Oh, Woe Is D (2-D, That Is)

[seadrive]

Hi boys and girls,

Well, I finally managed to remove the soldered pieces of my poor 5x7 2-D (see (there was a url link here which no longer exists) for that story), and I even managed to buy an extension rail for it.

I was so excited when I saw the Buy It Now listing for the extension rail, that I neglected to do the necessary research to make sure it would fit my camera. However, the seller posted a link to a picture of a 7x17 2-D, and it was pretty clear that the male connector on his extension rail would fit with the female receptacle on the back of the pictured camera body.

As luck would have it, the back of my camera doesn't match the one in the picture. My 2-D has three round holes on the back, not the single "keyhole" type connector shown in the picture of the 7x17 2-D.

Those of you who have a 2-D, does the back of your camera looks like mine, or do you have the keyhole connector that matches the extension rail?

TIA!

Steve

 

[papagene]

The back of my 5x7 2-D looks just like yours... darn.

gene

 

[seadrive]

Thanks, Gene. At least I know I'm not (completely) crazy...

 

[Dave Parker]

My 8x10 2D has the three holes, my full plate 2D (6.5 x 8.5) has the same keyhole configuration as the extension rail you have pictured here, how wide is the extension rail that you have?

 

[seadrive]

The rail is just a tad over 6 5/8" wide. The metal railings themselves line up perfectly with my 5x7. See attached photo.

 

[Dave Parker]

That is an extension rail for the Kodak 2D 4x5, I have had a couple of them, the 5x7 used the same rail with a different variant of the attachment system.

 

[seadrive]

According to the seller, this is a 5x7 (although he only has a 4x5 back for it), and it clearly has the keyhole attachment:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7619771249&rd=1&sspagename=STRK:MEWA:IT&rd=1

The front plate of that camera says it's an "Eastman View Camera No. 2", not a 2-D. Mine is a "Kodak View Camera No. 2-D", manufactured for Eastman Kodak by Graflex.

 

[Dave Parker]

There were quite a few variants over the years with Kodaks partnering up with graflex, it is really confusing trying to find the correct rails, depending on year of manufacture I have seen both variants on the exact same model of camera...

you might take a look at the small bit of information in this link, you will see a 6.5 x 8.5 that has the same attachement configuration as the rail you have, but you will find it is wider, the 6.5 x 8.5 I have the rail itself is 8 3/16" outside to outside and the track is 7 in outside to outside..and the plate on the front says 2-D, from the information on that page, the D is suspose to stand for Dark Finish, which is as good of an explination as I have ever heard.

http://www.fiberq.com/cam/ekc/2d.htm

If you poke around the website a bit, there is an area called Eastman/Folmer/Schwing there is a picture of the Century 2 that has the same 2 post with the screw in attachment...

http://www.fiberq.com/cam/century/cent2.htm

It seems that during the Folmer period that the mounting systems ended up being used interchangably in the various models

 

[seadrive]

you might take a look at the small bit of information in this link, you will see a 6.5 x 8.5 that has the same attachement configuration as the rail you have, but you will find it is wider, the 6.5 x 8.5 I have the rail itself is 8 3/16" outside to outside and the track is 7 in outside to outside..and the plate on the front says 2-D, from the information on that page, the D is suspose to stand for Dark Finish, which is as good of an explination as I have ever heard.

http://www.fiberq.com/cam/ekc/2d.htm

Yes, that's the link I referred to in my first post.

Very annoying business!

Thanks for the info, though.

 

[Campbell]

Even if you find the right number of holes you have to be careful when buying an extension for the 2D. Kodak matched the extension with the camera and at least with the 8x10 2Ds I've seen Kodak put matching numbers on the extension and on the camera back so you could be sure that your extension was the one made for your camera. If you buy an extension that doesn't match your camera there's a risk that the rails might not line up quite right even though the extension will fit on the camera (or so I've been told, the extension on my 2D had the same number as the camera and worked perfectly).

 

[jolefler]

FWIW, I have two 5X7 2D's and they both have keyholes.