Modifying 110 cameras

The item that controls the Kodak 110 film cartridge system is the ‘perceive lever’. This is the object that juts out from underneath the lens housing and senses the holes in the standard film. Without it, the camera simply winds on and cocks the shutter.

I would prefer to leave the camera whole but I would also like to be able to use my cameras. I do have 3 folders that were modified by their previous owner to take 120 film when they were design for 620 etc.. He had to drill holes in the back plate so that the number progression could be seen. This person was much more interested in using his cameras than preserving them for posterity.

If you remove the ‘perceive lever’ on the 110’s then you can easily put it back. It is not a destructive modification.

The 200 series

When you remove the ‘perceive lever’ from the 200 series you still need to do a cock, cover lens, fire, re-cock because the 200’s did not have a full frame advance - with proper cartridges you actually have to cock and re-cock for half an advance before it locks.

Weathermatic A

The 400 series

The 400 series have a single cocking movement with proper cartridges, so a modification simply replicates this.

All of the 400 series appear to have the same basic mechanism with the perceive lever.

You have to dissemble the cocking mechanism side of the camera and remove the cocking plate. You can see the perceive lever sticking out at the top of the photo.

The perceive lever has to be set as ready to fire the shutter and a stay of some sort has to be pushed in from the bottom side to hold it in place. If you don’t do this the whole thing does not do what it is supposed to do. I used the end of a toothpick as can be seen from the photo below.

You simply remove the screw holding the perceive lever in place, unhook the return spring and re-hook at another point, remove the perceive lever and redo the screw. The next photo shows the cocking plate without the perceive lever. 

You can now use reloads and it behaves correctly.