Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Kodak Duo Six-20


The Kodak Duo Six-20 is perhaps the most elegant of the company's medium-format folding cameras; it was made in the NagelWerk factory in Stuttgart. This Series II model has a Compur-Rapid shutter with speeds from 1 sec. to 1/500. The lens is a unit-focus f3.5/75mm Anastigmat. The camera was built to accomodate 620 roll film and yields 16 frames in 6x4.5 format. The flip-up  finder provides a bright view of the subject.

San Felipe de Neri Church, built 1793

The materials and construction quality of the camera is first-rate throughout.  The lens and shutter at this point in time may need light cleaning, but the camera's basic simplicity makes serious problems unlikely.  Aside from the need to re-roll 120 film onto 620 spools, about the only problem that is likely to arise is with the long mechanical linkage of the shutter release.  Extending the lens to the closest focusing position may push the shutter release lever beyond the reach of the linking lever and lead to additional alignment problems.  On my camera, I have also found that I need to avoid closing the front door with the shutter cocked as the cocking lever may get hung up on the door latch.

2 comments:

Jim said...

Given how worn the leather is, it looks like this camera has seen a lot of use in its day! But it does nice work.

robert said...

The Kodak cameras of this era seem to share similar design of parts if not the exact same parts. I like that Fuji Acros, very smooth look.