Need information: Kodak Anastigmat 4.5/124mm

[Patrik Roseen]

Hello,
I have searched the web for information about Kodak Anastigmat lenses but I have not found what I am looking for.

I want to know more about my Kodak Anastigmat f4.5/124mm in a compur shutter. The lens has front cell focusing and originates from the 1930s I think. The serial number on the lens does not have any letters to specify the year of production, only four digits (no. 6777)

(The lens is on a beautiful six-16 kodak art-deco camera producing approx 6x12 cm pictures on roll-film. I intend to use a separate dejur-amsco range finder for distance metering.
Kodak six-16 (US version))

Anyway, kodak used to have both Anastigmat and Anastigmat Special (and the names were later changed I have seen on the web).

Does anyone of the lens masters on this forum have information to share on the topic of history and lens-design of Kodak Anastigmat lenses. Especially the f4.5 versions and relation to Anastigmat Specials.

Is an f4.5 Anastigmat assumed to be an Anastigmat Special as opposed to the f6.3 Anastigmats?

I have also read somewhere that the Kodak Anastigmat at one point was the same as a Schneider Xenar ... true or not??

Any info is appreciated. Thanks!

[Dan Fromm]

Patrik, can you tell if the lens was made in Germany? That it is in Compur makes this somewhat likely. If it was and if it is a tessar type, it is probably a rebadged Xenar.

As you know, many design types are anastigmats. In the US, EKCo made and sold tessar types and dialyte types as Kodak Anastigmats. Counting reflections is the best way to find which design type the lens in hand is.

To the best of my knowledge, Kodak Anastigmat Specials were all made by Kodak and were all f/4.5 tessar types. But I could be mistaken.

You might want to visit http://www.prairienet.org/b-wallen/B...dak_index2.htm Follow each of his links to the end.

Cheers,

Dan

[Patrik Roseen]

Hi Dan, Thanks for the link!

The shutter is made in Germany and the circular front plate is marked Kodak Compur and has the T, B 1- 1/200s

The lens only reads: Kodak Anastigmat F-4.5 124mm NO. 6777

The focusing distance scale is in feet.

The Camera is made in the US

According to the link you provided and following one of its subpaths lens designs :-
- The Kodak Anastigmat f/4.5, 126mm is the same design as the Kodak Anastigmat Special F/4.5, 127mm. But maybe the glass was different? (My lens is however a 124mm?)

Does No 6777 refer to the type of lens rather than the serial number of this particular item?

About reflections:
from the front I see four reflections. Two in the front of the lens following each other, one in the middle,more or less standing still and the forth closest to the diaphragm moving in opposite direction to the two in the front.

from the back I see three reflections: two rather large ones where the second from the front is somewhat fuzzier than the first and a third smaller reflection. (I can not work out if the larger ones are the reflections on the aperture blades coming back through the lens or???)

[Dan Fromm]

Patrik, it is a tessar type -- thanks for counting -- and 6777 is probably the serial number. Whose, I have no idea.

About glasses used. In the beginning of time, there were relatively few kinds of optical glasses. Since then new ones have been invented. As new glass types appeared, old lens designs were often recomputed to take advantage of them.

Since you have the camera and lens, go use 'em. EKCo put its name on few bad lenses, made in-house or bought in.

Best regards, and you worry too much,

Dan

[Jim Jones]

A 1943 edition of the Kodak Reference Manual lists both the Kodak Anastigmat f/4.5 126mm in a T-B-1/10 to 1/200 shutter and the Kodak Anastigmat Special f/4.5 127mm in a T-B-1 to 1/400 second for Monitor and Vigilants. The diagrams are of typical Tessar formula lenses. There's no mention of any other difference between the two similar lines of lenses, such as flash sync or lens coating. My Anastigmat Special is coated. The 1948 edition of the same book mentions both Luminizing and flash sync. By then the term Kodak Anastigmat and Kodak Anastigmat special had been dropped.

[Glenn Thoreson]

If I'm not mistaken, the Anastigmat Special was a coated lens, but coated only on the inner surfaces. When harder coatings were developed, they coated the outer surfaces as well. Some of these "Special"s then became Ektars.

[Patrik Roseen]

Dan, Jim and Glenn,
Thanks alot for your information on this topic.

The lens I have is NOT coated as far as I can tell, so this could be what makes the difference as pointed out by Glenn.

As for shutters I have understood that the cheaper versions had simpler shutters (lower quality - harder to repair) and simpler aperture scales. Mine is a compur with self timer but without flash synch. Later models have the compur-rapid with faster speeds than 1/200s. I would assume that the optics are quite good to match the shutter (or vice versa).

The low serial number puzzles me...would be nice to figure out where it came from!

As for the 124mm, 126mm and 127mm I have found that this is discussed as well on different forums. With front cell focusing I do not understand what the number really represents - is it not just a matter of where the frontcell is positioned for infinity? I.e. the calibration of the whole lens is done by adjusting the front cell, right?

I am waiting for the adapters to use 120-film on this nice looking six-16 camera. Hopefully I will be able to report some nice quality pictures made with it.

[Glenn Thoreson]

If you can come up with 616 spools and backing paper, you can spool up 70mm film. That's what 116/616 is, actually. I do this regularly. Film is available in 100 foot rolls from Freestyle, and others.

[Patrik Roseen]

If you can come up with 616 spools and backing paper, you can spool up 70mm film. That's what 116/616 is, actually. I do this regularly. Film is available in 100 foot rolls from Freestyle, and others.

Glenn, that never occured to me...Thanks I will look into this!