Depth of Focus

  If you are a collector of cameras, or have seen a good number of vintage cameras, then the Kodak Bantam Special should be a camera whose looks, if not reputation, precede itself.  Praised for it's unique art-deco body styling, the Kodak Bantam Special was the highest end consumer camera that Eastman Kodak produced and sold in the USA at the time of its release. Imported German Retina cameras were also being sold, but the Bantam Special represented an American footstep into the high end miniature camera market, with a feature set that not even the German made Retinas could compete with.  History The Kodak Bantam series, and importantly the history of the 828 film format begins in 1935 and was aimed to correct some of the deficiencies of the 135 film format we are familiar with today.  Kodak launched the 135 film cartridge alongside their German made Retina folding cameras in 1934. The concept of using 35mm double perforated motion picture film for still photography was not new. Le

    Part 1: History      The name Kodak, while familiar to any photographer, is not one normally associated with high-end photographic instruments. Indeed, one of the philosophical principles first put forward by George Eastman is the vast distribution and use of inexpensive snapshot cameras, the use of which ensured the continued sale of Kodak film. This philosophy has been associated with the Brownie cameras and exacerbated by the Instamatic cameras of the 60s and 70s, perhaps unfairly branding Kodak with the reputation that they were only ever capable of building low quality cameras. However, if one is observant of history it will be apparent that there are several Kodak cameras which challenge this assertion. These examples originate from an era of approximately 1936 to 1956 in which American photographic manufacturing was given a brief opportunity to compete on the world stage against foreign competition. The looming and destructive war in Europe and Asia, gave American manufactur