Kodak 620 Folder Bargain?

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Hi all,

I was on my regular rummage through the charity and bargain shops in my local town when I came across a boxed Kodak 620 folder in immaculate condition. It still has original instruction manual, and a typed sheet advising that leather cases could be purchased for an extra 15/-, or canvas ones for 4/- 9D It has an f6.3 lens, shutter speeds 1/25 1/50 1/100 B & T. The viewfinder also folds, and has the only flaw I can see as it is cracked. The lens looks a little grimy but had no evidence of fungus.

My question to you good folk is therefore. Is it worth £10 ($20)? I'm not buying as a shooter, although I might put a roll through it to try it out.

Regards

Andy
 
I don't know if it has any collectable value, but I would think that it wold have to be worth it as a shooter. Why don't you want it as a shooter?
 
sfb_dot_com said:
I came across a boxed Kodak 620 folder in immaculate condition. It still has original instruction manual, and a typed sheet advising that leather cases could be purchased for an extra 15/-, or canvas ones for 4/- 9D It has an f6.3 lens, shutter speeds 1/25 1/50 1/100 B & T. The viewfinder also folds, and has the only flaw I can see as it is cracked. The lens looks a little grimy but had no evidence of fungus.
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The Kodak Six-20 is very basic and the Anaston F/6.3 lens is a coated triplet of indifferent quality. These Kodak entry level cameras are not so bad, but the almost complete unavailability of 620 film turn most people away from them. As they are also very common, £10 seems a bit on the expensive side if the camera is not in pristine condition.

Cheers!

Abbazz
 
620 is merely 120 of a different spool. if you have spools then it is very easy to re-spool 120 film.
As for the camera, i too have one and it does gives lovely dreamy images. £10 may be a bit steep tho.
 
Schlapp said:
620 is merely 120 of a different spool. if you have spools then it is very easy to re-spool 120 film.
As for the camera, i too have one and it does gives lovely dreamy images. £10 may be a bit steep tho.
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Yes, 620 is 120 on a different spool. It is easy to respool using a film changing bag or darkroom. If you take your film to a lab just make sure you get your old 620 spools back.

I was the willing recipient of 2 Kodak Tourist cameras and 2 Kodak Monitors. The bellows were pretty bad but once this was settled the cameras perform. I have Anaston 4.5 lenses on all cameras. Top shutter speeds, depending on the shutter can be 800 (more like 300) 400, 200.
I've seen these things going for $5.00 US.

"Lovely dreamy images" Are at least, a distinct possibility.
 
Even though I am a fan of Kodak cameras in general, and respooling 120 onto 620 is not an onerous task to me, one must also note that in very general terms, the shutters used by Kodak at that time were not well-regarded and are frequently found to be non or semi functional. I have had much more luck with German folders in 120 of the same approximate vintage - hurts to admit it, but there you go.
 
bmattock said:
Even though I am a fan of Kodak cameras in general, and respooling 120 onto 620 is not an onerous task to me, one must also note that in very general terms, the shutters used by Kodak at that time were not well-regarded and are frequently found to be non or semi functional. I have had much more luck with German folders in 120 of the same approximate vintage - hurts to admit it, but there you go.
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Sad, but very true, I'm afraid.

If you are handy and don't mind fiddling with mechanisms. The lens/shutter assembly comes off quite easily. After removing the lenses I've cleaned the shutters in lighter fluid then made a little mixture of powdered graphite and lighter fluid in a empty film cannister and sloshed that mixture around in the shutter. Let it dry.
I would not do this to a German folder, but feel it is a quick fix for a old Kodak.
 
I'm surprised that my little post generated such a big response. I suppose that my tendency to want to collect interesting cameras is balanced by my tendency to then lug them all around with me in the boot of my car, which then leads to some interesting dilemmas when I come to actually do some picture taking. Also, there's the fact that I have to smuggle them past my other half with some lame excuse!

I was taken in this instance with the fact that it came in it's original box, with it's original manual and despite the fact that there was some damage to the finder it was otherwise in pristine condition. I used to own one of these that had belonged to my grandfather, but this one looks a bit better made, and has some nice touches such as a sliding metal hatch over the red window on the back. I wasn't originally planning to do some shooting with it, but now I feel challenged!, so I'll head back to the shop and buy it and see what happens!

The money is really a red herring in this case, I'm just wanting the excuse to go play... :angel:

Regards to all.

Andy
 
sfb_dot_com said:
Hi all,

I was on my regular rummage through the charity and bargain shops in my local town when I came across a boxed Kodak 620 folder in immaculate condition. It still has original instruction manual, and a typed sheet advising that leather cases could be purchased for an extra 15/-, or canvas ones for 4/- 9D It has an f6.3 lens, shutter speeds 1/25 1/50 1/100 B & T. The viewfinder also folds, and has the only flaw I can see as it is cracked. The lens looks a little grimy but had no evidence of fungus.

My question to you good folk is therefore. Is it worth £10 ($20)? I'm not buying as a shooter, although I might put a roll through it to try it out.

Regards

Andy
Click to expand...

as far as i can remember ther are quite few different models discribed as kodak 620...their vaule somehwat different...no matter what it was ,down here if it was boxed it would be priced much higher in any bric a brac or whatever store...if you did a search on ebay you would likely get an idea...i am sure i've seen tham boxed with instructions get near twice or more than that on a good day.

for display or fun if it appeals to you ,,,you cant go wrong,,,for a regular shooter it will be like pulling teeth considering what else is available
 
I wouldn't buy a 620 folder for £10, but solely because I no longer have access to a darkroom! But a tenner on something that looks good that you will have fun with strikes me as well worth it. Some of the early 620 (and, incidentally, they also made 616 cameras - presumably 116 on a slimmer spool) cameras are very, very nice lookers too, even if they are not up to Leica standards.

