Kodak 35 Kodak 35 The Kodak 35 was introduced in 1938 as the first US manufactured 35mm camera from Eastman Kodak Company. It was developed in Rochester, New York when it became likely that imports from the Kodak AG factory in Germany could be disrupted by war. While Kodak had invented the "Kodak 135 daylight-loading film cassette" in 1934, prior to 1938 they only offered the German made "Kodak Retina' to work with this cartridge. US built 35mm cameras used the 828 paper backed 35mm roll-film (Bantam Series). The first Kodak 35 has no rangefinder. It slightly resembles cameras like the German
Kodak Retina Vollenda miniature folder, along with the Ranca and Pupille collapsible cameras were smaller than the Leica and Contax cameras, but could use 50mm f:3.5 Elmar and other similar Tessar formula lenses in Compur shutters to create a larger 30mm x 40mm image on 127 rollfilm. The advantage of 35mm would be the elimination of the paper-backer allowing more images per roll of film. All of the Kodak Retina cameras from the mid 1930s to the late 1950s were folding cameras with a short self-erecting bellows, lens board, and folding metal door/cover. These folding Kodak Retina cameras are listed below with