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Nigeldun
Tinkerer
Username: Nigeldun
Post Number: 1
Registered: 04-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, April 02, 2008 - 06:44 am: | 
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I'm selling cameras for a friend, and one is a rather large bellows/folder that I've id'd as a 3A autographic. It's nearly unused, and I want to do right by it. My question: What's up with the lens? It appears to have no lens at all, (although it seems intact)and the timer for the shutter isn't, like, 30, 60, 125 -- it's 1,2,3,4. I've found photos of this setup on Kodak folders, but no explanation. |
Adrian
Tinkerer
Username: Adrian
Post Number: 156
Registered: 08-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, April 02, 2008 - 07:34 am: |
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Peer in it from the back - at least until the advent of 620, a number of Kodaks had the lens BEHIND the shutter. Very handy - means you can use colour film and not worry about flare!
Is there a little sector somewhere - either top or bottom of the shutter - labelled with an I and a T? If so, that's the shutter "speeds" - Instant and Timed. The numbers sounds like the aperture.
There's an example, on a smaller kodak, here: http://galactinus.net/vilva/retro/eos350d_helios_files/h725.jpg
Hope that helps,
Adrian |
John_shriver
Tinkerer
Username: John_shriver
Post Number: 32
Registered: 12-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 02, 2008 - 08:07 pm: |
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That's the bottom of the line Meniscus Achromatic lens. The 1-4 numbers are the aperture, in stops from f/11 to f/32. If there's a shutter speed adjustment, it would be T (time), B (bulb), and I (intermittent, about 1/25 second). If not, it's a fixed 1/25 shutter speed.
In terms of value, probably most valuable as a bellows donor if it has a first-rate leather bellows. If it's a later model with a crumbling synthetic bellows, not a lot of value. Of course, if it looks nice, it's still attractive as a shelf queen.
It may well be a "Junior" model, the cheap lenses weren't used on the normal 3A models until the mid-1930's, when 3A cameras weren't really selling very well.
I'm figuring $10 to $25 value? The 3A's are not rare cameras, easily a million or more were made, and folks didn't throw them out, because they paid a lot for them. |
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