Discontinued
Kfilm camera
Retina Ia (Type 015)
Type 015
Format
135
Is Film
Yes
Shutter
Compur-Rapid (early) or Synchro-Compur
Metering
none
Research
Chris Sherlock, retinarescue.com (per-Type pages and the post-WW2 serial table); Science Museum Group / Kodak Museum object records; camerapedia; Wikipedia (article text, NOT infoboxes - see spec Notes); camera-wiki production table; Focal Press guides. The Kodak instruction manuals at butkus.org and cameramanuals.org are untexted image scans and could not be read this session.
Confidence
medium
Produced 1951–1954 · medium confidencehttps://retinarescue.com/retina1atype015.htmlKodak AG Stuttgart. Type 015. See gear_items.kodak-retina-ia-type-015 spec_notes for the sourcing and any conflict.
Category: Film Camera
Format
135
Shutter
Compur-Rapid (early) or Synchro-Compur
Metering
none
Spec Notes
January 1951 to April 1954, roughly 140,000 units. The first Retina I-line body with a lever that advances the film and cocks the shutter together, on the TOP right. A hard mid-production break in June 1951: Compur-Rapid gives way to Synchro-Compur with M-X sync, a film glide roller is added to the back door, and the lens roster widens. No source calls this an Ausfuehrung. Lens options sourced: Schneider Retina-Xenar 50mm f/3.5 (Jan-May 1951) and f/2.8 (June 1951 on), Kodak Ektar 50mm f/3.5. *** A LENS DELIBERATELY OMITTED ***: two sources list a 'Rodenstock Heligon 50mm f/3.5' for this Type. Heligon is Rodenstock's fast Gauss line and every Retina-mount Heligon that can be verified is f/1.9 or f/2; Rodenstock's f/3.5 50mm Retina lens is the YSAR, which does appear on Type 010 bodies. Recording an f/3.5 Heligon would put a lens in this catalogue that appears never to have existed. Weight is reported as 500 g by one source and 'one pound' by another - omitted rather than picked. DATING: Kodak AG published no serial-to-year table, and the collector lists that exist map serial to MODEL with OVERLAPPING ranges - Retina Ia (015) and IIa (016) share two bands character-for-character, as do Retina I (013) and II (014), and a 50001-ish low block recurs across Types 018, 019/2, 028 and 029. A serial-only lookup is not merely imprecise, it is actively wrong. Where the fitted lens is Schneider-built, the LENS is datable from Schneider's own 63 published serial bands, already loaded; Rodenstock publishes none.
Rangefinder
No
Alternate Names
—
Introduced
1951
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