Kodak Cartridge Premo

Name: Kodak Cartridge Premo
Brand: Kodak

The Cartridge Premo name covers a small family of Kodak cameras. The two most commonly documented are the No. 2 / No. 2A folding models and the much smaller No. 00 box camera. The shared instruction manual for the No. 2 and 2A describes a camera loaded with film "put up in light tight cartridges," meaning it could be loaded in daylight. That was a real convenience for its era, though Kodak did advise doing so "in a subdued light, not in the glare of bright sunlight." The same manual notes that the Kodak Portrait Attachment No. 0 could be used with either model, bringing the subject distance to 3½ feet from the lens.

The No. 2A folding model is the best-documented variant, with production dates of 1916 to 1926 appearing in period listings. It produced a 32×44 mm image format. The No. 00, by contrast, was a tiny, cheaply made box camera that took unperforated 35mm film on a paper backing. It was one of the smallest Kodak box cameras made. A Flickr user shooting with one called it "tiny, cheaply made" but admitted being "pretty impressed" by the results. A Pinterest listing for the No. 2A praised its "ornate lens plate and rotating viewfinder," describing it as "a great addition to your collection or the perfect prop for a nostalgic photoshoot."

Surviving documentation is thin. Much of what exists comes from a single manual PDF that was partially encoded and difficult to extract. No original price, lens specifications, shutter details, or dimensions have surfaced for any Cartridge Premo model. The No. 00 appears occasionally in resale listings described as "RARE," including one Russian listing at 14,490₽. A No. 2A was offered at $38.00 on Pinterest.