Discontinued
Kfilm camera
Retina IB (Type 019)
Type 019
Format
135
Is Film
Yes
Shutter
Synchro-Compur
Metering
uncoupled selenium
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 1957–1960 · medium confidencehttps://retinarescue.com/retina1btype019.htmlKodak AG Stuttgart. Type 019. See gear_items.kodak-retina-ib-type-019 spec_notes for the sourcing and any conflict.
Category: Film Camera
Format
135
Shutter
Synchro-Compur
Metering
uncoupled selenium
Spec Notes
Capital B. Schneider Xenar 50mm f/2.8 in a Synchro-Compur; no rangefinder; a single-range uncoupled photoelectric meter in a taller top housing, the same meter as the Retina IIIC. EXACTLY TWO hardware dimensions separate it from the Retina Ib - the meter, and the taller housing that carries it - so it clears the two-difference bar by the narrowest margin in this slice. If a later reading treats the housing as a consequence of the meter rather than an independent change, this row would have to merge into the Ib. Flagged deliberately. GENERATION FOLDED IN: Ausfuehrung II (1958-1960) against Ausfuehrung I (1957-1958). *** A CLAIM REFUTED IN VERIFICATION ***: a widely-read source says Ausf. II gained 'upgraded single range exposure meters and a larger bright-line viewfinder'. The meter half is wrong - that sentence compares the IB against the METERLESS Ib Type 018, not Ausf. II against Ausf. I. The single-range meter is present from Ausf. I. The only real difference is the bright-line finder fed by a second window on the front cover: ONE dimension, one row. SERIALS, and this is a real trap: Ausf. I runs 462034-481599 while Ausf. II runs 481600-503099 AND 50219-82687 - a second block sitting numerically BELOW Ausf. I entirely. The meter cell is described as photoelectric; the word 'selenium' is not sourced for this Type and is not written here. 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
1957
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