Kodak Camera's

George Eastman founded the Eastman Dry Plate Company in 1881. He sold still cameras with dry gelatin plates instead of glass plates. They gave better results but were also more laborious. In 1888 he bought the rights to an invention of David Henderson Houston: the camera with celluloid film roll. The inventor had named the device 'Nodak', after his native state of North Dakota, which had just been given state status in 1887. Eastman thought "Kodak" sounded better. The company released the first camera for the amateur photographer under the slogan 'you press the button, we do the rest'. This meant that the customer had to take his camera to a Kodak store to have the film exchanged. That happened in a dark room. Due to the popularity of the Kodak camera, George Eastman decided to change the company's name to 'Eastman Kodak Company'.

In a broad sense, a camera is a device that converts an incident light signal into a chemical blueprint or an electronic signal. The word camera comes from Latin and is the first word of the original expression camera obscura ("darkroom").

The Bantam RF Kodak Camera was manufactured by the Eastman Kodak Company from 1954 to 1957. Constructed of phenolic resin with brown Kodadur covering. Capable of taking eight exposures, 28  40 mm size, on No. 828 roll film. Originally offered as the town and country camera outfit in 1953, then as a camera only in 1954. It featured an Ektanon 50mm f3.9 lens and a Flash 300 shutter with speeds up to 1/300 second. Features included built-in double exposure prevention, built-in body shutter release, built-in synchronization, rangefinder, view finder, tripod socket, and a serial number. Originally priced at $62.75.

A product of Kodak AG, this relatively standard metal box camera has two points of note, a sliding lever giving three aperture stops and tripod sockets which are rather larger than the 'normal' " thread seen today. The camera is opened by simply depressing the front button retaining the carrying strap and sliding the front of the camera off, after extracting the film wind knob in the normal manner. 

Eastman Bullet camera, USA 1939 New York World's Fair

Special edition souvenir “Bullet” camera sold at the Eastman-Kodak Pavilion at the 1939-1940 New York World’s Fair. The camera’s faceplate features the Fair’s dominant architectural features, The Trylon and the Perisphere. At the Fair, the “Bullet” camera sold for $2.25. Fairgoers also had the option of buying a Kodak “Brownie” camera for $2.75. After purchasing their cameras, visitors could take advantage of the Kodak-Photo Garden, which featured a number of snapshot ready tableaux as well as views of some of the Fair’s most interesting features.

The Kodak Duaflex is a 620 roll film pseudo TLR made by Kodak in the US, Canada, and UK. The original versions were available from December 1947 - September 1950 in the US, and 1949-1955 in the UK; the Duaflex IV was finally discontinued in the US in March 1960. The various Duaflexes had Bakelite bodies (identified by Kodak as "Kodadur") with metal fittings and trim, and were available with either a simple fixed focus 75mm f/15 Kodet lens, or with a 72mm f/8 Kodar triplet lens in a front-element focusing (to 3.5 ft.) mount. The Kodar lens had Waterhouse stops of f/8, 11, and 16. The shutter had speeds of "I" and "B", and was synched for use with a Kodalite Flasholder. Early U.S.-made models (Duaflex and Duaflex II) had a dedicated Duaflex Flasholder, which was synchronized for SM and SF bulbs when the camera was set on "I". No. 5 and No. 25 bulbs could be used, but the "B" setting was required for those types. Later models (Duaflex III and IV) were modified to accept the aforementioned Kodalite Flasholder, which was also used on the Brownie Hawkeye Flash Model and other Kodak models.

Kodak Duaflex
Little more than a box camera with an oversized viewfinder, the UK model is shown on the left, the USA version on the right. Both of these cameras have the lower-specification f/15 lens, marked Kodet on the US example. Taking 12 pictures on 620 film, it has flash contacts for a clip-on flashgun and facility for time exposures. Manuufacturing between 1947-50 (US) and 1949-55 (UK)

Kodak Duaflex II
Otherwise identical in specification to the previous model, the UK made camera, on the left, features a fold-up viewfinder hood with a mirror in it, presumably to allow some sort of overhead periscope view. The US model, was also available with a focussing lens, shown here on the right, fitted with three aperture stops to f/16. A feature also fitted to this camera, which is missing from the fixed-focus variants, is a double exposure prevention interlock on the shutter button. Flash contacts are fitted for a clip-on flashgun. Manufacturing dates between 1950-54 (US) and 1955-60 (UK)