2026-06-26 Kodak Vigilant Six-20 Camera

Made from 1939 to 1949, the Kodak Vigilant Six-20 used 620 film. It produced eight 2¼ by 3¼ inch negatives on a roll.The Vigilant Six-20 was made with Kodak Anastigmat f/8.8, f/6.3, f/4.5 and Kodak Anastigmat Special f/4.5 100 mm lenses. This camera has a “Kodar” f/8.8 lens. The five-bladed iris is mounted on front of the shutter. The f/stops are marked at f/8.8, f/11, f/16, f/22 and f/32. This Vigilant has a Dakon shutter with speeds of Time, Bulb, 25, 50 and 100 second. The lens can focus down to under a marked 3.5 feet (maybe 3 feet?),

There are two viewfinders. There is a top mounted pop-up frame with front lens and rear window. There is also a waist level viewfinder attached to the lens/shutter housing framed by a horizontal and vertical view. This waist-level viewer can be swiveled if you are using the camera for horizontal shots.

   It has a body release that doesn’t work very well. There is a long train of levers to reach the shutter and somewhere along the train not enough motion reaches the actual shutter to cock and fire it.The shutter can be triggered on the shutter itself. This camera has a coin-slotted plug to a cable release socket on the side of the shutter.
   Likewise the bed release is too stiff to work. The bed can just be pried open without damaging anything.

In McKeown’s Price Guide to Antique & Classic Cameras (11 edition—2001 / 2002) the Vigilant Six-20 camera is shown with a Kodak flash sync post (facing the lens it is at about 1 o’clock). That camera has the Flash Dakon shutter. This camera hasn’t any flash sync, but behind the face of the lens at about the 1 o’clock location there is a small fold-out metal strip that levels the camera if you are resting the camera on a flat surface while taking horizontal photographs.

There is a much fancier fold-out metal tab—labelled “KODAK”—on the front of the fold-down bed for vertical shots. While on the front of the bed—and on the subject of vertical shots—there is a screw-out tripod screw cover. The camera has another tripod mount on the edge of the body for horizontal shots and to attach the camera in its distinctive case.

The case appears to be made of plastic (inside) and leather bonded to the outside. There is a single large flap with a single snap that wraps around the front. On the bottom edge there is a large metal-caged tripod screw that attaches the camera to the case. A neck strap is sewed to the case.

On the back of the case there is a hole with a metal sliding cover you can see the camera’s red frame window through. The camera has its own metal cover for the frame window.
The Kodak Vigilant Six-20 weighs 652 g (23 oz) and the “Six-20 Field Case” weighs 335 g (12 oz) for a total of 987 g (35 oz). That is close to a kilogram (two pounds+) of camera/case!

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