Kodak Retina IIS

The Kodak Retina IIS (Type 024) is a simpler camera if compared to the IIIc (type 028). It's not a folder and it can't have the front lens group of the objective changed to make a wide-angle or a telephoto lens. The IIIS (type 027) is like the IIS but like the IIIc has an interchangeable lens mount.

The lens is an excellent single coated 4-element Schneider Xenar 45mm F2.8 and very Tessar-like performance, with excellent contrast and very sharp at mid-range apertures. There's also a very neat depth of field indicator over the distance scale. Pray to not have it jammed, because it's another freaky mechanism.

Before Retina fans start to complain and freak out, I'm servicing those little devils for more than 30 years, so I really know what I'm saying here, so relax, take a beer and open your mind to a non-fanatical opinion.

Kodak Retina IIS
The photo sucks, I know and I'll change it when I have time. 

Like all Retinas, it's made in Germany by Nagel. It's a sturdy camera, but, oh boy, its project has some very unnecessary complications, like coupled aperture and shutter speed controls aka LVS. When you change the speed, the aperture is also changed to keep the same exposure and the hyperfocal moving marks. It's nice and sometimes handy, not always. The problem is the flimsy mechanism needed to do this.

Resuming Retinas: Very good optics, but dreadful mechanics and very stupid complications.

The selenium light meter is linked by an intricate cables and pulley system to couple it to the aperture control, like many other cameras of this era but the Retina II system is over complicated for the task.  If one of those strings break, the aperture/shutter mechanism almost certainly will be jammed.

If you want to see a well-made example of the twisting galvanometer, take a look at a Canon AT1 or a Chinon CS. Maybe 9 on every 10 Retina-II I serviced had problems with this.

The selenium cell is almost certainly dead or inaccurate by now. Forget about Retina's built-in meters. They are all horrible. Also, avoid any auto-exposure Retinas. It's very unlikely to be working properly.

Like the IIIc and many other Retinas, the film frame counter is a nightmare, some sort of a sadistic joke from the designers. I'll not dive into details, better check the manual and see by yourself.  More information on Camera Quest (IIIS). 

Quoting Stephen Gandy from CameraQuest:

"The film counter is among the worst ever designed.   My theory is that it was really a CIA experiment to find out how long it would take to drive Photogs insane.  The film counter is manually set by 1st pushing down on that little button besides the film counter, and then moving the nearby chromed button on the back side of the top plate in the direction indicated by the arrow.  Each push resets counter 3 frames at a time.   That's right, 12 pushes are required for 36 frames, lovely, just lovely.   The frame counter shows how many exposures are left on the roll, counting DOWN to 1.  It then LOCKS, forcing you to stop and either reload the film, or re-set the film counter to get that extra shot on the roll.  Arrgggh. - Stephen Gandy - CameraQuest" 

But the viewfinder is not so bad, has a coupled rangefinder and moving parallax mask.

Lens: Schneider Kreuznach Xenar 45mm F2.8 (4 elements)

Shutter: Synchro Compur with speeds from 1s to 1/500s