1940s Kodak 35 Camera Resto / Info

From my Flickr account some info the Kodak 35 with rangefinder I just cleaned up and started to use. So far after 1 roll the results have been very good.

I think these look really cool. I bought it for about $10 at Goodwill. With some cleaning and just working the controls it went from being pretty stiff to working well enough to load film, adjust focus, take photos, advance, and rewind the film. My 1st roll came out really nice.

The rangefinder window is really small and the viewfinder isn't much bigger but both are usable for me.

The shutter tops out at 1/200 and the lens is 50mm.

It sold for between $45 and $50 when new. That is just over $800 in 2025 US dollars.

Kodak RF manual

sample photos Flickr Lomography

Mike Eckman has a lot of info on this camera including his thoughts on the non rangefinder Kodak 35 with the same lens

The Kodak 4-element Special lens is a gem. The pictures it makes are rendered beautifully with excellent contrast and sharpness. I would strongly recommend that anyone who acquires one of these to clean it before using it, it is a very simple camera to clean and maintain. This camera isn’t the best, or most capable in my collection, but it’s the one that surprised me the most after shooting a roll. I will definitely shoot with this camera again.

info on taking it apart to clean lube and adjust (I am too scared to do that!) at Camera Collection and Restoration

more from camera-wiki below

A contemporary of the Argus C3 and the Universal Mercury, the Kodak 35 RF astonished users with its ungainly looks, due to the coupling between the rangefinder and the focusing mechanism which was accomplished by a cam and levers located under an external housing.

The camera is basically a Kodak 35 with the addition of a new cover containing a fixed viewfinder, film counter, wind and rewind knobs, and the separate rangefinder window. The rangefinder, an obvious afterthought, was incorporated in response to the marketing success of the Argus C series. It is quite accurate and easy to use and very capable of producing excellent results, even by modern standards.

Like the Kodak 35, the rangefinder model is solidly crafted out of Bakelite with numerous metallic panels, inserts and fittings. The back removes completely for film loading.

Available accessories included a slip-on filter holder and an aftermarket shutter release adapter that puts the shutter release in the conventional position at the top of the camera body (at the cost of blocking the Kodak logo).

Manufacturer: Kodak

Origin: USA

Introduced: 1940

Withdrawn: 1951

video from Mostly Regular Camera Reviews