Kodak Six-20 Bull’s Eye

Kodak Six-20 Bull’s Eye Overview

The Kodak Six-20 Bull’s Eye is a box camera made of Bakelite, an early plastic. The shutter lever is located under a simple meniscus lens with a minimum focus distance of eight feet and a fixed shutter speed with manual bulb mode activated by the lever above the lens. The primitive viewfinder is only usable for approximating composition and runs along the top of the camera next to the circular metal knob that’s used to advance the film after each exposure. The little nub opposite the braided handle is used to keep the lens level when the camera’s resting on its side for portraits.

I found this box camera at a thrift store for $1.99, one whole dollar cheaper than the original retail price of $3 (which is actually a little under $50 in today’s money) and it’s in pretty good condition minus the missing circular red window used to keep track of exposures.

As its name suggests, the Six-20 Bull’s Eye is designed to take 620 film which, unfortunately, is now obsolete. However, you can still use it with modern 120 film if you roll it onto the skinnier 620 spools. That said, I don’t think I’m ever going to use this Kodak because I’ve got so many other cameras to burn 120 with.