BebuLamar

Yeah complaing a camera without grip is like complaining a loafter doesn't have laces.

Bridge Loc: Southern New Hampshire

Jerry
In your experience is it only 35mm size cameras that ever came with “grips” I have a Yash Mat 124 that came with a neck strap and of course no “hand grip” Are there any other “size” cameras with “grips”
Bridge

Spirit Vision Photography Loc: Behind a Camera.

As was the F3

BebuLamar

Well even the F5 was said to be designed by Italian Design.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

My medium format film cameras had a grip that screwed onto the tripod socket and one of them had a flash shoe and shutter button that contected to the body with a short plugin cord. The other just had the shutter button as a flash shoe was on the mirror housing of the camera.

The film cameras didn't need anything larger than a "button" battery as it only powered the light meter. Every thing else was manual.
Well you could buy a "power winder" that advanced the film or a motor drive which was a "pro" level more powerful power winder and there were also replacement backs that took rolls of 35mm movie film. I had one that took a roll of about 50 frames and they had big ones that were used by pro action and sports shooters that took 50 and 100 feet of 35mm film.

therwol Loc: USA

The Pentax 6x7 came with an optional left hand grip. The 6x7ii came with a right hand grip with the left one still optional. I checked out the used prices of these cameras now, and I was amazed. They range from around $1000 to $2000 for a body and thousands for a body with lenses.

Grips on TLRs were typically pistol grips screwed into the bottom of the camera.

(Download)

Craig Meyer Loc: Sparks, NV

An additional reason the old timey 35mm rangefinder and SLR 's were without later day glandular grips are:

They were designed to appeal to a desire for a smaller than (Actually) a bread box Press or Meduim format cameras.
They didn't use huge batteries which needed to be accommodated.
The lenses, even most longer ones Usually had smaller max apertures and were generally lighter. Also, there were no Mid-level zooms like the ones we all rely on today. My Sigma 17-70 weighs in at a POUND! Not unusual today.
As said, we all held the camera with the non-dominant hand under the lens to facilitate operating the focus ring, the aperture ring and, if there, the zoom ring.
I kinda like the grip.

delder Loc: Maryland

The Right Hand "Camera Grips" are a learning curve for us LEFT HANDERS!

MrPhotog

Speed Graphics in all of their sizes had grips of one sort or another. You see them in pictures from the 1930s, Common right side grip doubled as the battery case for the flash gun and electric solenoid shutter release. In the absence of a flash a wooden dowel worked too. The brackets for the handle came standard on the camera body.

The ‘potato masher’ style electronic flash units, like the Honeywell Futuramic design of the 1960s fit on a bracket that made them effectively handles. The hardware of those Honeywell brackets was built to the same diameter as the older Heiland flash guns used on the Graphlex cameras, and that diameter became a defacto standard through the 70s.

A different type of handle was on the left side of the camera—a leather hand strap that you put your hand inside. On the German Linhof Technikas there was an anatomically shaped hand grip on the left side which had a cable release for triggering the shutter.

Rolleiflex had a pistol grip that attached under the camera. Novoflex and others had handles and pistol grips in rifle stock shapes to support long telephoto lenses. The triggers on these were either used for focus or had a cable release built in.

Aerial cameras in WWII had built in handles on both sides so they could be held.

Just a few I remember. Handles go back a long way.

ecurb Loc: Metro Chicago Area

I just pulled a Nikon FM2 body with an MD12 motor drive from my museum case. The motor drive gives the assembly a nice grip.
I remember using Nikon F2 bodies with motors and 250 exposure backs and just using the film chambers as grips ! 🙃

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

While I was/am totally satisfied by the ‘grip’ on my Pentax “Super Program” {middle of page 1}

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

No, camera control is crucial, and designers know that is a component that consumers are expecting.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

The OP was asking when consumers came to expect that “bulge”.

The answer is that the first ‘modern’ camera I’m aware of was the Canon T90 - after that, consumers started expecting that ‘handle’ …… before then were the “retro” cameras which inspired Nikon’s “f” cameras.

Amadeus Loc: New York

So did machine guns in the open door of choppers in Viet Nam.

BebuLamar

The ones I operated had 2 handles instead of the gun stock.