Kodak Premoette Junior (c. 1911–1923)
The Premoette Junior is an early Kodak folding camera, and past that the record gets messy fast. What's clear: it was a folding camera for film pack - sheet pack format - taking twelve 2¼" x 3¼" pictures per pack. One collector described the construction as "particularly minimal." It had a meniscus lens and a Bausch and Lomb shutter with T, B, and I settings, plus sliding focusing and a rotating reflecting finder on the baseboard.
The history is tangled. The Premo line started with the Rochester company, which Kodak acquired in 1903. After that the cameras were made under the Kodak name. One source says the Junior designation set it apart from the existing box-form range. The Science Museum Group Collection holds a "Premoette junior camera" entry, but its page is titled for the No. 1A model and gives the format as 2½ x 4¼ inches. That may or may not apply to the Junior proper.
Production years are a mess in the surviving record. Sources variously claim 1911 only, 1913-1923, 1906-1912, and 1909-1912. One Kodak reference site says the model was renamed from the original Premoette Junior of 1911-12 when the No.1A came in, but it gives no dates for the renamed version. Treat any specific year with caution. The most conservative reading is a pre-1920s Kodak folding camera that went through at least one naming change.
Collectors have noted the red bellows as a point of appeal, and an instruction manual survives in PDF form at butkus.org. A single eBay listing shows one at around $76, and a Belmont, MA Craigslist ad listed one at $15. That is a wide range, and there is little consistent market data. No original price, weight, or production numbers are documented.
Known specs at a glance:
- Folding camera for film pack / sheet pack format
- Twelve 2¼" x 3¼" exposures per pack
- Meniscus lens
- Bausch and Lomb shutter, T/B/I
- Sliding focusing; rotating reflecting finder on baseboard
- Red bellows
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