For Sale FS: CHARITY SALE -- EVEN MORE REDUCED!! Black Beauty! Kodak Air Force Signet 35

[Cholentpot]

This post inspired me to get a Signet 35 of the plain variety. I loved using it. Sadly the RF is off and there's no way to fix it. It looks good on the shelf.

Good luck with the sale.

 

[MattKing]

This post inspired me to get a Signet 35 of the plain variety. I loved using it. Sadly the RF is off and there's no way to fix it. It looks good on the shelf.

Good luck with the sale.

Can you zone focus reliably with it?

 

[summicron1]

This post inspired me to get a Signet 35 of the plain variety. I loved using it. Sadly the RF is off and there's no way to fix it. It looks good on the shelf.

Good luck with the sale.

well, for what it's worth, the RF on this one is dead-on. I think the adjustment for the rf is under that curved f-stop scale above the lens. Try this: https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Kodak_Signet_35

and this makes it look easy: https://pheugo.com/cameras/index.php?page=signet35


I would zone focus with yours -- Most shooting is at smaller apertures anyway, with a little practice you can nail the focus with reliability. The lens on that camera is really a gem.

 

[Cholentpot]

Can you zone focus reliably with it?

well, for what it's worth, the RF on this one is dead-on. I think the adjustment for the rf is under that curved f-stop scale above the lens. Try this: https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Kodak_Signet_35

and this makes it look easy: https://pheugo.com/cameras/index.php?page=signet35


I would zone focus with yours -- Most shooting is at smaller apertures anyway, with a little practice you can nail the focus with reliability. The lens on that camera is really a gem.

I use zone focus with a few other cameras, Signet 50, Voitlander Vito II and others. I may try it with this camera next. As for adjusting the RF. Somewhere in the long life of the camera someone stripped out the adjustment screw under the Fstop plate.

 

[removedacct1]

This post inspired me to get a Signet 35 of the plain variety. I loved using it. Sadly the RF is off and there's no way to fix it. It looks good on the shelf.

Good luck with the sale.

You can always make one of these: https://tomchuk.com/rf/

 

[Cholentpot]

You can always make one of these: https://tomchuk.com/rf/

Thanks.

I've had good luck estimating. I do have a hotshoe rangefinder but I always found it slowed me down too much.

 

[summicron1]

Isn't there someone out there who wants to endow a military museum with this thing?

Willing to consider trades. Leica or Range Finder Contax.

 

[alanrockwood]

You can always make one of these: https://tomchuk.com/rf/

Years ago I made one of those range-finders-on-a-card to use with my Rollei 35. I had good luck with it. I would rate this method as somewhat better than guestimating, and worth using if you when you the aperture up for one reason or another. That way you don't have to rely as much on depth of field to have your subject in focus. However, this method can be a bit fiddly to use.

 

[summicron1]

OK, $450???

 

[tnabbott]

OK, $450???

Wasn't your opening price $450: "So how's $450 sound?"

 

[summicron1]

Wasn't your opening price $450: "So how's $450 sound?"

no, i changed it then added the updated response as well. My opener was $600. Sorry for any confusion.

Interested? Talk to me.

 

[Down Under]

I've got a civilian Signet 35, and I can confirm the quality of the lens, as well as ability to get 38-40 frames on a 36 exposure roll (it's barely wider than a Rollei 35, which can get 40, and a Signet can be loaded with minimal pre-closure advance). Sadly, mine has a completely non-functional RF (pretty sure it worked when I last used it), and I don't have the space or time to open it up.

This one, however, has too much collector value to be in my price range.

I often get 38-39-even 40 images on a roll of film in my Nikkormats, but nobody in their right minds would pay me this sort of money for any of them...

I've not seen one of these babies (the Signet, not the Nikkormats) in a long, long time. Nowadays a CLA on this baby will probably cost a kidney, assuming one could find a repair person (or asurgeon) to do it.

This Signet is more a collector's piece than a 'usable'. Its market is for collectors. For the price the OP is asking, maybe an auction house... IF it's an Air Force Signet, and how to know this for sure??

Just curious. It's a little beauty, love that black finish. One of my 'mats is the same, with small patches of beaut brass on the edges. Hey, maybe it's a Japan Air Force Nikkormat...

