So I bought a Kodak 2D

Marley's Ghost

Marley's Ghost

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Saw this for a bit over £40 so I couldn't resist.

Bad bits:
1. Well the bellows are pretty shot. I should be able to seal them internally to test the camera out ... but long term they have to go. No issues ... just more work.
2. The centre section of the baseboard rails have lost their wooden 'runners' so when in the centre - the back or front standard flops about. Again, not much issue ... I have some strips of cherry wood that I can inlay in.
The whole thing is astoundingly filthy ... I mean well minging ... complete with dead insects inside.







Why did I take a punt ... well my my family originally comes from Devon ...it would seem - exactly to the small town this this camera spent much of its life in ... and I plan to go back and photograph my real 'home town' (I was adopted and moved far away as a small child) with a camera that shares at least a bit of my history.
 
Looks like a great project , is it lighter than the London Specialist? I have a pair of Empire State cameras - unusual whole plate (for USA) and a 10x12 that are ancestors of the 2d and they feel light for their size , both need work like your 2d but they were cheap..
 
HowLarge said:
Looks like a great project , is it lighter than the London Specialist? I have a pair of Empire State cameras - unusual whole plate (for USA) and a 10x12 that are ancestors of the 2d and they feel light for their size , both need work like your 2d but they were cheap..
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I have a Rochester built Specialist (according to the plate) and yep it's lighter than that ... but also has less front standard movements and feels a little less robust. The 2D is light enough to pretty easily backpack with a few film holders mind.
I was a little surprised to find that that the dang lens boards need to be a matter of a couple of mm smaller for the 2D than the Specialist ... so I will have to have two sets of lens boards for my 'covers 5x7' lens collection! Poop!
 
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I lugged an 8x10 2D all over San Francisco on buses. That was my first camera. I was obsessed with Edward Weston, you see. That was in 1965. In 1971 to my surprise Ansel Adams told me that his favorite camera was an 8x10 2D custom-built, rendered in Aluminum.He preferred it over his 9x12 Zeiss Juwel, the camera he mad "Monolith The Face of Half Dome" with. By 1971 arthritis had so limited his hands that he had switched to Hasselblads (in the early 1950's). But most of his 8x10 negatives were made with that 2D. Through the late 1940's and into the 1950's his usual camera out-of-doors was a 5x7 Linhof Technika.
 
thronobulax said:
I've always been curious about those. Do they have front tilt or swing?
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Rise only on the front. Tilt and swing on the rear standard. My Specialist has front tilt but not swing (plus the rear movements). A bit limiting, but I don't think these were ever intended as being that sophisticated ... more jobbing photographer workhorses.
 
It's hard to tell on photos of these or the similar Model B camera, but on the rear tilt and, the mechanism looks almost like it might be geared, or are they just locking knobs (and if it is geared, does it lock?)?.
 
As far as I remember the rear tilt and shift if fitted are geared - not locking , rear swing is not geared but locking locked by the two knobs that go in either side under the rear standard.
 
Dave_P said:
It's hard to tell on photos of these or the similar Model B camera, but on the rear tilt and, the mechanism looks almost like it might be geared, or are they just locking knobs (and if it is geared, does it lock?)?.
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The front standard rise on the 2D is geared and locking - by pushing in the right hand knob. The rear standard movements are non locking - however are geared in such a way as they really don't need to be ... they can't be knocked out of adjustment, they have to be deliberately set.
 
Thank you - hugely satisfying to put another large format camera back into use. It's going to be getting some use very shortly :)
 
Marley's Ghost said:
Thank you - hugely satisfying to put another large format camera back into use. It's going to be getting some use very shortly :)
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I'm curious, do you have an enlarger capable of 7x5, do you contact print only, scan only?
 
Having restored quite a few wood & brass cameras over the years, it surprised me that some large manufacturers of LF cameras still ran front and rear standards with metal (usually brass) in wooden slots. The slots wear, then the standards are loose ab start skipping on the rack and pinions.

By the end of the 1890s but the cheapest British made LF cameras used metal to metal, as were Continental cameras Chambre de Voyage - French, and Reisekameras - German).

So it is surprising that few of the US manufacturers of Wood & Brass cameras used metal to metal One exception was Ansco/Agfa Ansco.

The British made Kodak View Cameras like the 2D just used the same patterns as the Eastman Kodak models, the half plate model identical to the 7x5 except for the smaller GG focus screen. There was also a Whole plate model never made in the US.

In a video Fred Gandofi mentions the company being asked to make LF cameras for the military in WW2, under contract, but the company was too small. In WW2 anything photographic was overseen by the Air Ministry. The 2D became the RAF Ground Camera, with training there would have been very heavy use, so wear, eventually resulting in the Specialist 2. Running metal in metal instead of wood.

Anyway a good fiddly restoration, well done.

Ian
 
thronobulax said:
I'm curious, do you have an enlarger capable of 7x5, do you contact print only, scan only?
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Living in a flat in East London I don't really have room for a darkroom at home ... so to date my large format is scanned ... however, my intention is to make a LED back and negative carrier for my 10x8 camera (currently under construction) to have a 5x4, 7x5 and 10x8 enlarger at my disposal. I have a largeish commercial workshop, so manufacturing one off bits of enginearing isn't too much hassle.
 
The results look fantastic - well done!

What is the difference in weight between the two cameras shown?
 
Kevin Allan said:
The results look fantastic - well done!

What is the difference in weight between the two cameras shown?
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A lot ... without actually getting out the scales ... I'd say the Specialist weighs about 30-50% more than the 2D. Some of this may come from the modern bellows weighing less than the original ones, but the general build is lighter and without the front tilt, there is less brass.
I carried the 2D back from my workshop in my backpack ... a two and a half mile walk ... and barely felt it. I think I could have easily added two or three dark slides and not felt burdened.
An added benefit is that it is happy to sit on a much lighter weight tripod, so lightening the load even further.
 
There shouldn't be much difference in weight. The major difference between the Kodak Specialist and the 2D is the Specialist has front tilt. The Specialist 2 added Aluminium to the sides and will be much heavier.

In the 1940 Kodak Ltd Professional Catalogue, there is an optional enlarging back listed for the Police model of the Half plate camera.

Ian
 
Ian Grant said:
There shouldn't be much difference in weight. The major difference between the Kodak Specialist and the 2D is the Specialist has front tilt. The Specialist 2 added Aluminium to the sides and will be much heavier.

In the 1940 Kodak Ltd Professional Catalogue, there is an optional enlarging back listed for the Police model of the Half plate camera.

Ian
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I've put em on the scales:
The Specialist weighs 5k with the centre focus rack attached and the light weight Kodak Ektar lens and shutter.
The 2D weighs just a fraction under 4.3k with centre focus unit but the heavier Schneider Symmar-S lens
So a fair bit in it.
The Specialist has Larger section maple main rails - which weighs heavier than the cherry of the 2D
 
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