Kodak Monitor

The Kodak Monitor Vintage Cameras Index Home
	I don't know if the Kodak designers had the old iron-clad fighting ship in mind when they named their camera The Monitor. There does seem to be something of a family resemblance in the boxy lines and metal top deck. Still, it is a handsome camera and somewhat better built than its predecessors. Like most of the other Kodak mid-century cameras, the Monitor was made to take 620 film, and it yields a 6cm by 9cm image. The lens on my Monitor is the 101mm f/4.5 Anastigmat Special; it is front-focusing, with four elements in three groups. The shutter is the No. 1 Supermatic with speeds from 1 sec. to 1/400 sec. and B. I have the same lens and shutter combination on my Vigilant, so much of these notes also apply to that camera. The main difference from the Vigilant is the metal top plate which houses a film advance and double-exposure prevention mechanism. There is also a pretty little dial-type Depth of Focus scale similar to those found on the Retina I. My Monitor arrived with a new-looking and light-tight bellows, but I think that is rather unusual.
	Servicing the lens and shutter is relatively easy on the Monitor. Removing the front lens requires that the little post that stops the focus travel be screwed out. Then, you just unscrew the lens and focus scale; be sure to note the point at which it comes loose so you can get it started right when you go to put it back in. The next step is a little trickier. The rim of the central lens group projects only a small lip above the surface. This kind of thin-walled brass housing is easily deformed, so it is important to keep pliers and other dangerous tools well away from it. A good tool for getting a grip on the rim of the center lens mount is one of the Flexiclamp wrenches sold by Micro-Tools. I used a 1 3/16" size. Before you start unscrewing the center group, it is a good idea to make a mark crossing the rim to the body so that you can put it back without over-tightening. Also, you will want to note that the group housing comes loose in about one full turn. A friction tool made from a dowel and a piece of rubber will also work. Once the center lens is out, you can lift off the face of the shutter and get easy access to the internal levers and gears for cleaning with something like Ronsonol lighter fluid. I also removed the back lens group with a lens spanner so as to not get debris on the lens. The whole thing should go back together pretty easily.
	Once you've gotten the lens and shutter clean and reassembled, you are ready to shoot pictures, as long as you are comfortable with re-spooling 120 film onto a 620 metal reel. The Kodak engineers went to some trouble to design a camera that will not permit the use of film on a modern 120 spool. That was something of a disappointment to me as I just don't seem to have the knack of respooling. *** As it turns out, you can remove the film holder on the supply side by just rotating it out as it is held in by spring tension against a couple of little knobs in the bottom of the film compartment. That leaves you room to spare for the length of a 120 spool. However, those crafty fellows in Rochester also made the compartment just a little too narrow front-to-back to accomodate the diameter of the 120 spool ends. No, problem, you just trim off the outer ring of material from the spool and it drops right in. Turns out that trimming the spool ends by itself doesn't solve the problem either. Without the original film holder and the little roller, the trimmed spool rides upward; by about the fourth frame, the spool binds against the camera back or the edges of the film compartment. I decided what was needed was some kind of film holder to keep the trimmed spool in place. I first tried using a film holder from a box camera, but the thin sheet metal did not retain its shape well enough when taken out of the original framework. I then found a more likely candidate in a junker Agfa Billy Record. The very nice little hinged film holder in that camera pops out easily with no damage. I glued a couple foam spacers into the Monitor film compartment, placed a trimmed spool of 120 into the Billy's film holder and wedged it into place. Worked like a charm. In the top picture to the left - top to bottom - is the original Monitor film holder, the Billy holder, and a trimmed 120 spool without the film on it. The lower picture shows the Billy holder in place with a spool in it (normally with film and paper, but empty here for the illustration). The thing to note is that the holder's leaf spring is toward the lens side of the compartment; that is opposite to the original orientation. In this configuration, the projections on the film holder maintain it solidly in the compartment and do not permit the film spool to ride up and bind. Craftsmen more skilled than I will find more elegant solutions, but I'm happy with mine as it works, and it is non-destructive to either the Monitor or the Billy. Whether you use my method or respool, you will need a 620 spool on the take-up side.
	(Click on the thumbnail images to the left for sample shots from the Monitor.) The Monitor user manual advises that the film initially be advanced until the number "1" is just visible in the red window. You are then supposed to move the little lever from "wind" to "1-8" and slightly turn the advance knob which activates the double exposure prevention and moves the "1" into the center of the film frame window. From there you can just crank the knob until it stops without opening the red window for positioning each frame. I initially had some problems with frame spacing but taking off the top, cleaning the mechanism and adding a little lubricant got things straightened out. A free manual for the Monitor Six-20 and Six-616 models is available on line. The registration procedure for the site is quite annoying, but there is lots of good information once you get in. --- *** John Schriver and Rick Oleson both report being able to use 120 or clipped 120 spools in their Monitors without any elaborate modification. John's suggestion was that there were production changes that account for the difference between what they experienced and what I had to do to get mine operational. So, your mileage may vary.
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