Digital FX Design | Production | Post

Walter D. Teague’s Bantam Special

The Kodak Bantam Special is arguably the most beautiful camera ever produced. It is the camera that began my journey into collecting. I purchased a fine example for $75.00 at a camera show in New Orleans, LA over 30 years ago, and today I have over 30 Bantam Specials.

The Bantam Special is a classic Art Deco design styled by Walter Dorwin Teague in 1936. The Bantam Special is one of the finest examples of art-deco styling applied to any camera design. The Bantam Special had a 1937 list price of $110.00, targeting the affluent and fashionable set. In 2008 dollars thats well over $1,000.

The Bantam Special has an aluminum body with a heavy black enamel finish. The excellent optics, shutter and precision manufacturing, made it a high quality, eye-pleasing “miniature” camera. Folded it would easily fit into your pocket and is smaller than my Canon Powershot G9.

Il design: Walter Teague Kodak Bantam Special

Sam Dodge has the best movie memorabilia ever locked up inside his King Kong Camera Room. Sam seems to always outbid me at the last minute just as the eBay auction is about to end, and as a result he has amassed quite a collection of early hand-crank movie cameras. Almost as nice as my collection Sam. The difference is he restores them and offers them for sale. So, now’s your chance to become a director and produce the next great Blockbuster.