No. 2C Autographic Kodak Special (rangefinder)

Format

130

System

Kodak Autographic Special

Shutter

Kodamatic or Ilex Acme

Metering

none

Spec Notes

The 130 Special existed ONLY with the rangefinder - AA-13 has no plain 2C Special row. LENS AND SHUTTER ARE AN OPTION LADDER, NOT SEPARATE MODELS. Kodak's own catalogues print one heading and one description per camera with a price table of lens-and-shutter combinations underneath, and AA-13 carries one row per camera rather than one per grade. Same call as the Kodak 35 in slice 6. Where Kodak promoted a grade into the NAME - Special, Junior, Series II, Series III, Model B - it becomes its own row. DATING: NONE EXISTS. No Kodak serial-to-year table was ever published for any pre-1940 body, and the CAMEROSITY lens code runs only from about 1940 and appears on lenses, not bodies. Bodies of this era DO often carry a serial - museum records show 116880 on a 2C Autographic Junior and 15128 on a 3A Autographic Special, and AA-13 itself notes the highest known serial on the 1888 Kodak as 5192 - so the common claim that only the Medalist and Ektra were serialled is wrong. But an observed serial is not a dating input here. Date these by Kodak's own model letters and hardware notes instead: 'collapsing front', 'wood lens mount' against 'metal lens mount', '1917 Model', 'Model B'. NO PRICE IS RECORDED ON THIS ROW, and that is a finding rather than a gap: AA-13's 'ORIGINAL LIST PRICE' column is a TOP-OF-LADDER figure, not a list price. Verified against Kodak's own catalogues on five Autographic Special rows where AA-13 lands exactly on the dearest rung - and for the Folding Pocket rows it matches NO rung in any of eight catalogue years. The column cannot be ingested as a price field. DATES ARE MARKET DATES, NOT PRODUCTION. Kodak's AA-13 heads its columns 'ON THE MARKET FROM / TO'. No Kodak-published production date exists for any camera in this slice.

Fitted Lens

Kodak Anastigmat f/6.3 or B&L Tessar f/6.3

Rangefinder

Yes

Fold Notes 9d

CONFIRMED AS A SINGLE HARDWARE GENERATION. AA-13 carries exactly one line for this camera, with no model letter and dates matching this row exactly. Kodak's 1920 and 1921/22 catalogues both confirm NO 2C Special existed before 1923, and the 1925 catalogue lists it with 'Kodak Anastigmat Lens f.6.3', 'Kodamatic Shutter' and 'To aid in focusing there's the Kodak Range Finder.'

Alternate Names

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Introduced

1923