Discontinued
Kfilm camera
Retina Reflex IV (Type 051)
Type 051
Format
135
Is Film
Yes
Shutter
Synchro-Compur 1-1/500, X sync only
Metering
coupled selenium, no battery
Research
Chris Sherlock, retinarescue.com (per-Type pages, retinaClensmounts.html, retinaaccessories.html); Kodak Retina IIIc/IIIC/Reflex instruction books; Kodak 'Instamatic Reflex & Retina Reflex lenses' manual; L. A. Mannheim, The Retina Reflex Way (Focal Press 1965) via Wikipedia; Science Museum Group object records; Captain Jack's Retina lens list; Focal Press Retina Reflex Guide.
Confidence
high
Produced 1964–1967https://retinarescue.com/retinareflex4type051.htmlKodak AG Stuttgart. Type 051. See gear_items.kodak-retina-reflex-iv-type-051 spec_notes for the sourcing and any conflict.
Category: Film Camera
Format
135
Shutter
Synchro-Compur 1-1/500, X sync only
Metering
coupled selenium, no battery
Spec Notes
The last Retina Reflex and by far the most numerous - over 524,000. Four sources agree on 1964-1967. A window in the prism housing shows the selected speed and aperture; hot shoe with centre contact; 45-degree split-image focusing aid. The shutter is simplified to X sync only, for electronic flash. Standard lens: Schneider Retina-Xenar 50mm f/2.8 or Schneider Retina-Xenon 50mm f/1.9. WHETHER RODENSTOCK STANDARD LENSES WERE STILL CATALOGUED AT THIS TYPE IS NOT SOURCED - a Rodenstock DKL lens will physically fit, but whether Kodak sold the camera that way is unestablished. *** A METER AMBIGUITY RESOLVED ***: one widely-read source says 'coupled CdS or selenium cell'. It is SELENIUM, with no battery - confirmed by a named cell supplier (Gossen) and an explicit no-battery specification, and by the period Focal Press guide's 'photoelectric', which in that era means a selenium photovoltaic cell and never CdS. The CdS cell in that source's summary belongs to the Instamatic Reflex, a different camera. Weight and dimensions NOT SOURCED. 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
1964
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