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Kodak Bantam Special

Currency:USD Category:Cameras & Photo Start Price:70.00 USD Estimated At:150.00 - 400.00 USD
Kodak Bantam Special
SOLD
100.00USD+ (22.50) buyer's premium + applicable fees & taxes.
This item SOLD at 2015 Apr 17 @ 15:46UTC-7 : PDT/MST
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Kodak Bantam Special with Kodak Anastigmatic Ektar 45mm f2 lens and Compur Shutter. This camera is in good condition, though the armatures for collapsing the lens into the body are very stiff.



The Kodak Bantam Special was introduced during 1936, and was produced until 1948. The camera has a very striking design, consisting of a black enamelled cast aluminium body with bright metal horizontal lines. It is a fine example of a camera styled by Walter Dorwin Teague.



Walter Dorwin Teague was a graphic designer, who became interested in design for mass produced goods. Eastman Kodak started their working relationship with him in the 1920s, and it was to continue for several decades. Collectors now regard the cameras that were produced as a result of that relationship as some of the most desirable; consider cameras such as the Beau Brownies, the Vanity Kodaks, the Gift Kodak as well as the Bantam Special.



The Kodak Bantam Special is a relatively small camera, described by Eastman Kodak in contemporary advertisements as an all-purpose miniature instrument.



Its closed dimensions are approximately 1¾ x 3¼ x 4¾ inches, which is compact for the time, though its profiled shape makes it quite easy to handle.



The clam-shell form was not new of course as it had been used in the early Retina cameras.



There were two significant variations of the Kodak Bantam Special as the shutter was changed from the initial Compur Rapid to a Supermatic shutter. While the version with the Supermatic shutter was produced over a much longer period but in lesser numbers, fewer working examples are to be found today as the Supermatic shutter did not prove to be as reliable as the earlier Compur. The change in shutter came about in 1941 as a consequence of course of the Second World War. The camera also had a remarkably fast lens for its time, an Ektar f/2.



The camera also boasted a coupled rangefinder with helical focusing, described in the contemporary advertising as a military-type, split-field.



The Kodak Bantam Special was quite an expensive camera to buy - an advert for the Christmas season of 1936, the year the camera was introduced, gives the list price as $110, and described it as low indeed for an instrument of such quality. A later advert of 1938 leads with Remarkable in Performance and yet moderate in Price, but still quoting a list price of $115. However, later in that year there was a deliberate decision to reduce the price to $87.50, supposedly on the strength of its popularity with amateurs. All this at a time when many other cameras were selling for between $10 and $20!



The camera uses 828 rollfilm, introduced in 1935 for the Bantam range of cameras and offering a picture size of 28 x 40mm, not dissimilar to 35mm film, but with the advantage of providing a larger image area. The name of the film comes from the fact that it was designed to take 8 exposures of 28mm width.

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Date: 1936

FHWAC#: 25834