Kodak Super Six-20 (1938)
The Kodak Super Six-20 was the first mass-produced camera with automatic exposure. It was a folding camera for 620 film, and Kodak introduced it in 1938 at $225, described at the time as "half the price of a car." Walter Dorwin Teague styled it. He was the industrial designer whose work for Kodak also included the Bantam Special and the Beau Brownies. Joseph Mihalyi engineered it. He was one of Kodak's most innovative designers through the 1930s to his retirement in 1954. The clamshell, post-deco look is distinctive enough that the V&A's own social media once noted it "looks like a handgun."
Technically, the Super Six-20 was a genuine leap forward. A mechanical linkage ran from a selenium light meter to the aperture. Pressing the shutter release first locked the meter needle, then fired the shutter. The camera made eight 2¼×3¼-inch images per roll of 620 film through a Kodak Anastigmat Special 100mm f/3.5 lens. The five-blade shutter offered speeds from 1/2 to 1/200 plus B and T. Domus later listed it among the cameras that changed the history of photography, noting that Kodak introduced it as the "camera with the electric eye" and that it was twenty years ahead of the market.
The Super Six-20 was not a sales success. Only about 720 cameras were sold over its production run, which sources place at 1938 (some extending to 1944). As Christie's put it, the camera was "stylistically successful" but "mechanically less of a success." Surviving examples are scarce and sought-after. One sold at Ostlicht Auction for €1,800, and an active eBay listing has hovered around €762. The one documented fault comes from a period listing: the shutter works, but the release doesn't always return correctly, causing the camera to fire. One seller noted it.
- Format: 620 film, 2¼×3¼-inch exposures
- Lens: Kodak Anastigmat Special, 100mm f/3.5 (f/3.5-22)
- Shutter: five-blade, 1/2-1/200 sec, B and T
- Exposure: selenium meter coupled to aperture via mechanical linkage
- Designer: Walter Dorwin Teague; Engineer: Joseph Mihalyi
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