The Brownie Six-20 series were produced by the English wing of Kodak, Kodak Ltd. London. The first incarnations arrived in 1946 with the Six-20 Brownie Models C, D and E. The updated range had a subtle name change to Brownie Six-20, Models C, D and E in 1953. The style of the front plate changed, plastic wind on knobs introduced and flash contacts added. But much of the original tooling was still used in their manufacture. Given that Kodak's drive had always been to simplify photography and make it accessible to everyone, part of that philosophy meant that the camera had to be cheap. In order to achieve this the construction was well thought out and optimized for the minimum number of operations during manufacture. The camera body was formed from a single piece of sheet steel, stamped then folded into a box, and spot welded along its base. Into this was slid a pressed steel tray to form the film chamber and shutter bay, this was held in place with adhesive, both to hold it in place and make a light tight seal. The entire shutter and supplementary lens assembly was of multiple pressed steel components riveted in place then inserted into the front bay. Few fixings requiring threads were used, many of the components were held in place by simple fold over tabs. The back and front were pressed steel components, the back being hinged and the front a press fit onto indentations, allowing removal for cleaning. C models were basic cameras, D models had close up supplementary lenses that could be drawn into use with a tab and E models added similarly deployed yellow filter, shutter lock and cable release for timed exposures. Finish was matt black paint internally, gloss black externally and a faux leather covering to the main shell. The front name plate varied between models and was glued in place. A simple carry handle was fitted between two decorative rivets in the top, the strap is missing on this example. As with most simple cameras the focus was set to be adequate for images from 12ft to infinity, although this D model also had a supplementary "portrait" lens. Shutter speed and aperture were fixed and optimized for bright daylight outside. The variations in exposure would be compensated for during the printing process.

The rotating view shows the camera partially dismantled.

Body No. No serial
Shutter, Fixed at "instant"
Lens, 105mm f/11
Condition, 6F

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