Kodak Chevron (1953-1956)

The Kodak Chevron was a range finder camera that took twelve 2-1/4" square pictures on a roll of 620 film or eight 28 mm x 40 mm pictures using an adapter for 828 film.

Front

Back

The camera body was die cast aluminum. The front of the camera had the shutter release, the cable release socket, the shutter speed dial, the aperture lever, the flash sync setting lever, the ASA standard flash sync bayonet post, the shutter cocking lever, the focusing dial, a depth of field scale, the film advance release lever,and the windows for the range finder and view finder. The top had the strap lugs, the exposure counter, a dial to set the viewfinder for full size 2-1/4" pictures or 828 size 28 mm x 40 mm pictures, and a film plane position mark. The back of the camera had the film advance lever, the eyepieces for the viewfinder and range finder, a film reminder dial, the iconic little red window, and a lever to open the shutter that normally closed the window. The sides of the camera had sliding latches for the camera back.

The lens was a coated ("Lumenized" in Kodakese) f/3.5, 78 mm Kodak Ektar with four elements in three groups. The lens was threaded for Series V filters and accessories.


Kodak Ektar f/3.5 78 mm Lens, from the Kodak Data Book "Kodak Lenses, Shutters and Portra Lenses", 5th Ed., 1955, p. 40

The shutter was a Kodak Synchro-Rapid 800 shutter, which soon after WWII was the first leaf shutter to break the 1/500 second shutter speed barrier. The shutter used a set of 5 swiveling blades to achieve this speed. In most leaf shutters the shutter blades oscillated from closed to open to closed again and remained closed while the shutter was cocked. In the Synchro-Rapid 800 shutter the blades swiveled in only one direction when the shutter went from closed to open to closed. They swiveled back to the starting position when the shutter was cocked. Because the main shutter was not self capping while the shutter was being cocked, a second pair of shutter blades closed the aperture during cocking. The Synchro-Rapid 800 had the reputation of being unreliable. The fact that you could damage the shutter by turning the shutter speed to 800 (or off 800) while the shutter was cocked probably contributed to its reputation for unreliability. The instructions cautioned against doing that.

Kodak Synchro-Rapid 800 Shutter,from the Kodak Data Book "Kodak Lenses, Shutters and Portra Lenses", 5th Ed., 1955, p. 40

The back came off for loading film. The side latches slid down to unlatch the back. The supply spool was on the right and the take up spool was on the left. If the exposure counter wasn't set at "N", you needed to press in the film advance release lever and turn the exposure counter clockwise until the "N" was next to the index mark. You then loaded the film and pushed the film advance lever until the number 1 for the first exposure showed through the red window. At this point you turned the exposure counter clockwise to put the "1" next to the index mark and you were ready to take the first picture.

The Chevron used a split image rangefinder. The rangefinder eyepiece was immediately below the viewfinder eyepiece and with a little practice it was possible to see through both eyepieces at once.

The shutter needed to be cocked manually before you could take a picture. The shutter release was interlocked with the film advance to prevent unintentional double exposures. If you wanted to make a double exposure you would use a cable release.

To advance the film you would press the advance release lever momentarily to unlock the mechanism, then use your left thumb to push the film advance lever until the film stopped for the next picture. After the twelfth shot the exposure counter moved to "N" and the film advance stayed unlocked to allow you to roll the film completely onto the take up spool.

This example was made in 1953 according to the date code on the lens ("RM" = '53) and was serviced by the Kodak service center in Oak Brook, Illinois, in December, 1966, according to the sticker inside the film take up chamber. It still is in good condition. For some reason the shutter has the correct aperture scale for an f/3.5 lens on the front, but the aperture scale for an f/4.5 lens on the top. Possibly the f/4.5 scale was put on when the camera was repaired. Kodak did use the same shutter for some f/4.5 lenses.

Aperture Scales

This camera is a good picture taker. If you were used to handling a range finder camera you would have found this camera pretty easy to use. It is a lot different from the automated cameras of today.

H. G. Hill Park, Nashville, Tennessee

The Chevron was introduced in October 1953 and discontinued in December 1956. The original list price was $215, which was reduced to $195 in 1954. $195 had the same purchasing power in 1954 that $1894 has in 2020. This was an expensive camera. I think the short time the Chevron was on the market indicated that sales were disappointing. This was the last high-end, medium format camera Kodak produced. The Chevron looked a little like a hybrid of the Kodak Medalist (1941) or Medalist II (1946) and the Signet 35 (1951). The rivals to the Chevron were the many 2-1/4" x 2-1/4" (also called 6x6) cameras available at the time. The camera market was moving, with Japanese camera makers like Nikon beginning to take the place of the long dominant German manufacturers, and American manufacturers exiting the precision camera market.