Kodak Automatic 35B

Format

135, 24x36 mm

System

Kodak Automatic 35

Shutter

Kodak Automatic Flash Shutter, set by the film advance, 1/80 daylight and 1/40 flash

Metering

coupled selenium, automatic only, ASA 10-320, automatic flash exposure 5 to 25 ft

Spec Notes

TWO DIMENSIONS FROM THE AUTOMATIC 35, BUT NOT THE ONES A FIRST READING SUGGESTS. It is tempting to call the shutter change a rename, since both units run the same two speeds - and the name is a family label, not a unit, because Kodak applies 'Automatic Flash Shutter' to a FOUR-speed shutter on the Motormatic. But the mechanism really does change: the Automatic Flash Shutter adds a focus-coupled automatic flash aperture the Synchro 80 has not, so that 'just set the focus, and the correct lens opening is automatically set' for flash at guide numbers 35 to 340. The two axes are therefore EXPOSURE AUTOMATION (manual override removed, automatic flash added) and METER (ASA 10-160 to 10-320). Lens, body, focus and film advance are unchanged. GENERATIONS FOLDED IN: the 35F (1962-66) and the 35R4 (1965-69), which differ from the 35B and from each other by FLASH HARDWARE ONLY - external flasholder, then a built-in pop-up AG-1 flasholder, then a battery-fired flashcube socket with automatic bulb advance on two N cells. Flash fitting is not one of this catalogue's hardware dimensions, and nothing else moves across those two steps. Note that Kodak's own 35R4 manual says FLASHCUBE, not Magicube; Magicubes postdate this camera. Weight and dimensions NOT SOURCED. DATING: NONE. The CAMEROSITY lens prefix is attested only on Ektar, Anastigmat Special and Anastar lenses. No prefixed EKTANAR or ANASTON serial could be found in Kodak literature, museum records, dealer inventory or auction text, and no source states whether those tiers are inside or outside the scheme - so this camera is NOT datable from its lens. The four-letter body date code that cheap Kodaks carry is not sourced for this model either. DATES ARE MARKET DATES, NOT PRODUCTION. Kodak's own AA-13 heads its columns 'ON THE MARKET FROM / TO', and no Kodak-published production date exists for any camera in this slice - every third-party 'production years' figure checked is a restatement of AA-13.

Fitted Lens

Kodak Ektanar 44mm f/2.8, Lumenized

Rangefinder

No

Alternate Names

—

Introduced

1961