Eastman View Camera No. 2 & 2-D
It's possible that for many people, the word photography is synonymous with the name Kodak. This may be especially true in the United States, where Kodak began and sought to invent and then dominate the consumer photography market. In 1888, the Eastman Kodak, Co. introduced the slogan "You press the button, we do the rest" as a way to showcase the company's goal of removing the barriers of processing film and printing photographs at a time when home darkrooms were essentially non-existent. But Kodak did not abandon the professional photographers of the day. The professional portrait studio was a thriving market and these professional photographers needed equipment as well. And from the first half of the twentieth century, no other photographic format had the same cache as the 8"x10" portrait. Producing 8"x10" portraits is how the professional studio photographers separated themselves from other run of the mill snapshot shooters and Kodak gave the professionals the tool they needed in the Eastman View Camera No 2 and No 2-D.
The Eastman View Cameras hit the marketplace in 1921 and came in several sizes, but the 8"x10" view camera is the workhorse of the bunch. With its long bellows, the 8"x10" 2D can easily handle focal lengths of lenses up to 450mm. The front standard movements allow for rise and fall while the rear standard has movements for tilt and swing, which combine to give the photographer incredible control over focus and composition.
Built out of solid wood with brass fittings, the Eastman View Camera 2D is still not at all heavy or cumbersome. The controls are easy and intuitive and it's designed to fit on a standard 1/4"x20 tripod. Even with the addition of film holders and a few lenses, this is a camera that can be taken out of the studio for environmental portraits, landscapes, or even architectural work.
If you've ever though of large format as too intimidating to use, seek out an Eastman View Camera 2D and discover a camera that, while built in the 20th century, is just as usable in the 21st and will be still be making images in the 22nd.
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