Seriously, your Signet is a rare one, and my best wishes go to you for a great sale.

 

[alanrockwood]

This Signet is more a collector's piece than a 'usable'. Its market is for collectors. For the price the OP is asking, maybe an auction house... IF it's an Air Force Signet, and how to know this for sure??

Mine is an Air Force Signet 35. It says so on the plate on the bottom. However, unlike summicron1, I don't plan on selling mine.

 

[summicron1]

Mine is an Air Force Signet 35. It says so on the plate on the bottom. However, unlike summicron1, I don't plan on selling mine.

I actually have two so this is a duplicate. I live near Hill Air Force Base in Utah so these tend to show up in the local thrift stores -- I found two in thrift stores and a third at an antique shop.

And if it doesn't sell, what the heck, it's small. You should see how much stuff I give away.

 

[alanrockwood]

I actually have two so this is a duplicate. I live near Hill Air Force Base in Utah so these tend to show up in the local thrift stores -- I found two in thrift stores and a third at an antique shop.

And if it doesn't sell, what the heck, it's small. You should see how much stuff I give away.

I live near Salt Lake City, so mine may have also come from Hill Air Force Base, or more likely from the Air Force ROTC at the University of Utah because I bought mine from the University's surplus outlet.

 

[summicron1]

I live near Salt Lake City, so mine may have also come from Hill Air Force Base, or more likely from the Air Force ROTC at the University of Utah because I bought mine from the University's surplus outlet.

Really? I'm just in Ogden, grew up in Holliday. Nice to meet ya.

Ever shoot one of these? The lens is amazing but the viewfinder sucks. They were designed to be used by guys in the field with minimal experience and be sturdy and easy to fix if need be. They are that.

 

[alanrockwood]

Really? I'm just in Ogden, grew up in Holliday. Nice to meet ya.

Ever shoot one of these? The lens is amazing but the viewfinder sucks. They were designed to be used by guys in the field with minimal experience and be sturdy and easy to fix if need be. They are that. View attachment 306032

My parents lived in Holladay for many years, and two of my brothers live there now.

 

[summicron1]

My parents lived in Holladay for many years, and two of my brothers live there now.

If you tell me you lived on Gunderson Lane it will be too much of a coincidence and this will get weird. I saw the Cottonwood Mall when it was brand new.

 

[alanrockwood]

If you tell me you lived on Gunderson Lane it will be too much of a coincidence and this will get weird. I saw the Cottonwood Mall when it was brand new.

My parents lived on Camille St., and my two brothers also live on Camille St.

To bad the Cottonwood Mall is gone.

 

[summicron1]

I have now reduced the price of this really, just REALLY, wonderful camera to a pathetic $350.

Please? Don't make me beg.

 

[summicron1]

$300 and it all goes to charity.

 

[retina_restoration]

PS: I just looked at fleabay and there were three listed, from $475 to $880 (!!!!!), and the cheaper one is a FAKE: it's been painted to look like the anodized black one, but of course, the shutter components are still chrome! LOL

 

[summicron1]

PS: I just looked at fleabay and there were three listed, from $475 to $880 (!!!!!), and the cheaper one is a FAKE: it's been painted to look like the anodized black one, but of course, the shutter components are still chrome! LOL

so you'd be a fool to pass this up, right?

I take paypal.

 

[retina_restoration]

so you'd be a fool to pass this up, right?

I take paypal.

Sorry, but the black anodized version has no extra appeal to me. Not interested at any price. The chrome version is just fine.

 

[summicron1]

PS: I just looked at fleabay and there were three listed, from $475 to $880 (!!!!!), and the cheaper one is a FAKE: it's been painted to look like the anodized black one, but of course, the shutter components are still chrome! LOL

just looked. The one for $600 is actually the Army version -- green. Very rare.

Way back in the distant past I did consult ebay before putting this up for sale -- originally, swayed by the siren song of wealth, I asked $600 and created a great deal of inattention thereby. Gradual reductions have still failed to find the point of sale.

I suspect the obviously fake one you saw for sale has been there a very long time. I haven't looked, but there was an obvious paint job up back when i did. (Just looked. Yup, same camera, same obvious paint job. I wonder if it is the same or someone is making them?)