I just got off the phone with Todd Gustavson, the curator of the Technology Collection at Eastman Museum. He looked it up and reported definitively that the 8x10 Kodak Master Camera was manufactured from September of 1953 through August of 1961. He said that the confusion over the dates often stems from the fact that the similarly named 4x5 Kodak Master View was manufactured from 1947-1953. Finally, he was able to confirm that the metal body of the camera is made of aluminum.

Thank you fellows for your input. I may well be posting on this thread again before I attempt to make a rear bellows frame and install the new bellows, as this will be the first time that I do either of these things.


Cameron Cornell
Washington State
www.analogportraiture.com