Old 1920s Kodak Anastigmat Lens

[Dave Goodwin]

This is a real long-shot, I'm sure, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I just bought a very nice condition Cine-Kodal Model B with the interchangeable 25mm f1.9 Anastigmat lens.  It also came with a full set of ND filters and a yellow filter for B&W films.  The camera works well.  The lens focusing was frozen but I have managed to free it up.  The aperture works fine.

What I'm wondering is if anyone knows about or has any experience with the filters for this thing?  They look like they want to replace the black rectangular insert in the lens barrel, which appears to act like a lens hood, but I can't get the old one out.  It's certainly possible it may just be frozen in the barrel but I don't want to go trying to free it unless I know that's how it works.

Anyone ever mess with one of these?

[Simon Wyss]

Haven᾽t they used push-on filters? Likewise the rectangular shade insert could be pulled out but I am not certain about that. If your lens has a beaded rim on the outside, snap-on filters will be the counterpart. EKC bowed to threaded filter rings only after the war, I presume, with the new Ciné-Kodak lenses line of 1948.

[Philip Forrest]

Those filters are snap-in. If your lens was gummed up, the little wire tension ring in between the filter and lens barrel may also be sticky. The filter hood has a key in it that fits into a notch in the lens barrel. This is because the hood has a rectangular cut out and the key is to keep it properly oriented with the axis of the gate. Only the Ektar lenses offered thread-in filters prior to the 1950s if I recall correctly. Be careful, you could wind up going down the road of collecting all these great old lenses, especially the Ektars, most of which are top notch performers and happen to have quite a bit of rare-earth glass in them. All of my Ektars are yellowed from the thorium content.

Phil Forrest