Something unique from my collection, the Bulls-Eye camera was the first to use paper-backed roll film with frame numbers visible through a red-tinted window. In 1892 Samuel Turner, the inventor of this small red window system, used Boston Camera Manufacturing to produce the camera with his patented roll film system. In 1895, George Eastman took note of the innovation and introduced the Bullet camera, a near copy of the Bulls-Eye. Kodak eventually pays royalties to Turner for using his design.
In 1898 Kodak found a solution to paying Turner’s patent royalties when Eastman acquired the Blair Camera Company which owned Boston Camera Manufacturing. Kodak continued making the camera under the same Bulls-Eye name, developing the name into a camera brand of Eastman Kodak. Kodak produced two models of the Bulls-Eye. The No. 2 Bulls-Eye Special was a higher-quality variant of the standard No. 2 Bulls-Eye camera.
The camera pictured here is the oldest in my collection, from 1898. Manufactured from 1898-1904, the No. 2 Bulls-Eye Special has the improved shutter with Instant, Bulb and Timer functions and a Bausch & Lomb lens. It produces 3 ½ x 3 ½ negatives on paper backed film. Just over 250,000 of the two styles of No. 2 Bulls-Eye cameras combined were produced.
No. 2 Bulls-Eye Special
Production: 1898-1904
Type: Box Camera
Media: 3 ½ x 3 ½ inch negatives on paper backed film
Focus: On lens scale with simple mirrored view finders for framing.
Accessories:
- User’s manual that included darkroom instructions for film development and printing.
- Leather case
Collectability:
The No. 2 Bulls-Eye Special Camera scores around 90 on a 100 point scale. Highly sought after, the Special version of the Kodak No. 2 Bulls-Eye with a functioning lens are only occasionally available through online auctions. Examples in a worn condition can start at around $150 with cameras including original leather case and owner’s manual fetching a premium.
Photographer: Gary Berger
Long ago, in California, I taught photography after-hours at Hewlett-Packard and taught Adobe Premiere basic video editing at Morgan Hill Public Access Television Channel 19. I was on the Board of Directors of, and Jury Chair for, the Fayetteville Film Fest for ten years. I began shooting in 1978 with a Yashica TL Electro 35mm film camera.