Kodak Retina Reflex (1958-1959)

The Kodak Retina Reflex was introduced in the USA in 1958 and discontinued in 1959, when it was replaced by the Retina Reflex S. About 65,000 were produced by Eastman Kodak Company's West German subsidiary, Kodak AG - Dr Nagel Werk, in Stuttgart-Wangen. The original US list price was $215, which had the purchasing power of three weeks' earnings at the average wage in 1958 or approximately 1,940 depreciated 2020 dollars.

Front

Back

Top

Bottom

Interior

The Retina Reflex has a light alloy body with chrome and black leather trim. The controls are like those on the folding rangefinder Retina IIIC. The top of the camera has the film rewind knob, with a film reminder dial, an accessory shoe, the film counter, the film counter release button, the shutter button, and the light meter dial. The front of the camera has the light meter photocell, the flash sync connector, the aperture and shutter speed settings, and the focusing dial. The back of the camera has the viewfinder eyepiece and the setting button for the film counter. The bottom of the camera has the film door latch, the rewind release button and the film advance lever.

The standard lens is a Schneider-Kreuznach Retina-Xenon C f/2 50mm lens. The lens is a convertible lens: the front component is interchangeable with a Retina Curtar Xenon C f/4 35mm component or a Retina Longar Xenon C f/4 80mm component. The interchangeable lens system was introduced by the Retina IIc and IIIc folding rangefinder cameras in 1954. The f/5.6 35mm component for the Retina folding rangefinder cameras will fit the Retina Reflex camera.

The shutter is a Synchro-Compur leaf shutter. Shutter speeds run from 1/500 second to 1 second. The flash sync lever can be set to M for flash bulbs or X for electronic flash. Electronic flash is synchronized at all shutter speeds. The V setting provides a self-timer.

The operation of the shutter is fairly complicated. When the film is advanced, a blind swings down to cover the film, the mirror swings down and the lens shutter opens to allow viewing and focusing. The shutter remains open until the shutter button is pressed. When the shutter button is pressed, the shutter closes, the mirror and blind swing out of the way, the aperture stops down, and the shutter opens and closes. The shutter remains closed until the film is advanced again.

There was a brief vogue for leaf shutter single lens reflex cameras in the '50s and '60s. Zeiss Ikon had the Contaflex line, Voigtlander had the Bessamatic and the Ultramatic lines, Wirgin produced the Edixa Electronica and a number of Japanese manufacturers including Kowa, Mamiya, Nikon and Ricoh produced leaf shutter SLRs. Hasselblad cameras are medium format leaf shutter SLRs. 35mm cameras with focal plane shutters proved to be more reliable. At least they sold better.

The aperture and shutter speed settings are interlocked on the exposure value (EV) system. You can read the exposure value from the meter and adjust the shutter speed and aperture to the correct EV on the red scale on the lens. Once the EV is set changing the shutter speed changes the aperture to produce the same EV. For example, shutter speed 1/125 and aperture f/11 produce an EV of 14. If you change the shutter speed to 1/500 the camera automatically changes the aperture to f/5.6, and produces the same exposure on the film. If you want to set a particular shutter speed and aperture directly, you first set the shutter speed and then set the aperture. If the aperture is set first, changing the shutter speed will change the aperture. The Kodak Pony IV worked similarly.

The light meter is just like the one on the Retina IIIC. It has a selenium photocell that powers a galvanometer. No batteries are needed. You turn the dial to match the needles in the window and read the exposure value fron the dial. The film speed range is from 5 to 1300. The exposure value range is from 2 to 18.

Apart from the exposure value system, operation of the camera is like most other 35mm SLRs, except that the film advance lever is on the bottom, the film rewind knob doesn't have a fold-out crank and the mirror doesn't instantly return after the exposure. The non-return mirror does make for quieter than average operation. The blacked out viewfinder is an obvious reminder that you need to wind the film. The camera is fairly heavy for its size.

This example had been stored inside its leather case, and the acids in the leather have caused a little verdigris on the chrome plated brass cover. The lesson is that cameras shouldn't be stored inside their cases for long periods. Cases serve to protect the camera from bumps and bangs while it is out and about, but aren't good for long term storage.