Kodak Six-16 and Six-20
The Kodak Six-16 and Six-20 are a pair of nearly identical Art Deco folding cameras from the early 1930s. The Six-16 takes the larger 616 roll film. The Six-20 takes 620, which is the same film stock as the still-available 120 but on slimmer spools, and that let Kodak make the body more compact. The Six-16 is roughly 15% larger than its sibling. Both were offered in a range of colors. The Deco touches, the stepped, streamlined metalwork and angular lens plate, are what set them apart from the plainer folders Kodak sold alongside them.
Made in Rochester, New York, the Six-16 appears to have been introduced in 1932 and was redesigned in 1936 into the model C. The 616 film it used was discontinued in 1984. The film is gone but the cameras survive, and today enthusiasts either re-spool 120 stock onto old 620 spools or, as one popular conversion guide puts it, adapt the folder for 120 and panoramic work. The fact sheet's own survey of these American-made folders describes that kind of conversion project, noting the camera's "film gate" and its "valley" as features to work around.
Specs for the Six-16 are the better documented of the pair. It used a 126mm f/6.3 Kodak Anastigmat lens in a No. 1 Diodak shutter with speeds of 1/10, 1/25, 1/50, and 1/100 sec, plus T and B. It had two viewfinders: a small brilliant type mounted on the lens assembly that swivels for portrait or landscape, and a gunsight type on the camera body, on the left side of the Six-16. The original price is generally given as $40, though one source lists a Six-16 at $3.50 when first introduced in 1933, and the record doesn't resolve that conflict. The Six-20's lens and shutter details are not documented in the sources. No production years are firmly established for it as a standalone model, distinct from the later Six-20 Brownie box cameras and the Super Kodak Six-20.
Beyond the basics, little is known about these cameras. There are no dimensions, no weight, no serial-number ranges and no owner reviews from the period. A 2022 article on 35mmc recounts a gifted Six-16 as a "camera experience," and at least one enthusiast community has noted the folder's potential as a homebrew panoramic shooter. The cameras turn up regularly on eBay and Gumtree, usually described simply as 1930s folding bellows cameras in fair-to-good condition.
- Formats: Six-16 takes 616 roll film (8 exposures, 2½ × 4¼ in); Six-20 takes 620 roll film
- Lens (Six-16): 126mm f/6.3 Kodak Anastigmat
- Shutter (Six-16): No. 1 Diodak — 1/10, 1/25, 1/50, 1/100, T, B
- Viewfinder (Six-16): Swiveling brilliant type on lens; gunsight type on body
- Original price (Six-16): $40 (one source cites $3.50 at introduction)
- Production: c. 1932–1936; redesigned as model C in 1936
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