Kodak Retina II (Type 014)

[scott]

Hi, all -

Continuing on the trend of folders of late, I purchased a Retina a while back. I had one in 2006 (another II 014) and one in 2016 (a IIc which quickly stripped out the gear rack). I loved them, but got away from 135. Well, while I was late night trolling, I picked up the Super Wester, then the Super Regent. Set my sights on a Retina II, as I like the simpler advance. Found one (an actual auction); the description and pictures were minimal. Ended up getting what I considered a decent deal at the time. Shipping was brutally slow, but it arrived last week. We didn't get back from the airport until late last night. Opened the box today:

Retina 03 by Scott, on Flickr

Retina01 by Scott, on Flickr

Retina 02 by Scott, on Flickr

Retina 05 by Scott, on Flickr

Retina 04 by Scott, on Flickr

The camera is grimy. Like, really kind of gross. Took me a couple minutes to remember the idiosyncrasies of manually firing an unloaded Retina (though there was an exposed roll of Kodachrome II loaded). But, somehow, absolutely everything works. Shutter fires nicely at all speeds, rangefinder is good and smooth, advance works, rewind works. Glass is filthy, but not scratched, and the coating looks good. Other than needing a deep cleaning and disinfecting, the only issues I see are the Zeiss bumps, the door opening slowly, and the rangefinder needing a bit of cleaning. Like, that's it. The case, however, is a lost cause:

Retina Case by Scott, on Flickr

I think I'm going to pick up a tripod-mount wrist strap for all these cameras I have minus a case. Otherwise, I'll be cleaning this up, lubing the door, and loading it up. I almost just want to shoot color at this point and send it off for processing and scanning, which are the two aspects of 135 that sour me on the format.

And, I need to figure out how to B&W process Kodachrome.

Will be posting some proper cleaned-up photos and results of the test roll soon!

Thanks for looking.
Scott

[Julio1fer]

A great little camera. That Retina II model was my first serious camera, and IMHO one of the best in the long Retina series. The Xenon lens is outstanding.

Your camera seems to have been neglected but not mistreated. A good cleaning should restore it to top performance.

[scott]

A great little camera. That Retina II model was my first serious camera, and IMHO one of the best in the long Retina series. The Xenon lens is outstanding.

Your camera seems to have been neglected but not mistreated. A good cleaning should restore it to top performance.

Yeah, looking forward to testing it out. It cleaned up great, glass seems about perfect. Shutter is running a little long at the slower speeds, but I’ll never shoot anything but print film in this so should be fine.

I have a roll of FP4+ ready to go, as soon as Debby moves along…

[scott]

BTW - does anyone know if the coverings on these middling-age Retinas are leather? I think I read that somewhere, and would like to hit this with Bick 4, but thought I'd check before. Thanks!

[P C Headland]

Looks like it will clean up nicely.

Did you check out Chris Sherlock's Retina videos - you might be able to see if it is real leather or not?

[scott]

Looks like it will clean up nicely.

Did you check out Chris Sherlock's Retina videos - you might be able to see if it is real leather or not?

Good idea. I checked - is leather. Will be getting some decent polish (don't think it actually needs to be redyed) and treating it.

Also, there are a ton of 014-specific videos on there. If I really enjoy this camera, as I expect I will, I may be diving in deeper over time.

Thanks!

[alexvaras]

This Retina model is a good one, when they changed to the IIa the counting misbehaves badly and sometimes it’s frozen and it doesn’t move.