Kodak, Brownie, Premo and Hawkeye
I have chosen to differentiate between the "classic" box camera and other cameras. These cameras are almost invariably used at waist-level, occaisionally with one (portrait format) but usually two viewfinders, and constructed of cardboard, wood and metal to various degrees. Twin-lens-reflex style cameras and plastic-bodied cameras are covered in the Viewfinder Cameras section and the appropriate film-size section. A box camera is just that, a box, and as such never has bellows. Folding cameras (with bellows) are covered in the Folding Cameras section of this web-site. Some cameras include the word "cartridge" in the model name. This is because a roll of film was considered to look like a shotgun cartridge and also to help differentiate between similar cameras that used plates or Film Packs.
The last box camera to be produced by Kodak in the USA was the Brownie Target Six-20, though the Brownie Six-20 Model D was imported later. Kodak Limited in the UK continued to produce box cameras until 1960, with the Brownie Flash B, Flash II and Flash III.
Premo Cameras
Having taken over the "Rochester Optical and Camera Company" in 1903, Eastman Kodak produced cameras with the "Premo" name until 1926. To my knowledge, very few Premo models were marketed in Europe, they certainly are not common here, hence the relative paucity of these cameras in my collection.
|