No. 4 Cartridge Kodak (improved)

Format

104 roll film; a glass plate adapter is an ACCESSORY

System

Kodak Cartridge

Shutter

"our new Kodak Automatic Shutter" (1904); the Eastman Triple Action Pneumatic earlier in the period

Focusing

index for focusing, plus "an extra extension to bellows, operated by means of rack and pinion" permitting photography at 18 inches from the lens

Metering

none

Spec Notes

THE IMPROVED GENERATION, split from its predecessor on TWO dimensions - see the wood-front row for the full argument and for why the split survives an unreadable 1900 page. Kodak, 1904: 'aluminum leather covered front boards of great strength, but which are nevertheless light'. Asked directly whether the 1904 catalogue still describes a mahogany or wood front: 'No.' KODAK NEVER PRINTED THE WORD 'IMPROVED' in the name or heading and never listed two versions of one number at once, so AA-13's six lines are a SERVICE-HISTORY distinction, not a retail one; the descriptor in this row's name is a catalogue label. ASSIGNABILITY IS SATISFIED BUT IMPERFECT: Kodak's own catalogues bracket the mahogany-to-aluminium change between the 1900 and 1901 issues, and AA-13 supplies the same boundary. SOURCE-HANDLING NOTE FOR THIS SLICE: the WebFetch relay was caught FABRICATING WHEN LED - four times independently, once inventing 'a dial to select the SHUTTER SPEED' to complete a page truncated at 'the only one to have a d', where the real next sentence says the earlier models had a SLIDER to set the FOCUSING DISTANCE. 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. THE FILM NUMBER IS AN ATTRIBUTION, NOT A KODAK DESIGNATION ON THIS ROW. Kodak's catalogues of this period name the cartridge by exposure count and picture size - 'N. C. Film Cartridge, 12 exposures (4 x 5)' - not by number. The number reaches this catalogue from AA-13 and from museum records. Kodak DOES print a film number later in the era: the 1927 catalogue and Kodak's own No. 3A Panoram booklet both print 'No. A 122', which is why that one row carries no caveat. Values resting on VULGAR FRACTIONS are treated as unreliable: these scans return different fractions on repeat reads of the same page while prose, model names, shutter names, dollar figures and INTEGERS stay stable. EVERY row-shape call in this slice was decided on an integer, on prose, or on a dollar figure. NO PRICE IS RECORDED. AA-13's price column is not a list price, and in this slice the gap is measurable: AA-13 and Kodak's own catalogues agree to the cent for the Panorams ($10.00/$20.00/$40.00), the 3B Quick Focus ($12.00) and the No. 2 Stereo ($15.00), and disagree by a factor of two to three for the Cartridge Kodaks and the No. 4A Folding Kodak. 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 presence contradicts AA-13 the conflict is recorded on the row and NOT resolved. DATING: NONE EXISTS. No serial-to-year mapping and no date code was ever published for any Kodak of this era. Specimen serials are recorded where a museum photographed one, for provenance only and NOT decodable: No. 4 Panoram Model C 10368 and Model D 12238; No. 4 Screen Focus 2274; 3B Quick Focus 4763K, 9066K and 7899K; Stereo Kodak Model 1 LENS numbers 52570 and 53277; No. 4 Series C Eastman Plate Camera 792. The trailing K on the Quick Focus serials is NOT SOURCED - no decode exists in anything reachable.

Fitted Lens

rapid rectilinear, "strictly rectilinear and very rapid, having a working speed of f. 8"

Rangefinder

No

Negative Size

4 x 5 in

Alternate Names

—

Introduced

1900

Corrected 2026 09 03

The 1904 rack-and-pinion quotation in this row's notes was transcribed with its final clause dropped. Kodak's full sentence ends "...and also permits of the advantageous use of tele-photo attachment when plates are used." Verified 2026-09-03.