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George Eastman had experimented
with shutter designs in his earliest models and mounted between-the-lens
shutters, often from other manufacturers in his slightly later models. In
1905, Kodak bought the Folmer & Schwing company that made Graflex cameras
with focal plane shutters; Graflex cameras using a variable slit, single
curtain design. Kodak introduced its own Speed Kodak with a similar shutter
in 1908, and I believe that was the only other Kodak to use a focal plane
shutter, so Kodak was entering into unfamiliar design and manufacturing
territory when it introduced this kind of shutter in the Ektra. The
Ektra shutter employs two shutter curtains and wasn't particularly reliable
and the most likely mechanical part of the Ektra to not be working in extant
examples. Luigi's example had a stuck shutter. 20% of Ektars currently sold
might be a high estimate for bodies with working shutters. Film travels
from right to left. The crescent of the gear visible in the back, near the
left bottom of the frame, drives the geared shaft to the right of the takeup
spool to pull the film across the film path. |
