Kodak Motormatic 35 & Kodak Star Premo

Bill Quinn

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First nice to have a place for Kodak's cameras. Have a Motormatic 35, great camera well made. My the light meter does not work. No big thing, use 16 rules on light. I found it in a box lot at an auction. Every one turn their nose up at it. Just another junk Kodak camera.
At another auction I pick up a Kodak Star Premo. The lens has to be replace. What kind of money would it take to have this done? If too much, camera become a wall hanger
 
For an antique camera it might take finding the same camera sold as nonworking or 'for parts' and use the lens from that. You could try looking up Pacific Rim Camera, they have a variety of vintage cameras.

edit - If that's a plate camera I think you'd need to determine how much money would be worth putting into it and how usable it would be. I think people still use those type cameras with sheet film or convert to pinhole. I have a 100 year old Kodak that's similar but takes roll film, not a size that's made anymore but it should be adaptable to 120 - I don't know if you could adapt a plate camera to roll film.
 
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I almost bought a Motormatic in 1962, new. I wanted to take some air-to air photos (one skydiver photographing another while plummeting to earth). But the Motormatic only went, as I recall, to 1/250 sec. and that worried me. So instead of buying the Motormatic I arranged to borrow a camera from a camera manufacturer. I got some great shots but another jumper wanted to take photos of me but after he opened his chute he tried to transfer the camera to his other hand and dropped it about 75 feet. The manufacturer was not happy. I was working through a local middleman and could not convince him the repairs to the camera were minimal next to the groundbreaking air-to-air photos we did get. There are still Motormatic parts strung around on the ground near Snohomish, Washington to this day, I guess. The University of Washington shop had two Robot cameras with motor winds but I could not afford them in those days.
 

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