The following article relies
largely on information obtained from Stephen Gandy's CameraQuest at: http://www.cameraquest.com/ektra.htm
It is a well-known fact that
the Leica inspired quite a number of competitors to offer 35mm rangefinder
cameras of their own. Even today many of
them are well known, like the Zeiss Contax, the Nikon and Canon rangefinder
models and, of course, a whole number of blatant copies of the Leica.
A much lesser known
competitor was the Kodak Ektra. The
Ektra was Kodak's only
attempt to produce the best
35 camera. It was amazingly innovative with features that actually outshined
the Leica and Contax cameras at that time.
The camera was introduced in 1941, but there was no market when
re-introduced in 1948. The $700 price
was astonishingly high for that time and it must be assumed that it contributed
to the demise of the camera at the end of 1948.
The Ektra offered a lot of
new features, not found on other rangefinder cameras.
1st 35 RF to have a parallax
compensated finder!
1st 35 RF to offer lens
coating on all lenses
1st 35 RF to offer
interchangeable backs
1st 35 RF to offer built in
zoom finder
1st 35 RF to offer lever
advance
1st 35 RF to use a film
rewind lever
Besides its impressive
features, the Ektra also had an impressive line of lenses, all rangefinder
coupled, fully rivaling the best from Leica or Contax in the late 1930's. Offered were a 35mm f/3.3, 50mm f/3.5, 50mm
f/1.9, 90mm f/3.5, 135mm f/3.5, and 153mm f/4.5. A 254mm f/4.5 was planned but never put into
production. UNLIKE the best lenses from
Leica and Zeiss, all Ektra lenses were coated -- a first for this large a lens
lineup. All lenses attached to the
camera with a breech lock mount.
Focusing was done with a
knurled knob at the lower left of the lenses.
The interchangeable back
Besides the standard
interchangeable backs, the Ektra also offered another very unusual feature,
a ground glass focusing back.
The rangefinder is unusually
long, 4 1/8", in fact making it difficult to hold the Ektra without
blocking the RF windows. The viewfinder
is almost exactly above the lens to lesson parallax problems. The Ektra viewfinder zooms from 50mm to
254mm, complete with built in diopter adjustment. An attachment fits over the finder to show
the 35mm field.
Left: The shutter release is
on the upper left edge. The little lever
on the right is the 12 second delay self timer.
The high speeds from 1/25 to 1/1000 are set in the window with the
knurled knob. The low speeds 1/10th to 1 second are set on the nearby outer
wheel.
Center: The automatic film counter.
Right: The larger wheel is
the zoom setting for the finder, from 50 to 254. The smaller wheel is the diopter adjustment
for the rangefinder!
The rather large and robust
rewind lever
Other useful accessories
included a Contax like close-up viewfinder for the 50/1.9, Left,
a Leica like right angle
viewer,Center,
and a "High-Low Angle
Finder" for waist level or above the head viewing, Right.
An improved version called
Ektra II was planned and three of them are known to exist. They incorporated a
built in lens for the 35mm focal length, and could mount a magazine back with a
spring driven motor.
The Ektra’s premature demise
unfortunately eliminated any further development and along with it any
noticeable influence on other rangefinder cameras, including the Leica. It is interesting to note that feature wise,
even the market leader Leica did not catch up to the Ektra until the
introduction of the Leica M3. Even then
some of the Ektra’s features were still an exclusive, like the interchangeable
backs, the diopter correction of the viewfinder and the built-in zoom
finder. One can only wonder what the
camera might look like if it had it survived in an updated version today.
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