For sale is 1930s era KODAK NO. 2A FOLDING HAWKEYE MODEL B from the Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, NY. The Folding Hawkeye No. 2A Model B was made from about 1926 to 1934. This camera was made to use the 116 film format (70 mm wide) and produces nice large 2½” x 4¼” photos. Considering that image size, the camera is very compact and portable. There are no holes in the bellows and the shutter works like new at its marked speeds of 1/25 and 1/50 seconds and in B (bulb) and T mode. The lens is a simple meniscus lens behind the shutter. There are four aperture settings labelled from 1 to 4. This corresponds to f/11, f/16, f/22 and f/32. A first rate collectible camera.
The brand name “Hawk-Eye” originated with the Boston Camera Company which started using it in 1888 for a detective camera. In 1890, the Boston Camera Company was bought by the Blair camera company. The Blair Camera Company was then acquired by Eastman Kodak who used the Hawk-Eye name for a range of different cameras over the years.
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.
