Kodak Master View

Back in November 2019, my friend Maurice offered up a Kodak Master View monorail camera. Yes, it’s taken me this long to get around to using it. Along with the free camera, Maurice sold me a Kodak Commercial Ektar, 8 ½ inch, f/6.3, 215mm lens. The lens was manufactured by Ilex Optical and was designed for commercial and portrait photography. After my first initial shots with the Kodak lens, I took the lens board adapter and mounted the lens from my Graflex Crown Graphic Pacemaker. The Graphex lens is an f/4.7, 135mm, making it wider than the Kodak.

The Master View was made in the 1950’s by Kodak in a variety of models. The all-metal camera collapses to protect the bellows so it can be stored in a carrying case. The back and front frames are made of one-piece cast of stain finish aluminum. The main back and supports are aluminum with polished steel uprights. And the nineteen-inch monorail is made from machined steel. The Master View was used by Ansel Adams in 1958, among many other cameras, likely because the longer monorail allowed for a longer lens.

In 1955, Kodak sold the Master View design to Calumet Photographic. From there, the camera was named the Calumet CC-40n series with minor changes made as Calumet continued production and sales.

Camera: Kodak Master View (1955)
Film: New55 Atomic-X 100
Lens: Kodak Commercial Ektar – 8 ½” – f/6.3 – 215mm
Process: Cinestill DF96 Monobath
Scanned: Epson V700 Photo