A folding camera is a camera

Camera

A camera is a device that records and stores images. These images may be still photographs or moving images such as videos or movies. The term camera comes from the camera obscura , an early mechanism for projecting images...

 that can be folded to a compact and rugged package when not in use. The camera objective

Objective (optics)

In an optical instrument, the objective is the optical element that gathers light from the object being observed and focuses the light rays to produce a real image. Objectives can be single lenses or mirrors, or combinations of several optical elements. They are used in microscopes, telescopes,...

 is sometimes attached to a pantograph

Pantograph

A pantograph is a mechanical linkage connected in a special manner based on parallelograms so that the movement of one pen, in tracing an image, produces identical movements in a second pen...

-like mechanism, in which the lid usually is a component. The objective extends to give correct focus

Focus (optics)

In geometrical optics, a focus, also called an image point, is the point where light rays originating from a point on the object converge. Although the focus is conceptually a point, physically the focus has a spatial extent, called the blur circle. This non-ideal focusing may be caused by...

 when unfolded. A cloth or leather

Leather

Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry.-Forms:...

 bellows

Bellows (photography)

In photography, a bellows is the pleated expandable part of a camera, usually a large or medium format camera, to allow the lens to be moved with respect to the focal plane for focusing....

 keeps the light out. When folded, the camera has an excellent physical size to film size ratio. This feature was very appealing when the only film formats available were large or medium format films.

Folding cameras were dominant from the beginning of the 20th century to WWII

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, and medium format folders were produced in USSR until the 1960s. The typical amateur

Amateur

An amateur is generally considered a person attached to a particular pursuit, study, or science, without pay and often without formal training....

 camera of the 1930s was a folding 6 x 9 camera using either the 120

120 film

120 is a film format for still photography introduced by Kodak for their Brownie No. 2 in 1901. It was originally intended for amateur photography but was later superseded in this role by 135 film...

 or 620 film size.

The use of folding cameras began to decline after WWII with the development of the 35mm film

135 film

The term 135 was introduced by Kodak in 1934 as a designation for cartridge film wide, specifically for still photography. It quickly grew in popularity, surpassing 120 film by the late 1960s to become the most popular photographic film format...

 format, which allowed the construction of small-sized cameras without use of a bellows. However, some 35 mm cameras were also of the folding type, such as the original Kodak Retina

Kodak Retina

Retina was the name of a long-running series of German-built Kodak cameras. Retinas were manufactured in Stuttgart by Nagel Camerawerk, which Kodak had acquired in 1931, and sold under the Kodak nameplate. Retinas were noted for their compact size, quality, and low cost compared to their...

.

Polaroid Corporation

Polaroid Corporation

Polaroid Corporation is an American-based international consumer electronics and eyewear company, originally founded in 1937 by Edwin H. Land. It is most famous for its instant film cameras, which reached the market in 1948, and continued to be the company's flagship product line until the February...

 produced a number of instant film folding cameras, including the famous SX-70

Polaroid SX-70

The SX-70 is a folding single lens reflex Land Camera which was produced by the Polaroid Corporation from 1972-1981.- History :Though Polaroid had considered a Henry Dreyfus-designed SLR for its Colorpack film, the SX-70 was the first instant SLR and the first camera to use Polaroid's new SX-70...

, which was also a single lens reflex camera.

The Seagull Camera

Seagull Camera

Shanghai Seagull Camera Ltd is a Chinese camera maker located in Shanghai, China. Seagull is the oldest camera maker in China. The product line of Seagull includes TLR cameras, SLR cameras, folding cameras, CCD and SLR camera lenses, large-format cameras, film, night vision scopes, and angle...

 model 203 was, throughout the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s an inexpensive folding camera often used as an introductory medium format camera.

In 2008, Voigtländer announced the Bessa III in its Classic Collection of retro-style camera bodies, a new 6x6 / 6x7 (120/220 film) medium format folding camera.