No. 4 Folding Kodet

The No. 4 Folding Kodet was made from 1894 to 1897 in two variations: a vertical one and a horizontal one. They are easy to use and cheap instruments for the not so wealthy snapshooter. They take pictures of 4 x 5 inch (10 x 13 cm) on glass plates or film in a roll holder.
There are a few settings:

• The shutter on the models in the videos can be set on instantaneous or time. The speed can be changed from slow to fast by a lever below the lens. Later models have more speed settings.
• There are four stops on a wheel that rotates in a slot in the lens barrel. The apertures are 8, 16, 32 and 64 on the US scale. This is equivalent to f/11, f/16, f/22 and f/32.
• When used as a hand camera the lens can be set to the proper focus with the help of a little distance scale.
  When used with plates and put on a tripod, the ground glass can be used to focus and aim the camera.
• The shutter had to be cocked before taking a photo. This was done by pushing the lever on the side of the lens panel down.
• Then the photographer could press the button on the side of the lens panel to take the pic.

The vertical version was sold for $ 15 with a simple achromatic lens or $ 20 for one with a Rapid Rectilinear lens. The horizontal one cost $ 12 in its most simple version with achromatic lens and Kodet shutter. The most expensive version cost $ 23.50. The optional roll holder would cost another $ 10.00. Still a lot of money for many people, but in the same period a high quality No. 4 Folding Kodak with roll holder did cost $ 60.00.