620 with 120 film

[colyn]

My new rangefinder. Sort of. Afterall it comes with a rangefinder.

I trim down 120 film spools (I know I can re-spool 120 onto 620 reels) to fit and takeup onto 620 reels..

My first 2 rolls came out razor sharp even with the Cooke Triplet Kodak-Anastigmat uncoated lens..


duo 620 by Colyn's fotografs, on Flickr


duo 620 closeup by Colyn's fotografs, on Flickr

 

[GaryLH]

Nice... I have always like these cameras from that period.. 620 not so much. I have never been lucky w/ trimming down 620 spools. I always seem to get a bind toward the end. I have about six 620 spools I use to respool w/ instead.

Have fun w/ it
Gary

 

[D.O'K.]

These Kodak Duos are very well made and pleasant to use.
I was surprised how easy it was to trim the 120 film flanges to fit them, and--as you have found--even more surprised at the quality of the lens.

Regards,
D.

 

[colyn]

Nice... I have always like these cameras from that period.. 620 not so much. I have never been lucky w/ trimming down 620 spools. I always seem to get a bind toward the end. I have about six 620 spools I use to respool w/ instead.

Have fun w/ it
Gary

I have a couple of rolls that I re-spooled and are ready to shoot.. Re-spooling is quicker than trimming down a 120 spool.. I need to get a few more spools so I'm watching a couple on eBay right now..

 

[colyn]

These Kodak Duos are very well made and pleasant to use.
I was surprised how easy it was to trim the 120 film flanges to fit them, and--as you have found--even more surprised at the quality of the lens.

Regards,
D.

Yes, very well made..

Trimming is relatively easy..

I had heard a lot about this lens and wanted to give it a try. Found this one cheap so I grabbed it. I got some strange looks from people while out shooting..

 

[Moto-Uno]

What kind of rangefinder is that? And I'm guessing it works well if your shots are sharp. Peter

 

[colyn]

What kind of rangefinder is that? And I'm guessing it works well if your shots are sharp. Peter

It is a Dejur-Amsco. It is on the mark at various distances including infinity and close focus. I expected I'd have to adjust it but that was not the case..

 

[jammcat]

Toenail clippers and sandpaper (or concrete) will trim down 120 rolls to 620 size in a flash. It's easy!

 

[colyn]

I'm a bit confused now. I removed the lens for internal cleaning. My understanding is a triplet is 3 elements. This lens has 4. The front group has 2 and the rear group has 2. In my book that equals 4.. So what gives? Everything I have read about this camera is it uses a triplet lens..

 

[oilman930]

Kodak was also confused about which lenses in the Duo were three element and four element.

It seems for the U.S. Duo models, the f/3,5 lenses were four element lenses, while the f/4,5 versions were three element lenses. Kodak in the 1930's said otherwise about the lenses, so who knows.

From personel experience with German and French Kodak cameras, the f/3,5 lenses have been four element lenses, while the f/4,5 versions lenses have been three element lenses.

Good luck with your Kodak Duo.

 

[colyn]

Thanks for the info.

I wonder if the lens isn't just a re-badged Schneider lens..

 

[oilman930]

Not a re-badged Schneider lens. At least not from the information that I have found.

 

[farlymac]

That was a fast lens for it's time. One of the things Kodak usually did right was their lens designs. I've never trimmed the edges of a 120 spool, but have sanded down the ends. Maybe that also takes enough off the edge.

PF

 

[ZeissFan]

That's interesting about the lens. I guess that I should update my page.

 

[colyn]

That was a fast lens for it's time. One of the things Kodak usually did right was their lens designs. I've never trimmed the edges of a 120 spool, but have sanded down the ends. Maybe that also takes enough off the edge.

PF

I know the Kodak Ektar lens on the Retinas are high quality lens as are the large format Ektars.. I was impressed with this lens thinking I was getting high quality from a 3 element lens but found out later it is a high quality 4 element lens.

I have to trim down the edge just a millimeter to get the back door to close and not rub. The ends mainly the extended part at the center usually has to be sanded down a bit..

 

[citizen99]

Beautiful camera 🙂 . The lenses fitted to this Nagel-produced model, for various markets, are discussed in detail in Camera-wik.org ; the narrative fits your 4-element nicely.

 

[Sejanus.Aelianus]

Beautiful camera . The lenses fitted to this Nagel-produced model, for various markets, are discussed in detail in Camera-wik.org ; the narrative fits your 4-element nicely.

That's quite interesting stuff on the Wiki. These cameras were seriously expensive at the time. $900 without the rangefinder! 😱

 

[colyn]

Beautiful camera 🙂 . The lenses fitted to this Nagel-produced model, for various markets, are discussed in detail in Camera-wik.org ; the narrative fits your 4-element nicely.

Makes me think most if not all f/3.5 lens on this model are 4 element..

 

[Mr_Flibble]

The only Kodak lenses I really like are Ektars. I'm certainly not a fan of the Anastigmats (especially the 50mm f/3.5 Specials) myself.

I *am* interested to see your results with this larger format lens though.


I've only trimmed down two rolls of 120 before, to use in my Kodak Medalist. That little adventure ended in near-disastrous results and a ruined 620 take-up spool 🙁
I'll just respool to 620 now to save me the aggravation.

 

[Muggins]

Colyn, I'd love to see some of your photos from the Duo! The reason is that I have two, both fitted with the Kodak Anastigmat f4.5 (in fact, I owe someone on here some prints for finding me a viewfinder lens - must go through my PMs and find out who) and in both cases the lenses are really low contrast - even for a pre-WW2 lens I'd expect a bit more.

Example:

Department of the Weird: I've only ever seen two - the two I own - and when I found the second in a charity shop, I had the first in my pocket loaded and ready to go!

Adrian