1948 Kodak Reflex II

Here's a pic of the old lady! Made from die-cast aluminium with plated brass fittings, this really was near the all time top of Kodak's medium format product range, perhaps only the Medalist, and the German made Regent, exceeded it.

As well as the fresnel screen, it has automatic film spacing which works without fault, and the 80mm lenses are hard coated Anastons - not Tessar variants, but a Dialyt design of four equally spaced elements about a central diaphragm, and unusually, both the taking and viewing lenses are of identical construction. The shutter is a Flash Kodamatic with M & X options, 1/2 to 1/300th plus B&T, and the apertures are from f3.5 to f22, and are click-stopped. It is shown with a Kodak Series VI filter adapter, and a home made lens hood which does not mask the viewing lens.

Just a shade lighter than a non-metered Rollieflex, it was designed to allow only the wretched 620 film size to be used, and no conversion to 120 is possible without drastic alteration, but I've recently made a simple set up to machine the diameters and end faces of 120 films in the lathe, making them externally the same as 620, and avoiding the need to re-wind the films on to 620 spools, so I might use it more now.

Taken with a Canon Ixus 960is @ 80 iso equivalent.