LDTomei2 - Kodak 1A Pocket 1929-32 The Tomei Collection

Kodak 1A Pocket 1929-32

The Tomei Collection

Kodak made so many folding bellows cameras with so many different names and variants that they are often lumped together. Unless there are red leather bellows, special editions, colors, or other specific features, collectors often write them off as "old folders".

Actually, there may be little to say about these cameras aside from general descriptions. However, they tell us a lot about the world of the late 1920's. These models may belong to the "old black folders", but in the late 1920's Kodak would have agreed with that assessment. Kodak looked at the market and concluded that they should search for ways to make their old black folders attractive to specific targets - boy and girl scouts, women, the style conscious men and women who would look for ways to have their cameras become a fashion statement. This also tells us how the cameras were viewed during these years. In fact, cameras were an integral part of family life and social interactions and companies like Kodak faced a serious marketing problem regarding precisely how they would make their cameras stand out from the myriad of black folding cameras on the shelves at the store. Although Kodak had enlisted the help of Teague and his studio to design bold new cameras like the Bantams, the first step that the company took was to take their basic folding bellows design and produce them in color - which is what they did.

The basic folding pocket cameras cost about $18.00 in 1932, but for an extra $2.00 the fashion conscious customer could have a colored version. This was a very substantial amount of money then, equivalent to more than $265.00 for the basic black model, and $295.00 for the colored versions based upon the CPI. However, when we estimate the cost based upon wages of the era, the value increases to about $800.00 for each camera.

Here is the 1A Pocket Kodak, a model that was sold from September 1926 until the entire model was discontinued in June 1932. It took 21/2 x 41/4 images on type A116 film and the standard version used a meniscus lens and Kodex shutter.

In June 1929 Kodak introduced a version available in blue, green, brown, and grey as is the example shown to the right. These versions were equipped with the superior Kodar f/7.9 lens and were manufactured and sold only in the USA and cost an additional $2.00 (the equivalent of about an additional $30.00 today).