Kodak Retina Ib - instructions online anywhere?

Kimberly Anderson · Aug 27, 2007

I'm pretty excited about this new-ish Retina my dad gave me last week. He bought it in Sweden in the 50's and just dug it out recently.

I'm going to shoot all of the assignments I give my basic photo students with it, and I want to make sure I know all of the little 'goodies' this camera can offer.

Anyone know of an on-line instruction manual for this li'l puppy?

Thanks!

rwyoung · Aug 27, 2007

On-line, no. But somewhere I have a photocopy of a book. Along the lines of "All about your Retina" sort of thing. A 3rd party publication.

The Retina's in general are pretty simple beasts. It is a scale focusing camera. There should be a nice set of hyper-focal marks around the lens to help you.

The shutter release is the one threaded for a cable. The second smaller button is for releasing the film advance when winding forward or resetting the counter. I can't remember if the Ib has the little sliding button the back that can be used for advancing the counter like my IIc does.

All in all, the Retina's are nifty little cameras. I like the "snick" sound their shutters make!

JPD · Aug 27, 2007

Here:
http://www.butkus.org/chinon/kodak/kodak_retina_ib/kodak_retina_ib.htm

Retina Ib is my favorite small format camera.

If the focus scale is in meters (since it was bought in Sweden), you'll now have the chance to learn the metric system.

Kimberly Anderson · Aug 27, 2007

JPD said:
Here:
http://www.butkus.org/chinon/kodak/kodak_retina_ib/kodak_retina_ib.htm

Retina Ib is my favorite small format camera.

If the focus scale is in meters (since it was bought in Sweden), you'll now have the chance to learn the metric system.

Thanks for the link! I was wondering how the lens could focus so close...then saw that you were correct, it is in meters! Hehe.

Is the rangefinder in the camera supposed to move when I focus? I'll find out I guess when I hit that link!

Tack sa mycket! (I think that's right...).

EDIT:

I had to do a quick 'repair'. I noticed that the little tab for the aperature adjustment was not connecting with the selector lever, and with a quick prod put it back in place. THAT was what was tripping me up trying to set the shutter speed/aperature combo. Whew!

rwyoung · Aug 27, 2007

Oh, that's right! I forget about Butkus' site! And it looks like the Ib has all the same basic controls as a IIc.

JPD · Aug 28, 2007

Michael Slade said:
Is the rangefinder in the camera supposed to move when I focus? I'll find out I guess when I hit that link!

It has no rangefinder, only a finder. That's why you will have to be careful when focussing - in meters. You could use the "zone focus" method as described in the manual, but then you'll have to stop down a lot. Not a method I would recommend if you are going to make enlargements.

I once had five-six Retinas. The IIc and IIIc included. But I sold them all, and kept only the Ib. Small, simple, excellent finder for me with eyeglasses and very sharp lens. I even had a brass plate engraved with my name and year that I riveted to the case.

Now I have six retinas again. Couldn't help myself.

Tack sa mycket! (I think that's right...).

Varsågod.

David H. Bebbington · Aug 28, 2007

Don't forget when you have an "Aaaaaaaaaagh, it's broken!" moment, that the camera locks up when the exposure counter reaches zero!

Regards,

David

rwyoung · Aug 28, 2007

Michael Slade said:
Is the rangefinder in the camera supposed to move when I focus? I'll find out I guess when I hit that link!

Any Retina with just one "peep hole" on the front of the camera is a scale focusing (I mentioned that the Ib is scale focusing above). If it has two peep holes, it has a rangefinder mechanism. And the Retinas had a pretty small finder, so lots of squinting!

Dan Fromm · Aug 28, 2007

rw, I don't have my cameras or my reference material here at work with me, but IIRC the IB (not the OP's Ib, I have one of each) and the IIIC (not IIIc) have beautiful big finders. The Ib, as the OP asked how to use, has a finder that's nowhere near as, um, squinty as earlier Retinas' finders. But you're right, the old ones are very squinty.

JPD · Aug 28, 2007

rwyoung said:
Any Retina with just one "peep hole" on the front of the camera is a scale focusing (I mentioned that the Ib is scale focusing above). If it has two peep holes, it has a rangefinder mechanism. And the Retinas had a pretty small finder, so lots of squinting!

The IB has two, but the other one is for the frame in the finder.

rwyoung · Aug 28, 2007

JPD said:
The IB has two, but the other one is for the frame in the finder.

Huh? I thought we were talking about the Ib (little "B") which is a scale focusing only Retina. So just one peep hole, used as the framing device.

And to make this more confusing, wasn't there more than one edition of the IB? Both had a meter cell but one was still scale focus only while the second ("newer") incorporated the rangefinder coupling?

I really need to find my book that has the family tree in it!

p.s. : OK, it gets more confusing (at least for me). Just looked on camerapedia.org and found that there could be as many as three variations of the IB (big "B") but unfortunately, nothing listed for the Ib (little "B"). My head is starting to hurt.

