The
following article relies largely on information obtained from Stephen Gandy'sCameraQuest.
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 onlyattempt 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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Wow, those are some impressive features for a camera from 1941
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