Kodak Retina IIIc (1954-1957)

Kodak AG, Eastman Kodak Company's German subsidiary, made the Retina line of 35mm cameras from 1934 through 1969 at the Nagel plant in Stuttgart-Wangen. The IIIc was produced from 1954 through 1957. The Roman numeral indicated some basic features of the camera model: the "I" usually is a scale focuser, the "II" has a range finder, and the "III" has both a built-in light meter and a range finder.

Kodak Retina IIIc with 50mm lens.

This IIIc has convertible Schneider lenses: an f/2.0 50mm Retina-Xenon C lens, an f/5.6 35mm Retina-Curtar-Xenon C lens, and an f/4.0 80mm Retina-Longar-Xenon C lens. The optics are split into two parts. The rear components are permanently mounted behind the shutter and iris diaphragm. The front components are interchangeable.

Top Plate

Film Chamber

This camera is a good little picture taker. The picture of the shield of Athena in the Parthenon, Centennial Park, Nashville, Tennessee was made on Kodak Portra 400 film with the 50mm lens at f/2.0 aperture and a 1/30th second shutter speed.

The Shield of Athena.