Posted by Eric Abraham on October 23, 2010 at 06:48:11 user EricAbraham.
In Reply to: Re: Colour pictures of Ransome posted by Peter Ceresole on October 22, 2010 at 08:07:30:
Yes, it does look like a basic folding Kodak - or similar camera. There were several that were of about the same design.
In my "Price Guide to Antique and Classic Cameras" 1987-1988, there are quite a few folding Kodaks from that period - 1929-1934 or so - that fit the one in Great Northern. All, I would presume to be in an affordable price range for a young man to own and use.
The guide gives type of film used in the camera - 120, 116, 130 etc. and the size of the negative for each film. The largest being 118 film at 3 1/4 X 4 1/4 inches. I doubt if Dick's camera was that large, so I would suspect that his camera would take at least 116 film which I used to use, when it was readily available, in a box camera (and made decent contact prints). The Kodak Special Cameras, a folding camera very similar to the illustration in GN, has model that took everywhere from 120 up to 118, the largest size. They were made from 1926 to 1933/4.
While it would be difficult to ascertain the exact camera Dick used, I would feel pretty sure it COULD have been one of these. I would also surmise (again) that Dick would not change cameras in the time between Big Six and Great Northern - but - ????