1945 Kodak 35RF!!!

**j-dogg** · 08-09-2012 01:57 AM

Found this poor thing sitting in a camera shop for display purposes.....traded them a busted-up Minolta XE7 with a jammed shutter for it. Winning.

So far I'm certain everything works, I think 1/10 and 1/25 are a bit fast I need to check the shutter speeds tomorrow. It's MINTY.....but the lens is cloudy, not sure if it's the front or inside. Can I use standard glass cleaner on it? Otherwise, I love it. Test roll going in tomorrow if the shutter speeds check out. How do you rewind the film on it once it's all shot up?

The camera on the right came from the same shop a few months back, it's off to Mark Hama for a CLA and parallax adjustment soon. Use it a lot for landscapes, so infinity focus is pretty easy to find. Love the 1.4

**BMbikerider** · 08-09-2012 10:33 AM

For cleaning lenses, I always use either Isopropyl Alcohol straight out of the bottle onto a soft piece of tissue paper but this will also soak up the natural oils from you fingers and sometimes transfer them to the lens, making it worse than before, so use a surgical glove when using it this way. My preferred way is a concoction of Isopropyl Alcohol 10%, 2% photographic wetting agent (Kodak Fotoflo) and the remaining quantity to make the 100%, distilled water. This is put in a small pump action spectacle cleaner bottle and works every time.

**brian d** · 08-09-2012 12:52 PM

Lift up on the wind knob, it should raise up perhaps 1/8" to 3/16" and latch in the up position (you might have to turn it slightly to get it to latch up) that should unlock the mechanism so that you can rewind the film. When your shooting you do have to push down on the little button beside the wind knob each time you start to advance the film to the next frame. Let go of the button once the knob starts turning or it might not stop when it has advanced one frame. Quirky little camera but fun

I have a couple of them, they can make some surprisingly sharp vibrant pictures.

**E. von Hoegh** · 08-09-2012 02:38 PM

One thing to be careful of - the lens, if coated, may have a very fragile coating. Be very gentle cleaning it.

I had one of these in the early 70s, the Kodachromes I took with it are still around and pretty damn good, for coming from an odd little camera people like to laugh at.

**MattKing** · 08-09-2012 03:47 PM

I don't know that I have ever seen one before where the arm on the front was black.

I had one of these too - it was my first 35mm camera. It was probably left with Kodak for repair, and never claimed.

I often wondered whether it was carved out of a single block of metal.

**j-dogg** · 08-09-2012 04:13 PM

When I try to rewind it latches up and only turls like a half turn and doesnt rewind, im afraid to force it i've broken my fair share of stuff like that

**E. von Hoegh** · 08-09-2012 04:15 PM

Are you using the black knob on the left to rewind with? I think the shutter has to be uncocked to rewind, too. Or maybe press the silver button next to the counter... It's been a long time since I handled one. Black knob turns clockwise to rewind.