The Camera Site

Eastman Kodak Company, Kodak AG, Germany

Retina

Kodak Retina S 2

German made Kodak Retina cameras have acquired glory of their excellent quality. That was a long time before the birth of this Retina S2. It is quite ordinary plastic wonder of the late Sixties. It was manufactured in 1966-1969 and it was one of the last efforts to maintain some market share in the camera bussines.

As an excuse I have to mention that it is also a good example how to lower the cost of production until it reaches the critical point and the customers are beginning to avoid the merchandise. This is also going to happen (at least I hope so) for instance to those very cheap DVD players that you might have run across on the markets .

In Finland we use to say : It happened just like to the stallion of the gipsy .... Just when he learned to be without feed he went dead.
Perhaps I am too critical. Retina S2, the last Retina was and even still is a decent camera for an occasional photographer and what else it is meant to be?

Some specifications

  • Film type 135 (35mm)
  • Picture size 24mm x 36mm
  • Weight ~450g
  • Lens Reomar 2,8/45mm
  • Shutter 1/30 - 1/250
  • Battery PX23 (for the flash)
 
Kodak Retina IaKodak Retina Ia

As a heritage of the Dr. August Nagel Camerawerk, Kodak AG the German subsidiary of Kodak, started a production of Retina cameras in 1931. After the WW II Kodak started production again in 1945 and produced cameras until 1969. Retina Ia was introduced in January 1951 as a new version of the Retina I. It's new feature is the rapid winding lever and some minor cosmetic changes. Since June 1951 Retina was provided with Synchro - Compur B, 1 - 1/500 sec. shutter.
The lens is Schneider-Keruznach Retina-Xenar 50mm f/3,5 - f/16. Dimensions are 120 x 75 x 40mm (closed) and weight is about 500 g.

 
A smal hole under the Close Up Lens is for the "exposure meter" fitted on a camera. Kodak copy stand Copier

 

Kodak Instamatic Copier.
A very simple and basic Copy Stand. The stand itself has a Close Up Lens and when an ordinary Kodak Instamatic camera is attached it is ready to use.

The necessary light comes from a Flash Cube attached to the camera.

 

Kodachrome

Kodachrome was the first modern colour film, introduced in 1935. It used *complex control of processing to produce the right colours in the right layers by diffusion of the colour forming materials, but the film itself had a less complex structure than the later films (negative and transparency) based largely on Agfa technology which incorporated the colour couplers into the emulsion layers. There were only a few labs world-wide which offered the *K-14 process. From Finland you had to send a film to Germany.

For many years, Kodachrome was the unchallenged leader in colour film. However modern films from Fuji, Agfa and Kodak's own Ektachromes began to match its qualities while being capable of being processed in any lab using the relatively simple E6 process, and now only one Kodachrome film is available - and with little future prospects.

(photography.about.com) An excellent site if you have to know something about anything

©2004 Reijo Lauro