For sale is a vintage KODAK VIGILIANT SIX-20 FOLDING BELLOWS CAMERA made by the Eastman Kodak company. The Kodak Vigilant Six-20 medium format camera was manufactured between 1939 and 1949 and the camera originally sold for about $38. The camera has a F/4.5 105mm lens. The camera has a manual focus range of 3.5 to 50 feet. This 1940s era camera was designed to take 6×9 cm (2¼×3¼ inch) negatives on 620 film (The film type is where the camera’s name was derived.) The camera’s serial number is 151969. The camera for sale still has a roll of film loaded in the camera. An unusual vintage camera which displays well.
From the company’s founding by George Eastman in 1888, Kodak followed a business strategy of selling low profit margin cameras and then making large profit margins on consumables such as film, chemicals and paper. As late as 1976, Kodak commanded 90% of film sales and 85% of camera sales in the U.S. The emergence of digital cameras sparked a death spiral for this iconic American company.
