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SAMPLES

SUMMARY
The Retina line of cameras is arguably Eastman Kodak’s premiere camera line.  My first “real” camera was a Retina IIIc given to me by my father, who bought it new back in the early 50’s during his participation in the Korean War.  It was unfortunately stolen and one of my goals has been to acquire another. Manufactured in West Germany these cameras are high quality but have some odd design choices. The best feature is the folding lens assembly. This makes the camera quite compact and easy to carry around. Simply pop out the lens when you’re ready to shoot. The excellent, coated, Schneider-Kreuznach Xenar 50mm lens is of optimal design and produces sharp, beautiful images while offering a favorable range of aperture settings with the fastest being f/2.0.  An interesting feature of the IIIc lens assembly is the ability to remove the front element and utilize optional 35mm and 80mm lenses. These “interchangeable” lenses however are quite large and folding the camera into its closed position is impossible while they are attached.

An external viewfinder that connects to the cold shoe is also necessary. The Synchro Compur shutter provides a useful range of speeds up to 1/500 of a second.   Amazingly the built-in, selenium meter still functions on this model, and is actually accurate.  The meter is uncoupled and incorporates the questionable Kodak Light Value System (LVS) a series of numbers that coincide with shutter/aperture settings. Even though this was designed to ease the exposure process, I don’t believe it is any more intuitive than simply learning the relationship between shutter and aperture.   Of course the odd Retina frame advance release button is here, along with the frame counter that counts backwards as the shots are taken.  Once the last frame “1” is taken the system locks to prevent film advance and shutter release.  Once the new film is inserted, the frame release button on the top of the camera must be depressed and using the frame counter advance slider on the back of the camera, advance the counter to either 36 or 24, etc.  Every collection should have at least one.

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Kodak Links
Eastman Kodak
Kodak Retina IIIc Manual
Kodak 35mm Film Cameras
photoethnography.com
Kodak Retina
Kodak Retina IIIC
Kodak Collectors Page