THE KODAK INSTATECH SCIENTIFIC PHOTO OUTFIT
A further example of Kodak outfits marketed by Lester A Dine Inc for close up photography was acquired by Jim at a very small Camera Fair in Groningen, Netherlands. It came in the original cream and black cardboard box titled “SCIENTIFIC PHOTO OUTFIT’. ‘Featuring: KODAK POCKET INSTATECH CLOSE UP CAMERA’.
Based on a simple Kodak 110 pocket cameras with an f22 diaphragm, the outfit was designed to allow focussing in the range of 7cm to 1m in front of the camera, using auxiliary lenses, which were mounted on the camera by means of an ingenious adapter. Magicube flash bulbs were provided for use with the camera.
The camera itself covered the 50cm to 1m range and there were also green, blue, gold and silver coded lenses to cover shorter distances (with their positions marked on the adapter).
The adapter screws into the camera tripod socket and accessory lenses fit over the main lens, with a screw fitting into which the fork of the framing bracket can be secured. The bracket ‘goalpost’ ends can be placed against the object to be photographed to ensure focus and to allow the correct field of view to be verified. The brackets are intentionally angled and a prism is cemented over the front element of the viewfinder to help correct for parallax.
The original outfit contained colour coded ball end chains also for checking focus, unfortunately missing from our example, which does however have a ‘Spade’ about 6.5cm x 9cm of highly polished chromed steel. This is a dental mirror.
(post author – Julian Jackson)
