Kodak Sterling II

 

 A lovely folding camera, not for complete beginners, but rather enthusiasts owing to its mid-range price, lovely fast lens and decent choice of apertures and shutter speeds. This British camera takes 620 film and shoots eight 6x9 frames. The camera was available between 1955 and 1959 and has a 105mm f/4.5 Anaston lens that will focus as close as 3.5 feet. This lens is a lovely 4-element 'Tessar' type lens that performs very well. The smallest aperture available is f/32. The pronto shutter offers speeds from 1/25 to 1/200 plus bulb mode. There is a flash sync port, cable release socket, and a self timer option which gives a delayed action of 10 seconds. Interestingly there is no Sterling I. The reason this camera is called Sterling II is because it is based on the lower spec Kodak Junior II.  

 

This camera found a place in the British limelight in the mid 1950s when the accomplished portrait photographer, Sterling Henry Nahum, known professionally by the name Baron, featured it in a BBC production Have You A Camera?, which taught beginners how to use their cameras effectively. Baron was Court Photographer to the British Royal Family and took the official photographs for many occasions such as the wedding of the then Princess Elizabeth to Philip Mountbatten. He had many celebrity sitters, including Marilyn Monroe, and following the success of his television series he produced two written guides to help individuals take better photos, entitled Have You A Camera? and Create with your Camera. In both the television series and the written guides his demonstration camera is a Kodak Sterling II, which he affectionately refers to as Katie. A camera such as this would have been more representative of what the general public would be shooting, rather than anything more expensive. He also offers guidance on photography for box camera shooters. Given his wealth of experience these guides are well worth reading. 

 

 The instruction manual has some advice for always being ready to take pretty much any shot - i.e. the snapshot setting - which is to leave the distance set to 25 feet, the aperture at f/11 and the shutter speed at 1/50. A table is included with all the recommended settings for light, average, and dark subjects in various lighting conditions when using ISO 100 film. Apparently these settings are correct if using Kodak Verichrome Pan film (discontinued). If using Panatomic X film (also discontinued, though emulated by Catlabs X film 80) it recommends two stops larger than indicated (i.e. f/8 instead of f/16). If using Tri-X (still available!) it recommends using one stop smaller (i.e. 1/200 instead of 1/100). 

 

This is a very nice camera that sits in the same league as the Franka Bonafix. It will be nice to see how the lenses of these two cameras compare.