Kodak Stereo Hawkeye
The record on the Stereo Hawkeye is fragmentary. Several variants existed, but the relationships between them and the production timeline aren't cleanly documented. What is clear is that Eastman Kodak, as successor to the Blair Camera Company of Rochester, N.Y., sold a line of stereo cameras under the Hawkeye name in the 1910s.
The Science Museum Group Collection holds a "Stereo Hawkeye Model 3 Camera," fitted with Bausch & Lomb rapid rectilinear lenses. It measures 122 mm × 275 mm × 56 mm closed. A Model 6 also appears in the record. It has a Bausch & Lomb stereo automatic shutter with speeds of 1/2, 5, 25, 50, and 100 plus B and T, rack-and-pinion focusing, a reflecting brilliant finder on the baseboard, and a pneumatic release valve. The Model 6 used No. 2 Bull's-Eye film and made 3½ × 3½-inch exposures.
The Model 4, dated c.1916, is described in auction listings as a rare stereo camera taking twin 3½ × 3½ exposures. It has Bausch & Lomb Rapid Rectilinear lenses in a pneumatic shutter, red leather bellows, and a mahogany interior. One noted example had a missing door lock button. An unspecified Stereo-Hawkeye variant at auction carried Zeiss Kodak Anastigmat 6.3 lenses in a Bausch & Lomb shutter, also shooting twin 3.5 × 3.5-inch frames.
One caution. An eBay listing titles a "No. 4" example as "1896," which conflicts with the c.1916 date from two matching auction sources. The earlier date looks like a listing error, but it hasn't been definitively resolved. No production numbers, launch prices, or period reviews have surfaced. The Stereo Hawkeye appears to have been a quality wooden-body stereo roll film camera of the 1910s, built by Kodak in the transitional period after the Blair acquisition.
Known specs (vary by model):
- Lenses: Bausch & Lomb rapid rectilinear (Models 3 & 4); Zeiss Kodak Anastigmat 6.3 on some variants
- Image format: twin 3½ × 3½-inch exposures
- Shutter: Bausch & Lomb pneumatic or automatic (Model 6: 1/2 - 1/100, B, T)
- Film (Model 6): No. 2 Bull's-Eye
- Body: wood with leather bellows (red on Model 4); mahogany interior
- Production: c.1912–1916
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