Kodak No. 4 Screen Focus Kodak (1904–1910)
The No. 4 Screen Focus Kodak was a large folding camera. Kodak produced it from 1904 until 1910, with roughly 4,000 examples made. It was introduced in 1904 - possibly, as one collector history suggests, in response to the earlier Blair Focusing Weno Hawk-Eye No. 4. The camera makes 4×5 inch images on 123 rollfilm, and a plate-back variant was also listed.
Documentation on this model is thin. Surviving records confirm it was offered with a B&L Rapid Rectilinear lens (described in period catalogs as an "R. R. Lens") and a Kodak Automatic Shutter. A 1909 catalog listing shows this configuration priced at $30.00. The "screen focus" name refers to the focusing system, but no technical description of that system survives in the available record. No details on the viewfinder arrangement, focusing mechanism, construction materials, or dimensions have been found. The plate-back version appears in listings alongside the standard model, and its specifications are likewise undocumented.
The camera is sometimes called the Model A, and surviving examples are described as large folding Kodaks. A single collectibility data point places one example at $525.
Known specs:
- Produced 1904–1910; approximately 4,000 made
- Image size: 4×5 inches on 123 rollfilm (or glass plates, via plate-back variant)
- Lens: B&L Rapid Rectilinear
- Shutter: Kodak Automatic Shutter
- Original price: $30.00 (1909 catalog, R.R. Lens / Automatic Shutter configuration)
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