Kodak Bullseye

Cameras of Ansel Adams

In several writings, Ansel talks about his father’s Kodak Bullseye camera, as being a fixture in their family and his first experience with a camera. He describes his father taking the camera apart and demonstrating how a camera obscura would project an image onto a translucent piece of paper.

The Bull’s-Eye camera, first manufactured by the Boston Camera Mfg. Company in 1892, was the first camera to use numbered paper-backed roll film. In August 1895, Eastman bought the company and continued to manufacture the cameras under the Kodak name.

This is the No, 2 Bullseye Model D which was made from 1899 to 1913. It is very likely that Mr. Adams’ Bullseye looked like this.