The Kodak 4.5 model 36 was manufactured in circa 1955 by Kodak SA in France. It was a folding bed camera similar to the Kodak Tourist. It was made in several formats including, 6 x 9 cm, 6 x 6 cm and 28 x 40 mm. It was capable of capturing eight exposures on no. 620 film for the 6 x 9 cm, 6 x 6 cm size formats, or twelve exposures on the No. 828 (Bantam special) roll film for the 28 x 40mm size format. The Kodak 4.5 Model 36 was fitted with a Anastigmat Angenieux f 4.5 / 100 mm lens. The Kodak shutter provided speeds from one second to 1/250 of a second including bulb. It was made of metal with a plastic top, housing a built-in optical view finder. It featured a handy push button to open the camera bed for taking pictures, which was located on the top near the viewfinder and was colored black. The shutter release button is conveniently located on the side. The model number is displayed on a chromed plate located on the plastic viewfinder cap.

General considerations about French made Kodaks

At the end of WWII France blocked imports using severe protectionist laws and Kodak disappeared from the French market briefly. To solve this problem, Eastman tapped his European subsidary Kodak-Pathe SA in France, which began to import parts from the USA to France and assembled cameras in France as a means to bypass the French protection laws. Kodak developed and manufactured a wide range of folding bed cameras specific to the French market. Some models are very similar to models that were made at Rochester ( cameras are renamed and show minor modifications). Some others are very specific to the French market and do not exist elsewhere. These cameras used 620 rollfilms to produce 6x9 cm negatives. Most of them were fitted with a light grey viewer protected housing made of a special plastic named "Tenite" and were made with various lenses, from simple meniscus to nice Angenieux lenses, and shutters.

Thanks to Daniel C for providing this information and the Photo in this listing.

CLICK HERE for a list of Eastman Kodak Cameras.


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# 1727
2015-06-11 09:20:12