No. 4 Bullet Special

Format

cartridge roll film or a double glass plate holder

System

Kodak Bullet

Shutter

Eastman pneumatic with finger release, later named Eastman Triple Action - three instantaneous speeds

Focusing

focusing scale; ground glass when used with plates

Metering

none

Spec Notes

*** A CLAIM THIS SLICE ALMOST SHIPPED, REFUTED BY THE ADVERSARIAL PASS FROM KODAK'S OWN PAGE. *** The draft asserted that Model C LOSES glass plates and ground-glass focusing along with the detachable back, and asked whether that was a second dimension. Kodak's 1902 catalogue says otherwise, and it was verified directly: 'With films it has a capacity of 12 exposures, 4 x 5, or it takes 4 x 5 double plate holders' and 'When used with plates, may be focused on the ground glass if desired.' The accessory table still lists double plate holders at $1.00. Nothing was lost but the film cartridge standard, so the entailment question never arose and the fold stands at one dimension. THE 1898 SENTENCE THAT SETTLES THE WHOLE BULLET LINE BY EXCLUSION: 'Unlike the other Bullet Kodaks the roll holder is detachable ... and being equipped with a dark slide is interchangeable with plate holders in the field and permits of focusing on the ground glass when using film.' In the ORDINARY Bullets the roll holder is NOT detachable and plates go in through the rear side door. 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

Bausch & Lomb Rapid Rectilinear, iris diaphragm US 4 to 128

Rangefinder

No

Negative Size

4 x 5 in

Alternate Names

—

Introduced

1898