Kodak cine lenses

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This article focuses mainly on Kodak's interchangeable mount 16 mm cine lenses.

Kodak cine lens mounts

Kodak Type J mount
  • Cine-Kodak Model K (1930-1946)
Kodak Type P mount
  • Cine-Kodak Special (1933-1948)
Kodak Type M mount
  • Magazine Cine-Kodak (1936-1945)
  • Cine-Kodak Magazine 16 (1945-1950)
  • Royal Cine-Kodak Magazine (1950-1967)
  • Magazine Cine-Kodak Eight model 90 (1940-1955)
Kodak Type S mount

The Kodak Type S mount was Kodak's universal cine lens mount, adaptable to nearly all of Kodak's interchangeable lens cine cameras (types J, P, M, C, and D). Type S mount lenses first appeared in the mid or early 1930s, more than a decade before Kodak's first and only camera with a native Type S mount: the Cine-Kodak Special II. Nearly all of Kodak's cine lenses from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s were available in the Type S mount, and there were more Kodak lenses in Type S mount than in any other mount.

  • Cine-Kodak Special II (1948-1961)
C-mount
  • Cine-Kodak Model E (1937-1946)
  • Cine-Kodak K-100 (single lens) (1955-
  • Cine-Kodak K-100 Turret Camera (1956-
D-mount
  • Cine-Kodak Reliant

Kodak cine lens lines

Kodak Anastigmat

'Anastigmat' was Kodak's name for most of their lenses made in the 1920s and 1930s. The name was used by many lens manufacturers, indicating correction for astigmatism. Some of Kodak's longer focal length cine lenses carried the name "Cine-Kodak Telephoto" instead of Anastigmat, but all indications are that the lenses were of the same general type and quality and were considered to be part of the same line.

  • Observed dates of manufacture: 1934-1948 (have you seen older or newer examples?)


  • Anastigmat 15 mm f/2.7
  • Anastigmat 25 mm f/1.9
  • Anastigmat 2 in. (50 mm) f/3.5
  • Anastigmat 50 mm f/1.6
  • Anastigmat 2-1/2 in (63 mm) f/2.7
  • Telephoto 3 in. (76 mm) f/4.5
  • Anastigmat 4 in (102 mm) f/2.7
  • Telephoto 4-1/2 in. (114 mm) f/4.5
  • Telephoto 6 in. (152 mm) f/4.5

Kodak Cine Ektanon

Kodak mostly stopped using the Anastigmat name in 1948 or 1949. At that time several Anastigmat lenses were renamed to Ektanon, and the other Anastigmats were likely discontinued. Kodak used the Ektanon name for mid-level consumer products.

  • Observed dates of manufacture: 1949-1954 (have you seen older or newer examples?)


  • Cine Ektanon 15 mm f/2.7
  • Cine Ektanon 50 mm f/1.6
  • Cine Ektanon 63 mm f/2.7
  • Cine Ektanon 102 mm f/2.7
  • Cine Ektanon 152 mm f/4.5

Kodak Cine Ektar

'Ektar' was Kodak's name for all of its best lenses starting in the 1930s. Cine Ektar lenses were new designs, generally superior to the Anastigmat lenses, both optically and mechanically.

  • Observed dates of manufacture: 1945-1964 (have you seen older or newer examples?)


  • Cine Ektar 15mm f/2.5
  • Cine Ektar 25 mm f/1.9
  • Cine Ektar 25 mm f/1.4
  • Cine Ektar converter 25 mm to 15 mm (for the 25 mm f/1.4 Cine Ektar)
  • Cine Ektar 40 mm f/1.6
  • Cine Ektar 50 mm f/1.9
  • Cine Ektar 63 mm f/2.0
  • Cine Ektar 102 mm f/2.7
  • Cine Ektar 152 mm f/4.0

Kodak Cine Ektar II

It is not known whether Ektar II represents a new line of lenses or simply an update to the corresponding Ektar.

  • Observed dates of manufacture: 1954 (have you seen older or newer examples?)


  • Cine Ektar II 25 mm f/1.4

Lens coatings

In the early or mid 1940s Kodak started coating some lens surfaces with a single hard layer of magnesium fluoride. By 1946 or 1947, most lens surfaces were coated, and starting around 1948 Kodak used the name "Lumenized" in packaging and literature to indicate that all lens surfaces were coated. Lumenized lenses are marked with a small "L" in a circle on the lens barrel. Kodak's 1930s cine lenses are uncoated, and Kodak is not thought to have used calcium fluoride (soft) coatings on its cine lenses.

Lens serial numbers

Starting sometime in 1940, all Kodak lenses had serial numbers starting with a 2-letter code indicating the date. For lenses manufacturered in the U.S. (which all of Kodak's cine lenses apparently were), the code is derived from the sequence of letters in the word "CAMEROSITY".

EY = 1940 EC = 1941 EA = 1942 EM = 1943 EE = 1944 ER = 1945 EO = 1946 ES = 1947 EI = 1948 ET = 1949 RY = 1950 RC = 1951 RA = 1952 RM = 1953 RE = 1954 RR = 1955 RO = 1956 RS = 1957 RI = 1958 RT = 1959 OY = 1960 OC = 1961 OA = 1962 OM = 1963 OE = 1964