Blair Camera Company’s “Tourist Hawkeye Camera” was inexpensive, small, and lightweight; it was made for amateurs and recommended for cyclists. This camera made 3½ x 3½” pictures on a 12-exposure roll of film. A larger 4 x 5” model was also available.

 

Inside the morocco-grain leather covered body is a polished wood interior and maroon leather bellows. Dominating the interior is a wooden front standard with a built-in lens and shutter; a departure from the usual external shutters and lenses.

 

Blair, probably to keep costs low, made a ‘non-returning’ shutter. This means that once fired, the shutter blades do not return back to their original position, and cocking the shutter for the next picture is a little bit different. Shutter speeds are set and tensioned by a brass wire on top of the wooden standard. To ensure it could be set correctly for the next picture, the front shutter blade has a crudely engraved arrow instructing photographers the direction to move the shutter tension-setting wire. The camera shows the arrow pointing to the right, a visual reminder to shift the tensioning wire to the right to set the shutter. After taking a picture, a left-facing arrow appears, which means the tensioning wire is moved to the left. And so forth.

 

Although the Tourist Hawkeye is a no-frills model, it includes a nice feature to track the number of pictures taken. A tiny counter is located in the back panel.

 

Offered from 1898 to 1904, this camera was advertised for $9 (about $363 adjusted for 2026).