2026-09-13 Kodak Cameras—The first hundred years Book

    Just as I was on the cusp of abandoning collecting photographic items—a tale for another time—I chanced upon the hard cover book Kodak Cameras—the first hundred years at my local thrift store. 
    This is what it had written on the back cover—

The first camera to bear the Kodak name appeared in 1888. It combined the simplicity of a point‑and‑shoot roll film box camera with a developing and printing service which did away with the need for the photographer to have access to a darkroom. It brought to everyone the ability to make family pictures and record family events with absolute ease and without knowing anything about photography. Popular photography. had arrived. For those who wanted to take their photography further there were soon Kodak models to suit all needs and purses.

During the following century over 600 different Kodak and Brownie camera models were introduced by Eastman Kodak Company and manufactured in Rochester, U.S.A., as well as in Britain, Germany, France and several other countries. Every one is described here, together with all the significant variations, in many cases amounting to dozens.
    

    I had been dependent on the internet and McKeown’s Guide to Cameras to research cameras in general. One of our society collects only Kodak, and he can be depended on for more detailed Kodak information too.
    

But having a reasonably recent book that was written by real authorities on Kodak is quite an attractive addition to my library. The book was originally published in 1988—which really ties in with the title—but this edition was printed in 2003. Brian Coe, the author, was the Curator (1969-1985) of the Kodak Museum at the Kodak factory at Harrow, England. Brian Coe died in 2007 at the age of 77.
    

To keep the project manageable he cameras covered in the book are amateur or mass market cameras. All professional, studio, field, scientific or technical cameras are not included. Cameras made by other companies when Kodak bought them are listed in Appendix 1.

    There are three introductory chapters—

1. Preface and acknowledgments
2. Introduction: George Eastman and the Kodak Company
3. Using the listings

    And then numbered chapters for the different Kodak types of cameras. For example Chapter 1 is Kodak Box and Solid Body Cameras. 
Appendix I has three subheadings—

1. Hawk-Eye Cameras
2. Premo Cameras
3. Folmer and Schwing Cameras

    Appendix II has four sections—

1. Roll film Sizes
2. Autographic Films
3. Film Packs
4. Index

    The Photographic Historical Society of Canada placed on the internet an index of Brian Coe’s book made by the Cascade Photographic Historical Society. Everyone with the book should download and print the index because it adds some really neat features to the original index. For example every page with a colour illustration is printed in bold.
    In addition Ralph London, editor of the Cascade Panorama who is the index creator says, 
“Many cameras are listed under Kodak, including Bantam, Chevron, Coquette, Duaflex, Ektra, Instamatic, Medalist, Monitor, Petite, Pony, Recomar, Reflex, Senior and more. In other words, to find a camera named XYZ, try searching for Kodak XYZ.
I could not find a totally consistent alphabetizing scheme. I attempted to keep similarly named cameras together. Sometimes one should not count the prefixes such as “No. 2,” “No. 2A” and “ ‘C’ ”. Suffix numerals are generally before alphabetic words. Roman numerals are listed where it is convenient.”
    If it sounds complicated to use the book, it may be a little complicated but still quite possible. 
All photographs that illustrate this book are attributed—

• KM The Kodak Museum, which has the largest collection of Kodak cameras outside America, housed at the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford England
• KP Kodak press and publicity photographs
• KAG Kodak AG, Stuttgart, West Germany
• PDM The Kodak Patent Department Museum, Rochester, New York, USA
• RPS The Royal Photographic Society, Bath, England
• SM The Science Museum, London, England
• TN The Thurman Naylor Collection, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    

Each camera has the illustration attribution initials under the image. 
Then—in this order—they list;

• Type (of camera)
• Introduced
• Discontinued
• Film size
• Picture size
• Manufactured
• Lenses (could be various, listed as Variations below)
• Shutter
• Numbers made (often has “?”, numbers given for cameras made before 1920 but later cameras often numbered in the 100,000’s. The Instamatic 126 cartridge cameras in their various models sold 70 million cameras!)

Next there are headings for-

• Description/Remarks
• Variations 
• and sometimes for other listings like UK Variations.

    Here is the McKeown’s Guide version of a listing for the same camera. To be fair the Kodak Cameras book covers 600 or so cameras from one company in limited countries, while the McKeown book covers 25,000 cameras from many manufacturers in many countries.