Introduced in 1963, the Vecta was a bold modern replacement for the Brownie 127 model II. However it was short lived as the vecta was discontinued in 1966, shortly after the (equally unsuccessful) 127 Model 3 was introduced. The Vecta is a radical design, unlike anything else Kodak produced, and while it may look slightly ugly to modern eyes, it must have appeared very futuristic in its day. The shaping is ergonomically designed to make it easier to grip than the more basic box. However in practice it can be quite cumbersome. The Vecta takes 8 shots with each roll of 127 film like most of its predecessors but in a vertical format. One of the downsides of this is the winder knob turning anti-clockwise, even though it's on the right hand side of the camera. It does have multiple exposure prevention and the optics seem a little sharper than many of Kodak's offerings of the period. The camera was designed by Kenneth Grange and has a plastic meniscus f/14 lens, single speed leaf shutter of 1/30 of a second, molded plastic body, optical direct viewfinder, and a bar shutter release rather than a button. The camera could produce a reasonable image quality at a print size of 4" by 6" (100mm by 150 mm) which is as large as they would have been printed in 1963. Kodak produced a 'supplementary' lens that fitted over the fixed lens that allowed close-ups to be taken but it was too hard to use to be practical. This Kodak Brownie Vecta was manufactured in the UK and only available in and around the UK but a few are in the US now.