Retina IIIC (Type 028)

Format

135

Shutter

Synchro-Compur

Metering

uncoupled single-range selenium

Spec Notes

Capital C - the top of the folding Retina line and the last of them. Standard lens: Schneider Retina-Xenon 50mm f/2 OR Rodenstock Retina-Heligon 50mm f/2; this Type was ONLY ever f/2, which is worth recording because dealer copy occasionally advertises an f/2.8 IIIC that never existed. Single-range uncoupled selenium meter; bright-line finder with frame lines. Top speed 1/500; the full range is NOT SOURCED from a strong source. START YEAR DISPUTED: 1957 (retinarescue and Wikipedia) vs 1958 (the Kodak Museum object record) - the earlier is used and the conflict recorded. Dimensions 90 x 126 x 92 mm deployed from the museum record. Weight NOT SOURCED. MOUNT, and this is the subtlest modelling call in the slice: the Schneider/Rodenstock keying is a property of the INDIVIDUAL CAMERA, not of the Type. The rear lens group and the keyed outer bayonet ring live in the camera's shutter assembly, the shutter's lens tube diameter itself differs between the two makers, and the rangefinder-coupling ring is shimmed per camera at assembly - so a Schneider-fitted body cannot take Rodenstock front components without a bench rebuild, and no repairer, dealer or parts list describes such a conversion ever being done. This Type was nonetheless sold BOTH ways. The row therefore carries BOTH mount slugs in mounts[], and the scalar mount is left null: a single value would be false for roughly half the surviving cameras. Read the engraving on the front of the camera to know which one you have. US-MARKET CAVEAT: Eastman Kodak apparently imported only Schneider-equipped cameras, so Rodenstock examples are scarce in North America and a US listings sample will look single-maker. That is distribution, not production. 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

Yes

Alternate Names

—

Introduced

1957