2026-05-23 Kodak Vest Pocket Camera

Collecting can be a multiple step hobby. 
    First you have to happen across something you want to add to your collection. This can happen by reading about a particular camera and thinking, “That sounds like something I would like to have.” Or you can see the camera at a thrift store, or online, or at a camera club meeting and think again, “If I ever find one of those, I should snap it up.” 
    In my case I do a lot of looking and it is only when the second part of the process—the right price at the time—kicks in I snap things up, It sounds more like I am putting on airs, because I buy literally anything photographic if the price is right. And by price is right I mean too cheap to pass up.
    Then I clean the new items up. This can take from minutes to hours, using cotton swabs (dry and soaked with water and/or alcohol), tooth brushes, paper towels and sometimes rags.
    Next I research the item on the internet. I read about the item, paying attention to its history, reviews comparing the item to other products and why people were drawn to use it. Sometimes I have to try to find out how to the repair the item, watching videos and reading how others fixed problems.
    I then take images of the item and write an article. Over the last four years I have had these articles featured on the Edmonton Photographic Historical Society’s FaceBook page and later on an internet site—edmphotosociety.com. For ten years before that—from 2000 to 2010— I put out AllPhotography, a printed newsletter I wrote. 
    Recently I was given the opportunity—virtually the first time in my life—to  choose and take anything I wanted from a  huge tote filled with cameras. There were a couple of cameras the lady wanted to keep but I still had everything from a Pentax autofocus to cheap plastic cameras to choose from. I took seven cameras. 
    

Now I have tried cleaning them up a little and researching them one-by-one on the internet. This was the third camera—a Vest Pocket Kodak. The Vest Pocket Kodak is a very interesting little camera, partially because of a regulation in the First World War. It was forbidden to have a camera while you were in uniform at the front. This regulation was largely ignored to the tune of 1.6 million cameras being sold to troops. The Vest Pocket cameras went on in various models to sell 3 million in total.

There were a couple of reasons the camera was so popular.

It—

• was a very small camera
• was fairly cheap
• had little pecularities, like having built-in exposure recomendations
• had its len behind the shutter and aperture—so the lens stayed reasonably clean

    Here are various nuggets taken from the internet postings (some are repeated and some don’t match)
The Vest Pocket Kodak cameras were a best-selling folding camera series made by Eastman Kodak (Rochester), from 1912 to 1935. They were the first cameras to use the smaller 127 roll film, on which they make eight exposures, 4 x 6.5 cm (1.57 x 2.56 in) in size.

Vest Pocket Kodak (1912-1914)

This is the original model and doesn't have the Autographic feature which was added to create the later models. Within the three years of production it sold a little more than 200,000 units. It had to be loaded through the top, inserting both film spools at once with the film stretched between them. It had the small three-blade variant of Kodak's Ball Bearing Shutter No.0. Folded it was really handsome, not bigger than many modern compact cameras. Hidden behind its lens board was its brilliant finder.     A strut folding variant had a f/6.8 72mm achromatic meniscus lens, hidden behind a mask that allowed a maximum aperture of f/11. The British version exclusively got a true f/6.8 lens from Italian optics maker Koristka. 
    

The Vest Pocket Kodak took film negatives slightly larger than a postage stamp—just 1⅝ by 2½ inches. This format was the same as the No 0 Folding Pocket Kodak which had been introduced 10 years earlier. However, improved design and manufacturing the camera body in metal instead of wood meant that the VPK could be made much smaller. When closed, the VPK measures just 1 by 2½ by 4¾ inches.
The VPK was favourably reviewed by the photographic press. The British Journal Photographic Almanac, for example, thought that:

• In the very excellent design and finish of the apparatus we see the familiar determination of the Kodak makers to produce always the best type of a given article. The Vest Pocket Kodak, though taking a very small picture, is nevertheless a thoroughly reliable instrument, and not at all dear at its price of £1 10s (£1.50).*

*£1.50 could be 6 weeks rent. Its not so cheap!

    Up to this time, films had been identified by the type of camera they fitted. To simplify things, a consecutive numbering system, starting from 101, was adopted, with numbers allocated in the order in which the various film sizes first appeared. Film for the VPK was the 27th roll film format to be produced and became 127 film. It was a very popular film format for many years; Kodak only stopped producing 127 film in 1995.

    The aperture on this Vest Pocket Kodak is marked in words and numbers. 
Marked on the camera lens bezel bottom—
1 Near View / Portrait (f/11)
2  Average view (f/16)
3  Distant View (f/22)
4  Clouds / Marine (f/32)
    On a Vest Pocket Camera Model B, a later drop bed camera, at aperture one, the camera focuses from 7.5 feet to infinity, two is 6.33 feet to infinity, three is 5 feet to infinity and Four is 4 feet to infinity.
    The Vest Pocket Autographic takes 127 roll film, which Kodak introduced in 1912 and manufactured until 1995. The negative size is roughly 44mm x 66mm, and is quite a bit bigger than a 24mm x 36mm negative from a full-frame 35mm camera (Note 3.33x bigger!).  It has speeds of 25 and 50 sec, and an apertures marked with 1, 2, 3, and 4—these aperture values equate to f/11, f/16, f/22, and f/32. It has a unique design, as the lens is mounted behind the shutter and aperture. This protected the lens from scratches; the optics on mine were in great shape. Everything on the camera appeared to be fully functional.

    

The Vest Pocket Kodak doesn’t have a tripod mount or a cable release socket.     Photographers used huge folding cameras for years that didn’t even have shutters! The process was hang your hat on the lens, pull the dark slide out of the holder, slightly lift the hat from the camera—still blocking most of the light—while waiting for the vibrations to die down, wait for the right moment and then swipe the hat away to make the exposure. Exposure time was dependant on how fast you got the hat back in place (and what time was required by the film and conditions). Then you re-inserted the plate holder’s dark slide.

    With the Vest Pocket Kodak you would find a secure place to stand the camera (vertical and horizontal—the camera would rest fine on flat surfaces). You could simply press the shutter release on B (for bulb) and the shutter would stay open until you released the pressure on the shutter release. This work best when the camera is vertical as the shutter release is being pressed down, as opposed to sideways when taking horizontal photographs.

    Or you could use the T (for Time) shutter position. Using time the shutter opens and stays open until the shutter release is pressed again. You could use the “hat” method with the time shutter speed to eleminate any possibilty of vibration of the camera during the exposure.