Kodak Eastman: Vigilant Six-16

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The Kodak Vigilant Junior Six-16 is a folding roll film camera produced from 1939 to 1948. It has a three-speed shutter (approximately1/25, 1/50, & 1/100 of a second, plus B- and T-settings) in a DAK shutter assembly with f-stops from f/8.8, f/11, f/16, f/22 and f/32. It produced 2-1/2 x 4-1/4 inch images on 616 roll film. It can have a Kodak No.2 Kodamatic f-4.5 or an Anastigmat f/8.8 lens, both 126mm. The Vigilant 616 is a sturdy, well-designed folding medium-format camera. Manufactured by Canadian Kodak Co. Limited in Toronto, Ontario and offers a variety of aperture and shutter speed combinations to ensure proper exposure. Although originally designed for 116 film, which is no longer manufactured, it works with current 120 films, achieving 6 panoramic exposures per roll. Features include standard ¼” 20 thread tripod mounts for both portrait and landscape orientation, 2 cable-release ports, foldout tabs for level camera placement on any flat surface plus is designed to fold up, protecting the camera and bellows while taking up less space. The camera has a few limitations, but none that prevent it from being highly functional. These limitations are to be expected in any piece of photographic equipment of this era and include the (expected) viewfinders that only approximate composition, fragile and leaking bellows, a failing mechanical timer and no sync port for studio lights or off-camera flash. The camera has one fold-up viewfinder and one angled mirror finder. It weighs 32.9 ounces and its negative size is 63mm x 107mm (2½” x 4¼”).