Kodak Anastigmat 112mm 1:5,6 Help asked in identifying age

hanskerensky

My brother surprised me last week when he returned from his holiday in Bavaria with a Kodak No1 Series III folder.

On inspection it became quite clear that this could be a "Frankenfolder" as those Kodaks didn't seem to be produced with Compur shutters and neither with a Kodak Anastigmat 112mm 1:5,6 lens which seems to be a quite rare lens as i couldn't find anything about it in the different sources (like the Lens Vademecum).

So my question, can somebody help me with identifying the age and the original camera for this particular Kodak lens ? The (serial?) number on it is 1825.

The lens is mounted in a dial-set Compur shutter with serial number 11443. All the Compur lists i could find on the internet started with 214000 so my brothers Compur must either be very old or an oddity.

A set of photos from the lens/shutter can be seen here :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29504544@N08/sets/72157624778997745/with/4969004852/

A photo of the lens/shutter :

Nesster · Expire: 2014-02-20

So what's the No 258646 on the front?

Appears Kodak sold high-spec "specials" of their regular cameras with upgraded shutters and lenses. Yours would be a No. 1 Special of some sort.

I've seen the lens on 1920's No 1 Kodaks... I see an used ad in "American Photography" from 1920 - Bass Camera ad for a No. 3 Autographic Special Kodak, Zeiss Kodak Anastigmat f.6.3 lens in Compur shutter, slightly used.

Kodak's own site lists a No 1 Series III 120 film camera as being from 1926-1932

Here's something from flickr, a No 3, but the Anastigmat looks to have a 4 digit serial no
http://www.flickr.com/photos/robinclaw/3379914757/

What a delicious mystery!

hanskerensky · Posted: Thu Sep 09, 2010 7:32 pm Post subject:

Hello Jussi,

Thanks for your valuable input !

Well, the number on front of the Compur is the German Patent number.
The serial number of the Compur is on its side and can be seen on my set on Flickr.

The link you gave me to that No3 is quite interesting. I'll try to contact the publisher and ask him which serial number the lens has. It's a 1:6.3 lens and i did find many references to that. Still didn't find yet any other reference to the 112mm 1:5,6.

The Zeiss Kodak Anastigmats 112mm all seem to be 1:6,3 and have the name Zeiss clearly shown on the frontplate of the lens.

Regards,

Hans

Nesster · Expire: 2014-02-20

Obviously, the 5.6 existed... in Google Books I found a snippet - the whole book is unavailable unfortunately - from 1928:
"The Kodak Anastigmat, /.6.3, lenses are about sixty per cent, faster than the Kodar lenses and are corrected for the finest definition (sharpness). The Kodak Anastigmat /.5.6 is more than 25% faster than the /.6.3. ..."
this in How to make good pictures: a book for the amateur photographer published by Eastman Kodak in 1928

Another snippet from a 1930 The New photo-miniature, Volume 18, Issue 203:

"Kodak Anastigmat lenses y.4.5 and /-5.6 make good pictures possible under even discouraging conditions. The Dio- matic shutters in which they are mounted ably support them with four snapshot speeds from 1/10 to 1/100, bulb and time. ..."

hanskerensky · Posted: Thu Sep 09, 2010 9:09 pm Post subject:

Hi Jussi,

Good to know that they existed ! I saw some references to Kodak Anastigmats with aperture 1:5,6 too but that were 50mm lenses, i think for Bantams.

In the meantime i had a look at the manual of the No.3 and No3A Autographic Kodaks. At page 14 there is a drawing of a Compur with a 170mm Anastigmat. The Compur looks much the same as the one on my brothers camera so it should be from about the same age.

But still no hard evidence for a 112mm 1:5,6.

Regards,

Hans