Dan Fromm · Aug 28, 2007

RW, I can't find my copy of Kehoe either. Its just the right size to be easy to misplace.

I did, though, find my Ib and IB, both where I expected them to be. The IB has two windows so its easy to think that it has a rangefinder. T'ain't so. One of the windows is for looking through and the other collects light to illuminate the framing lines in the finder. The Ib's finder is squintier, but one can live with it.

All folding Retinas but the IIs and IIIs are scale focusing.

JPD · Aug 28, 2007

rwyoung said:
Huh? I thought we were talking about the Ib (little "B") which is a scale focusing only Retina. So just one peep hole, used as the framing device.

Yes, but you wrote "If it has two peep holes, it has a rangefinder mechanism".

And to make this more confusing, wasn't there more than one edition of the IB? Both had a meter cell but one was still scale focus only while the second ("newer") incorporated the rangefinder coupling?

Yes, there are two IB models. The first with the smaller finder plus lightmeter, and then the second model with the large brightfinder. But none of them have a rangefinder. The second window on the later IB is only for the frame lines.

p.s. : OK, it gets more confusing (at least for me). Just looked on camerapedia.org and found that there could be as many as three variations of the IB (big "B") but unfortunately, nothing listed for the Ib (little "B"). My head is starting to hurt.

No, there are only the 018 Ib, 019-I IB and 019-II IB.

JPD · Aug 28, 2007

Dan Fromm said:
The Ib's finder is squintier, but one can live with it.

Strange, but for me the Ib (small "b") finder is a little better. I don't want the camera to touch my eyeglasses, so I hold it 1cm from them, and can see the framelines perfectly in the finder. I have to hold the IB (big "B") closer.

All folding Retinas but the IIs and IIIs are scale focusing.

The "c" models you mean. The "S" models are non-folding.

elekm · Aug 28, 2007

Add to the list: The Retina II and the Retina IIa are folding rangefinders. I'll have to look at my Retina book to see how many Retina II models there are.

The Retina II is knob wind, while the Retina IIa is lever wind (top deck).

bdial · Aug 28, 2007

There are several variations of all of them I, II, III and beyond, but the really interesting ones those three and their variants.
Here's a link to a great site in NZ belonging to a guy who repairs them, lots of good information here.
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~Srawhiti/index.html

JPD · Aug 28, 2007

I have a pre-war Retina IIa (type 150), with built in rangefinder and Schneider Xenon 2,8/50. This lens is different from the post-war Xenon. It's actually a Xenar with the front element split in two. Three elements in the front, and a cemented pair in the back. Schneider sold these under the name 2,8 Xenar, but for some reason they (or Kodak) chose to call them "Xenon".

The 2,0/50 Xenon is a Xenon, but also different from the post-war version.

rwyoung · Aug 29, 2007

JPD is right, I went back and did some more digging. The IB derived from the Ib and there were two types of IB.

Like I said, this is giving me a headache!

By the way JPD, there seem to be a lot of holes in the camerapedia.org entries for Retinas... How about you sign up and fix that for us? Hint, hint...

JPD · Aug 29, 2007

rwyoung said:
By the way JPD, there seem to be a lot of holes in the camerapedia.org entries for Retinas... How about you sign up and fix that for us? Hint, hint...

No, that would give ME a headache! I'm swedish and my english isn't up to encyclopedic standard. There are many articles there that should be updated and corrected. The Rollei articles for example.

Kimberly Anderson · Aug 29, 2007

I'm glad I could have the opportunity to bring all of the Retina owners together. Hehe.

I'm going to run a roll through it this afternoon and process for our demo tomorrow in class. Wish me luck!

Oh and thanks again.

JPD · Aug 30, 2007

Here you can see the difference betwen the pre-war and post-war Xenon lenses. The post-war example was used on the IIc and IIIc and looked almost the same in the 2,8 and 2,0 versions.

And you can see that the five element 2,8 Xenar was called "Xenar", but "Xenon" on the Retinas. Schneider called this version "Super-Xenar" in their internal publications, and sometimes "S-Xenar". Not all 2,8 Xenars were five element. The post-war 2,8 Xenar on the Retina was a four element, as was the "S-Xenar" on the Rollei 35. Confusing, huh? :rolleyes:

rwyoung · Aug 30, 2007

JPD said:
No, that would give ME a headache! I'm swedish and my english isn't up to encyclopedic standard. There are many articles there that should be updated and corrected. The Rollei articles for example.

Dude, trust me, your English is fine. Most native English speaker's English isn't up to encyclopedic standards!

ehparis · Aug 31, 2007

Plugging "Kodak Retina Ib" into Google gives 97,000 hits with the fifth one down being a manual in PDF format.

http://www.butkus.org/chinon/kodak/kodak_retina_ib/kodak_retina_ib.htm

Kodak Retina Ib - instructions online anywhere?

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