The Fellsphoto Vintage Kodak Gallery

1921 No.3 Folding Pocket Kodak Model G

Home  >  Kodak Collection  >  1921 Kodak No.3 Model G

with Bausch & Lomb Rapid Rectilinear f8 lens and 3 speed Kodak ball bearing shutter

serial no. 48631 ~ uses A118 Autographic film  ~ 1914-26, original list price $41.50

($467.40 using the Consumer Price Index, $1,708.99 using the unskilled wage)

see also: Kodak A-118 Autographic film

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On a separate page:  How to open a Kodak No.3

see also 1910 No.3 with red bellows and how to make 120 conversion spools

 

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When I opened up my beautiful, superb condition, camera for the first time this is the horror I found:

........ a fault not described by the seller!

To my amazement, not to say my considerable relief, it all wiped off with alcohol and a swab. It hadn't etched into the glass (as has the fungus on my 3A), so thankfully the lens is now pristine clear and the camera fit to use. Couldn't wait to put a film through it!

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Photographs with the Kodak No.3:

Nov. 2007 : A disastrous first roll. It appears to have been fogged in the loading cassette for the processing machine. But was it the camera?

However, it served it's purpose in showing that the camera could still take first rate photographs. There is an issue with the film-winding resulting in the pictures overlapping. The red window is out of line with 120 film and so film winding can only be done by counting turns on the winding knob. The number of turns per frame is under review!

 

the original 4¼" x 3¼" negative has been reduced in width in order to use modern 120 film

the above shot shows the resulting width-reduced full frame 4¼" x 2¼" negative.

It also reveals there is an issue with focussing, although the tall grasses behind the dogs are sharp.

 

               

the four reasonable photographs from the experimental first roll of  film ~  click on picture to see it enlarged

 

 

my Kodak No.3's aperture is calibrated in the US system

the "f." and "U. S." Systems

The Uniform System (U.S.) of apertures was adopted as a standard by the Photographic Society of Great Britain in the 1880s. Bothamley in the Ilford Manual of Photography 1891 said "The stops of all the best makers are now arranged according to this system."

U.S. 16 is the same aperture as f/16, but apertures that are larger or smaller by a full stop use doubling or halving of the U.S. number, for example f/11 is U.S. 8 and f/8 is U.S. 4. The exposure time required is directly proportional to the U.S. number.

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this is taken from the Kodak No.3 manual c.1920:

US = Uniform System, and not, as you might expect, United States!

Lens openings are termed 'stop' or 'diaphragm openings' and for convenience in estimating exposures, are arranged according to two systems, the f. system and the Uniform System or U. S. system, as commonly abbreviated.

In the f. system, the proportional size or "value" of the stop opening is designated by "f." and is the quotient obtained by dividing the focal length of the lens by the diameter of the stop.

For convenience, the uniform system of marking stop openings has been adopted by nearly all manufacturers of Iris diaphragms. Such convenience is at once apparent when we understand that each higher number stands for an opening having half the area of the preceding opening, each smaller stop (or higher number) requiring double the time of the one next larger.

As a number of exposure meters and similar devices for determining the proper exposure are based upon the "f' system, we give the following table showing the "f" value for each of the Uniform System openings:
 

U. S. 4 = f.8  U. S. 16 = f.16 U. S. 64 =f.32
U. S. 8 = f.11 U. S. 32 = f.22 U. S. 128 = f.45

 

 

 

links to more about Kodak No.3's on Living Image, on cosmonet

and at the University of Oxford Museum of the History of Science

read the Kodak No.3A manual online  ~  alternative downloadable No.3/3A manual

Home  >  Kodak Collection  >  1921 Kodak No.3 Model G

this page launched 28th November 2007  :  last modified 7 September 2011 at 13:08