the Kodak Brownie camera introduced in 1901 brought photography to the masses
Kodak introduced pre-packed 35mm film cartridges (135 film) in 1934 and color slide film (Kodachrome) in 1936, while color negative film was not produced until Agfa introduced it in 1939, and later, by Kodak as Kodacolor in 1942.
before the 1960's, most consumers only had access to a Kodak Brownie and took black and white photos, but those who could afford it, were most likely to have either a 35mm rangefinder or a 120 roll film twin lens reflex camera.
in the early 1960's, the Kodak Brownie was replaced by the Kodak Instamatic which used 126 drop-in cartridge film for ease of use.
Polaroid Instant cameras also became popular during the 1960's.
the increasing popularity of the SLR film camera during the 1960's, previously the domain on professionals, became very popular for amateurs in the 1970's, particularly with the advent of electronic flash and new smaller, lighter models such as the Olympus OM, Pentax ME, Canon AE and similar becoming more affordable and easier to use.
the 1980's saw the gradual introduction of autofocus cameras, culminating in the development of the new Canon EOS SLR's which dominated the professional photography world in the 1990's supplanting Nikon's previous dominance since 1959, largely due to the availability of fast AF combined with excellent fast aperture lenses which was needed for photojournalism in particular.
the 21st century saw the rapid improvement in digital technology which took the analog film world by surprise and relegated it to a niche market.
digital photography with its almost zero cost for each extra image, its immediacy of feedback, and unprecedented access to post-processing and publishing has made photography far more accessible to the consumer than ever before.