The S-mount ciné lens mount was originally developed by Kodak and introduced in 1933 for the Ciné-Kodak line of movie cameras. The only camera body sold by Kodak with a native S-mount was the Ciné-Kodak Special II.
Characteristics and applications
According to historian Doug Kerr, the S-mount was developed and released in 1933 to simplify the profusion of lens mounts for the line of Ciné-Kodak 16 and 8 mm movie cameras; at the time, many of the lens mounts were unique to the particular camera model, and the line of Kodak ciné lenses for 16 mm cameras spanned a range of focal lengths from 15 to 152 mm. It was not efficient to maintain an adequate stock of optically identical lenses with multiple mounts.: 4 The S-mount uses a mixture of bayonet and threaded attachments; a locating pin on the lens fits into a matching slot on the camera body or adapter to ensure proper rotational orientation, and then a captive, threaded collar on the camera or adapter is rotated to engage corresponding threads on the lens, securing it.: 5
Although the S-mount was introduced in 1933,: 20 it was not fitted natively to a camera until the Ciné-Kodak Special II, which was manufactured from 1948 to 1961. S-mount lenses can be fitted to other ciné cameras using the appropriate adapter; for example, the 25 mm S-mount lens can be mounted on a Ciné-Kodak Special using a Type P adapter. For the Ciné-Kodak Special and Ciné-Kodak Model K, since the front part of the viewfinder is built into the lens mount,: 22–23 there are multiple adapters which have identical mechanical interfaces, but carry different sets of viewfinder optics and mask(s).: 7–9, 17 Other cameras, including the Ciné-Kodak Special II, made the front viewfinder optics a separate accessory bundled with the lens.: 23
List of lenses
Lenses released by Kodak for Ciné-Kodak cameras include:
- Notes
References
