Trying to go older

[Nesster]

My latest *get older* ebay craze hasn't brought the goods... I bought what were advertised as Folding Rainbow Hawkeye No.2 Specials - these use 120 film - one turned out to be a No.1 Folding Kodak Series II with the autographic thing going - i.e. from the late 20s, and it takes 120. The other one is a Rainbow Hawk Eye Special, but it's a 2A and so takes 116... Unfortunately the bellows on it are badly shot, so I can't experiment with rolling 120 into 116 -- a shame it's not a better one as it is pre-autographic, i.e. before 1914... AND I got an original manual for it with the other Folding Kodak The seller had mislabeled the camera and provided a nicely fuzzy pic, but does take returns. Damn, the shutter on this thing is really nice, as is the lens.

On the positive side, the SRT 201 seems to work fine, and to my amusement the box also had a very nice condition never ready case for an Exakta of some sort.

[luisalegria]

You always roll the dice with stuff this old, especially Kodaks in my experience. You may have to buy another camera that takes 116 for the bellows.

[luisalegria]

Whats it got for a shutter btw ?

[Nesster]

I'm getting $20 back from the seller for this, and yes, will find new bellows some day. It's a very pretty camera... at least it will be a good model for photography

The shutter is a Kodex No. 1 with speeds of T, B, 25 and 50, and is a single-action type (i.e. no separate cocking required)... The lens is a Kodak Anastigmat f/6.3 127mm with a 5 digit 74*** serial number. The f/stops go to f/45! Like I said, I got the original manual for this in a separate transaction.

The Kodak design has lots of thoughtful touches, such as a second fold-out strut for putting the camera down horizontally, in landscape mode.

I was hoping it was the camera Mike Connealy writes about here:
http://mconnealy.com/vintagecameras/hawkeyesp/index.html

[Spotmatic]

Jussi, why not go all the way back to the 19th century and make your own collodion glass plates? OK, it requires a bit more dedication, but the results are quite interesting!

[Nesster]

LOL I'll get there eventually

[Farside]

I find the mass-market early stuff fascinating. Ok, the really early stuff and some of the late 19th C stuff are now at silly money, but Kodak produced a million 1As and others so there's plenty to go round as many survived in the back of cupboards, etc, up until now.
I keep meaning to adapt my 3A to 120 and shoot landscape with it, and thought I had a handle on NOS bellows for it, but the seller got very shy suddenly.