Kodak 35 rangefinder

[Niner]

I won with a $5 bid and $12 shipping. Just got it yesterday.

This camera was made by Kodak from 1939 to 1948. There were a few years during the war that Kodak made war toys instead and took a holiday from producing this model camera. The serial numbers are easy to figure out what year. Just type out CAMEROSITY and convert to 1,2,3 etc. Mine is from 1946.

The camera was competition to the Argus C cameras. They work somewhat alike but Argus sold a couple million and the Kodak didn't do as well. It seems to weigh about the same as the brick too with the all metal construction. The Kodak looks like something invented by Dr. Who or Buck Rogers with all sorts of screws, numbers, wheels and odd shapes. One guy called its design "steampunk".

First inspection shows the shutter seems to work at different speeds and openings which when cocked.....which is good. The crank the film and push a button to advance has a some failures with a test roll. I'll fiddle with it some more and will try to run some film through it.

[Niner]

Attempted to use it today. Took forever to get the film to track right. Closed the back and went to shooting. Had to hold the unlock button down while advancing film instead of just click it down once. The cocking indicator would come up but camera not always cocked. Had to turn the wheel while not hitting the unlock button until click. The rangefinder sometimes seemed to work and sometimes not oddly enough. At what may have been the end of roll on the rewind there was suddenly no difficulty in winding and thinking something not right opened the camera in a dark bag. Case came out with film with jagged end. Then noticed much of film still on the takeup spindle in the camera. Crap. Ruined by light. Total disappointment. This one was going to be a shelf queen but would have liked to have seen what kind of images it made. The film I lost is worth as much as the camera!