Super Kodak Six-20 rare Medium Format 620 film. First Kodak w/Auto Exposure Rare

Description

Vintage
Super Kodak
Six-
20
. Serial # 2486. Circa 1938. 620 film. 6x9cm size. Firs camera with coupled Electric-Eye for Automatic Exposure settings.
Kodak
Anastigmat
Special
100mm
f/
3.5
lens.
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The world's first series-production auto exposure (AE) still camera, the Kodak Super Six-20 was nearly 20 years ahead of its time, but it nevertheless exerted a profound influence on camera makers as a technological benchmark. With advances in electronics and metering technology, the concept of auto exposure took the photographic world by storm after World War II, and was ultimately developed into today's sophisticated, through the lens, multi-pattern, multi-mode auto exposure systems. Understandably, Kodak introduced the Super Six-20 with considerable fanfare at the then staggering price of 5 (about half the price of a new 1938 Ford).
A strikingly handsome folding roll film camera of futuristic post-deco clamshell design, it produced eight 2
1/4
x 3
1/4
“ images per roll of 620 film and featured a front-cell-focusing Tessar-formula
Kodak Anastigmat Special
100mm
f/
3.5
lens plus a giant 3
3/4
x 3/4" selenium cell under a metal "awning" just below the rangefinder and separate viewfinder. On the left side of the front standard, there's a manual-override aperture scale calibrated from f/3.5 to f/22. Set it to the unmarked "automatic" setting past the f/22 mark and you can see a little comb-toothed bar. As you press the right-hand shutter-release slide inward, a moving needle (which is coupled to the three-bladed iris diaphragm) becomes trapped between the teeth on the bar. Thus, Kodak originated the trapped-needle system of automatic aperture control that was used (in refined form) on many later shutter-priority AE cameras.
This system had its limitations: It was based on a single film speed (ASA 32); only worked with shutter speeds from 1/25 to 1/200 sec (though the Super Six-20's Kodak-made leaf shutter has speeds down to 1 second); did not do well in dim light; and was no paragon of reliability. Considering its limitations, Kodak's engineers wisely designed a complete range of manual control options into the camera.
The lens, which focuses down to 4 ft, is capable of very sharp results. Fewer than (1000) Kodak Super Six-20s cameras had been built when the camera went out of production in '45, and while it was a great image builder that demonstrated Kodak's technological prowess, it was not a great sales success. Today, the Kodak Super Six-20 is a quintessential collectible verging on being a museum piece.
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This rare vintage collectible
Super Kodak
Six-
20
is in
Ex
or
8 of 10
cosmetic condition. Overall nice condition vintage Kodak with some signs of wear. Working bellows. Working shutter. Non-working selenium light meter. Front and rear lens elements are in good condition. Rear lens element is "yellowed" from the radioactive glass it was made with.
Camera is being sold
AS-IS NO Return
or Exchange
due to the age and delicate nature of this rare collectible camera. Sells with no reserve at
a price of
75
.
I have LOT more Kodak Vintage and Rare collectible cameras in my eBay Store, and my web page.
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