Friday, January 20, 2012

Kodak Moment



World, meet the "Kodak Vest Pocket Autographic Camera"  Produced by Eastman Kodak from 1912-1926, it features a Kodak Anastigmat f 7.7 lens. This model was made Jan 1913 and so is 99 years old.

 This camera has 4 shutter speeds:  1/25, B, T, and 1/50; and 5 f-stops: Moving objects f/7.7, near view & portrait f/11, average view f/16, distant view f/22, and Marine, Clouds and Snow f/32.
 Charles Linberg carried this camera with him on his flights, as did George Mallory and Andrew Irving on what may be the first summiting of Mt. Everest -- 29 years before Hillary and Tenzing's documented climb.  Many of their personal effects were recovered but Irving's body and the expedition's KVP camera was not.  If it is recovered (there are efforts underway to fund a controversial climb to recover Irving's body)

compact and portable, advertised as the "soldier's camera" during WWI, it's utility has outlasted our point-and-shoot nikon by nearly 100 years.

Now, to find some film. 

(It takes Efke R100 127 from Fotoimpex...just in case you are out and about in Berlin)