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The Most Unique Kodak Camera I Have Ever Seen

More fun/cool cameras that have been through the shop.

Kodak Medalist II

This, is the Kodak Medalist II. It is a beauty of a camera. While I do love Kodak cameras, this model really should not be thought of as a Kodak, or at least a “Traditional” Kodak. Why do I say that? Because this camera is everything all other Kodak’s are not.

Kodak, has always looked for a design esthetic that made photography cheaper, faster, easier. Even when photography was a hit-&-miss affair for most regular, “everyday” photographers, Kodak was always trying to make things easier, if not entirely fool-proof.

The Kodak Medalist II is the antithesis of cheaper, faster, easier.

Which is not to say that this camera is clunky, it’s not. The design is as refined as any of its contemporaries that you could name. It’s not “cheap”, in as much as it is one of the best put together cameras I have ever held. It could possibly be one of the easiest cameras to use well, but that is a function of the genius design.

When I first saw it, I thought that this camera would have been a massive pain-in-the-ass to shoot. I was wrong. Once you familiarize yourself with the camera, you will see that every control is exactly where it should be. This camera is elegant.

This camera also has one design element that is so over-the-top, in both it’s functionality as well as its sheer beauty, that I let out an involuntary WHOOP when I first saw it.

WHOOP, There It Is!

Can you see it?

The lens barrel is made of two pieces. The two sleeves are grooved with what is known as, “Counter-rotating helicoid grooves”. When you twist the larger, middle ring, the two pieces of the lens barrel will either extend out, or retract. It is the God-damndest, coolest thing I have ever seen, on a camera.

WHOOP, There It Is (Again!)

Kodak, had several models of camera made in Germany, before WWII; the Retina and Tourist models are the ones most people know. Once the war started, Kodak had to make their own cameras in the “German” style, which is to say, robust and well designed. The original Medalist, was made during the war, and was used mostly by the U.S. Military. The camera that you see here, was made just after the war, in the late 1940’s.

I mentioned before that I found the design of this camera to be elegant, everything was were you would expect it to be. Let me offer an addendum here: the camera would be easy for me to operate, due to the large size of my hands; for others, it would be a beast. It is a large camera. It weighs more than most of its competition. It is robust. All of that is, as I mentioned earlier, antithetical to the typical Kodak design esthetic. But baby, it’s worth it!

I did not buy this camera, because I was wanting to buy another iconic camera from the same era. I wrote a post recently about a “Bucket List” camera. My next post will be about a different camera, that I now have, that was also on my bucket list. Oops, sorry… is NO LONGER on my bucket list.