The Night Hawk Detective Camera is a very simple, exposed-wood model for 4 x 5 inch exposures on double plateholders. The single speed shutter was set by pulling the string visible near the bottom-left of the camera, and a small metal pin on the front acted as shutter release.

It offered ground-glass focusing via the back door (picture at lower left) or scale focusing by using a brass lever at center rear of camera (just visible in lower left picture). The lever has 100, 50, and 10 foot increments engraved on it.