A Kodak for the Fashionable 1930's Woman

Going through one of the many boxes of cameras I came across one that immediately caught my eye.  Most cameras from the early part of the 20th century were pure form over function, and were mostly black.  It seems like camera companies were focused on putting a camera in peoples hands that worked and was easy to use rather than the look of the camera.  This seems to have changed at the end of the 1920's as Kodak decided that there was an untapped market that they needed to cater to, women.  

Kodak had been making reliable cameras since the late 1880's, starting with the original Kodak box camera and eventually morphing into folding cameras that were small enough to fit into a coat pocket.  There are multiple versions of the Kodak Vest Pocket in my grandpas collection but none as colorful as the Kodak Petite.  In 1929 Kodak released series of art deco versions of the Folding Vest Pocket camera that were marketed specifically to women.  This camera is a tiny version of the earlier Kodak folding cameras.  It takes film that is designated 127, which is a roll 46mm tall.  It creates negatives that are 4x6.5cm which is quite a bit larger than the popular 35mm size.  127 film has pretty much faded from existance, but there are a few places that you can still buy it.  There is a Canadian company that is taking Kodak film and trimming it to fit 127 roles and I have had really good results using it in a 127 film camera that I use on a pretty regular basis, I will probably do a write up on it later.  

The workings of this camera are pretty simple.  There are two settings for the shutter, I for instant and T for time allowing you to make longer exposures in lower light situations.  The aperture settings are a series of different sized holes drilled into a disk that rotates to give the lens a larger or smaller setting.  There is a very small viewfinder which you can see on the top right of the lens plate that can be rotated 90 degrees to allow the user to make landscapes or portraits.   A very cool feature of this camera is that there is a door on the back that allowed the user to record a note right onto the film, using the silver stylus.  This feature was common on many cameras through out the Kodak range at the time.  Even today I find myself wishing that I could record information about the pictures that I am taking.  An interesting thing to note about this camera is that the lens is behind the shutter, which is why you can't see any glass in the picture above.  

This camera was the camera phone of its day, not a very technical camera but with enough features to get the job done.  The size of the Vest Pocket cameras intrigues me and must have intrigued my grandpa as well since his collection has a bunch of them, this one defiantly being the most interesting and colorful.  

Kodak Tourist

I picked this camera as the first for my new blog after hearing about it on the latest Film Photography Podcast.  They did a review of the Tourist II and while listening to the podcast I realized that there was an earlier model in the collection, so I grabbed it out and started giving it a closer look.

This camera was made in the USA by Kodak between 1948 and 1952, which puts in right in the middle of the baby boom fueled snapshot craze that griped the US after WWII.  This camera, while produced as an affordable version of the Tourist range has a nice feel to it.  It has the heft of mid 20th century camera quality that lets you know that there is more metal than plastic in its construction.

This Tourist has a single Kodet lens which makes it the lower quality model.  It has a single shutter speed of 1/50 plus a bulb and time mode.  The only exposure adjustments are the aperture which is adjustable from f/12.5 to f/32.  This allows the user to adjust for different light levels but it is pretty much limited to outdoor use.

There is no focus adjustment, which simplifies shooting with this camera and due to the smaller aperture the focus seems like it would be pretty good over a large depth.  It seems like this is a precursor to the point and shoot cameras that became popular in the 1980's.  Unlike many earlier folding cameras this one does not require the user to cock the shutter.  It also has the shutter release on the front plate of the camera which when unfolded becomes the side.  This makes using the shutter much easier than earlier camera that had the shutter release on the lens.

This version of the Tourist takes the now unavailable 620 film that Kodak made exclusively for their cameras.  Luckily the film is the same as the popular and still available 120 format, the film spool being the only difference, which means that if you can find an empty 620 spool you can put 120 film onto it and use this camera.  Because it used the larger 620 film it creates a negative that measures 6cm tall and 9cm wide, which is huge compared to the 2.4x3.6cm size of a 35mm negative.  I think that the reason behind the large negative on a camera with such a low quality lens was the ability to do contact prints yielding 6x9cm prints.  This made it much easier and cheaper to print the film because with contact printing you place the negative directly on the paper, eliminating the need for a large costly enlarger.  This made home printing much more accessible for the average person.

The folding of this camera makes it very easy to carry for a medium format film camera. It also folds with a much smoother feel than older folding Kodaks that I have seen.

I don't know if my grandpa ever shot with this camera but of the folding cameras that I have seen in his collection this seems like one of the more user friendly models.  Pretty much all you have to do is unfold, pick the aperture, frame your shot and click.

First Post!

Hi and welcome to my new blog.  I am starting this as a way of sharing my love of photography and vintage cameras with my family and the rest of the world.  Just a warning that this is my first attempt at making a blog so it it is a bit rough please forgive me, this is going to be a learning experience.  Now on to some background.
My grandfather was an avid photographer and camera collector during the golden days of photography.  In the post WWII days of the inexpensive Kodaks, vivid colors of Kodachrome and way before any thoughts of the digitization of photography that is in full swing these days.  My grandfather had eight children which gave him ample subjects to shoot but it also limited his ability to purchase the newest and greatest of camera technology.  From talking with my grandmother she told me that he was a big fan of swap meets and second hand cameras which is evident when looking through his collection.  There are no Leicas or Hasselblads but there is a really good representation of cameras used by the common working class person from the early 1900's through the 1970's.  Using this blog I hope to show a little glimpse into my grandfathers passion and through that a little of my own as well.