Prior to the mid-30s Kodak had purchased most of its lens from other manufacturers. An impressive early 'industrial park' of photographic manufacturers had grown up in Rochester, some of which were responsible for supplying lens stock to Kodak. The history of these firms and their relation to Kodak is recorded by Rudolf Kingslake, Kodak's Director of Optical design. As part of Kodak's business strategy in the mid-30s to increase its market share of the emerging advanced amateur/professional market, the company undertook a program to increase its R&D and manufacturing skills. This is described in the Kodak prospectus for the Ektra.

The optical part of this expansion program is outlined in Kingslake's, Lens in Photography. Using largely established lens formulae, Kodak designed new lenses for several new cameras that would be introduced in the five year period starting in 1935. Kodak research was revealing new glass formulae and exploring surface coating materials that would reduce refraction.

In the 1930s most Kodak lenses were call simply Anastigmats; the development of new lines of lenses is documented on another page . The new line of premium lenses that Kodak manufactured in its own factory were called Ektars. Unlike named lens offered by some other manufacturers, Ektars were not of a particular design, but rather those designs that Kodak adopted as best suited to particular applications. So even within a line of lenses for a particular camera--the Ektra--there were lens of three different designs--a 35mm Heliar, a 50mm f/3.5 Tessar, but a faster 50mm in a Biotar design and two tele lens with Tele-Tessar heritage.

The Ektar program was started when C. W. Frederick was head of the optical department at Kodak. Rudolf Kingslake may have had some direct involvement with Ektar design but does not mention this in his books. He does directly credit F. E. Altman with the design of the 100mm f/3.5 Ektar used on the Medalist and the f/3.3 Ektar wide angle for the Ektra, and presumably Altman was involved in the design of many of the other Ektars. Kingslake also reports that Willy E. Schade, who joined Kodak in 1932, was "the designer of many of their (Kodak's) best lenses," so we can assume he was involved in the Ektar program.

While Ektars were, in principle, the best lens Kodak could market, they were not equally good, if only because the designs were not equally mature or successful. Fast lenses, those larger than f/2.8, tended to be softer and produce more flare than slower lenses. All Ektars were unit focusing.

Coating research had been done in limited ways since the early part of the century, but only became practical on a production basis in the later part of the 1930s. In his 1951 book, Lenses in Photography, Rudolf Kingslake, Director of Optical Design for Kodak, reports that calcium fluoride, as an optical coating, was first offered for commercial use in 1938, but its softness relegated it to inner surfaces. The magnesium fluoride that could be deposited on glass and which was as hard as the glass itself, was adopted in the 40s. Kodak used soft coating on inner surfaces on lenses for its premium lines from about 1940, including Eastman Ektars for large format cameras, the Ektars for the Ektra, and the 100mm Ektar for the original Medalist. From some extended observation I have done it, Kodak began its commercial Lumenizing (hardcoating) procedure about 1946, though I suspect earlier lenses were coated, but without the labeling. This is partly confirmed by Michael Briggs' research; from a reasonably large sample of military Aero Ektars, some as early as 1941, he found that all but one were coated, though not marked with the characteristic , indicating Lumenization. The lens section of the Kodak reference manual, printed in 1945 (second edition?) does not include Lumenized lenses, while the separate Kodak Data Book, Kodak Lenses, Shutters and Portra Lenses, 3rd Edition (1948) describes the process. Other companies developed lens coatings at about the same time or in some cases much later.

Kodak Ektars during this period were single-coated, and it is possible that later Ektars had more than one type of coating, though Kodak currently won't comment on early coating procedures. Richard Knoppow, frequent contributor to photographic discussion lists, provided a 1998 comment on Kodak lens coating. Additional coating layers are designed to filter out reflections at wave lengths not filtered by the first coating. Since about 1970, lenses have been multicoated, the strategic application of six or seven coatings that filter most frequencies of visible light. The greater the number of air/glass surfaces, the greater the need for effective coating. Multicoating of modern lenses with many elements, particularly zoom lenses, is essential to maintain good contrast. Since there have not been many consumer or professional Ektars produced since 1970, multicoating is not a significant issue. For the kinds of formulas used for most Ektars, multicoating would make marginal contribution to flare reduction and then only in color.

Ektars were used on all of the high-end Kodak cameras. All of the lenses for the Ektra were Ektars, the Bantam Special had one of the first Ektars designed, and the Medalist had a 100mm f/3.5 version that has enjoyed an outstanding reputation, even today. When the Medalist was replaced by the Chevron , it used a 4-element 78mm Ektar. The Ektar even made its way down into mid-priced cameras in the successful Signet 35 . Many of the Retinas were fitted with Ektars, both before and after WW II. Kodak Cine-8 and Cine-16 Ektar lenses were available from 9mm to 76mm and 15mm to 152mm respectively. A review of the Kodak Data Books: Lenses, Shutters and Portra Lenses, from its first edition through its sixth edition, shows a continual reduction in offerings of Ektars--the slow vaporization of the Kodak Golden Age.

Kodak offered a broad range of Ektars mounted in Kodak, Compur and Ilex shutters for use on press and view cameras. Commercial Ektar's and pre-WWII Eastman Ektars were Tessar-type lenses for large format cameras and were available in 8 1/2, 10, 12 and 14-inch versions, in either shutters or barrels. Kodak Ektars, some of which were known as Kodak Anastigmats before the war, were available in 101mm, 127mm, 152mm and 203mm, only in shutters and 7 1/2, 8 1/2, 10 and 12 inch versions mounted in barrels or Ilex shutters. Kodak also introduced a post-War series of Wide Field Ektars in 80mm, 100mm, 135mm, 190mm and 250mm lengths. These reportedly have a field of about 80°. A special faster MF version of the Ektar was offered in a Heliar design--the 105mm f/3.7 Ektar, similar to the lens in the Medalist.

Many of the Graflex MF/LF reflex cameras were fitted with barrel-mounted Ektars. Although the Kodak lens publications do not list these specifically, I assume they were similar to barrel-mounted lenses of the same length. I am familiar with 127mm and 152mm versions on my 2 1/4 x 3 1/4 Series B and 3 1/4 x 4 1/4 Super D.

Enlarging Ektars were available in 2 inch, 3 inch, and 4 inch lengths. I also have a 90mm undocumented Enlarging Ektar. These were generally Heliars designed to have a flat field, good coverage and corrected to work at short focusing distances. There were many Enlarging Ektars produced for commercial enlarging equipment. These are often on the market as fixed aperture lenses in a wide range of lengths.

In any discussion of Ektar lenses, the conversation will periodically vere into folklore, some of which is based on fact and some on gossip embellished by fantasy. There were many Ektar lenses designed and built that did not reach the consumer market or some that did, but were not standard production. Kodak also served the military and industrial market, where the has been and perhaps remains documentation about these products. I deal with this in some detail on pages titled, Ektar Anomolies, though in some cases they are only anomolies to the consumer market. Kodak also manufactured and distributed lenses for broadcast and industrial cameras and in some cases these appear to be similar to lenses in consumer lines, such as the similarity between Ektra Ektars and Television Ektanons .

For more information on Ektar lens design and performance see a page no longer available, but restored from Robert Monaghan's Medium Format site and information at graflex.org. Below is an index to pages with data extracted from several Kodak publications that include specifications for Ektar lenses.