No. 2 Bullet Improved

Format

101 daylight cartridge, 18 exposures, or a single glass plate holder

System

Kodak Bullet

Shutter

Eastman improved rotary, snapshot and time

Focusing

fixed

Metering

none

Spec Notes

Kodak's own heading in 1896 is 'Improved No. 2 Bullet (1896 Model)' - one of only two places in this whole slice where Kodak dates a model year in a heading, a convention it uses once and drops. THE PHYSICAL TELL FOR THE WHOLE BULLET LINE is a rear side access door for the plate holder, catalogued by the Science Museum Group as 'Side access at rear for plate holder' on object 1990-5036/1443, serial 10117. Plate holders are ACCESSORIES at 25c to 60c. A MUSEUM RECORD THAT MUST NOT BE CITED FOR THIS ROW: SMG 1990-5036/1461 is titled 'No 2 Bullet Model 1898' but describes a Bausch & Lomb rapid rectilinear and a brilliant reflecting finder - that is the SPECIAL's specification on a record titled as the plain camera, and using it would give this row a lens it never had. CUBIC INCHES ARE NOT SELF-CONSISTENT across years - 121 in 1896, 1897 and 1898 but 137 in 1899, and the weight runs 20 oz in 1897 against 26 oz from 1898 - so no weight or dimension is recorded. THE FILM NUMBER IS NOT KODAK'S OWN. Kodak names no film number for these cameras in any catalogue of the period - it prints only 'N. C. Film Cartridge, 12 exposures'. The numbers 101, 102, 103 and 124 reach this catalogue from AA-13 and from museum records, and are recorded as attributions rather than as Kodak designations. NO PRICE IS RECORDED. AA-13's price column is not a list price; where a figure decides a row shape it is quoted in these notes instead. DATES ARE MARKET DATES, NOT PRODUCTION - AA-13 heads its columns 'ON THE MARKET FROM / TO'. Where Kodak's own catalogue presence contradicts AA-13 the conflict is recorded on the row and NOT resolved. DATING: NONE EXISTS. No serial-to-year mapping and no date code was ever published for any Kodak of this era, and Kodak's catalogues print no serial anywhere. Kodak DID stamp model letters inside some bodies - The Henry Ford transcribes 'IN ORDERING SUPPLIES FOR THIS CAMERA ALWAYS SPECIFY FOR NO. 2 BULL'S-EYE, MODEL D' - but a supply-ordering label is a marking, not a dating scheme.

Fitted Lens

achromatic, fixed focus, set of three stops

Rangefinder

No

Negative Size

3-1/2 x 3-1/2 in

Alternate Names

—

Introduced

1896