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Friday, September 22, 2017

Kodak Retina IIIc








Kodak made Retinas from 1934 to 1960 in 12 flavors. Retinas are mainly folders and Retinettes aren’t, but some Retinas from after 1957 aren’t folders. Confusing eh ! Add to this, different lenses and shutters and you have chaos...
 
They were made in Germany by Nagel Kamerawerk and usually well made, but nothing like the Zeiss standard. Retinas are fair cameras. The main drawbacks are the shutter cocking mechanisms, strangely odd in design and very fragile. Triple check before buying one!

The one above is an IIIc (not IIIC “big c”). The objective is a superb Schneider Kreuznach Xenon 50mm F2, capable of very sharp images. It's a bit prone to flare, so using a hood is a good idea.

One useful and important tip is to check if the objective had one or more elements changed because they are hand-matched. Always check the serial number on front element, on the rear element and on the body, near the front lens mount, the numbers must be the same. If they are different someone changed one of the elements and I would avoid it.

Some of the IIIc came with the Rodenstock 50mm F2 instead of the Xenar. Both objectives are excellent. 
 
The IIIc has an interchangeable front lens element to convert the normal Xenon to a wide-angle Curtar Xenon 35mm F4 and a Longar Xenon 80mm F4 (both with 9 elements counting with the fixed ones in the body).

When using those extra lenses, it’s also needed an external viewfinder. But the external rangefinder is not compensated automatically and you need to use a correction scale making its use very awkward.

It's a cute folder, my advice is not to ruin its "pocketability" by using those very clumsy lenses and viewfinders. Keep it simple and you will be happy.

Retina's motto is something like "It's too simple, let's make things more complicated just for fun". 

The nearest camera to the IIIc/C I can remember is the Zeiss Contessa. But the Contessa is much better in design, craftsmanship and engineering.

The selenium light meter is not coupled and honestly, it sucks even in working condition. Fortunately, there is a reasonably good usable rangefinder.

For more information, check Karen Nakamura’s website.

Lens: Schneider Xenon 50mm F2 coated, 6 elements
Shutter: Synchro Compur (B, 1s - 1/500s) X-Sync
Film type: 35mm
Filter: 32 mm snap-in


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