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Retina IIIc - Any Issues?
Folks;
I'm a newb here; I've owned a Zorki 4/Jupiter 8 outfit for a few years and love it. Yesterday, I came into possession of a Kodak Retina IIIc. It appears to be mechanically sound and very clean; it was previously owned by a camera repairman, who passed away recently; I acquired it at the estate sale.
I made a rudimentary check of all shutter speeds, f/stops, film advance, etc - all appear to be functioning normally. Several corners of the leatherette cover were coming loose, so I glued them back. The Selenium light meter appears to not be functional; the needle will barely move, even with a wide variance in light falling on the cell. I can live with out the meter, as I'm used to shooting the 'sunny 16 rule' with my Zorki, and I have a hand-held meter, if needed.
The Schneider lens appears to be very clean, with little or no issues that I can see. I noticed that the outer lens assembly is removable, by rotating the lens so the white and red dots line up, it'll pop right out; were there accessory lenses available for these cameras, or is this feature just so the shutter could be accessed for cleaning? There also appears to be an accessory bayonette ring around the outside of the lens, perhaps for some specialty mount of filter.
I intend on putting a roll of film through it soon to find out for sure how it works. But in your experience, what kind of reliability can I expect with the Retina IIIc? Are there any common problems or issues with these cameras that I should be aware of? My initial feeling is that this little camera appears to be built like a 'swiss watch'; very solid and well-engineered.
I like the film winder on the bottom of the body, rather than the normal position on the top. And the leaf shutter is very, very quiet. I expect this camera to be very nice for discrete street shooting. Your comments are welcome.
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Threaded Mode
