Retina Reflex (Type 025)

Format

135

Shutter

Synchro-Compur

Metering

uncoupled selenium

Spec Notes

KODAK'S FIRST 35mm SLR, and the only reflex in the C-type convertible family - the rear group is built into the shutter and only the front group is exchanged, exactly as on the IIc and IIIc. Roughly 65,000 units. Standard lens: Schneider Retina-Xenon 50mm f/2 OR Rodenstock Retina-Heligon 50mm f/2 - Kodak's period literature describes the Rodenstock version as found 'on rare occasions', and the specialist source lists a full Rodenstock component set for it. Uncoupled selenium meter, the same unit as the Retina IIIC, reading out in EV. No rangefinder. Shutter Synchro-Compur 1-1/500. PRODUCTION END UNCONSTRAINED: three sources give 1959, 1958 (October 1958 specifically) and 1958 from a 1956 start. One source lists the standard lens as a 50mm f/2.8 Retina-Xenar; it prints the identical lens for all four Reflex models and reads as table boilerplate - not recorded. Weight and dimensions 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

No

Alternate Names

—

Introduced

1957