C41
Kodak Portra 400
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
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compact-35mm
The Kodak Bantam is a folding camera introduced by Eastman Kodak in 1935, designed to use Kodak's then-new 828 roll film format. 828 film is the same width as 35mm but wound on a different spool without sprocket holes, yielding a slightly larger image area (28x40mm) on a single-perforated strip. The original Bantam - sometimes designated f/8 after its lens - is a simple zone-focus folder with a Bakelite body, an aluminum strut-and-rail folding system, and styling attributed to the industrial designer Walter Dorwin Teague, who had worked with Kodak since the early 1930s. It was sold at the lower end of Kodak's folding-camera line and aimed at the American consumer who wanted something smaller and more modern-looking than a box camera.
Reference
Recommended film stocks for the 35mm format your camera takes.
C41
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
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Kodak Gold 200 is a daylight-balanced C-41 color negative film with warm color, moderate grain, and a classic consumer-film look.
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Kodak UltraMax 400 is a versatile consumer-grade ISO 400 daylight-balanced color negative film with T-grain emulsion, delivering warm Kodak colors, fine-for-speed grain (PGI 46), and wide exposure latitude. Currently in production and available globally as a single-roll and multi-pack.
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About this camera
Kodak's 1935 art-deco 828-film folder - a streamlined American miniature with Walter Dorwin Teague styling.
| Field | Value |
|---|
| Format | 828 roll film (8 exp, 28x40mm) |
| Lens | ~50mm f/8 fixed meniscus (base model) |
| Shutter | Kodak Rotary, ~1/25s-1/200s + B, leaf |
| Meter | None |
| Focus | Zone focus, distance scale |
| Flash sync | None on base model |
| Battery | None |
| Body | Bakelite with aluminum folding struts |
| Viewfinder | Optical direct-vision |
Eastman Kodak launched the 828 format and the Bantam camera together in 1935. The 828 film was a marketing and engineering decision: by using a slightly different spool and eliminating the double-perforation of standard 35mm, Kodak created a proprietary format that delivered a modestly larger negative than 35mm while still fitting in a compact folder. The format was never adopted by other manufacturers and remained a Kodak-exclusive until it was discontinued in the 1980s.
The original Bantam sat at the base of a Bantam family that would eventually include the Bantam Special (1936), a premium model with a coupled rangefinder and Compur shutter, and several intermediate variants (Bantam RF, Bantam f/5.6, Bantam f/6.3). The base Bantam's Teague-designed body used the same visual language as his other Kodak work of the period - horizontal lines, rounded corners, a compressed streamlined silhouette - and positioned the camera as a modern alternative to the boxy cameras that had defined snapshot photography through the late 1920s.
The Bantam line was produced through the late 1930s and into the early 1940s; like most American consumer camera production, it was suspended or reduced during World War II. The format continued in post-war Kodak products but the original base Bantam's production window was primarily prewar.
The Kodak Bantam is significant primarily as an example of American industrial design applied to consumer photography. Walter Dorwin Teague was one of the leading figures of 1930s American industrial design, and his work for Kodak through this period - the Baby Brownie, the Bantam line, and subsequent models - represents a deliberate effort to make photographic equipment aesthetically consonant with the broader streamline moderne design movement of the era.
The 828 format decision has an ironic legacy: the slightly larger negative was technically superior to 35mm for contact printing, but the proprietary format and the absence of sprocket holes limited the camera's adaptability and eventually made the entire Bantam line an orphaned ecosystem when the format was discontinued. The Bantam Special (1936) is the more documented and collected camera in the family, but the original Bantam is the camera that established the format and the visual identity.
For film historians and design collectors, the Bantam represents the moment when Kodak - dominant in the American market but facing real competition from imported German cameras - responded with design differentiation rather than solely price competition.
C41
Kodak ColorPlus 200 is an affordable, consumer-oriented daylight-balanced color negative film at ISO 200. Known for warm, slightly muted color rendition, fine grain, and wide exposure latitude, it is currently in production and widely available in Asia and select global markets.
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Kodak Tri-X 400 is a classic black-and-white film known for strong tonality, visible grain, and documentary character.
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