Discontinued
Kfilm camera
Kodak Vigilant Six-20
Format
620
System
Kodak Vigilant
Is Film
Yes
Shutter
Kodex, Diomatic, Kodamatic or Supermatic; post-war examples Flash Kodamatic or Flash Supermatic
Metering
none
Research
Kodak AA-13 'History of KODAK Cameras' (model-name strings, market dates, film sizes), transcribed VERBATIM from BOTH surviving scans - pacificrimcamera.com/rl/01541 and brownie-camera.com/manuals/aa13.pdf - across nine differently worded passes, publishing only what was stable. Kodak US product catalogues 1932-33 (rl/00153), 1933-34 (00155), 1935-36 (00157), Jul-1937 (00160), Oct-1938 (00163), Oct-1939 (00165), 1940 (00166), Spring/Summer 1952 (01856), Winter 1956 (02403). Kodak instruction books (cameramanuals.org) and the Pacific Rim instruction-book index ax41, whose titles name factory lens-and-shutter pairings verbatim. Science Museum Group and George Eastman Museum object records. Pacific Rim dealer object records transcribing engraved lens and shutter names. historiccamera, camerapedia (Fandom mirror; camera-wiki.org is blocked by robots.txt), Blue Moon Camera, jollinger, mikeeckman, earlyphotography.
Produced 1939–1949https://www.pacificrimcamera.com/rl/01541/01541.pdfMARKET DATES, not production - AA-13 is headed 'ON THE MARKET FROM / TO'. No price is recorded: AA-13's price column is not a list price. See gear_items.kodak-vigilant-six-20 spec_notes.
Category: Film Camera
Format
620
System
Kodak Vigilant
Shutter
Kodex, Diomatic, Kodamatic or Supermatic; post-war examples Flash Kodamatic or Flash Supermatic
Metering
none
Spec Notes
The 620 Vigilant, and the longest-running of the pair - AA-13 takes it to 1949, seven years past the Six-16. Same 1939 body, same Kodex-to-Diomatic substitution in 1940, same manual red-window advance. 'Kodak Vigilant 620' is recorded as a searchable alias only: Kodak never printed it, and it exists in dealer listings. LENS AND SHUTTER ARE AN OPTION LADDER, NOT SEPARATE MODELS. Kodak's catalogues print one heading and one description per camera with a price table of lens-and-shutter combinations underneath, and AA-13 carries one row per camera rather than one per grade. DATING: PARTIAL, AND ONLY THROUGH THE LENS. From about 1940 a Kodak Ektar, Anastigmat Special or Anastar carries the CAMEROSITY two-letter year prefix on its serial (C=1 A=2 M=3 E=4 R=5 O=6 S=7 I=8 T=9 Y=0). This camera was sold with such a lens inside that window, so an example wearing one can be dated FROM THE LENS - which dates the LENS, not the body, and lenses were swapped in service. Examples on the cheaper rungs carry no code at all. The body has no serial scheme.
Fitted Lens
Kodak Anastigmat f/8.8, f/6.3 or f/4.5, or Kodak Anastigmat Special f/4.5
Rangefinder
No
Negative Size
2 1/4 x 3 1/4 in
Alternate Names
—
Introduced
1939
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