⁄2 cm × 7 cm size. In 1909, the company changed its name to Contessa Camera Works Stuttgart. By 1910, the company had grown and produced 23 different camera models, which were sold worldwide. Nagel, who loved sports and balloon flying, helped design cameras for mapping, geography, and military use. He also created a special camera for balloons. In 1918, the University of Freiburg honored Nagel with the title of Doctor for his work on balloon and aviator cameras.

During World War I, the factory employed 500 workers and made military supplies. After the war, the company grew by introducing new ideas and buying other businesses. It became known as Contessa-Nettel. In 1926, Nagel joined forces with three other companies—Ernemann, Goerz, and Ica—and with financial support from Zeiss, they created Zeiss Ikon. Nagel was in charge of manufacturing. However, two years later, he left to start his own company, Dr.-August Nagel-Factory, where he made cameras like the Librette, Recomar, Vollenda, and Pupille.

In 1932, Nagel sold his company to Eastman Kodak, which formed the Kodak AG division. With extra money, Nagel worked on creating a high-quality, affordable 35mm camera to compete with Leica and Contax. He introduced the Retina 35mm camera and a new type of pre-rolled 35mm film called Kodak 135. This film fit into both Leica and Contax cameras and became the standard 35mm film used today.

The Retina and Retinette cameras became Kodak’s main 35mm products in Europe and America. As World War II began, these cameras were among Kodak AG’s most important products. August Nagel died in 1943 at age 61, but production of Retina cameras continued during and after the war. Through the late 1950s, Retina cameras evolved and diversified until Japanese competition weakened the German camera industry. Though Kodak AG’s products declined in quality, they still made single-lens reflex cameras with interchangeable lenses into the 1960s. Later Retina models became simple cameras with fixed lenses. The Kodak Instamatic Reflex, made between 1968 and 1972, was similar to a Retina Reflex but used Instamatic film cassettes instead.