The restored Kodak 1941 Medalist 1 camera manual

[MathewDH]

<p>Greetings everyone,</p>

<p>I trust you had a nice Christmas. So, to celebrate the end of 2015 and toot in 2016, here is a PDF of the restored 1941 Kodak manual for the Medalist 1.</p>

<p>This manual was difficult to find but a significant item to see available to users. The camera had a flaw in its design. And there is a <strong>warning</strong> on the bottom of <strong>page 11</strong> about this issue. I mention it here again, because if that lever is in the wrong position during operation, it will jam up the system. Repair requires a complete disassembly to reset everything. This is an issue that was corrected with the Medalist II.</p>

<p>Work has begun on the 1939 manual for the <strong><em>Super</em> Kodak <em>Six-20</em></strong>.</p>

<p>CHEERS...</p>

[glen_h]

<p>Pretty nice.</p>

<p>I notice that the manual calls it a "Kodak" instead of "Kodak camera". As far as I remember, more recently, Kodak calls their cameras "Kodak cameras". Just wondering, when did this change?</p>

<p>Also, I never knew that there was IR620 film. I don't even remember IR120, though it seems more likely that it existed.</p>

[John Seaman]

<p>Thank you for this Matthew, your efforts will be much appreciated, and hopefully, your warning heeded.</p>

<p>Actually I've got a different version of the Medalist 1 manual. The text and diagrams etc are all the same, but the pictures are replaced by ones with military themes, for example the man holding the camera is a sailor. I guess this was issued after the United States entered the war, when I believe the Medalist was used as an official war camera.</p><div></div>

[allard_wunderink]

<p>Mathew,<br>

my father was given a long leather coat for his 17th birthday in 1936. It wasn't before a year later he got the motorcycle to go with it...<br>

I now have a Kodak Medalist manual and will be on the lookout for the camera itself on all camera fairs I will attend in 2016.<br>

Thanks a lot!<br>

Allard Wunderink</p>

[MathewDH]

<p>Hi John and Allard,</p>

<p>The later manual is the 1944 version. I have that too. The print codes for the booklets are at the bottom of the inside rear pages. There are two or three for the Medalist II and I have those as well. The Medalist I shown in your picture is the wartime version with the black coated extension tube. What I would like to have from you is 600 DPI TIFF scans of the registration card and the "Surface-Coated" card. Can you supply scans of both sides of the cards? Dropbox would be the best place to transfer them, or send them on CD.</p>

<p>Allard, the Medalist cameras are common on Ebay. </p>

<p>There are so many manuals I want to do this with. Not only the Medalist manuals and promotional literature, but the Ektra material, and other earlier Kodak Manuals. I also have a lot of the Agfa early 60's manuals scanned--but not finished. You can easily find the cameras but the original manuals can be elusive. I like doing a better job than the lower quality of the items that Butkus has out for free.</p>

[david_l3]

<p>Thanks Mathew, the manual will come in handy. I got a Medalist 1 last year for Christmas from my wife. I just re-rolled two 120 films onto 620 reels this evening in hopes I can take it shooting in the next few days. </p>

[John Seaman]

<p>Matthew, yes I can do that, I'm on Dropbox. Perhaps send me an email via photo.net to remind me.</p>

[MathewDH]

<p>Hey David,</p>

<p>Post the photos if you get any good ones.</p>

[glen_h]

<p>You could even fill out (a copy of) the registration card and send it in. Just for fun...</p>

[evan_dong1]

<p>Mathew,<br>

Thank You for taking the time to put together a clean manual, especially as a PDF!<br>

I have a later Medalist II that I plan to have Bald Mountain convert from 620 over to 120.<br>

That of course would include the overhaul of this fantastic camera. <br>

Any opinion on this conversion?</p>

<p>Evan </p>

[MathewDH]

<p>Hi Evan,</p>

<p>The issue is with the film spools. Besides the disc area being smaller than 120, they changed the spool mounting holes too. The conversion probably is made from the cameras 620 spool mounts to the 120 size. This way, all you have to do is trim off the excess plastic from the 120 spools. I bought some 120 plastic spools so I could trim them in advance for use in the cameras as receiving spools. </p>

<p>If you are doing the conversion, you might as well have the camera fully serviced and cleaned. </p>

<p>CHEERS...Mathew</p>