About the specifications for Kodak Ektars...

It is fortunate for we Kodak collectors that Kodak provided extensive published information about their optics. Beginning in 1940, Kodak introduced the Kodak Reference Manual, a looseleaf binder with the following sections: Lenses, Films, Filters, Color Films, Papers, Processing, Formulas, Copying, and Slides. My 1945 edition has these sections; the earlier 1940 and 1943 editions may have had fewer or differently arranged sections. These sections provided general information about their topics, then data about the products that Kodak offered that could be used for each activity. The Reference Manual eventually gave way to a much larger number of Kodak Data Books, including the topics originally covered by the Reference Manual. The data books were soft cover editions that were punched for binding in special Kodak binders about the same size as the original Reference Manual. Additional bound collections of Data Books were published as Handbooks, including the Kodak Professional Handbook, in 1952.

The Lenses, Rangefinders and Shutters section, © 1942, 1945§, of the Reference Manual was later published as the Data Book Lenses Shutters and Portra Lens, Third Edition, © 1948; I also collected the Fourth Edition (1952) and Fifth Edition (1955), before my testosterone kicked in and I temporarily gave up cameras for girls. Checking a Sixth Edition (1958), at the local library, I found that it listed no Ektar lenses, though the Professional Handbook from this period may have still continued to list professional Ektars. I believe that Kodak later used Ektar lenses on the top models of the Instamatic. These books provide an authoritative resource for collectors and users of old Kodak equipment, particularly lenses and shutters.

I have extracted basic data from these books about Ektar lenses and prepared the tables on the following pages. The contents of each new version of lens and shutter data is tabulated separately to allow users to compare how lenses and shutters changed. Click the lens icon in the first column to view the lens design and description from the Kodak publication.

§ Given both dates, I assume that my copy is of the second edition, though that this not stated.

Note 1: I do not have the first edition of the Kodak Reference Manual. If someone wants to share copies of the lens data pages of his/her first edition, I will prepare a corresponding page for this site.

Note 2: Proofreading your own work lies on the road to madness. Let me know of any glitches you see.