Kodak Signet 40

Format

135, 24x36 mm

System

Kodak Signet

Shutter

Kodak Synchro 400, manually cocked, 1/5 to 1/400 + B

Metering

none

Spec Notes

THE ONE SIGNET WHOSE LENS KODAK NEVER NAMED. Its instruction book calls it only 'the f/3.5 lens' and has no specifications page at all, so weight and dimensions are NOT SOURCED and the engraved name is contested: Ektanon 46mm f/3.5 on most sources and on surviving examples, Ektanar on others. Both are recorded and neither is asserted. Unusual for the family in being MANUALLY COCKED by a separate lever where the 30 and 50 cock on the film advance. Rangefinder combined with the viewfinder, triangular patch, coupled. Exposure guide on the rewind knob rather than a meter. 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

46mm f/3.5 - engraved name disputed, Ektanon or Ektanar

Rangefinder

Yes

Alternate Names

—

Introduced

1956