Approx. dates of manufacture: 1907 - 1933
Approx. original price: $6.75 (1940)
Approx. street value: very low
The Number 2A actually stands for the film size, not when it was introduced. Kodak came up with a numeric designation for sizing its early cameras: the larger the number, the larger the film (and image). And of course to make things interesting, they used a different set for their Brownie cameras:
| Kodak | Brownie | Size (inches) |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0 | 1 5/8 x 2 ½ |
| 1 | 2 | 2 ¼ x 3 ¼ |
| 1A | 2A | 2 ½ x 4 ¼ |
| 2C | 2C | 2 7/8 x 4 7/8 |
| 3 | 3 | 3 ¼ x 4 ¼ |
| 3A | 3A | 3 ¼ x 5 ½ |
| 4 | — | 4 x 5 |
| 4A | — | 4 ¼ x 6 ½ |
| 5 | — | 5 x 7 |
Happily they gave up on that and began using their film sizes as designations, because the film sizes weren't quite as confusing.
This is a pretty standard early Brownie. They were made to be as cheap as possible because they were aimed at children and the working class who wanted a camera but couldn't afford better; the equivalent of disposable cameras from the 1990s.
The Brownie box just doesn't change much for forty-some years. The early ones, like this one here, are leatherette-covered card, a meniscus lens, two shutter speeds ("instant" and "time") and two apertures. It's virtually the same camera as my later Brownie Target 616 except that the later models were all-metal.
Mine is in good shape. It's worn around the edges but it's all there and not beaten too badly. The shutter works nicely, a testament to the reliability of simple mechanics. It's almost impossible to date these things, but from the descriptions in my reference books, I put it between 1917 and 1918, when they added a metal plate on the back that my camera lacks.
Camera manual: Orphan Cameras.com