For sale is 1930s era KODAK NO. 2 FOLDING HAWKEYE MODEL C from the Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, NY. The Folding Hawkeye No.2 Model C was made from about 1930 to 1934 and used 120 Film. A first rate collectible camera.
The camera has four aperture settings numbered 1 (f5.6), 2 (f8), 3 (f11), and 4 (16). The Kodak lens assembly shutter speeds are T (timed) and 1/50 of a second and has the number 20498 embossed on the nameplate around the lens. The camera’s small waist-high viewfinder is mounted to the top of the lens assembly and can be set for landscape or portrait position. On the fold-down slid bed are three markings for focus distances. One marked 8 feet or 2.5 meters, fixed 25 feet or 7.62 meters, and 100 feet or 30 meters. The 100 or 30-meter setting is also the infinity setting. The other features of the camera are a fold-down foot for setting the camera on a tabletop for portraits that also locks the camera when closed, small red window in the back of the camera for frame counting, winding key for advancing the film, leather carry handle, and two tripod sockets. Adding or removing film from the camera involved removal of the works of the camera to reveal the casing and the film spools at either end.
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.