Eg: http://licm.org.uk/livingImage/K616imp.html
http://www.clickondavid.com/six20ad.html

Re-roll and enjoy! Oh, and probably safer to assume that it'll vignette.

Adrian
 
I would not spend any money on any 620 camera unless breaking it for parts. There are plenty of old but usable 120 cameras around.
 
Alexander said:
The Kodak Duo620 is a German Kodak
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hehe funny...there is always someone that hits 'the' spot eh...and thats ok

i think perhaps bmattock was thinking in general terms of kodak, and most people can be forgiven for doing so! in many ways plenty of kodaks were todays equivalent to disposable or low end consumer products..not much more, although of course their are plenty that can take good shots and plenty that had a quality background but they are outnumber vastly (enough to fill some huge landfill space) by what a pro or photography buff would discribe as trash...i dont think Andy discribed what model he had, but i doubt the the duo was offered with a 6.3 and 1-100 shutter which places it most likely in the low end common stuff. i think some of the duo's had Tessars with compur shutters ;-).

having said that many of the most basic kodaks with a box, and some kodaks that are fancy coloured or decorated can fetch big money! heck sometimes just the box alone is worth more than Leica,,,, just for the history, conversation piece, curio or display collectability....but to most photographers kodak common offerings (particularly 620) would not be high on their list to collect with the purpose to use when there are many common german folders 1 or 5 steps up....
 
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Alexander said:
The Kodak Duo620 is a German Kodak
Click to expand...

I'm familiar with the history of Kodak and Nagel. The O/P said '620 folder' and did not specify the Duo Six-20 in either of his posts in this thread. Nagel cameras, of course, are German, and the Duo Six-20 is a Nagel-made camera.

All Kodak folding cameras were made for 620 film after 1932, with only one or two minor exceptions. That would be true of German and US-made Kodak folders.
 
chippy said:
hehe funny...there is always someone that hits 'the' spot eh...and thats ok

i think perhaps bmattock was thinking in general terms of kodak, and most people can be forgiven for doing so! in many ways plenty of kodaks were todays equivalent to disposable or low end consumer products.
Click to expand...

Thank you, but no, I do not think of Kodak as purveyors of low-end crap. I am a fan of Kodak and always have been. Their market, for the most part, was 'everyman' and for that, their early slogan 'you press the button, we do the rest' was entirely appropriate. However, they catered to the serious amateur as well, and I have a small but growing collection of "Kodakery" magazines to prove it.

I was by no means disparaging Kodak. It is a known fact that later folding cameras which took 620 film, such as the Tourist and Tourist II, are frequently found with stuck shutters in their dotage. I am fond of them, but will frequently prefer a German folding camera which takes 120 film and does not have shutter problems.
 
bmattock said:
Even though I am a fan of Kodak cameras in general, and respooling 120 onto 620 is not an onerous task to me, one must also note that in very general terms, the shutters used by Kodak at that time were not well-regarded and are frequently found to be non or semi functional. I have had much more luck with German folders in 120 of the same approximate vintage - hurts to admit it, but there you go.
Click to expand...

Well, Kodak did make a few cameras that were very good indeed. There are the Retina I, II and III series (although I'm not sure Kodak had much to do with those), then they made the Medallist, and the Signet 35 isn't bad, once you have cleaned and polished some of the shutter parts (it has a very nice lens). Then of course they made the Commercial Ektar for large format and some of the medium format cameras (one of the all-time great lenses).You do have to be careful about Ektars though, because not long afterward they started calling every even halfway decent lens they had an Ektar.

That said, Kodak did indeed make a lot of low end cameras. Some were crap, but some were not. They gave you your money's worth.
 
bmattock said:
Thank you, but no, I do not think of Kodak as purveyors of low-end crap.
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nah i didnt mean to imply 'you' did think that....i was just trying to 'stick up for you' in my own way (trying to relay perhaps you were infering that you generaly prefered a german made folder over the vast number of ordinary 620 kodaks) and I perhaps mis-chose a few words and then followed on with a sentence relaying my own thoughts (e.g. its my veiw in many ways many kodaks were equal to todays disposable cameras,,not all but many) and it appears that i was speaking for you...i must remember to read back my own posts!
 
Well I went back and...

the Kodak was sold. But... I did pick up a nice Yashica Minster 700 plus separate handheld meter for £10. Still to test that one. I also picked up for £2 some Zeiss Ikon bits on the basis that someone must want them. They are:
A UV filter with the following marked on it - Zeiss Ikon Stuttgart 322 A37 Germany UV 1x
A Green filter marked in exactly the same way except for the last bit which says - G 2x
Both are push-on type fittings, and are in pretty good condition with no scratches. The metal rim is lovely with bright machined finish and black letters on both. Both are also in their original plastic cases in reasonable condition. I also have a lens hood I'm guessing for the same camera. It comes in it's own leather case which is in excellent condition. The hood itself is made of aluminium, and is matt black on the inside. Condition is good, with a few marks on the outside, no dents or other damage. It again is also marked Zeiss Ikon Stuttgart - followed by 1112/A37.
Can anyone identify? and does anyone want them?

Regards to all

Andy
 
This sounds very much like one my dad had, one he did let me use. It would take tack-sharp 8x10 enlargements. Two viewfinders, one on the top of the body, the other kind of a dim reflex one.

One nonstandard feature was it used kind of a funky bayonet flash connection, not the common one you see on most cameras.
 
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