No. 3 Kodak Series III

Format

118 roll film

System

Kodak Series III

Shutter

Kodex 1/25 1/50 T B, or Diomatic 1/10-1/100. THE ONLY SERIES III SIZE KODAK EVER OFFERS WITH THE KODEX - "Kodex (No. 3 only)", printed in three separate catalogues

Focusing

"Adjustable, with lever focusing device"; confirmed on a specimen as "Lever focusing, screw rising front"

Metering

none

Spec Notes

THE SECOND OF THE TWO MIS-FILED ROWS - see the No. 1 Series III for how they were nearly lost. TWO DIMENSIONS AND IT CLEARS MORE EASILY THAN ANY OTHER SERIES III SIZE: (1) FORMAT - 118, and NO Series II exists in 118 at all, the Series II line being 120 and 116 only, confirmed independently in three catalogue years; (2) FOCUSING MECHANISM - a lever focusing device against the Series II's unnamed 'Fixed or adjustable'. THE LENS IS DELIBERATELY NOT COUNTED AS A THIRD, and the reason is worth keeping: in 1927 this size offers the Kodar f/7.9, which the Series II ALSO offers, so the ladders OVERLAP here where they are disjoint for the No. 1 and No. 1A. The disjointness only arrives in 1931 when the Kodar is dropped. The row does not need it. AGAINST ITS BLOCKMATE THE No. 2C it splits on FORMAT plus SHUTTER, the Kodex being offered on this size and no other. AA-13'S 1934 END DATE IS DIRECTLY SUPPORTED, which is rare in this build: the catalogue printed 'KODAKS AND KODAK SUPPLIES 1933-1934' on its title page still lists this camera, and it is the LAST SERIES III SIZE STANDING. Specimen: camera serial 20021, lens serial 104717. historiccamera was used for NOTHING load-bearing. Datasheet 696 was confirmed uncited this slice and its text is verbatim laundered AA-13; datasheets 580 and 567 likewise list no references at all. Sixth, seventh and eighth occurrences of the pattern. SOURCE-HANDLING: the WebFetch relay fabricates when led, proven five times in this build. Every reading behind this row was taken with neutral questions, an explicit 'or say not stated' escape hatch, control questions whose answer had to be NO, and a second ask in different wording. One relay bleed WAS caught in this slice - asked about the 1913 Six-Three page it returned 'rack and pinion' and 'rising and sliding fronts', both of which are printed on the SPECIAL pages two pages earlier. That read was discarded and the isolated re-read returned the correct answer. Values resting on VULGAR FRACTIONS are unreliable: these scans return different fractions on repeat reads of the same page. Every row-shape call in this slice was decided on prose, on a model name, on a shutter name, on a SPEED COUNT, on an integer or on a dollar figure. Where a catalogue fraction and a museum specimen disagree the specimen is preferred and the conflict is recorded. NO PRICE IS RECORDED. Where a figure decides a row shape it is quoted in these notes instead. DATES ARE MARKET DATES, NOT PRODUCTION - AA-13 heads its columns 'ON THE MARKET FROM / TO'. Where Kodak's own catalogue shelf contradicts AA-13 the conflict is recorded on the row and NOT resolved. DATING: NO SCHEME EXISTS. No serial-to-year mapping and no date code was ever published for any Kodak of this era. Specimen serials are recorded for provenance only and are NOT decodable - and note they are not even a consistent KIND of number: the four published Series III figures mix a camera body serial (No. 3 Series III, 20021), lens serials (No. 1 Series III, 9080; No. 3 Series III, 104717) and an autographic-back serial (13327). Four numbers across two models spanning three orders of magnitude. DO NOT BUILD A DECODER.

Fitted Lens

Kodar f/7.9 or Kodak Anastigmat f/6.3, 5 in focus (1927); f/6.3 or f/5.6 (1931 onward). Specimen lens 127 mm f/6.3-45, which agrees with the catalogue 5 inches - the one focal length in this slice where scan and specimen agree

Rangefinder

No

Negative Size

3-1/4 x 4-1/4 in

Alternate Names

—

Introduced

1926