What camera or film format could have produced 1.75×2.75-inch prints from around 1919?
Asked 1/8/2020
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I found some small black-and-white prints showing the 1919 landing of the R34 in New York. The prints measure about 1.75 × 2.75 inches, and they scan well enough to enlarge to 8 × 10. They look like amateur snapshots. Were prints this size associated with a specific camera or film format, or are they more likely small prints made from a larger negative?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
6y ago
2 Answers
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The format 1.75" x 2.75" sounds like the wallet print format. I believe it is still being used for small pictures in key rings etc.
I don't think that it is necessarily a format used by a camera. It is most likely a scaled down (or even cropped) print of a more common format like 2 x 3 or 3 x 4.
Originally by user88557. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user88557
6y ago
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These were likely contact prints rather than enlargements, which was common for amateur photography before 1920. That means the print size often matched the negative size closely.
At about 1.75 × 2.75 inches, they could plausibly come from one of several early roll-film formats rather than a single identifiable camera. One strong possibility mentioned is size 129 roll film, used in cameras such as the Houghton Ensignette #E2. Depending on whether your measurement includes borders, they might also relate to 127 or possibly 121 film sizes.
So the print size alone usually isn’t enough to name the exact camera. It’s less likely to be a standard modern “wallet print” in the original sense, and more likely an older contact print from an early consumer roll-film camera using an off-size format.
If you want to narrow it down further, check whether the print has borders, and if you have the original negatives, measure the image area directly.
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